The 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival: 15 Years and Counting

Now in its fourth year in Westwood Village, the 15^th edition of Film Independent's Los Angeles Film Festival commenced on June 18 with the opening night screening of "Paper Man," a somewhat unusual choice given the film has yet to acquire domestic theatrical distribution.  And though the festival will be hosting the U.S. premiere of "Transformers 2" and its Centerpiece film is Michael Mann's "Public Enemies," LAFF appears to be (to these eyes, anyway) taking at least a baby step away from its direction of the past few years when more slots were given to bigger mainstream movies.

This may be partly due to the change at the top.   Previous festival director Richard Raddon resigned amidst controversy last November, and in March the LAFF tabbed producer Rebecca Yeldham ("Anvil: The Story of Anvil") as his replacement.   In Yeldham's first year, the festival's schedule, on paper, doesn't offer quite as many eye-catching titles as in years past, but with 70 features programmed, there's still plenty to choose from.  Some of this year's buzzworthy titles include Sundance favorites "Paper Heart" and "(500) Days of Summer," the music documentaries "Soul Power" and "It Might Get Loud," the narrative competition entry "Dear Lemon Lima" and Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature "Ponyo," which closes the festival on June 28.

Below are reviews of the films I caught during the first weekend of the festival.  I had also intended to catch Ondi Timoner's ("DiG") new documentary "We Live in Public," but a temporary ailment prevented me from attending.

Stay tuned for another report shortly after the festival's completion.

BRONSON

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Tom Hardy, Matt King, James Lance, Amanda Burton

92 mins, England

Tom Hardy, an actor I can't say I even previously knew by name, gives a tour-de-force performance as "Britain's most violent prisoner," the stark raving mad Michael Peterson, better known now as Charles Bronson (yes, after the actor).  Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn's based-on-a-real-life tale is something of a wild cross between "Chopper" and "A Clockwork Orange," marked with an extra level of self-awareness. 

Bronson was first tossed in jail in 1974 for committing armed robbery.  Since then he has spent a scant few months in the free world while the rest of his days have been divided amongst a host of prisons -- where he spends most of his time in solitary confinement -- and insane asylums.  He's an absolute brute of a man, who revels in violence and is completely of out of his element when not confined to a prison cell. 

Refn frames this biopic as a one-man play where Bronson, a British tabloid sensation, regales an appreciative audience with his life story's sordid details.  This is a fitting device seeing as almost everything about the film -- from the manic lead performance to the liberal use of slow motion to the grandiose classical score -- is blatantly theatrical.  The film seems to be winking in the mirror at almost all times, but in a way that's too jovial to be off-putting.

Spending so much time with a sociopath whose behavior never deviates from its vicious norm can become tiring, and the movie's most obvious flaw is that it feels fairly one-dimensional.  But Refn and Hardy make the most of that singular dimension, and the end result is brutally enjoyable. 

THE LAST BEEKEEPER 

Director: Jeremy Simmons

66 mins, USA

This eye-opening documentary sheds a light on a severe problem too few people know about -- the world's honeybee population is dwindling at an alarming rate.  The reason this causes such concern for humans is that bees pollinate a good deal of our food.  Unless the tide can be turned, we could be headed for serious trouble.

The people who are immediately feeling the catastrophic effects caused by the mysterious decrease in bees are those who need them to make a living.  Director Jeremy Simmons follows the plight of three beekeepers whose livelihoods have been dealt an enormous blow.  Financially, these people rely on a yearly excursion, beehives in tow, to California's San Joaquin Valley to pollinate almonds.  But diminishing returns, largely due to entire hives of bees being dead on arrival, force two of the subjects to face the reality that their profession may no longer be sustainable.

As I've stated countless times in reviews of documentaries, messages always hit home harder when they are conveyed via personal stories.  Simmons does an admirable job of interspersing statistics that confirm an evolving global crisis, which is stumping the scientific community, while delicately handling the details of people's lives who are already suffering.  Though it seems like plenty more can be said about the topic, "The Last Beekeeper" is commendable for helping to initiate discussion and certainly registers as a stern warning.         

PASSENGER SIDE

Director: Matthew Bissonnette

Cast: Adam Scott, Joel Bissonnette, Robin Tunney

Canada, 85 mins.

It might be a stretch to call Matthew Bissonnette a film festival darling in Los Angeles, but all three of his features have screened in the city's two premiere festivals (LAFF and AFI), though his first two, to my knowledge, never received U.S. theatrical distribution.  Whether or not the third time will be a charm remains to be seen, as this film about two brothers trying to make peace after a tumultuous past has its share of ups and downs.

Adam Scott (currently seen in the Starz original series "Party Down"), who also starred in Bissonnette's last film "Who Loves the Sun," plays a Los Angeles based, semi-successful, somewhat reclusive novelist named Michael Brown.  He's awoken on his 37^th birthday by a call from younger brother Tobey (Joel Bissonnette), a recovering drug addict.  Tobey seeks a ride from his brother, and following Michael's initial hesitance, the two men are criss-crossing LA county, stumbling across a litany of eccentric people --  a transvestite hooker, a belligerent gas station attendant, a porn director -- in a variety of Southland locations.  Tobey's purpose is vague at first, until he reveals to his brother the identity of the person he hopes to find.

"Passenger Side" is sort of a re-imagining of many of the ideas Bissonette explored in "Who Loves the Sun."  Scott is again cast as a writer and instead of bickering former best friends, this time the central characters at odds are brothers.  Whereas "Who Loves the Sun" is a strangely polite comedy, "Passenger Side" is more cerebral and contains the same reflective quality just about all good road movies do.  But it's also episodic to a fault and the stabs at comedy alternate between obvious and awkward. 

We spend basically the entire movie with Michael and Joel, getting to know them fairly well, however, there's nothing captivating about either character.   They don't really inspire any strong feelings, which is problematic because the film offers little to grasp onto during large stretches.  Scott and Joel Bissonnette are likeable actors, but they're unable to elevate their characters to a truly interesting level.

I still believe Matthew Bissonnette has a great film in him, and while he's shown growth, thus far he's yet to deliver on the promise of his auspicious debut "Looking for Leonard."

TURISTAS

Director: Alicia Scherson

Cast: Aline Kuppenheim, Diego Noguera, Marcelo Alonso, Viviana Herr

105 mins, Chile

Not to be confused with the 2006 gorefest of the same name, this quiet, meditative Chilean film occupies the same territory as Kelly Reichardt's movies ("Old Joy," "Wendy and Lucy"), but with a bit more narrative thrust.   Of course, there can be a fine line between meditative and meandering, which "Turistas" tiptoes from time to time.  Perhaps its most striking element is the National Geographic like camera work that captures the country's habitat.

On their way to a camping trip, the story is set in motion when Carla (Aline Kuppenheim), mid 30s, tells her husband that she terminated her pregnancy in its very early stages because she had a change of heart.  Unfortunately, she never consulted her husband about this decision, and subsequently the shattered man makes a big decision of his own -- to abandon his wife in the middle of nowhere.  Carla's able to hitch a ride with a trucker who also transports another traveler, a Norwegian man named Ulrik (Diego Noguera).  Carla and Ulrik make their way to a national park and become unlikely camping partners, each harboring secrets about their identity.  

The two central characters are troubled people who have yet to come to terms with the source of their problems, but their struggles aren't as gripping as you wish they would be.  The days spent in the national park act as a form of therapy, aided by occasional interaction with the park's staff, including two chatty female cousins and a former national music icon.  Director Alicia Scherson presents the drama in a low-key manner, which trades urgency for a consistently thoughtful tone.  And as that description implies, it will take patience to reap the film's rewards.

Scherson's second feature definitely shows her developing a distinctive voice.  With more compelling characters, her future work could rise from the level of intriguing to legitimately memorable.