Cucalorus Week

I had a great time at Cucalorus this year. It was my first film festival experience it was interesting to see and experience the atmosphere of it. I saw a bunch of films in the two days that I spent at the festival. The first was a really compelling documentary called, "Love Lived on Death Row." It followed the experience of the children of a Middle Eastern immigrant (who was convicted of stabbing his wife to death and received the death penalty) as they try to reconnect with their father and save him from lethal injection. The film humanizes the father and makes a strong argument against the death penalty as well. Very moving. I also saw "Control" the atmospheric biopic about the troubled life of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis. I liked the film a lot although I wish they had shown a little less of Curtis' personal problems and more of the creative process. Then there was "Mackety Mack: The Philosopher King of Space" which made by local entertainer Matt Malloy (aka Mackety) who was also the emcee who played the guitar. Malloy did everything on this movie but that doesn't impress me in the least. The movie is eighty-three minutes long and I was ready for it to be over after ten. The next day I started out with "Rocket Science" which was the best film of the festival, about a socially awkward kid who recruited to join his high school's debate team by an overachiever who could be sympathetic towards or playing a dirty trick on him. It's one of those movies where most of the laughs reveal more about the characters. It's a high school movie in the same league as films like "Rushmore", "Election", and "Welcome to the Dollhouse." Next up were two more docs. "Kurt Cobain: About a Son" juxtaposed in-depth, personal interviews with the late rock star with footage of places where he grew up and lived throughout his life. It is revealing, funny, sad, and fascinating. "The First Saturday in May" follows six horses and their owners as they aim to race in the Kentucky Derby. The personalities and ways in which each of the owners goes about their daily life and work, and the methods they resort to in order to enter into the race is very entertaining. I'm not even a horse racing fan and I really enjoyed this movie. I concluded with the "Rump Roast Shorts" on Saturday night which were all amusing but the best one was "Sniffer" which dealt with the stench of body odor instead of sex which made it seem a little out of place with the rest of the group but whatever.