VIFF started yesterday and I’ve already seen a few movies that I may write more about later. In the meantime, here are a few films I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of before the festival.
Relax, Open Your Eyes
I knew basically nothing about cryonics going into David Ehrenreich’s Relax, Open Your Eyes, which turned out to be an ideal way to see it. The film follows Carrie and Witek Radomski as they work toward opening Canada’s first cryonics facility, motivated in large part by Witek’s declining health and Carrie’s hope that death might not have to be the end of their life together.
This is obviously a strange world filled with some fairly idiosyncratic people, but the film never treats them as freaks or reduces their beliefs to an easy joke. Ehrenreich is more interested in what might lead someone to place this much faith in a distant and uncertain future. The remarkable access lets us see the Radomskis as true believers, entrepreneurs, grieving partners and occasionally messy human beings, often all at once.
Beautifully shot, tightly edited and affecting without ever becoming exploitative or mean-spirited, this was one of the strongest films I saw before the festival. Relax, Open Your Eyes screens October 2 and 6 at the Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island, with filmmaker Q&As following both screenings. I’m especially excited to host the October 6 Q&A with David Ehrenreich and the Radomskis.
The Quiet Applause
Byun Sung-bin’s The Quiet Applause centres on San, an adorable toddler growing up in the countryside with her parents and her severely autistic older brother, Pul. His increasingly aggressive outbursts have divided the family: their mother wants to continue caring for him at home while their father believes it might be time for Pul to move into a group home.
This sounds like the foundation for an unbearably heavy family drama, but the movie is much stranger, warmer and funnier than that description suggests. Much of it is seen from San’s perspective, even when her attention wanders away from the family crisis and toward Mimi, the lamb being raised nearby. It doesn’t turn Pul into a problem that needs to be solved, nor does it villainize two parents who have reached different breaking points.
Yang Hae-bom is incredible as San. Byun knows exactly how long to hold on her expressions and when her seemingly mysterious reactions say more than any dialogue could. The film is gentle without becoming precious, funny without trivializing the family’s situation and completely devastating when it needs to be. It really knocked me over.
The Quiet Applause screens October 2 at SFU Woodward’s, October 3 at International Village and October 6 at the VIFF Centre.
Family Fears Another Night of Terror
Night after night, a family is terrorized by something lurking inside its home. They have become strangely accustomed to it, even as the nightly disturbances grow worse and their visiting daughter begs them to get out.
Cristian Ponce presents the story like an old late-night television special recorded onto a deteriorating VHS tape. The mix of horror and absurd comedy brought to mind Adult Swim classics like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Too Many Cooks: cheap graphics, awkward performances, abrupt interruptions and a growing sense that the program itself has gone horribly wrong.
That uncanny analogue horror really works on me. Ponce makes terrific use of shadows and cavernous negative space, allowing the anticipation of something appearing to become scarier than whatever might actually be there. Cameras, crew members and other traces of the production gradually slip into the frame, further breaking down the already unstable line between the show, the family and whoever may be watching them.
It’s strong, spooky and genuinely funny, and I’m very glad I watched it. I’m also glad I saw it beforehand rather than trying to wedge it into an already ridiculous festival schedule.
Family Fears Another Night of Terror screens October 4 at Fifth Avenue Cinema and October 5 at International Village, with filmmaker Q&As after both screenings.
VIFF runs October 1–11. You can explore the full festival program here.
