Pick your festival favorites

The films screened in the Rotterdam Festival can be divided into categories; ones that make you laugh, cry, or even hot. Some are bad, some are slow, but most of them are great. Take a scroll, pop some corns, and go get the DVDs.

The Road Movies

No less than five movies at the IFFR are road movies. Let me count the ways, Vibrator, Brown Bunny, Twenty Nine Palms, Unterwegs, The Return. The astonishing The Return tells of two brothers who met their long-lost father and learned about being adults along the way. Wonderfully acted, strong theme, don't be surprised to find yourself crying by the end. I did. A story of one couple in Twenty Nine Palms was a shock. Starting as a calm movie with beautiful scenes, it travels a long road to get to its horror climax at the very end. Vibrator has a cute opening and ending, but bored me during the middle.

The Sex

At Cannes last year, Brown Bunny was booed by audiences and the press. Despite being a pretentious little piece of work, it was the close-to-end scene that everyone talks about, Chloe Sevigny performed real oral sex on leading man Vincent Gallo. Not just three seconds, but a few minutes. At this year's IFFR, sex scenes were a common subject. Where should I began? Young Gods, Sexual Dependency, Vibrator have sex elements as their main theme. First time Finnish director, J-P Siili, made Young Gods, about 4 young guys who recorded their sexual experiences to see who deserves the award as the best. Fresh, funny, yet profound. The most talk-about sex-infused film is probably, Anatomy of Hell, featuring Rocco Sifredi, the famous porn star with sex written all over his face.

It is mentioned in the opening credits that actress Amira Casar uses a body-double for intimate scenes. This alone should help you figur out how intimate the scenes will be.

Blood galore

The sex scenes in Anatomy of Hell are not as disturbing as the blood. How can I explain this? But maybe you can figure it out. It involves menstruation blood. Enough said. Movies from Kitano are known for their violence and blood. But blood-seekers will be disappointed with Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi. In the film, the blood looks so fake that even Jurassic Park looks real. Thankfully, the humor and music saved this particular flick.

The Asians

Thailand's Last Life is simply beautiful. A story about a Japanese guy who tries to kill himself, set against the background of Christopher Doyle's wonderful camera-work, perfected with Pen-ek's smooth direction. Who says suicide can't be fun? Two Indonesian films, Aku Ingin Menciummu Sekali Saja and Exodus were screened at the IFFR. A friend-produced movie, Exodus turned out to be one of short film curator Erwin Houtenbrink's favorites.

Tsai Ming Liang's Goodbye Dragon Inn was so slow, you would think that the film was a photo still instead of a moving picture. The ending made up for it though. Green Tea from China is cute yet not strong enough to hold a picture. Some Koreans made quite an impression in the festival like the award-winning Save the Green Planet.

The Tearjerkers

Be prepared for swelling eyes watching some movies with a common thread, the family. Similar to The Return in its own way, Tomorrow's Weather (Poland) is a funny and touching tale about a long lost father who came back to his family and creates chaos out of his lovingness. Oscar-nominated Barbarian Invasions is about friends and family togetherness in the face of dying. One of the best screenplays and some of the best acting I've seen in years. The stories of poor families are always good for a tear or two. That's The Middle of the World, a Brazilian true story about a family that cycle all through Brazil to reach Rio de Janiero and, eventually, their dreams.

Best of the Rest

American Splendor is splendid, Elephant eye-opening, Osama moving, and Grande Ecole sexy. -- Kenny Santana