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SIFF Take: The Skeleton Twins
A film with Kristen Wiig AND Bill Hader? This should be HILARIOUS, right?!?! Right. Except, it isn’t. I mean, it is and it isn’t. The Skeleton Twins casts these two former SNL cast mates as twins...
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SIFF 2014: Week One Highlights
Our local month-long movie megathon struck again Thursday with Jimi: All Is By My Side, a Jimi Hendrix biopic devoid of Jimi Hendrix music. But even if you missed the opening night soiree there's...
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SIFF Review: Monsoon Shootout
"The law is what it is. If you can't use it to get justice then you're the ass!" - Rookie officer Adi addressing his superior.Monsoon Shootout from director Amit Kumar is a tight and satisfying take on...
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SIFF Review: Mirage Men
You may want to believe - but in what exactly? That aliens are among us and engineered the creation of our species through DNA experiments on early primates? Or maybe that the government has been...
View ArticleSIFF double take: Muse of Fire and The Search for General Tso
Examine, if you will, two documentaries very similar in tone and structure: upbeat, pleasant, and curious. One asks a very large question: How do you make Shakespeare relevant to contemporary...
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SIFF Take: Lucky Them
The complete opposite of the devastating Eden (SIFF, 2012), Lucky Them is a part comedy, part “eesh, I can identify with that” romance, but not exactly in the traditional sense of the word. Toni...
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SIFF Take: 1,000 Times Good Night
1,000 Times Good Night might be described as “the SIFF’iest movie ever.” Juliette Binoche plays Rebecca, a photojournalist who specializes in shining the light on the world’s conflict zones, and who...
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SIFF Review: Willow Creek
Holycrap, you guys. I was not expecting to get completely and totally sucked in by Willow Creek, especially because Director Bobcat Goldthwait has been calling it, “The Blair Squatch Project.” But 10...
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SIFF 2014: Week Two Highlights
Capitol Hill (both the 1960s and 2010s varieties), a freaky alt-reality Paris, and dear ol' Sesame Street are among the cinematic destinations awaiting you during SIFF 2014's second week...
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SIFF Take: Why Don't You Play in Hell
Equal parts Yakuza drama, slavish love story to classic cinema shot on film, romantic comedy and over the top bloodbath, the Venn diagram intersection of those genres makes it feel as if Why Don't You...
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SIFF Take: Born to Fly
If Evel Knievel had been into dance, a bit LESS risk averse, and had a borderline cult-like following then Born to Fly would be about him. Instead, it's about Elizabeth Streb, the founder of "pop...
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SIFF 2014: Week Three Highlights
SIFF 2014 is lurching along into its final week, and there's still time to catch up on your cinema (over)consumption if you've yet to partake. I can't protect you from the well-meaning but terrible...
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SIFF Take: Time Lapse
Time travel movies, particularly lower budget ones, are starting to be so prolific at festivals that it’s easy to get jaded, or to at least to have lowered expectations. I still try to check almost...
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SIFF Review: The Family Picture Show
This program is a highlight of the festival every year: 12 diverse short films united only by their appropriateness for all ages. Most but not all are animated, but you certainly needn’t be a child or...
View ArticleSIFF Take: Turning Tide (En Solitaire)
Sailing is the kind of activity that seems utterly opaque to those who don’t partake. Like horse-back riding, for example. “How hard can it be to sit on a horse?” asked no one who’s ever done it for...
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SIFF Take: God Help the Girl
Prior to seeing God Help the Girl, I’d only been a somewhat-interested fan of Stuart Murdoch and Belle & Sebastian—hearing their most popular songs in passing. Sure, I listened to plenty of friends...
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SIFF 2014: Closing Weekend Highlights
The end of this year’s cinema mega-thon is nigh, and if you've slacked on your SIFFage there's still time to do something about it. Here I present to you seven sure-fire hits that I personally...
View ArticleSIFF Take: How to Train Your Dragon 2
It feels a bit unseemly to trumpet such a mainstream movie during this Festival of the Wonderfully Obscure, but How to Train Your Dragon 2 is absolutely wonderful and deserves trumpets. It opens 5...
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Best of SIFF 2014 series {6/12-6/19}
If for some reason over the past month you’ve missed the TIG SIFF team's extensive coverage, overlooked the 'round-the-block queues at some of our fine local movie houses, and/or remained oblivious to...
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Beyond the Fest: SIFF films that will (hopefully) open soon
With over 400 films playing the 40th Seattle International Film Festival, there was NO WAY I was going to be able to watch and write about what got me into those theater seats before the festival was...
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