2011 SIFF Sneak Peak

The Seattle International Film Festival is coming to town — again. So we’re making a list, and er … checking it twice, of films that are naughty and nice. Well, films that seem like they could be nice. If after we’ve screened them, they turn out to be really bad (the kind whose filmmakers deserve a bank account full of coal instead of ticket dollars) we’ll be sure to warn you.

Until then, we’ve served up a smattering of SIFF fare you might want to sample.

Project Nim: Not to be confused with The Rats of Nimh — but just as likely to make you cry. Raised by a human family, Nim the chimp is a pawn in a Columbia University professor’s strategy to teach a primate to use sign language like a human child: a plan waylaid by human arrogance and animal instinct. (James Marsh’s follow up to his Oscar-winning Man on Wire.)

Beginners: This transformative comedy’s cast will make many men and women drool: Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent, Christopher Plummer… Their roles are equally tantalizing — lovebirds Ewan (Oliver) and Laurent (an alluringly unpredictable actress), and Plummer (Oliver’s dad), a long-time married man who comes out of the closet and onto the gay dance-club floor at age 75.

Being Elmo: A puppeteer’s Journey: What’s it like to be Elmo? The mystery you’ve always mused upon is at last revealed in a documentary that follows the man behind the muppet’s rise from neighborhood puppet shows to Sesame Street.

Buck (documentary): Buck Brannaman, the real-life cowboy behind the novel and film The Horse Whisperer, tames horses with as Aretha Franklin would sing r-e-s-p-e-c-t, rather than b-e-a-t-i-n-g-s. Against a backdrop of beautiful scenery, discover the skills and dark secrets behind his whisperer way — with animals and people.

Bobby Fischer Against the World (documentary): “Bobby Fischer. Where is he? I don’t know, I don’t know!” Will Ferrell’s Bobby Fischer cheerleading skit on SNL: hilarious. The 1972 American chess prodigy’s lonely childhood and descent into insanity: no laughing matter.

Gandu: Bollywood, meet the anti-Bollywood. So long, swooning romances and jangly, fruity-hued dance numbers; hello, sex, drugs and rebellious rap. A poor young Kolkata man befriends a Bruce Lee-obsessed rickshaw driver and takes off on a gritty Hunter Thompson-esque thrill ride. Exactly what you’d expect from a film that’s title means “a-hole” in Hindi.

Amador: Weekend at Bernie’s meets the harsh realities of surviving in a tough economy. When the elderly invalid a young immigrant woman cares for abruptly dies before she’s due to be paid, she’s left in a particularly difficult (but surprisingly amusing) moral pickle.

Life in a Day: (Or you could call it “YouTube in a Day.”) A cinematic time capsule of YouTube videos shot by amateur and pro filmmakers around the world sharing their loves, hopes, and fears on one day — July 24, 2010. We can only hope they include kittens and “I can has cheezburger?” feline-speak subtitles.

The First Grader: No need to feel bad about being held back in the first grade ever again. The Guinness Book of World Records’ oldest primary school student (and this film’s hero) is way older than you ever were — 84 years old. Set in Kenya, The First Grader chronicles the knee-sock-wearing relic’s battle to finally get an education despite reluctant school officials and outraged parents.

Page One: Inside the New York Times: An up-close and personal view of the inner secrets of one of America’s most iconic newspapers.

Submarine: On teen Oliver Tate’s to-do list: be deflowered by a pyromaniac bully and snuff out his mother’s rekindled old flame. It has all the makings of a quirky and touching British coming-of-age comedy.

Sushi: The Global Catch (documentary): A documentary that might make you rethink your sushi habit. It dives into the history, present problems, and future of Japan’s trendy cultural export as restaurants, fishermen, and diners struggle to keep it environmentally and economically sustainable.

The Thief of Bagdad: Reimagined by Shadoe Stevens With the Music of the Electric Light Orchestra: A radio broadcast legend seeks the perfect symmetry between screen and sound with Douglas Fairbanks’ fantastical 1924 silent film and the Electric Light Orchestra.

Circumstance: A Sundance Film Festival Audience Award-winning political drama/love story about the forbidden yet passionate romance between two young Iranian women.

Finding Kind: It’s a “universal truth” that girls can be so something so … that starts with a “b” and rhymes with “itchy” … Though not like Lauren and Molly who schlepped their cameras (and moms) across the country to establish a school program to raise consciousness about emotional bullying. Movie therapy for the troubled (or something that rhymes with “kitschy”) young ladies in your life.

Another Earth: What if there was … another Earth? And a you, who made different, maybe better choices — like majoring in engineering instead of English Lit? On the night a duplicate planet is discovered in our solar system, Rhoda Williams (co-writer Brit Marling) makes a tragic mistake. Determined to atone for it, she plans a trip to terra firma’s twin.

Nobody Else But You: An offbeat, Coen brothers-esque French film noir about a best-selling detective novel author, and the suicide of a cheese factory-starlet who’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe.

Source: film.com

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