SIFF 2002 Films: L-Q

A-J | K-Q | R-Z

*recommended

KENNEWICK MAN: AN EPIC DRAMA OF THE WEST
U.S.A. (Seattle), 2001. Directors: Ryan Purcell, Kyle Carver
Sun., May 26, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Tues., May 28, 9:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall

These are some of the most controversial bones ever dug up.

KHALED
Canada, 2001. Director: Asghar Massombagi
Sat., May 25, 6:30 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Mon., May 27, 1:45 p.m., Harvard Exit

Almost a truly good movie, Khaled veers frustratingly into neorealism-meets-TV-afterschool-special sentimentality after its horrifying, promising start. Living in a squalid Toronto public housing project with his addict mother, 10-year-old Khaled is incessantly bullied at school on account of his ethnic name and looks. (His Arabic father is long gone.) This scrappy latchkey kid does his mothers shopping and tenderly scrubs her back while she smokes in the tub. Intent on avoiding both a well-meaning social worker and kindly old female neighbor (whos blind, of course), Khaled then tries desperately to conceal the truth (and stink) of his mothers abrupt death. He wont cry. Instead he clings to his routine, ducking a stereotypically evil apartment manager and shunning his one friend for fear of being caught and sent to foster care (where he was previously abused, of course). Shot on DV, Khaled looks like shit, but you wont soon forget its overwhelming odor of fear. B.R.M.

KILLER TATTOO
Thailand, 2001. Director: Yuthlert Sippapak
Fri., June 16, 12:00 a.m., Egyptian

Hit men can't get the job done? Hire someone else to off them.

KIRA'S REASON: A LOVE STORY
Denmark, 2001. Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Fri., May 24, 4:30 p.m., Egyptian
Sun., May 26, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit

Don't hate it because it's Dogma (or Dogme, if you prefer). Yet another stripped-down, small-scale naturalistic Danish drama conforming to the 1995 vow of cinematic purity, Reason bears comparison to Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence in its portrait of a mentally unstable young housewife trying to preserve her marriage. It doesn't help that husband Mads has been carrying on an affair during her two years of institutionalization. Once out, Kira sniffs infidelity in the air but can't find the culprit. She also can't cope too well on the outside, her manic personality spooking the couple's two little kids and threatening to cloud Mads' career. Kira also has issues with her divorced father, and her sister lurks in the background—so it's no surprise when the whole damn family converges for a final emotional free-for-all at a posh hotel. Though Reason breaks no new ground, it's one of the easier recent Dogma efforts, like Italian for Beginners or Mifune. B.R.M.

LAN YU
China/Hong Kong, 2001. Director: Stanley Kwan
Sun., June 9, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian
Tues., June 11, 4:30 p.m., Egyptian

A boy student and a businessman have a fling in Beijing.

LAST CALL
U.S.A., 2002. Director: Henry Bromell
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Neve Campbell, Sissy Spacek
Fri., May 24, 7:00 p.m., Pacific Place

Irons plays F. Scott Fitzgerald in his late, ungreat Hollywood days. World premiere.

LAST DANCE
U.S.A., 2001. Director: Mirra Bank
Sun., June 2, 1:45 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall
Tues., June 4, 7:00 p.m., Broadway Perf. Hall

If you only know Maurice Sendak as the writer/illustrator of children's books, you might not expect the side of him you see in this documentary about the creation of A Selection, a work for the Connecticut-based Pilobolus Dance Theater. For some people the collaborative process brings out their best qualities—for Sendak and the five co- directors of Pilobolus, the journey is twistier, even a bit nasty at times. On all sides we see artists who are firmly committed to their vision, unwilling to compromise and yet curious to see if they might make something new with this challenging combination. The dance itself, a meditation on the Holocaust originally set in a train station, includes a wonderfully sinuous part for dancer Otis Cook, but it's the process of getting there, the backstage view of personalities in conflict, that provides Last Dance's real drama. Sandra Kurtz

THE LAST KISS
Italy, 2001. Director: Gabriele Muccino
Fri., June 7, 7:00 p.m., Pacific Place
Sat., June 8, 1:45 p.m., Pacific Place

Love and familial obligations across three generations.

THE LAST WEDDING
Canada, 2001. Director: Bruce Sweeney
Sat., May 25, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Mon., May 27, 4:00 p.m., Pacific Place

The title is apropos since getting married is the last thing you'll want after witnessing the three miserable couples on display in this tedious, plodding Canadian film that makes you long for thirtysomething reruns. Who's the worst? The dull married professor who trades a hand-job from a comely student for a good recommendation? The bitter architect who's a complete jerk to his wife because he resents her success? Or the newly married Noah and Zipporah who discover—oh, the shock!--that tying the knot without really knowing each other isn't such a great idea. Sounds obvious? It is. Audrey Van Buskirk

LAWLESS HEART
Great Britain, 2001. Directors: Tom Hunsinger, Neil Hunter
Sun., June 2, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit
Wed., June 5, 4:30 p.m., Egyptian

It's a given that at least one SIFF film is going to play with the old "one-story-told-from-many-points-of-view" device, and Hearts is it. In this sober look at muddled yearnings, we first meet three related members of one English clan: a vaguely dissatisfied family man; the grief-stricken gay partner of his dead brother-in-law; and the family's returning ne'er-do-well. Then we watch them work their way through petty squabbles and suffer to find meaning in their lives. Each third of the movie is seen through the eyes of one character. While the gimmick is nothing new, Heart isn't going for flash. Not much more than an accomplished BBC offering, its focus on quiet, unsettled heartbreak shows admirable subtlety. The three stories' varied twists also display the kind of compassionate idiosyncrasies lacking in similar American counterparts—as when the bereaved gay partner's frustrated sexual tussle with a female friend passes without overblown comment. S.W.