Calgary International Film Festival Mini-Reviews Part 2
This week I have a couple of more reviews from the CIFF last Month.
Eve and the Fire Horses
Director: Julia Kwan
Cast: Vivian Wu, Lester Chit-Man Chan, Hollie Lo, Phoebe Kut
The great thing about film festivals is that you're likely to catch
something really good that you normally would not have seen and this
was the case with Eve and the Fire Horses. The film is a warm comedy
about two Chinese girls growing up in the 60's who embark on a quest to
find religion after their grandmother dies. I would have passed this up
on the video store shelf so I'm glad I got to see it.
Eve is played by Phoebe Kut and her sister Karena by Holli Lo. Both
young girls are first time actors and give great performances. Eve is
the nave younger sister eager to follow the path chosen by her older
sibling on the way to enlightenment. Karena is the much too serious
older sister determined to save everyone around her whether they like
it or not. Wu and Chan are also good as the mother and father who are
at times baffled by the odd changes in their daughters
The script by director Julia Kwan is excellent, delivering funny
moments without going over the top and poignant moments without
becoming melodramatic. Some of the funniest moments in the film come
out of the smallest and quietest scenes like when Karena earnestly asks
her horrified young Hindu friend if he has accepted Jesus into his
heart. Kwan manages to find the humour in different generations,
cultures and religions without resorting to making fun out of any one
group.
The film also provides interesting insights on how confusing religion
can be to young children and also works as a cautionary tale about the
dangers of finding all the answers in religion whether it be
Christianity or Buddhism.
Overall a good film by a first time film maker that the family can
enjoy.
Soft Ice
Director: Brent Stanley
On the other hand the problem with film festivals is that sometimes you
go to see a movie with high expectations only to be severely let down.
This was the case with Soft Ice, a documentary about the CHL Hockey
League in Texas. On paper this sounds like a movie tailor made for a
Canadian audience. However its amateur look and inconsistency made it
feel more like an extended new cast introspective than an insightful
documentary.
Soft Ice follows the players on the Ft. Worth Brahmas one of the teams
in the CHL a minor hockey league in Texas. We find out that,
surprisingly, Texas has more professional hockey teams than anywhere
else in North America. Although they are as far from the NHL as you can
get and still be called professional players. After this promising
start though the film loses focus both technically and in its story
telling.
Technically the film is uneven from start to finish. It seemed as
though the entire thing was shot on a number of cameras ranging from
very good to very bad. Some of the interviews and scenes looked as
though they were shot with a standard consumer handy-cam and were
accompanied by the static hiss that accompanies such cameras. When
watching these clips I found it jarring to go from a polished looking
segment to something completely amateurish.
The story itself also had the same problem. We start following the
Brahmas as they near the end of one year then pick up their story the
following season. Somewhere in the middle though we suddenly find
ourselves watching footage shot by the players themselves but from a
prior season when they were with a different team as far as I could
tell.
This sudden jump really cut into the flow of the story. In addition the
director tried to cover too much in 59 minutes. It would have been a
more interesting story to focus on a few players or find that one
angle. Instead the movie jumps around from players to coaches to fans
to owners. The result is that in the end we don't really know enough
about anyone to really care
© 2005 Review by Son Tran
