Film

I have nothing against Cappadonna. I respect his skills as an emcee and consider him a real part of the Wu-Tang Clan. Even though Wikipedia calls him a quasi-member. Even though he was in prison when they signed. Even though he doesn’t really contribute anything unique to the crew. He’s a good guy and I wish him well. His lines on Cuban Linx I and II are hot; I would miss them if they were cut. Cappadonna can rap, and he should rap, and he should be a part of Wu-Tang. All this is clear to me.

But seriously, packaging a Cappadonna documentary as the Wu-Tang Saga and saying it stars all the main members of the clan is downright dishonest. This 2010 documentary by Jeremy Mack touts itself as the “real story” behind the most infamous group of MC’s in hip-hop history, but ends up being 131 minutes of Cappa telling us how things really are. And that means we get to look through Cappa’s old photo books (“Here’s me and Slick Rick. Here’s me and GZA smokin’ weed. Here’s me in France.” Etc.), see him host rap battles, see him tour on his own, see him molest groupies, get his picture taken, and so on and so on. Coming out of watching this documentary, I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the Staten Island emcee.

What I don’t know after watching this documentary is anything about RZA or GZA or ODB or Masta Killa or even say U-God. None of them talk to the camera in this film. Except for Raekwon for like 3 minutes. I think he asked “What’s this camera for” or something. But no one says anything important about the clan, RZA’s five year plan, how they were inspired by kung-fu pulp lore, how infighting almost tore them apart, or any of the stuff that real Wu-Tang fans would want to hear. Instead we get to hear about how Islam is really important to Cappadonna. Great.

I was really excited about half an hour in when True Master started to talk. I really like the work he’s done for the various solo projects of the clan, particularly his work on GZA’s Pro Tools. Of course, he talked mostly about Cappadonna’s The Pillage. But at least it wasn’t Cappadonna talking about the album. Anything but that. Of course, he eventually goes away and then it’s back to 24/7 Cappadonna. Getting his picture taken. Being on stage with the rest of the Clan. Going overboard on a couple of verses. Busting out a very capable freestyle. Talking about how freestyle is different from rapping, because “you don’t got time to think.” And so on.

Again, all respect to Cappa, but is he anyone’s favorite member? Isn’t that like picking Marlon Jackson from the Jackson Five (or even worse, Randy Jackson)? Or saying that the Neutrinos were your favorite Ninja Turtle? Even Papa Wu thinks he’s the black sheep of the crew. That’s a quote of his, straight from the footage. If the film itself thinks that the main star of the film is the Black Sheep of Wu-Tang, then the film probably isn’t about the Wu-Tang Clan. A film about the Wu-Tang clan needs to be about RZA, GZA, ODB, Ghostface, Method, Raekwon, U-God, etc. None of them are featured, nothing is said about their lives, and even the live footage shorts them on appearances. Every shot is cut and framed so that Cappa is the center of attention. The songs are cut so that Cappa has verses or participates in the call and response. It’s the ultimate bait-and-switch.

But I think the worst thing about this documentary is that it really has no path, no narrative. Nor does it attempt to have one. I would’ve been simply irritated had the film been a feature length documentary about Cappadonna’s struggle. I mean, he purportedly gave away his possessions and roamed the streets before writing an album! Why doesn’t that get any sort of focus? But rather than attempt to be a substantial document on an accomplished and perfectly able MC with ties to the greatest hip-hop group still around, the film is simply a oddball collection of Cappa’s personal video diaries interspersed with words from the man himself which grow increasingly banal as the documentary trudges on. “Rappin’… is like… yappin. Heh.” Really? Thanks Cappa.

Anyways, if you want to watch Cappa get high and talk about stuff you can watch this movie. If you wanted anything, ANYTHING. else, well, better luck next time.

After four years and 20,000 guests served, filmmaker George Motz and the team behind the NYC Food Film Festival are pleased to announce the first annual Chicago Food Film Festival, taking place September 24-25 at the MCA Warehouse. Packed with mouth-watering documentaries, features, short films and food, the festival brings you the opportunity to taste what you see on screen for a multi-sensory, full-bodied experience.

Kicking off with Edible Adventure #002 on September 24th, each film is paired with a tasting of its subject matter. Nuggets of fried cheese curds, corn dogs, and other fair foods are served with the film Eat Your Fill, directed by Mark Irving, where a man eats every menu item that is fried and/or on a stick at the Wisconsin State Fair, to special ice creams paired with trippy The Death & Life of Ice Cream, directed by Orrin Zucker. Look out for other delectable matches of films and food involving oysters and exotic sodas like Fanny Bay oysters served during the screening of Craig Noble’s The Perfect Oyster and exotic sodas paired with the award-winning Soda Pop.

Closing night, September 25th, takes you on the Chicago Burger ‘N Beer Experience, curated by Chicago’s own Chef Michael Kornick. While feasting on burgers supplied by Kornick’s DMK Burger Bar and drinking independent beers from Chicago and beyond, festival-goers can feast their eyes on films such as Beer Wars, directed by Anat Baron, and The Best of Hamburger America, directed by Festival Director George Motz.

The festival sprang from the imagination of George, after the critical success of Hamburger America film and book, along with co-creator Harry Hawk, formerly of Schnack and Water Taxi Beach. ??In 2009, acclaimed director Ron Mann called the festival “his absolute favorite” after his film Know Your Mushrooms was screened and followed by a 10-course mushroom-inspired tasting menu from Next Iron Chef star Brad Farmerie of Public and Double Crown. Other past events have included a screening of Whole Hog by Joe York, during which over 1000 people feasted on whole hog barbeque. Following a screening of the food film classic Big Night, the audience enjoyed a re-creation of the famous Timpano featured in the film. And at the World Premiere of Florent: Queen of the Meat Market for one night only the audience was treated to memorable menu items from the shuttered iconic restaurant.

For those who act quickly, the Festival is offering a limited number of discounted VIP Passes and Pre-Sale Tickets to most events beginning this evening, Thursday, August 19th at 5 PM CST. Visit www.chicagofoodfilmfestival.com to order online.

Sally Tomato’s rock opera, Toy Room, arrived with a cover that boasted of four acts and ten accumulated laurels from the 2009 festival circuit. I pretty much always watch rock operas with hesitation, for their qualities are largely determined by the quality of their music. Toy Room was met with similar levels of hesitation.

The music of Toy Room is mostly competent, falling under all genres, from synthpop and alternative to hard rock and new age. There’s even an electronic track replete with Autotune! Not all of it is top-notch, but there are a couple songs that stand out; the rest are generic songwriting central, but they seem to fit pretty well with this film. Take that as you will.

What did seem like it took intensive time and energy was the editing. Toy Room was originally a stage-performed rock opera, the film swaps between scenes filmed from live performances to clips of weird karaoke-cheesy shots. The transition scenes are heavily edited, with fade-ins and montages galore. Whoever edited this film decided to pull out all the stops, and stylistically, it seem like every basic post-production trick was included… in an early ’90s sort of way.

Toy Room tells the story of a young lady who grows up lonely, finds refuge in her fantasy world, becomes involved in a shoddy marriage, and then finds freedom in rock concerts and coincidental self-enlightenment. Like the editing, the storyline goes all over the place and was certainly aiming kind of high when it was crafted. Nonetheless, some of the songs and lyrics are downright dumb; one childhood flashback recalling Sally’s purchase of a doll features a boring alternative rock song with horrendously mundane lyrics: “Don’t worry about the price/ Just pick one that’s nice.” And to describe the doll: “She has big eyes and a frozen tear/ There is no crying here.” Remedial English lyrics, galore.

It is the moments when the play/film/music turns slightly darker that the music is actually tolerable. That makes the accompanying visuals in those scenes also somewhat tolerable.

Musically, stylistically, and visually, this film is all over the place… and I have a hard time determining who on Earth the target market could possibly be. No matter, though. I can’t say I would really recommend this film to anybody, despite the hours and hours, I’m sure, that were put into it. To the filmmakers’ credit, though, everyone certainly went all out. Balls to the wall, if you will. I suppose if it were the actual performance and not a hodge-podge of a DVD, things would fare slightly better.

Mogwai’s claim for being the “loudest live band on the planet” gets thrown around quite often — and why shouldn’t it? If your band is reliant on distortion, just crank those knobs and make some eardrums bleed. That is, at least, the mentality for a lot of bands. And while the Scottish post-rock tour de force Mogwai don’t quite fit into that mentality, they are one of the loudest live bands you’ll ever see — a fact that is no doubt agreed upon by everyone who has witnessed the sonic force.

Burning was recorded over three shows Mogwai played in April of 2009 in Brooklyn, New York City. The subsequent black and white film by Le Blogotheque directors Vincent Moon and Nathanael Le Scouarnec attempts the largely impossible task of capturing the ferocity and the serenity of Mogwai on stage. By far and large, the filmmakers succeed.

The film opens with “The Precipice”, one of the heavier jams Mogwai are known to break into, and it is clear from this song how the film will unravel — with lots of long takes, lots of close-ups on guitar-playing hands, and lots of contrast. This third aspect is really the key to the film, though. Moon and Le Scouarnec juxtapose a soothing black against a very hard and light white, and it is perfectly fitting to what the band projects through their sound. Mogwai, after all, virtually wrote the book on how to go from nothing to everything in a heartbeat.

The filming on songs like “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” is much more subdued while still maintaining the style of long shots and close-ups. But the pacing of the shots are longer and lack jerky motions – the style fitting Mogwai’s gentler moments. When the song picks up, however, the intensity of the camera’s shots and movements do as well. When Mogwai get roaring musically, jerky movements render the film nearly unwatchable; during similar moments in a live setting, the band’s is nearly
unlistenable due to sheer noise volume. Once again, Moon and Le Scouarnec do a great job of mirroring the band.

The key with Burning is that it is for Mogwai fans only. The film is not a good introduction to the band, because no matter how hard they try, Moon and Le Scouarnec have an impossible task of capturing one of the most dramatic live bands around. At only around eight songs, the film is a bit short, but the filmmakers’ simple and artistic approach lends itself fantastically to Burning.

It’s Grits is a charming B&W documentary by director Stan Woodward, filmed mostly through interviews with Southerners, done on what was probably a minuscule budget. Even though the movie was celebrating its 32nd anniversary this year, it still feels fresh because this documentary style is all the more common now in films. With the thesis that, “Everyone from all walks of life in the South eats grits,” Woodward creates his delicious palate and draws the viewer into the delicate story line. After countless confirmations of his thesis in South Carolina, he takes us up north to New York, New York, where, at an ethnic food fair (which looks like it is on the Brooklyn waterfront close to where the movie screening took place), he asks people if they like grits. Most people don’t know what it is, but don’t seem to care; one guy offers him falafel instead, convinced it’s the better choice.

The majority of the movie is filled with humorous, endearing encounters and images. There is even a “Grits cheer” at a football game in South Carolina, and an interview with a man who eats his grits with a dollop of peanut butter. But the undertone is that the agriculture and industry based around corn in the South is faltering, and it needs revitalization. There are a lot of images or corn mills and machinery alongside interviews with the mill owners and corn growers, and they seem all the more depressing in black and white. This was 30 years ago, and a lot has changed since then, but the North/South divide still exists in spirit.

If we can ever reach an accord regarding this deep divide, grits might be the answer. Following the movie, we took part in a Grits “takedown” in which 30 local chefs prepared their own take on grits, and we viewers/participants got to sample each one and vote on our favorite. It was a wonderful experience and a well-run event, and most (if not all of us Northerners) left happy and full of grits.

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And so another year’s Seattle International Film Festival comes to a close. You might be saying “Hey! You only watched like eight movies? What kind of publication is this?!” Tut tut, readers.  We here at Redefine watched a boat load of movies! We just couldn’t find the time/space/wherewithal to write about every single one.

But because we love you guys, and to prove to my editor that I really did watch all those movies I said I watched, here’s 29 mini-reviews of all the films I saw that I didn’t get a chance to write about.

Air Doll – Japan
Korean actress Bae Do Na (The Host) stars as a sex doll given a soul. “Nozomi” partakes of all the wonders of human life: some sunshine, a part time job, some casual sex, and murder. But does she deserve this gift? It’s like Pinocchio, if Geppetto gave him a rubber vagina.

Amer – Belgium
Giallo is more than just the color red and extreme close ups of sweaty women. There’s supposed to be a little bit of pulp in there too! All style no substance. Second portion is exceptionally long and drawn out.

Beyond Ipanema – Brazil
Brazillian music is cool. A bunch of Americans think that. Brazillians are surprised that Americans think that. A musical movement is born! Too bad it’s already over.

Cargo – Switzerland
What do you get when you cross Sunshine and The Matrix? An irredeemable, Hindenburg-esque atrocity of a movie. When it starts you ask “where is this going?” When it ends, you answer “absolutely nowhere.” Shitty European CG doesn’t help either.

Castaway on the Moon – Korea
Korea’s take on Castaway. Worthless man is trapped on an island in the middle of Seoul. Internet-living woman sees him out of her window.  Woman wants a human connection, man just want Black Bean Noodles. Duck boat suffers.

The Concert – Russia
Charming, slightly cloying movie about an over-the-hill orchestra. Also, Jews being Jews. Take your parents, they’ll think you’re the best. The woman from Inglorious Basterds is gorgeous.

Crossing Hennessy – Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s take on When Harry met Sally. Asians feel love too! Especially over dimsum. Director Ivy Ho has a way with dialogue, but when the dialogue disappears, the movie plods.

Dear Lemon Lima – USA
Charming, adorable, cute, funny and earnest. Like all the non-sci fi parts of Donnie Darko. Even half-eskimo, suburban girls just wanna have fun! Fun movie for all ages.

Disco and the Atomic War – Estonia
Low, low, low budget documentary on propaganda experiments during the Cold War. More interesting than it sounds! Estonia is used as a media lab rat by the USSR due to its proximity to Norwegian radio waves. Communists want to see what all the fuss about, Estonians ask, “Who Shot JR?”

Hipsters – Russia
It’s hard out here for a teenager in Communist Russia. Glee meets Glasnost as young good-fer-nothing Russians trade their bootstraps for wingtips, wear Technicolor clothes. I personally liked the uptight Katya more than either of the leads.

Holy Rollers – USA
It’s hard out here for a young Hasidic ecstasy dealer. Jesse Eisenberg is probably a better actor than Michael Cera. The dude from the Hangover plays the best orthodox douchebag. Based on a true story.

Howl – USA
Pros: James Franco plays Allen Ginsberg. Cons: Like watching a Wikipedia article about Howl. Useless and disappointing if you’ve read the work. Who’s bright idea was it to animate Howl? Animation looks like a Fantasia fan-project loaded with cocks.

I Killed My Mother – Canada
It’s hard out there for a French-Canadian gay teenager. Pretty good movie for a 21 year old. Moms are the worst! Aren’t they? Main protagonist still comes off as a bit entitled and bratty.

K-20: The Fiend with 20 Faces – Japan
Batman Begins with a lower budget and a mounted camera. Kids in movies are still annoying. When did Steam Punk = Nikolai Tesla fan-fiction? There’s probably going to be a sequel.

Kanikosen – Japan
What the hell is this movie about? Proletariat prisoners on a crab canning prison ship invent unions, have dreams about tossing a beach ball. Chinese caricature on a Russian crabbing ship imparts valuable wisdom. I can’t tell if it’s interesting or not.

Like You Know It All – Korea
Talky movie about a young, shitty director and the shitty things he does. There isn’t a single likable person in this movie. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Also, film directors are all fucked up people.

Night Catches Us – USA
Philly in the ’70s never looked so cool. Good performances by all the leads, excellent costuming. Even better music. It’s hard out here for a young black man in a post-Panthers world (no joke).

The Oath – USA
Excellent documentary about reformed Jihadists. Abu Jandal might be the greatest motivational speaker of our time. He’s so good even I considered Jihad for a second.

The Penitent Man – USA
Fuck this movie. This is the movie the douchebag in your quantum physics class tries to make. Blah blah blah blah blah wormhole blah blah blah blah die. This is the worst movie Lance Henriksen has ever been in.

Plug and Pray – Germany
Could God build a robot so smart even God couldn’t beat it? Could man? SHOULD man? Also, the Japanese are still creepy.

Protektor – Czech Republic
Czech radio ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. Leading lady Jana Plodkova has gorgeous eyes, Protektor has gorgeous art direction. But ultimately, if you’ve seen one Nazis vs Films period piece you’ve seen them all.

Queen of the Sun – USA
Bees are really important. Bees are really in danger. Beekeepers are 95% crazy people. This documentary makes it’s point about half way through, and then goes off the deep end of bee admiration. Credits song is ridiculous, on par with the Monster Squad closing theme.

Rapt – France
French Asshole rich guy is kidnapped, no one cares. Criminals, frustrated that no one cares, release him sans a finger. Asshole levels up in assholery. Too Haneke or not too Haneke?

RoboGeisha – Japan
Unlike it’s nihilistic, unfeeling brethren (Tokyo Gore Police, Meatball Machine), RoboGeisha offers a little bit of heart and soul with its pop-culture detonation and gory slapstick. Exactly like aforementioned brethren, the movie lags a bit in the middle during the exposition. Bad guys: “It hurts when you cut me!”

The Sentimental Engine Slayer – USA
Mars Volta guy makes Mars Volta-esque movie about El Paso teen life. Masochistic to make, masochistic to watch. Joyless. It’s hard out here for a sociopathic, hooker choking, tranny fucking teen.

Skeletons – United Kingdom
Finally, a sci-fi movie that actually kind of works! Two dudes go around cleaning out people’s closets (read: secrets). Probably more enjoyable then that DiCaprio “I’m in ur dreams solving ur crimes” movie. Maybe it’s because everything sounds wittier with a British accent.

Some Days Are Better Than Others – USA
It’s hard out here for a twenty-something in Portland. James Mercer does a decent job, especially with the atrocious dialogue he’s given. Me and You and Everyone who watched this movie should demand their two hours back.

Vengeance – Hong Kong
Vengeance is not blind; it just has a memory problem. Old hitman seeking revenge for his daughter’s assault hires cool looking hitmen to kill cool looking hitmen. But sometimes even he can’t tell Asians apart! Lol! Nice to watch Johnnie To movie that isn’t about Triad politics.

William S Burroughs: A Man Within – USA
Burroughs is insane, we all know that. But did you know that he was like the King Midas of Insane? Everything he touches goes nutso. Even Peter Weller is batshit crazy now.

Whew! Glad that’s out of the way. See you next year, SIFF.