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MIFF - Day 04 

Film Screened: Rick
Time: 3:00pm
Type: Feature
Genre: Drama
See it for: Absolutely no likeable protagonists anywhere
Avoid it if: You like your characters simple and likable and your endings happy
Celebrity Sighting: Cute usher girl (okay she’s not a celebrity but she made me look twice!)
Rating: 3/4

I’m currently updating this site from the university because I have to wait around for all the digitalising to take place. Gathering all your childhood VHS videos and short films and dumping them onto several miniDV tapes means hours of waiting. There must be a good five hours of content I’ve got to shrink down to a digestible hour and a half of viewing pleasure for the DVD. Any filmmaker will tell you there’s only so much music and editing can do to make pretty average visuals come alive. Had the reverse situation occurred and I had golden footage, then some editing and music would definitely make it Cannes material ;) But my main focus will the design and development of the DVD itself so the content isn\rquote t my top priority.

Well, onto day four of the festival. Today’s session started out with a smile and a rather amazing one at that. As I was ushered into the sparse cinema, I noticed an extremely attractive and beautiful MIFF employee directing people to their seats. What made me look twice was the fact that she didn’t give off those fake smiles that so many people in those positions usually communicate or as I like to call it the ‘flight attendant smile’. She had one of those rare genuine ones that make everybody stand up and take notice. Granted I should have just asked her out there and then but unfortunately I think Mr Boyfriend was also on the same shift, watching over her. And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t just the only one taken back from her smile because most of the guys of similar age in the same row were also turning their heads continuously back to her. She had that alternate edge without the pretentiousness. That’s rare and so fingers crossed I see her again :)

Speaking of the same row, I had one of those people sit next to me who huffed and puffed their way through the entire film because they found some of the content and characters unlikeable. This frustrated me because why go see the film in the first place if you can\rquote t handle some of the subject matter? And if you find it too offensive, then just leave! And then I had another person to my right who was coughing for about ten minutes. I offered them some of my water but they refused it. And then ten minutes later the coughing started again! Grrrrrrrrr!

Anyway, onto the film. Having just seen two great pieces of cinema, I expected things to slow down somewhat on my fourth day. And slow down they did. The film I saw Rick was appropriately screened on a weekday and at the perfect time of 3pm. It moved at a leisurely pace yet it was interesting and strange enough to hold my attention for most of its running time. The film centres around the character of Rick (Bill Pullman in possibly his strangest and most comical performance to date), who works for a company called Image. Image is run by Duke (Aaron Standford) who is half Rick\rquote s age and goes by the nickname of Big Boss. When Rick humiliates a potential employee on two separate occasions, she puts a curse on him and strange things start to happen. Rick, who was once a good man, has lost the righteousness of life ever since his wife died and now must care for his teenage daughter Eve (Agnes Bruckner) and get his life back on track. I can’t really say much more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil too much in case it finds a general theatrical or DVD release.

Rick is a bizarre film since none of the characters are amiable, except maybe Eve (and Agnes Bruckner is definitely the next Scarlett Johanson) and weird things happen out of the blue. It’s not quite set in the alternative universe of say a David Lynch film, but it’s still intriguing. I suspect Lynch fans will get more out of this film than others however whereas there is an arguable sense of lightness in his films, director Curtiss Clayton (who was an editor on several of Gus Van Sant’s films before making this feature-film debut) provides a pretty bleak outlook. The three main actors \endash Pullman, Standford and Bruckner all deliver great performances and carry the film over the rather pedestrian screenplay. A good, if not great feature-debut from Clayton that probably won’t stick with you long after the credits role but an entertaining enough diversion from the Hollywood formula.

Tomorrow\rquote s Screening:

Seeing the Brazilian psychological thriller about a Manga artist Nina.