#20: The Forest For the Trees

Naive educator Melanie Pröschle (Eva Lobau) leaves her small town behind to teach at an upscale metropolitan high school in this engrossing character study. Determined to make a good impression, the socially inept Melanie instead commits one faux pas after another -- unwittingly alienating nearly everyone she meets. As she struggles against a tide of loneliness, aloof colleagues and disorderly students, she slowly begins to melt down.

This film had good reviews by Netflix members, and I've rarely disliked a Film Movement title. But it was hard to get through -- partly just because of the way it was shot (on DV, in harsh lighting).

20/10

#6: The Way I Spent the End of the World

"In 1989 Romania, plucky 17-year-old Eva Matei comes of age as she schemes to escape the country's tyranny with help from her recalcitrant neighbor. Meanwhile, as her parents endure the brutal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, Eva's 7-year-old brother plots to kill the despot."

Films like this always make me feel very inadequate in my knowledge of political history, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Cute kid, taciturn teen, and lots of heart all around.

6/2

#5: The Bothersome Man (2006)

The Buzz: "Mysteriously deposited in a perfectly serene but colorless city where every need is met, Andreas soon realizes that not even a new lover can change the sterile banality drowning him. Is this placid life a dream come true or an inescapable hell? Is the lovely music coming from a crack in the basement his ticket out?"

My take: Though the plot conjures up films like Being John Malkovich, Dark City, and The Forgotten, this one holds its own as a very, very dark comedy. The cinematography is gorgeous (though intentionally monochromatic through most of the film), and our guy is compelling -- though not entirely sympathetic, really. 91 minutes. Also from the Film Movement (screened via Netflix watch-instantly).

5/2

#4: Men at Work (2006)

The Buzz: "An allegorical comedy, this Iranian film follows the strange quest of four old friends as they return from a ski trip. When Sahar, Mammad, Moshen, and Jalil spot a giant rock jutting from the edge of a cliff, they become obsessed with shoving over the boulder. Repeated failures only push them to succeed, and their absurd efforts with the phallic stone begin to reveal some deeper issues."

My take: Funny times 10. It's such a treat to find comedy like this -- no tricks, no falls, no jokes, just people being people. Once again, Film Movement does not disappoint. And, at 75 minutes, it makes a very easy latenight viewing.
4/1

#3: Arranged (2007)

The Buzz: "When Rochel (Zoe Lister Jones) and Nasira (Francis Benhamou) -- an Orthodox Jew and a Muslim, respectively -- meet as new teachers at a Brooklyn school, co-workers and students expect friction. But the women discover they have a shared expectation of entering into arranged marriages. As they experience tension between their traditional cultures and life in contemporary America, Rochel and Nasira form a special bond."

My Reaction: It's really not as annoying as the description makes it out to be, but it's hard to recap without putting the labels out there. The film addresses the problem of labels and difference in several scenes, though, from a patronizing principal who actually tries to give the women money to get a makeover, to a "unity circle" activity one of the women leads in the classroom. There's one scene where the two women meet in the park, each with a couple of kids in tow. One young boy asks each person in turn, "Are you Jewish?", full of skepticism and certainty about this similarity/difference thing he's learned about, and the expectation of exclusion. It's partly a treatment of space for tradition in the modern world, and partly about individual people overcoming difference, and that's about it -- it's nice, heartwarming, and not too preachy. From Film Movement.

3/1

#2: Anytown, USA (2005)

Buzz: Documentary on mayoral election in Bogota, New Jersey. Small town quirkiness meets messy local politics.

My Reaction: I didn't set out to watch a bunch of documentaries all in a row, but that's how it turned out -- last night, Out of the Past and The King of Kong (both watched before midnight and thus pre-2009), and then #1 and #2 today. Overall, I was entertained by this one, but I wouldn't stop by your office to tell you about it. There were plenty of interesting things about it: that the challenger (an independent, write-in candidate known as a local sports hero) and the incumbent are both blind, and the way that issue is addressed (or not) by various people in and out of the campaign; the obsession in a small town with high school sports, football in particular; and just the total lack of content in the campaigns -- it really is just a popularity contest, and none of the three are particularly popular. Watching reminded me of many of the same themes as King of Kong -- ego, power, obsession, and living just a little on the fringe. All of politics is local, but only because everything is local in a small town.

film 2 / day 1