The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

A couple of below the radar films of interest:

EUROPA REPORT. I both looked forward to this (based on decent early reviews) and dreaded it (based on the fact that it was yet another 'found footage' film). Overall, I ended up liking it.
A number of people have compared it to MOON in that it's a thoughtful, rather than action-packed SCIENCE Fiction picture (deliberate emphasis). It's not as good as MOON, but, worth checking out in its limited release (also available on pay-per-view). As far as the Marathon? Kind of slow, but, it would probably do ok.
As to the film itself, it has an interesting premise that might be called a 'spiritual sequel' to 2001 and 2010 with an internatinal crew's voyage to Jupiter's moon Europa. This may bother some, but, not I (and, I think Arthur C.Clarke would have been ok with it - at least I hope so!) EUROPA REPORT tries to incorporate its found footage aspect in a realistic way. There are cameras everywhere on the ship (more on that later) so there isn't the cheating you sometimes see in lesser found footage efforts. But, it isn't like CLOVERFIELD in that it's not all presented as a single unbroken stream (of course, it would be a TWO YEAR LONG movie if it were - and, that's if you don't watch all the camera angles!) Instead, Director Sebastian Cordero concocts a strange hybrid as the "Europa Report" is actually a video mission documentary of the voyage including on-the-earth retrospective interviews with mission scientists.
Without giving too much away (and keep in mind the 2001/2010 scenario), suffice it to say that problems occur on the mission and they find something of highly important scientific value. The payoff may not be as momentous as one's expectations, but it plays itself out fairly realistically. As with any found footage film, it is sometimes difficult to create strong characters as the story has be molded around whatever extant footage exists.
Embeth Davidtz, Karolina Wydra and DISTRICT 9 star Sharlto Copley make the strongest impressions of the 7 person crew, but, they all do a decent job within the confines of somewhat stereo-typical astronaut types. And, those stereotypes do extend to some of the crew's actions, but, not overly so.
Besides the deliberate pacing, EUROPA REPORT's biggest problem is the Found Footage/Documentary hybrid structure. Why would an international space agency construct a 'report' that isn't chronological? It feels "directed and edited". And, as to to all the camera angles. Sure, ground control would like to have access to any and all data it can, but, it sometimes feels all to convenient that just about EVERYTHING significant has a camera on it. At one point it reaches an almost absurd level when it seems like every character in a group scene just so happens to have a nearly perfect camera angle on them so that Cordero can neatly cut together such a sequence. I guess the space agency hired a Director to place the cameras!
These quibbles aside, it is refreshing to see a Sci-fi film that isn't just a cops & robbers movie dressed up. The sfx are good for a very modestly budget picture. In a summer with seemingly no restraint whatsoever, it's nice to see a quiet thoughtful piece.

COMPUTER CHESS. Directed by Boston born filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, COMPUTER CHESS is one oddity. Bujalski is credited as one of the leading lights of the mumblecore movement. But, CHESS isn't about modern 20-somethings and their relationships. It takes place around 1980 and centers on a chess tournament played by teams of computer programmers pitting machine vs. machine and hosted at a rinky dink hotel. The 'winner' will play a human chess-master named Henderson (played by Boston based film critic Gerald Peary - an early proponent of the Marathon!).

But, that isn't all. The hotel is also hosting a marital relationship encounter group - complete with open marriage swingers - who's guru is proudly touted a "Tall African Man". So you have computer geeks, swingers and seekers all in a hothouse of WTF? Oh, and there's a odd Artificial Intelligence sci-fi subplot percolating in the background to boot.

Adding further to the oddness of the film is that it is all shot on video cameras that are artifacts of the late-70s/early-80s themselves - complete with grainy artifacts. It has all the glitz of old Radio Shack B&W security camera footage. At first, it seems as if this is a type of 'found footage' movie as the tournament is being filmed for a documentary using these old video cameras. After a while, you realize that all the camera angles and footage coulnd't be part of the 'found footage'. Initially, this gets distracting as to what is the proper Point of View, but, in a strange way it becomes compelling. Even the stuff that is definitely NOT part of the documentary is staged as sort of fly on the wall security camera POV. This really looks like a period film in a way that most found footage films don't.

For someone who made his name with relationship films, Bujalski doesn't create any real memorable characters here, though a few break through a bit (including a female nerd who is treated as some kind of zoo animal by the guys at the tournament; What?! A woman!?) The lack of a strong storyline or roles combined with the grainy photography will make it a strain for many viewers even at only 92 minutes. This is very much a film with a limited audience (it's made all of $66K in three weeks).

It's worth sticking with. In it's own way, it gets to the heart of man's relationship with machine from the quaint vantage point of the 80s, but, with a twisted eye towards our present - and, maybe, future.

For the Marathon? No way! Much too limited in appeal.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

I did catch Europa Report on VOD couple of weeks ago. I did enjoy that the filmmakers work with NASA and other areospace companies to make the science of the film realistic as possible.

BTW Europa Report and Computer Chess would be much better entries than the sorry dreck that passed for "movies" at this year's Science Fiction Marathon.