The American Film Institute Festival is hitting Los Angeles with some really great movies in tow, and we’re giving away a load of tickets to them, including some movies that I know you guys are going to love, like Timecrimes, Not Quite Hollywood and The Good, The Bad, The Weird.
Here’s the deal: this is a rock-em, sock-em fast contest and I need to get winners ASAP. I have three pairs of tickets to each of the films below, and you can win tickets to as many of these films as you like. It’s like getting a festival pass! Just send me an email to devin at chud.com with AFI in the subject line and your name in the body, along with which movie(s) you want to see, and which screening(s) – click the links at each film to find the screening info. But get that email to me right away, as we don’t have a lot of time here. This will be first come, first serve, so email RIGHT NOW!
BEFORE THE FALL
Directed By: F Javier Guierrez
(Spain, 2008, 93 mins)
US Premiere
With a giant meteorite on a collision course with Earth, the inhabitants of the village of Laguna, including the ne’er-do-well Ale, face up to a series of increasingly desperate decisions in this expert, harrowing mash-up of sci-fi, American Western and Andalusian thriller.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/2054
THE CHASER
Directed By: Na Hong-jin
South Korea, 2008, 123 mins
North American Premiere
The women controlled by Joong-ho, a corrupt-cop-turned-pimp, keep disappearing. Each, it turns out, visited the same client on their final night. Can Joong-ho find the deadly John before he kills again? Winner of multiple major awards, Jin’s startling debut stretches our expectations about the crime thriller.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/1520
DEADGIRL
Directed By: Na Hong-jin Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel
USA, 2008, 101 mins
A horror film with more than a few surprises, this buzzed-about sensation follows the story of two boys who find a gorgeous naked girl—Dead? Undead?—chained to a table in a basement. Should they go to the police? Or experiment with her a bit? A chilling, twisted tale of teen fantasy gone very, very wrong.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/3053
GACHI BOY WRESTLING WITH A MEMORY
Directed By: Norihiro Koizumi
Japan, 2008, 120 mins
Igarashi loses his short-term memory after a car accident—a disaster for his aspirations of becoming a lawyer but great for his dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. This mesh of ROCKY and MEMENTO is a funny, fast-paced and unexpectedly poignant calling card by a 27-year-old director to watch.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/1977
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD
Directed By: Kim Jee-woon
North American Premiere
South Korea, 2007, 130 mins
Think STAGECOACH meets high-wire Jackie Chan meets THE ROAD WARRIOR: this stunning homage to Eastwood and Leone follows three Korean exiles as they set off in bizarre pursuit of buried treasure in China. And the exhilarating, escalating mayhem concludes with an unforgettable existential showdown.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/0835
THE JUCHE IDEA
Directed By: Jim Finn
USA, 2008, 62 mins
A hybrid of Confucian ideas and authoritarian Stalinist pseudo-socialism, the Juche philosophy has guided North Korean culture and policy for 40 years. Underground legend Finn twists the philosophy into a playful, kitschy yet sharp-edged tale of a video artist whose works are fully informed by Juche.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/0357
NIRVANA
Directed By: Igor Voloshin
North American Premiere
Russia, 2008, 89 mins
After Alisa leaves Moscow for St. Petersburg, hoping to escape her loneliness, she finds a subculture filled with riff-raff: addicts, gangsters, rave kids. A mix of eye-popping style and classic tragedy, this is an audacious, innovative portrait of post-communist Russian youth.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/4362
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD
Directed By: Mark Hartley
Australia, 2008, 100 mins
NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD is the wild, wonderful, untold story of “OZPLOITATION” films. It irreverently documents an era when Australian cinema got its gear off and showed the world a full-frontal explosion of sex, violence, horror and foot-to-the-floor, full bore action!
(There’s no page for this film. It’s playing at the Arclight on Saturday November 1st at 7:10)
PARADISE
World Premiere
Directed By: Michael Almereyda
USA, 2008, 75 mins
The latest from the acclaimed director of NADJA and HAMLET was distilled from a video diary kept over many years, spanning over two dozen cities around the world. Unsupervised children make frequent appearances, as do their excitable adult counterparts. The resulting chronicle is a celebration of everyday reality.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/4434
STILL ORANGUTANS
Directed By: Gustavo Spolidoro
Brazil, 2008, 81 mins
Following an array of people around on the hottest day of the year, this award-winning debut shows both remarkable virtuosity—the entire film is shot in one take—and a gift for storytelling. Part Altman, part SLACKER, part RUSSIAN ARK, this is an off-the-wall funny new-form urban symphony.
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/2498
TIME CRIMES
Directed By: Nacho Vigalondo
Spain, 2007, 108 mins
In this mind-bending sci-fi thriller, a man accidentally travels back to the past and meets himself there, along with a naked girl and a stranger wearing a pink bandage. Can he piece together this jigsaw of time and space to figure out what’s happened? And what will happen next?
http://filmguide.afifest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/films/0582