“Ruby’s passion and talent are
beautifully
struck
against
the
pressure that she feels to stay and
help her family. Heder creates a vivid
life for these characters, flawlessly
demonstrating the role that Ruby has
played in her family since she was a
child. But the members of her family,
particularly her parents, are given
the same depth and compassion.
They too are conflicted, bearing the
same worries that any parent has
about their child growing up and
leaving for college.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
8 — Wednesday, February 10, 2021
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Design by Yassmine El-Rewini
“Coda”
“Cryptozoo”
“Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir”
“In the Earth”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Sundance Film Festival, like
many events over the past year, had to
adapt to the circumstances. Though
the Festival’s fully virtual format
meant that it may have lost some of
its usual sense of authenticity and
tradition, it also meant that the films
were far more accessible. As a result,
our writers were able to cover many
more of these incredible, unique
films than would have otherwise
been possible.
Whether in-person or completely
remote, Sundance Film Festival is
a quintessential event for the film
community. Our writers watched
films with Oscar-winning actors
and first-time filmmakers, as well
as films that tested the bounds of
contemporary filmmaking — films
that made us laugh, cry, think or all of
the above.
This wide breadth of cinematic
experiences
made
this
year’s
Sundance Film Festival a remarkable
opportunity, and we are very proud
of the content that we’ve created.
— Kari Anderson and Sabriya
Imami, Daily Film Editors
“The film depicts an evolution of
Tan’s complex relationship with her
mother — how a troubled childhood
filled with clashes later led to a
period of reconciliation, buoyed by
a renewed understanding of her
mother’s trauma. From there, the
documentary seamlessly transitions
into Tan’s writing and into the
complexities of her celebrity.”
“‘Cryptozoo’
combines
the
speculative wit of Kurt Vonnegut, the
visual surrealism of David Lynch and
the aloof humor of Wes Anderson,
with a helping of ‘Jurassic Park.’
It’s more than this approximation,
though. ‘Cryptozoo’ isn’t just strange
for strangeness’s sake — there’s a
reason behind its madness, a bedrock
of meaning beneath its shimmering
psychedelic veneer.”
‘The Blazing World’ does way too
much and nothing at all
Carlson Young (“Scream: The TV
Series”) directs and stars as Margaret
Winter in this feature-length version of
her 2018 short film of the same name.
The movie, a fantasy-meets-horror-
meets-drug trip exploration of trauma’s
effect on the subconscious, plays with
familiar tropes in unoriginal ways.
After the tragic drowning of her sister
(Lillie Fink, in her debut), survivor’s
guilt plagues Margaret’s psyche,
sparking nightmares and an interest in
metaphysical spirituality. The audience
is taken along on one of these rich and
dramatic dreams for a journey that is
too unbelievable to be enthralling.
I’m not sure if there is anything in
“The Blazing World” that I had not
seen before, though the source material
was far too varied to feel like an homage
to any particular filmic trend. That
said, in Sundance’s post-screening
Q&A, cinematographer Shane F. Kelly
(“Boyhood”) cited Young’s love of
obscure German horror from the ’80s
as an influence; I confess I am ignorant
of German horror, regardless of decade
or degree of obscurity, so I cannot
evaluate this claim.
However,
other
apparent
influences draw on a larger spectrum
of film, from “Citizen Kane” to “2001:
A Space Odyssey” to “Spirited Away.”
The viewer is met with a barrage of
filmmaking techniques, none of which
necessarily complement one another,
many relying on excessive CGI.
Most troubling of all is the
oversimplicity of the narrative. In
this way, the film feels like nothing
more than a dragged-on short. We
are never sure what is reality and
what is dreamscape, so the “American
Psycho”-like final revelation is not
shocking or interesting. The beyond-
cliché tale in which a timid girl gains
confidence through a quest is poorly
executed, as there is no gradual
change. The timid girl remains
timid and afraid, with just enough
determination to endure the quest’s
challenges, and confidence comes as
a deluge with minutes remaining in
the film. This is not a story of growth
though, even if it is set up to be.
On top of this limp formula, the
lesson Margaret learns is eye-rollingly
trite: We carry the dead within
ourselves as memories. By the end of
the film, the viewer is still in the dark
about what is real and what is not.
This lack of clarity blunts the effect
of the film’s premise, that unresolved
trauma can infect our dreams.
Moreover, the idea that an event
so tragic as to provoke decades of
nightmares intoxicated by guilt and
confusion could be dismissed by the
simple realization that the dead are
preserved in memory is an insult to
trauma victims and trauma therapists
everywhere. Those on the precipice
of suicide or self-destruction are not
rejuvenated with such ease.
Perhaps it is the utter simplicity
of the film’s narrative elements that
makes the blizzard of influences and
otherworldliness so banal and campy.
The camp element is not alleviated
by the actors’ lack of dramatic range
or odd high-school hangout scenes
reminiscent of, dare I say it, “The
Babysitter.” Unfortunately for Young,
“The Babysitter” was funny — “The
Blazing World” is not.
I will give credit to the set and
lighting designers, as these elements
would have been sufficient for a strong
fantasy film had the story been better
and the cinematography more focused.
The abundance of flora within the
stately, Southern-gothic home brings
the “Alice in Wonderland” element
front of mind. Composed by Isom
Innis (“Foster the People”), the film’s
score is also a highlight, except when
it is not. A luscious blend of old-school
cinematic horns with fantastical harp
and immersive synth, the film opens
with promise.
However, in a misguided attempt to
emphasize every shadow in the corner
and every sinister glance, the score
overpowers the action on more than
one occasion. As a stand-alone work
of art, Innis’s score would evoke the
emotions sought onscreen; alongside
the visual, the strength of sound only
highlights the weak storytelling.
The most imaginative creators
must know when to pull back and let
the story tell itself. It is eminently clear
that Young is a highly imaginative
filmmaker; she just hasn’t quite struck
the balance between visual grandeur
and a cohesive narrative. As a campy
fantasy film with a few out-of-place
scenes, “The Blazing World” will
satisfy the undiscerning audience.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
ROSS LONDON
Daily Arts Writer
KARI ANDERSON
Senior Arts Editor
ANDREW WARRICK
Daily Arts Writer
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
JUDITH LAWRENCE
Daily Arts Writer
“‘In the Earth’ is completely a
creature of the pandemic. The idea
for the film was conceived on the
first day of the U.K. lockdown. The
film was shot during the summer
months over 15 days, the first new
British production since the crisis
started.
“But, as writer-director-editor
Ben Wheatley (“Rebecca”) was
quick to point out in the post-
premiere Q&A session, ‘In the
Earth’ is not about the pandemic
— it’s a reflection of our times.
Some traces of lockdown living
— natural themes of isolation
and its strain on interpersonal
relationships
—
are
indelibly
imprinted on it, but the film stands
on its own two legs.”
JACOB LUSK
Daily Arts Writer
Courtesy of
Sundance
Institute
‘Hive’ wins awards and smashes the patriarchy
with bees and roast peppers
“Hive” is a quiet sort of film. The
color palette is a bit subdued, the
camerawork relatively plain. There’s
no novel set piece or showstopping,
paroxysmal performance. But just
beneath those muted trappings,
there is a writhing, soul-biting pathos
that is most often spun by true-life
stories. “Hive” is not a story about a
maybe-maybe-not widowed Kosovan
beekeeper trying to break into the
pepper spread industry because
writer-director Blerta Basholli simply
sat around till the idea percolated from
the ether and onto the script of her
directorial debut. “Hive” is anything
but ethereal — it’s earthly, depressive
and, excusing some creative liberties,
it very much happened.
In
1999,
a
little
village
in
southwestern Kosovo by the name of
Krusha e Madhe was massacred by
Serbian special police at the tail-end
of the Kosovo War. Men were killed
or kidnapped, leaving the village
largely in the hands of women and
children. One such woman is Fahrije,
in “Hive” played by Yllka Gashi
(“Kukuni”). At the beginning of the
film, she’s rifling through body bags
and burnet clothing: no luck. As one
woman characterizes, Fahrije is one
of the unlucky ones. Not because her
husband is missing; that’s many or
most of them, after all. The lucky ones
are those that, having heard the worst,
no longer have to “startle whenever
the door knocks.”
With
the
local
charitable
organization suffering a chronic lack
of funds and her apiary only trickling
out the scantest dribbles of honey (she
and her husband were beekeepers
by trade — the movie’s called “Hive,”
after all), Fahrije is forced to get down
to business. To make ends meet — for
herself, her family and the village,
really — Fahrije has to learn how to
drive to find work in the city making
and selling avjar, a popular Balkan
condiment.
And for this, she is decreed a whore.
Repeatedly. By the café-loitering
deadbeat men. By other women. By
her own daughter. Because, you know,
whores drive cars. Or something. Tiny
villages in the Balkans don’t love an
entrepreneurial woman.
Fahrije is the sole and principal
focus of “Hive,” despite a name
suggestive of community. It’s about
community, for sure — about family,
about leaning on one another in tough
times, about female solidarity — but
Fahrije is indisputably the apple of
the camera’s eye. It often tracks her
across a scene, focusing on her face.
Gashi, the woman who plays Fahrije,
channels a subdued yet compelling
gravity, conveying masked pain and
unyielding
tenaciousness
behind
perpetually
somber
expressions.
Sorrowful
but
by
no
means
lachrymose — it’s a picture of stoicism
and the will to persevere.
The modest nature of the film
— the unimpressed might even
call it banal — belies its historicity.
It’s the first film to take home all
three of the preeminent prizes
of the World Cinema Dramatic
Competition:
the
Directing
Award, the Audience Award and
the Grand Jury Award. A win for
Kosovo (the film’s motherland),
a win for burgeoning directorial
talent Basholli, a win for the film’s
principal star Yllka Gashi and
a win for Fahrije Huti and the
women of Krusha e Madhe.
In a manner that mirrors its
modest yet historic nature, it’s
the unique admixture of the bleak
and the hopeful that made “Hive”
so popular at this year’s Sundance
Film Festival. Although the movie
didn’t percolate from the ether, it’s
anything but ethereal — war, loss,
constrictive gender norms, these
are everyday things. Not celluloid
inventions — real, earthbound
phenomena. A depressive reality.
But this austere front belies that
aforementioned
undercurrent
channeled by Gashi — just as
death and loss are earthbound
ordeals, so are endurance and
companionship. The massacre
happened 22 years ago. And just
the same, a widowed beekeeper
really did launch her own pepper
condiment business to support
her community and those she
loves.
Not everyone can be born in a land
of milk and honey. “Hive” shows us
how, when life gives you peppers,
you make ajvar. With a few awards to
boot.
JACOB LUSK
Daily Arts Writer
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Courtesy of
Sundance
Institute