SIFF 2018 Edition: How to SIFF

I probably should've posted this earlier in the festival, but these tips will still help you out through the final week of the festival. Take care of yourself first, your movie-watching needs second. This took me years to understand. If you’re filling all of your free time watching movies, you’re going to run your immune …

SIFF 2018 Edition: Capsule Reviews, Week One

Here are capsule reviews for all the films I've seen so far at the Seattle International Film Festival. Reviews are alphabetical by title. Included is my rating of each film. As per Golden Space Needle ballots, films are rated on a scale of 1 to 5: 1=Awful. Major flaws in plot/characters/writing/filmmaking. No reason to see …

SIFF 2018 Edition: Sadie

NOTE: THIS CRITIQUE MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Sadie begins and ends with the title character (Sophia Mitri Schloss) providing voice-over to a letter she's written her dad, who is serving overseas. In between is a film with a multi-dimensional and troubled character at its center. I don't know than any man could've written this tale, or …

SIFF 2018 Edition: Disobedience

When I watched Sebastián Lelio's previous film, A Fantastic Woman, the earth moved. With Disobedience, there were only slight rumblings. Films, like music, need a thread to tie them together from beginning to end, whether it be through story, images, sounds, dialog, or a repeating motif. There is such a thread in Disobedience, but it often …

SIFF 2018 Edition: Opening Night

To attend Opening Night is to see everything from cocktail gowns to actual gowns to t-shirts to jeans in a crowd composed of volunteers and staff, high-spending passholders, those who can afford the $75 price tag for the film ($65 for members), and those willing to shell out the $275 for reserved seats, valet parking, …

SIFF 2018 Edition: The SIFFening

  After a one-year hiatus, I'm back with my coverage of SIFF! It's good I didn't report on the festival last year: otherwise, you would've had to hear me complain the entire time about not-quite-meeting Kore-eda Hirokazu (he has another movie in this year's festival, but no plans yet to attend). Besides, that means I've …