SIFF Week 3: 30 New Picks & Pans

9:20 p.m., Uptown

V.O.S.

With so many movies about moviemaking, the whole meta genre is pretty played out for us poor filmgoers. But V.O.S. is different: A Spanish stage play, originally, about a foursome whose decision to have a baby together complicates their already complicated and intertwined romantic lives. And more, they seem to be characters in a movie who are aware of the process, perhaps even rewriting the screenplay as they go. Hence, the four lapse into muttered, out-of-character asides and arguments about how their story should be told. This can make V.O.S.—or the movie-within-the-movie—look sloppy, but you're never quite sure at which level these "mistakes" are being made. (Possibly it's the translation from stage to screen.) Still, the original stage cast has undeniable chemistry, the plot is incredibly well-structured, and it's hard to be as self-aware as V.O.S. without having something interesting to say. By the end of the film, I wanted to see the play. (NR) A.J. TIGNER (Also: 1:15 p.m. Sat., June 12.)

SIFF

I Killed My Mother

SIFF

Hipsters

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More About

• Ondine (Movie)
• Brian Miller
• Kirkland Performance Center
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Sexuality

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9:30 p.m., Pacific Place

Turistas

"I'm not very intuitive," says Carla, a biochemist with stern eyeglasses. She's a woman of science, age 37, on vacation from Santiago with her husband. He wants children, she says no, and he abandons her by the side of the road. From there, wandering into the Siete Tazas national park with a cute blonde backpacker who says he's gay, Carla gets in touch with nature. This means many shots of bugs and forest, some friendly zoology lessons from a paunchy ranger who used to be a pop star, and much consideration of her life. Along with Tilda Swinton in I Am Love and Patricia Clarkson in Cairo Time, actress Aline Kuppenheim is one of a trio of women wandering through SIFF unmoored in life. Does she really need a man or child? She's not so sure. To the broken Spanish of the hitchhiker, she tries to explain the meaning of "ripe," a keyword in the movie. Is she at the point of fertility or decay? Again, Carla isn't sure. The ranger tells her of children, "You have to have them when you're young; it's a law of nature." Director Alicia Scherson pushes her heroine against that law without insisting on outright comedy or drama. The film is more observational, almost like an experiment (introduce subject X to new environment Y; see if she survives or mates). Turistas' big philosophical question comes from an ATM: "Do you need more time?" Again, Carla isn't sure. (NR) BRIAN MILLER (Also: 4 p.m. Wed., June 9.)