SLIFF
Other happenings | Nov. 16, 2009
Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival
Nov. 12-22 at various theaters across the city, including the Tivoli, the Hi-Pointe and the St. Louis Art Museum. The 18th annual festival features movies from all over the globe and of all levels of notoriety; films range from up-and-coming relative no-names to ones starring Robert Di Niro and Drew [...]
King of the Hill
With its bleak context, “King of the Hill” is more mature than most movies that star child actors; but once the film gets going, you’ll realize that it’s more mature than most movies, period. What’s most impressive is that the movie doesn’t use the conventional expressions of depression to convey how sad the situation is. Instead, [...]
Wendy and Lucy
“Wendy and Lucy” is a small film focused completely on a few days in the life of Wendy (Michelle Williams), a young woman driving to Alaska from Indiana to find work, accompa-nied only by her dog, Lucy. Wendy is just a few hundred dollars short of complete destitution; she lives out of her car and [...]
Shadowland
I, for one, have appreciated the supernatural eruption that we have seen in the entertainment industry lately, especially pertaining to vampires. Yet “Shadowland,” writ-ten and directed by Wyatt Weed, does not stand up to the standards set by its peers.
The filming was excellent. I liked the idea of a vampire waking up 100 or so [...]
Blind Mountain
“Blind Mountain” is the story of Bai Xuemei (Huang Lu), a college-educated girl in early-1990s China, who is tricked into traveling into the countryside, drugged and then sold to be the wife of a villager. When she wakes up, she
finds herself taken hostage by a family in the village, as the wife of their son.
The [...]
Amal
Director Richie Mehta’s film “Amal” nails teaching its viewers the lesson with which it begins: “The poorest of men can be the richest.” It is a hard lesson to learn, indeed, but Mehta makes sure you take it home with you.
“Amal” is a poor rickshaw driver in India who one day drives a cranky old [...]
Half Life
“Half-Life” is one of those rare movies where it doesn’t matter how busy you are or what you were thinking about before you started watching it. When the credits start rolling, you just sit there, immobilized, listening to the music in stunned silence. It could quite easily win an Oscar, and I can’t think of [...]
“A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy”
“A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy” is a cavalry of vignettes about black relationships that range from poetic to sexaholic. The variety could have made the feature frenetic, but it’s put together extremely well. You’ll
never ask for anything more or less from every vignette; each one gets in, does its business and then [...]
St. Louis International Film Festival
Thursday, November 13 to Sunday, November 23
You’ve always wanted to go to a film festival, but it’s far too expensive to fly to Cannes, and you’re not really feeling the whole Utah in January scene. Well, my friend, you are in luck! Thursday begins the 17th annual Saint Louis International Film Festival. SLIFF, as it [...]
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