Buffalo Wings and Toasted Ravioli

I saw my two final films this afternoon: For Your Consideration at 12:00, and Blindsight at 3:15.  “For Your Consideration” is the latest film from director Christopher Guest, and like his earlier films (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind), it was largely improvised.  Unlike those films, this time Guest and his usual cast made a relatively straightforward story rather than the mockumentary format they’ve used before.  Catherine O’Hara is the star, and delivers a wonderful performance.  A particular highlight of this film is the hairstyles–you’ll have to see them for yourselves.  Another highlight was that almost the entire cast appeared for the Q&A.

My last film was Blindsight, the documentary about six blind Tibetan kids and the team that took them on an expedition to climb the Himalayas.  One of the most enlightening elements of the film was learning about a less romantic side of Tibetan culture: the blind are considered sinners, obviously guilty of great evil in past lives.  It was a shock to hear an elderly Tibetan woman cursing two blind kids as they pass on the street.

I’m not sure how I feel about this film, frankly.  The good news is that everyone survived.  There were, however, several points in the film where I wondered how the teacher and the climbing team could have embarked on such a dangerous adventure with children, without having a clear understanding and agreement on the purpose of the climb.  To its credit, the film recorded some of the arguments among the team.  Again, without wanting to reveal anything, I’ll just say that the uplifting ending seemed like a stretch, and a somewhat selective one at that.  I’m eager to hear the reactions of others.

I finally left Toronto at 6:00 pm and made it home by 8:00.  I was a little sad to leave–not so much because I wanted to see more films (although I did), but because of thinking about the contrast between Buffalo and Toronto.  A few weeks ago I toured several of the downtown Buffalo apartments and lofts as part of Buffalo Old Home Week.  There were some beautiful, stylish lofts available, but little else downtown to attract me to live there.  This is all familiar to anyone in Buffalo: the disaster caused in part by the decision years ago to close Main Street to traffic, and the subsequent abandonment of downtown retail.  That’s what makes the rehabbing of those downtown buildings feasible.  Clearly, the hope is that if enough people move back downtown, the amenities of a neighborhood will follow.  Downtown Toronto, by contrast, is vibrant, multicultural, and filled with life and activity.  I don’t usually blog about Buffalo; there are lots of others who have been here much longer than me and have much more insight into the problems of Western New York than I do.  Still the contrast was striking, and disheartening.

After the midnight movie last night, I got up this morning at the crack of 11:00 am, had a leisurely breakfast at the Sunset Grill, and eventually made my way to the 6:15 pm showing of The Killer Within, directed by Macky Alston.  This was a phenomenal documentary about Bob Bechtel, a beloved professor of environmental psychology at the University of Arizona and a loving family man, who finally decides to reveal to his extended family and friends, and the public, what his immediate family has long known: that fifty years ago, as a student at Swarthmore in 1955, he shot and killed a fellow student.  That’s where the film starts.  “The Killer Within” is one of those films, which proceeds by successively peeling back layers of the story which undermine the story we thought we knew.  Much of the story is driven by the efforts of Bechtel’s two grown daughters to understand what happened, and how the man they knew as a loving father could have done such a thing.  Along the way, the film raises many questions of memory, guilt, punishment, retribution, and rehabilitation, and refuses to answer any of them.  I was lucky enough to sit next to Dyanna Taylor, the cinematographer on the film, and got to talk briefly with both her and the director.  This was an extraordinarily powerful documentary that grew in depth and scope as it went on.  I hope to be able to arrange a screening of the film at UB for the Law and Documentary Studies Center.

The 9:00 pm film, The Last King of Scotland, was based on a novel and tells a fictionalized story of Idi Amin of Uganda and the naive Scottish doctor who became, for a time, Amin’s “closest advisor.”  Forrest Whitaker played a chilling Amin, and the young doctor was played by James McAvoy (who also played Christina Ricci’s love interest in Penelope).  The focus of the film was not on Amin, but on the doctor, showing how easily the almost-innocent can be seduced by the charm and power of a charismatic leader.  The violence, while caught only in sidelong glimpses, was brutal.

Tomorrow I have a ticket for Blindsight at 3:15, but I’m going to try to get a ticket for another movie before then.   I think deserve a nice romantic comedy, but I’ll see what’s available; a lot of showings are already sold out.