Unmade Beds (top); Paul Giamatti in Cold Souls (2nd from top); Autumn (2nd from bottom); ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Thu., June 25, highlights:
Alexis dos Santos' Unmade Beds (Landmark 4, 2:30 pm) chronicles the emotional, romantic, and sexual entanglements of a group of young denizens of London's East End. In the cast: Déborah François, Fernando Tielve, Michiel Huisman, Iddo Goldberg, and Richard Lintern.
A second screening of Matthew Bissonnette's Passenger Side (Landmark 8, 4:30 pm), which follows two estranged brothers — one an ex-junkie (Joel Bissonnette); the other a struggling writer (Adam Scott) — through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles and the nearby desert. Throughout it all the brothers get to know a little more about one another, but don't expect any sort of saccharine "family affirming" resolution. As in life, things — and people — aren't exactly what they seem to be.
Marco Bechis' Birdwatchers (Landmark 8, 7 pm) depicts the plight of Brazil's Guarani-Kaiowá Indians in their struggle to reclaim their land from white settlers. Birdwatchers was one of the films in competition at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. In the cast: Claudio Santamaria, Chiara Caselli, Matheus Nachtergaele, Leonardo Medeiros, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Taiane Arce.
In Sophie Barthes' feature-film debut Cold Souls (Mann Festival Theatre, 7 pm), Paul Giamatti has his soul stored in a secure place only to discover that it has been smuggled into Russia and is now in the possession of a local soap-opera actress. Also in the cast: David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson. Giamatti is expected to attend the screening.
Starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, John Schlesinger's Academy Award-winning Midnight Cowboy (Billy Wilder Theater, 7:30 pm) follows two losers whose American Dream remains just that.
In Özcan Alper's Autumn (Landmark 4, 9:30 pm), a former convict tries to rebuild his life after returning to his old Turkish village. Winner of the best director award at the Sofia Film Festival.
Kevin Hamedani's ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (Majestic Crest, 10 pm) shows what happens when a small island town in the Pacific Northwest is attacked by gluttonish zombies: the braindead American media blames all that gore on terrorists, the family-values citizenry uses an Iranian-American woman as a scapegoat, the local pastor declares Holy War (I'm not sure if it's against Muslims or Zombies), and a visiting gay couple must decide if this is really the appropriate time to come out of the closet.