Milwaukee Film Fest 2014: The Priest's Children

Once upon a time there was a young, green priest, Don Fabijan. (Kresimir Mikic) He was saddened by modern ways, like people having sex for pleasure rather than procreation. As such, he felt called to stem the decay of the Croatian island community he sought to lead to the light, a place where the death rate was greater than the birth rate. Then again, this feeling may have been exacerbated by the other older, universally adored priest who excelled everywhere Fabijan was awkward. So when a sheep from his flock named Petar (Niksa Butijer) came and asked him if selling condoms was a sin, he decided to cleanse the sheep of (some of) their sins. How? Well, he decided to use a needle and pierce an imperceptible hole in all the condoms sold in the community. That way, a pregnancy would truly be God's will, not man's. Along the way, they are assisted by a pharmacist and Bosnian war veteran whose time spent in Serb and Muslim camps had left him less than sane, as well as a passionate believer in increasing the Croatian population.

Stop me if you've heard this before. No? Well, I'll keep going then. Naturally, this has consequences for the island. Some they forsee, such a whole lot more pregnancies and marriages. Others they don't, such as an increase in visitors to the island, since it is believed that the high birth rates are due to currents. But darker, more tragic, consequences are also unavoidable.

As those consequences continue and pile up, what begins as laugh out loud comedy soon ends up sparking a less than comedic domino effect. A baby is abandoned in front of the church, leading Petar and his wife Martha to fake a pregnancy so they can pass it off as their own. But the giggles stop when one young woman becomes barren and another dies.

It all leaves the once idealistic Fabijan disillusioned and eager for his end, and us with a harsh indictment on a church, especially the Papacy of the former Benedict XVI, which shows us an institution and the shepherds that represent it imposing its values and the consequences thereof on the rest of the world while literally getting away with murder themselves.

It's all pulled off with excellent performances and exquisite comedic timing, while also making great use of the location and history. The problem is that the more absurdist tone at the beginning of “The Priest's Children” feels like too stark of a contrast for the much bleaker one at the end, especially for a movie that passes itself off as a comedy. Nevertheless, it stands as a very well executed cautionary tale for how our judgments against others become sins in themselves.

Grade: B-

Milwaukee Film Fest 2014: Family United

Ah, weddings. Is there any other event where the reality is so consistently different from the shiny, Perfect Day shoved down our throats by powerful propaganda machines? Hmm. Maybe birth. Or childhood. Or rather, anything to do with kids and family in general.

That said, the buildup to the wedding in “Family United” starts sweetly enough. We are introduced to the happy couple as adorable little ten-year-old moppets. Efraín, the catalyst for all the chaos and disorder to come, explains how he is the youngest of five brothers, and how life has disappointed his father (Héctor Colomé). Apparently, Dad's (Héctor Colomé) favorite movie was “Seven Brides For Seven Brothers,” and believed his life was destined to resemble it. He dreamed of having seven sons and a lifetime of happiness with his wife and one true love. But he only got five, as his wife left after Efraín was born.

After Efraín recounts all this, he proposes to a girl in his class, Carla, so they can fufill his father's dream. She accepts, and quicker then you can say, “Aww,” the movie flashes forward eight years, where we learn that Efraín (Patrick Criado) is indeed marrying the now very pregnant Carla (Arancha Martí). Few are pleased about him marrying so young, and even fewer are actually happy to actually be at the wedding, seeing as how it's not only the same day as the 2010 World Cup, but their own country, Spain, is one of the finalists.

But while Efraín is confident about his decision, there are a few unsettling omens thrown his way, from a plank of wood that crashes through their van's window to a black cat at an otherwise charming ceremony where guests dance down the aisle to “Feel So Close.” But the party comes to a screeching halt when Colomé's heart fails, and he is left in a delicate, uncertain condition.

But as people are forced to learn time and again, when you plan on your life resembling a set picture, or rather a particular fiction, life is bound to fall short of your expectations. Real life tends to complicated; bad things happen for no reason, and there is nothing to do but adapt. So while the wedding is in limbo, the fault lines in everyone's lives are revealed. One brother is dating the ex of another, who has learned a shocking secret from his family and isolated himself from them. Another wants to get in the family safe and “borrow” money.

Then there's the would-be bride and groom themselves, or more to the point, Carla's twin sister Monica (Sandra Martín), who begins to form more of a connection with Efraín. Turns out, even Efraín's adorable proposal is more complicated than it initially appears, since apparently both sisters have been such a huge part of his life that he can't imagine it without both of them in it. Having a guy in the middle of a love triangle is difficult enough, so getting us to take this seriously, and tackling it in a such a sweet way (with the sisters in particular never losing sight of their bond and their love for each other) is really the film's major accomplishment. More than that, it's nice to see cinema finally approve of something different than the same old family arrangement. Here's hoping more mainstream American films follow suit too.

Grade: B+

Milwaukee Film Festival 2013: The History of Future Folk

Day 3 of the Milwaukee Film festival brought me into a fantastic world of aliens and folk music.  Sound ridiculous?  Well it is a whole lot of fun.

The History of Future Folk is the story of aliens from the planet Hondo that come to earth to destroy everyone on it.  Before General Trius (Nils d'Aulaire) can release the virus he hears music for the first time.  Falling in love with music and believing that a race that can put sounds to for music must have some good he spares the Earth.  But the people on Hondo are not happy. He was supposed to kill everyone so their world can be spared.  They send the Great Kevin to Earth to assinate General Trius.  But Trius who now goes by the name of Bill has been on Earth for a while and has gotten married and had a kid.  When the Great Kevin catches up with him Bill plays music for him and they end up starting a folk band together.

My synopsis doesn't do the movie justice.  There are so many little quirky and funny bits in the movie that it is hard to summarize.  Needless to say the leads are great and their songs are hilarious.  The movie zips along fairly quickly and keeps everything moving. It is funny and has a little romance, action, and music.

Overall: 5 out of 5. Some movies at festivals make you think or challenge your beliefs and some are just fun.  This is the later. It will have you laughing at the shear ridiculousness and tapping you feet to the catchy tunes. 

Milwaukee Film Festival 2013 Shorts: Stranger than Fiction

Even though this was the second day of the Festival it was the first day I was able to attend.
Decided to start my festival experience off with the documentary shorts.

Documentary shorts are one some of my favorite movies.  There are so many interesting people and things in the world that short films can highlight.  And spending 10 - 15 minutes learning about them is perfect.  This is the first year that I have been going to the festival that they have had a whole program of documentary shorts and it did not disappoint.

First up in the program was The Flogsta Roar. This 18 minute documentary is about a university in Uppsula Sweden.  Every night at 10 pm the students yell out their window.  This is a ritual that has been going on for over 20 years.  We meet some students and teachers that live there and learn about their anxieties.  The movie brought back memories of my college experience.  There are ups and downs and just weird people.  There is some one stealing food from a fridge, a teacher that is obsessed with the pots and pans and also a student who had someone in the dorm room next to her commit suicide.  But they all get a chance to release their anxieties and tensions at 10 pm when they yell out their windows.  It's ridiculous, humorous, and sad all at the same time.  It manages to capture that unique environment that is college.

Next up was the short Pouters. This short was about pigeon enthusiasts in Scotland. I honestly had no idea what was going on. It appears that there is some kind of weird competition where you try to get someone else's pigeon to come to your coop.  These people are odd and extremely obsessed with pigeons.  This was one of my least favorite of the shorts but definitely interesting.

This was followed by Vladimir Putin in Deep Concentration. This 9 minute doc quickly goes through the life of Vladimir Putin.  I have to admit I know very little about him and his rise to power.  What this movie does it tells some of his backstory but comes to the conclusion that we know very little about him personally and he is a master at image control.  For a short doc I learned about one of the most powerful man in the world and this is one person that probably deserves a full feature doc.

From Russia to Christmas.  Mr. Christmas tells the story of a man who every year puts on one of the most extravagant Christmas light displays.  It is a fun and touching story as we learn his process of putting up the lights and his motivation.  This is a fun charismatic guy who loves Christmas, misses his wife, and loves his cat.  A fun enjoyable short.

After celebrating Christmas the next stop on our short film road trip was to India for Unravel.  Every wonder what happens to clothes that are sent to be recycled?  Well they are sent to India where they are sorted, torn up, and made into thread to be used for blankets.  The movie focuses on the India women who work at the factory that tear up the garments.  These women live in a small town and try to imagine what kind of people wear these clothes and why they would just throw them away.  The movie makes you think about our love of clothing and the excesses we have.  It is funny to see how they imagine the Westerners.

Back in the US we head for We Will Live Again. This is a fascinating doc and a little disturbing that challenges some of our beliefs.  We have all heard of Cryogenics but I have never see the inside workings of one.  This short takes us on a tour of The Cryonics Institute from the delivery to the freezing of their "patients".  The manager doesn't consider them dead just "metabolically challenged" and refers each one as a patient.  A perfect example of what a documentary short can be.  Takes us to a world we have never seen and challenges us.

For the last short we head to Saigon in 1968.  Eddie Adams: Saigon '68 tells the story of a single iconic picture from the Vietnam War.  The amount of power a single picture can have is amazing.  We learn about the famous photographer Eddie Adams from his diary and interviews from those that knew him and were there when the picture was taken. The picture in question is the Pulitzer Prize winning image of a South Vietnamese police officer shooting a Vietcong prisoner in the head.  The story of who the officer was and who he shot is told as well as the effects the picture had on support of the war and on Eddie Adams himself.  A powerful look at how one picture changed many lives and a discussion if a single picture can tell the whole story.  Definitely my favorite doc of the program.