Yesterday I played a little catch up but managed to take in a number of films. Billed as a documentary and competing in the World Cinema Documentary competition is “Big River Man.” Profiling endurance swimmer Martin Strel as he undertakes and attempts to swim the entire length of the Amazon, “River Man” feels very much like a Wes Anderson film by way of Werner Herzog. While there is plenty of swimming and the characters in this film play versions of themselves, I found myself questioning whether it is a “documentary” and instead something of a faux doc. As the film draws to a close it appeared that filmmaker John Maringouin winks at us a little telling viewers that not everything is meant to be taken literally.
But the bottom line about “Big River Man” is that it is a hugely entertaining film. For a solid 45 minutes I was positively enchanted by Strel and his son as they prepare for the big swim. We learn that Strel is managed by his son and has already swam the Mississippi, the Danube, and the Yangtze. Archive footage shows the man braving very polluted waters while making his way down the Yangtze. Frankly, it all seems too amazing to be true. You see the Slovenian Strel is over 50 years old and not in peak physical condition. In fact, the man is fairly overweight and an alcoholic. But his charisma and the plain spoken narration of his son makes the whole adventure seem credible and even touching as Strel struggles to maintain his sanity during the sixty plus days of constant swimming. Whether all the events depicted are spontaneous is irrelevant, the movie is chiefly about the personality of the performer that is the Big River Man. My thought is that the Strel story will be purchased and adapted into a narrative feature very soon. And it would be perfect to see Bill Murray playing Strel and Wes Anderson directing.
I attended the public screening of Lee Toland Krieger’s sensitive family drama “The Vicious Kind.” Although the movie is awfully well made, the highlight is the star-making performance of Adam Scott as the troubled Caleb who is recovering from a bad breakup and finds himself smitten with his younger brother’s girlfriend (played by Brittany Snow). Scott, who I spoke with last year about “August,” takes center stage here looking brutally tired and emotionally damaged for much of the dialogue heavy narrative. I swear that his scruffy appearance and caustic personality reminded me of Tom Cruise. Also dragging the pathos out of the audience is JK Simmons (“Juno”) playing a father (once again) who is estranged from Caleb. Sundance alum Neil LeBute serves as an executive producer for the film. Krieger’s sharp dialogue overcomes patches of incongruity especially as rather loud night-time activities go conveniently unnoticed by fellow inhabitants in the family home. But Scott’s work alone makes the film worth seeing.
I saw several short films yesterday, but the best one was “Little Minx Exquisite Corpse: Rope a Dope.” The film, directed by Laurent Briet, is essentially a music video featuring some amazing jump roping. The movie takes place in a boxing gym that is visited by a young girl wearing headphones who finds herself in a kind of jump rope battle with a boxer. The audience I saw the film with was captivated by the frenetic camera work and impressive jump roping. I thought the slow motion effects were some of the smoothest I’ve seen. I spoke with filmmaker Briet who told me that he shot the movie on 35mm film in just one day. Anyone who knows even very little about filmmaking will instantly recognize this as an impressive accomplishment. And this is especially true given the fluid nature of the cinematography that captures so much fast movement.
After my last screening, I spent some time with the cast and director of “Grace.” One interesting footnote worth mentioning is that Malcolm Stewart, one of the creepy stars of “Grace,” is reportedly the only actor to appear in three films at this year’s festival. In addition to the breast milk sipping doctor in “Grace,” Stewart told me that he has roles in “Moon” and in “Helen.” This is quite a feat, and based on his good work in “Grace,” I’m sure that other larger roles are coming.
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