By Ryan Wilson
This week the 6th Annual Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival will again
take over the State Theater, the Old Masonic Temple, and Delta College’s Planetarium in
Bay City. Here are my picks for the first two days of the festival on
Thursday and Friday.
The first two days of this year’s festival bring angst in a variety of forms, from
youthful rebellion to middle-aged disenchantment. Most of the characters and subjects
from these early festival offerings struggle against the emotional weight of their
predicaments, and, like most angst-filled lives, the characters can be presented either
seriously or through ironic humor.
The opening night film, Maria My Love, which will be shown at 8:15 at The State
Theater, is a realistic treatment of a young woman struggling with her identity after her
mother dies. Reeling from her loss, Ana tries to ignore her grief by helping an
eccentric older woman, played by screen veteran Karen Black, organize her life. Ana
soon realizes that she needs to accept her limitations, as well as the complicated
lives of her altruistic boyfriend and her competitive sister. This tender drama
doesn’t overcomplicate its believable premise. Instead its understated acting and
visual style lets the material sink-in all the more. Two of the lead actresses will be
attending the screening.
The Off Hours, which screens on Friday night at 6:00 in the Masonic Temple,
is similarly subtle in depicting the quiet desperation of those literally stranded in
their lives. Stuck in her mundane existence at a roadside café, Francine dates the
local men when not helping her alcoholic boss keep himself together. But when an
intriguing truck driver begins to notice her, Amy begins to yearn for more.
Beautifully shot, this realistic slice of bleak rural life looks like an Edward Hopper
print come to life.
Immediately following that film at 9:00 at the Masonic Temple, The Lie asks
us to compare and contrast happiness and contentment. Frustrated with his
bourgeois lifestyle and mindless office job, Lonnie snaps one day. Needing a break,
he makes up the most outrageous and disturbing lie possible to get a day off work.
The consequences change his marriage and his family forever. Based on T. C. Boyle’s
short story of the same title, this dramatic film poses serious questions about how to
age gracefully and where to compromise while aging.
After watching such serious matters handled so well earlier in the day, the
Friday night late show beginning at 11 at the Masonic, Eye of the Sandman, strikes a very different tone.
Dithering about her future and her upcoming marriage, Natalie, a one-eyed bride,
inherits a vast estate from her departed father. Enter a strange scientist and his
even stranger experiment, and her plans begin to change. This over-the-top and
hilariously wry take on the traditional haunted house film feels like a Scooby-Doo
episode directed by Wes Anderson. The irony, along with the blood, drips in
abundance.
And finally, screening on Friday night at 9:00 at the State Theater, Color Me
Obsessed profiles perhaps the most angst-fueled rock-and-roll band of all time: The
Replacements. This avant-garde documentary not only chronicles the lifespan of the
band and its bizarre members, but more interestingly, the film captures the
experience of what it was like to be a fan of the band in the 1980s. As one of those
angst-filled fans, complete with a Replacements bumber-sticker on my crummy first
car, I can say that this film nails everything I once loved about the band. And I’m not
alone. Including phenomenal commentary from famous rockers like The
Decemberist’s Colin Meloy and The Ramone’s Tommy Ramone, as well as famous
actors, this film explores not just an obsession with band but also the importance of
what the band represented. Shot and edited in the same nontraditional spirit of the
The Replacements, this film is for anyone who experienced even a little bit of the
early alternative music movement.
Angst and anguish may abound in the first two days of the Hell’s Half Mile
Festival next week, but through the inner struggles of these artists and characters
audiences should come away well rewarded for their ticket. For information on all show
times and venues, go to hhmfest.com.
Take 5 on Film is a production of Delta College Quality Public Radio. Join me
next for a preview of the Hell’s Half Mile’s Saturday and Sunday film
selections, including the closing night film about a high school football team in
Dearborn, Michigan.
© Ryan Wilson, 2011