26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Days 6 and 7: Nice surprises, some bumps

(See my coverage of days 3 and 4 here)

I opted out of seeing anything on Monday (day 5) because I was just too darn tired after the weekend. Ten movies in three days may not be as much as others have seen in such a short period of time, but for me that was more than enough. You would be surprised how tiring it can be to go back-to-back-to-back watching movies all day for a few days in a row.

Come Tuesday and it was a rainy, gloomy morning. I was a little deterred by the thought of standing in the rain waiting outside theaters for screenings to start. Luckily, the sun started to peek out around 11 o'clock and stayed out for the rest of the day, score! With good weather embracing me I set out to the festival. But first I had to stop at the AC Moore in Center City and pick up some yarn to get me through 15 movies through Sunday. I picked me up five balls of Sugar 'N' Cream yarn and head out to the Ritz Five for "At the Drive-In".

Regrettably, I was a few minutes late to my first screening of the day because SEPTA was slow and the line at the craft store was long. No matter what I missed, there is no denying this documentary about a still-in-business Pennsylvania drive-in movie theater was a labor of love about a group of guys who love celluloid. The drive-in devotees and film enthusiasts who flock to the Mahoning Drive-in near Allentown are so in love with this over 60-year-old institution that still shows movies on 35 mm print. The young, colorful characters bond together at the Mahoning as if they keep it alive just to serve as their own club for all things retro. They love filmstock, VHS tapes, Nintendo and whatever else that was fun and cool decades ago. It even delicately approaches the topic of digital takeover of all theaters and accommodating the new normal of film projection.

Film festival programmer Trey Shields with "At the Drive-In's" Virgil and director Alexander Monelli

"At the Drive-in" was one of the films I was most looking forward to this year, and it exceeded my
expectations. It was so delicate in portraying all of the players who work there to keep this place running, most of them doing it for free. There were funny moments, sad moments and everything else in-between. What a wonderful, charming ode to how cool retro can be. Director Alexander Monelli and film subject Virgil were both on hand for a Q&A after the screening.

Then there was the Icelandic film "Under the Tree," but projection issues led me to leave 30 minutes into it so I can't write much about it. The Tuesday afternoon screening was less cumbersome than the hour-long delay it had the night before, or maybe the screening was halted after an hour. I couldn't verify the problem there.

Nothing like a break in the festival lounge with some coffee, snacks and knits.

Finally was "Spoor," the Polish film about the incidental death of hunters that I was looking forward to. I liked the start, I liked the end, but the middle was almost too glacial and drawn out. Agnieszka Mandat was spot-on as the tough-as-nails, middle-aged environmental hard ass who appears to be at the center of all of the deaths of her neighbor hunters. Watching it all unfold in the last act made up for the meticulously-paced center. I liked the way everything came together even if it felt like it took too long to do so.

The screening of "Spoor" spurred one of the great discrepancies about going to the movies: people talking during the feature. Admittedly, an older guy down the row from me was making some rather loud comments and the person in front of him briskly gave a loud "SHH!" as a response. And then from somewhere else behind me in the theater there were more hushes and exclamations of quiet being thrust onto someone. Then during a Wednesday (day 7) screening a man actually walked over to two guys and told them to shut up. Sure enough, they did.

No matter what, you can't get people to shut up, even in a quiet, dark theater where you think you have a security blanket to say whatever you want. Not with this Philadelphia crowd, they'll call you out on your rudeness and it's so nice to have.

Tuesday was an OK day, and Wednesday turned out to be a smidge better than that.

First off was the Spanish language incest drama "Sister of Mine." It was a pretty predictable story of forbidden love, this time between half siblings Oliver and Aurora. The added layer of voyeurism between the two characters added a bit of intrigue to an otherwise formulaic telling that includes someone's boyfriend/girlfriend catching the siblings in the act and the crazed parent that tries to keep them apart. It was kind of ridiculous and pretty soapy, but it was better than some of the crap I've seen here so far. I'd watch it again for sheer silliness.

After that was a movie I wasn't completely enthralled with seeing, but it was the only thing that most intrigued me in that 2 o'clock-ish block of screenings. It's a "sci-fi" Norweigian film called "Thelma" and it's about a Catholic-raised university student who begins to understand her supernatural abilities when she first falls in love with a girl. It's a very different movie that doesn't stick too closely to a sci-fi, horror or coming of age plot.  It's a constantly evolving harmonium of the three and says so much about the power of love over the power religious indoctrination. "Thelma" is the most original sci-fi/horror film I've seen in sometime, I was surprised by how taken I was by its really dark secrets and the sweet, blossoming relationship between the two girls. I never knew where it was gonna go and I was more than happy to see how it would unfold. What a ride!

After "Thelma" I sat around outside and waited to go right back into the theater I just walked out of to see "In the Fade". During these times you overhear what people have seen and/or what they plan to see. I usually don't pay it too much attention and stick to my readings, finishing or starting a dishcloth, or just tinkering around on my phone. But a certain group of women by me were just too funny at one point in their conversation.

Three women were talking about screenings for the rest of the week and that's looking at running times, potential for overlap and location. Between the three screens at the Ritz theaters on 2nd Street and the Prince Theater on Chestnut and Broad, one needs to know how to maximize all viewing options. These three women were talking about a movie with a runtime of 119 minutes, just the slightest hair under two hours, that starts at 5 p.m. One woman said 119 minutes is just about an hour-and-a-half (90 minutes) and that if it starts at 5 it'll be over around 6:50. I kid you not, those two statements were made within a five-second breath. I giggled roundly on the inside as they tried to figure that mess out.

My yarn supply has definitely been replenished. Through 14 films I've finished almost a dozen dishcloths.

Soon we were in the theater and the film started. I had heard reaction about "In the Fade" following its premiere at Cannes where the consensus was that star Diane Kruger was good but the film wasn't anything special. How true that is. "In the Fade" is a three-act film, the first act similar to a "Law and Order" episode as cops try to figure out who killed Kruger's husband and son in an explosion. And like the iconic TV series, the leading female is always hysterical. The second part was the most theatrical court proceeding I've seen in a while that would make David E. Kelley proud as two neo-Nazis have a five-person bench trial of the murders. These two acts, an approximately 75-minute chunk of the film, was so simple and run-of-the-mill that I couldn't wait for the movie to end.

The final act was when it all came together for me. It pushed all of the cheesy criminal procedure crap that fills up an hour of TV and really got into the depths of Kruger's character and the rationality of her decisions after the trial. I didn't think much of Kruger's performance, seeing her as being competent and mirroring so many other roles that have come before in the women-wronged-by-the-system sub-genre. She won the best actress prize at Cannes for it, so there's that. "In the Fade" was deeply rooted in putting up front international insecurities about the blending of cultures in these ever-changing times of political hostility.

And with that, another day is in the books. Not too bad for weekday screenings.

Festival ballot ratings:

"Sister of Mine"- Good

"Thelma"- Very Good

"In the Fade"- Fair

"At the Drive-In"- Excellent

"Under the Tree"- N/A

"Spoor"- Good

"Faces Places"- Excellent
"Brimstone and Glory"- Excellent
"The Square"- Very Good
"On Body and Soul"- Good
"Bloody Milk"- Fair/Poor
"BPM (Beats Per Minute)"- POOR
"A Ciambra"- Fair

"A Sort of Family- Fair/Poor

"Gemini"- POOR