Photo Credit: Victoria Holt

Another favorite of mine at SIFF this year was the charming road trip movie Bass Ackwards. I grabbed some time with Director Linas Phillips and his co-star, co-writer and friend Davie-Blue to talk about the experience of making this film.

While Linas is a self-described brat and I was never sure what was true and what was said in fun, the interview was fantastic and I can’t wait to see what these two do next.

I thought Bass Ackwards was great, and the thing that really made it great (in my opinion) is that Linas’s character was so loveable that you want him to be okay. You’re really rooting for him to make it.

Linas: He doesn’t seem annoying? Because he’s not getting his shit together?

No. I feel like everybody’s been lost like that at some point…

L: Everyone’s been annoying? Annoying doesn’t exclude empathy, maybe.

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Just when you thought SIFF 2010 was a thing of the past, SIFF Cinema has announced a special three-day, 14-program selection of festival award winners and audience faves, set to unspool this weekend.

SIFF-fatigued as I still am, I'm actually glad to have another chance to check out a few films my calendar couldn't accommodate during SIFF proper. Namely the big-buzz documentaries that tied for the Golden Space Needle award, Waste Land and Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life.

Anything you missed at this year's local cinema-bration but wish you hadn't? Or did SIFF not make it onto your calendar at all this year? Here's your chance to catch up!

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Every Spring in China more than 130 million workers jam train stations in desperate attempts to travel home for the New Year holiday -- a mass exodus from industrial cities that constitutes the world's largest human migration. For many travelers the journeys are extremely difficult ones (grueling distances, crammed-beyond-capacity trains) but represent their one opportunity to reunite with family all year.

In the beautifully stark, jaw-droppingly honest, and very moving documentary Last Train Home, director Lixin Fan focuses on one couple, Changhua and Sugin Zhang, beginning as they embark upon a two-day journey to their poverty-stricken rural birthplace to see their children. And it's not a happy holiday for everyone: The Zhangs' dearest wish is to earn enough money to provide their kids a good education, but teenage daughter Qin, resentful of their extended absences (and, in her mind, abandonment), eventually decides to drop out of school to work in a factory herself -- a crushing blow to her parents which leads to a deeply painful confrontation with her dad.

The extraordinarily intimate collaboration with the Zhangs reminded me a lot of the Yung Chang-directed, Lixin Fan-produced Up the Yangtze, which exquisitely observed one of many families displaced by the mammoth Three Gorges Dam project. Last Train Home similarly places a human face on China's rise as a world economic power, illustrating the true cost of progress in a country stuck between its industrial future and rural past.

{Screens Saturday 6/12, 6p and Sunday 6/13, 1:30p, Pacific Place.}

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The immensely entertaining Taiwanese gem Au Revoir Taipei, director Arvin Chen's debut feature (with exec-producer credit to none other than Wim Winders), won my affection in ways I never would've predicted, and I'm happy to see that SIFF has added a late-breaking fourth (!) screening to the schedule. When I attended (on a Sunday night at Pacific Place) the house was packed, with the longest rush ticket line I've seen yet this festival year, and those of us fortunate enough to snag a seat were in for a true charmer. I'm seriously tempted to see it again after the Closing Night film this Sunday.

Chen's film tells a rather complicated story with a feather-light touch. It centers on Kai (Jack Yao), who works at his family's busy Taipei noodle stand by day and hangs out with his always-hungry but very lovable lunkhead of a buddy Gao (Paul Chiang) by night. Hung up on an unseen ex-girlfriend who's recently relocated to Paris, Kai regularly parks himself at his local bookshop to study French textbooks; he's of course oblivious to the subtle longing glances of cute shop assistant Susie (Amber Kuo).

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One of my favorite films at SIFF this year was the beautiful, intuitive drama Cairo Time, written and directed by the equally beautiful and intuitive Ruba Nadda.

In person, Nadda exudes an open friendliness that instantly made me comfortable. We sat down for a few minutes and discussed everything from Patricia Clarkson’s eyebrows to the fiasco of Sex and the City 2. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I was captivated by everything she said, and that I’d love to be able to sit down with her and do it again.

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I'm a little ashamed to admit that prior to this documentary, the only thing I knew about William S. Burroughs was that he had written "Naked Lunch".

Taking you through a brief history of the Beat Generation, Director Yony Leyser paints an unwavering and fascinating portrait in William S Burroughs: A Man Within through film footage of the author (some with Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol), recordings, readings, and interviews with friends.

Celebs and musicians, including Peter Weller (who also narrates), David Cronenberg, John Waters, Gus Van Sant, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Thurston Moore, Jello Biafra and more cover what Burroughs meant to them – from his importance to the gay liberation movement to his later credit as "The Godfather of Punk".

After the film, I felt I had a more complete picture of a man whose legendary status as a writer and icon had made him seem almost untouchable. Burroughs was seemingly unaware of why he was famous, lived his life according to his own rules, and by all accounts, was someone who touched the lives of many personally, as well as with his writing.

If you’re curious about him at all, I’d recommend this. It’s good stuff, you guys.

{William S. Burroughs: A Man Within screens at SIFF June 10, 4pm at The Neptune and again June 12, 6:30pm at The Harvard Exit}

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Each year the giddy joy of perusing the new SIFF roster gives way inevitably to a sense of fatigue at trying to differentiate, by 25-word blurbles, the hundreds of movies that begin to blend together into genres and tropes and overlapping plots. There are the family dramas where A Secret Is Revealed that Changes Everything, the coming-of-age tales, the coming-out tales, the ones where a lovely lady gets her groove back by sleeping with a strapping native fellow, tales of foreign oppression, heists gone bad, things with ninjas, and of course the family comedies where A Secret Is Revealed that Changes Everything.

The Wedding Cake is a lovely example of a how it really all comes down to execution. Weddings are so laden with symbolism and ripe for drama that it’s no wonder filmmakers are drawn to them, nor that so many of them ride right off the rails (Rachel Getting Married comes to mind). But here’s a movie with a fairly formulaic premise (it’s a family comedy, see, and a secret is revealed that changes everything) and even somewhat clichéd execution that’s sweet and charming and very satisfying.

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If the Hallmark Channel ever goes multilingual they should secure the rights to this sweet, slow, unassuming (and rarely surprising) indie. It begins with a quick social studies lesson about Chubut Province, which is situated in the Argentina portion of the Patagonia mountain range and is where a community of descendants of late-19th-century Welsh immigrants can be found. Patagonia the film contains two analogous stories, each set in a different nation.

The first is about a Welsh couple named Gwen and Rhys; he's been sent to Patagonia for a photo project, she's discovered she's infertile just ahead of their trip. He's a bit of a tightass, she prefers to party, and the situation leads to (spoiler alert) her having a lil' fling with their guide (Brothers & Sisters's Matthew Rhys, who by the way is super hot in this).

The second narrative takes place in and around Cardiff, Wales, were an elderly Argentinian is taking a secret pilgrimage to find the childhood home of her mom; accompanying her is a dorky-cute neighbor kid named Alejandro (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, who you may have seen in the fine film The Aura); he (spoiler alert) ends up hooking up with an underdeveloped character played by pop singer Duffy.

So it's all about quests for meaning, investigations into cultural identity and searches for truth, see? And while both stories go pretty much exactly the way you expect, director Marc Evans (Snow Cake) makes sure to get in as many breathtaking shots of both countries' panoramic landscapes as possible. It's undeniably a lovely movie to behold.

But, yeah, very Hallmark. Which is not necessarily a criticism! If your mom is in town and into this sort of thing maybe you can take her on a SIFF date.

{World Premiere. Screens Thursday 6/10, 7p and Saturday 6/12, 3:45p at Uptown Cinemas.}

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I feel like I’d be doing something wrong if I simply described Monogamy as "a descent into madness", because while that’s the heart of it, the film is really about so much more.

Theo (Chris Messina, who I love in every single thing I ever see him in, but especially in this), is a photographer engaged to his lovely musician girlfriend, Nat (Rashida Jones, equally at home in this film). Frustrated with his usual wedding photo jobs, he creates Gumshoot – wherein people can hire him to follow them with a camera and capture candid moments. A fine idea, until someone named "subgirl" contacts him to shoot her erotic adventures. As wedding pressures mount, Theo gets drawn further and further into subgirl’s world, confusing fantasy for reality and slowing destroying his relationship with Nat.

Mixing voyeuristic thrill with heartbreaking realism, Director Dana Adam Shapiro has turned out a fascinating exploration of what can happen when we make assumptions about the person we love and the relationships we’re in, and how easily we can destroy ourselves in the process. On top of that, every frame in this thing looks like an artistic photograph, and the soundtrack had me at Hello.

Side note: bring a box of tissues. If you’re anything like me, you’ll lose at least twice during Theo & Dana’s discussions.

{Monogamy screens at SIFF June 9, 7pm and again June 10, 4pm at SIFF Cinema}

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Since I was reminiscing a bit about the 1982 Tom Hanks masterpiece Mazes & Monters, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look a more modern take on LARP’ing by viewing The Wild Hunt.

LARP’ing, for those that aren’t total nerds (like myself), stands for Live Action Role Playing. Imagine you played a game like World or Warcraft. Now imagine you dressed up like the character you played in WoW and then went to some remote location wherein EVERYONE did the same thing and y’all talked like your character and acted like your character and then played the game with each other in real time….with lots of booze and (mostly) fake weapons. Basically like a more extreme Ren Fair…with elves and fairies and stuff.

Anyway, this movie endeavors to fully immerse you in the experience via Erik, his girlfriend Evelyn, and his berserker Viking brother Bjorn (I’m not being facetious btw, his brother’s character is actually a berserker Viking). Erik’s not in to playing, but Evelyn is apparently bored enough to ditch him for a weekend and shack up with some dude known as "The Shaman Murtagh". But you know, Evelyn’s hot, and I guess Erik loves her or something, because he drags himself up to the LARP location in order to win her back.

Once Erik arrives, Murtagh’s clan starts acting creepier and creepier, until the thin line between reality and the game gets blurred to the point where no one can tell what’s real anymore. I’ll admit this film moves a little slowly, but the ending is totally worth the wait. Make sure you stay through the credits too!

{The Wild Hunt screens at SIFF June 5 at the Egyptian, Midnight and again June 7 at The Neptune, 09:30pm}

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