Sex and Death 101

Today is the final day of the Seattle International Film Festival, and I had a day chock full of cinematic goodies.

First, I watched the final film of the Secret Festival, which obviously I can't tell you about, because it's a secret. Suffice it to say that it was a good film, and definitely the best of the three secret movies that I saw, but that's not really saying much. I'm not really sure that the films they showed this year were worth the $12/ticket price of admission, especially since I didn't get to see either of the two movies I was really hoping to see, secretly.

Next, I watched "Interview" which was directed by (and starred) Steve Buschemi. He stayed for a Q&A after the film, which was pretty interesting. It was a nice character-driven piece about the trappings of celebrity and snobbery, with a bit of intrigue thrown in. It was a remake of a dutch film by Theo van Gogh, who was murdered as a result of a short he made about sexual abuse endured by Muslim women. (Which has nothing whatsoever to do with this film.) Two of his other films are about to be remade, one by Stanley Tucci, and one possibly by John Turturro. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, so I'll look for the others. The original version of the film wasn't released in the states, but Mr. Buschemi said that they might release this version and the original on DVD together. It would definitely be worth watching.

The last movie I saw today (although I had tickets for a fourth movie, I just couldn't sit there for one more minute) was "Sex and Death 101" which was written and directed by Daniel Waters, the writer of "Heathers." The tone of the film was similar to "Heathers," with elements of surrealism and some pretty outlandish humor (not to mention Winona Ryder trying to kill people). I really liked this movie, but it wasn't quite awesome. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a dark comedy today. I don't know. It didn't hit me right.

Anyway, as for my personal crises, still nothing to report. Hopefully things will turn out for the best. A phone conference with Sherry proved to be both uplifting and revealing. Apparently those who have known me longest and best have been on red-alert for a while now. What can you do?