Movies 2005, Part 2 of 5

This encompasses all of the films I saw at the Philadelphia Film festival.

Survive Style 5+
My eyes! My eyes! (but fun)

Throw Down
I don’t know how you make a movie about judo masters be sort of dull, but they pulled it out of a hat. Would a little more judo in your judo movie have been such a crime? The thing I found refreshing though was that despite all the sweaty close male physical contact in this movie, I never once got a homosexual vibe, which as a subtext is damn near cliche these days. This was just a movie where guys who like judo practiced judo and used judo on each other and they were friends and not see-krit lovers.

Masters of Illusion
More like apprentices. Student animation films, some of which were completely abstract, most of which were boring. And I missed my train so I took a taxi home at midnight. EXPENSIVE MISTAKES ABOUND.

Mad Hot Ballroom
Big fun! Fifth and sixth graders compete in ballroom dancing! Hooray! Hooray for the ballroom dancing!

Cutie Honey
Anime come to life! OMG super!

Arahan
I wanted every movie in the film festival to be like this. Great wuxia martial arts action, comedy, a love interest, post-modern winks. I give it an A.

Stratosphere Girl
Boring and also very not good.

Kontroll
Pretty fun and exciting and amusing, and it seems like it’s got meaning and symbolism and stuff, but it probably doesn’t have so much. But I like the air of it maybe being there.