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Madonna’s “Filth and Wisdom” is the opening night selection. |
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The sing-along with “Hairspray” night has plenty of chance to break out the ’60s costumes and moves. |
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Film fest celebrates its 10th year with plenty of edge
By Howard Karren
Banner Correspondent
For the Provincetown International Film Festival’s 10th anniversary, the challenges were greater than ever, particularly those posed by a shortfall in funding, reported only weeks ago, and the sudden closing of Town Hall auditorium, formerly the fest’s largest screening facility, for structural weaknesses.
But the show has nevertheless managed to go on — with Provincetown High School’s auditorium subbing for Town Hall’s — and the schedule of films and events (from Wednesday, June 18 through Sunday, June 22) is as worthwhile as ever. Thank goodness for that.
Despite the continuing concentration of artists, writers and performers in Provincetown today, the options for film enthusiasts are few and far between — except, that is, for the five days when the film festival arrives. That’s when the town’s old twin theater, the Art House, now mostly a venue for live entertainment, becomes a working cinema once again.
At Vixen, the Crown & Anchor, The Provincetown Theater, Whaler’s Wharf and the Schoolhouse, scores of movies are screened, many of them powerful labors of love, and the place comes alive with parties, awards and the buzz of titillated audiences.
Among the dramatic features offered at the festival, a few recommendations are in order. The opening night selection, “Filth and Wisdom,” is a British comedy directed by none other than Madonna, and the festival centerpiece. “Towelhead,” a turbid tale of sexual abuse and ethnic tension, is the directorial debut of Alan Ball (the writer of “American Beauty” and the creator of HBO’s “Six Feet Under”).
But it’s the closing night selection, “Choke,” that truly deserves to find a sell-out crowd. Directed by actor Clark Gregg (of TV’s “The New Adventures of Old Christine”), “Choke” is the only adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel since 1999’s “Fight Club,” and it’s a hilarious, relentlessly scabrous romp, starring Sam Rockwell as a colonial theme park worker and Anjelica Huston as his untrustworthy mom.
Three imports from the Sundance Film Festival are destined to be the finds on this year’s schedule. “Frozen River,” the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, is a tense and gritty first feature by Courtney Hunt, shot in the frozen nowhere-land of the New York-Canada border. Melissa Leo stars, brilliantly, as a trailer-park mom who, desperate for money, reluctantly decides to help smuggle immigrants; she teams up with a bitter and aloof Mohawk woman whom she initially distrusts and ultimately respects.
Equally diverting is “The Wackness,” an eccentric and richly entertaining coming-of-age movie with an insider’s view of the over- and underprivileged of Manhattan’s elite in the drug-addled, hip-hop-styled 1990s. Josh Peck is revelatory as a teenage dealer, a virgin and striver who turns to a shrink in crisis (Ben Kingsley) for fatherly advice, then falls in love with the older man’s daughter.
Best of all is “Ballast,” an exquisitely shot and acted drama about the ripples of pain and healing that follow a suicide in a community of working-poor African-Americans in the Mississippi Delta. First-time director Lance Hammer, working with a mostly nonprofessional cast, patiently builds his story with layers of observational detail (he spent a full year in the editing room) and synthesizes a bracing new form of cinematic story-telling, reminiscent of such poetic masters as Terrence Malick and the Dardenne brothers. “Ballast” is film art of the highest order.
As always, documentaries rule at the festival, and a few merit singling out. HBO’s sobering and intelligently reported “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” focuses on the prosecution of Polanski for having sex with a 13-year-old model he was photographing and unearths some surprising and unexpected truths about guilt and innocence and justice — and the lack thereof, for all involved.
“The Black List” offers a series of fascinating interviews by film critic Elvis Mitchell with 20 notable African-Americans, from Colin Powell to Chris Rock to former Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons, and “American Teen” reveals the sometimes sordid, sometimes touching, and always recognizable life lessons experienced by white-bread high schoolers in Indiana.
“Patti Smith: Dream of Life” is hardly your typical tribute to a rock-and-roll heroine: it takes an impressionistic approach to Smith’s life, beautifully weaving several years of cinéma-vérité footage and off-the-cuff interviews with her poems and her music, and the effect is unusually intimate, candid, and open-ended.
Keep an eye out for “Man on Wire” (another Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner), which tracks the awe-inspiring feat of Frenchman Philippe Petit, balancing on a wire between the Twin Towers, and “When I Knew,” a collection of gay self-discovery testimonials, from filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” “Inside Deep Throat”).
You can catch up with some classics of the recent past at screenings of the festival’s award winners, such as Filmmaker on the Edge Quentin Tarantino (“Pulp Fiction,” “Reservoir Dogs”), Excellence in Acting-winner Gael García Bernal (“Bad Education,” “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and his directorial debut, “Déficit”), and Faith Hubley Memorial Award-winner Jane Lynch (“Best in Show”); the awards ceremony itself will be held on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Provincetown High School.
The festival’s best annual traditions thankfully live on: you can sample some classic horror (“The Tingler” and “Rosemary’s Baby”) at the Wellfleet Drive-In on Thursday at 8 p.m.; you can sing along with “Hairspray” at the high school on Sunday at 2 p.m.; and that master of irreverence John Waters will present Claude Chabrol’s “Story of Women” at the Art House on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. The Portuguese Spotlight returns this year with the North American premieres of “Dotcom” and “The Lovebirds,” and there are daily filmmaker-panel breakfasts and nightly parties for those who faithfully insist on experiencing the movies as a social event.
The festival is an embarrassment of riches for the town’s undernourished movie lovers — far more than any one person can see. When there’s so much to choose from, the best way to navigate is simply to follow your instincts and take the plunge.
The adventure begins in the dark. [Full disclosure: This writer is a member of the festival’s advisory board.]
Full schedules are available at www.ptownfilmfest.org, where tickets can be ordered online, or by calling (866) 811-4111 or visiting the festival box office in person at the Aquarium Mall, 209 Commercial St.
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Jun 19th, 2008