Film

REDEFINE is pleased to announce we are giving away this prize pack for Hanna, which opened nationally in theatres earlier this month. “Adapt or die!!!” reads the tagline for the film, and one can’t accuse Hollywood of not being dramatic enough in this action thriller involving a young girl raised to be the perfect assassin. With an underrated cast featuring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, this is an unusual coming-of-age tale directed by Joseph Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice).

One (1) Winner will receive the following prize pack:
- Unisex T-shirt
- Grey Hooded Sweatshirt
- Skullcandy Earbuds
- Micro Fiber Cloth
- Bumper Sticker
- Dropcard to download the full album (by The Chemical Brothers; details below)

TO WIN:
All you need to do is send us your full name and mailing address to letters@redefinemag.com with the subject line, “HANNA CONTEST” by April 30th, 2011. One random winner will be drawn and contacted within the first week of May 2011.

HANNA ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK TRACKLISTING
1. Hanna’s theme
2. escape 700
3. chalice 1
4. the devil is in the details
5. map sounds / chalice 2
6. the forest
7. quayside synthesis
8. the sandman
9. Marissa flashback
10. bahnhof rumble
11. the devil is in the beats
12. car chase (arp worship)
13. interrogation / lonesome subway / Grimm’s house
14. Hanna vs Marissa
15. sun collapse
16. special ops
17. escape wavefold
18. isolated howl
19. container park
20. Hanna’s theme (vocal version)

container park by The Chemical Brothers by Hannamovie

The San Francisco International Film Festival opens on the evening of Thursday, April 21st.
Here are our recommended picks for the opening days, April 21st through April 23rd!

Full festival details and movie listings here.

—

the colors of the mountain

Soccer is a way of life in Latin America. What happens when soccer-playing youth come too close in contact with contended territories? The Colors Of The Mountain explores that idea.
Directed by Carlos Cesar Arbelaez – COLOMBIA

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 1:00 (Kabuki)
Sun, Apr 24 @ 6:30 (Kabuki)

hot coffee

Do you remember when a foolish (or is it brilliant?) consumer spilled hot coffee and turned around to sue McDonald’s for millions? Director Susan Saladoff does, and uses that case as a jump-off point to explore the ludicrous nature of the American legal system.
Directed by Susan Saladoff – USA

SHOWTIMES
Fri, Apr 22 @ 6:30 (New People)
Mon, Apr 25 @ 6:30 (Kabuki)
Tue, Apr 26 @ 2:00 (Kabuki)

the light thief

“An electrician affectionately known as Mr. Light finds himself in a difficult position when a politician embraces his dream of generating wind energy for his impoverished town. This allegory of a man confronting injustice dramatizes the challenges facing the economies of Central Asia.”
Directed by Aktan Arym Kubat

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 7:15 (Kabuki)
Mon, Apr 25 @ 9:15 (Kabuki)
Sun, May 1 @ 8:45 (PFA)

microphone

Ahmad Abdalla’s second feature film explores Alexandria music scene, and about the struggle of succeeding as an artist in the Egyptian city.
Directed by Ahmad Abdalla – EGYPT

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 7:15 (Kabuki)
Mon, Apr 25 @ 9:15 (Kabuki)
Sun, May 1 @ 8:45 (PFA)

mind the gap

“A series of experimentally minded shorts from established masters such as Jay Rosenblatt, Peter Tscherkassky and Kerry Laitala and relative newcomers such as Zackary Drucker — and featuring Jonathan Caouette’s (Tarnation) newest work — this program will be sure to surprise and confound and illuminate worlds real and imagined.”

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 4:45 (Kabuki)
Sun, May 1 @ 9:45 (Kabuki)

mysteries of lisbon

Set in baroque, old-world Portugal, Mysteries Of Lisbon is based on a 19th-century Portuguese novel and is “like Dickens filtered through a surrealist’s gaze.”
Directed by Raul Ruiz – PORTUGAL/FRANCE

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 12:15 (Kabuki)

pink saris

Documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto captures the life and works of Sampat Pal Devi, founder of India’s Gulabi Gang, which defends the rights of untouchable women and fights for other social needs of repressed women.
Directed by Kim Longinotto – ENGLAND/INDIA

SHOWTIMES
Sat, Apr 23 @ 1:00 (New People)
Thu, Apr 28 @ 6:15 (Kabuki)

Tonight, at PLACE in Pioneer Place Mall in Portland, an exciting talk and installation hosted by Grand Detour, with well-known glitch artist, Evan Meaney.

Grand Detour is going back to the mall to present the multi-channel, glitch-happy, science-tastic videos of Evan Meaney, including an installation of his most recent project, the ceibas cycle, at PLACE Gallery in the Settlement at Pioneer Place. The exhibition will run from April 16-30. Meaney will give an artist talk around the issues of his work on Saturday April 23, and follow with a screening of both his own past projects and inspiration from his self-appointed “spirit animal”, Hollis Frampton.

the ceibas cycle is a ten-part, multimedia exploration of ghosts, glitches and the aesthetics of entropy. Begun in 2007 and completed in 2011, the cycle offers technological rupture as an interface exploring geography, testimony, mortality and other hackable systems. Centering on an understanding of archival memory and networked representation, these pieces attempt to redefine viability. For our cyber-organized culture, glitches embody the imperfections that allow for us to be complete. A broken thing presents itself as a dialogue and not simply as a vessel. In this spirit, the ceibas cycle serves as a home for these glitchy reminders, given in all of their complex imperfection, so as to better celebrate our own.

Meaney also created a video for REDEFINE’s Call For Video Art earlier this year, and that video will be up within the month.

The Good Soldier follows the plight of Sean Roberts, a civilian in the UK who seeks something different in his life. Through a series of events, he finds himself fulfilling his desires by becoming part of a militia — something he’s been musing about since the beginning of the film. Although he is warned about the dangers of joining by his elder friend, he ignores it, to instead fulfill his assumptions of what patriotism and glory are. This all sounds well and good, but unfortunately, this simple synopsis describes more about the film than watching it actually reveals. There are reasons why there is a formula in filmmaking, and The Good Soldier is a perfect example of what happens when you don’t follow it.

From the beginning of the film, you get this strange nuance which hints that perhaps the actors aren’t actually British. All their words sound harsh and forced, as though they are faking their accents. It isn’t until ten minutes in that you finally realize why they sound this way: horrible acting. For an American audience, English accents are hard enough to follow when clearly spoken, but in The Good Soldier, not only is the dialogue arduously long, but the diction in everyone’s speech is awry. Words become mumbled sounds, and any importance in the dialogue is lost. What’s worse — there are several times where actors try desperately to say their lines so meticulously that delivery and acting go out the window. It completely takes you out of the movie and you wonder, “How long are they going to talk?” If there ever was a film where brevity was necessary, The Good Soldier would be a shining example.

Unfortunately, it isn’t simply diction that ruins this film. The whole script is a mess. The film never goes into a specific reason as to why there is a militia or civil unrest. There are mentions here and there in the beginning about “taking back the country”, but that’s about it. It never goes into implying why they want to take it back, or what significance it actually has for those involved. This is supposed to be the big dilemma that Sean is dealing with, but no depth is given to this conflict. Without significance, there is no driving force for the characters in the film, and without that drive, each character remains static. Sean never becomes a relatable character, and there is nothing that makes the viewer empathize with him. He simply does what he feels like, with little to no remorse, and with almost no consequences for his actions. It’s as annoying as if you asked someone why he punched you, and he answered, “Because I felt like it.”

Above all things, a movie is a visual medium. Perhaps the worst thing about this film is its visuals. Watching The Good Soldier was like watching a very amateur production. Almost the entire movie consisted of two types of shots: large, wide scenes or shaky handheld. It’s as though they were afraid to try interesting angles. Instead, when they used the wide shot, it was always 10 feet away from the actors, at eye level, and completely static. Even the whole over-the-shoulder shot that we’ve become so accustomed to seeing in movies is missing. Instead, we see two side profiles speaking for five uninterrupted minutes. The one time the filmmakers use over-the-shoulder shots in the film, they keep it static; rather than changing sides each time a person speaks in the scene, we see a woman’s face and the back of Sean’s head for five minutes. Maybe the filmmaker thought cutting scenes shorter and offering in different perspectives was too conventional. Maybe he was trying to be avant-garde. Whatever the reason, the end result was visually boring scenes.

There are many things in this film that need work: direction, editing, audio (absolutely horrible audio levels in every scene), to name a few. I tried really hard to enjoy this movie. Not just tried, but brutally exerted myself into watching every minute of this film; I wanted to find some saving grace that perhaps would come if I atched closely and patiently. Sadly, it never happened. If there is one thing this movie can offer, it is showing us how not to make a film.

How To Die In Oregon

This film does not beat around the bush. Beginning with a terminally-ill cancer patient who dies on camera, How To Die In Oregon explores the sensitive issue of physician-assisted suicide.
Directed by Peter D. Richardson – UNITED STATES

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 9:30am (B1)
Mon, Feb 21 @ 7:30 (B1)

7 Days In Slow Motion

Explore the humor and drama of growing up in middle-class Indian household, where education is valued to an extreme, but children will be children.
Directed by Umakanth Thumrugoti – INDIA

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 12:15pm (B1)
Sun, Feb 20 @ 3:45pm (B2)

Budrus

Nicholas D. Kristof described this documentary as, “This year’s must-see documentary.” Budrus captures a family man, Ayed Morrar, who was inspired to fight against the powers of injustice on the Israeli-Palestinian border.
Directed by Julia Bacha – UNITED STATES

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 2:15 (WH)

Louder Than A Bomb

For those inspired by spoken word and poetry, Louder Than A Bomb is a fascinating replay of a competition involving 600 high school students from 60 schools throughout Chicago.
Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel – UNITED STATES

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 2:30 (B1)
Mon, Feb 21 @ 5:00pm (WH)

The Four Times

Take a breather with The Four Times (Le Quattro Volte) which follows four different stories in rural Southern Italy.
Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino – ITALY

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 2:45 (B3)

My Tehran For Sale

A feature film that was filmed in secret, My Tehran For Sale boldly captures Tehran’s underground art, music, and theater scene. It is Moussavi’s astounding first feature film.
Directed by Granaz Moussavi – IRAN

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 5:15 (B3)

My Joy

Simply sold by this quote from Time Out, London: “There are hints of Tarkovsky in the poetic exploration of place and memory… the sense of a Dantean journey and a vision of utter hell are powerfully conveyed.”
Directed by Sergei Loznitsa – UKRAINE

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 6:45 (B3)
Mon, Feb 21 @ 2:00pm (CM)

Some Days Are Better Than Others

Four Portlanders with different — yet very Portland, Oregon-esque — lives spend their days trying to find meaningful human connections. The sell here is the acting debut of The Shins’ frontman James Mercer and Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein.
Directed by Matt McCormick – UNITED STATES

SHOWTIMES
Sun, Feb 20 @ 7:30pm (WH)

A Somewhat Gentle Man

Yet another black comedy from the great Scandinavian North, featuring a mix of bizarre and fascinating characters. This is either your jam, or it isn’t.
Directed by Hans Petter Moland – NORWAY

SHOWTIMES
Mon, Feb 21 @ 2:15pm (B3)
Tue, Feb 22 @ 6:00pm (B1)
Wed, Feb 23 @ 6:45pm (B2)

Eastern Plays

Eastern Europe post the fall of the Soviet Union is quite a place — full of unemployment, cynicism, and nationalism. Kalev’s feature film was this year’s Bulgarian submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Directed by Kamen Kalev – BULGARIA

SHOWTIMES
Mon, Feb 21 @ 6:45pm (B4)
Tue, Feb 22 @ 9:00pm (B3)
Wed, Feb 23 @ 9:00pm (CM)

Honey

This feature by Semih Kaplanoglu follows a child named Yusuf, who is opened up to the natural world through his father, a wild honey collector. As a Turkish film, it explores forests in a way not often seen in that part of the world.
Directed by Semih Kaplanoglu – TURKEY

SHOWTIMES
Tue, Feb 22 @ 6:15pm (B3)
Wed, Feb 23 @ 6:15pm (B3)

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow

Sophie Fiennes documents the work of Anselm Kiefer’s sculptures and installations, constructed by earth, ash, gold, acid, glass, concrete, and lead.
Directed by Sophie Fiennes – GREAT BRITAIN

SHOWTIMES
Tue, Feb 22 @ 8:15pm (WH)

Circo

Circo is a road movie and documentary about a small traveling circus in Mexico, La Gran Circo De Mexico.
Directed by Aaron Schock – MEXICO

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Feb 24 @ 3:30pm (B1)

The Woods

“This satirical attack on young, modern, globally conscious citizens tells the story of eight grown-up American children creating utopian society as best they can. With gorgeous super-16 footage and an eclectic soundtrack featuring Dirty Projectors, Sun Araw, and Lucky Dragons, filmmaker Matthew Lessner playfully subverts counter-culture films of the ’70s while questioning the shortcomings of his own complacent generation. In a world where new technologies merely distract us from reality, the greatest revolution can only begin by leaving everything behind.”—Sundance Film Festival
Directed by Matthew Lessner – UNITED STATES

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Feb 24 @ 6:30pm (C21)
Sat, Feb 26 @ 5:30pm (C21)

Nostalgia For The Light

This film captures parallels between natural surroundings, memory, and the mysterious by digging through Chilean history and events occuring in the universe.
Directed by Patricio Guzmán – CHILE

SHOWTIMES
Thu, Feb 24 @ 6:30pm (C21)
Sat, Feb 26 @ 12:45pm (WH)

Of Love And Other Demons

A Costa Rican film based off of the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, this film is this year’s Costa Rican submission for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and shows what happens when a demonically-possessed girl and a priest are forced into one another’s lives.
Directed by Hilda Hidalgo – COSTA RICA

SHOWTIMES
Fri, Feb 25 @ 9:00pm (C21)
Sat, Feb 26 @ 2:30pm (C21)

From http://orionsaint.tumblr.com/

Make no bones about it, TRON: Legacy is not a good film. It’s not even that entertaining of a movie. But it’s hard to pinpoint just exactly why there’s such disappointment with this franchise cash-in. There have been worse, less intelligent attempts at nostalgia milking. But what sets TRON: Legacy apart from the rest of the “sequels-we-never-asked-for” set? Why have our expectations fallen from such a great height?

You can point to the acting, the set-design, the anachronistic visual style, the flimsy and nonsensical plot devices (You cannot point to the score; the music is about the only thing that works). However, these things had precedent in the original, and are generally accepted and swallowed willingly by most nerd fan bases. Throw in a disc battle, a light cycle chase and a couple tanks and you should have a decent if unremarkable film.

What I believe is the biggest turn-off for those who remember the original TRON fondly is, in short, the ambition of the project. Disney and director Joseph Kosinsky made a big mistake when they tried to make the world of TRON more important than it was.

The original is a cult movie, I argue, not only for its semi-accurate visualization of the internals of a computer, but also for the weight that the entire conflict rests on. As in, there is none. The struggles between Flynn and the MCP are not to “decide the fate of the world” or to “save humanity from itself” as LEGACY attempts to realign itself. Flynn just wants to make a new video game. Dillinger just wants his new program to show at CES. What is at stake? Maybe a few stock options, some profit margins. Definitely nothing anyone in 2010 cares about, even less so in 1982.

Yes, Flynn is trapped in the machine, and this purportedly can be dangerous. But does death in the machine mean death in the real world? Who knows? Maybe if Flynn had just ridden his light cycle into the wall at the beginning of it all he would’ve been warped right out. Never once does it say that, in Flynn’s special case, de-resing == death. It’s assumed by the audience but never does the plot of the movie address it. The plot is more concerned with drinking light water and slapsticking around with guards to assert real implications on anyone’s situation.

It’s by reveling in this banality that the film resonates with nerd culture. Programmers, software architects, tech bloggers, gear-nuts: we all realize that, though we take our chosen professions with the utmost seriousness, most of it is ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of things. A new iPad model will not make or break humanity. CPU/GPU hybrids will not threaten the existence of creative thought. The pearly gates will not swing open for those who reach a new plateau in teraflops.

So when we watch TRON: Legacy, we forgive the more dull parts of the film because we understand that it’s all meaningless.  But when all the hullaballoo over the “new AI’s” and Clu’s plan to enter the real world becomes the focus, TRON’s minimalist magic trick is exposed as just another ridiculous child fantasy.

The first TRON was akin to looking at a circuit board through a microscope.

TRON: Legacy paints a dragon fighting a griffin on the lens and calls it a day.