There’s astonishingly little for the newsletter. Just one really lousy comedy and two film festivals filled with works I haven’t seen. Things will pick up next week; I promise.
The Black Film Festival opens Wednesday with the British comedy Shoot the Messenger, and runs through June 15. It celebrates its tenth anniversary this year with 100 films made by and about Africans and those of African descent (American and otherwise).
Another Hole in the Head Film Festival (as in, the Bay Area needs another film festival like it needs another hole in the head) opens Thursday. Devoted to horror and sci-fi from around the world, Hole in the Head screens the sort of movies serious cinephiles are required to look down upon with contempt until they’re at least 20 years old; then we can acknowledge them as masterpieces.
Postal, Roxie, Friday through Monday. Uwe Boll attempts to satirize such ripe targets as evil corporations, hippy
cults, morbidly obese nymphomaniacs, Arabs, trailer trash, racial minorities, little people, George W. Bush, and our fascination with Nazis. He probably thinks of himself as an equal-opportunity offender, which would be okay if he actually earned some laughs along the way. He also tries to be funny about gun violence in this video game adaptation. Everyone shoots indiscriminately, people die in mass numbers, and none of it has a point. In the end, it’s not the sheer offensiveness of Postal that weighs it down, although that doesn’t help. It’s the almost complete absence of any real humor. Read my full review.
Filed under: Weekly Newsletter
