snow cake Tagged Articles at Cinematical

My pick of the week is the underseen Cautiva, a drama from Argentina. Cristina's biological parents were "disappeared" during the 1970s, but she knew nothing about it and is none too happy when she is torn away from her comfortable upper class existence to live with them. Cautiva (AKA Captive) does not dig very deeply into the political issues that it raises -- and I kept wishing that Cristina would react to her situation instead of simply slumping her shoulders -- but it is fascinating for its new twists on the old coming of age story.

More fully realized on every level, Away From Her marked the assured directorial debut of actress Sarah Polley. She paints a delicate portrait of a long-time marriage that reaches a breaking point from which it may never recover. In his Sundance review, our own James Rocchi wrote: "Away from Her is a truly romantic film, and it moves us because it knows the cruel, beautiful fact that how much love and life give us is often matched by how much they can cost." Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent star. The DVD includes an audio commentary with Christie, plus deleted scenes and commentary by Polley.

Triad Election is a riveting drama starring Simon Yam as a Hong Kong mob boss who desperately wants to stay in power. Johnny To masterfully directed. Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson says that "the movie's real strength comes in the performances, the interplay, and the unknown levels of trust." Triad Election is actually the second part of a drama that begins with 2005's Election, which details Yam's rise to power. Unfortunately, Election won't be released on Region 1 DVD until November. Taken together, they are powerful, but even separated like this, Triad Election is well worth a look.

Other indie titles that may deserve a rental include Hungarian sports drama White Palms, character drama Snow Cake (featuring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver), and nightlife comedy The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down.

It seems like an eternity since I first saw Snow Cake, starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2006. Finally, the film is actually opening. The film played heavily on the film fest ciricuit last year, opening at Berlin, then hitting a few more international fests before wending its way across the Atlantic to Tribeca, then meandering along to Seattle, Shanghai, Edinburgh and Toronto.

The film stars Rickman (who, I'm starting to think, couldn't turn in a bad performance if he tried) as Alex Hughes, a sullen man with a mysterious past who meets Vivienne (Emily Hampshire), a young hitchhiker, at a truck stop diner, and surprises himself by agreeing to give her a ride to Wawa, Ontario, where she's heading to visit her mother. A tragic car crash kills Vivienne just as they're starting out, leaving the traumatized Alan to deliver the news of her daughter's death to her mother, Linda ( Weaver). As it turns out, Linda is autistic, and doesn't handle the news of Vivienne's death quite the way Alex expected, and he ends up being drawn inexorably into Linda's life. Carrie-Ann Moss has a nice turn as the sexy next door neighbor.

Quebec definitely seems to be the prolific cup from which the Canadian Genie Awards grabs its nominees. Last year, Jean-Marc Vallee's C.R.A.Z.Y. rightfully dominated the awards, scoring 10 of their 12 nominations. This year, the French province is still reigning over the awards, vastly overshadowing any English offerings. If more people actually paid attention to these awards, people might just think that the French are the only ones to make films up here.

Acting as the lone English entry for best picture stands the Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, which is not a surprise nomination considering its success, but it is almost sure to be beaten by one of the French selections which range from the hugely popular, Colm Feore-starring Bon Cop, Bad Cop to Roger Frappier's Guide de la Petite Vengeance, and the hockey biopic -- Maurice Richard/The Rocket. However, there are three English films fighting for many of the remaining spots -- getting a lot more Canadian love than they did from the world-at-large. The actresses of Snow Cake have trumped the acting nominations with three, but I am holding out for newcomer Jodelle Ferland, from Terry Gilliam's quirky Tideland, to dance her way to a Genie win as best actress. The third of the stronger English-language-nomination-grabbers is Beowulf & Grendel, a visually stunning film that is already being overshadowed by Robert Zemeckis' adaptation.

The ACTRA strike, which is now a few days in, shouldn't affect the distribution of the awards, or so Paul Gratton, the Genies' chairman claims. However, there's a good chance it will affect next year's possible nominees if an agreement isn't reached soon.

For a full list of nominees, visit The Hollywood Reporter's article.

Hey, we're not the only ones covering the Seattle International Film Festival. Lots of other folks are here too. Here's a round-up of what other sites are saying about what's happening around SIFF:

• The Stranger has reviews of Japanese drama The Hidden Blade by film critic and Police Beat scribe Charles Mudede, and Annie Wagner reviews Snow Cake, which I'll be getting to next week.
• Greg Dunlap from Cineblog has a write-up on Princess Raccoon posted over on the NW Source blog, and has a nice summary of other SIFF bloggers, including Ken Rudolph, who drove up from L.A. to spend six weeks watching an amazing 120 films! Now that's a film lover. Greg also throws some love Cinematical's direction (well, he mentioned we're there, anyhow, so thanks for the shout-out, Greg!)
• Jake Ludington at Hollywood Reviews dropped a line to let us know about all the awesome interviews with directors at SIFF he has up. Jake has interviews up with Kirby Dick (This Film is Not Yet Rated), Will Becton (aka Tommy Chong), Merl Reagle (Wordplay), and Neil Burger (The Illusionist). Jake also writes up one of my fave films from Sundance, 13 (Tzameti), and as he notes, if you haven't seen it, go. If you're hanging in Seattle, it screens on Friday at 9:30.  Jake also gets a peek at the contents of the VIP Opening Night Gala swag (which I, being very much NOT a VIP, was sadly not gifted with). The gift bag included a bottle of Bombay Sapphire (booyah!) and Starbucks Coffee for that post-Bombay hangover. Very cool stuff, Jake.
• There's a SIFF photo pool going on over at Flickr (started by SIFF-goer Roya), including the one above right, which is a shot of the sign at Atlas Clothing Co, located conveniently on Capitol Hill near two SIFF venues, The Egptian and Broadway Performance Hall. Check out the Flickr group, and if you're attending the fest and snapping pics, upload away.
• And last (but most certainly not least), one of my fave websites for all things cultural in Seattle, Three Imaginary Girls, has a SIFF preview up by imaginary boy embracey. The girls (and their boy) are witty, clever, and they have cool pink matchbooks in the Hospitality Suite.

If you're in Seattle and blogging about SIFF, drop me a line at kim.voynar@cinematical.com . I'll be doing more round-ups throughout the fest. Off to see The King (starring Gael Garcia Bernal and his cheekbones). I have some cool interviews and more film reviews coming up, so check back often!

(Ed.'s Note: Greg from Cineblog is Greg Dunlap, not Greg Nelson. Apologies, Greg.)

The Berlinale is underway with lots of exciting films to hear about. Here's what's been going down in Berlin, where all the falling snow has people thinking they're still at Sundance:

Golden Bear awards: Sir Ian McKellan (pictured) was awarded an Honorary Golden Bear, the Berlinale's top prize, at a ceremony following a special screening of his 1995 film Richard III, shown in tribute to McKellan. Polish director Andrzej Wajda is also to receive an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement during the fest.