SIFF Press Screenings

Yes, as per usual I’m a week behind on my SIFF rantings. Will try and get caught up here over the weekend. Anyone looking for ratings of the films I’ve seen can peek at my listology list for a rundown.

One of the nice things about being a passhole is that you get access to all the press screenings, effectively extending the festival by three weeks. Of course, I have a job and stuff so I didn’t get to go to many, but I did sneak off for a couple as listed below.

Big Rig (2007, Doug Pray)

A great documentary about the life of long-haul truckers. Interviews with a wide swath of people, covering all races and backgrounds, all giving their perspective on what it means to be a truck driver and what drew them to the job. It is one of those docs that gives you a new perspective on the people around you as well as educates about a profession I personally knew very little about. The only real drawback was it was a little on the long side with a few truckers overlapping each other too much. Still well worth seeing, and it looks fantastic. Great cinematography and use of graphics. This made me want to go back and check out all of Pray’s docs I’ve passed up on over the years.

This Is England (2006, Shane Meadows)

I first heard of Meadows at SIFF 2005 where I saw his revenge flick Dead Man’s Shoes on a lark as a space filler one afternoon. I loved the first half of the film, which is frenetic and confusing (in a good way), but it lost me in the second half when it falls more into conventional melodrama. This Is England is much better, a coming of age story set in early 80s England. The performances are all top notch, and the story feels very real. I was unsurprised to discover that a great deal of it was based on Meadows’ own experiences. The film also has a great deal to say about the times in which we live, without being preachy or beating you over the head with it. When this was over I couldn’t believe it had been two hours (I keep remembering this later on in the fest, as various crappy 90 minute films feel like they will never end.) Well worth seeking out, it gets a limited release stateside in July.

One really great thing about the press screenings is that the audiences are extremely well behaved for the most part. After seeing two great movies in a half-empty hall amongst a respectful populace, I had very high hopes for the rest of the festival. Stay tuned to find out if those hopes were validated or dashed…

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 11:21 am and is filed under Movies, SIFF 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.