MQFF 2009 diary part the second

As mentioned in my last/first MQFF post, I skipped seeing anything on Friday night in favour of grabbing an early night. That said, I'd already seen a work-in-progress version of SHANK (see my interview with the film's co-writer/producer Christian Martin, and director Simon Pearce on the MCV website, here), so I wasn't entirely missing out, even though it would have been good to see the film with an audience.

Saturday's festival-going commenced with the charming US feature Ready? OK! at 1:15pm. Written and directed by James Vasquez, Ready? OK! is a slight but sincere drama about Andrea Dowd (Carrie Preston), a mid-career woman and mother struggling to deal with her 10 year old son Joshua's fondness for dolls and dresses, and his determination to become a cheerleader.

Josh (Lurie Poston) is aware that he doesn't fit in, but is seemingly unconcerned by this fact, although he struggles to conform to the expectations of his Catholic school teachers, and his mother's wish for him to fit in as one of the boys on the school's junior wrestling squad. The absence of Joshua's dad complicates matters, as does the reappearance of Andrea's apparently good-for-nothing brother Alex (John G. Preston).

While Josh may or may not be gay (though his interest in one of the boys on his wrestling team suggests his sexuality is pretty much a given), the real drama in the film comes from Andrea's difficulty in accepting her son's difference. Andrea's caustic yet sincere gay neighbour, Charlie (played by Michael Emerson - Lost) and her own mother both support Josh in his dream of cheerleading, much to Andrea's discomfort. As an aside, the beautifully underplayed scene in which Charlie chides Andrea for her refusal to allow Josh to truly be himself brought tears to my eyes.

As written, Josh is less flamboyant than the titular character of last year's bland MQFF opening night film Breakfast With Scot, but he definitely doesn't conform to gender stereotypes. Those of you who have seen the superior 1997 French film Ma vie en rose (My life in pink) will be familiar with the ground Ready? OK! covers, but while its dramas are relatively low key, the film never slips over into schmaltz, maintaining believability and charm, assisted by the real life sibling relationship between Carrie and John G. Preston, and a warm, honest and well rounded script.

Although not without its flaws - including unimaginative lensing and a too-easily achieved rapproachment between Andrea and Alex - overall Ready? OK! was a sweetly sincere film that got my Saturday afternoon off to an excellent start.

After a decadent lunch at tapas bar MoVida Next Door (across the road from ACMI, and well worth visiting if you want a break from the fare served in the Festival Club) my next film was Irish cannibal horror/thriller Insatiable, directed by Jessie Kirby. Sadly I missed the first 10 minutes of the film due to mistakenly getting the screening time wrong. Nonetheless, once in the cinema I quickly settled into my seat hoping for a good time. I was sadly disappointed.

Set in the not too distant future after the economy has crashed and the world is faced with famine, this film totally failed to adequately represent its supposed dystopian small town setting (there's no food, people are starving to death and social collapse is imminent, yet electricity is still readily available, people dress well and watch TV/listen to the radio. What? They're not eating bark and boiling their leather jackets for food? You call this a famine?). It also lacked tension, suspense and fear thanks to extremely leaden direction - typified by a laughably bad scene in which a soon-to-be-murdered woman is scrabbling in 'terror' along the ground trying not to outcrawl the killer lumbering behind her. Her badly staged death, when it came, was a relief; at least it meant we could cut away to another (lacklustre) scene.

A poor script and extremely uneven acting - especially from the film's scenery-chewing lead villain, supermarket owner Mr Harvey (Jon Kenny) - added to the film's multiple woes, although some credit must go to Brian Keegan's moody but over-used score. In short, Insatiable was so bad I walked out of the cinema after 50-odd minutes. Life is too short to waste on bad cinema, which is a shame, as the film's cannibalistic premise could have been a winner in more competent hands.

Thereafter I bailed on the festival for the evening; not because Insatiable left a bad taste in my mouth, but because first I wanted to see a visiting theatre production from Wales, Floating (and god I'm glad I did), and secondly I was DJing at The Laird from 9pm. The latter, of course, meant that I was dog-tired on Sunday, impacting on my ability to see as many films as I would have liked, but more of that shortly...


Find Part the First of my MQFF journal here. Additional MQFF reviews can be read here, and on Twittter, by following rperdio and walypala. Alternatively just go to Twitter and search for 'MQFF'.