SIFF 2018: BLINDSPOTTING and PROSPECT
Sun, May. 20th, 2018 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scarlettinaBLINDSPOTTING
My first film of the festival stars Daveed Diggs (HAMILTON) as Collin and word artist Raphael Casal as Miles, two lifelong friends who work as movers. Collin is three days from the end of his parole, and all he wants to do is stay out of trouble long enough to make it free and clear. Miles is a family man with anger issues who regularly loses his cool trying to be cool as the Oakland neighborhood he grew up in changes around him. The film starts with two events that set everything in motion: the appearance of a gun and the shooting of a fugitive by a policeman. And things begin to roll. The film is billed as comedy, but I'd call it a dramedy. It deals with some of the key issues of our days: gun violence, black/white politics and racism, how we become who we are and what we do and don't see in the people we love. It's an incredibly thoughtful film, a Diggs is terrific a Collin, a man becoming something new in his own experience and recognizing things about his life that he never saw before. Casal is strong as his troubled wingman. Collin and Miles love hiphop, so there's a through thread about how they freestyle as they do their work that ultimately pays off in a tense and dramatic climax. The film gets a general release this year and is well worth seeing.
PROSPECT
In a future where humanity regularly is out among the stars, Damon (Jay Duplass) is a widowed prospector roaming the planets in search of gemstones requiring meticulous skills to be retrieved. His teenage daughter Cee (Sophie Thatcher) travels with him. Damon's gotten word of a motherlode, what he intends to be their last expedition so he and his daughter can give up their peripatetic life and settle somewhere. They're on a clock, though. Their last stop is also the last run on an interstellar shuttle route; if they miss their pick up, they're stranded. To say more than that things don't go as expected would be to spoil an interesting adventure. The movie was clearly influenced by "Firefly"; the filmmakers did a Q&A after the screening and admitted as much. That flavor is definitely there. It's also influenced a bit by STAR WARS and a bit by ALIEN as well. I found it a little slow in the middle, but the story never stopped moving. Sophie Thatcher was excellent as the wary, older-than-her-years Cee. Pedro Pascal as Ezra, a stranger they encounter along the way, is terrific, and channels Mal Reynolds in a way that was both a little disconcerting and a little delightful. The worldbuilding is interesting; one definitely gets the sense that there's a larger society and history beyond the confines of this story and I am curious about it. The movie was shot in the Hoh Rainforest here in Washington State, so the scenery is awash in lush greenery that, to me at least, was familiar in its beauty and its alienness. This film is also getting a general release--in about two months--and could be worth your time.
My first film of the festival stars Daveed Diggs (HAMILTON) as Collin and word artist Raphael Casal as Miles, two lifelong friends who work as movers. Collin is three days from the end of his parole, and all he wants to do is stay out of trouble long enough to make it free and clear. Miles is a family man with anger issues who regularly loses his cool trying to be cool as the Oakland neighborhood he grew up in changes around him. The film starts with two events that set everything in motion: the appearance of a gun and the shooting of a fugitive by a policeman. And things begin to roll. The film is billed as comedy, but I'd call it a dramedy. It deals with some of the key issues of our days: gun violence, black/white politics and racism, how we become who we are and what we do and don't see in the people we love. It's an incredibly thoughtful film, a Diggs is terrific a Collin, a man becoming something new in his own experience and recognizing things about his life that he never saw before. Casal is strong as his troubled wingman. Collin and Miles love hiphop, so there's a through thread about how they freestyle as they do their work that ultimately pays off in a tense and dramatic climax. The film gets a general release this year and is well worth seeing.
PROSPECT
In a future where humanity regularly is out among the stars, Damon (Jay Duplass) is a widowed prospector roaming the planets in search of gemstones requiring meticulous skills to be retrieved. His teenage daughter Cee (Sophie Thatcher) travels with him. Damon's gotten word of a motherlode, what he intends to be their last expedition so he and his daughter can give up their peripatetic life and settle somewhere. They're on a clock, though. Their last stop is also the last run on an interstellar shuttle route; if they miss their pick up, they're stranded. To say more than that things don't go as expected would be to spoil an interesting adventure. The movie was clearly influenced by "Firefly"; the filmmakers did a Q&A after the screening and admitted as much. That flavor is definitely there. It's also influenced a bit by STAR WARS and a bit by ALIEN as well. I found it a little slow in the middle, but the story never stopped moving. Sophie Thatcher was excellent as the wary, older-than-her-years Cee. Pedro Pascal as Ezra, a stranger they encounter along the way, is terrific, and channels Mal Reynolds in a way that was both a little disconcerting and a little delightful. The worldbuilding is interesting; one definitely gets the sense that there's a larger society and history beyond the confines of this story and I am curious about it. The movie was shot in the Hoh Rainforest here in Washington State, so the scenery is awash in lush greenery that, to me at least, was familiar in its beauty and its alienness. This film is also getting a general release--in about two months--and could be worth your time.