Friended to Death

CINEQUEST 2014: festival recap

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IDA
IDA

A deep selection of comedies, international cinema and spotlight films combined for a very strong program at Cinequest 2014. My pick for the festival’s best film is the Polish drama Ida. Although not all of the films engaged me, the only bad movie this year was the incoherent Chinese thriller Parallel Maze.

COMEDIES

This year, Cinequest programmed 22 comedy features (which seems like an unusually high number), and that paid off with some of the festival’s most popular films. I thought the funniest was the dark, dark Hungarian comedy Heavenly Shift about a rogue ambulance crew. Probably two of the top four most popular movies at Cinequest (along with Ida and the Canadian weeper Down River) were the opening night’s The Grand Seduction and the Israeli caper comedy Hunting Elephants. The American indie satire Friended to Death (which had its world premiere at Cinequest) also broke through – and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it soon in theatrical release.

INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

As I said, my pick for best film at Cinequest was Ida, about a Polish novice nun in 1962 who, just before she takes her vows, learns that she is the child of Jewish Holocaust victims. Also remarkable for its authentic and textured characters was the Slovenian classroom drama Class Enemy. And, of course, Heavenly Shift from Hungary and Hunting Elephants from Israel were festival highlights.

Once again, it’s just impossible to give too much credit to Cinequest’s international programmer Charlie Cockey. Unfortunately, just before the fest, Charlie developed a cough that kept him home in Brno, Czech Republic, so we missed him here in San Jose. Before the fest, I profiled Charlie with Cinequest’s Charlie Cockey: The Man Who Goes to Film Festivals.

SPOTLIGHT FILMS

Cinequest’s program of spotlight films are the bigger movies that are screened just once, usually at the California Theatre. In the past these have included some celebrity-driven events that have been the weakest links in the fest (only Grand Piano fit this profile in 2014).  But, over all, in the 2014 Cinequest, the spotlight films sparkled, especially: The Grand Seduction, Mystery Road, Words and Pictures, Teenage, Unforgiven and Dom Hemingway.  Cinequest also gets a lot of cred for having LA Times critic Kenneth Turan introduce last year’s Bay Area masterpiece Fruitvale Station.  In 2014’s Cinequest, you could do well just by showing up to the California Theatre every night at 7 PM.

For my comments on over 20 of this year’s Cinequest movies, see my CINEQUEST 2014 page.

photo courtesy of The Wife
photo courtesy of The Wife

Cinequest: best bets for the final weekend

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CLASS ENEMY
CLASS ENEMY

FRIDAY

  • Friended to Death: this sharply funny indie satirizes our obsession with social media. TMI becomes LOL.
  • Heavenly Shift: the hilariously dark (very dark) Hungarian comedy about a rogue ambulance crew with a financial incentive to deliver its patients dead on arrival.

SATURDAY

  • One of Cinequest’s most thought-provoking films, the Slovenian classroom drama Class Enemy.
  • The British crime lark Dom Hemingway with Jude Law – a probable crowd pleaser.

SUNDAY

  • The Encore Day selections have yet to be announced (except for The Farmer and the Chef and Slingshot), but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of Cinequest’s biggest hits so far, the Israeli caper comedy Hunting Elephants, gets another screening.

Cinequest at festival midpoint

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photo courtesy of The Wife
photo courtesy of The Wife

The 2014 edition of Cinequest has emphasized comedy, and that has paid off with some of the festival’s biggest hits:

  • The Grand Seduction: Cinequest’s opening night film was this uproarious Canadian knee-slapper – a Waking Ned Devine with random acts of cricket.
  • Friended to Death: this sharply funny idie satirizes our obsession with social media. TMI becomes LOL.
  • Heavenly Shift: the hilariously dark (very dark) Hungarian comedy about a rogue ambulance crew with a financial incentive to deliver its patients dead on arrival.
  • Hunting Elephants: an Israeli caper comedy with Patrick Stewart (as you’ve never seen him).

The other most popular Cinequest hits have been the exquisite Polish drama Ida and the Canadian weeper Down River.  I also particularly like the Slovenian class room drama Class Enemy.

Most of these films are still scheduled to play in the last half of the festival.  Subject to Cinequest’s exhibition rights, I’m guessing that the most likely candidates for Cinequest’s Encore Day on Sunday, March 16 are Ida, Friended to Death, Down River, Hunting Elephants and Class Enemy.

Cinequest: Friended to Death

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FRIENDED TO DEATH
FRIENDED TO DEATH

What kind of douchebag would fake his own death to see who shows up to his funeral?  Indeed, in the comedy Friended to Death, there’s a reason why everyone calls Michael Harris a douchebag.  He is a colossal jerk who revels in the misfortunes of others.  In his job as a parking enforcement officer, he’s a gleeful Johnny Appleseed of misery.  Worse yet, he is a social media addict who narcissistically insists on constantly blasting his escapades on Facebook and Twitter.  He’s oblivious that his own social media proves himself to be the asshole everybody says that he is.

You know that Michael is ripe for a comeuppance, and he gets a dose of his own medicine when one of his premature vehicle tows unleashes an unhinged enemy for life.  There are plenty of madcap moments as Michael (Ryan Hansen from TV’s Friends with Benefits) and his reluctant co-conspirator Emile (James Immekus) frantically try to conceal their hoax.

Friended to Death writer-director Sarah Smick and co-writer Ian Michaels archly comment on the “social” in social media.   Their Michael Harris says “I have 417 friends – you don’t expect me to know ALL of them!” and “I speak in text”.  Really smart comedy writing is pretty rare, and Smick and Michaels have the gift.  Michaels got the idea after reading about a guy who faked his own death and wrote scathing rebukes to those who missed his faux memorial.  By dropping that kernel into our current environment of over-sharing, Smick and Michaels were able to alchemize it into a biting social satire.

Smick and Michaels are longtime collaborators who married last October.  In 2011, Smick and Michaels brought their equally funny Here’s the Kicker to Cinequest; (Michaels directed that one).   Here’s the Kicker is available streaming on YouTube and is also is out on DVD.

In Friended to Death, Smick and Michaels play characters trying to expose the fraud.  They are very good in their roles, as is veteran Robert R. Shafer (Bob Vance in The Office) as that boss who just can’t restrain himself from yelling.

In Friended to Death, TMI becomes LOL.  Pointedly smart and well-crafted dark comedies don’t come along every day.  Don’t miss Friended to Death, playing again at Cinequest tonight and on Friday.