Intercamp - various writers   

The 22nd annual Edmonton International Film Festival opens this Friday, so you may be wondering which of the Festival’s 55 feature length and 150 short films are worth your money. 

Which will make you laugh? Which will make you cry? Which will make you curse and throw popcorn at the screen? Of course, it’s all a matter of personal taste, but just to get you in the spirit, here is a sample of what the festival has to offer.

A Necessary Death 

“Everyone does die, some just sooner than others.”

A Necessary Death, filmed Blair Witch style, follows Gilbert (G.J. Echternkamp), an American film student, and his taboo final project. 

Gilbert wants to film a documentary about a suicide, and places ads to find someone who is willing to have Gilbert and his crew follow him through his last month of life, right to the very end. 

After holding auditions and weeding out the unconvincing and underage, Gilbert chooses Matt (Matt Tilley), a British man with a fatal brain tumor who decides to take his life (er, death) into his own hands. 

With a small supporting cast and documentary-style footage, A Necessary Death confuses viewers, causing them to believe that they are truly watching a disturbing journey to the end of Matt’s life. The family-like dynamics of the cast and their strong emotions also play on the realism in the film. Throughout the film the lines between filmmakers and friends blur, causing emotions to run high during the last few scenes. 

-Laurie Callsen

Big Story in a Small City 

We have control over the way we live our lives, but no control over the way we die. Big Story in a Small City introduces us to Grigor Janoyan, a professor of agriculture at the University of Yerevan, Armenia. He dies in a freak accident – a falling piano crushes him – and his family is left to mourn him. Only it’s not him. 

His two children discover that the wrong body is in the casket, even though it looks nearly identical to their father. They need to track down their father’s body before the funeral service, all while keeping it a secret. It turns out that his identical stranger is a respected criminal. 

Together, the two families must work in cooperation to secretly swap the bodies, their coffins, and their suits. The end result? A hilarious film about a neighbourhood where the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding would fit right in. Although none of these characters believe that Windex is the solution to everything, the film contains quirky characters that have a desire to know everything about each other’s lives. 

-Tennille Simmonds

I Served the King of England 

Based on the book of the same name, this Czech film (with English subtitles) follows the tired Hollywood trend of adapting novels into screenplays. The only difference is that this movie is excellent. 

The plot is simple: after 15 years in prison, an old man named Dite reflects on his youth and his rise to becoming a millionaire. Throw in some naked people, wicked humor and Nazis and you’ve got yourself a movie. 

This is a clever, satirical, robust piece of filmmaking that playfully borrows inspiration from live theater, musicals, and even silent films. There hasn’t been a better blend of new and old school cinematography since American Beauty. And yes, I’m comparing this movie to the works of the legendary Conrad Hall. 

If there’s an odder equation to a winning screenplay, I have yet to see it. This is a refreshing, spirited satire that is packaged with smart art. 

-Daniel Luu

The Great Match

Do you like comedy? Do you like randomness? If so, you will probably thoroughly enjoy the movie The Great Match. The film, which resembles a documentary, captures three different groups of people, including nomads in Mongolia, tribesmen in Brazil, and Nigerians in the Teneré desert. They’re all trying to watch the World Cup on their prized possession…the TV. This is a story about the comical similarities and differences between North America and other cultures. The movie is in subtitles, but this adds to the humour of the film. You’ll find the characters talking like North Americans, reading Playboy and arguing with their authorities. If you want to see what it must take for remote cultures to get a picture on their TV, and have a few laugh out loud moments for yourself, you won’t be disappointed with The Great Match. Just remember that it’s fictional… but it could happen.

-Andrea Dobbe

Pontypool 

You know how some people just talk and talk, on and on, without really saying anything? Tell them to shut the hell up, in the name of public health. Tell them Bruce McDonald sent you. Don’t underestimate the minimalist set and cast of Pontypool. Four characters in a dark church basement will have more of an effect on your psyche than a Titanic-sized budget and 400 extras. McDonald uses dim lighting, the desolation of the harsh Canadian winter, and the power of the unknown to manipulate your mind and drive you into a state of mad panic. 

Pontypool isn’t just your average zombie flick; it’s a dark thriller that manages to make the implausible seem plausible, while simultaneously taking an unsentimental look at the human will to survive.

-Kristen Wagner

Dakota Skye 

Dakota Skye is a girl who can always tell when someone is lying. Her teachers, her boyfriend, her friends; nobody is spared from what she considers her “superpower.” Until she meets her boyfriend’s best friend Jonah, an actor from New York, and the only person she’s ever encountered who doesn’t lie. Naturally, sparks quickly fly between the two, an awkward situation is created… 

That is the nut of the movie. But what makes it worth watching is the director’s attention to character: Dakota is a medium-cute brunette who dresses in ripped jeans and army jackets, is sarcastic and apathetic after a lifetime of enduring people lying, and a perfect foil for her simple, stoner rock-star boyfriend, who always orders the same meal at the same restaurant. In one scene, Dakota is wrestling with a question posed by Jonah:

 “If you were to commit suicide by jumping off a tall object, would you rather go face up or face down?” 

When she poses the question to her boyfriend, who’s smoking a bong as she talks, he only responds after a suitable motive is created for the suicide (his member gets hypothetically removed in a motorcycle accident), and after answering “face up” he asks if she could not ask him such questions, “It kinda kills my high.” Then, after she gives him a look of disgust, he asks her if she wants some. Priceless.

-Kerry Hirsch

A schedule of showings is available on the Festival’s website at www.edmontonfilmfest.com. All films are shown at Empire City Centre and cost $12 except for opening and closing nights.