THE BEST OF 2012: #16-20

#20 Sleepwalk with Me (dir. Mike Birbiglia & Seth Barrish):

Mike Birbiglia tells the film-going public the same long, rambling anecdote that he shared with the This American Life cult back in 2008 and, surprisingly, it doesn't feel like an old story.  With the help of This American Life guru Ira Glass and co-director Seth Barrish, Birbiglia's given birth to 2012's best substitution for a decent Woody Allen film.  Oh, and nobody seems to be mentioning Lauren Ambrose when writing about this movie, so let me correct that by ending this sentence with the following statement: she's very good in it.

Sleepwalk with Me is available on DVD & Blu-ray and can be streamed via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.


#19 Compliance (dir. Craig Zobel):

Did I already say that Snowtown was the most disturbing film I saw in 2012 in that last chunk of my best of 2012 list?  Okay, it was, but, if that's the case, Craig Zobel's (The Great World of Sound) Compliance makes it in as a close second place holder.  Zobel's characters display actions that are so questionable that there were multiple times during the film that I completely lost track of the idea that the film is based on true events.  No, I did not feel good about myself or humanity after watching this film, but I couldn't shake it from memory, either.

Read my review of Compliance here. 

Compliance is scheduled for release on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday, January 8th.


#18 The Miners' Hymns (dir. Bill Morrison):

Bill Morrison's work can be located at the intersection of the experimental and the just plain cool.  General audiences probably aren't ready for anything he's produced, but, keep in mind, such viewers are to blame for the sequels to National Treasure and Night at the Museum (yeah, you buy into that crap, and someone's always going to line up to shovel more down your throat).  Having said that, this is probably his most accessible film to date; it's the one you could watch with your dad.  With The Miners' Hymns, Morrison weaves imagery drawn from history into a mesmerizing gaze back at a time and place that's nearly unrecognizable from the present.

Read my review of The Miners' Hymns here. 

The Miners' Hymns is available on DVD and can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video.


#17 Beauty is Embarrassing (dir. Neil Berkeley):

Wayne White calls 'em like he sees 'em and, in Neil Berkeley's documentary Beauty is Embarrassing, the puppeteer turned multidisciplinary artist doesn't hold back at all, especially when it comes to talking about his experiences in Hollywood.  White is funny, unpredictable, and, best of all, completely committed to the act of creation and telling others that they can to do the same.  I probably saw 10 times as many documentaries as I did features in 2012; Beauty is Embarrassing was the one that made me feel the most inspired.

Read my review of Beauty is Embarrassing here.

Beauty is Embarrassing will be released on DVD on January 22nd and currently can be streamed via Amazon Instant Video.


#16 Buoy (dir. Steve Doughton):

Buoy takes an action that would, at the most, fill a couple of minutes in any other movie and stretches it out to feature length.  Outside of its first 10 minutes, the entire film is centered around a woman (Tina Holmes) talking to her brother (Matthew Del Negro, who never appears on camera) on the phone.  In the hands of writer/director Steve Doughton, it's compelling, emotional, and, above all, compulsively watchable.  Who knew that eavesdropping on the conversations of others could be so cathartic?  Buoy proves that, in the right hands, less can definitely be more.  Seeing is believing and I'd highly recommend seeking this one out when it becomes more widely available.

Buoy is currently unavailable on home video, though plans are being made for an eventual release.  For now, you can check out the film's website.

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NW FILMMAKERS' FEST PLACES THE FOCUS ON REGIONAL MAKERS

As the 39th Northwest Filmmakers' Festival gets underway this evening at the NW Film Center, it's worth noting the marked difference between it and the MANY film fests hosted within the city limits each year (seriously, Portland, do ya like film much?).  Whereas POWFest, PIFF, QDoc, and all the other acronym heavy festivals populate their schedules with submissions around the globe, the NW Filmmakers' Fest places the emphasis on the makers, themes, and film community that's risen out of the NW region.

Call it a flavor, if you will, but one can't help but detect something different percolating below the surface of films made here in the Northwest.  Maybe it comes from being surrounded by more trees than buildings or perhaps it's the rain (or the coffee), but the political, social, and narrative concerns broached by so many of our region's filmmakers tend to shy away from the formulaic patterns thrown down by the big H-Wood (that's Hollywood, for those weary of made up slang).

Chel White's Bird of Flames

Given the small amount of time that I have to blog today, I'm just going to cut straight to the chase here.  I've only been able to view a small slice of the films screening at the fest, so there's bound to be gads of fine films programmed into the schedule that have yet to pass before my eyes.  With that in mind, I can definitely recommend a large handful of titles to catch over the next week and a half.

Lewis Bennett's The Sandwich Nazi

Let's start with the shorts:

Tonight's Shorts I presentation, which repeats again next Friday, contains several must-see short form works, including Lewis Bennett's The Sandwich Nazi, a beautiful and profane portrait of a deli shop proprietor with an endless series of outrageous stories to tell.  It's definitely not for the kiddies (unless your kids love hearing about some aging dude's sex life), but adults will be cackling throughout.  I'm also fond of Orland Nutt's bizarrely engaging Dear Peter, Wood Chips, an open letter to a friend that has the effect of transforming the mundane into something far more epic.  Nathaniel Akin's animated short A Tax on Bunny Rabbits, winner of the judge's award for best animated work at the fest, bounces around the screen for two minutes in a most pleasing and silly way.  I haven't seen Joanna Priestley's Dear Pluto yet, but I have viewed enough of her past work to know to seek out anything she makes.

Nathaniel Akin's A Tax on Bunny Rabbits

The compilation of works that make up the Shorts II program (scheduled for Sat. the 10th & Thurs. the 15th) includes the stunningly surreal Chrysta Bell music video Bird of Flames, directed by Chel White, likely the best (and weirdest) short at the fest that I've seen; of course, one would absolutely expect strange imagery matched to a song produced by and featuring David Lynch.  Also worth getting excited about: Kimberly Warner's CPR, which I raved about when it played POWFest earlier in the year, and Bahar Noorizadeh's Lingo.

Kimberly Warner's CPR

Shorts III has Tess Martin's beautifully animated piece The Whale Story, based on the Radiolab segment "Animal Minds."  I also really enjoyed Melissa Gregory Rue's Century Farm, Jarratt Taylor's The New Debutantes, and Rob Tyler's The Way We Melt (full disclosure: I'm friends with those last three filmmakers, but, y'know, if I didn't like the work, I would just neglect to mention it).  Shorts III plays on Sun. the 11th and Sat. the 17th.

Rob Tyler's The Way We Melt

As for the feature-length films on the schedule, the easy picks are Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister and James Westby's Rid of Me, both of which received high profile releases and favorable press.  Just as worthy of recognition is Tom Olsen's The Crime of the D'autremont Brothers, a non-fiction piece exploring the forgotten history of a 1923 train robbery in Ashland, Oregon.  Matt McCormick's The Great Northwest returns to the Film Center for the fest (see my earlier review for it here).  And Jon Garcia's much talked about locally-produced film The Falls gets another local go-round.  I'm personally hoping to see Steve Doughton's Buoy over the next few days (it plays at the fest on Sat. the 17th), so keep an eye on the blog, since I expect to review it before the screening.

Tom Olsen's The Crime of the D'autremont Brothers

Anyone in the mood for some trailers?
Here, now, are the coming attractions (some of which I didn't mention, chiefly because I haven't seen the films):

Coast Modern Trailer from Coast Modern on Vimeo.

The Crime of The d'Autremont Brothers from Anchor Pictures on Vimeo.

The 39th Northwest Filmmakers' Festival begins on Friday, November 9th.  The festival website can be accessed here.

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