SCREENING LOG - 5/13--5/19, 2002

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I attended the VC Asian Pacific Filmfest in L.A. (big howdy to Addison and PVC). Sadly I missed out on the opening night screening of BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, which was a sensation at Sundance, got an enthusiastic write-up by Ebert and thus became the first Asian American indie film to get a distribution deal.

A film that has yet to find a distributor, but probably deserves one as much as BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, is Greg Pak's ROBOT STORIES. This digital feature, which was screened the following evening, is composed of four stories all taking place in the near future, all having to do with the relationships between robots and humans. The fact that a movie with so many sci-fi elements can be made for less than $1 million is unbelievable, but the fact that it's a great movie makes it even more of an achievement in American independent film. The film ambitiously tries to give a sci-fi edge to emotional human drama, and vice versa. Most of the time it succeeds wonderfully: stories of motherhood, birth and death, work and love are all given a fresh perspective as technology works its way through redefining each. People who thought A.I. was too cold and stuffy will connect more successfully to this film.

Here's hoping that ROBOT STORIES sees daylight, and that you get a chance to see it.

At the festival I attended a seminar featuring cinematographers Ernest Dickerson (DO THE RIGHT THING, MALCOLM X) and Matthew Libatique (PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM). I've long admired Dickerson, ever since DO THE RIGHT THING -- they played the riot scene during the seminar and it nearly brought tears to my eyes; that just might be the single greatest sequence in American film of the last 20 yeras. (as such, it's worth noting that it was Dickerson, not Lee, who sketched and planned that sequence). I asked Dickerson what he's been watching lately, and he expressed a deep enthusiasm for Seijun Suzuki, as well as recent Japanese filmmakers like Takashi Miike (AUDITION) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (PULSE).

As for Matthew Libatique, after hearing him talk I have new respect for the craft involved in his technically dazzling films; but that doesn't change my essential distaste for the films he made with his AFI school buddy Darren Aronofsky. PI and REQUIEM are mind-numbing, borderline-sadistic works that have all the thematic nuance of an MTV video (Libatique's background), and as visually stunning as they are at times they are also soulless in the center.

In sharp relief, I indulged in a repeat viewing of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN and am confident that this is one of the best new films I will see all year. The second time around the sense of death is much stronger and further enhances the sense of life that is conveyed in every frame. The film is overabundant in cultural details, and while it may smell of tourist cinema at times the film doesn't indulge so much as put the tourist perspective under scrutiny. But at its core it's a teen sex movie, but it's so good at being a teen sex movie that it transcends the genre and becomes both a celebration and meditation of love, sex and Mexican life. Highly recommended.

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