LAFF 2008: Day 1

The 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival kicked off last night in Westwood with the World Premiere of Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman. The adrenalized action film based on Mark Millar’s comic seems a strange choice for a film festival ostensibly focused on independent and foreign cinema, but it fits the identity LAFF has been carving out for itself in recent years. Last year an even more unlikely choice, Michael Bay’s Transformers, was the centerpiece premiere.

The argument is that high profile films like these help the festival grab some attention amid a crowded festival calendar. It also provides an incentive for people who wouldn’t ordinarily be drawn to typical festival fare to fork over the money for a spendy festival pass. Besides, if you can get the LAFF logo splattered all over Extra while spokes-muppet Billy Bush trawls the red carpet looking for celebrities he can ask about Angelina’s babies, what’s the harm in that?

The counterargument is that nonsense like this sucks the air out of the room and draws attention away from the little films that actually need it. So far, there’s no evidence to prove that’s the case. I gleefully ignored Transformers last year.

Anyway, like it or not, Wanted unspooled last night followed by a DJ’d after-party along Broxton avenue. Both Variety and Hollywood Reporter give the film good reviews. Ever one to go against the grain, Jeff Wells says “Wanted is one of the rankest, crudest, least artful impact-for-impact’s-sake thrillers of all time — certainly one of the least original and most vulgar I’ve ever suffered through.” Of course, this is from a guy who loved Shoot ‘em Up. When it comes to modern genre pictures, your dad’s opinion carries more weight. I’m just saying.

The World Premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army will officially close the festival on June 28, though events will technically continue on Sunday including Family Day featuring the World Premiere of Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D.

In the mean time, the festival kicks into gear today with more traditional offerings. After a month of staring at the schedule, I’m still not entirely sure what I’m going to see. Actress Lori Petty’s autobiographical directorial debut The Poker House starring Selma Blair makes its world premiere in the narrative competition.

Also of interest is Andrzej Jakimowski’s Polish film Tricks, about a young boy who tries to hook his single mother up with a man who looks like his father (International Showcase); From Korea there is Hello, Stranger, Kim Dong-hyun’s story about an immigrant from the north adrift in the suburbs of Seoul (International Showcase); The US premiere of the documentary Must Read After My Death which uses meticulously collected home movies, audio diaries and journal transcripts to chart the disintegration of a 1960s-era Connecticut family (Documentary Competition); A Girl Cut in Two, the lastest black comedy thriller from Claude Chabrol starring Ludivine Sagnier (Summer Previews); the Sundance premiere Medicine for Melancholy about an African-American couple who spend the day together after an initially awkward one night stand (Narrative Competition); and Heartbeat Detector, a psychological thriller starring Mathieu Almaric as a petrochemical company executive who uncovers company misdeeds dating back to WWII (International Showcase).

Also of note is the first entry in the Shaw Brothers retrospective, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan and just for fun is Swear-Along Scarface, an outdoor audience participation screening of the Brian De Palma remake that drops the F-bomb 226 times.

I’ll be heading over to Westwood in a few minutes. I’m not sure what the nature of my blog coverage is going to be, but you can expect somewhat abbreviated, less carefully written reviews of the films I see. I’m hoping to be more in depth than AFI last November though I may only write about the hits rather than the misses in the interest of saving time and in not crapping all over poor little indie films that deserve better treatment.

I’ll probably be more noticeably absent form the comments section as I simply try and keep up with the movies I’m seeing, but I’m sure you’ll all carry on just fine without me.

(Apologies for any typos, I had to post and run)

Filed under: Film Festivals

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