At The Movies

World film fest hits Houston: A fearless guide to the strange and powerful movies that will change your life

With 10 packed days, more than 50 award-winning new films and 111 shorts, WorldFest Houston is certainly not slowing down after reaching middle age. Even though the 48 years-young indie world film festival will be screening the majority of its films and short programs in one place — AMC Studio 30 on Dunvale — it’s still almost impossible to see everything, unless you plan on taking an extra long spring break and just pitching a tent near the concession stand.

One look at the WorldFest 2015 schedule, and you might find yourself overwhelmed with the vast variety of comedies, dramas, documentaries and experimental films from pretty much every continent but Antarctica. (Please nobody tell penguins about film school, or else we’ll have to add another two days to the fest.) For me reading through the program guide was a bit like viewing a never ending menu.

With that analogy in mind, I thought perhaps the best way to indulge, not overindulge, in the WorldFest lineup was to create my own tasting menu. Here’s my curated attempt to sample this cornucopia of movies from around the world.

Big Bites
WorldFest opens with a Texas premiere on Friday and and closes with a U.S premiere on April 19, and both films look like they have the potential to be critical darlings.

Leaves of the Tree
Filmed in Houston and Sicily — not a combo you often hear this opening night premiere tells the story of a Houston patent lawyer who goes on a quest to find a mystical tree that might hold the cure for a disease that threatens his life. Houstonian David Healey wrote the screenplay and, along with his wife Rebecca Healey, produced the film. The Healeys made an effort to cast local actors, along with established Hollywood stars Armand Assante, Eric Roberts and Sean Young.

Young will be on hand at the April 10 screening of Leaves of the Tree to receive the annual WorldFest Remi Career Achievement Award.

Girl on the Edge

After surviving an encounter with an online predator, a young woman named Hannah Green, played by Taylor Spreitler, is sent by her parents to a treatment center which specializes in equine and horticulture therapy. Hannah begins the healing process by helping to nurture a horse also rescued from abuse. Bring lots of tissue for this tale that’s based on a true story.

April 19 at 7 p.m.

A Rare Ingredient Filled International Course

For something new, let’s try an English-subtitled international film in a language we’re unlikely to hear on the streets of Houston. This one is a difficult choice because what language aren’t you going to hear somewhere in H-Town? How about Tagalog, which is spoken by a fourth of the population of the Philippines as well as the characters of the comedy Ekstra (The Bit Player) about the behind the scenes, day-in-the-life drama of a struggling extra on a soap opera.

Are soap actor antics a universal inspiration for comedy? Ekstra could be the way to find out.

Are soap actor antics a universal inspiration for comedy? Ekstra could be the way to find out.
April 16 at 9 p.m.

An Experimental Fish Dish

Filmed in 27 countries by 56 filmmakers aided by 16 musicians, Hydro is a stunning (at least the trailer is) and wordless sort-of documentary adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey filmed entirely beneath the oceans’ surface.
April 11 at 9 p.m.

A French Appetizer Infused with Weirdness

We’ve got to have at least one, so perhaps take a chance on: Now We Are Alive (Et Maintenant Nous Sommes en Vie). In this world, everyone on their 25th birthday, or maybe just men, must pick their soul mate by listening to a range of voices. Tom doesn’t get what he visualized when he opens his eyes to Lea, but then gets visitations from his dream woman. This looks both strange and spooky.
April 17 at 9 p.m.

A Nutritious Documentary

Feed your brain with some new knowledge. This year you might want to view locally with Sweathearts of the Gridiron, a doc that gives the history, along with contemporary stories, of the Kilgore College Rangerettes from Kilgore, Texas. In 1940 their founder Gussie Nell Davis changed college football halftime forever with the creation of this dance team.
April 11 at 7 p.m.

A Spicy Comedy Starring Gary Cole
If there’s some television and movie workhorse actor Gary Cole on the menu, you got to at least try some of that. Because who doesn’t like Gary Cole? He’s like tacos.

Who doesn’t like Gary Cole? He’s like tacos.

In Divine Access he plays a public access television preacher who gets debunked on air. As his fortunes fall, the man who humiliated him takes to the road as a new celebrity, until they meet again for a final showdown. This movie about public-access television, spiritual celebrities and road trips, could be that quirky indy hit you’ll be telling everyone you saw first.
April 14 at 9 p.m.

A Dessert of Shorts

Almost every night of the festival has one or multiple short film programs on the schedule. I love shorts because if I don’t like the film another will be along in about five to 10 minutes. From comedies to thrillers, histories and scifi, there’s a genre for everyone. Worldfest even had enough shorts from Houston and Texas — about four hours worth — that they had to break them into two different programs — on April 11 and 14.

This is my tasting menu, but choose and substitute according to your own appetites, to make that perfect film sampler for yourself.

Vintage photo from Sweathearts of the Gridiron.

Tarra Gaines WorldFest April 2015 Sweathearts of the Gridiron Kilgore Rangerettes

Sweathearts of the Gridiron Facebook

Vintage photo from Sweathearts of the Gridiron.

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Movie Review

Dakota Fanning-led The Sun Never Sets needs more direction

Photo courtesy of Independent Film Company

Dakota Fanning in The Sun Never Sets.

The movies of writer/director Joe Swanberg have always been an acquired taste, as he prefers to give his actors a loose framework of a story and let them improvise most of their lines to give the films a more natural feel. Sometimes that approach can yield great results, and sometimes — as in The Sun Never Sets — it can result in addled and maddening storytelling.

Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is in her early 30s and at a crossroads in her life. When a friend announces she’s pregnant, she starts to re-evaluate what she wants, including her two-year relationship with the older Jack (Jake Johnson). Although they love each other, their disagreements on having more children and extracurricular activities call their long-term viability into question.

Jack, not wanting Wendy to settle, encourages her to explore her options where they live — Anchorage, Alaska — telling her he’ll be waiting should she strike out. What he doesn’t expect is that Wendy’s ex-boyfriend, Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), has returned to the city, giving her an attractive alternative. The three engage in a love triangle that proves frustrating and confusing for both the participants and the viewers.

What works best about the film is its location in Alaska, which rarely gets showcased in movies, and even more rarely in the way it is here. The story takes place in warmer months, and Swanberg gives his characters multiple opportunities to be outside, showing off Anchorage’s harbor, surrounding mountains, and seemingly vibrant city life. The subtle but effective way Swanberg frames various scenes makes the landscape enormously appealing.

It’s too bad, then, that the story never measures up to its surroundings. Too often Fanning, Johnson, Smith, and others seem to be grasping for their next line, unsure of what they want their character to do or say next. That lets their scenes mimic real conversations, but you might not realize how much you want scripted dialogue until you see actors trying to come up with their own in the moment.

The larger issue is that there’s no consistency from scene to scene about where the plot is heading. The characters of Wendy, Jack, and Chuck are extremely wishy-washy about their desires, with each of them vacillating back-and-forth in just how much they want to be with each other. Depending on your experience, this may or may not be true to life, but watching it is excruciating and not enjoyable or romantic in the slightest.

As actors, Fanning, Johnson, and Smith are talented and interesting, with each capable of connecting with viewers in different ways. But working in improvisation is a different beast, and only Johnson — who has worked with Swanberg multiple times — seems truly at home. A few others, like Debby Ryan and Anna Konkle, do well in the format and maybe deserved bigger parts.

Swanberg has proven in the past that his method of filmmaking can be insightful and entertaining, but that is not the case here. In The Sun Never Sets, his hands-off approach is a detriment to the flow of the film and the story as a whole, resulting in an experience that is far from what most viewers will want to go through.

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The Sun Never Sets is now playing in select theaters.

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