SIFF 2012: Overheard 2 (Spoilers)

     Overheard 2

     From the pedigree and trailers, one would easily mistake Overheard 2 for a white knuckle Hong Kong thrill ride ala Election, Mad Detective, the one with Chow-Yun Fat fighting a guy with a chainsaw.  Despite the opening (and very good) car chase, this film is really the most nerve-wracking movie about stock trading ever created.  It is a prototypical revenge plot with a Wall Street twist.  It involves manipulation of market prices, insider trading, secret business cabals, and surveillance equipment. 

SIFF 2012: The Polisse (SPOILERS)

The Polisse

When the first movie in your 6-film SIFF package is about the lives of the police of the Parisian Child Protection Unit, you prepare yourself to mine the depths of the darkest parts of humanity. What you don’t expect is a movie that is also equal parts funny and lively. I expected a long two-hour slog that would just leave me sad and questioning the human condition. However, The Polisse embrace humanity in all its aspects, good and bad, abhorrent and uplifting.

SIFF Movie Selection

It is May, which for the Seattle cinephile, means the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) starts up once again. For a whole month, dozens of movies play all across the city. I have been attending SIFF for the last ten years and I have used (relatively) the same process in selecting movies. Unfortunately, every year there are hundreds of movies being shown (this year 447!) and there is only so many films one can see(balancing work, social life, videogames, etc). I and saw about 15 films during one festival and got completely burnt out. The ideal number is between 6 and 10 for me.