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ELKIOSKO MAGAZINE

VIFF 2009

BROKEN EMBRACES

ROCATERRANIA

WRITTEN BY

PRECIOUS Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Editorial

EDITOR Lucía Santiago Dantés. Colaboradores: Robert Waldman (Vancouver) Sergio Huesca (California & México)

Contact: [email protected] Phone 604 6051676

Yes it’s that time of the year again! The Vancouver International Film Festival has started already when this magazine is published. This year there’s a great selection of great films to watch. Remember to visit the official site to take a glance at the films: www.viff.org. Choose wisely but most important, take notice which theater is the one that you’re movie is playing, most of the time the first and second shows are in the same theaters but that sometimes change, so check out times and places for every screening! Remember the basic rules to enjoy a Film Festival: plan ahead! most important, take notice of traveling time from your work or office to the theater you’re planning to watch a movie, that reminds me! take notice most of the night screenings are busy, so remember, if you don’t have a pass or ticket, make sure to do the right line and ask! there will be platoons of volunteers and people who might help! This year as usual cinemas Empire Granville 7 will host most of the screenings as well as the Pacific Cinematheque, The Ridge Theater and of course the Vancity Theater. Most of them in Downtown, excepting The Ridge. If you’re lucky or wealthy enough to have a pass, and it’s your first time as a passholder, I advice you to bring some healthy food to spare, or you’ll end up eating nachos, popcorn or like me, gulping coffee until you’re hyper! And remember Enjoy your festival, don’t forget to visit our website for updates and editor’s tips! www.elkioskomagazine.com Lucia Santiago Dantes.

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EL KIOSKO Whip it P. 4 Capitalism a love story P. 5 Zombieland P. 6 The boys are back P. 6 Bright Star P. 7 The Informant P. 7 Surrogates P. 8 Pandorum P. 9

VIFF 2009 COVERAGE Page 12 - 14

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IN THEATERS NOW!

WHIP IT! Review by Lucía Santiago Dantes eeeee

DRAMA/COMEDY

s The directorial debut for Drew Barrymore, Whip it starred by Ellen Page (Juno) is a light hearted comedy that falls into the category of “Coming of Age” movies. The story revolves about Bliss Cavendar(Ellen Page) an insecure teenager who discovers rollerblade, while a extremely possessive mother is trying to make Bliss what she’ll probably never be: a Barbie. Bliss Cavendar goes through everything, from discovering the first guy to dump her, the classic fight with your best friend and family, and even the classic break up after seeing her object of desire with another girl wearing her t-shirt. It’s a lot of classic revivals that almost falls into clichles, if it isn’t for the fact that Rollerblading is the center of the attention here, and Bliss finds out something she’s good at.

Although as a director Barrymore has a long way to go, she achieves to tell a light story that probably will be have a relative success at the box office but some sequence shots are still chaotic to watch. What saves Whip it! is the great cast to deliver the story. Whip it hopefully would resurrect the rollerblade world from oblivion.

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IN THEATERS NOW! CAPITALISM, A LOVE STORY

P. 5

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Review by Lucía Santiago Dantes eeeee DOCUMENTARY

ichael Moore is one of my M favorite directors. He tells

entire country is beginning to look more of what Flint became truths that needs to be heard. In after the close down of GM facCapitalism, a love story Moore tory in his hometown. Let’s say comes back with his usual an- with this documentary, Moore tics to asks politicians and the goes full circle and proves he government about the money was right about what he comthat's been used for the bogus plaint on his first documentary. bail out we all heard about on Now we are all paying the price the news. Moore exposes the of abusive people taking all the great economic recession that's money for their personal share. taken into the U.S. system and Capitalism... conects to everyexposing the Wall Street Mar- body because every single day ket, the banks, and a few hand- we see more people like this ful of gazillionaires who owns around the goble. Politicians the country. We also see how are becoming like a beauty pagthe nation are paying the conse- eant who when the host ask quences of this abuse of power. what she want for the world, Moore also has a very ironic she would say “world peace” way to expose and tell what’s just switch it to politicians and happening with sarcasm and you’ll hear “eliminate poverty criticism. Moore was one of the in the world”. first ones to realize the train wreck U.S. was becoming since Roger and Me. In Capitalism a love story you can see how the WWW.ELKIOSKOMAGAZINE.COM

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IN THEATERS NOW! Reviews by Lucía Santiago Dantes

By Lucía Santiago Dantes

Y eeeee

Y

et again, another zombie movie to hit the screen, but what a fun movie to watch! Following the tradition of Shaun of the Dead (2004) Zombieland is the movie to watch this weekend or whenever you feel like watching horrorcomical-road-movies in theaters (or at home later on). The story is simple, people start turning into zombies all across U.S. eating people and turning into zombies. 4 survivors unite on the quest to look for a safe place to live. Columbus is looking to go back to his home to reunite with his parents. Tallahase (Woody Harrelson) is the man in search for the last Twinkie! While sisters Wichita (Ema Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Bresslin) are just a pair of “dog eat dog” kind of girls. These four people are unlikely to become friends if it’s not for the circumstances, and so are the dynamics of their ordeal. On the way there’s a lot of hysterical scenes with zombies, romance and a cameo of the great comedian Bill Murray, this sequence is the best of the movie! You don’t want to miss out Zombieland!

The boys are back is one of those stories that grows as you watch the movie. The first sequences are dedicated to expose the characters and plots, Joe Warr (Clive Owen) an Australian sports columnist who suddenly loses his wife. He not only has to deal with grief but the fact that he has to be a single parent. What seemed to be one of those predictable movies about the relationship between father and son turns out to be a more interesting story when an older second child is added to the dynamics of the family. Soon these dynamics turns into a second story of Joe, who has to revisit his past in order to come to terms with his new life. He also has some other issues to tackle, like dealing with his mother in law and the possibility to open his heart to a new relationship.



IN THEATERS NOW!

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Reviews by Lucía Santiago Dantes

BRIGHT STAR eeeee

DRAMA/ROMANCE

L

ast weekend Bright Star and The Informant opened here in Vancouver. The first one is Jane Campion’s new movie, who I haven’t heard from since The Piano. Sticking with her style, Campion’s Bright Star is about John Keats (Ben Wishaw)last years before dying of tuberculosis. Seems like JC is totally into the ideal of romantic love based on her last 2 mayor hit love stories. It is told by Fanny Brane’s point of view, played by Abbie Cornish. Fanny is a very practical but strong minded girl who falls for Keats even though he is as poor as a church’s mouse, not to mention his lack of good health Alas, you never can’t tell your heart who to love. What I loved about this movie is how amazingly well is portrayed the world of the 18th century world, as well as all the details only Campion seems to portray in every sequence; as in ex. that scene where Fanny is in tears because of her beloved has to move and a tuxedo cat is playing with the window’s curtains almost ruining as well as stealing the scene completely. The dresses are obscene gorgeous and the decoration is sublimely perfect for the age. The colors and composition are also very well capture as well as the locations. There’s a scene that reminded me Howard’s End with characters walking around lavender fields.

THE INFORMANT eeeee

CRIME/COMEDY

The informant was a little bit hasty for my taste bur what saves the movie was the great performance of Matt Damons, who gained a few pounds to get into character. The informant is based on a true story about Mark Whitacre (Damon) president of Archer Danields Midland (ADM) Bioproducts Division during the late eighties and early nineties, who had been acting as an informant for the FBI investigating price fixing. It wouldn’t be not much to talk about if Whitacre wasn’t bipolar and a liar who had his own agenda and commited a few frauds inside the company too.

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P. 8

SURROGATES

By Lucia Santiago Dantes

ELKIOSKO

eeeee

1hr 28min Rated PG

ACTION/SCIENCE FICTION/THRILLER

2 movies opened this Friday, that I really liked! One is “Surrogates” starring Bruce Willis, and the second one is a scifi/horror film called “Pandorum” Both stories are in a kind of scifi futuristic vision of humanity. One is darker than the other, because such is the nature of horror films.

Let’s start with Surrogates one of those movies that speaks to you on so many levels, that is hard to start with. In the near future androids are already walking among us as surrogates, meaning you stay at home but a better, stronger, faster and better looking of yourself will go out to work instead of your good old self. Of course you’re not completely off the hook, you still have to pilot this baby. Meaning you’re at home like a human potato tossed in a coach driving the android as you would drive a car; your eyes are plugged into a machine that’s also plugged into your remote controlled robotized self. The movie also makes you reflect about humans staying inside longer hours living in isolation. Not to mention that your real self is still aging, getting fatter and without having to dress up to work, and noboby to see… probably even uglier. Hey! Image a life where you can be in your jammies all day! and still make it to work without the hassle to dress up and drive to work. And so the fake-you will go out to work, have fun, socialize in this kind of mascarade that

we all created just like we do now over the internet. Ok enough of reflections and let’s go to the movie plot: As the movie starts, we see one of these androids arriving to a disco and literally plunge into the ever eternal tribal and mundane ritual of socializing for mating, of course a couple is created and leaves the disco by the alley, where both are killed the android and the user on the other side of the computer. Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are in charge of the official investigation of the crime. Turns out the young fellow piloting the male android was the inventor’s son of the Surrogates. The movie is good, I didn’t expect less of Willis, who always chooses great stories to watch. it’s simply his style: action, intrigue, adventure and a great story that sticks in your mind.

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P. 9 PANDORUM

By Lucia Santiago Dantes Tired about Pandorum on the other hand, brought me back to the days of Enemy Mine (1985 gosh! I’ve just noticed 24 years had passed since that movie opened! Eep!) Mostly because of Dennis Quaid. Pandorum is just another name for Space Madness (Think Ren & Stimpy’s classic episode here) By the way, any resemblance to that story is just mere coincidence… or is it? (add Twilight Zone’s music here please) Ok back to Pandorum. In the not so distant future, natural resources are almost gone due to all that crap activists say, which in fact is true. Lucky for us, we already sent several spaceships to explore the universe ending up to the discovery of one planet with flora and fauna enough to keep us alive for some centuries more. The only obstacle to overcome is that is too far away from the Planet Earth. So, several ships are sent with thousands of humans on board, of course to save resources they have to go to hibernation, the classic scifi way. On the way to the new planet, something terrible happened on Earth, and it is destroyed. Now this ship becomes the real Noah’s Ark carrying not only what’s left of us, but containing all kinds of species from earth in the hopes to have a home away from home sort of speaking. The scary part is that the movie is about this spaceship going into some kind of malfunction that awakes the flight crew from hibernation. Bower (Ben Foster) awakes first, he’s the technical engineer of the ship, while Payton (Dennis Quaid, Enemy Mine,

1985) is the second to be awake and realizes that the reactor of the spacecraft is about to explode. Bower is the one who has to explore the ship and realizes that something’s totally wrong, and further more someone else or better said a lot more than one are in the ship eating up the passenger. These creatures seem to be some kind of aliens or mutated humans, but it’s up to Bowen to realize what’s wrong. The problem is that they’ve been for hibernation long enough to experiment side effects like total loss of memory, which is recoverable after a certain period of time. The longer you stay awake, the more you remember. On this way to the reactor, he finds out there’s more people awaken, and all of them seems to be turned out some kind of warriors, it certainly has the influence of Mad max (1979 ouch! Now I feel old!) apocalyptic kind of future, where no rules apply, only surviving. Certainly it’s not the same plot, Pandorum instead follows the rules of horror flicks, with the good old shocking music/images that makes me jump from my seat, ending up hanging in the ceiling like a scared kitty cat. Horror and scifi fans will not be disappointed to find out good old Dennis Quaid didn’t lose his touch after Enemy Mine!

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IN THEATERS NOW!

VIFF 2009 COVERAGE By Lucía Santiago Dantes

O.K. After a very miserable starting morning @ VIFF09 wtih long lines under the rain, barcode scanners not working leading to delays and frustration life is getting better at VIFF. There are so many movies to watch and so little time! Here are my picks to this weekend: HomeGrown is a very good documentary

about a family who dared to live the green way since the times when green living wasn’t fashionably. It is very interesting check it out! Plays Mon, Oct 5th 8:45pm Empire Granville 7 Wed, Oct 7th 3:40pm Empire Granville 7 Thu, Oct 8th 10:45amPacific Cinémathèque

PRECIOUS: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire is a extremely depressing movie that honors the old saying “reality bites!”. A haunting essay on human misery that should be attached a sign reading “watch it at your own risk” and if you have the stomach to watch it consider yourself a very brave human being. The story follows Precious, a teenager that’s been raped by her father, but also has a child of her own dad and is expecting a second one. The fiesta doesn’t end up here but her mother is horrendous to her, aswell as to everybody else. But this is only the beginning of a series of really bad news on Precious life, who’s struggling to simply survive her ordeal. Plays: Wed, Oct 7th 9:15pm @Visa Screening Room Fri, Oct 9th 2:30pm @Empire Granville 7 Th 3

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VIFF 2009 COVERAGE



Written By is a very good cantonese movie, it belongs to the Fantastic Cinema genre, or better yet, surrealistic. The story is a little bit complicated but if you focus on the movie, you’ll get it: it’s about a chinese family who had an accident car. the father dies, mother and brother survives but the girl loses her sight after the accident. This surviving and blind girl decides to write a novel about it where all of them are dead but her father, taking the inverse state they’re in right now. Everybody’s happy about her idea. She starts writing the story but soon both worlds collide. The story is good, the CGI FXs are good, and the story although full of liberties, it works at the end. Plays Sat, Oct 3rd 7:00pm @ Ridge Theatre Tue, Oct 6th 11:00am @ Visa Screening Room Mon, Oct 12th 2:30pm @ Empire Granville 7

Rocaterrania.- A documentary about a very old man who lived in a ranch, isolated from the rest of world after living in New York. He created a world made up on his own experiences and drawings that helped him overcome isolation. I don’t know why, but he kind of reminds me some characters our of the world of 100 years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Plays Thu, Oct 1st 12:40pm Empire Granville 7 Sat, Oct 10th 6:00pm Empire Granville 7 Mon, Oct 12th Noon Empire Granville 7

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VIFF 2009 COVERAGE (Continued) By Lucía Santiago Dantes

The new movie from director Lars Von Trier is a glorious masterpiece essay about evil. It honors the old saying “the devil is a woman”.

The story is very plain and simple: a couple loses their son in a terrible accident, the couple retires to their cabin in thewoods to deal with their grief but evil has its way into the human soul. Starred by Willem Dafoe (Spiderman 2, 2004) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (The science of Sleep, 2006)

The first sequence brilliantly set up the tone of the movie. A very BW, almost too artistic or voyeuristic for the explicit sex we’re watching opens the film. Shocking for the average or naïve spectator is only the beginning of visual challenges that Lars Von Trier demands for an audience. A kid about 2 or 3 years old falls from an apartment window, while the couple is enjoying sex with mucho gusto. After She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is diagnosed with atypical depression, the couple sets up to the woods. Bizarre visions begins to take place,

first for her, later for him. Seems like her is going to the deepest pitch black or darkest part of her soul as a consequence of something that hasn’t revealed to us yet. She is becoming irrational every

I did see a lot of visual imagery references from Medieval Art that plays with the catholic concept of evil, hell and punishment in the human soul, such as “The Garden of Delights” (the third panel) by Hyeronimus Bosch, better known as El Bosco and to Dante Alighieri’s description of hell in The Divine Comedy. Although I saw a lot of shocked people leaving the theater during the violent scenes involving torturing, I must confess it made me reflect how different the perception of art and censorship is from the Middle Age compared to the 21st century. The naïve Canadian audience that shared this cinematic experience couldn’t handle very well masturbation, genital mutilation and almost medieval (but very ingenious) torture. How do I know about medieval torture instruments? Because back in the 90s I went to an exhibition about Instruments of Torture from the Middle Age at Monterrey, Mexico; and many of them where related to the torture and destruction of the genitals like impaling people starting from the vagina or anus until destroying all the internal organs and subsequent death, which by the way came very slow.

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As I was saying Canadian naïve audience ran away as fast as they could from the screening room during the movie and some shocking scenes, but also we had an awesome but very sincere cry of horror, courtesy of an unidentified woman while She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) mutilates her genitalia. It certainly added a great and effective sound effect that the very Lars Von Trier couldn’t even dream about it!

The fox, crow and deer are 3 elements that Lars Von Trier uses to announce that evil will always stalk and will be part of human beings. That’s why is He (Willem Dafoe) have this bizarre hallucinations about the deer carrying a carcass of a baby deer half way through the deer’s womb. The crow is also another symbol to announce terrible things as well as the talking fox. The tree of them are very well known and common symbols of the Middle Age. Lars Von Trier masters semiology in cinema brilliantly in this movie. This movie if it was played back in the Middle Age would have been a top box hit thanks to what it is more shocking today: the mutilations, torture and imagery concept of evil. Unfortunately this is the 21st century and many of the new generations are not familiar with the concept of Art from the Middle Age. A real tragedy if you ask me. Alas, for all connoisseurs and literate people this is a great formalistic film to watch.

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I arrived almost by accident at this screening just to find a nice little piece here! Double Take is a very formalistic feature that uses the elements of the documentary, aswell as video art to analyze Alfred Hitchcock persona, fear in mass media during the cold war, and the concept of duplicity (at least that’s how I perceive it). It is directed by Johan Grimonprez, who manages to use the resources of a documentary to create this anaylisis of the concept of doubles, creating eerie scenes from Hitchcock’s double used from the films. Double Take also focuses on the idea of fear inserted in mass communication through the cold war, which suited AF cinema style to become more popular in the U.S. Grimonprez uses a lot of archived footage but it seems to me at times it exhausts the topic. Being said that the subject and concept is too important to let this piece go without taking a look at it. Here’s the next screening: Tue, Oct 6th 7:15pm Empire Granville 7 Th 6

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VIFF 2009 COVERAGE (Continued) For those looking for spanish spoken films, there are a few movies worth taking an eye on it. Pedro Almodóvar’s new movie “Broken Embraces” (“Abrazos

Rotos”) Abrazos Rotos) Almodovar’s new movie about a blind writer once a director who tells his tragic story about his past love and how he lost her. Abrazos Rotos is very interesting and have a little of intrigue, suspense, comedy and tragedy. What captured my attention the most, is how Almodovar quotes his own movies. Probably to celebrate 20 years of “Women on the Verge of a Breakdown” For me it was an inside joke/ celebration but for Cannes and The Academy Awards well, they simply don’t have any sense of humor at all. I must disagree with both. Judge for yourself!

Check out Backyard, a thriller based on Ciudad Juarez missing women, often found dead afterwards. Backyard is the movie Mexico submitted for consideration as foreign Language Oscar contender. Directed by Carlos Carrera, better known for “The Crime of Father Amaro”

Also from Mexico Nora’s Will (5 dias sin Nora), Morelia Film Festival winner 2008, and Camino, winner of the Goya’s Awards in Spain.

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VIFF 2009 COVERAGE (Continued) Green Carpet of "The Age of Stupid" Vancouver Premiere.

Casssidy Freeman at the Green Carpet of "The Age of Stupid" Oct. 6th, at the Fifth Ave Theater

Charles Martin Smith, Director of "Stone of Destitny" actor in "Fringe", "Leverage", "American Graffiti". at the Green Carpet of "Age of Stupid" at the Fifth Ave. Theater, Vancouver, BC. Oct. 6th

Çhristopher Shyer From the new TV series V and Whistler, and Mike Harcourt former Premier of BC At the Green Carpet of "Age of Stupid" at the Fifth Ave. Theater, Vancouver, BC. Oct. 6th

Mayor of Vancouver Gregor Robertson and Tzeporah Berman, Execute Director of PowerUP Canada

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