Must-See (Must-Buy) at SIFF
In theory, the official SIFF Web site goes live today, and you can start purchasing individual tickets there tomorrow. Our SIFF guide will be in print on May 20, the day before the festival opens. I don't like to post capsule reviews too far in advance of when movies can actually been seen by regular filmgoers. But SIFF pass-holders and early ticket buyers may grab up all the seats for some titles immediately upon their official announcement on the schedule.
Here are two that I've seen, and for which plenty of information is available on the Web...
From Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Strange Days), the Iraq War drama about an Army bomb squad, The Hurt Locker, drew huge props from our Scott Foundas at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and rightfully so. There's nothing more cinematic than a ticking bomb and the life-or-death deadline to defuse it. Jeremy Renner plays the reckless but methodical leader of a bomb squad patrolling Baghdad, where every trash heap (or corpse) could contain an IED. There are no anti-war lectures, just intricate process and male ego gone amok. When a blast occurs, Bigelow shows us the shudder of rust being shaken from old auto bodies. What it does to human bodies, and minds, is even worse. (The film opens in Seattle theaters this July.)
Second, I was hoping that the Tony Award-winning rock opera Passing Strange would eventually come to Seattle, but Spike Lee's concert doc is the next best thing. This coming-of-age-while-black musical by Mark Stewart (aka Stew) has been a long time coming. But it progressed from the Bay Area to Off-Broadway with much acclaim, and finally hit Broadway last year. (New York Times review.) If you loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch at SIFF '01, Passing Strange packs at least as much power, but with a much tighter band and more concentrated story. Unlike John Cameron Mitchell playing a transsexual East German character in Hedwig, Stew is relating a (slightly embellished) version of his own life story (one also born of the '80s). And the songs, written with Heidi Rodewald, are even better. Surgery is only one path to self-discovery. Music is another. (Spike Lee is expected to attend SIFF for a screening and Q&A on Wed., May 27, at the Egyptian.)
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