26th Philadelphia Film Festival, Day 2: Film fest? More like snooze fest!

One of the most wonderful times of year is back: the Philadelphia Film Festival! With over 100 features playing in three theaters in Center City — the number of films and venues seems to be shrinking every year, doesn't it? —for 10 days there's never a shortfall of something new, or old, to see. This year I opted to stray for more below-the-line, less "flashy" titles in lieu of those that will get plenty of theatrical bookings in due time. And for an occasional film "critic" like myself, I know there will be plenty of free press screenings I could go to without paying $15 to $50 to see these titles at the festival. I wanted to seek out films that may not be seen in theaters again (for the most part).

With that said I skipped the opening night screenings of "I, Tonya". One, because I had class so I couldn't comfortably squeeze it in and two, it will be a big hit during its theatrical release late this year.


Grabbing my press badge, a textbook to read for school and plenty of yarn to make dishcloths during the screenings I set out to my first screening of the day- "The Killing of a Sacred Deer". PAUSE!!  I know, this really dark ethical drama from Yorgos Lanthimos is not playing at the festival. Instead it was a press screening at 10 a.m. just before the festival started for the day at high noon. This film was a really intriguing, thrillingly drab fable starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman as a couple thrown into a damning situation about the psychological takeover of their family by a  mystical teenager. For as deliberate and funny as Lanthimos' last film "The Lobster" —which played at the Philly Film Fest in 2015 — was, "Deer" is perhaps its counter balance. You can read my review here.

"The Killing of a Sacred Deer" was my first film of the day and the best one of the day; it was all downhill from there.

The first film of this year's festival for me was "A Ciambra," an Italian film about a young guy named Pio resorting to crime to support his family while his brother is in jail. This Martin Scorsese-backed picture was interesting at parts, but it dragged on too long without any major purpose. Ultimately, it doesn't appear that anyone in Pio's family even wants to work and yet he gets chastised for "working." There was no urgency for Pio to resort to theft since there was no immediate danger to himself or his family. At best it's just a study of certain behaviors being passed down through generations without giving any rationality on why that behavior continues. In the most simple of plots the family could have gotten off their asses to work, but that would be too simple and not provide a story like "A Ciambra". It was OK.

I realized during this movie how much of a benefit it is to know how to knit in the dark. About 30 minutes into the movie I was already feeling my self nodding off so I took out my knitting and started another dishcloth after the one I made during "Sacred Deer". It actually kept me focused and attentive without any drowsiness. Seeing as this was only the second movie of the day with two more to follow, I knew I'd need to knit. A cup of coffee between screenings didn't hurt, either.

My badge and screening schedule scribblings.

Next was the Argentinian film "A Sort of Family" and it was sort of a mess. Malena looks to adopt a baby, but the surrogate's family asks for a lot of money as soon as the baby is born. This is one of those movies where it trudges along with pretty decent and smart characters who do the most incredibly stupid things that makes you wanna punch them in the face. When Malena and her husband are bringing their baby home they reach a police checkpoint. So what does she do? "Hides" the baby so police don't find him and they ultimately get caught anyway as if they stole it. Even after this, Malena does something so objectively stupid with the baby that an audience member let out a pretty loud sigh of disbelief like, "really!?".

"A Sort of Family" was one of my top five picks for the festival and I was sorely mistaken to make it so. I empathized with Malena for the first hour of the movie, but in the final 30 minutes she became so wrapped up in hysterics and delusion that you start getting annoyed by her over-the-top antics.

Finally, a movie I was tempted to walk out of (on the first day, can you believe it!?). "Gemini" was like the most rudimentary and uninteresting version of "Mulholland Drive" that any braindead director can make. Even the similarly-plotted "Personal Shopper" looks like a solid masterpiece compared to this. Cited as being a "neo-noir" thriller pays disrespect to that great sub-genre, especially "Mulholland Drive". An A-list celebrity is found dead in her home and all fingers are pointing to her assistant, Jill, as the suspect. The bulk of the movie is watching Jill prove her innocence which is silly because we know she didn't do it anyway. And, as is accustomed to in these types of movies, it portrays the police as incompetent enough so that Jill can figure everything out.

The ending is a cruel "fuck you" to the audience as it throws out all common sense that would have not made this a murder mystery to begin with. So why did any of us have to sit through this? I was so uninterested in these people, this situation and this really boring exercise of remedial storytelling. This was a free screening at the festival, and even that could never entice me to want to sit through it again. Skip it with all of your might.

After today's bumpy start I hope day three is better. I only have three films slated for the day including Cannes winner "BPM (Beats Per Minute)".

In the interim, I managed to get almost three dishcloths knit today. I didn't want to knit during the entirety of each movie like I normally do because that would really tire me out. So after "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" I started to pace myself with a few small breaks during the movies. See a picture of the three dishcloths below!

Festival ballot ratings:

"A Ciambra"- Fair

"A Sort of Family- Fair/Poor

"Gemini"- POOR