http://www.schemamag.ca/VIFF2007/ Vancouver International Film Festival 2007 en Copyright 2007 Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:19:48 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Review by Zandro Salvo. Lust, Caution is an intricately woven exploration of lust, love, and loyalty. Ang Lee’s highly anticipated latest offering is a well crafted look into the powers of attraction. Tang Wei’s debut performance forges her atop today’s young actors as she plays Chia Chi, a young girl who sacrifices herself for her patriotic beliefs. Lee meticulously crafts the corruption of youth through pre-World War II Shanghai as we see Chia Chi transform from aspiring actress to femme fatale. The film begins as Chia Chi joins an overly patriotic school play to capture the eye of its passionate director. As she becomes captivated by his dedication to China, Chia Chi soon finds herself in the midst of an assassination attempt against a Japanese collaborator named Mr. Lee, played hauntingly by Tony Leung. While Chia Chi and her makeshift collaborator’s miss their assassination attempt, they end up murdering another traitor and we soon realize the true horrors of war as the kids must come to grips with the killing of another human being. After some years pass, Chia Chi is again recruited by her college director to again attempt the assassination of Mr Lee. However, the innocent director has now become a key member of the Chinese resistance and trains Chia Chi to become a full-fledged spy. As Chia Chi captures her enemy’s heart, we begin to realize that it is Chia Chi who has become captivated by her victim’s allure. Lee’s attention to detail in both the stunning visuals and smart dialogue allow the viewer to submerge themselves in his world of dual identities and fickle loyalties. While this film runs over two and a half hours, every scene - from explicit sexual encounter to playful mahjong game - masterfully illustrates the frailties and strength of both the femme fatale and the war conspirator. Lee has indeed upped the anti from his last Oscar offering, Brokeback Mountain. Lust, Caution Ang Lee | USA/Taiwan | 2007 | 158min Wed. Oct. 3 | 9:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre Fri. Oct. 5 | 3:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/lust_caution.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/lust_caution.html Taiwan Fri, 26 Oct 2007 22:19:48 -0800 Review by Zandro Salvo. The latest offering from director Gus Van Sant is a cinematic marvel. Based on a book by Blake Nelson, Paranoid Park captures the quintessential teenage experience. Told through the point of view of a teenager trying to fit into the Portland skate scene, the film articulates the modern socializing process as well as the paranoia that results. Van Sant weaves in and out of the main story sequence with gorgeous yet gritty slow motion skate boarding footage. These sequences look like they’re personally shot by the teenage skate culture of Paranoid Park. The non-linear story structure and melodic pace are perfectly orchestrated to capture the perspective of the story's teenage protagonist. While the main character must deal with his parents’ divorce, losing his virginity, and an unimaginable accidental murder, Van Sant masterfully brings the viewer back to the simplicity of youth and the serenity of skate boarding. It is through the protagonist's eyes that one realizes the hidden beauty ignored by adults yet adored by youth. The result is an ethereal look at teenage angst and identity formation. Quite possibly the bench mark for its genre. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant | USA | 2007 | 84min Fri. Oct. 12 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/paranoid_park.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/paranoid_park.html USA Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:30:57 -0800 Review by John Packman. Thanks to the one-two punch of gritty Big Apple melodramas King of New York and Bad Lieutenant, Abel Ferrara was briefly touted by some critics as the heir apparent to Martin Scorsese. Since then, Ferrara has mostly flown under the radar, making a series of modestly-distributed films and relocating from the U.S. to Italy in 2002. If his new film Go Go Tales is any indication of his new direction, Ferrara needs to get back to New York with all deliberate speed. The majority of the film takes place over the course of one night in a floundering gentleman's club run by Ray Ruby (Willem Dafoe), a chronic gambler with an almost idiotic surfeit of optimism. Ruby is forced to contend with flagging attendance, low revenue, increasingly impatient dancers awaiting their paycheques, and an omnipresent landlady (Sylvia Miles) who continually threatens to sell the club if things don't pick up. What follows is a Grand Guignol tour of the least credible strip joint since Exotica, with some of the most exploitative male-gaze nudity since... well, since Ferrara's other films. Astonishingly, some advance reviews of Go Go Tales have likened it to the work of Altman and Cassavetes; evidently all it takes to garner such comparisons is unintelligible dialogue and narrative incoherence, respectively. Ferrara's strength lies in coaxing theatrical and affected performances from iconoclasts like Harvey Keitel and Christopher Walken; conversely, when it comes to making chaotic ensemble comedies, he clearly has no idea what he's doing. The film is totally shapeless and toneless, careening from attempted laughs to attempted pathos with little success. The actors involved are either given nothing to do, like Bob Hoskins and Asia Argento, or so far over the top that they seem like rejected SNL characters. Matthew Modine somehow reimagines Andy Warhol as a fey hairdresser, and Dafoe, never the most natural of actors, chews the scenery like he hasn't eaten in three days; it may be his worst performance, ever. Only the shrill, foul-mouthed Miles and ex-Fugee Pras (!) as the club's put-upon chef (!!) are able to provoke anything resembling yuks. Ferrara has called this his first "intentional comedy", but I can think of two things wrong with that description. Back to the drawing board, dude. Go-Go Tales Abel Ferrara | France/Italy | 2007 | 105min Thur. Oct. 11 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Fri. Oct. 12 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/go_go_tales.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/go_go_tales.html France Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:27:25 -0800 Review by Zandro Salvo. Written and directed by legend Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull) , The Walker falls slightly short of Schrader’s legendary offerings but does capture his superior talent for dialogue and overall storytelling. The cast sparkles with Woody Harrelson playing protagonist Carter Page III with welcomed support from Lauren Bacall, Kristen Scott Thomson, and Lilly Tomlin. Harrelson simply inhabits his role as a gay escort to the wives of political powerhouses in Washington. Page begins to examine the façade of his ‘walker’ lifestyle when he gets caught up in a political scandal with one of the women he escorts. Going above and beyond his usual requisites as a companion, Page wrongfully takes the place of the guilty woman. He soon realizes that friends are few and far between in Washington and those with integrity are almost non existent. Schrader chooses the perfect setting and protagonist to deliver a scathing and overly-smart commentary on contemporary American society. Page’s charm and wit keep the movie’s political agenda below radar and sometimes all together inaccessible but, in doing so, one can’t help but feel part of the falsity of high society. Harrelson indeed proves the perfect escort - if only in the shallow waters of American politics. The Walker Paul Schrader | USA | 2007 | 107min Sun. Oct. 7 | 9:30pm | Ridge Theatre Tue. Oct. 9 | 2:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Wed. Oct. 10 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/the_walker.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/the_walker.html USA Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:21:53 -0800 Review by Zandro Salvo. Strange Culture stays true to its title as it explores the climate of fear in today’s America. Using actors, animation, stock footage, and testimonials from key figures, this film depicts the unfortunate events surrounding the death of Hope Kurtz. The wife of activist and art professor Steve Kurtz, Hope was organizing an art exhibit about genetically modified food when she died suddenly. Test tubes and petri dishes are found strewn around the couple’s apartment when medics respond to Steve’s 911 call. The medics grow suspicious and report their findings to the FBI. With scientific paraphernalia scattered around the house and a woman dead before her time, the temperature of America's political climate is taken. With paranoia and fear running rampant, suspicions are raised about Steve Kurtz’s potential involvement in bio terrorism. While Steve is likeable, his charisma alone isn't able to carry the weight of his proclaimed innocence. The filmmaker's choice to release the film while Kurtz is still awaiting the trial certainly does not help the viewer form a well informed judgment of the accused. For legal reasons, many facts are not allowed to be talked about and, more importantly, the side of the prosecution, the U.S. government, is understandably absent. This story does, however, take a clear snap shot of our time, as his story is presented in a logical manner with the actors, both as themselves and as their characters, discussing America’s political agenda. In doing so, one cannot help but side with Steve Kurtz - and with common sense. On that level, the film definitely succeeds. Strange Culture Lynn Hershman Leeson | USA | 2007 | 76min Wed. Oct. 3 | 8:45pm | Empire Granville Theatre Sat. Oct. 6 | 1:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Wed. Oct. 10 | 6:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/strange_culture.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/strange_culture.html USA Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:20:35 -0800 Review by Zandro Salvo. Going into this movie I expected the worst. I thought that the only thing that would be more tedious and self-absorbed than an opera about creating the atomic bomb would be a movie about the making of an opera about creating the atomic bomb. To my surprise, Wonders are Many is a captivating film. Director Jon Else captures the fifth collaboration between composer John Adams and artistic director Peter Sellars as they interpret J. Robert Oppenheimer’s creation of the atomic bomb. The combination of Adams’ meticulous musical arrangements and Sellars’ passionate interpretations scores the momentous discovery perfectly. The juxtaposition between science and art provides the perfect path to unravel the ethical and scientific dilemmas faced by Oppenheimer and his crew of scientists. Oppenheimer himself was an enigmatic character, with an equal passion for poetry and physics; an opera strictly dedicated to Oppenheimer the man would have sufficed. However, the grand scope of his character is well summarized in the 48 hours before the testing of the first bomb. Moreover, the concept of an opera to unravel the humanity behind the science provides the emotional context needed to understand the magnitude of Oppenheimer’s work. I must confess that I’ve never found opera to be engaging but the hardship and dedication needed to pull off the grand artistic feet provides a parallel to the labours of Oppenheimer and his crew. Like notes on a page, Oppenheimer and his scientists were forced to harmonize their efforts and every step of the way poured everything into their opus. Set against Adams’ musical arrangements and Sellars’ scientific and poetic texts, one truly gets a sense of the poetry and the power of this historical discovery. Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic Jon Else | USA | 2007 | 94min Fri. Oct. 5 | 10:30am | Empire Granville Theatre Tue. Oct. 9 | 9:30pm | Vancity Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/wonders_are_many.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/wonders_are_many.html USA Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:12:23 -0800 Review by John Packman. From Coyote Ugly to Glitter, there is no shortage of films about young, attractive women who rise above their obstacles and gritty working-class environments to realize their lifelong dream of singing shitty pop music. We can now add Tata Amaral's Antonia to that pile. This film's fresh new angle is that it is shot and set in Brazil, so at least you'll have panoramic shots of unkempt streets and rundown favelas to look at when you inevitably tire of whatever else is happening onscreen. Antonia focuses on four relatively interchangeable women who, after singing backup for a local hip-hop crew, decide to strike out on their own as a vocal group. The band's resilience is subsequently tested by almost every cliche in the rags-to-riches handbook - a skeevy 'manager', domestic strife, pregancy, infidelity, youth violence, and imprisonment. All that's missing is juvenile diabetes and oh, I don't know, a tornado. What really sinks the film is the music itself; the way these girls are repeatedly and effusively praised by their friends and mentors, you'd think they were the second coming of the Supremes, but the quality of their actual performances leans way closer to a bachelorette party singing En Vogue's "Free Your Mind" at a Langley karaoke bar. The disconnect between what the onscreen audience hears and what we hear borders on laughable. I'm pretty sure the dialogue is atrocious as well, but the subtitles are so poorly translated that I can't be sure; inscrutable lines such as "you think you a hot stuff" appear so frequently that I briefly thought I had wandered into a Jackie Chan retrospective by mistake. I'm beginning to sound like Andy Rooney, but I really can't think of anything good to say about this movie. At least Spice World had Richard E. Grant. Antonia Tata Amaral | Brazil | 2006 | 90min Sat. Oct. 6 | 9:30pm | Ridge Theatre Tue. Oct. 9 | 1:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre Thur. Oct. 11 | 7:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre Fri. Oct. 12 | 10:45am | Vancity Theatre ]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/antonia.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/antonia.html Brazil Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:24:20 -0800 Review by John Packman. Diao Yinan's film Night Train belongs to that blackest strain of comedy, the kind which coaxes its laughs from situations so painful that laughter is almost a defensive response. The film concerns an ennui-stricken woman (Liu Dan) employed by a particularly grim division of the Chinese government and a man (Qi Dao) who is ostracized by nearly everyone for reasons both circumstantial and personal. The two misfits act out their frustrations through a number of arbitrary sexual dalliances before another cruel twist of fate brings them together. What results is a strained simulacrum of a relationship that is shot through with an odd mixture of antipathy and desparate need. As the film piles on layers of exposition and character development, its tone slowly veers from darkly comic to darkly... dark, and begins to take a hard look at the myriad forms of isolation experienced by its protagonists, whether figurative or literal. The acting is capable across the board, but the real star of Night Train is its fluid and vibrant cinematography, which slowly and deliberately pulls away from the nightclubs and apartments of provincial China to reveal an incredibly stark post-industrial landscape that resembles nothing so much as a sci-fi dystopia as imagined by Edward Burtynsky. This backdrop handily serves to reinforce the general malaise on display and underscore the yawning distance between two lonely people trying to connect. Depressing, sure, but who cares when it looks this cool? Night Train Diao Yi'nan | China | 2007 | 91min Mon. Oct. 8 | 9:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre Wed. Oct. 10 | 12:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/night_train.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/night_train.html China Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:58:17 -0800 Review by John Packman. Exactly how severely can you torture someone and still get away with not calling it torture? That's the question looming over Alex Gibney's (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) impressive documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, an investigation of the questionable-at-best methods used by the U.S. to extract information from alleged prisoners of the 'War on Terror'. Gibney has amassed an intimidating amount of data on the interrogation techniques used by officers of such notorious prisons as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Additionally, Gibney is given a surprising amount of access to the offending officers themselves, who are astonishingly candid about their complicity in the deaths of prisoners. The resulting picture is not a pretty one: America arrests 'suspected' terrorists who are more often than not turned over by third parties for a bounty, tortures these suspects routinely, and holds them indefinitely without trial. This clear violation of Geneva Conventions and the's country's own Constitution is exacerbated by the cover that the nebulously-defined term 'national security' provides: essentially, knowing the truth about the government's conduct damages their ability to govern. This laughable irony is reinforced pretty much every time Donald Rumsfeld appears onscreen in file footage, which is to say 'a lot'. Gibney is remarkably even-handed compared to most political documentarians these days, focusing on redacted documents and undisputed statistics rather than anecdotal evidence and rhetoric to make his case. The film occasionally retreads its own ground - it could have been at least fifteen minutes shorter - and relies on distracting interstitials and spooky music, but stylistic quibbles are relatively unimportant when a documentary asks this many pertinent questions and asks them well. Taxi to the Dark Side Alex Gibney | USA | 2007 | 105min Thur. Oct. 4 | 12:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Tue. Oct. 9 | 7:00pm | Ridge Theatre Wed. Oct. 10 | 3:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/taxi_to_the_dark_side.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/taxi_to_the_dark_side.html USA Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:56:17 -0800 Review by John Packman. Few musicians in recent history have been as influential, or as reclusive, as ex-Walker Brother and current avant-garde composer Scott Walker. Stephen Kijak's documentary Scott Walker: 30 Century Man traces the trajectory of Walker's career from teen idol to refined torch balladeer to dissatisfied cover artist to dauntingly introspective experimentalist. Kijak is granted more access to Walker than anyone probably has been in 20 years, and the singer is refreshingly verbose regarding his aesthetic and professional choices, especially for someone who has demurred the spotlight for so long. There are a lot of blanks in Walker's story that he seems uninterested in filling in, so Kijak turns to the musicians who claim him as an influence - including David Bowie and Damon Albarn - and has them tell their own Walker stories. Admittedly, all this can get a bit mundane, as when we are treated to the audiovisual spectacle of watching other people listen to Walker's records and scratch their muso chins accordingly, or when Walker's music simply plays over trippy-screensaver renditions of his cover art. What redeems this deficit in structure is the music itself, which is astonishing: Walker possesses a booming, unearthly tenor, and his compositions, whether Jacques Brel-inspired ballads or the dissonant operatics of his later work, are appropriately cinematic. Here is the rare film that is just as vivid if you watch it with your eyes closed. The man himself comes across as humble and thoughtful, one of the few avant-garde artists eloquent enough to provide insight on his work to the uninformed. Notes for a sequel: More Walker, less of everything else. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man Stephen Kijak | UK | 2006 | 95min Sun. Sept. 30 | 6:20pm | Empire Granville Theatre Tue. Oct. 2 | 11:30am | Empire Granville Theatre Thur. Oct. 11 | 4:15pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/scott_walker_30_century_man.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/scott_walker_30_century_man.html UK Sat, 13 Oct 2007 20:23:18 -0800 Review by John Packman. Romanian cinema seems to be undergoing a renaissance of sorts, what with the critical success of films like The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 12:08 East of Bucharest. Cristian Mungiu's film 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is no exception, having met near-universal accolades and recently winning the prestigious Palme D'Or at Cannes. I'm happy to report that the hype is entirely deserved. 4 Months is an extraordinarily bleak portrait of the tail end of the Caecescu era in Romania that focuses on a young woman's attempt to procure a dangerous - and illegal - abortion. The world of this young woman, Gabita (Laura Vasiliu), and her roommate Otilia (Anamaria Marinca), is at once disorientingly foreign and strangely familiar; nearly every transaction is done on the black market, and the weight of Communism still hangs over the lives of all present, but the two women are so like you or me that their wrong turns are rendered all the more painful. Mungiu's direction and writing is nearly flawless; every exchange and every action is suffused with subtext while never seeming didactic or unnatural, and he maintains a singular focus on Otilia, the film's true protagonist. Marinca deserves an equal amount of credit for essentially carrying the film; she is rarely (if ever) offscreen, and she plays Otilia as such a willfully, intrinsically good force that our sympathies are easily maintained despite the character's cold edge. It's one of the best performances of the year, somehow giving us a fully-rounded, recognizable human being without once slipping into affectation or histrionics. So much ink has been spilled over 4 Months that I'm not sure I have anything original to add, but I can say that this is an honest and quietly devastating film that made me feel like I had been shaken roughly by the shoulders for two hours, and that's not something I can say very often. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days Cristian Mungiu | Romania | 2007 | 113min Sun. Sept. 30 | 10:00am | Empire Granville Theatre Mon. Oct. 8 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre Thur. Oct. 11 | 4:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/4_months_3_weeks_2_days.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/4_months_3_weeks_2_days.html Romania Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:09:08 -0800 Review by Kiefer Doerksen. The title of Brett Harvey’s documentary The Union refers to BC's underground marijuana economy, made infinitely more profitable by its prohibition. The film explains why keeping pot illegal is mostly about economic and public relations benefits to both the government and various industries. Growers are often actually in favour of the prohibition, since it makes their business much more profitable. Hemp was once widely used for superior clothing and paper production. In fact, the American Declaration of Independence was written on hemp parchment. Harvey begins the film with a discussion of pot stereotypes and the actual health risks involved with using it. He finds no links to cancer, brain cell deterioration or record of any death directly related to marijuana use while legally available tobacco products cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. The film also offers eye-opening look into a grow op which utilizes ten train cars and diesel fuel to house its plants. One criticism of the film is that no one on the pro-prohibition side is interviewed or given voice to provide a counterpoint to the filmmaker’s opinion. Credible sources appear throughout - including university scholars, political scientists, historians, as well as people within the marijuana legalization movement. Even former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell provides insight into why the drug should be legal. Tommy Chong and Fear Factor host Joe Rogan provide humorous comments on the ironic nature of the pot debate, as does Harvey's use of old anti-weed propaganda films throughout. The Union is an entertaining film, not just for marijuana enthusiasts but for anyone interested in the tangled web of business in politics. The Union: The Business Behind Getting High Brett Harvey | Canada | 2007 | 105min Wed. Oct. 10 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Thur. Oct. 11 | 3:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/the_union_the_business_behind.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/the_union_the_business_behind.html Canada Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:19:08 -0800 Review by Kiefer Doerksen. Salud! draws comparisons between Cuba's free universal health care system and the privatized health care prevalent in both developing and developed nations. It criticizes the exporting of educated doctors from countries such as South Africa where their services are needed locally. Cuban doctors are portrayed as great humanitarians, traveling around the world to where they are needed to help set up clinics, hospitals and medical schools at low pay and in harsh conditions. They are taught to be at the service of the community, sometimes before looking after their families. Special programs are in place to make sure that impoverished people from areas less desirable to other doctors are trained and sent back to their hometowns to look after health care locally. Overall director Connie Field tends to paint Cuba in an overly-rosey manner with no mention of the political situation and little reference to the poverty experienced by most Cubans. While the Cuban health care system is shown as a gold standard for medical systems there is no exploration into why so much of the rest of the world works on a different system. Salud! is an enjoyable and informative film but it would have benefited from a little more balance. Salud! Connie Field | USA | 2006 | 90min Wed. Oct. 10 | 7:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre Fri. Oct. 12 | 1:15pm | Vancity Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/salud.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/salud.html USA Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:17:19 -0800 Review by John Packman. Vancouver has served as on-screen body double for so many American cities that it's a breath of fresh air when it actually plays itself as it does in Ernie Barbarash's scare flick They Wait. What's more, Barbarash and writer Trevor Markwart don't just let Lotusland sit there and look pretty, but attempt to integrate the city's complex racial history into what is an otherwise standard post-Ring ghost story. Sarah (a surprisingly capable Jaime King) returns home to Vancouver from her adopted home of Shanghai with her husband Jason (Terry Chen) and young son Sammy (Regan Oey) in tow. They stay with Jason's aunt at one of the Chinese benevolent societies that populates the Downtown East Side. What follows is a pretty standard variation on the "Ghosts That Only You Can See Are Pissed Off And You Have To Make Them Happy Again" horror template, so in vogue since the success of The Sixth Sense. The film is at its most intriguing when alluding to Vancouver's immigrant history, suggesting that exploited Chinese workers in the '40s were essentially living their own kind of horror story. When Barbarash's attention shifts from exploring this subtext to provoking cheap scares, the film suffers; too often They Wait relies on frantic cross-cutting and extremely loud foley work for quick jolts rather than sustaining genuine suspense. Barbarash shows promise as a horror director, though; several hallucinatory sequences are chillingly effective, and it's sort of a kick to see the figurative demons of the East Side transformed into real ones. If you watch this, look for a brief supporting turn by Terminator star Michael Biehn, who is apparently still alive. They Wait Ernie Barbarash | Canada | 2007 | 95min Sun. Oct. 7 | 9:30pm | Empire Granville Theatre Wed. Oct. 10 | 3:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/they_wait.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/they_wait.html Canada Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:31:36 -0800 Review by Cameron Maitland. Sonja Heiss’ first feature film Hotel Very Welcome is an interesting hybrid of comedy and drama. It follows four stories of European travellers in Asia—specifically India and Thailand—exploring their choices and misadventures. The film starts off deceptively simply as a satire of European travellers in Asia. One woman can’t speak or understand any language and is relegated to a hotel room while another “finds herself” at a resort populated almost entirely by other Europeans. Each story makes light of the clichés involved in travelling in the East, specifically the kinds of spiritual awakenings people seem to seek there. While many chuckles are to be had at the expense of these travellers' self-centred and sometime racist ignorance of the world around them, the film manages to surprise, expanding its scope beyond that idea. Each of the comedic stories slowly unfolds to reveal real and emotional reasons these characters have become walking clichés and explores the many motivations one can have to just get away. In the end the characters become much more than people we laugh at but also people we cringe with and care for. The film does feel a bit like on vacation itself - it goes on a bit too long, is a bit awkward and, once it's over, you are definitely ready to go home. Still, Heiss deserves praise for this piece for making a simple premise bloom into both a functioning comedy and dramatic social commentary. Hotel Very Welcome Sonja Heiss | Germany | 2007 | 90min Sun. Oct. 7 | 9:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre Mon. Oct. 8 | 2:00pm | Empire Granville Theatre Fri. Oct. 12 | 11:30am | Empire Granville Theatre]]> http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/hotel_very_welcome.html http://www.schemamag.ca/viff2007/2007/10/hotel_very_welcome.html Germany Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:57:45 -0800