26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Day 11: Final films, final thoughts

The lines for the Ritz East move behind the theater to keep patrons out of the rain before catching their last flicks.

(Read about Day 9 here)

It almost saddens me to write about the last day of the festival because it is over so quickly. At the start I look at the schedule and think about all of the possible scheduling scenarios to make up and how to fit the the features all in. There never seems to be enough time in the 11 days to get to everything you want to. In the blink of an eye its over and you wonder how you did it.

Granted, I only managed a measly 21 movies - 22 if I didn't walk out of "Under the Tree" - while others can easily do over 40 of the approximately 110 features on the schedule. I usually see around that many every year anyway, so I'm happy.

As the rain came down all day and I (tried to) dodge puddles moving between the theaters I was a little upset that this was the last time I was gonna do this until next year. It's funny how some events can automatically leave you a little heartbroken when they're over. Just walking away from the theater and I was a little cumbersome, walking back to the subway like a sad sap while the rain dampened me and my spirits. 

Alors...

The final day of the festival started late for me, showing up for the 4:40 showing of "Thoroughbreds", a razor sharp look at two wealthy teenagers named Amanda and Lily who conspire to kill the latter's stepfathers. It's far from being that black and white. Wealth didn't mold these girls to be obnoxiously vain and outrageous to create a plot born from a "bitchy" mom who wouldn't let one of them go to a party. Oh no, it's so different from that.

The girls were friends early in school before splitting and attending different schools. Amanda is extremely dry and apathetic, as witnessed by her matter-of-fact description of how she killed her horse. The protected Lily is intrigued by Amanda, and the two match wits to see how real the other is. It's a really deep mindfuck that is, as festival artistic director Michael Lerman put it, Hitchcock meet nouveau. Pretty spot on. It's like "Bully" meets "Strangers on a Train" meets "Heathers". It is so biting with grit and humor it will leave you stunned with excitement and intrigue. Look for it in national release in February.

As much as I enjoyed "Thoroughbreds" is how much I hated "Ghost Hunting," the Berlin-winning "documentary" about a director making a film about Palestinians who served time in Israeli jails. My bullshit meter on this film soared so high that within 30 minutes I had already ticked poor on my audience ballot. "Ghost Hunting" is one of those BS excuses of "groundbreaking" documentary filmmaking where it's a narrative feature masquerading as a documentary a la "The Act of Killing". I hate this new way of documentary filmmaking that is too pretentious for its own good just to make a statement about the future of cinema. Even the makers of "Cannibal Holocaust" knew what they were doing was fiction.

Finally was the festival narrative feature winner "Have a Nice Day", the animated Chinese film about people trying to find a stolen bag of money. This Coen-esque film was a bit tedious at first as we were absorbed into each character, some hard asses, others bumbling criminals. But, I thought, we need to know each characters motives so let's get to know them, especially when a film is only 77 minutes, time is precious. I really enjoyed this film for being such a dense film in a tiny package. I left quite satisfied watching all of these characters being too late, or too early, trying to catch each other, and the ending was ambiguous enough to keep me thinking. Hopefully this gets a decent release next year because it's so fascinating.

With that, I bid the festival adieu until next year. It was a pretty satisfying event this year and I am always fortunate to get to be able to see so many interesting films. It can be tiring going through these marathon sessions, but it's worth it. You wouldn't see even 1/4 of these films in theaters, so its best to catch them on the big screen where they belong. The moving picture evolved to be seen in these big dark rooms, not on our computer screens. The Philadelphia Film Festival constantly reminds us of that, especially when some of this year's selections - "One of Us," "The Bar" and "The Invisible Guest" - are already streaming on Netflix. 

Until next year.

Besos.

Final Festival ballot ratings:

"Thoroughbreds"- Excellent

Ghost Hunting"- Poor

"Have a Nice Day"- Very Good

"Bye Bye Germany"- Fair

"Souvenir"- Good

"Princess Cyd"- Excellent

"Before Hollywood: Philadelphia and the Invention of the Movies"- Good

"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

And here is my stack of dishcloths made throughout the fest. There are 18 in all.