27 FEBRUARY 22-28, 2012 | metrosiliconvalley.com | sanjose.com | metroactive.com
Love, Wrinkle-Free (India; 106 min.) A ribald family farce, at least by Indian standards, in which 40something Savio (Ash Chandler) hopes to provide for his family by designing a line of edible underwear. Noel Coward it ain’t, but writer/ director Sandeep Mohan gently mocks much of midlife in general and Goa in particular, from hippie stoner jokes to Hindi/Catholicism, a residue from Portuguese colonization. Most of the broad humor concerns the vanity of Savio, his wife and a local businessman with a hair fetish. Director Mohan attempts to juggle one subplot too many, and some gags fall flat. The film is silly but good-natured. (DH) March 4, 7pm, California Theatre; March 7, 7:15pm, Camera 12; March 9, 9:15pm, Camera 12.
Mixed Kebab (Belgium; 98 min.) In the opening shot, Ibriham (Cern Akkanat) faces the camera and blithely introduces himself as Turkish, Belgian, Muslim and gay— as well as betrothed to his pretty and materialistic cousin in Turkey. His indifference allows the gravity of his family situation to emerge slowly. If he doesn’t care, why should I? But director Guy Lee Thuys masterfully steers Bram (his Belgian nickname) his family and his paramour’s family into the deep waters of race, religion, sexuality and identity. Enumerating these “big themes” doesn’t do justice to the excellent cast and script, which leaven the tragedies of everyday life. Here in Silicon Valley, I too often think that a tolerant multiculture is the norm. Mixed Kebab harrowingly and humorously reminds me that Muslim gays and women might think otherwise. (DH) March 4, 4:30pm; March 7, 5pm; March 9, 9:15pm; all at San Jose Rep.
Portrait of a Zombie (Ireland; 85 min.) It not easy having fun with zombies—relentless, mindless appetite just isn’t that amusing.
LeÓ e`j_\[ JgXZ\j
Writer/director Bing Bailey’s feature, however, stands comparison to Shaun of the Dead itself. In a workingclass part of Dublin, a low-budget film crew (perhaps hoping to get into Cinequest?) is tracking the sad story of Billy (Patrick Murphy), a young man inflicted with a zombie virus. His harried but supremely loving parents (perfectly pitched performances by Geraldine McAlinden and Rory Mullen) talk with touching sincerity about their son’s plight. The empathy quotient runs high until we actually meet Billy, who needs a Hannibal Lecter mask and grappling hooks to keep him from devouring the cameraman. As the local hooligans organize anti-zombie protests and the director romances Billy’s sister, Billy’s girlfriend reveals that she is pregnant—an announcement that leads to a supreme gross-out scene that should leave Rick Santorum with even more nightmares about
prenatal care than he already suffers from. (MSG) March 3, midnight; March 5, 9:30pm; March 10, 4:30pm; all at Camera 12.
Unfinished Spaces (U.S.; 86 min.) Not just one of the highlights of this year’s festival, but one of the best documentaries on Cuba ever made. Directors Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray chronicle how, in a burst of revolutionary enthusiasm, Fidel Castro’s government commissioned a series of art schools on the grounds of a seized country club. The first was completed speedily by architect Ricardo Porro and a group of less-famous associates working with volunteer student labor. The builders overcame the U.S. embargo on building materials by creating a school of breezeways and soaring brick vaults, based on Catalonian models. But
pressure from without and within Cuba kept this dream from being completed. First, the project was denounced as too “Pharaonic” for an underdeveloped country. Later, the sexually liberated conduct of the art students aroused the prissy wrath of Che himself, since he and Fidel had embraced the hard-core Philistinism of the U.S.S.R. Gay students were purged, and the architects either were blacklisted or fled Cuba. Abandoned and overgrown, the school was at one point the backdrop for an outer space Planet of the Barbarians–type TV series. The redemption of this “maldita” (cursed) school is the happy part of the story; it has special relevance to Americans who are watching the U.S. underfund its own arts. (RvB) March 2, 1:45pm; March 7, 6:30pm; March 10, 4:15pm; all at Camera 12.
Features 28