Phoenix Film Festival

I saw nine films at the Phoenix Film Festival last week. Boy, does my butt hurt!

The Way We Get By (USA)
Documentary. A group of volunteers in Bangor, Maine greet the troops arriving home from Iraq. The film follows the personal lives of the volunteers as they give their time & energy to a greater cause. This one was a tear jerker.

Four of a Kind (Australia)
Drama. Four lives are connected to a murder, but how? Interesting, intricate plot line. A commentary on lies & the truth. I'm still thinking about it days later.

Calling It Quits (USA)
Drama. A man who has worked at an ad agency for the last 30 years decides to retire early & go on a personal journey. Well done. Not too woo-woo spiritual, but still makes a statement about what's important in life.

Lightbulb (USA)
Drama. Based on a true story. An inventor with lots of bad ideas & a gambling problem finally invents a talking beer bottle opener & all is well. The plot was predicatable - they wouldn't have made a movie if he had failed completely. But it was still interesting, & I always like to see a movie filmed in Arizona.

My Apocalypse (USA)
Drama. An acid trip down dysfunctional lane. This movie was more of an art piece than a story. Crazy lighting, colors, effects. Local Arizona film maker.

Ocean (Cuba)
Drama. A young man leaves his small fishing village for Havana after being dumped by his girlfriend. He meets an interesting cast of characters as he tries to grow up. The story line was common, & the editing was confusing, but it was interesting to see the scenes of real Cuban life mixed in with the plot. The opening & closing credits were in Russian, so we couldn't tell who did what.

Promeny (Czech Republic)
Drama. A young single mother is overwhelmed by her inability to care for her children while a rich couple laments their inability to conceive. A common story presented out of chronological order, which probably made the movie more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

Corpse Run (USA)
Drama. A group of 20 somethings discuss the Y Generation as they play online video games. A great commentary on life with lots of funny cultural references, including a nod to the movie Office Space.

Official Rejection (USA)
Documentary. A chronicle of the life of a movie as it makes its way around the film festival circuit. An interesting documentary with a sense of humor. It was great to see what goes on behind the scenes at film festivals.