With just a few more days left of this years film festival the general sense Im getting is that its been nice and enjoyable and whatnot, but not a vintage year. A similar sense seems to have come from reports from this years Cannes festival, indicating perhaps the problem is with the movies being made as much as the festival choices. Of course, one person can only see one movie at a time, and I have certainly not seen everything. Amongst the movies Ive missed are Soulboy, still sitting atop the audience award poll, and the German movie Henry of Navarre, which Ive just heard good things about. It could be argued that I missed The Secret In Their Eyes as well, given my inconsistent state of consciousness. Sunday offers the Best of the Fest where at the risk of sounding like I work for their promotional department they offer very reasonably tickets for some of the highlights of this years programme. I am shunning my duty to catch up on things, however, in favour of taking friends and family to The Illusionist and Toy Story 3, my own personal best of the fest. Toy Story 3 tickets were just £6, about 50% cheaper than it will cost to see it in 3D when it comes out in the UK proper. I am reminded incidentally that I didnt mention the 3D in Toy Story after I saw it, and the fact that very few people seem to be discussing it at length pretty much sums it up: it is unnecessary and doesnt add a thing, but in this case it also doesnt take anything away. Close one eye during it to see the 2D image, and you may think, as I invariably do, that it looks better. I would happily go and see it in 2D, and will see it in that format at home (I cant wait to have a boxset of all 3). The fact is the movie is great, and 3D doesnt make any difference to that fact.
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Today I started off with Get Low, about which I knew little other than Bill Murray makes an appearance, which is all I needed to know. It is a very slight achievement: an amusing, sweet little movie that may be quite popular on DVD rather than in the cinemas. It is certainly nothing dazzling, and it never quite takes off like you hope it will, but its sense of time and place and its performances bring it up a notch. It stars Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek, three, if I may be so bold, legendary actors. Duvall plays Felix Bush, a churlish old hermit who scares the local kids and inspires suspicious stares on his rare visits into town (the movie is set, I guess, in the early 20th century). He is like a cross between Shrek and that old guy from Home Alone. One day he comes into town to announce that he would like to have his own funeral rather early (i.e. before his death). Bill Murray, as the local funeral director, sees an opportunity and jumps on it; Spacek plays an old friend or possibly flame of Felix. It is the second feature as director from Aaron Schneider, who has worked mostly as a cinematographer, a fact that does not surprise me as the movie is handsomely shot. Weve seen stories like this before, and there are no real surprises here. But amongst the grimness of many of the festivals offerings, I found its relative lightness a welcome change.
Less light, although more interesting, is Restrepo, a powerfully matter-of-fact documentary following an American platoon for a year in Afghanistan. We see the soldiers relaxing, planning and, occasionally, fighting. They are in a particularly hazardous valley prone to surprise attacks from hidden enemies. In one particularly intense sequence the camera follows them on a mission that could have been handled better and that leads to injuries and a death. We alternate between these captured sequences and talking head interviews recorded afterwards. The subjects speak candidly and honestly, and we hear of both the exhilaration and horror involved. One soldier describes being shot at as a high that he will never reach again. Another admits he still doesnt know how to deal with what he has done and witnessed. The movie doesnt feel pro- or anti-war; we also see the Americans attempts at engaging in dialogue with the locals, sometimes with positive results and sometimes not, as when they blame the Americans for eating one of their cows. Of course we bring our external knowledge and opinions to such a work; when a soldier is frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the locals, it seemed naive to me to expect anything else. In another sequence we see the results of some bad decisions on their part that lead to villagers being attacked and killed for no good reason. Among the awards at the EIFF is the Feature Documentary award, which I strongly suspect may go to Restrepo. Talking of the awards I am looking at all the contenders for the Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film (to give it its full title) and I have to say none of the contenders I have seen has been particularly exciting. Judging from its popularity Soulboy may take it. I am reminded of a story John Hurt told when I saw him do a Q&A a few years back at this very festival. He said he was once on a festival jury, and half the jury really liked one movie, and half really liked another, and both halves did not like the other halfs choice. So they compromised by choosing a movie none of them particularly liked. John Hurt was, incidentally, head of the Edinburgh jury that year.