Cleveland International Film Festival Mini Reviews: 24 City, La Belle Personne, Tokyo!

Better late than never, I suppose. Finally, I bring you a handful of reviews of the films I have caught at this year's Cleveland International Film Festival.

I started things off on Day 1 with the film 24 City. The latest from Chinese director Jia Zhangke brought with it a bit of a mixed bag for me. The film is a blend of fictional and factual interviews chronicles the destruction of factory to make way for a high-end apartment complex know as 24 City and how it has impacted past, present and future of its workers. While I really appreciated and recognized what director Jia Zhangke was attempting to get across on screen, I just felt overall the film lacked the true realism and likability of past works like The World and Unknown Pleasures and instead came off as simply a depressing faux documentary.

Day 2 delivered a more satisfying film, in my opinion,with La Belle Personne. Sure, I may be a bit bias being a big admirer of director Christophe Honore previous two films. The film once again stars actor Louis Garrel in one of the lead roles but wisely takes backseat to lead actress Lea Seydoux in a fascinating role as Junie, a young high school student who must choose between Otto who honestly and completely is in love with her and language professor Nemours (played by Garrel) who seems more into lust than love itself. While the film never reaches the excellence of Dans Paris and Love Songs, the film still charmed me throughout and comes with high recommendation.

Tokyo! came in Day 3 and not only charmed me but also rubbed me the wrong way. Three stories of Tokyo and its inhabitants embodied the film with three drastically different results. Michel Gondry's opening segement 'Interior Design' started off like your typical Japanese drama of teenage angst before becoming a full fledged Gondry creation in the last half. With strong shades of the director during his music video days. Leos Carax mess of a second segment, 'Merde', seemed selfish focused on France than on anything remotely Japanese, others than to cross the line to a borderline racist short. Thankfully, Korean director Bong Joon-ho closes things up with the brilliantly beautiful 'Shaking Tokyo'. With clear resemblance to highly underrated Tony Takitani, the closing short starring actress Yu Aio and Teruyuki Kagawa as reclusive shut-ins who only hope for survival is their very own companionship. While the overall film is not as strong as its surrounding parts, it still manages to entertain.