MSPIFF 2011: Week 1

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Can today's media ecosystem support ambitious, expensive, rigorous journalism? As the Times struggles to reinvent itself in a world of iPads, extremist commentary, newsroom cuts and Wikileaks, its media columnist David Carr eloquently defends the virtues of old-school reporting in the Internet age. A confirmed skeptic and irrepressible wiseguy, Carr is the battered but unbowed champion of an endangered species -- ass-kicking, name-taking mainstream journalists. His scathing coverage of the Chicago Tribune's ethical/financial meltdown in the hands of takeover artist Sam Zell makes a gripping morality tale of the newspaper industry's painful metamorphosis. This candid documentary is a must-see. (U.S., 89 min.) ----Colin Covert

Toronto filmmaker Michael McGowan's musical follows 17-year-old hockey prodigy Farley Gordon, a role that actor Noah Reid nails with loveable naivete. Amidst Gordon's struggles with fame, his brutish teammates and his intellectual parents, there is singing aplenty. It is also the film's most underwhelming aspect. The songbook is full of broken verses and bland instrumentals. Olivia Newton John, who plays Gordon's mother, is continually under-utilized, moaning empty lines like, "I'm so sad I can't even cry." Still, McGowan's film drips with heart and humor that makes his shticky concoction not entirely condemnable. (Canada, 92 min.) --Andrew Penkalski

David Lynch is a cult filmmaker, yes -- but to what extent? In this entertaining documentary, geeky film-school grad and die-hard Lynch devotee David Sieveking trails his wiggy-haired idol through the inland empire of Transcendental Meditation a practice Lynch claims can help deflate the "suffocating rubber clown suit of negativity" we're all wearing. Sieveking dutifully drinks the Kool-Aid, but, as in "Blue Velvet," there's something festering under the surface of nirvana. Complete with mood-alteringly Lynchian soundtrack, the documentary strikes a delicate balance between reverence and mounting skepticism as Sieveking follows the money sprinkled along TM's path to enlightenment. (Germany/Austria/France, 96 min.) --Rob Nelson

Dunwoody College film instructor Mohannad Ghawanmeh makes an impressive acting debut as an Anglo-Palestinian sifting through his family history. After his charismatic older brother's death, he encounters a woman from their mutual past and learns that his memories are incomplete. To come to terms with his rootless present he must deal with old personal secrets . It's clearly a film buffs' labor of love. Poignant and moody, the film recalls "Blow Up," the French New Wave and such indie American classics as "The King of Marvin Gardens." Summertime Minneapolis and Lake Pepin sparkle in Jeremy Wilker's sharp HD cinematography. (U.S., 94 min.) --Colin Covert

A pioneering practitioner of Technicolor in such vivid classics as "The Red Shoes" and "The African Queen," cinematographer Jack Cardiff gets his close-up in this admiring biographical documentary, which doubles as a clip-laden peek at film history. A former child actor who remained sprightly in his 90s, the late Cardiff shoots from the hip while recalling his painstaking efforts to bring the tonal values of impressionist painting to the screen. Martin Scorsese is among the luminaries who articulately contextualize the cameraman's style, while Cardiff's anecdotes about the likes of John Wayne, Ingrid Bergman and Marlene Dietrich appear aptly colorful. (United Kingdom, 83 min.) --Rob Nelson

This strange, sweet picture follows Jean-François (a terrific Emmanuel Bilodeau), a handyman who labors away in the sagging sadness of a roadside hotel/bowling alley, and his 12-year-old daughter, Julyvonne (the actor's real-life daughter, Philomène Bilodeau). He's kept her largely isolated-from everything most kids take for granted. As the narrative drifts and twists and turns, pathos mingles with delight. Some of the film's weirder moments -- a key one involves '80s teen sensation Tiffany's cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" -- linger long after the credits roll. (Canada, 96 minutes) --Emily Condon

Not for all tastes, Jorge Michel Grau's bitingly satirical thriller explores the family values of four Mexico City cannibals. Following the death of her hunter-gatherer hubby, poor Patricia (Carmen Beato) sternly directs her teenage sons (Francisco Barreiro, Alan Chavez) and daughter (Paulina Gaitan) to keep the clan's flesh-eating "rituals" alive. Even as the entrees accumulate and a hungry detective (Jorge Zarate) starts sniffing around the family's fragrant abode, Grau continues to focus on the killers' ravenous desire to maintain their culture and cuisine. Strong-stomached viewers should sample this flavorful shocker before a watered-down American remake comes to the table. (Mexico, 89 min.) --Rob Nelson

Chile's arid Atacama desert is an ideal locale for stargazers, archaeologists, and for military death squads to dispose of their victims. While astronomers study the skies for clues to the origins of existence, a group of old women sift through the dirt for traces of thousands of dissidents who vanished during the Pinochet dictatorship. This poetic and sensitive documentary draws touching parallels between these two teams of truth-seekers. The celestial visuals are breathtaking, as are the portraits of the women, still hopeful after 30 years of searching that they will find their lost loved ones' remains. (Chile, 90 min.) --Colin Covert

Cosmopolitan couple Sigve and Elizabeth move to the country with their young adopted son, Noa, to make a needed change. When they meet their new landlords, Kaja and Eirik and their son Theodor they get more than they bargained for. Veering between light romantic comedy and a kind of social commentary (though it's never quite clear what, exactly, it's trying to say), the movie struggles to find a consistent tone. That said, Agnes Kittelsen shines in the role of Kaja, a lonely woman delighted to have new neighbors across the way. (Norway, 85 minutes) --Emily Condon

"Sometimes it's good to talk." So says one of the Finnish men featured in this documentary in which a series of revealing vignettes show men spilling their guts in saunas. It is here where they feel most comfortable telling of their happiest and most tragic moments. Similar in style to last year's great festival selection, "Cooking History," "Steam of Life" is impressive in that the filmmakers were able to get this much raw emotion in a culture known for male stoicism. But it's not without a few cheesy sequences, like the closing. (Finland, 81 min.) --Erik McClanahan

Set in West Virginia (but shot in Alberta), this enjoyably silly sendup of hillbilly horror flips the scripts of "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre." Here, the redneck good ol' boys are the victims of the usual batch of young, sexed-up urban thrillseekers. Played with tongues in cheek by Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine, poor Tucker and Dale only want to spruce up their dilapidated shack, but when a frat boy's crush goes missing, they're instantly blamed -- and forced to take cover. Blood and belly laughs abound in director Eli Craig's cleverly lowbrow farce. (Canada, 86 min.) --Rob Nelson

A splendid Minneapolis-made slacker comedy. Susan Burke and Stephen Gurewitz are a droll comic dream team as Anne and Amir, whose relationship disintegrates as they move into their first apartment. "It's not a one-bedroom, it's a studio." "It fits one bed." Their petty squabbles reveal volumes about their incompatible personalities, and they're spot-on funny, too. Enter handsome neighbor Tom ("Tiny Furniture's" Alex Karpovsky) a passive-aggressive nightmare, undermining Amir at every turn. Writer/director Dean Peterson's smart microbudget doodle is more fully alive than the last 10 big name Hollywood movies you've seen. (U.S., 83 min.) --Colin Covert

Not even lively stop-motion animation can save this oppressive rendition from the dark pits of cynicism. The awkward mix of socialist parable, melodramatic score and tongue-in-cheek pessimism never really gels in Garri Bardin's version of Hans Christian Andersen's much-loved fairy tale. The heroic little duckling is not only ugly but also an unapologetic individualist. Within the confines of the cloistered barnyard, his adoptive parents disown him and the conformist ducklings bully him. The animation and the creative character design is something to behold, but despair and bitterness loom too large to allow this beautiful swan to fly. (Russia, 76 min.) --Kathie Smith

Having gorged himself on quarter-pounders in "Super Size Me," comic documentarian Morgan Spurlock here overdoses on product placement -- to the extent that even the film's full title is bought and paid for. Funded by the corporations that the filmmaker hustles onscreen, this exposé of ubiquitous American branding shrewdly proves that not even nonfiction is immune to sponsorship amid the hunger for Spurlock's "'Iron Man' of documentaries." Food for thought: How unsavory is it that this message is brought to you in part by Amy's Light & Lean? (U.S., 90 min.) --Rob Nelson

Local cop Walter (Peter Stormare from "Fargo") is put to the test when investigating a woman's murder in his small Mennonite community. We get glimpses of Walter's torrid past, which made his former lover leave and shack up with a violent thug. Walter questions if he's really content with his new life and if he can move forward. Writer/editor/director Ed Gass-Donnelly's film feels genuine, with captivating performances and a haunting score. (Canada, 75 min.) --Jim Brunzell III

Interesting: A romance from a culture skeptical about happy endings. In a coincidence as old as "The Pina Colada Song," a timid married couple who have lost their spark meet anonymously in an Internet chat room and fall in love again. But this rueful Eastern European comedy takes unexpected twists en route to a surprising conclusion. The couple's teenage son is an entertainingly sex-crazed lout who despises his parents' vegetative existence and is already dictating his memoirs to the fans he expects to have as a porn star. The adult leads (imagine Sarah Vowell married to Victor Borge) are amusingly woebegone. (Romania, 105 min.) --Colin Covert

To capture street style for the New York Times, octogenarian Bill Cunningham cruises city streets on a bicycle. He prefers shooting in the rain and snow, when he can catch people off-guard. "He who seeks beauty will find it," he says. Although he documents glamour, Cunningham wears the blue work shirt of French street sweepers and, at the time of the documentary's shooting, slept in a cramped space between file cabinets filled with every negative he has ever taken. Yes, he still shoots on film. Filmmaker Richard Press offers a humorous, touching and insightful portrait about a subject who clearly would have preferred to stay behind the camera. (U.S., 84 min.) --Sara Glassman

From the team that made the vastly underrated 2003 action/thriller "Memory of a Killer" comes another fast-paced police thriller with double crossings, leaked information, shootouts, solid editing and stunning cinematography. When two police detectives investigate a murder of an "Italian" middleman within the Albanian mafia in Antwerp, Belgium, they find themselves dealing not only with mobsters and assassins with lots of weapons but trouble within their own precinct. The twists are fast and furious, and it is refreshing to find an emotional depth in these brutish characters. (Belgium, 121 min.) --Jim Brunzell III

French Director Safy Nebbou re-imagines the relationship between 19th-century novelist Alexandre Dumas (played by Gérard Depardieu) and his ghostwriter, the meticulous Auguste Maquet (Benoît Poelvoorde). Prepare yourselves, ladies, for the film's yuck factor: The central plotline has these plump, middle-aged scribes lusting after a 21-year-old revolutionary (Mélanie Thierry). And don't forget its handling of race -- Dumas was biracial, the grandson of a Haitian slave, though he's played here by a big-name white actor in a curly wig. Nonetheless, for Francophiles and lovers of period drama, "Dumas" provides decent entertainment. (France/Belgium, 105 min.) --Christy DeSmith

Like a cinematic mind-map, this documentary correlates dozens of historic events, social trends and scientific theories: Did the advent of human literacy lead to an epidemic of left-brain male thinking? Does technology cause humans to treat themselves as ever-available resources? Will total connectivity create a generation of more empathetic leaders? Whether or not you agree with her conclusions, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain has prepared a highly watchable thesis for criers and critical thinkers alike. Shlain's movie presents big-brain ideas with artful animation and plenty of heart. (U.S., 82 min.) --Christy DeSmith

This is the kind of film that will play well to a mainstream, less foreign-film-inclined audience. But those looking for something not reliant on clichés and coincidences to move the story along are advised to look elsewhere. "Aftershock" takes the "Titanic" template and sets a fictional story around a real life disaster. After the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976 hits in the beginning of the film, a character actually looks up at the sky, waves her arms and screams: "God, you bastard!" So, yeah, that's what we're dealing with here. (In Mandarin and English, 135 min.) --Erik McClanahan