San Diego International Film Festival 2018!
Cole Wissinger and Tristan Torgersen (accompanied by photographer Keller Reeves) were able to attend, watch a few films, and pen reviews. So it was like you were there. For three movies.
Enjoy the reviews, watch for the movies at festivals and small release theaters near you, and of coure watch for them to be available for streaming soon enough.
Wild Nights with Emily
Emily Dickinson. Fan of her poetry or not, you know the name. If you’re as poetically unversed as I am, please refer back to this timeless scene for inspiration to wax more poetic. Yet, Wild Nights with Emily is not a movie for or about solely poetry. Dickinson’s poems are weaved throughout to tie stories and emotions together perfectly. The movie does what I wanted it to do though: tell a story previously untold on the big screen.
I will say, days before San Diego Film Festival, I wasn’t sure about seeing Wild Nights with Emily. I mean…a movie about the old American poet? Through my schooling, I learned that Emily Dickinson never married. I thought she was just a cat lady who got a head start. No. Not even. Only in retellings. That reminds me, the film featured a unique style that showed the dichotomy between the retellings of Emily’s life and the accurate portrayal based on her niece’s account. I loved it.
Emily Dickinson’s story is fraught with emotion, love, passion, sexuality, misogyny, and a desire to be understood. Like many artists and poets, male or female, her works only grew in popularity and notoriety posthumously. Unlike so many of her male counterparts though, her work was revolutionary in its rhyme scheme, imagery, and style. She blazed paths for poetry that are still being lauded today.
Molly Shannon is one of the best actresses, and her performances shines in Wild Nights with Emily. Her supporting cast includes Amy Seimetz (who helps tell her story), Susan Zieglar, and Brett Gelman. The interior cast in addition to the various characters help to color Emily’s story and provide a full look at her complexly simple life.
Look for Wild Nights with Emily at film festivals, and hopefully for a limited theater or streaming release soon.
Until then, watch the trailer below:
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One Last Night
Some movies are just made by movie lovers, for movie lovers. At San Diego Film Festival, that movie is One Last Night. Unsurprisingly lifted from a real life experience, it tells the story of a modern young couple on a first date that get locked in a movie theater. They get to raid the popcorn machine and visit the projection room. They even start to like each other a bit until the whole charade comes to a screeching halt.
One Last Night is a nice little rom-com that doesn’t try too hard. It camps itself in a setting that is familiar to its audience and leans on the chemistry of its two co-stars.
And with the bulk of the movie serving as a bottle episode, it needs to. I bought in to their budding relationship story from Tinder-esque meeting, to first date, to first fight, to resolution. We see the whole thing played out and they spend the majority of the film’s tight 86 minute runtime on the screen alone. It’s actually a service to the charm of Luke Brandon Field, playing Alex, that I was able to like him, because the spoiler of the movie is pretty creepy.
I thought I was going to get a horror movie for a moment when it was revealed that Alex actually owns the theater where this first date is occurring and being locked in is just a ploy to have a memorable time. Rachele Schank, playing said date Zoe, realizes how creepy this is and leaves never to call him again. Until she does.
People who have not lived under a rock will also recognize The Office’s Brian Baumgartner as a bumbling security guard with a few cute scenes. Rounding out the small cast is Alex’s sister Taryn played by Ali Corbin. Our introduction to her, before we know anything about her actual relation to Alex and knowledge of this weird plan, is one of the highlights of the film. She ‘plays’ a ticket/popcorn girl with an acerbic wit as the date begins; telling them that they don’t serve popcorn after ten and to look at the clock. There is no clock and there is tons of popcorn.
Another imaginative touch the film uses is on screen doodling. Zoe carries around a little notebook where she takes…notes, but instead of showing the audience the paper, her doodles are drawn on the screen as we watch. This is done to best effect while Alex is showing her an artsy short (an actual short film also directed by Anthony Sabet) and she gives him tally marks for and against dating him. They also talk a lot during that movie, but I guess that’s okay when you’re the only ones in the theater.
One Last Night is a nice date night movie with some funny moments and interesting characters. Hopefully it has you rooting for love, but it will at least have you wishing you owned your own movie theater.
While not from San Diego Film Festival, check out this interview with the director and stars earlier this year:
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Degenerates
Degenerates is a reflective movie that crafts a creative story around the struggles of being a screenwriter. Callum wrote this as a fun look at the question, “How do you write the perfect script?” The audience is pulled into the dreary and melancholic life of a screenwriter in the UK left with little instruction from his agent. The one tidbit he does glean from a rushed meeting? Scripts based on a true story are selling.
Left with little more than that idea, Casey (the screenwriter played by Callum Crawford himself) assembles a ragtag team to search for a missing teenage girl. Casey’s dream of writing the perfect ‘based on a true story’ script could be realized by this eclectic group on their quest. What ensues is a fun, quirky, and enjoyable film full of spunk.
Watching Degenerates, I can tell Callum Crawford draws from some Indie mainstays. There’s a definite Wes Anderson feel present. Some of the camera work and shots hints at an appreciation for The Coen Brothers. Yet, he also cuts a path of his own with unique tone and writing. There are moments that shock you, others make you laugh, and some pluck on your heartstrings. The talented cast, beautiful filmography, and unique lens through which the story is told contribute to an Indie that is truly special.
Often times, I finish an Indie film thinking “Wow, they took the time to make THAT.” With Degenerates, I see why the film is screening at the San Diego Film Festival on two separate days. The Q&A with Callum and his editor was insightful and only added to the heart of this movie. Callum Crawford wrote scripts for five years and nothing was bought. He decided to heed the advice of mentors and just make something himself. He wrote the script to work with an extremely tight budget and limited cast and crew. It took him about a year to finish writing, two months in pre-production. Then, they shot it over the course of a year. It took another six to eight months in post-production for editing. As a friend reminded me, “Hollywood is a marathon, not a sprint.” This is true for every project!
For his first feature film, Callum Crawford knocked it out of the park. The fact that he wrote, directed, and was the lead in Degenerates proves his dedication to the craft. First work or not, I’m here for whatever he does next.
Now that you’ve read up on it, check out the trailer:
Check out our other pieces on films from SDIFF:
Tiger Q&A with Writers Michael Pugliese and Prem Singh
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