Leeds Film Festival 2019 - Day 1

So then!

Last time I did this was a couple of years ago and, I know, I know.  Nobody likes to see a blog go stagnant and die.  Again.  All I can say is, kids are hard.  But as the firstborn is about to hit five years old and start the second half of his first decade - and that has just flown by - I find myself for the first time able to look at the festivals again with a little more flexibility.  The missus has kindly given me some days off with which to do as I will.  Naturally, this means I pound my eyeballs with films until they cannae take no more.

In 2014, I was just leaving work with a big stack of tickets to begin another crazy film marathon before our December baby was due, and right on that moment, the phone rang.  Ms. Plants was in labour and things were starting early.  Didn't he know I had spent good money on the next few weeks on literally dozens of film tickets.  So began a lean few years - festival-wise - where I'd only see a couple of films per year.   

*tiny violin plays in background*

I'm over it.  No, really.  I've scheduled a talk with him for his 18th where we will calmly discuss repayment and interest terms.

Luce (US) (wiki)

In these days of increasing racial tensions state-side, its unsurprising that there are films coming out of the country that try to tussle with some of the subject matter to some degree or other.  It is a subject of many dimensions and unfortunately, still persists the world over.  America being one particularly volatile region.  Luce injects an additional ingredient into the mix with the story of an Eritrean child soldier, adopted by an affluent white American couple and, after several difficult years of counseling, Luce appears to be a model student; loved by his family, friends and teachers alike and about to graduate with high honors.
But just as all seems to be going so well, Harriet, one of Luce's most challenging teachers suspects all is not what it seems after Luce submits a paper to her extolling the virtues of a extremist historical figure and she starts to investigate.  What follows is a tense drama where Harriet, Luce's parents, and everyone who touches his life get dragged into a game of smoke and mirrors, where no character comes out cleanly.  Rights are questioned and boundaries are overstepped in the name of doing the right thing and finding out the constantly elusive truth.

Luce rewards the observant viewer, handing over complicated characters in ambiguous situations with just enough clues to make figuring out what you see versus what you are told a satisfying experience.  No character is good or bad, just the unraveling of a comfortable life and the complicated undercurrents that have been almost hidden.  There was a little bit of clunky dialog every now and again, but a solid start to the festival.  8/10

Fire will Come (ES) (wiki)

Middle-aged loner Amador has just been released from jail, after partially serving sentence for   starting a major fire that nearly burned down a village in the densely forested hills of Galicia.  Quiet to the point of shifty, he ambles his way back along the winding country roads, seemingly trying to start over as if nothing has happened.  Naturally, his slight but weather-hardened mother takes him in without question, and they try, with little initial success, to return to something normal.
He's been away but as you may expect the locals are wary of his presence.  Still aloof and a loner, he slowly tries to make small steps towards re-integration, but as the title suggests, the lack of success leads to frustration and history will surely repeat.

Fire will come works somewhat if you accept it's dreamlike meander through its own runtime; concentrating less on story and more on the beautiful scenes of the remote, high altitude lives where few live and nature still holds most of the cards.  It is almost incidental that Amador is seen with his old dog running or tripping through the undergrowth trying to catch one of his cows.

In the end, the film will ask more questions than it answers; presenting the viewer with essentially the same situation as what happened off-screen but with few clues as to whether he did it this time, or in fact in the first place.  I enjoyed the beauty but would have liked to be less frustrated at the man and the ambiguity at the end; leaving things open to interpretation is good, so long as you have some clues to debate the guilt or otherwise of the protagonists.  In this respect it was trying to do a similar thing to Luce, but didn't succeed as well.  6/10

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (US) (review)

I saw this one only because of the timing, partly because I am not a cool person and didn't revel in the idea of watching cool people for ninety minutes, but also because Jazz isn't my favorite form of music.  However, I have in the past been pleasantly surprised by the documentary format and it's ability to make things interesting, even when I don't find it so.
So things are with Miles Davis, the legendary American jazz and blues musician who, during his fifty or so years of work beginning in the clubs of downtown New York and progressing through the ages touching and sometimes kickstarting the various related styles of funk, drum and bass and others, through a process of rigorous self-analysis and reinvention in response to stimulus, sometimes external and others from his own internal demons, not least the recurring spectre of drugs.

This documentary is a bitter-sweet account of the life of a man who, as with many who have contributed to the artistry of humanity are often self-destructive towards themselves and their relationships with their most loved others.  Miles Davis was never someone who I could appreciate musically in the same way as some of the talking heads who sometimes held him up as a messianic figure (although there were some pleasant pieces within the film I recognised and enjoyed), I could see the impact the man had on the broader history of music and culture thanks to this film. 7.5/10
A Dog Called Money (UK/IR) (review)

In a switcheroo of my expectations compared to the Miles Davis film, I was really looking forward to A Dog Called Money.  It's premise was attractive; Singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, in a quest to come up with unique subject matter for her next album, tours the world looking for the downtrodden; often in middle-eastern countries but also in the more downtrodden states of America.  Along for the ride is photographer Seamus Murphy to chronicle the process.  Then, structurally, the film alternates between clips of them visiting representative people of the area, often in a religious setting, and observing how they cope with their odds, or sometimes joining in with their music, and the resulting jam sessions where lyrically and musically the inspirations are explored and performed as an art installation in a publicly viewable studio.
There is some commendation for what is being done here; it's always a good thing for the plight of others not so well off to be highlighted so people feel compelled to do something about it, or at least banish complacency; maintain an understanding that not all is right in the world and things need to change.  However I felt somewhat underwhelmed by the somewhat mechanical churning of the stages of the film; PJ looks on solemnly at the destitute people, reads a composition of words and feelings, then cut back to the jam session where music of mixed quality is produced.  There wasn't much in the way of variation in this to keep an increasingly tired plant awake as he sat on his comfy cinema sofa and although I'd give the album a go for some of the songs, this wasn't quite the film I was hoping to see. 6/10