SIFF REPORT June 4-6

GRADE---A-

I KILLED MY MOTHER--France--The title is figurative, not literal, if case you thought this film was about patricide. A fifteen year old boy battles with his neurotic single mother who wants to send him to a boarding school. The film is dynamically filmed with stylish visuals and music, and there's a lot of humor as these two forces constantly clash over his freedom and maturity and her need for attention. I loved how both characters were likable yet also at fault due to stubbornness and self absorption, and it was refreshing that the teen's sexuality was not the focal point of the story.
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GRADE----B


LEAVES OF GRASS--USA--Edward Norton plays two twin brothers--one a drug growing criminal and the other a brilliant classic philosopher--and he is terrific. The film ambles along on the comic charms of a "fish out of water" tale when the professor is lured home to help his "bad" brother get out of a large debt to a local mob boss. When things turn tragically dark about two-thirds along, the film still manages to find the humor to keep us involved with the oddball characters. With Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and a scene stealing Tim Blake Nelson who also cleverly wrote and directed this brainy farce.

FATHERS AND GUNS--French Canadian--Crowd pleasing comic story of father and son policemen who go to a 'father and son week long retreat' to try to break a ruthless mob lawyer (who is having trouble relating to his own son) into revealing the whereabouts of a kidnapped officer . This has a clever script, and witty laughs with sprinkles of action and gun play.
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GRADE-----B-


WAITING FOR SUPERMAN--USA--Interesting documentary about the mess that the US educational system is in. The bad guy in this film is the teacher's unions which don't allow bad teachers to be weeded out, but I think that might be only part of the problem. The "hope" seems to be the private charter schools that can hand pick teachers. A lot of information is presented but the film needs to narrow it's focus to one or two specific topics--it's all over the place and the conclusions not completely convincing.

CENTURION--United Kingdom--The bruising story of a soldier behind the lines trying to get back to the Roman frontier in England, moves along quickly and violently--it will keep you awake. Unfortunately, filming in a grainy HD video format makes the quickly edited fight scenes jerky and impossible to watch clearly. This is a very annoying trend in a lot of action films (ie QUANTUM of SOLACE).
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GRADE -----C+

OVER THE HILL BAND (Belgium), DOUBLE TAKE (Great Britian), A RATIONAL SOLUTION (Sweden)--Old women try to revive their music group with predictable results---an experimental film trying to compare Alfred Hitchcock films with cold war manueverings of Nixon and Krucheov and Kennedy (!?)--and two couples try co-inhabitating to accomodate the adultorous coupling of two (a Swedish BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE but not as good.) Good ideas all, but execution doesn't deliver.
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GRADE------C-

THREE DAYS WITH THE FAMILY--France--Family members gather for death of grandpa, but I didn't like anyone there, and it is dull.