Starring Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston
Directed by David Wain
While Wanderlust gets some commendable mileage out of dirty hippie jokes, what truly fuels this comedy is the ability of director David Wain (Role Models) to wring awkwardness and absurdity from the most mundane of situations. Routinely leaving the camera rolling well beyond when most directors would have cut, Wain delivers a unique strain of humour that can only be achieved when the scripted joke has been stretched, twisted, and distorted beyond recognition.
That said, many of the garden-variety gags penned by Wain and co-writer Ken Marino deliver too. After a calamitous day sees George (Paul Rudd) lose his job in finance and Linda (Jennifer Aniston) have her penguins with testicular cancer documentary rejected by HBO, the couple abandons their Manhattan micro-loft (read: studio) in favour of a rural intentional community (read: commune) presided over by patchouli-scented prophet, Seth (Justin Theroux, operating at full-bore).
Few directors use Rudd as well as Wain, who recognizes that quips and cutting remarks are often founded in peevishness and insecurity. While there are laughs to be had at Georges mounting exasperation over the ludicrous assertion of an acid-victim (Alan Alda) that money literally buys nothing, were also keenly aware of why he wont let the argument go: having been left penniless, hes discovered that the supposed land of opportunity doesnt offer many palatable options.
Thanks to such solid character work, were more inclined to forgive Wain and Marino when they sheath their sharp satire in order to deliver a rather conventional resolution. By that point, we want George and Linda to find their place in the world every bit as much as they do. Curtis Woloschuk
Starring the Community of Sanikiluaq
Directed by Joel Heath
With his d茅but documentary, Joel Heath strikes an ideal balance between his longstanding concerns as an ecologist and newfound impulses as a filmmaker. In turns breathtaking and unsettling, its readily evident why it scored the Environmental Film Audience Award at last falls 麻豆传媒映画International Film Festival.
Opening with painterly images and a poetic voiceover, People of a Feather establishes not only how reliant the Inuit of Belcher Island are on the eider ducks but also the deep reverence they possess for the birds. Tragically, massive hydroelectric projects have altered ocean currents and ice flow patterns, triggering a massive die-off in the eider population and threatening these Inuits way of life.
Having spent nearly a decade visiting the remote Nunavut community of Sanikiluaq, Heath familiarizes us with its inhabitants by allowing us to observe their daily routines. While this affords us the opportunity to witness time-honoured hunting and construction techniques, it also presents us with highly cinematic instances in which traditional ways collide headlong with the modern world. In the films most playful passage, an impromptu hip hop video breaks out on the frozen, quiet Sanikiluaq streets.
Ultimately, Heaths spectacular underwater footage serves to underline precisely how kindred the eider and Inuit are. After all, could there be a more apt (or agonizing) visual analogy for these peoples struggle than the sight of a diving duck trapped underwater and fighting a losing battle against a sheet of ice that just shouldnt be there? While you admire such fierce resilience and determination, youre offered few assurances that these attributes alone can ensure survival. C.W.
VANCOUVER JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
Director Michael Prazan will talk about his film, Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades, at the premiere 1pm on March 11.By the spring of 1943, the 3,000 members of the Nazi killing squad called Einsatzgruppen had systematically murdered over a million Jews and tens of thousands Roma, handicapped, partisans, Communists and Soviets. Who were these men? ((Norman Rothstein Theatre, 950 W. 41st, vjff.org or call 604-264-0499.)
