|
Showtimes
for all movies in the area. Click
here!
By Emily Garrett
Art Center showcases
winners of Iowa Film Competition
The word “art” brings to mind
images of large, strangely painted
canvases and oddly shaped sculptures.
But there is another, more familiar
art form that is often overlooked
— art films, aka independent movies.
The lack of exposure for artistic
films is why the Des Moines Art
Center, in conjunction with their
“2007 Iowa Artists” exhibit, started
the Iowa Film Competition Showcase
to be held this weekend.
This year marks the fourth biennial
production of the showcase. “The
event started as a support program
for the visual art exhibit because
it’s much harder to get people
to see your work if you work with
the moving image,” says Jill Featherstone,
the museum’s education director
and one of three people in charge
of selecting films for the showcase.
This year there were 39 entries
by 31 filmmakers. Each film was
viewed by Featherstone, assistant
curator Laura Burkhalter and former
Des Moines Register film critic
Jeffrey Bruner. The films were
judged on criteria such as script,
camera work and innovation. In
the end, 10 films were selected
and given an award of gold, silver
or bronze.
“Originally, the competition
was for first, second and third
place,” says Featherstone, “but
(with the new rating system) now
we can show more films.”
And more is better because exposure
is hard to come by in the business
of artistic filmmaking, which
may explain why few people who
enter films into the competition
are exclusively filmmakers. Often
films are submitted by students
majoring in film or journalism.
But many of the entrants are just
“people with a lifelong interest
in film, people with hobbies,”
Featherstone says.
Randy Hamilton of Des Moines
is one such filmmaker. His film,
“Body in Pain,” won the gold prize
in this year’s festival. Hamilton,
a neurologist at Mercy Medical
Center, is pursuing his master’s
degree in architecture at Iowa
State University in Ames and created
the film as a requirement for
one of his classes. After some
encouragement from a professor,
he decided to submit his film
to the competition.
“Film was always just a hobby
for me before this. I’ve made
four or five other movies I’d
never show to anyone,” Hamilton
says. However, since his success,
he’s decided to submit “Body in
Pain” to about 20 other film festivals
and has become very passionate
about filmmaking.
“I would love to make more films,
but now I want to concentrate
on other things,” he says. “I
became so obsessed with it that
I need to keep myself from thinking
about more films right now. But
really, I can’t wait.”
A free screening of all 10 films
will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m.
in the Levitt Auditorium at the
Des Moines Art Center. The films
are of various lengths and genres,
so there’s sure to be something
for everyone in this showcase
of less traditional Iowa art.
CV
‘Knocked Up’
Movie Trailer
Writer/director Judd Apatow (“The
40 Year Old Virgin”) shatters
romantic comedy conventions to
create a side-splitting movie
hinged on fundamental differences
between men and women. Jewish
Slacker Ben Stone (Seth Rogen)
lives a frat house existence smoking
endless bong-hits and playing
refereed games of ping-pong with
his four puerile housemates. Fate
intervenes on the guys’ “brilliant”
employment substitution strategy
to launch “FleshofTheStars.com,”
a Web site delineating the placement
of nude scenes in movies, after
Ben shares an unlikely one-night
stand of unprotected drunken sex
with “E! Entertainment” television
reporter Alison Scott (Katherine
Heigl).
Alison’s “hottie” status doesn’t
stop her from making tenuous peace
with Ben’s unkempt appearance
and laid-back sense of humor after
she discovers that she’s pregnant
with his child. Having just been
promoted to an on-screen television
interviewer, against the wishes
of a comically catty co-worker,
Alison tries to keep her pregnancy
a secret from her employers. Interviews
with stars like James Franco (playing
himself) go screwy as Alison’s
bouts of morning sickness inelegantly
disrupt the videotaped proceedings.
The blending of real-life celebrity
culture into the story lends a
distinctly L.A. milieu that’s
funny for its blushing behind-the-scenes
truthfulness. Apatow deftly moves,
bends and blurs class division
judgments in a haze of Southern
Californian consciousness. There’s
plenty of social substance for
the laughs to stick to here.
Compatibility is more than skin
deep as Ben attempts to step up
to the plate of responsibility
for Alison in spite of his unemployed
status and lazy habits. Ben hedges
his bets by lunching with his
amiable dad (Harold Ramis) to
ask for advice, only to get a
“roll-with-the-punches” answer
that may explain his dad’s record
of multiple divorces. Ben tries
hard to satisfy Alison’s expectations
by buying a stack of advice books
on having babies, and by making
the rounds with her in search
of the right gynecologist to assist
with the birth when the time comes.
Singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright
III makes a witty cameo as a typically
Los Angeles brand of OBGYN physician.
Judging from the movie, there
aren’t too many worthy gynecologists
working in Los Angeles.
The snickers go through the
roof more than a few times, not
the least of which is during an
attempted love-making session
where Ben’s queasiness about bothering
or “hurting” the baby makes for
a defining moment of weighty humor,
so to speak. The movie swings
between surprisingly uninhibited
personal interactions and contextualizing
scenes of public interactions
where harsh opinions are expressed.
Ben’s buddies form a peanut gallery
of advice and information that
would send steam from the ears
of Alison’s naysayer sister Debbie
(Leslie Mann) if she ever heard
them. Debbie presents the movie’s
essential antagonist, and we know
this for certain when she drags
Ben and Alison along to spy on
her husband Pete (Paul Rudd),
who she suspects is cheating on
her.
For all of its raunchy humor
and eye-popping sight gags, “Knocked
Up” wins as a comedy for its open
embrace of hormonal differences
that send men and women to opposite
corners to address individual
nagging issues before coming together
again to move forward. The ensemble
performances flex together well
in off-kilter ways that underscore
the sense of a Los Angeles community
of like-minded individuals freely
expressing themselves. Seth Rogen
is something of a comic revelation
with a disarming delivery that
punishes your funny bone. With
the exception of the poisonous
Debbie, everyone’s heart is pretty
much in the right place. And at
least Ben eventually puts Debbie
in her place before Alison gives
birth under the supervision of
a control freak gynecologist.
“Knocked Up” is an instant classic.
CV
By Emily Garrett
Comment
on this story | Return
to top
| 
