the Minneapolis International Film Festival is wrapping up, and I saw some moving pictures. In descending order of greatness.
Sleepless Night (France) - a tightly wound crime thriller about a dirty-ish cop trying to to exchange his kidnapped son for a duffel bag of heroin amongst a nest of villains in a overcrowded nightclub. With so many warring parties and such a big setting it becomes almost like a traditional door slamming farce, but with a way higher body count. Lots of fun, highly recommended.
Headshot (Thailand) - a morose crime thriller about a clean cop who becomes a hitman and the debilitating and eventually beneficial brain injury he suffers. Plays a little like a Johnnie To film, which I freaking love. Awfully nice cinematography to go with its low-key style.
Smuggler (Japan) - based on a manga and proud of it. This ultra violent, ultra goofy crime comedy plays like a Japanese Guy Ritchie movie, with all the weirdness that such a description would imply. If you ever watched Audition and said "Hey, why isn't this endless torture funnier?" This film is for YOU.
Rent-A-Cat (Japan) - strange little comedy about a lonely women who spread love throughout the world to other lonely people by loaning them cats. Its chock full of cute cat reaction shots, and tells its episodic story in a rather predictable manner, but eventually works its way up to being a curiously affective tale about the disappointments of life and the small gestures we make to counter them. Also, lots of cute widdle kitties are here.
Kill List (UK) - a domestic drama that turns into a crime drama that turns into a very bizarre horror film. It don't make a lick of sense, but its clearly not meant to. The film works well enough while you're watching it, but if you feel kinda peeved directly after the ending, well, you and most of my theater's audience would go along with that.
V/H/S (USA) - I'll be honest, I had a lot of shit to do that night, and the first 20 minutes just weren't doing it for me so I took off. I know it would have gotten better later on, as its an anthology horror film and the justly loved Ti West handled a segment. But the deliberately abrasive characters and the extra-shaky first person camera movements were a bit too much for me. And also, that shit I had to do that night.