What a lovely film to open my Atlanta film festival. Sahkanaga has all the elements that remind me why I love indie filmmaking so much. It is made with real affection for the story and characters. It is also devoid of the overly cynical, self-conscious filmmaking style that shows up too often on the festival circuit. You can see the director has really poured his heart into every aspect of this film.
The story follows the residents of a small town in rural Georgia and how they are shaken by the aftermath of an awful scandal. It is inspired by a true story that happened in 2002, where the owner of a crematorium was found to be dumping bodies in the woods instead of cremating them. Director John Henry Sumerour takes the elements of that story and focuses it on a teenage boy who struggles with what to do in light of a horrific discovery.
The best thing about the film is how it really captures the tone and essence of rural small town life. The town really comes alive and you feel transported there. It helps that the director has assembled a fine cast of very natural actors. There is no overacting to be found here. The events unfold naturally and at no point does Sumerour try to beat the audience over the head. It is an impressively confident achievement and a terrific way to start the festival.
Here we have a film that suffers from a jarring tonal shift that dooms any chance the film had of working. It starts as a poor man'sversion of Shakespeare in Love and takes an abrupt departure to a deadly serious and depressing romantic drama. The latter part is exceedingly tedious and drags on for far too long.
The film follows the life of German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He has dreams of being a successful poet, but his father would rather he earn a law degree. Goethe tries to slug through law school, but his antics constantly get him in trouble and it is clear this is not the place for him to be. It is when he falls in love with a young woman named Lotte that his passions are finally awakened.
The earlier parts of film are somewhat funny and charming. The bizarre shift to a dull, lethargic period drama is not handled well at all, partly because lead Alexander Fehling is not captivating enough to handle such material. In light of this, the attempt at a last minute feel good ending rings hollow. This could have been a fun light romantic dramedy, but the film never finds a proper balance of tone and thus it does not work at all.
Here is a film that is pretty much exactly the opposite of Sahkanaga. It fits right into that genre of self-conscious, cynical indie film, with a writer-director trying way too hard to show the audience how cool he can be. He seems more interested in tyring to pull clever tricks than telling an actual story, and his film suffers as a result.
The story follows a couple of married con artists, who travel from town to town and engineer elaborate ethical games that upend the lives of the people they meet. The film is told in an episodic manner, as they move from con to con. This does cause a problem because while some of the scenarios (particularly a moving sequence in a retirement home) are strong, others fall completely flat (such as a sequence in a church).
It's a shame, because Arthur is a good writer, and he does create some interesting moments. If he had more confidence in his own material instead of feeling the need to announce his skill with so many winks, twists, and tricks, then he'd cetainly be capable of making a solid feature film. Until then, he just has a mediocre film that works intermittently.
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