Somebodies goes down as the worst film ever to play at the festival. As Ebert would put it, I hated, hated, hated this movie. I really wonder if Ebert would have liked the film so much if it had not been produced by longtime Overlooked Film Festival director Nate Kohn. But then again, what do I know? The audience seemed to love it, though the two people I was sitting with did not.
The writer/director/star Hadjii will hopefully never be involved with another film IN ANY CAPACITY. Even the average UPN sitcom might reject him. I bring up UPN sitcom because that is exactly what Somebodies is, only stretched out to 90 minutes. His greatest influence? Seinfeld. Ahem. I'm going to quote columnist David Poland off his blog--
"The movies have been good and I have only missed a few of them so far. In one case, I had seen the film and realized after a few minutes that the experience was so unpleasant that I had blanked the screening out of my head. Oy. I escaped before I lost conciousness."
Day 3 continued with the showing of the Rudolph Valentino silent film The Eagle. This film caught me off guard. Not only was it immensely entertaining, but there was also an artistry at work in the look of the film, with a lot of help from the legendary William Cameron Menzies.
Ripley's Game exceeded expectations also. While The Talented Mr. Ripley had more going for it in its exploration of the early development of the Ripley character, Ripley's Game was a worthy follow-up. John Malkovich imbued the character with the kind of force needed to make Ripley believable. If you have yet to see this, go out and rent it now.
