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CineVegas
Premieres are Consistent Winners
CineVegas
has evolved into a festival to make us locals proud. A decade of
festivals under their belts, they celebrated their tenth anniversary
with a heavy, concurrent schedule of the ‘newest and latest’ hitting the
festival circuit. Thusly, CineVegas X was this year’s festival
name. Every June, we can budget for a smart, significant festival
happening in our own backyard. The variety, and associated
sophistication, of this year’s filmic offerings are the very essence of
a festival a là chocolate shop. The contrast in stories and quality is
extreme, one story of a girl teasing men, her outlook bizarre, sporting
a pacifier (no kidding) juxtaposed with an exploration of sweetly
insightful family dysfunction, exploring relationships of a young girl,
teasing her younger brother. Too quickly between flicks and it’s as
distasteful a changeup as caramel followed too closely with peppermint.
It’s an acquired taste in many regards. The assortment of films permits
choices; you watch just one or as many as you can physically attend. For
years now, the festival has enjoyed the welcoming venues of Johnny
Brenden’s theatre complex and the Maloof’s Palms Casino Resort complex.
http://www.cinevegas.com/cv
http://www.cinevegas.com/cv/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=81
http://www.cinevegas.com/cv/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=14&Itemid=101
http://www.cinevegas.com/cv/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=6&Itemid=60
Review coverage:
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Celebrities
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Highlights of
the Shorts
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Notable Films
& Panels
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After Parties,
Red Carpets & World Premieres
Celebrity
Attendees
The appearance of
favorite entertainers at the CineVegas Awards
Conversations held with those chosen for CineVegas awards are
some of the most meaningful side-trips of the festival. Don Cheadle
topped the conversations chart this year. Cheadle is an amazing mix of
A-list talent and unselfconscious charisma. His humor and candid answers
were quite disarming. Recipient of the CineVegas Half-life Award,
he chose to sit on the front edge of the stage chatting with Elvis
Mitchell, the all-time greatest host for intimate interviews ever—he can
interview anyone, make them comfortable, talk whatever they want to talk
about, his vast stores of knowledge and trivia more impressive with each
interview. (Mitchell also had an HBO documentary screened: The Black
List—Vol.1. Add that to your Netflix Save list.)
Also receiving
Half-life Awards were Viggo Mortensen, Sam Rockwell and Rosaria Dawson.
The notable Marquee Award for CineVegas X went to the illustrious
and fascinating Anjelica Huston. Wow. James Caan received the Vegas Icon
Award.
Highlights of
CineVegas 2008 Shorts Programs
Whenever I mention
film festivals, what the experience is actually like is often the
question. And as often as not I will say it is…difficult to describe.
Then inside I think that sounds so…all that…which dissipates within
minutes of a screening at the very next festival I attend.
Festivals are
exactly like being in a chocolate shop. There are so many choices. There
is so much time. Normal consumption seems conservative…taste
everything…yeah. Especially if a section of Shorts is offered early on.
Ten minutes of a Cornell student’s first, brief Short exploring family
dynamics and sibling rivalry, ten minutes of raw British sexuality, ten
minutes in a coma patient’s mind, ten minutes with a teddy bear serial
killer, ten minutes on a neighbor’s fence…the festival feeling comes
over me, exactly like being in front of a sampler dish of chocolates.
The trick is to distinguish the various tastes, and even better, to
remember those distinctions. A festival is experiential, slightly
gluttonous and packed with the creativity of so many filmmakers.
The standout
moments are the Shorts, of course, and panel discussions, and
documentaries. There was a bunch of films and shorts delving into sexual
fantasy, compulsion, deviation and temptation which don’t really appeal
to me, so those you will have to learn of from someone else. I tried
one: Pacifier girl was showcased in Alex And Her Arse Truck, a
confusing mashup of sexual dysfunction on a scale both disgusting and
peculiar. This short entry was too long for me by infinite micro moments
of supposed psychological complexity. The one distinction it exhibited
was for a female to join the long, long list of males (a lá Tom Hanks)
depicted relieving themselves in a bathroom scene. Not a worthy goal, in
the very least, for the young actress. Shame on Sean Conway, and anyone
else who assured her this was a viable role. There you are…that was
enough for me in this genre.
Shorts are grouped
into categories at CineVegas: the local college and university
segments, the Nevada Filmmaker segment and the overall festival Shorts
in Shorts I & II.
College of
Southern Nevada, CSN
(formerly CCSN) leads in quality for local filmmaking. The all digital
technologies programs included in the filmmaking disciplines of camera
technique, lighting, sound, editing, production, scriptwriting, and
overall movie comprehension prepare students for jobs or moving on to
more schooling at other campuses. For the fifth year now at CineVegas,
a sampling of the student’s projects are prepared and rendered to a
seamless program by Professor John Marsh. Outstanding pieces were: the
hilarious Cereal Killers by Garrett Hammel, the gorgeous,
painterly Sanctuary by Garrett Hammel, the musical, vibrant
You Know I’m No Good by Mike Lui-Kwan, a really sweet biographical
documentary Best is Yet to Come by Nikki Corda, an impressively
staged and rendered El Mercenario (aka The Cowboy Film) by
Chelsea Sedoti, the unsettling look at love through young eyes The
Date by Steven Conger, the wonderfully engaging peek at the life of
a college security guard in Jesus by Garrett Hammel, a
disturbing, yet persuasive pondering of military enlistment in Words
of Courage by Greg Benoit, and the funny Wires by Adam
Christopher. Blake Edwards’ 7-minute CSN promo was visually and
cinematically pleasing and informative. I wish there was room to mention
all of them, there were as many more, and if you want to see what
everyone is up to at the college, Marsh keeps a roster on youtube.com,
here are some clicks:
http://www.youtube.com/user/zen99
http://www.youtube.com/user/zen99
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6PO1J-kKUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5utcDCsgXc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1VUHC1VJfQ&NR=1
The UNLV segment
included several films also reviewed in my 48 Hr Film Project reviews,
and The Rose, a film noir execution about ‘more to life than
drinking and drugs’ by Clinton James, Are you Sleeping, Brother John
by Kyle Soehngen, and the fairly impressive examination of a child’s
perspective (brilliantly played by a child for whom I didn’t catch his
name) on violence as one of three convoluted stories in reverse
chronology for Thin Walls by Jeremy Cloe. Don’t Spill the
Beans by Andy Carney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjTN4FjA3kU.
The Nevada
Shorts segment had several notable films of the seven presented.
Heads above the rest was Passenger Seat by two of the local
filmmaking Thompson brothers, Jerry & Mike. The two actors, Chris
McInroy and Carlos Mathis-Johnson were superbly suited to the roles,
their chemistry undeniable, and the story exquisitely comical. Ready for
the UNLV 2008 Spring Flicks, it won several Bests—Director, Screenplay,
Short and picked up runner-ups in most categories including actor,
cinematography, audience pick. Execution on all fronts was highly
professional. The 7th Claus was produced by a local, and his
cronies, and as such was fun. Wedding Day by David Schmoeller,
UNLV Professor by day, conceived and directed this film of three
interwoven stories shot in Japan, Paris, and Las Vegas.
The Shorts 1, The
Reveille of Reverie segment screened 8 films, one not on the program,
but clever enough to deserve mention, Acquaintances of a Lonely John,
by Benny Safdie, which really touched me as an examination of loneliness
and social ineptitude. The stand out film in this segment was The
Fence by Allan Steele. The premise was sterling clever and the
actors put in a superlative performance, giving just the right deadpan
delivery of the exquisite bit of dialogue which was stylish, delivering
the comedic payoff in elegant fashion. These filmic tidbits are
unavailable outside the festival environment, which for one like this is
just a downright shame. Cowboy by Matthew Modine took
intellectual to a whole new level, and ramped up full communication in a
short 2-minute interval to breathtaking.
Life in a Shorts
segment is like a box of chocolates. There’s something comforting about
tasting chocolates and knowing you needn’t finish those that don’t
entice. In a grouping of Shorts, if one is unpalatable, no worries,
it’ll be over in a few minutes. And to continue the thought, when one is
really, really good, you keep sifting through the Shorts, watching more
of them, looking for the gems. Hence, the festival incentive.
Stars and Suns
by Sarah Soquel Morhaim proved my notion that a filmmaker has an eye for
what we want to see, regardless of the cinematic rules or how many of
them they know or follow. Ms. Morhaim is a photographer turned
videographer, because she “wanted to try it”. She promises to try it
again. Given the lighting and the framing of the subjects, she acquitted
herself amazingly well, surely making any filmmaking student raise an
eyebrow in salute. The young actors were equally impressive. I wish her
well. Her work can be viewed at:
http://www.sarahsoquel.com/index.html
And her Short can
be seen in LA at the Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles August 17th
@ 1PM.
http://www.dffla.com/films_detail.asp?fid=31.
Other Shorts in
this segment worth mentioning: Liliana Greenfield-Sanders
directed Samantha, an exploration of where we go in our minds to
avoid facing reality. Excellent story premise, acting and filming.
Having no particular feeling one way or the other for teddy bears, I was
mystified by the bloody mess that was Jason Kupfer’s The Sleuth
Incident.
The Shorts 2,
Inner Demons/Outer Angles
had a few interesting pieces. Cinematically stunning, and filmed
correctly, no small feat when shooting snow, and this location was snow
and ice to the horizon—Sikumi by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean framed up
two excellent actors who must size each other up correctly to survive
the encounter. A brilliant montage of revisionist history by Kelly Sears
is this wack 60’s style reaction to space age nonsense in The Drift.
I’m Pretty, Too by Matt Jespersen is a light look at suicidal
comments from a friend. Mr. P by Jacob Vaughan is another smart
script on relationships, quirky and unexpected.
Of the Short
Preceding Features,
the Small Apartment by Andrew T. Betzer was an emotionally
stirring 8 minutes over to thoughts on loneliness.
Notable Films &
Panel Discussions
Documentaries are
the best. Alright, to me. Topping the CineVegas X docs is the
singular Beautiful Losers which examines artists that impact the
current art world, and interestingly enough have little or no formal
training. Their work has been and is on tour, as Beautiful Losers:
Contemporary Art & Street Culture, currently scheduled to exhibit in
Madrid, Spain this fall. It has been on tour in the US since 2004.
http://www.iconoclastusa.com/about/about.html
One panel
discussion on the fringe was an artsy grouping including our own Dennis
Hopper. A truly gratifying hour with artists, this panel, Marginal:
Art For Its Own Sake brought together a freelance cultural critic,
some of the old guard and some of the new artists to discuss the
national art scene, outdoor & street art and art ‘because the artist
needs to create it’. The complimentary film to Beautiful Losers
(the younger artists) was The Cool School (the old guard), both
of which underscored this panel’s insights.
This kind of
synergistic scheduling is both entertaining and educational, something
to value highly at any film festival.
Finally Lillian
and Dan
was an incredible experience, as it felt extremely tedious while viewing
it, and yet it has remained with me even now. Director Mike Gibisser is
inspired by a British filmmaker who films impromptu scenes where the
actors do not know the story outcome, and must follow the Director’s
cues, matching them to the roles, again as outlined by the Director…very
bizarre unfurling of a story that takes more time to convey than most of
us are willing to give.
After Parties, Red
Carpets, World Premiers & 1 Nevada Premiere
After-Parties are
one of the many benefits of the all-festival passes. There is a dress
code, and that encourages the fashion conscious to go all out. The
showiest accumulated on the pool deck at the Palazzo for the Awards
Ceremony party, every nook and cranny crammed with banquet tables loaded
down with samples of the new restaurants debuting at the Palazzo. Venues
on other nights were Palms Casino Resort’s Moon, Palms Place Pool, Palms
Pool, Wynn’s Blush, Tao at The Venetian, Mirage’s Beatles Revolution
Lounge, Planet Hollywood Pools and the Downtown Cocktail Room.
Opening Night
featured the World Premiere of The Rocker with Rainn Wilson (It
was just announced that this movie will open in theatres in August). The
Rocker entertained in spite of the subject matter. Not a huge fan of
movies about the music industry, I was very relieved at the quality of
the ensemble cast, the story, and especially the lyrics to the music
created for this film.
The Closing Night
film brought the has-been story full circle for the festival, with
The Great Buck Howard. The sterling performances of Tom Hanks and
John Malkovitch elevate to stylish this homage to Vegas-style
entertainers in general, and magicians, in particular.
Sandwiched into
the week were several notable film World Premieres. Big Heart City
is the debut feature film of Ben Rodkin, with memorable moments
showcasing Seymour Cassel. It is an eclectic set of insights into the
mind of the gambler. Dark Streets is a richly costumed, music
dense story of the early 1930’s. Put it on Save on your Netflix queue.
Happy Birthday, Harris Malden is a bizarre debut effort of a set
of filmmakers that may want to keep in touch with their old jobs.
Memorial Day is debatably artistic, purporting to generate a view of
young American obsession with filming their every moment, whether it
should be or not. Mesmerizing and unavailable on Netflix is She
Unfolds by Day. South of Heaven is a deeply disturbing,
supposedly funny crime spree. Your Name Here features Bill
Pullman in a ‘trip-py’ sci-fi about a 1970’s sci-fi writer. Very
unnerving. Where I Stand enumerated the accomplishments of Hank
Greenspun, with a fascinating look back at the era in which this crusty
publisher navigated. All Together Now, a look at the world of the
Cirque du Soleil’s Vegas show about the Beatles is a Nevada Premiere, a
truly well-executed documentary.
The newest
addition to the CineVegas experience has been the La Próxima
Ola section, begun in 2007. Highlighting films from the new wave of
Mexican filmmakers, it groups together a sampling of latin films such as
the quiet and beautiful Cochochi, showcasing two young real-life
brothers Torres, farmboys on a short odyssey and the pounding music of
Déficit, in which Gael Garcia Bernal (Motorcycle Diaries)
directs himself in a look at an idle-rich family in a small town.
An evening to view
a 1950’s horror classic, THEM, was set aside as the CineVegas
Drive-In. Downtown’s Fremont Street Experience, in the 3rd
Street north leg, served as the venue. Old-fashioned paper bags of
popcorn were supplied to add to the atmosphere.
And last but not
least, in the major film category, a special screening of WB’s Get
Smart allowed CineVegas to once again use its accumulating
clout for the good of the community. Co-star Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
started a non-profit, ’The Rock Foundation’ which in turn is supporting
the newly created Project Knapsack’ which is a peer supported children’s
pen pal and school supply program from schools here to third world
country school children under several educational initiatives
http://www.957therock.com/rf/ and
http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749312.
One filmmaker
thought maybe he would have to listen to a timeshare pitch in exchange
for his room at the Palms, and so was quite relieved at the classy digs,
the gracious hospitality and the energy of the festival audiences. |
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