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La Jaula de Oro17. See You Next TuesdayAfter The Act of Killing, these were the most impressive debut features I saw this year. See You Next Tuesday, which closed the Chicago Underground Film Festival in March, provokes audience discomfort with its in-your-face portrait of a mentally ill young woman, her abrasive sister, and their recovering addict mother. Writer-director Drew Tobia has exquisite taste in inappropriate humor, but he isn’t just interested in shock value—like Ulrich Seidl, he wants to shock viewers into confronting their prejudices and the limits of their empathy. La Jaula de Oro, which screened at the Chicago International Film Festival, is another impressive feat of empathy. Director Diego Quemada-Diez and his cowriters conducted interviews with literally hundreds of people who have tried to cross U.S.-Mexican border illegally. The movie feels authoritative in its depiction of a nightmarish journey from Guatemala to northern Mexico.
The Taste of Money It’s been almost a decade since Im Sang-soo generated buzz in the States with The President’s Last Bang, though I’m not sure why American interest in his work has waned since then. The South Korean director remains an impressive stylist and a daring social satirist—this tongue-in-cheek melodrama about corporate corruption made my jaw drop several times. Beneath the extravagance and bad-taste humor, though, lies a stinging sense of moral outrage.
See You Next Tuesday
The Immigrant
- Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus This summer I wrote that Sebastian Silva’s autobiographical road movie-cum-drug comedy values mood over storytelling. I meant that as a compliment, but a second viewing made me realize that this seemingly casual film is in fact beautifully structured. Like a great short-story writer, Silva carefully charts the events leading to a moment of epiphany, ending the film just before we get a handle on it. The structure never feels obvious because Silva elicits such exciting, spontaneous performances from his cast, which mingles seasoned actors (Michael Cera, Gaby Hoffman) with colorful nonprofessionals. I also admired Silva’s companion piece to this film, Magic Magic, which was released straight to DVD in this country. I would love if someone screened them both as a double feature.
