Anita Rowland's 1998 SIFF  Reviews

Anita Rowland is a Microsoft contractor, filmgoer and online journal keeper. She writes daily reviews of every SIFF movie she sees, for that matter she reviews her real life too.

Here is a complete index to Anita's movie reviews: http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/siff1998.html

 

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052298.html

Doing Time for patsy cline

shooting fish

The last days of disco

I loved the last days of Disco!

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052398.html

Kiki's Delivery Service

Rashomon

Mr Jealousy

The Opposite of Sex

Both Mr Jealousy and the Opposite of Sex were great fun! Kiki was better than I expected, too!

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052498.html

Secret Festival

Who the Hell is Juliette?

Nosferatu

Amor Vertical

Amor vertical has some funny moments, but goes on too long.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052598.html

Voyage to the Beginning of the World

Reno Finds her Mom

Memories

Buffalo '66

I really enjoyed Buffalo '66! Vincent Gallo writes, acts, directs, and Christina Ricci is also good.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052698.html

God Said, "Ha!"

Girl With Hyacinths

See the Sea

I loved God Said Ha, and it wins the prize for most punctuation within a title. I disliked See the Sea, esp. the ending, and the mother was quite unbelievable to me.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052798.html

Dear Jesse

War Zone

Love Tangles

War Zone was very interesting! what a brave film maker (the war is the war between the sexes, not bosnia). Love tangles is a light french sex comedy.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052898.html

Dirty: This canadian movie plays once more at the festival: Saturday may 30, 6:30 pm, Broadway performance hall.

I really liked this! it was developed in Mike Leigh style, a script written after the actors improvised and rehearsed quite a bit. there is explicit sex and some (mild, I think) D&S scenes [Ed: this means Dominance and Submission]. I was surprised by the attitudes of the director and cast towards the characters. I think I thought more positively about them than they did!

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052898.html

Hero

Fiber Optics

Dirty

Of these, I liked Dirty the best.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/052998.html

Idiot's Delight -- shorts

Adam & Eva

Adam & Eva is not bad. I wonder if it is possible to make a movie about a couple that meets cute and breaks up later, without having it be reminiscent of Annie Hall?

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/053098.html

Waco: the Rules of Engagement

Things I left in Havana

Smoke Signals

Metroland

Smoke signals was very good indeed! The producer of Waco hurt his case every time he opened his mouth in the post-film Q&A, but it's an interesting movie.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/053198.html

secret festival

The File of Anna Akhmatova

Gods and Monsters

Gods and Monsters I liked a lot! Ian McKellan and brendan fraser were both good. The File was *THE WORST*! like being nibbled to death by ducks. Do you know a lot about russian poets of the 20th century? you might get something out of it then.

 

I seem to have a taste for australian dramas on the dark and quirky side

The Well
An Australian drama (or thriller?). Hester, living on a cattle station with her elderly father, befriends Kathy, a younger woman brought in to work there. The consequences of reckless driving change the situation drastically. I liked this quite a lot! Both Pamela Rabe and Miranda Otto (last seen in
Love Serenade <052997.html> at last year's festival) are excellent.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060198.html

Backroads

The Well

Backroads is a charming spanish road movie about a boy and his con man father. The well is a dark Australian thriller/drama. I liked them both!

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060298.html

The Children of Heaven

Long Twilight

I was not in the mood for the grim, nightmarish Long Twilight. I'd have enjoyed it more another time, I think. Children of Heaven was sweet, charming.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060398.html

My Secret Cache

The Red Door

My Secret Cache was the funniest movie so far in the festival! The Red Door, Indian, is a grim story about a dentist with a failed marriage. Symbolic, repetitive.

 

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060498.html

Manly Love

Nice comedy from Spain. I think you could program a whole mini-festival of the "mostly-gay social group with one het woman" theme.

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060598.html

Relax...It's Just Sex

Under Heaven

I talked to someone on Sunday who could not keep "relax..." separated from Manly love in his mind. Both have similar themes, though Relax has a darker side and is in English. Under heaven I liked a lot!

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060598.html

The Last Bus Home

The Sugar Factory

The Sugar factory pleased me quite a bit. I couldn't buy the male lead in the last bus home as leader of a punk rock band. He was more petulant than angry

http://www.halcyon.com/anitar/journal/060798.html

Secret Fest #3

Henry Fool

Cousin Bette

I *loved* henry fool, but I like Hal Hartley's stuff. Like Whit Stillman, he has a very distinctive style. I was very pleasantly surprised by secret fest 3.

When Trumpets Fade

I saw this yesterday at a press screening. I think it impressed me most of any film I saw yesterday! It's a gory and violent WWII story, but I was riveted even though that's not my usual thing.

It plays Friday, June 12 7:15 pm at the egyptian, and Sunday june 14 6:30 pm at the harvard exit.

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