The Palm Springs Film Festival is currently the largest festival in the U.S. I did not realize this when I traveled to Palm Springs this week with my friend, but after attending, it was obvious why. We went to the festival not expecting much other than to see a couple of films but it turned out to be a great experience and we had the opportunity to see some films we really enjoyed.
The theater, The Camelot, is a great venue. All 3 of the films we saw were shown there so we didn't check out the other festival locations. It was a nice theater and there was a great bar upstairs that offered a nice view and a cozy place to hang out in between films. It was very low-key possibly because people didn't realize it was there.
We didn't get to see our first choices in some cases because films were selling out well in advance. That is a great sign for a festival and though we didn't get to see our first choices, we weren't shortchanged. Here are mini-reviews of the 3 films we did see:
East Side Story: Gay white men are moving into East L.A. and taking over. In the meantime, a Mexican family, native to the area, are struggling to keep their restaurant and family together as the youngest member of the family comes out as gay as well. It was a very funny film and gave an interesting look inside the young man's struggle to come out. This director has promise for sure.
The Line of Beauty: This was a remarkable BBC produced drama was adapted from a novel and looked at Nick Guest, a young gay man from a modest background who moves in with the family of a college friend whose father is a politician. The actress who played the daughter in the family was brilliant and lent to some of the most heartbreaking and joyous moments in the film. Elements that were dealt with included the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and its impact, drugs, infidelity, closeted romance and mental illness. The film was done as a 3-part mini-series and is recommended to those interested whenever available on DVD.
The Boss of It All: Director Lars von Trier's latests film lacks some of the obscurity and darkness of his previous works but still brings some of those qualities on which he has built his career. This is the story of an IT company which is run by the boss of it all, the President of the company whom no one has ever seen. In reality, the President of the company is Ravn, a spineless man who blames the boss of it all for unpopular decisions he makes. When he decides to sell the company, he hires an actor to play the boss because he needs someone to sign the deal and to blame. Other than being a fun, "The Office"-esque comedy, the special thing about this film was von Trier's shooting style which he has dubbed Automavision, employing the use of an automatic randomised camera. Definitely worth seeing.
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