Sarah's SIFF 2011 Picks

It's easy to forget how overwhelming SIFF is. But with 441 films from 74 countries, it's easy to fall into a black hole of trailers, directors and descriptions, spending hours and hours poring through that year's lineup--in some cases, even more time then you will actually spend attending the festival. We hope that these picks will help as you wade through this year's cavalcade of solid choices.

The Future:

Despite The Future's frustrating lack of trailer, preview clips or anything for me to just grasp onto besides pure description, I have to recommend this as it's a Miranda July project (if you for some reason haven't been nerding out on her for years, you might at least remember Me and You and Everyone We Know).
The basic premise is this: a couple, upon rescuing an injured cat and hit hard by the responsibility of it all, decide to take 30 days while it's still in medical care to follow their dreams. The film is narrated by said cat. This is an obvious choice.



Trollhunter:

This is going to be a huge breakthrough. It's available on On Demand, but really, you're going to want to be able to tell your buddies over beers when they bring it up in six months: oh yeah, that? I saw that at SIFF.
Through a faux-reality, Blair Witch style lens, we watch a few Norwegian film students, in an attempt to document bear-poaching, try to survive when they are suddenly caught in a forest occupied by three story tall, bloodthirsty trolls. Trollhunter promises big laffs and incomparable camp.



3 (Drei):

The latest from acclaimed German director Tom Tykwer, Drei follows a love triangle between an artistic, barren couple and the man they're both having an affair with. The plot may seem surface-level, but Tykwer is supposed to be applying the same whimsical intensity that he did with Run Lola Run, and use split-screen and animated sequences to help tell the story. Bottom line: this could be boring like Heaven or amazing like Princess and the Warrior; my guess is it'll be the latter.



Bruce Lee, My Brother:

The story of the Northwest's own Kung Fu legend before he came to the Northwest, Bruce Lee, My Brother is produced by Bruce Lee's own little brother, Robert Lee.



Who Took the Bomp? Le Tigre On Tour:

The director of Strange Powers: Stephin Merrit and the Magnetic Fields takes you on Le Tigre's last tour, on stage and backstage, plus interviews, while band continues to be general badasses/confront sexism and homophobia/et cetera.



Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure:

The Shut Up Little Man! series has weaseled its way into our cultural lexicon since it first emerged as a series of cassette tapes in 1988, the product of “Eddie Lee Sausage” and “Mitchell D.” recording the sad, loud, aging alcoholics that shared a paper-thin wall with them in their bright pink, Lower Haight apartment building. Their neighbors, both drunk most of the time, one gay, one a homophobe, both died in the 90s, but they're more famous now then they'll ever know, infiltrating our media from Devo to This American Life to Spongebob Squarepants, spawning fan videos and stage productions--and now, a documentary. Thanks, guys! If you'd like to sample their glorious soundbites before viewing, you may do so here.



Simple Simon:

It's true; I may have just told someone that I am over romantic comedies. But Simple Simon looks great. Simon is 18 and has Asperger's Syndrome, and is watched after by his older brother Sam. When Sam breaks up with his girlfriend, he's devastated, and Simon, whose condition is severe enough to not fully understand Sam's feelings, sets out to find him a new one using formulas and patterns, occasionally having bad run-ins with well-intentioned would-be girlfriends (from the looks of things, one of them ends up getting pushed a lot).



The Last Circus:

As a general rule, if you give a film a Spanish Civil War setting, I'm hooked. Add a fucked-up carny and some good, old fashioned comic violence, and you have a masterpiece. This is the kind of thing that we keep trying to pull off in our horror films here but just end up with a bunch of Juggalos instead--Spain does it right.



Poupoupidou (Nobody Else but You):

Compared to both David Lynch and the Coen Brothers, Poupoupidou (Nobody Else but You) is a French thriller about detective writer David Rousseau's infatuation with a dead blonde spokesmodel whose life loosely parallels Marilyn Monroe's--and was convinced that she was Monroe in a past life. Originally ruled a suicide, Rousseau becomes convinced that her death was not an accident, and while investigating, he descends into an obsession and begins to blur the line between fiction and fact.

Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque):

The seemingly omnipresent devil puppet gives me hope for Gainsbourg being strange and haunting instead of a run-of-the-mill biopic. Directed by Joann Sfar based on his graphic novel, adding to the film's eeriness is how Jane Birkin is now outliving the woman who played her; British actress Lucy Gordon committed suicide while the film was in post-production. Regardless, this promises to be a festival favorite.



How to Die in Oregon:

A peek into the lives of those considering doctor-assisted suicide under Oregon's Death with Dignity law, How to Die in Oregon follows 54-year-old Cody Curtis, who is fighting liver cancer, and her loved ones as she navigates the safeguards around the law and the difficult decision she has to make once the pills are on her nightstand. Since Washington passed a similar law in 2008, around 200 of our residents have applied for the same life-ending medication as this process becomes a part of our Northwest cultural narrative.



Honorable Mention:

• The First Grader, shot on-location in Kenya, is a drama surrounding 84-year-old Kikuyu tribesman Maruge as he tries to enter first grade under a law passed in 2002 that guarantees free education for everyone.


• Tilt, a Bulgarian romantic comedy where all my future boyfriends dream of turning their skateboard clubhouse into a pinball arcade.


• Beginners is a semi-autobiographical double-journey of self discovery from the director of Thumbsucker, airing as part of SIFF's Ewan McGregor tribute. 30-something Oliver, played by McGregor, reflects on his father coming out of the closet at age 75 as he embarks on a new relationship.


• Blinding, a film about seeing and not seeing.


• Hayfever, a charming Italian ensemble piece about 20-somethings who dig music and hang out at a vintage store. Jude Law replaces Rex Manning, only a real person and not actually appearing in the film, Devandra Banhart replaces the Gin Blossoms. (Trailer)


• Fuck My Life is familiar to many: Javier just lost his job, and keeps getting reminded of his ex-girlfriend, a successful musician, by the Internet. Highly stylized, and actually directed by someone in his 20's that presumably has had to deal with breaking up with someone who is all over the Internet, Fuck My Life is apparently already pretty popular in Chile, and features some cool beep-boops on the soundtrack.


• The Whisper In Darkness, based on the HP Lovecraft tale, from the same dudes who brought you the recent silent version of Call of Cthulhu.


• Outrage is the new Takeshi Kitano film! There are a lot of guns and people say things like "bring them money and his finger to apologize," so this should be pretty fun. (Trailer)


• Toast is based on the memoir of British chef and food writer Nigel Slater, and features a 60's-evil-stepmother Helena Bonham Carter, who will probably be my fashion inspiration for the rest of the summer. The screenplay was written by the guy who brought you Billy Elliot, so if precocious British children are your bag, this movie probably will be, too.


• The Night of Counting the Years: a classic, restored Egyptian film that looks hauntingly beautiful. (Clip)


• Natural Selection was shot in the Northwest, and premiered at SXSW this year. An endearingly square, Christian housewife has to track down her drug-addled stepson who she has never met when her husband has a stroke. (Clip)

Honorable Mention, Total Downer Division:
Sometimes, you just need a depressing film.

• Dance Town sounds cheery--but it's about a woman, forced to flee from North Korea to South Korea alone after her husband is arrested, adjusting to her new lifestyle with misery and seclusion.


• Donor follows desperate Lizette, who, after being given a monetary offer she can't refuse, goes to great length to donate a kidney, including marrying the recipient. Meanwhile, things are going horribly in every other aspect of her life, including having the least useful boyfriend throughout her whole ordeal.


• Amador features a similarly desperate woman, also with a horrible, deadbeat boyfriend, who has recently realized she's pregnant. When the man she is the caregiver for dies suddenly, she is suddenly faced with unemployment--if anyone finds out that he's dead.


• Qarantina: A struggling Iraqi family plays host to a hitman against a war-torn backdrop.

Honorable Mention, Not Actually Recommending This Division:

• John Carpenter's The Ward actually looks like it's going to be really, really awful. But I did feel compelled to throw this on the list so we can talk about how John Carpenter putting his name on something doesn't mean what it used to. This total cop-out looking horror film, from what I can tell, is about a mental institution for hot chicks, and one particular hot chick gets the Cuckoo's Nest treatment. If you want torture porn, you can probably get something a lot better without leaving your house. Just sayin'. (Trailer)