Robert Horton is a Scarecrow board member and a longtime film critic. This series of "critic's notes" is chance to highlight worthy films playing locally and connect them to the riches of Scarecrow's collection.
A few more capsule reviews of movies from the current Seattle International Film Festival. Last week's Seasoned Ticket had even more.
The Things You Kill. For almost half its running time, this movie appears to be a typically absorbing Iranian drama (albeit shot in Turkey by an Iranian-born filmmaker, Alireza Khatami) in which human and societal ills are studied under an exacting lens: In this case, a harried thirtysomething professor of literature whose family issues present almost as bleak a horizon as the weirdly barren plot of land he tries to turn into a garden. Then….well, it would be better not to have spoilers, but something happens that steers the film into David Lynch territory, a storytelling gambit so severe that what we see becomes something like a hallucination. Also, there's a particular shot that just about levitated me out of my seat when I realized what was happening—and I still don't know exactly how it was done. But it fits the derangement of the story. This is a fascinating film. Friday 5/23, 9pm, Pacific Place; Saturday 5/24, 4pm, Pacific Place.
Time Travel Is Dangerous. It's a British comedy, and as such, it's in a certain tonal groove that will be unmistakable. So while this movie is definitely not the second coming of Monty Python or Shaun of the Dead, it does have an engagingly sardonic attitude and a surfeit of silly gags. Two friends, who run an antique store in London, discover a time machine that allows them to travel back and procure very sellable items for their shop. (The machine is also used for more frivolous purposes, like going back two years to get Chinese food from a beloved restaurant that recently closed.) Issues with the time-space continuum soon develop. Weirdly but engagingly, the two actors, Ruth Syratt and Megan Stevenson, actually own the real-life shop, and display uncanny comic delivery for first-timers. A variety of Brit-comedy veterans fill in other roles (including Jane Horrocks, Sophie Thompson, and narrator Stephen Fry), and the lo-fi special effects add just the right touch of charm. Friday 5/23, 6:30pm, Uptown; Saturday 5/24, noon, Uptown.
Know Her Name. Documentary that takes a stab at restoring the profiles of certain neglected female film directors of the past, while allowing a group of current filmmakers—Deepa Mehta and Mary Harron among them—a chance to describe how challenging it is to get ahead in the boys' club. Worthy goals, of course, although it would be easier to recommend the film if it didn't get quite so bogged down in academic language. Friday 5/23, 6pm, Shoreline Community College; Sunday 5/25, 5pm, Uptown.
The Crowd. Interesting set-up in this Iranian project from first-time director Sahand Kabiri: a group of friends decide to throw a huge party in an unused warehouse, not long after the accidental death of one of the group. Through a torrent of conversation and a few cultural crises (the difficulties of sorting out an inheritance, unmitigated homophobia), a little snapshot comes to life. Kabiri doesn't quite turn this notion into something fully-realized, but as a look into modern living for young people in Tehran, it's pretty interesting—it could've been a terrific 30-minute segment in a multi-story movie. Friday 5/23, 7pm, Uptown; Sunday 5/25, noon, Uptown.
May 16, 2025
