Mixed Metaphors

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the 2014 Wisconsin Film Festival

Each year at the end of March or early April, I take a week’s vacation. Let me clarify. I still show up at work each day, I don’t leave the city, yet I’m transported to places all over the world; I time travel, and meet unforgettable people both on the screen and the filmgoers in line waiting to see the movies and sitting next to me inside the sold-out theaters. I’m an old-school movie fan. I still enjoy being in the audience of a movie theater sharing the experience with companions and anonymous others. One of the fandom features of the film festival is that people actually talk to each other while waiting in the queues to buy tickets, or to see the movie. Festival filmgoers chat each other up inside the theater too, before and after the films. The Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) is one of the annual rituals for which I’m grateful I live in Madison.

The Wisconsin Film Festival by the Numbers

This year I was one of 28,300 filmgoers in attendance at the 2014 Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison Wisconsin. The festival, founded in 1999, this year highlighted 150 films in seven theaters over eight days. The festival is presented by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arts Institute in partnership with The Department of Communication Arts.  To read more about this year’s festival and films, sponsors, community and campus partners, and program support, visit the festival website.

Five Days, Eight Films

I have a number of filmgoing friends. Each year we begin strategizing, first on which films we want to see, then we mix and match to see if our choices align. It’s often a challenge and it usually means making tough choices. Once the films are chosen, we wait for the tickets go on sale and decide on our method for purchasing them before the popular films are sold out. Some years my friends or I have stood in line early at the box office the first day, other years we order online, or call the box office. This year I did all three. I ordered my initial tickets online the day they went on sale, later I added a couple of tickets by calling the box office, and lastly, one day I stood in line to pickup will call tickets.

One of the fandom conversations I have with fellow filmgoers is how many movies are they seeing this year? Some friends actually do schedule vacation days so they can see the weekday matinees. These are the people who see 17 or 18 films over the course of the festival. Other friends only choose a handful of films. I usually fall into the 10 or 12 category.

This year I ended up seeing eight films, though I bought 10 tickets. Through the years I’ve learned, and sometimes forget, that on weeknights it’s difficult for me to watch two films after work and since I’m an early-rising morning person, late night films are not a good idea. I also sometimes run out of filmgoing energy by the end of the festival.  Yes, it happened again this year. I’m happy to say that each film I did see was worth the experience, though some quickly rose to the top of my list. Those are the films I will recommend that friends and readers of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! go see.

Following are my reviews of the films in the order that I saw them:

The Actress

The opening night selection directed by Robert Greene and starring Brandy Burre as herself is introduced as a documentary. This film represented what I appreciate most about the film festival. The festival filmmakers experiment with genres and movie conventions. Though this film is the real life story of an actress who appeared in the HBO series, The Wire, who left her acting career to live with her partner and raise a family outside of NYC in Beacon, New York, it unfolds as a narrative story. Though there are flashbacks, most of the film follows a linear storyline in what feels like real time. This hybrid of a documentary and drama captured my attention and interest from the opening scene. I wanted to know how the story would end.

The film chronicles her journey as she reflects on her life and her decisions in her roles as an actress, a partner in a committed relationship and mother to two young children. Brandy alternates between conversations with the camera or directly to the audience if you will, and interactions with her family, friends and colleagues. We are witnesses to her process. After the film, both the director, Robert Greene and actress, Brandy Burre, answered questions and provided some surprises to how the film was made. See The Actress it if you get a chance, especially if you’re interested in how we must each juggle the different roles in our lives and remain true to our essence and calling.

Breathe In

From the festival website: “Guy Pearce (Memento, L.A. Confidential) stars as a music teacher who falls under the spell of a student in this enthralling take on infidelity from Like Crazy director Drake Doremus. Pearce plays Keith, a restless former rock musician now feeling stifled as a family man in the New York suburbs. He’s roused from the doldrums with the arrival of Sophie, a British foreign exchange student and musical prodigy played by the bewitching Felicity Jones. The two connect instantly, and, to the actors’ great credit, their chemistry feels genuine and intense.”

This was my favorite narrative film of the festival. The acting, screenplay, direction and cinematography were immediately compelling, creating a sense of place and a portrait of a family at a pivotal point in their lives as individuals and together. The cast was perfect. Each actor, from the moment they appeared on screen, fully embodied their character. The screenwriting, editing and direction provided a complete back story for each of the characters to help us understand their motivations, struggles and choices.  This film is already playing in theaters in NY and I’m assuming it will come to Sundance 608 in Madison. If you are drawn to stories about relationships, music, and how our choices can affect the lives of those we love most, Breathe In is a “must see” film.

The Rugby Player

The Rugby Player was one of my most anticipated films. From the moment I read the synopsis in the festival film guide, I knew this was on my “must see list.” What surprised me most was that this film did not sell out. My hope is that for those in the audience, at this film festival and others, including LGBTQ festivals, word of mouth will help promote this movie and bring it into theaters and homes across the country and worldwide.

It’s the story of one of the forty passengers aboard Flight 93 who wrested the plane from hijackers and crash-landed the plane in Shanksville, PA on September 11^th. Mark Bingham’s story is told in a moving documentary, 10 years in the making, by producers and director, Scott Gracheff. What makes Bingham’s story so powerful is that it’s told by those who knew him and loved him the most, his single-mother, Alice Hoagland, his extended family, and his band of fraternity brothers, rugby teammates, and the close friends he grew up with and loved and business partners who knew his generous spirit first hand which made it easy to understand how Mark would step up without hesitation to be a hero on that fateful day.

Mark Bingham was also an avid videographer, capturing his story in his own words and playful images. We learn, besides being the leader of his fraternity and a star of his college rugby team, he came out as a gay man and lived openly and with gusto. Watching this film, I wanted to know Mark in life and be his friend. His legacy lives on in the memorial to Flight 93, The Bingham Cup, an international rugby tournament trophy and in the passionate retelling of his story by his mother Alice, his friends and loved ones. Grachoff’s documentary film, The Rugby Player, is an unsung testament to an unsung hero.

Happy Christmas

From the festival website: “The accomplished and prolific independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg, who presented All the Light in the Sky in last year’s WFF, has returned with one of his most distinguished and entertaining efforts yet. Anna Kendrick, star of Pitch Perfect and Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies plays Carson, who decides to join her brother Jeff (Swanberg) and his family for the holidays in Chicago. The unemployed Carson is not exactly a responsible person. She’s still young, but old enough to know better than to get wasted and pass out on a stranger’s bed when her best friend (Girls’s Lena Dunham) brings her to a party. This episode increases the already existing tension between Carson and Jeff’s wife, Jenny (Melanie Lynskey), who is trying to find time to continue her writing while raising a toddler (the director’s son, Jude Swanberg, a scene-stealer if there ever was one).”

First, I must admit I have a soft spot for a genre I would describe as dramadies, real life stories whose writers and directors are able to laugh at themselves, their humanity and their foibles. There are usually universal life lessons embedded in the stories that we can relate too. This film is no different. In its simplest terms it’s about how our loved ones, especially our family and friends, challenge us in the most fundamental ways, yet in the end we are able to forgive, not forget, love each other and move on. Much of this film, even moments which require us to suspend our disbelief, seem real and are lived experiences. The filmmaker’s son, Jude Swanberg, steals the show.  See Happy Christmas it might remind you of someone you know and love.

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs

In 2005 the film’s director Grace Lee released the Grace Lee Project where she interviewed several subjects with the same name.  From the WFF website, “For this more focused new project, the director revisits one of her namesakes: Detroit-based author and social activist Grace Lee Boggs. Known for her landmark work on behalf of black communities during the civil-rights era and black power movements, the Chinese-American Boggs is no stranger to radical stances, some of which led to her being closely followed by the FBI.  Boggs, who will turn 99 in 2014, was a committed Marxist who, along with her husband of 40 years, James Boggs, split with Marxist leaders in order to speak more directly to the question of black liberation, an issue far more complex than the mere notion of equality with whites. Someone who stubbornly believes in the ability of individuals to change completely and transform their own minds, Grace Lee Boggs remains as feisty as ever as she approaches her centennial. This fast-paced and sometimes critical portrait, loaded with lots of great historical footage of the Boggses, is irresistibly inspiring. Audience Award, 2013 Los Angeles Film Festival.”

One of the sweet synchronicities of the film festival is the chance meetings with old friends. I sat with my friend Melissa (Missy) and her partner Ingrid to see this film. She was the perfect companion to watch Grace Lee Boggs story together. Missy and I were activists in the 1970s for the National Organization for Women, travelling our state and the United States, training facilitators and setting-up feminist-consciousness raising groups.   It was absolutely inspiring to listen to the interviews of Grace lee Boggs as she told her story of being an activist and revolutionary, beginning in the 1940s through today as she continues to found projects in Detroit, mentor young people and invite new generations of people working for change into her living room salon for “conversations.”

I wish I had brought paper and pen into this film. Boggs was one of the most articulate and quotable voices of civil rights, racial equality, economic parity and the plight of the American worker, I had ever heard. Hands down this film was the best documentary I saw at the festival. I hope it’s distributed widely and for those who didn’t get a chance to see it, seek it out, download it, or buy the film and invite your friends into your living room for a “conversation.”

Something, Anything

Like my experience with the previous film, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw my friend Terri and her sister sitting in the front row of the theater at Sundance. The three of us had seen Happy Christmas together the day before and were glad to bump into each other again. We settled in for another film that included a talkback with the director afterwards.

From the WFF synopsis of the film, “Just married to a successful business type, and with a lucrative career of her own in real estate, Peggy (Ashley Shelton) seems to be a typical Southern young newlywed. But when a tragedy happens, Peggy spins away from her husband, her career, and her circle of friends. Then, an unexpected piece of mail sets Peggy off on a spiritual quest to find something, anything more meaningful than the life she’s been leading. Willing to walk away from everything she’s known, yet not afraid to face the consequences, Peggy is a genuine contemporary hero. Writer-Director Paul Harrill, whose 2001 prize-winning short film Gina, An Actress, Age 29 was selected by Film Festivals around the world, makes an assured and gripping feature debut here.”

When the film ended, we listened to the talkback. I asked a question of the director as did others. When I was able to talk with Terri and her sister after the film, we all agreed this had been one of our least favorite films. Though the story chronicled the separation of married partners after a family tragedy and followed the wife’s spiritual quest for meaning and resolution, the screenwriting was weak when it came to character development and dialogue. Too many important details were not sufficiently fleshed out and seemed to happen behind the scenes.

Le Weekend

One of the highlights for me this year was to see a film in the Capitol Theater at Madison’s Overture Center. The jewel box theater had once been named the Oscar Mayer Theater after the benefactor of the Madison Civic Center before the building was expanded and extensively renovated and became the Overture Center. The Capitol Theater seats over 1,000 and is a beautiful example of what grand movie theaters and performance stages once were.

The film, Le Weekend packed the house. From the festival film guide, “An exquisite treat of a film, Le Week-End is as witty and perceptive a romance as one could hope for. Superbly portrayed by Jim Broadbent (Topsy Turvy, Another Year) and Lindsay Duncan, Nick and Meg are British academics celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary in Paris, in a somewhat desperate attempt to recreate the aura of their honeymoon. They give it a good go, dining and dashing at fancy restaurants and splurging on even fancier hotels. But the spell doesn’t last, and the couple soon returns to their default mode of comic bickering, tossing off a seemingly endless supply of cutting bon mots, as only long-term couples can. Rather than rekindle their long-lost puppy love, they use the weekend to take stock of their lives, and, moreover, their regrets. These are brought to the fore by a chance encounter with a wildly successful and boorish old classmate played by a singularly hilarious Jeff Goldblum, clearly relishing the part of the self-absorbed expat. Emotionally honest while remaining caustically funny, Le Week-End is a tender and bittersweet portrait of marriage, graceful and satisfying.”

The movie’s locale, story, and the cast were a pure delight. It was a madcap wedding anniversary celebration of a long-term marriage between partners who loved each other yet found themselves at the beginning of the final chapter of their lives. The unspoken question when they first arrived in Paris was how would their lives look moving forward, and would they choose to continue to live with each other. I won’t spoil the adventure for you but you must see this film when it comes to Madison. The Capitol Theater was the perfect setting for this film and a reminder of how special filmgoing can be when experienced in the packed house of a classic grand movie theater.  This was my favorite experience from the festival.

The Congress

I was looking forward to this film, a live action-animation hybrid with a cast of actors I love to watch including Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm and Danny Huston.

From the WFF festival guide, “The Matrix, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Being John Malkovich, and Waking Life are all evoked by this groundbreaking meta science-fiction hybrid of live action and animation. Robin Wright stars as a version of herself, an actress tired of Hollywood executives who only want her to repeat the successes of The Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She is also a single mother concerned about having enough income to take care of her children. So when a creepy studio head (Danny Huston) proposes using an emerging technology that will allow a perpetually youthful digital replica of Wright to take over her career, the actress ultimately embraces the idea. Decades later, an aging Wright finds herself consumed by her alternate persona as she visits The Congress, a “restricted animation zone” constructed by the studio that serves as a virtual playground for the wealthy. Here, Wright learns that her very personality has been thoroughly co-opted by a diabolical plot to turn everything we know into a profitable simulation. Director Ari Folman, whose innovative 2008 animated feature Waltz With Bashir earned him an Academy Award Nomination, has loosely based his screenplay on The Futurological Congress a sci-fi novel by Stanislaw Lem (Solaris).”

My excitement to watch some of my favorite actors on screen together was soon dashed. The cast seemed detached, each delivering monologues but not connecting with each other’s. The screenwriting became weaker when it needed to be tighter, making it more difficult to follow the story. I lost my way and my desire to care about the characters or their odyssey. The film was a disappointment.

It’s A Wrap

I had two more tickets left, Visitors and Cheatin’. It was Monday and I had seen eight films in five days and was returning to work. I ran out of steam. I was scheduled to facilitate a talkback later in the week for a performance of StageQ Theatre’s 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche and decided I needed to focus on work and prepare for the talkback. I continued to read reviews and Tweets from the festival and concluded that though the festival ended on a note of fatigue for me, the festival gets better each year, and like a good meal, I’m still savoring all the films I’ve seen and enjoyed.

Note: All movie images and film descriptions where noted are from the WFF website.