Queens World Film Festival: WTF Block

The second film block that I attended during the Queens Film Festival was called WTF aka What The Film? These films were the complete mindfuck to be blunt. The films are incredible, insightful and informative. The first film titled Cruise is a short film with one of the best plot twist I ever watched. A hitman is selling a pair of tickets for a cruise. He hires a salesman to sell them over the phone and whoever fails in three attempts gets murdered. When one salesman gets the chance is where things goes left. For a short film I appreciate the tight space for detail. You don't have to know how the hitman got the tickets or why he selling them. You just need to know that he getting rid of them one way or another. The roles were pure comedy even the suspense at the end was smart and funny. Some films gets the point in a short time and Cruise is one of them.

Next is The Game which is about a family going through spousal abuse. The kid plays games on a portable player while his parents fight. One day the father gets arrested and gets sent to jail. When he comes back the son gets angry and starts beating him up. The ending is strange as the boy runs with his friends which says to the viewer that he will continue playing games no matter what. Then I realize the ending is open to interpretation. A good movie but needed more work on the story building up.

Next movie is Sfortunato which in Italian means unfortunate or unlucky. In this film a gambler who thinks he's unlucky finds out that he may or may not be dying. Meanwhile the loan sharks that he owes money to is after him. Throughout the ordeal the gambler tries to make peace with his brother and make amends with everyone he ever crossed. Of course as the theme of this block shows nothing isnt like what it seems. The acting was great, Michael Fedele who wrote the film as well is great as Vincent the gambler who tries to control his fate. You can see the emotional roller-coaster he display as Vincent go through his daily routine not knowing what's going to happen next. The ending of the movie fits it well. All I will say is you got to see it to believe it.

Next is How To Wash The Dead. A film about a bombing that went wrong as a brother grieves that his brother died in a failed mission. He attacks those involved then in turn tries to give his brother a decent burial. The film is a poignant piece of how influential political and nationalist propaganda can be to the youth especially Muslim. The pieces of prior incidents cut into what transpired at the attack. The actors were really good at portraying men who can be vicious and desperate at the same time. This was a great short film which shows the essence of unpredictability.

How She Didn't Die was the final and best film out of the block. The film is about a woman who encounters a homeless man and asks him to kill her because she doesn't want to commit suicide. Throughout the film they go on a cross country trip and talk about each other's lives. The homeless man doesn't want to kill her because she should live. However in the end things goes left and seem to be a beautiful relationship turns deadly. I love the build-up to the final climax because it showed that anything can happen without you knowing it. The dialogue between the actors were incredible. The woman who wrote the adaptation in which the film is inspired from took her life but elements of her experience were used in the writing of the script. Brilliant acting throughout the film. I really wished it was a bit longer to see what the aftermath is like. Then again the film wrapped up any loose ends nicely.