For Your Consideration: The Last Weekend of SIFF
The end is near. Come Sunday night, this year's SIFF will come to a close. There are still plenty of great films showing, so if you haven't hit the fest yet, you've still got time to catch a flick or two before the movie fun is done. Saturday's closing night film selection is Bottle Shock, based on the true story of how the Napa Valley wine industry made a name for themselves: by beating out the French in a blinded Chardonnay tasting. The film (with Bill Pullman and Freddy Rodriguez in attendance) shows at the Cinerama, and the post-film gala takes place at the Pan Pacific Hotel. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend:
· Some Assembly Required Like Spellbound or Mad Hot Ballroom before it, this doc's good for the kids and their parents too. At the annual National Toy Challenge, middle school students attempt to create the next hot toy or game. The film follows several of the teams in competition as they design, build, and test their creations while vying for the big awards. (tonight, 4pm @ SIFF Cinema; Sunday, 11am @ SIFF Cinema)
· American Son In this realistic, straight-shooting drama, a Marine heads home for one last Thanksgiving before being sent to Iraq. (tonight, 4pm @ the Uptown)
· The Wackness This coming-of-age (circa mid-90s, Giuliani-era NYC) dramedy was a big hit at Sundance this year. All you need to know: starring Sir Ben Kingsley as a pothead shrink! (tonight, 6:30pm @ the Egyptian; Sunday, 6pm @ Cinerama)
· The Album Leaf Performs Sunrise Sub Pop band The Album Leaf performs their original live score for F.W. Murnau's silent classic, in which a wanton harlot from the big city seduces a podunk farmer, thereby bringing wreck and ruin to the picturesque countryside. (tonight, 7pm and 9:30pm @ the Triple Door)
· The 27 Club This drama plays off the idea that the good (Jimi, Kurt, Janis, Jeff Buckley) always die so young. (tonight, 9:30pm @ SIFF Cinema; tomorrow, 11am @ the Harvard Exit)
· Trouble the Water One of the few films at the fest that is an unqualified must-see, Trouble the Water is an unflinching look at Katrina using first-hand video from a Lower Ninth Ward resident who stayed in her home during the flood. The film incorporates her stunning footage while also following her, her husband, and their friends as they wade through the post-diluvian physical and bureaucratic mess. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll rage at our government's incompetence. (tonight, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian)
The rest of the weekend after the jump.
· Mysteries of Pittsburgh Peter Sarsgaard, Sienna Miller, and Mena Suvari star in director Rawson Thurber's (Dodgeball) adaptation of Michael Chabon's novel about the end of adolescence. (tonight, 9:30pm @ the Egyptian; Sunday, 2pm @ the Uptown)
· Jolene Newbie Jessica Chastain steals the show in SIFF founder-cum-filmmaker Dan Ireland's tale of a young woman's cross-country journey "as she navigates her fate through opportunity and adversity over the course of an extraordinary ten-year period in her life." (tonight, 9:30pm @ Cinerama; tomorrow, 2:30pm @ Cinerama)
· Chrysalis The French take on Blade Runner and Clockwork Orange in this stylistic sci-fi midnight movie. (tonight, 11:55pm @ the Egyptian; tomorrow, 10pm @ Cinerama)
· Summer Heat Nothing says SIFF like an erotic Dutch thriller. The directorial debut of Monique van de Ven (of Paul Verhoeven's Turkish Delight). (tomorrow, 1:30pm @ the Egyptian)
· Lakshmi and Me is an Indian documentary exploring the relationship between Mumbai-based filmmaker Nishtha Jain and Lakshmi, her lower-caste, part-time maid. (tomorrow, 4pm @ Harvard Exit; Sunday, 11am @ Harvard Exit)
· Frozen River The big winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this drama is a stark look at two women in desperate need of money who turn to smuggling immigrants across the U.S.-Canadian border. (tomorrow, 4:30pm @ the Uptown)
· Towelhead We saw this flick at Toronto last year, back when it was called Nothing is Private. Given the title change, we're not sure how much the current film resembles what we saw nine months ago. But if it's the same thing, expect major issues with topic and tone (i.e., the film is darker than the waaaacky dark comedy portrayed by the trailer). It's skippable. (tomorrow 6:30pm @ the Egyptian; Sunday, 1:30pm @ the Egyptian)
