Spiders and Zombies

Link: http://www.traversecityfilmfest.org/

So I managed to catch the intro to the Traverse City Film Festival when I took my brief vacation, and caught a couple films (ranked best to worst):

The Deal: A fun little movie with William H Macy and Meg Ryan. I was worried that, being a Hollywood movie that's poking fun at Hollywood, the movie would come off a little awkward or forced... but there are plently of great little jokes with fine delivery. I definitely recommend it.

Vicky Christina Barcelona: An enjoyable Woody Allen movie. The ending is a little weak for a movie billed as a romantic comedy, but then again that might be the marketing dept's mistake, rather than the director's. I'm pretty sure it would have been better labeled as "another Woody Allen movie".

The Last Winter: Horror movie set in frozen Alaska. The effects were minimal, the dialog suffered at times, and the plot just sort of drifted through the movie. That being said, at least the director never lost his grip on his audience suspense wise... not a boring movie, just not a particularly good movie.

Theater of War: A documentary on the Bertolt Brecht and a contemporary production of his Mother Courage and Her Children. And frankly it's about as exciting as it sounds. There's some good archival footage of the initial production of the play in post WWII Germany, but other than that there's not that much to hold your interest. I'm rather surprised that the movie opens up with a rather lackluster and stumbling dialog from the play performed by the current play's star, Glen Close.