Spring Break
Quality of films varies
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Arts | 3/18/08
Posted online at 2:01 AM EST on 3/18/08
SunDeis 2008 began in Shapiro Theater with three moviegoers-four if you count this reporter. Without any introduction, the first film debuted: a submission from Emerson College about a young lesbian who is attacked by a man she meets at a bar. The movie was well-shot, but the acting, unfortunately, was terrible, which only added to the audience's discomfort at watching an amateur attempt at such a serious subject.
I didn't attend any of the rest of the day's events, and I certainly hope that the student film showings, from 10 a.m. to noon, were no indication of those events' character.
The films did increase in quality as the morning progressed. "Meditate Drink Enlightenment," a film by Benjamin Steckel '06, now of Northeastern University, showed Saturday morning, and it was my favorite of the films I saw both on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The film exemplified the expectations I'd taken to SunDeis: random visual effects, ironic humor and style. The film delightfully made no sense; ostensibly, it followed a Raoul Duke-like main character, a lamp designer for IKEA, who meditates in order to try to undo the damage done by his participation in a "corporation." In so doing, the character comes to believe he's going to be a cat in his next life, and then flashes forward to his life as this cat. The camera follows the cat while a voiceover announces the cat's thoughts.
The two films that seemed to please the audience the most were, not surprisingly, by Brandeis students. Anthony Scibelli's '09 "Untitled Anthony Scibelli Project" was the better of the two. His film followed a character named Anthony Scibelli over a few very Seinfeldian days during which he stresses about his stand-up act. By the end of the film, I was actually laughing out loud. The plot is rather like the title-unfocused-but it doesn't matter. The film is funny, to put it simply, which means it succeeded in its aims; many of the dramatic films did not.
Jeff Rosenblatt '08 and Jason Gilbert's '08 "Crack, the Books" had an excellent premise: a send-up of the stereotypical Brandeis student. It's always interesting to see what other people mean when they say "that's so Brandeis." Here, we had a pretty spot-on interpretation of the overachieving pre-med, pre-law student who complains about all his finals and caffeinates himself through sleepless nights. However, the film was a little long and elicited some unnecessarily hysterical laughter from the audience.
I didn't attend any of the rest of the day's events, and I certainly hope that the student film showings, from 10 a.m. to noon, were no indication of those events' character.
The films did increase in quality as the morning progressed. "Meditate Drink Enlightenment," a film by Benjamin Steckel '06, now of Northeastern University, showed Saturday morning, and it was my favorite of the films I saw both on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The film exemplified the expectations I'd taken to SunDeis: random visual effects, ironic humor and style. The film delightfully made no sense; ostensibly, it followed a Raoul Duke-like main character, a lamp designer for IKEA, who meditates in order to try to undo the damage done by his participation in a "corporation." In so doing, the character comes to believe he's going to be a cat in his next life, and then flashes forward to his life as this cat. The camera follows the cat while a voiceover announces the cat's thoughts.
The two films that seemed to please the audience the most were, not surprisingly, by Brandeis students. Anthony Scibelli's '09 "Untitled Anthony Scibelli Project" was the better of the two. His film followed a character named Anthony Scibelli over a few very Seinfeldian days during which he stresses about his stand-up act. By the end of the film, I was actually laughing out loud. The plot is rather like the title-unfocused-but it doesn't matter. The film is funny, to put it simply, which means it succeeded in its aims; many of the dramatic films did not.
Jeff Rosenblatt '08 and Jason Gilbert's '08 "Crack, the Books" had an excellent premise: a send-up of the stereotypical Brandeis student. It's always interesting to see what other people mean when they say "that's so Brandeis." Here, we had a pretty spot-on interpretation of the overachieving pre-med, pre-law student who complains about all his finals and caffeinates himself through sleepless nights. However, the film was a little long and elicited some unnecessarily hysterical laughter from the audience.
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Eric
posted 3/18/08 @ 9:16 AM EST
While making a gross generalization about what the audience seemed to enjoy, you overlook the film that actually WON the Best of Brandeis category: Mama No Me Dejes. (Continued…)
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