FILM REVIEW: TOKYO SONATA

The tune of Tokyo Sonata.

By Ed Rampell

One of this year’s best offerings is director/co-writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s (no relation to Akira Kurosawa) Tokyo Sonata, an offbeat, droll look at the Sasakis, a dysfunctional Japanese family. Sonata’s rollicking plot takes many unexpected twists and turns, some quite hilarious. The film wickedly observes the plight of Japanese salary men who need to save face, even as they are hit by downsizing; not-so-blissful domestic bliss; women’s liberation; unruly children; and the need of artists to express themselves. This quirky, well-directed drama starring Inowaki Kai, Teruyaki Tagawa, Kyoka Koizumi and Yu Koaynagi as, respectively, Kenji, Ryuhei, Megumi and Taka Sasaki also manages to comment on the Iraq War.

METHOD FILM FESTIVAL 2009

Jody (Leelee Sobieski) is Finding Bliss in adult film.

Acting and truth in film

By Carlin Nguyen

The 11th annual Method Film Festival -- which focuses on the truth and realism in the world of acting -- runs now through April 2 in Calabasas, California.

MFF will host a total of 33 feature films from seven countries and the US, along with 10 short film programs and shorts preceding the features. In addition to films focusing on acting, MFF also features free youth workshops on filmmaking, screenwriting, acting, youth screening and youth bands.

Here are a few samples of what to expect at this year’s MFF.

Finding Bliss -- In director Julie Davis’ film Leelee Sobieski plays Jody Balaban, a recent award-winning film school grad, has been in Los Angeles for about a year. There’s one problem – she can’t find a job. After vast job inquiries and no callbacks, Jody has no choice but to take a high paying editor job at Grind Productions, an adult film company. A sexy romantic comedy about coping with the demands of editing porn while facing her secret past about sex, Jody must find a way to muster her ability to get by -- on the job and with her family.

Hey Hey It’s Esther Blueburger – The story about Esther Blueburger (Danielle Catanzariti), a shy but lonely girl looking toward her Bat Mitzvah. Esther tries to fit in at her private school while struggling to make ground with her loud parents. One day Esther meets Sunni (Keisha Castle-Hughes), an outspoken and daring girl at a neighboring public school and life for Esther changes immediately. Directo Cathy Randall’s film is a funny and witty story about life’s changing identities from one young Jewish woman.

When Life Was Good -- A comedy-drama revolving around three friends -- Brooklyn (Kristine Cofsky), an aspiring actress who arrives home from studying abroad to celebrate her boyfriend Ben’s birthday; her best friend Faith (Keri Horton) who has to confront her relationship issues while managing her ambition as a dancer; and Casey (Casey Manderson), a struggling screenwriter needing help to get his play developed from the ground up – the director Terry Miles film forms a life struggle as these three friends try to make something of themselves while dealing with conflicting emotions, unexpected intimacy and the demands of the real world.

FILM REVIEW: PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND

Phoebe (Ella Fanning) is confused by her different impulse.

Through a different looking glass

By John Esther


Dakota's younger sister, Elle Fanning plays the titular character who exhibits strange behavior everywhere in her young life except on the theater stage where her school is performing Alice in Wonderland under the guidance of Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson).

Her struggling writer of a mother (Felicity Huffman) cannot figure her daughter’s behavior. As mother and daughter attempt to cope with this strangeness, dad (Bill Pullman) and younger, smarter sister, Olivia (Bailee Madison, who has a natural gift for comedy), lash out in their own ways.

For every parent bewildered by their child’s behavior while insisting there be no shortcut answers, this imperfect film written and directed by Daniel Barnz overloaded with a terrible music score by Christophe Beck is for you.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: ARI FOLMAN

Ari Folman interview now available

By John Esther

As part of Cineaste's cover story on the film, Waltz with Bashir, I interviewed the writer-director of the animated documentary, Ari Folman.

One of the best films of 2008, Waltz with Bashir explores his time in the Israel Defence Forces and the 1982 invasion of South Lebanon

The film was a huge favorite for the Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category, but somewhat surprisingly, lost to Japan's Departures, a good, but obviously inferior film about a man faced with death as a matter of business. Of course, one only need look at the reactionary picks of this year's winners -- Slumdog Millionaire, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Reader -- to see why a film about family love, loss and death would endear itself to the conservative AMPAS members more than a film which suggests the Israeli government and military were behind the mass murder of innocents. Indeed, "Who will have won when the soldiers have gone from the lebanon."

(Although Waltz with Bashir was not nominated in the Best Documentary category, it is also better than the Oscar winner, Man on Wire.)

A leading publication investigating the relationship between film and politics, for more information on Cineaste Magazine please visit http://www.cineaste.com/