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The Rodney Dangerfield of film fests: WorldFest rolls on despite incrediblyshrinking budget

Forgetting the Girl, a psychological thriller, will be shown on Sunday.
Forgetting the Girl
Jacob, a filmed-in-Houston horror flick, screens on April 20.
Odyssee Pictures/Vimeo
The world premiere of Smitty opens the 45th annual WorldFest on Friday.
TriCoast Studios/Vimeo
Barbarian Days, a documentary about fans of Conan the Barbarian author Robert E.Howard, will be shown on Monday.
Barbarian Days/YouTube
The old-school western Heathens and Thieves screens on April 20.
Photo by Barry Guiterrez/Heathens and Thieves

Ever hear the one about the guy who laughed so he wouldn’t cry? Well, there are times when J. Hunter Todd — founder and director of the long-running, long-struggling WorldFest/Houston International Film Festival — sounds very much like he’s aiming to position himself as the punch line for that old gag.

Yes, it’s that time of year again, time for another edition of H-Town’s remarkably resilient film exposition. The 45th annual WorldFest kicks off a 10-day run Friday at the AMC Studio 30 with the world premiere of Smitty, a family friendly drama starring Oscar winners Louis Gossett Jr. and Mira Sorvino, Oscar nominees Peter Fonda and Lolita Davidovich and Twilight franchise regular Booboo Stewart.

Gosett, director David M. Evans and writer-producer Michael Baumgarten are expected to be on hand for the 8 p.m. opening night screening.

This year, even more than usual, WorldFest needs to sell every ticket it can.

And Todd is keeping his fingers crossed that a respectable number of folks show up to greet the visitors and view the movie. Because this year, even more than usual, WorldFest needs to sell every ticket it can.

“What’s so different about WorldFest 2012?” Hunter asks rhetorically. Then, with a burst of laughter than sounds like it could have been a wail of anxiety instead, he answers himself: “We’ve lost more major sponsors this year than ever before in history.”

Blame it on the economy. “For example, Eastman Kodak — 44 years a partner of the festival — is gone after declaring bankruptcy. Which leaves us not only without the $25,000 they used to give us, but also without all the raw stock we used give as prizes to young filmmakers. So there’s no more Kodak Award.”

And don’t get Todd started on the loss of free tickets that Continental Airlines used to provide for celebrities visiting WorldFest. Hunter will allow that United Airlines has been, er, uninterested in continuing that tradition. But that’s the only printable thing he wishes to say on the subject.

“I’ll tell you,” says Todd, making his annual bid to be known as the Rodney Dangerfield of film festival chiefs, “we’ve been doing so much belt-tightening around here, my belt is starting to scratch up my backbone.”

Badda-bing.

But seriously, folks: Despite all his concerns about budgetary constraints and spinal discomfort, Todd insists that this year’s festival will continue the WorldFest tradition of offering “a cornucopia of cinematic delights,” with dozens and dozens of shorts, student films and, of course, international features.

In the latter category, he sounds especially excited about the inclusion of

Heathens & Thieves (9 p.m. April 20), “an old school Western” about outlaws seeking stolen gold on a ranch owned by Chinese settlers;
Barbarian Days (9 p.m. Monday), a documentary about fans of Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard who annually gather in Howard’s Texas hometown;
Forgetting the Girl (9 p.m. Sunday), a psychological thriller about a traumatized photographer who develops an extreme method for erasing bad memories; and
Jacob (11 p.m. April 20), a filmed-in-Houston horror flick co-starring veteran character actor Michael Biehn and Houston Film Critics Society president Nick Nicholson (who also served as an executive producer).

But wait, there’s more:

The Black Dove (9 p.m. April 19), featuring John Savage and Sean Young in a seriocomic caper about an ex-convict’s search for his long-lost Gibson guitar;
Just 45 Minutes from Broadway (7 p.m. April 20), which by Todd’s estimate “may be somewhere around the 400th movie by indie director Henry Jaglom” to play at a WorldFest; and
Closing-night film America (7 p.m. April 22), a thriller starring Lymari Nadal (wife of producer and co-star Edward James Olmos) as a young women who flees her Caribbean coast village to escape her abusive boyfriend, only to find there’s no hiding place in the Land of Opportunity.

Mind you, these are only the films that spring immediately to Todd’s mind when asked about festival highlights. Truth to tell, he says, all the movies in the WorldFest 2012 lineup are exceptional efforts.

“There’s not a dog in the kennel this year,” Todd promises.

Which is a very good thing when there’s a wolf at the door.

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Movie Review

Margot Robbie ignites provocative new take on Wuthering Heights

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie in Wuthering Heights.

Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is one of those classic books assigned in high school English classes, and it has received a number of film adaptations over the years — each of which differ in numerous ways from the source material. Purists won’t receive any reprieve from Emerald Fennell’s 2026 adaptation, with a title that is stylized as "Wuthering Heights” for good reason.

Cathy (played as an adult by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) have known each other their entire lives, with Cathy’s alcoholic and inveterate gambler father (Martin Clunes) taking in Heathcliff on a whim when he was a boy. The two bond as they grow up together, although Cathy always seems to have an eye on moving up in society from their relatively impoverished lifestyle.

Cathy finally gets her wish when the rich Linton familyled by Edgar (Shazad Latif), moves in down the road, Despite discovering she has feelings for the now grown-up Heathcliff, Cathy sees Edgar as her way out and agrees to marry him. A scorned Heathcliff flees, returning years later as mysteriously wealthy. His reappearance ignites something in Cathy’s soul, and the two engage in a perhaps unwise affair.

Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) infuses the dusty material with an energy that’s not typically present in stories set in this particular time and place. Aside from the occasional Charli XCX song (the singer created a whole concept album for the film), the film looks and feels like a period piece, albeit one that doesn’t get bogged down in the drudgery that can sometimes come from films set in the distant past.

Much of that has to do with the lust the filmmaker puts into the story. Even if you’re not familiar with Brontë’s book, you can rest assured that Fennell has strayed far from the text, giving Cathy and Heathcliff thoughts and actions unthinkable in the 19th century. Fennell plays with expectations by opening the film with audio featuring creaking noises and a man grunting, conjuring up a situation far different than what is actually happening, and she also makes liberal use of rain, sweat, and tears to make the actors enticing.

What she can’t do, however, is make the two lead characters compelling. Cathy is a striver who never seems to know what she wants out of life, and Heathcliff goes from a bore to a brute over the course of the film, with no clear indication that he likes anybody, much less Cathy. Anyone expecting some kind of grand romance will be disappointed as Fennell is much more interested in making the film weird, like having the walls of Cathy’s room look like her skin, complete with freckles.

Robbie and Elordi do well enough with the material, and it’s clear that both of them are committed to bringing Fennell’s vision to life. Their styles tend to balance each other out, and if the story had been committed to their characters’ relationship, they might be lauded for their chemistry. In the end, though, the supporting actors feel more interesting, including ones played by Hong Chau, Alison Miller, and Clunes.

This version of Wuthering Heights should never be construed as an alternative to reading the book for any high schoolers out there. While Fennell makes the film interesting with her technical filmmaking choices, the story never finds its footing as it fails to sell the one thing that it seems to promise.

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Wuthering Heights opens in theaters on February 13.

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