Guard Dog

Cinequest: GUARD DOG

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GUARD DOG
GUARD DOG

The dark and violent Peruvian Guard Dog is set in 2001, five years after a controversial amnesty for the government-sponsored death squads active in the previous decades.  Our protagonist is the vestige of those death squads, an ascetic hit man who still performs some residual executions.  He is a Man On A Mission, and one serious dude.  After his opening hit, he takes out the photo of his victim and burns out the image’s eyes with his cigarette.

Guard Dog is ultimately more of a mood piece than a thriller.  The theme of personal corruption keeps re-emerging, with a grossly rotting apartment ceiling and even a moment of pus-draining.  The most interesting aspect of the story is our anti-hero’s encounters with an unjaded young girl who is, in contrast to him, bubbling and full of life.

I saw Guard Dog’s US Premiere at Cinequest, and it plays the fest again March 4 at the California Theatre and March 6 at Camera 12.

Cinequest Picks for Friday, February 27

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LOS HAMSTERS
LOS HAMSTERS

Here are my picks for Friday at Cinequest, starting with three of my favorites:

  • THE CENTER: An absorbing and topical American indie drama about the seductiveness of a cult. WORLD PREMIERE.
  • LOS HAMSTERS: A biting darkly hilarious Mexican social satire.  NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE.
  • ASPIE SEEKS LOVE: A surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a guy looking for love like anyone else, but whose social skills are handicapped by Asberger’s.  WORLD PREMIERE.

I also like SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM (a character-driven take on the sports movie takes us into a Nerd Olympics) and the innovative and good-hearted Hungarian comedy FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON and I’ve heard great things about these following films:

  • GUARD DOG: dark and violent Peruvian thriller. US PREMIERE.
  • MILWAUKEE: US indie sex and relationship comedy. WORLD PREMIERE.

See you around the fest!

Cinequest 2015 – festival preview

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CinequestIt’s time to dive into the 2015 version of the San Jose film festival Cinequest running from tomorrow through March 8.  This year’s program looks GREAT.  You can find my festival coverage, including both features and movie recommendations, on my Cinequest page (which you may wish to bookmark).  Follow me on Twitter for the very latest.

Here are my 18 best bets at Cinequest 2015:

  • WILD TALES: the darkly comic Argentine collection of revenge stories. Wild Tales has been a festival hit (Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and Sundance) around the world and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  One of its vignettes features one of my favorite screen actors, Ricardo Darin (the Argentine Joe Mantegna).  See it at Cinequest before it gets to Bay Area art houses on March 6.  Ann Thompson (Thompson on Film) will be receiving a Media Legacy Award at the screening.
  • CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA:   The ever-radiant Juliette Binoche plays an actress now relegated to the older role in her breakthrough play, with her younger role going to Kristen Stewart (All About Eve, anyone?).  And Stewart just became the first American actress to win a César (the French Oscar) for  this performance.
  • ’71:  Everybody says that this thriller about a British soldier trapped overnight in a hostile Northern Ireland neighborhood during the Troubles is pedal-to-the-metal intensity.
  • SLOW WEST:  This offbeat Western with Michael Fassbender won a prize at Sundance.
  • QUEEN AND COUNTRY:  Director John Boorman’s Korean War-Era quasi-sequel to his Hope and Glory.  Boorman (Deliverance) will appear at the screening.  Silicon Valley release on March 6.
  • L’ATALANTE: The 1934 masterpiece of French writer-director Jean Vigo, who died at age 29 soon after its completion.  Richard von Busack, the highly respected film critic for Metro, will receive a Media Legacy Award at the screening.

Here are my pre-festival picks from among the films that I’ve seen:

DRAMA:

  • ANTOINE ET MARIE: A brilliantly constructed French-Canadian drama with two unforgettable characters.
  • THE CENTER: An absorbing and topical American indie drama about the seductiveness of a cult.

COMEDY:

  • LOS HAMSTERS: A biting darkly hilarious Mexican social satire.
  • DIRTY BEAUTIFUL: An American indie comedy that is decidedly NOT a by-the-numbers battle of the sexes.

DOCUMENTARY:

  • ASPIE SEEKS LOVE: A surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a guy looking for love like anyone else, but whose social skills are handicapped by Asberger’s.
  • MEET THE HITLERS: Tracking down real people burdened with the Fuhrer’s name, this successful doc weaves together both light-hearted and very dark story threads.
  • SWEDEN’S COOLEST NATIONAL TEAM: A character-driven take on the sports movie takes us into a Nerd Olympics.

I’ve also gotten tips from insiders about some other very promising films (that I haven’t seen yet):

  • CORN ISLAND: Reportedly transcendent Georgian drama.
  • FOR SOME INEXPLICABLE REASON: Hungarian comedy.
  • GUARD DOG: dark and violent Peruvian thriller. US premiere.
  • MILWAUKEE: US indie sex and relationship comedy. World premiere.
  • THREE WINDOWS AND A HANGING:  Searing Kosovan drama.

Take a look at the program and the passes and tickets. (If you want to support Silicon Valley’s most important cinema event while skipping the lines, the $100 donation for Express Line Access is an awesome deal.) You can download the Festival Guide from this page.