I spent most of my time at Ebertfest as a volunteer, and it was usually a long and gruelling day on most days. But what I really enjoyed about Ebertfest is that everyone seems to genuinely enjoy being there, and everyone is really friendly. I was usually stationed at the theatre doors as an usher, and people would often ask questions and engage in conversations with me. I also really enjoy the experience of being in a cinema and seeing an audience share an experience like film.

I got to see three of the films during the festival, The End of the Tour, The Motel Life and 99 Homes, and I enjoyed each of them for different reasons. I wasn’t expecting The End of the Tour (based on the meeting between David Foster Wallace and David Lipsky) to be funny, and was pleasantly surprised by that. Although I did notice that some of the laughs that the film got were because it was set in Bloomington, which didn’t seem to be the director’s intention. The Motel Life was a more creatively made film. While I didn’t care much for the slow pace of the film, I enjoyed the use of hand-drawn images being incorporated into the film as the character would tell his story. 99 Homes was a generically atypical film, since it was about the housing crisis but was shot in the style of a thriller. The film’s fast editing and quick dialogue made the movie move really quickly, but it was still beautifully shot. The talkback for 99 Homes was also the most interesting, since director Ramin Bahrani talked about the research and work that went into the film.

I’m always nervous and excited to look at Roger Ebert’s reviews for films that I like, because more often than not, he doesn’t like them, but I still end up learning his reasoning behind his dislikes. So when I decided to look at his review for Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, I was expecting his to say that it was nothing more than a series of pretty pictures, and that he hated it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he gave the film a four-star rating. While the gist of his article was that it was a bunch of beautiful shots tied together by a less than stellar plot, he had an appreciation for the amount of work that went into the film.

In his review, Ebert mentions a Variety article that calls The Fall a vanity project. I remember reading that article and thinking something similar to what Ebert articulates: “you can only admire the man vain enough to make it.” I was awed by the film’s lack of CGI, and yet it is so visually stunning that you think that the director must be lying to you.

The film is a about a young girl, Alexandria, and an injured stuntman Roy (Lee Pace). Roy tells Alexandria stories, and the film generates the images based on Alexandria’s imagination of said stories. There isn’t much more to the plot, but I don’t think there needs to be.

I don’t think that I have ever agreed so whole-heartedly with one of Ebert’s reviews, and while I do still love reading the reviews that do not share my opinion, it’s nice when there is common ground between us every once in a while.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-fall-2008