Team Picture

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5 out of 4) 

Team Picture follows the coming of age, summer journey of a slightly shy and awkward guy named David. David and his roommate spend most of the film hanging out in their front yard in their baby pool. The setting is a Memphis summer, complete with cicada's loud chirping. David and his roommate have women problems and little or no career direction. The story that's told is not so important, as to how the story is told. It seems as if the actors are for real, just hanging out, Cinéma-vérité style. The pace of the film is very slow, with deadpan shots of scenes after the actors have left the screen and lots of uncomfortable pauses as David attempts to articulate his thoughts.

After seeing so many mainstream films that never challenge the process of filmmaking, Team Picture might not register straight away, but after a few minutes of adjustment you realize that there is something fresh here and you are pulled into this oblique story simply for the pleasure of watching the craft of real film making.

Screening Wed, Apr 16 @ 7:10 PM

-LW

This Beautiful City

Rating: **1/2 (2.5 out of 4)

The film intersects three different stories; a middle class couple, Harry and Carol, two drug addicts, Pretty and Johnny; and Peter the police officer. The film is beautifully shot in an urban landscape and features some quality performances. At the beginning of the film we see Harry and Carol host a small dinner party. There is some awkwardness in the couple's dialogue; something is maybe not right between them. The party ends. Carol goes on to the balcony. We see her doing something with a hanging plant. She gets a chair to stand on. What is she doing? It makes the viewer very uncomfortable. Next scene, we hear a noise and see Carol on the ground, several stories below. At this point in the film it feels like the story is going to use the psychological aspects of Carol's behavior on an allegorical level, which seems interesting, but instead the film becomes quite literal, juxtaposing the timing of Carol's fall as a means to connect the three separate stories and characters, a la Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Screening Tue, Apr 15 @ 9:25 PM

-LW

Land of Confusion

Rating: ***1/2 (3.5 out of 4)

A first-hand look into the early days of the Iraq war from a perspective of a National Guardsman who brought his camera on his twelve-month tour of duty to Iraq. We hear firsthand disgruntled soldiers speak out about the lunacy behind the Weapons of Mass Destruction and the obvious corporate funding behind the war. Land of Confusion shows us a completely different perspective than any other Iraq war coverage. Can this be the same war Bush convinced congress to spend billions on? Too bad this film did not come out five years ago, but then we had our embedded reporters to keep us informed back then.  

Screening Sat, Apr 12 @ 12:15 PM and Mon, Apr 14 @ 1:00 PM

-LW

The Axe in the Attic

Rating: *** (3 out of 4)

A post hurricane Katrina documentary that is poignantly made, raising questions about our government and society as a whole. How easy it has been to forget about these victims and what this says about our country. The film includes the raw dialog between its two documentary film-makers as they question the ethics of even making a documentary itself.

Screening Mon, Apr 14 @ 7:00 PM and Thur, Apr 17 @ 1:00 PM

-LW

Coyote

Rating: **1/2 (2.5 out of 4) 

A white middle class man is in love and getting married. His fiancé is busy planning the wedding. Suddenly a wrench is thrown into the bride's fantasy because her mother's maid's son has been deported back to Mexico, even though he has lived in the states most of his life. The concerned groom cannot stand to see this happen, so he and his slacker Mexican/American buddy decide to go fetch the maid's son and smuggle him back across the border, by building a hiding space in their camper-truck. The smuggle is successful, very easy, and everyone is so happy that the two partners in crime decide they want to try again. (Here is where the film makes no sense, more about this later). The amateur smugglers (Coyotes) gradually improve their skills at trafficking and this soon becomes an enterprising business for the two self proclaimed humanitarians. All the while the bride continues to plan her wedding in la-la land, back in the U.S. Soon, the trafficking enterprise becomes very sophisticated and the two are racking in the dough.

The deeper they get into the trafficking business the closer they get to the real Coyotes and bad guys. Soon, trouble begins.

The film is well crafted and visually pleasing. The overblown exposure really gives one a sense of the desert sun and heat. The only problem with the film is that the believability factor is just not there. Why would a white middleclass man risk his future by becoming a coyote?

Screening Sun, Apr 13 @ 6:00 PM and Thur, Apr 17 @ 1:30 PM

-LW 

Monster Camp

Rating: ** (2 out of 4)

From afar the U.S. looks like a messed up group of people. How many millions, or even billions do we spend on video games a year? How many hours a day on average, do we allow ourselves and our children to even play these games? The statistics are frightening. The serious video game addict finds all manner of intricately involved games such as World of Warcraft and even Second Life irresistible because of their emersion into fantasy worlds. Now, if you really want to witness this perverse fascination with fantasy worlds one step further - then go see Monster Camp.

Monster Camp takes you into the adult community of NERO, which is a national organization of real-life fantasy play- acting. These folks go out for a whole weekend and pretend they are various types of monsters and lizards and play-fight with each other based on a cryptic set of rules that take hours to explain. It's some scary stuff. The film also gives a staggering amount of gaming statistics and shows us up-close stories of the individuals involved in NERO and their real-life occupations. The film maintains its objectivity well and presents the information straight on. Real world issues that are the topics of other documentaries in The Atlanta Film Festival such as the Iraq War (in Land of Confusion), Hurricane Katrina aftermath (in The Axe in the Attic), the chronic impoverishment of African (in What Are We Doing Here?), pose sharp contrast to Monster Camp and shed light on just how surreal the world we live in, in the U.S. has become.

Screening Wed, Apr 16 @ 9:40 PM

-LW