The 2021 Seattle International Film Festival kicks off on April 8th and runs through April 18th and UW Film Club is covering as many films as possible so you know which films to see! Throughout the festival, this article will be regularly updated with capsule reviews for festival films with the newest additions at the top. Check back every couple of days to see what’s new!
For newcomers, we recommend checking out our Student Guide to SIFF to get a feel of everything the festival has to offer.
My Missing Valentine
Though it takes a while to get off the ground and is annoyingly obvious about its use of rom-com tropes, there’s still an easy humor and warmth that comes with this film, along with a surprisingly effective employment of time manipulation as a plot point. My Missing Valentine is not groundbreaking by any means, but it does begin to explore a nostalgia for love, both in the past and future. It’s charming at times, but more often than not, the one dimensionality of the story and character will try your patience.
2.5/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch My Missing Valentine here.
Mogul Mowgli
Inventive and bold in its visual depiction of the immigrant experience, Mogul Mowgli brings a unique surrealism towards the often abstract feelings within the reclamation of identity as an immigrant and the generational fears that are inherent within. Yet, despite its powerful performances, Mogul Mowgli often gets lost in its creativity, making its sumptuous images feel jarring and incoherent in the larger scheme of its narrative and thematic structure, leading to surface-level explorations of too many different entities. However, when Mogul Mowgli allows itself to focus on a singular entity, it proves to be a powerful work of the internal struggles and pressuring expectations of carving a space in a world that wholly tries to reject everything about you.
3/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Mogul Mowgli here.
All Sorts
Seattlite J. Rick Castañeda’s directorial debut thrives through its usage of absurdist humor and over-exaggerated situations. Set and filmed just a few miles away from UW, it follows a lonely yet extremely organized data entry clerk who discovers the world of competitive folder-filing upon moving to a new office, leading to what I can only describe as the nerdiest sports movie of all time. The script is a highlight here, using witty dialogue to supplement a presentation of abnormal situations as completely normal, creating a solid narrative on the dangers of competition that we can all relate to.
4/5 STARS
-Joe Lollo
You can watch All Sorts here.
Potato Dreams of America
Wes Hurley is somewhat known around Seattle, mostly due to his collaborations with theatre and drag performers in the area, but his films are unfortunately not. Potato Dreams of America is semi-autobiographical, tracing how he got to Seattle and what the experience was like for him growing up as a queer Russian teenager there. The film speaks to a less textured strain of queer cinema, being much less campy, and you can practically sense young Hurley assimilating into mainstream America with the filmmaking, which feels like a neat trick. The very existence of the film also prompts some curiosity over what stories, or whose stories, Hurley will tell next.
4/5 STARS
-Joe Lollo
You can watch Potato Dreams of America here.
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet
Operating in brief and absurd vignettes, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet quietly examines and celebrates the minutia and connections of everyday life in its tight 73 minutes of beautiful cinematography. With political undercurrents regarding class constantly bubbling in the background, providing an acute critique of our society’s ability to respond to emergencies, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet still manages a tender humor digestible for all. Although moments of the vignettes sometimes can be too short, leading to an incoherency that makes the film feel abrupt and shallow, director Ana Katz’s ability to capture the bittersweet resiliency of the human spirit through its smallest moments makes the film a worthwhile watch for 2021.
3/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet here.
Summer of ’85
Francois Ozon’s latest understands the feeling of what it means to be young and in love. Sensual and tender in its warm tones and sounds of nostalgic love to harsh and erratic in feelings of jealousy and loss, Summer of ’85 wears all its emotions on its sleeve. In doing so, Ozon demonstrates an assured capability of operating under a Shakespearean-esque tragedy to create a relatable display of heightened feelings of any first love. However, what lurks is a strange narration that reads edgy more than informative with its odd focus on death and criminality. Although understandable in expounding on the state of repressed queer romance in this nostalgia-fueled yet conservative time of the past, it often diverts the film into an unnecessary territory of tone that feels laborious and diminishing of its previous set-up. However, for all its dark angst, the earnestness of its display of emotion certainly never misses, making one want to sing every single cheesy love song at the top of their lungs and yearn for the innocence of teenage love one more time.
3.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Summer of ’85 here.
Charter
Amanda Kernell’s newest film follows the harrowing journey of a Swedish mother who kidnaps her children after losing custody of them. Lead actress Ane Dahl Torp gives a haunting performance as both a wounded and cornered mother against whom the cards are stacked. Kernell does not hesitate to shine light on the ugly realities of divorce, and she does an excellent job in taking care to portray it from the point of view of an ostracized mother. There is no right and wrong, just a disorganized mix of love, desperation, bitterness, and forgiveness. There is no doubt that our main character cares deeply for her children, but there is no place for her in the frigid town that her ex husband and children reside. As the film culminates in the ultimate question of self-sacrifice and what is best for one’s children, both the audience and the mother must face some hard truths.
3.5/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch Charter here.
Together Together
Together Together is a quirky rom-com written and directed by Nikole Beckwith that provides an honest look at the world of surrogate parents. With its heart in the right place and the talents of Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, the film explores the friendship, rather than relationship, that can grow between a single father and a surrogate, with most of the runtime devoted to the two of them finding similarities and experiencing the broad spectrum of emotions that can come from something like this. It’s like a more grounded version of Baby Mama.
3.5/5 STARS
-Joe Lollo
You can watch Together Together here.
Street Gang: How We Got Sesame Street
A paint-by-the-numbers documentary, Street Gang: How We Got Sesame Street seamlessly navigates the fascinating and endearing background of Sesame Street’s creation. Intercutting between archival behind-the-scenes footage and conventional talking-head interviews, Street Gang: How We Got Sesame Street invokes a tender sense of nostalgia. Simultaneously, in its modern-day interviews, the doc also provides an intimate and modern eye of critique towards the whole creative process, especially on how race played a role in Sesame Street’s legacy and the strains and pressures the individuals of Sesame Street felt in its creation. However, the true star of the doc comes from the passion displayed by each individual involved as it utilizes and injects the magic and energy of the legendary television show into the documentary, creating an invigorating and memorable artifact.
3.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Street Gang: How We Got Sesame Street here.
Tove
Finland’s selection for the Best International film Oscar is a vivacious biopic that follows the creative and romantic struggles of the country’s beloved children’s book author and cartoonist Tove Jansson, best known internationally as author of The Summer Book and creator of the Moomin characters. Directed by Zaida Bergroth, the film covers a formative decade in the life of the artist, in which she deals with disapproving parents, cheating lovers, financial issues, and career setbacks. The bisexual Jansson also finds herself embroiled in a love triangle, caught between the mayor’s daughter and a male member of parliament. Buoyed by an energetic soundtrack and deepened by sumptuous set design, this exuberant, queer biopic is not to miss.
4/5 STARS
-Piper Coyner
You can watch Tove here.
Kim Ji-young, Born 1982
Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 follows a South Korean woman as she reflects upon the lifelong sexism she has faced, and as she tries to break out of her unfulfilling role of stay-at-home mom. Brought to the screen by first-time director Kim Do-young, the film seamlessly weaves together Ji-young’s recollections of youth with the present timeline, showing how various instances of sexism have crippled her psychologically. The story tackles both particular aspects of Korean patriarchy, such as sons being favored over daughters, as well as universal acts of misogyny, including prejudice towards stay-at-home mothers. Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 shows how these commonly held beliefs of the inferiority of women break down the psyches of our mothers, daughters, and wives. This emotionally complicated film is a testament to freedom, equality, and the strength of women all around the world.
4/5 STARS
-Piper Coyner
You can watch Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 here.
Conductivity
Conductivity provides an accessible glance into the competitive world of orchestral conducting. The documentary follows three students at the prestigious Sibelius Academy in Helinski as they hone their leadership and musical skills under the tutelage of world renown conductors. The documentary expertly portrays the intense pressure that comes with standing on a podium before a group of musicians, as well as the intricate artistry that conductors must explore and cultivate with their own voices while respecting the origins of the music they’re directing. As we follow the students through three years of their studies, the documentary presents a fascinating insight into their growth and the dedication they put into their craft.
3.5/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch Conductivity here.
All Those Small Things
Well-intentioned at heart, All Those Small Things feels like a film-school exercise of celebrating the human spirit that reads more irritatingly forceful than heart-warming and intimate. With caricatures abound and a non-stop soundtrack, one man’s journey into self-discovery turns into an emotionally manipulative mess lacking subtlety and nuance as the audience is treated to one emotional cliché after another. As a result, the film feels more like a comedic music video, utilizing flashy cinematography that reads more as just-for-show while using cartoonish jokes and predictable narrative beats that lead All Those Small Things to come off more as a strange jab towards all different cultures rather than a celebration of the minutia in humanity.
2/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch All Those Small Things here.
Love Type D
The “anti-rom-com” is an odd genre, and BAFTA-winning director Sasha Collington’s take is no exception. The premise arises from new scientific research pointing to a “love gene,” which splits society into two distinctive categories, dumpers and dumpees – dumpees are forced to find fellow dumpees to stay with, or else they repeat the cycle of dumping all over again. The film is strongest when it bends the terms of reality to rebel against the cliché tropes of romantic comedies, with creating love-potions and dating ghosts passing as daily occurrences in this exaggerated reality. Unfortunately, it’s void of any real social commentary on dumping and the subjectivity of relationships, but I can say I had several good laughs from it.
3.5/5 STARS
-Joe Lollo
You can watch Love Type D here.
Sweat
Sweat is a Polish comedy-drama film following a celebrity fitness motivator using her bravery to hide her loneliness and vulnerability, as well as her inability to find a relationship, exploring the stakes of being an influencer like this in contemporary society. A high point is the cinematography, as it’s filmed in the bright colors of youthful success and ego, and dizzying cameras mimicking her unleashed energy. There’s nothing that completely derails the film, but it’s also nothing extremely impressive either aside from being a good enough character study.
3/5 STARS
-Joe Lollo
You can watch Sweat here.
There Is No Evil
Mohammad Rasoulof’s anthology film There Is No Evil, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, tackles the heavy subject of capital punishment in Iran through the use of four poignant vignettes. The film was shot in secret, and its harsh critique of the despotic Iranian regime earned Rasoulof a two-year prison sentence. There Is No Evil confronts its audience with tales of moral ambiguity and difficult decisions, contrasting the stories of two men who are complicit in state-sponsored execution with the stories of two men who fight against the system, and how these decisions affect the people around them. There Is No Evil is a patient but enthralling film, punctuated by long takes and accented by impeccable cinematography, that breaks down the binary between moral and immoral in a well-crafted and thought-provoking manner.
4/5 STARS
-Piper Coyner
You can watch There Is No Evil here.
The Pink Cloud
Although The Pink Cloud was originally written in 2017 as a science fiction thriller, Brazilian director Iuli Gerbase’s debut film about a couple forced into quarantine feels anything but speculative. The film’s premise is not that of a global pandemic, but of the titular pink cloud: a mysterious meteorological formation that appears all around the world and kills within ten seconds, forcing everyone to stay inside for years on end. Giovana and Yago must quarantine with one another after having a one-night stand, and The Pink Cloud tracks the course of their relationship, showing how difficult it can be for two such different people to create a life together. Gerbase’s meditation on relationships, hope, freedom, happiness, and the ability of humans to survive feel eerily prescient and relevant to life today.
3.5/5 STARS
-Piper Coyner
You can watch The Pink Cloud here.
Little Girl
Little Girl’s ability to be non-exploitive and sensitive in its rendering of a delicate subject matter is a marvel to behold. Following a family’s journey in understanding their daughter’s gender identity, director Sebastian Lifshitz establishes an intimate trust between camera and subject, capturing unobtrusive and tender images of self-discovery, fear, and everything in between. Smartly keeping the film self-contained to the family, utilizing talking-head interviews in dictating to us how the outside world is reacting to Sasha’s gender, Little Girl stresses the difficulties the family and Sasha will face within our unaccepting society. By allowing the family to also make assertions of their viewpoint of these difficulties, we see the resiliency of everyone involved to ensure Sasha gets the happy childhood she deserves. In doing so, along with the wide spatiality and soft compositions that allow Sasha space to explore herself and the world around her, Lifshitz creates a rich and thought-provoking portrait of a girl doing everything she can to enjoy the world on her terms.
4/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Little Girl here.
Nahuel and the Magic Book
Nahuel and the Magic Book fits neatly into the box of unoffensive, straightforward, and familiar stories of evil wizards, child heroes, and magical lands. Full of gorgeous animation and rich fantastical creatures drawn from the its Chilean roots, the film makes for an easy and comfortable watch. There is nothing to complain about, except for the lack of stakes and the one dimensionality that could easily be missed by a child. While the climax is rather underwhelming, Nahuel and the Magic Book still touches on a few easy childhood lessons about fear, loss, and responsibility. What results is an agreeable, yet simple, tale of childhood bravery and integrity.
3/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch Nahuel and the Magic Book here.
Strawberry Mansion
Through Strawberry Mansion’s creative narrative, advertisements invading our dreams, Strawberry Mansion achieves a warm ambiguity, snuggly fitting all its absurdity into a calming, humorous, and consistent effect. The tenderness of the cinematography, along with its lead actor’s performance, creates a soothing ambiance as we explore the strange nuance of the world built in front of us. This is when Strawberry Mansion is working at its best, and are some of the best sequences I have seen all festival. However, it is barred by its materialist and capitalist critique, although much needed in our ultra-consumerism world, makes its symbolism often too didactic, jarringly contrasting with its more absurd and whisper-filled moments. Its on-the-nose motifs make the film’s absurdity often lose its potency, making the film act more as a thriller that oddly grounds the film and ruins the flow of the ambiguity and creativity created by the dreams prior. Yet, laced in all its absurdity is a beautiful faith in humanity, faith in the world’s innovation and creativity to evade homogeneity. If not clear from the film, then the simple existence of the wonderfully creative and absurd Strawberry Mansion should be proof enough. Proof that makes me have faith that as we continue in this world, we will not be lost to consumer-driven monotony.
4/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Strawberry Mansion here.
Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation
Filmmaker and writer Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s latest work is a brief and perplexing documentary that borrows the voices of Jim Parsons and Zachary Quinto to give life to the words of Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams, two famous 20th century American writers and close friends. Voiceovers touch on topics such as alcoholism, homosexuality, the life of a writer, and the concept of celebrity with visuals that are quite amateur in their presentation and often not at all related to what is being discussed in the voiceover. The quality of Williams’s and Capote’s prose is enough to keep any viewer interested, but the content perhaps would have been better served by a fiction film, or a book. Truman and Tennessee feels more like a PBS documentary that you would have on in the background while cooking than an actual theatrically released film; the most interesting parts of the film are when the writers speak from themselves via archival footage of television interviews. Although these two men led fascinating lives and left behind rich oeuvres of work, the film fails to shed any new light on their lives, nor on their relationship with one another.
2.5/5 STARS
-Piper Coyner
You can watch Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation here.
The Heist of the Century
The Heist of the Century is an exactly-what-it-says-on-the-box heist movie that delivers on its promises. Based on the real life heist of the Banco Rio in 2006, this Argentinian version of Ocean’s Eleven takes the audience through the classic assembling of a team, complex planning, thievery, and fallout that one can expect from a basic heist movie. While it lacks any depth besides that of its heist, if you go in looking only for fun, you will be rewarded. Accompanied by a great cast, jazzy soundtrack, clever visuals, and quick dialogue, this fast paced story will keep you entertained the whole way through.
3/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch The Heist of a Century here.
Wyrm
Wyrm is a delightfully absurdist coming-of-age story that hits all the right notes to make one have a consistently contained chuckle and snort throughout. Following the teenage Wyrm’s (Theo Taplitz) attempts to make peace with his ever-changing teenage body, whether it be dealing with the daunting first kiss or trying to cope with a sudden loss in the family, Wyrm uniquely utilizes its absurdity and deadpan execution to create a soft comedic effect that is oddly relatable to anyone who has felt the sudden rush of teenage anxiety. Although a bit all over the place in terms of narrative threads, the underlying themes of the difficulties and anxieties inherent in growing up are consistently and readily felt, overall creating an empathetic and heart-warming lens towards our old teenage selves, reminding us to go easy on our past.
3.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Wyrm here.
Ma Belle, My Beauty
Ma Belle, My Beauty ticks all the boxes for pretentious countryside dialogue-driven guilty pleasure that you’d watch after a glass of wine, perhaps a large glass of wine. The heightened drama that comes out of left-field, the large gestures of emotion that feel like attempts at an Oscar reel, the sexually charged tensions, and the luscious yet ungodly expensive landscape, Ma Belle, My Beauty has it all. Although often exhausting to sit through, with dialogue that feels stilted and an odd choice of lining cuts with its ongoing soundtrack, Ma Belle, My Beauty’s nonchalance attitude towards depicting polyamorous relationships and sexual fluidity is to be commended. In its honest attempt to explore the complexity of these relationships and identities, rather than creating a tragic villainization, Ma Belle, My Beauty feels like a breath of fresh air. But, in the end, Ma Belle, My Beauty, although not the most nuanced work in this year’s festival, is quite the amusing romp that can be mindlessly enjoyed after a long day, but maybe get that glass of wine before you start.
2.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Ma Belle, My Beauty here.
Final Exam
Final Exam has a sensitivity to it that is rather impressive; as we watch our main character, a temporary substitute teacher, try to take care of his troublesome brother, ailing grandma, and students while furthering his own career, we as an audience cannot help but emphasize with his frustrations. As his brother’s behavior spirals out of control, our main character sees him echoed in one of his struggling students. Pushed to the breaking point, the film ponders how our teacher will or won’t work to support him in the way that his brother perhaps needed when he was young. Lead actor Lan Wei-Hua’s gives an excellent performance of a man who is maintaining different personas for different people in an act of endurance. Together with the gorgeous visuals of rural Taiwan and minimalist soundtrack, Final Exam offers a poignant story about what it means to truly care for another person.
3.5/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch Final Exam here.
Criollo
Similar to a top tier Chef’s Table episode (a series I have obsessively watched since its creation), Criollo’s ability to balance between informative, passion, and patience towards food and a culture beyond American is striking. Navigating through vignettes of the different produce and product developed in the art of cooking in Uruguay, Criollo finds peace and honor in not only the food created, but the waters, land, plants, and the family and friends that make the act of cooking doable, celebrating their existence and reminding us of the beauty of these roots through its gorgeous cinematography. In the end, as we glean a couple personal stories of Uruguayan cooks, we are invited to the intimacy that cooking can entail, the traditions and cultures that it relies on, and the magic that nourishment of a great meal can provide.
3.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Criollo here.
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily
The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily brings to life a charming story that looks and feels like it’s straight out of a storybook. Within the story lies a surprisingly sound lesson on identity, personal bias, and judgement wrapped up in a simple and harmless tale of bears and humans. The paper-like animation of the internally narrated story makes for a fun and fresh style of visuals, and the film doesn’t hesitate to embrace its role in imparting this classic fable to children. It’s fun, easy, and a delightful time.
3/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily here.
Waikiki
What’s clear from Waikiki is that Christopher Kahunahana’s potential is high. Well-directed in terms of creating imagery and willing to explore interesting themes of Hawaiian native displacement in the face of American tourism and the aftereffects of colonialism on the Hawaiian islands, Waikiki presents promising ideas and technical innovations. Exploring one woman’s exploration of identity as she faces homelessness, abuse, and the ever-changing whitewashing of the Hawaiian landscape, often shown with well-executed cuts to skyscrapers, Waikiki’s intent of exposing the tragedies of colonialism of Hawaii by American tourists is admirable and much-needed. However, with a script that is marred with aggressive language that feels misplaced and incoherent in its attempt at surrealism leading to no emotional weight, Waikiki simply feels like an amateur attempt at Mulholland Drive with a side of poverty porn.
3.5/5 STARS
-Cynthia Li
You can watch Waikiki here.
The Spy
While The Spy tells the true tale of a Swedish actress turned double agent, its unambitious, slow, and distant. There is no real investment built up into her story, which is messily put together with a romantic subplot and an ending that comes so abruptly you’ll wonder what you were doing the whole time. It is long overdue that this story be told, but in an ever increasing flood of WWII films, The Spy doesn’t do much to stand out. You’ll likely leave this film with a shrug and forget about it the next day.
2.5/5 STARS
-Stephanie Chuang
You can watch The Spy here.
Deadly Cuts
Set in a small town in Ireland, Deadly Cuts centers on four women whose worlds revolve around a hair salon. The story follows familiar beats, but specific cultural moments– such as a Gaelic rap and establishing shots of working-class corners of Ireland– make it a true Irish treat. Frustratingly, the four women are not equally crafted as characters. A different hair color does not make a distinct character. The film succeeds in its depiction of the elitism of a creative industry, hilariously detailing an absurdity level of celebrity for a hairstylist.
3/5 STARS
-Madelyn Land
You can watch Deadly Cuts here.
God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya
Petrunya provokes her entire community by taking part in a religious ceremony that bans female participants. While God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya is difficult to watch for its constant degrading of its main character, it’s layered exploration of womanhood is a joy to watch. Paralleling the unemployed Petrunya with a reporter– who is dealing with her own forms of sexism– the film portrays complicated issues of misogyny and economic stresses. A high point is when the “I have a daughter…” argument– which many men make when faced with a discussion on sexism– is turned on its head. Some viewers may find the last act frustrating, but nonetheless it is compelling.
4/5 STARS
-Madelyn Land
You can watch God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya here.