VIFF Roundup

Roundup, he says. Hah! Four films watched hardly makes for a comprehensive roundup but they were four good ones.

Last Thursday was loudQUIETloud: a film about THE Pixies.
What really needs to be said about this movie? I love the Pixies, I loved their concert at Bumbershoot '04 and I was intent on loving this documentary. Director Steven Cantor followed the band around during their highly successful reunion tour in 2004, The Pixies Sell Out. There was absolutely nothing remarkable about how the film was put together. The enjoyment came from watching the band members' interactions (or lack thereof) in the dressing rooms and while on the road.

Some revelations:

- Charles Thompson (Black Francis) is not quite the arrogant, megalomaniac he's sometimes made out to be. Perhaps he has chilled out now that he is well into his tubby, balding whale-like 40's but he was rather grounded and well-behaved from what was shown in the movie.

- Kim Deal is adorable and acts like a giddy, teenager trapped in a 40-year old woman's body.

- the drummer, whose name I still did not managed to remember, is pretty funny. He's a real character and his experiences during the tour provided some dramatic texture to the film.

- there were no epic spats, nothing was thrown and everyone got along for the most part. We really get the sense that none of the Pixies are really good friends and at the end of the day, don't have much to say to each other.

Not revelations:

- Frank Black's ass is still massive

- the writer for Rolling Stone magazine was quite ready to stick his entire head into said ass (and almost did)

Saturday came around and I checked out my final feature, the French/UK animated sci-fi thriller, Renaissance. This was a well put together film although disappointing in its modest ambitions. The plot is centered around a police captain's search for missing person and is structured as in a police procedural/film noir fashion. Following clues, questioning suspects and they even throw in a throwaway femme fatale character, although she's neither very femme or fatale. Action sequences are few and far between, with very little in the way of gunplay or exciting chases. This leaves us with the story, which is wholly unoriginal (evil all-powerful corporation hunting the secret to eternal life), even with the little twist they throw in at the end.

Still, even if there's little substance to hang on to, the execution picks up a lot of the slack. The animation in Renaissance is superb and very French. There's an amazing amount of detail and stylistic flourishes combined with a very fluid realism. I rarely pay much attention to sound in movies, but I noticed how good the sound editing was in this film as well. And I did like how the entire movie was black and white although it can be argued if it really adds anything to the movie as opposed to being in colour. But everything just looks good.

The voice acting was generally excellent as well, with the males throwing in better performances than their female counterparts. The male cast includes the likes of the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, Ian Holm and Jonathan Pryce. The two sisters are voiced by Catherine McCormack and Romola Garai. Their characters are not very compelling partly because they do not get much screen time and also because they are simply not well-formed characters to begin with.