Films: Blast of Silence, Lovely by Surprise, Storm

Future Screenings:
Blast of Silence - None
Lovely by Surprise - None
Storm - Sun, 4/13/08, 9:30PM at the Ritz East

If you don't care too much about getting fancy introductions to your movies, and you don't want to worry about sell-outs, fighting with huge crowds, waiting in long lines, or having to sit in the first row because there are no other seats available, then the day for you to enjoy the festival is definitely a weekday like this past Monday. The number of people attending my screenings yesterday was about the tenth of the average number I was seeing this past weekend, and everything was just a lot calmer and more leisurely paced. It was pretty nice!

Blast of Silence
Another film being screened as a part of NoirCon 2008 (I believe I put all of them on my schedule), this low-budget, black and white crime picture from 1961 is really remarkable. Allen Baron debuted as a writer and director on the film, and also stars in the central role of hired killer Frank Bono. It's important to note, however, that Baron did not write any of the film's copious amounts of brilliant, poetic narration; all of that comes entirely from the mind of screenwriter Waldo Salt, who is credited here as Mel Davenport, due to the fact that he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before HUAC during the Red Scare.

On the surface, the story is a simple one: a hitman with a mysterious (but obviously rather tortured) past is hired to eliminate a crime boss, and the job ends up getting complicated when the killer is recognized by some old school friends in town; gets tied up emotionally with a woman; and then has to deal with his gun-seller shaking him down for extra cash. But thanks in large part to the fascinating second-person narration, which is constantly commenting on the action and delving deeper and deeper into the psychology of Frank Bono, the film actually becomes a complex and affecting character portrait. The acting leaves a lot to be desired (apparently this was the debut film for many of the people involved), sometimes the dialogue is a bit weak, and the film is occasionally painfully slow (a man a few rows back from me actually fell asleep and started snoring during the screening, and I couldn't really blame him too much; I nearly nodded off myself a few times). But the intriguing and suspenseful story coupled with that fantastic narration make up for the film's few small faults. It's a classic noir crime movie, but it's also a mesmerizing and ultimately shattering examination of an emotionally stunted, painfully lonely man.
Festival rating: Very Good

Lovely by Surprise
"Quirky" is the adjective that one must unavoidably use to describe this debut film from writer-director Kirt Gunn (and indeed that word does appear in the festival program description). And I was afraid for the first half hour or so that the film was just being quirky for the sake of being quirky, and that it was really only pointless nonsense with a gimmicky and cliched concept as its central plot point: the idea that the characters in an author's book could somehow fight back and escape from the story written for them into the real world. But ultimately, the film resolves itself into something entirely different (and me even saying this could be a bit of a spoiler, so beware): a beautiful and deeply moving peek into the mind of a creative young woman haunted by the trauma of her childhood.

I have to admit, I was originally attracted to the movie by that gimmicky and cliched concept I mentioned. I love that kind of crazy, surreal, post-modern stuff. But I ended up quite glad that that concept was not the be-all and end-all of the film's story. There's actually another cliched story element involved here, this time one that I normally hate: multiple, seemingly unrelated plots that end up connecting. But in this case it's handled so powerfully, so subtly, and so well, that I was quite willing to forgive it.

One of the stories is that of the slightly off-kilter and oddly childish author Marian (Carrie Preston), who becomes convinced that one of the characters in her book knows she's writing him, and goes to her former professor (Austin Pendleton) for help. But the professor is more interested in making out with Marian than he really is in her or her book, and the only advice he'll give her is to kill her favorite character. The second story is the story within the story, the novel that Marian is writing, which is a very odd thing about two very childish men (Dallas Roberts and Michael Chernus) who live all alone on a boat in the middle of an empty, waterless landscape, wearing only underwear, living on only cereal and milk, and getting their only knowledge of the outside world from a radio. The third story is that of a man (Reg Rogers) and his young daughter Mimi (Lena Lamer) who have both been shattered by a recent tragedy. The man is a car salesman who, since the tragedy, has spent his time talking his customers out of buying cars, to the consternation of his boss (Richard Masur). The girl, meanwhile, hasn't spoken since the incident, and is obsessed with a neighbor's pool.

As we follow the adventures of this decidedly odd gang of characters (all expertly acted), there's at first a lot of silliness and humor (in fact, there are quite a number of really laugh-out-loud funny moments in the movie), but as we get closer to them and begin to understand why they do what they do, the film becomes very serious, very real, and very moving. It's actually a really brilliant piece of work about how the creative process can put you face to face with yourself and dredge things up out of your mind that you didn't even know were there. The soundtrack, which is loaded with quirky indie rock (there's that word again), is also excellent. There aren't any more screenings of this film at the festival, but I'm sure it'll hit DVD soon enough, and when it does, you should definitely give it a try.
Festival rating: Very Good

Storm
The only film I saw yesterday that still has a screening in the pipeline is this one, but I strongly recommend that you do not attend it. This was only my second "Poor" of the festival so far, but it is an exceedingly poor "Poor," and I'm really mad at myself for sitting through the entire agonizing 110 minutes of it, especially since it was screened late at night when I could have been catching up on my sleep (instead, I am now able to write this only thanks to the intervention of caffeine).

I mainly put the film on my list because the program compared it to The Matrix, and despite the fact that the later films in that franchise were disappointing, I'm still a big fan of the original. What I should have remembered is that comparisons of that sort in festival programs are usually only accurate in the most superficial way, and that's true again this time. Storm is like The Matrix in that it features a bad-ass woman in leather who approaches a regular guy and reveals to him that he's a central part of a larger conflict that will shatter his view of reality. After that, the comparison pretty much falls apart. The Matrix, for instance, is a good movie. It's also relatively creative and original, and it mostly makes sense. Storm steals ideas from much better movies and stories, and ends up making very little sense at all. In the opening introductory sequence, where we meet main character Donny and most of the important people in his life, the narration and construction is very reminiscent of Fight Club (but again, not good). Donny isn't a particularly likable guy. He seems to lead a lonely, empty, pointless life that consists mostly of drinking, doing drugs, and masturbating. Then he starts getting harassed by a woman named Promise (are you kidding me?) whose compatriot gives him a strange little silver box and tells him it's the key to everything; and by a ridiculous villain stereotype (who has a big scar on his face, but thankfully no moustache to twirl) and his seemingly endless horde of zombie-like flunkies who, predictably, want the box for themselves. Oh, and in the beginning of the movie there's also a lot of references to a big storm that seems to be travelling around the world, but that subplot never goes anywhere (wtf?).

What we realize rather quickly (but this is a bit of a spoiler, just so you know) is that the whole thing with the box and the conflict between the bad-ass woman and the scarred villain is just a metaphor for a purely internal conflict. Donny, you see, has a bunch of horrible repressed memories that are trying to get to the surface, and some part of him is fighting to keep them hidden from himself. The problem is, as these memories are revealed, Donny, who was already not a particularly likable guy, turns out to be an even more pathetic, disgusting, and repellent human being than we could have ever imagined. It ultimately becomes pretty much impossible to sympathize with him—which is kind of a problem, since he's the hero and all.

Also, the film just doesn't make any internal sense. Are the women and the man real or not? If they are real, what the heck are they? And if they're not, why are the cops still after Donny at the end? How could the murder he's accused of have even happened if the dead person was just in his head? And please don't tell me it ends that way because there's going to be a sequel. Ugh.

Storm is ridiculously melodramatic, with a clumsy, illogical story, poor pacing (dear God is it slow), a cheesy, pretentious screenplay, a completely hateful main character, and poorly written, cliched dialogue. Avoid it like the plague.
Festival rating: Poor

Image Credit: Flickr user pedrosimoes7