The 51st Karlovy Vary Film Festival ended Saturday night with an awards ceremony that found Michael Shannon unexpectedly presenting an award and President’s Award honoree Charlie Kaufman wowing the crowd with an acceptance speech completely in Czech. “Captain Fantastic” continues to garner accolades around the world as it took the coveted Audience Award and the competition grand jury granted a Special Jury Prize to the buzzworthy “Zoology” (read The Playlist’s review here). Best Actress went to Zuzana Maurey for local favorite “The Teacher,” and special mentions went to both “By the Rails” and “The Wolf From Royal Vineyard Street.”
Keeping that in mind, here are a few remaining capsule reviews for the recipient of the Crystal Globe, Karlovy Vary’s top honor, and a few other notable titles that played this year’s festival.
“It’s Not The Time Of My Lie”
Oh, no. Another intimate family drama that takes place solely within the confines of one apartment? And did we mention it all occurs over the course of just one day? Slit your wrists, right? Well, in this case, wrong, as Szabolcs Hajdu‘s film took home the Crystal Globe and a Best Actor honor for the writer/director. The film starts with Frakas and Eszer (Hajdu and Orsolya Török-Illyés), exhausted from a late night dinner party and arguing over their energetic 5-year-old (Hajdu’s son Zsigmond), find themselves with late night guests in Eszer’s sister Emella (Erika Tanko), her husband Albert (Domokos Szabo) and their 10-year-old daughter, Laura (Hajdu’s daughter Lujza). After moving to Scotland a year earlier for what they thought was a better life, the family has barely made it back to Hungary with a broken down car and nowhere to stay. As the day progresses, the differences in the two families circumstances become painfully apparent. Albert and Eszer are practically penniless, but too proud to really explain their predicament to the rest of their family. Frakas and Ernella aren’t super rich, but part of a global upper middle class that assume the worst when an envelope of money goes missing. And, similarly, Albert and Eszer react with a defensiveness that only exacerbates the chasm of mistrust with their hosts. Hajdu, who originated the material for the stage, used 13 different camera people (credited as cinematographers) to give it an intimacy that shockingly never feels like a filmed play. It’s cleverly cinematic, touching and, frankly, sort of remarkable. [A-]
“We’re Still Together”
It’s slightly hard to fathom why director and screenwriter Jesse Klein decided to make his directorial debut with this particular material (although its Canadian pedigree practically screams for a local slot at TIFF). Chris (Jesse Camacho) is a grossly overweight Montreal college student who is an easy target for immature bullies still living out their high school angst. His world is thrown for a loop when the unknown Bobby (Joey Klein, the director’s brother) comes out of nowhere to save him from a particularly cruel episode of harassment. Charismatic and confident, Bobby ends up dragging Chris out for a night on the town. Along the way Chris finally has the courage to talk to Claire (Eve Harlow), the convenience store clerk he has a crush on, and we learn that Bobby has some family issues that are eating him up on the inside. The filmmaker’s problem – outside of a strange fetish on unnecessary close ups at times — is that the story is simply not that compelling. Camacho seems like the wrong fit for Chris and Bobby’s storyline and the familiar material could be handled better elsewhere. The saving grace is the charismatic Klein who carries much of the movie on his back and deserves a much better spotlight than this. [C+]
“Nightlife”
Damjan Kozole’s drama begins with an intriguing premise. A prominent Slovenian defense lawyer (Jernej Sugman) argues for a controversial technicality to have significant charges dismissed against his client. Over an awkward dinner later that day, his wife (a fantastic Pia Zemljič) can barely hide her disappointment with the result. The fact his client got off could put both of them in danger as many in the government or the nation’s elite power brokers are very angry (who is left intentionally vague). Later that night, he is found lying on the sidewalk in the middle of the city, practically naked, covered with dog bite marks and severely injured through a shocking means we won’t spoil here. When his wife arrives at the hospital she discovers what happened to her husband and immediately becomes obsessed with finding a way to cover up this aspect of his attack. As the night goes on, she finds herself questioned by the police and wondering if her husband’s best friend and business partner really has his best interests at heart. Believing any news of the means of his injuries would “destroy him” professionally, she crosses moral boundaries to protect his reputation that she never would have considered beforehand. Kozole won the Best Director prize for his work, and based on the first half of the film, it’s completely justified. Zemljič’s compelling performance aside, the major problem with “Nightlife” is the second half doesn’t come close to the cinematic heights of the first. That’s mostly because the discovery of the beaten lawyer is such a wonderfully conceived and staged sequence the rest of the picture can’t live up to it. Who was behind the attack? Was it a rogue faction of the police, his victims, or someone else? Kozole is so focused on exploring the ethical drama at hand that he seems to have completely misread the fact the audience needs some hint at what really happened to the lawyer in the first place. [B]
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