A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
When I first saw a poster for the new Liam Neeson revenge movie Memory, I thought that it was the dumbest possible name because all of the negative headlines would write themselves. Multiple chuckleheads on Rotten Tomatoes would say something to the effect of “a movie called Memory sure isn’t very memorable.”
After eleven days of virtual and in-person screenings, partying, and celebrating independent filmmakers, the 48th Seattle International Film Festival closed on Sunday with a morning awards ceremony and an evening gala. In the afterglow of our individual festing, the SunBreak’s SIFF team gathered on the internet to debrief on this year’s event.
Seattle rarely looks as good on film as when Zia Mohajerjasbi’s directing. Having made his name over a decade ago with breakout videos for Blue Scholars and Macklemore, picked up a Stranger Genius Award, and built a resume with short films, he’s returned to familiar geographies for his feature film debut. In collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas Wiesnet, he brings the rich textures of the city to the screen in a poetic narrative about the wayward path of an oversized suitcase on its way from the Central District to East Africa.
The overriding objective of Brettan Hannam’s film of self-discovery is conveying the multifaceted diversity of the Mi’kma’ki people and territory in Nova Scotia. While the plot armature to support that ambition is veers between melodramatic and creaky, it does succeed in presenting a rich array of compelling images and communicating heartfelt feelings.
D.B. Cooper could be almost anyone so he could just as easily be an old man with a limp and a Goofy sweatshirt out on bail for an assault charge named Rodney.
In her feature film debut, Annika Pinske brings an insightful slice-of-life to the screen. Concerned with the intersecting identities of German woman, her nuanced portrait centers on a Clara, a philosophy PhD candidate in Berlin who’s creating a “second act” for herself on the precipice of turning forty.
A dark comedy with plenty of moments to chuckle at, Everybody Hates Johan follows the life of a man, Johan Grande, born in the small town of Titran Norway. This small town had the misfortune of being close to the frontlines of World War II, but lucky for Titran the Grandes had a knack for blowing up bridges… but they also had a knack for rubbing every other townsperson the wrong way.
Some things that we learn from Christoffer Sandler’s sweet-hearted coming-of-age story: there’s apparently no Swedish word for the concept of “easy going” and there are people in Sweden who fall through the social safety net and can’t get their prescriptions filled at the pharmacy. So much for the Scandinavian image of social democracy utopia.
Hark! Abandon expectations of logic and expedience all who pass through theater gates this weekend for the Northman. Indeed, Robert Eggers is back with another sprawling folktale drawn from days of yore, delving deeper into the past’s shadowy legends than ever before. With the help of Icelandic poet Sjón, the director who explored the dark forces and menacing sheep of an early America in the VVitch and the madness that befell men who crossed the wrong seagull while tending the Lighthouse, Eggers has returned with a tale of Viking vengeance. Even moreso than usual, ‘tis a realm where the veil between reality and the supernatural remains especially porous. I, for one, will never be mad about a wildly creative artist getting a bunch of money to realize their weird vision, and that’s exactly what Eggers does over more than two gnarly sprawling hours in a deep dive into gray Nordic psychedelia.
In the Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Nicolas Cage doesn’t merely “break the fourth wall,” but mows it down like it’s a row of faceless henchmen in an action movie. Yes, this movie is about what would happen if Nicolas Cage played Nicolas Cage in a quasi-autobiographical movie that turns into an action movie.
