For Feisty Feminists

The Seattle International Film Festival has been underway for three weeks now, but I’m just getting around to writing about the movies I’ve seen. I’ll post my thoughts on the various movies I see at the festival.

First off, I saw I am Love, an Italian movie featuring Tilda Swinton. Swinton plays Emma, the Russian trophy wife of a rich Italian businessman. The movie centers around Emma’s family life; her son and husband have been named heirs to the family business, but the son is more interested in opening up a restaurant at his friend Edoardo’s remote mountain home, and her daughter is dealing with new revelations about her personal life. Emma, seduced by Edoardo’s cooking, begins an affair with him.

Emma’s relationship with her children is lovingly drawn, and she shares quiet moments of  affection with each child that are touching and genuine. Her affair with Edoardo is compelling, showing the forces that draw her down a destructive path. However, for the first 3/4 of the movie, I found it surprisingly dull and uninspiring despite Swinton’s weird and amazing screen presence. The final portion of the movie was emotionally wrenching, with Emma making monumental choices in relation to her family and her own life.

The score, by John Adams, is beautiful, but until that gut punch of a finale, it is mostly confined to establishing shots of beautiful Italian countrysides and cityscapes. This might be why the first portions of the movie felt so uninspired; we get used to musical cues that heighten emotion and tell us what to feel. I’m really not sure what to make of I am Love, other than to adore the parts that work well - Emma’s loving relationship with her children, Swinton’s performance, Edoardo’s blazing hotness, the score, and the sumptuous visuals - and appreciate it for that.

The Freebie is an entirely different movie; a mostly improvised movie based on a 6-page outline, written by director/star Katie Aselton. Aselton and Dax Shepard play a married couple who haven’t had sex in quite some time. In a late night conversation, they both admit that they have things they would explore with other people, and they agree that, for one night, they can each sleep with someone else. Their agreement affects them both in ways they did not expect

The Freebie is a bit similar in style to Humpday and The Puffy Chair, and the strongest point of the movie is the acting. The portrayals of the relationships of long-time friends, relatives and lovers feel incredibly lived-in, the conversations spontaneous. The story develops fairly naturally, and feels more realistic than the implausible dare at the center of Humpday (I mean, really. One of the characters motivations for wanting to fuck another straight man on film is summed up as ‘I don’t know why I want to do this, but it’s important to me.’) Aselton and Shepard are best in show, but Ross Partridge, as the bartender at Aselton’s ‘free night’ is also notable for his funny and sexy turn.

The Freebie also avoids the biggest pitfall of these improvised and/or mumblecore movies; it is not visually awful, though it is not particularly visually inspired, either. The Freebie also has a greater deal of depth, exposing the ugly underbelly of a marriage that at first seems ideal, and suggesting that the husband and wife would rather lie to each other than have some difficult conversations. Overall, The Freebie is enjoyable, with understated comedy amid some difficult truths about relationships.

You get to overhear a lot of conversations on the bus, and learn some pretty personal things about your fellow riders.  While the overwrought tales of interpersonal drama can be irritating, more often they are entertaining.  If only I did not have to overhear crap like a conversation concerning the election between two seemingly educated, seemingly intelligent, liberal young men, wherein I learned the following:

• Rudy Giuliani shouldn’t be president because he is bald.
• John McCain is too old to be president.
• Rudy Giuliani clearly has mob ties, as he is from New York and has an Italian name.
• Although they both agree with Hillary more than Obama, they will vote for Obama because he gives them the warm fuzzies, or something.
• Obama should do something more interesting with his hair, like get dreadlocks.

For the most part, these things are just asinine (although the thing about Obama’s hair is plain offensive); it makes me very sad, however, that these are the kinds of things people are discussing concerning the election.  I am not sure if this is because these two young men were particularly dim-witted, or because the election really does not bring up anything of meaning - just campaign slogans and meaningless mud-slinging.   I am sure that it is fucking depressing to hear shit like this.

In my continuing quest to take the ‘law’ out of law school, I signed up for an independent study. This independent study is completely policy-based: it focuses on Seattle’s 10-year plan to end homelessness. Those of you who know me in real life know how passionately I feel about homelessness and housing, and that I believe homeless people are both actively and passively discriminated against. Also, housing is not just what you get for being a good middle-class worker bee - it’s a human right.

This plan is, from what I can tell, a complete crock. I think it’s mostly for people who want ‘Member, King County Committee to End Homelessness’ on their resume - you know, so they can look all concerned about social justice and shit.

The 2006 Progress Report highlights some of my misgivings. The contents of the report mostly fall into two categories: 1. reassurances that the committee is doing important stuff and achieving many goals! But that’s pretty much all they can say about it, they can’t give you specifics. 2. Touching Stories about someone who used to be homeless.

It’s hard to explain exactly why the Touching Stories about people who used to be homeless stick in my craw. I think it’s great that Sheila, or Joe, or whoever, has housing now. It’s just that when you tell 10 of those stories, you are not showing that you have ended homelessness or changed anything systemic. In fact, I would argue that you are actually doing a disservice to homeless people who are still homeless - after all, if Jana could get housing, why can’t Eddie? It reeks of the pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, god helps those who help themselves mentality. Also, many of the stories feature subjects who are part of a group - such as veterans, chronic alcoholics, domestic violence victims, or teenagers - who are eligible for special assistance that is not available to everyone. (’Everyone’ meaning those who aren’t part of the nobly suffering ‘good’ homeless crowd that has a societally approved excuse for homelessness, and don’t think they aren’t getting the shit end of the stick as well.)

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