San Francisco is one place this happens for and is perhaps not so surprising – it is a pretty distinctive place after all and the imagery was already familiar from countless movies and TV shows before I ever went there. What was a bit more surprising was a random suburban area in South Korea; Korea has had a real building boom amid all the growth it’s had which has resulted in a certain look and feel to the architecture and the cities being very common though not distinctive of any once place. That’s the space where a lot of the more “real world” Korean films are set, and it’s the one I recognise. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a film that ventured into Itaewon (이태원동), mind you.

It’s a much stronger feeling of recognition than I get with anywhere in the UK, I think purely due to the surprise factor. Having a good picture of Edinburgh isn’t a great surprise, finding how quickly I’ve built one up of places on other continents much more so.

Two films I saw early on that really stood out were Moon and Exam, two low budget indie science fiction films. Moon has had an awful lot of publicity already so I won’t repeat what other people have said about it. Exam is a very tight, taut thriller – eight people in a room in the final test of a long interview process, one of whom will get the job. Both films looked great – a testament to how affordable good CGI has become. I’ll be interested to see what follows them now there’s some examples of low budget SF out there, and I’m not sure what to make of the fact that both of the films were British.

Pontypool was also excellent, a zombie movie about the dangers, or possibily salvation, of talk radio. If you see it (which you should) make sure you stay for the end of the credits.

Also good was Modern Love is Automatic. It’s a low budget indie flick which reminded me an awful lot of The Unbelievable Truth partly in terms of visual design but more in the way it decided to just jump off and handle things in a totally non-naturalistic fashion. It’s a really tricky thing to pull off without looking like you just don’t care about the audience (witness a lot of “experimental” films) but it’s very impressive when it works and it worked here.

On the down side Dario Argento’s Giallo had the audience laughing, and I’m fairly sure it was an at laugh rather than a with laugh. There came a point in the film where it felt like they’d just run out of enthusiasm for the whole thing and were just throwing anything on the screen to tie up the loose ends. Very disappointing at a film festival. That was the only real blip, though – overall it was good though there was cost cutting in evidence.

• Encounters at the End of the World: Werner Hertzog goes to Antarctica, making a film more about the sort of people who end up spending their time there than about anything else. Though there are suicidal penguins.
• Mum and Dad: If you like this sort of thing the chances are you’ll think it’s brilliant. You may, however, still agree with the other people who don’t like this sort of thing and might describe it as being sick and wrong.
• Standard Operating Procedure: I blogged about this at the time; Errol Morris covers Abu Ghraib and does it very well.
• Just Another Love Story: I really enjoyed this when I saw it, though I do agree with most of the linked review. It’s a noirish thriller with three different time periods in the story being revealed in parallel. It looks gorgeous, it’s very well executed but I’m hesitant since I think I may feel differently when I see it again.
• Good Dick: In broad terms this is a very messed up take on a romantic comedy, more messed up than I believe it’s really intended to be (if you see it, think about what’s actually going on in the story). I enjoyed it for this and the contrast with the immediate tone but it’s not for everyone.

As far as the EIFF moving to June goes… I’m not convinced. I didn’t notice any dramatic improvement in the quality of the programme and while it did avoid the rain that Edinburgh suffered in August there’s nothing quite like the atmosphere you get during the main festival.

This is obviously a subject that has been gone over in the media but not in this form – as ever, Morris mostly just lets his subjects talk and leaves it up to the viewer to put their own intepretation on what is being said, foregrounded even more here by the presence of the person responsible for sifting through the images describing going through exactly this process with the images. The effect is much more chilling than the condemnation of the media – the body language and the words of the soldiers speak volumes but nothing gives you enough distance to simply switch off and say “I’m not like them.”

The people in the film who feel they can say that do not always appear as morally distinct as they might hope to. The title comes from one of the things that had to be done when examining the images during the investigation – the investigator had to decide which of the images showed things that were perfectly normal interrogation techniques (the standard operating procedure) and which were crimes. His verdicts aren’t always what you might expect.

Today I watched The Order of Myths at the EIFF. The film is a documentary about the Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama which are currently racially segregated, though one of the major themes of the film is the ways in which people are gradually changing things for the better. It’s a very good film – lots to think about and I recommend seeing it. I imagine it will at least appear on one of the documentary strands on terrestrial TV in the UK.

During the Q&A session several of the people who appear in the film were present, including Helen Meaher who had been the white Mardi Gras queen and who is a descendant of the last person to bring a slave ship to the US. Someone in the audience had been very angered by what she’d seen in the film, including the fact that Meaher had been given that role. What struck me most of all about this was the way it was expressed: Meaher was not named or addressed in a way that acknowledged her presence (she was referred to as “the white queen” if I remember correctly) in spite of the fact that she was standing only a few meters away. It was as though this was an actress in a fictional film.

This was a striking example, but the general failure to connect with an actual person surprised me less than it should. Obviously, people in documentary films do play parts (as we all do in the various roles we fulfil) and the film may choose to represent them in a particular way but still there’s always at least some connection with the person depicted. I find it very distrurbing when that appears to get lost.

It was a good year for fun late night movies, Teeth especially. It’s a very simple idea and they’ve hit it bang on; it’s hard to add anything to the plot synopsis on the web site without spoiling the fun. There was also Weirdsville – I twittered this with a quote: “Satan is supposed to be helping us, not plaguing us with midgets and junkies” which pretty much sums up where the film is coming from; it’s not actually a horror film (in spite of the zombies quote) but it’s got a very similar vibe to the silly end of horror. Two drug addicts try to make some cash selling drugs themselves but after one of them overindulges things go wrong and they get mixed up with some very mixed up people.

It’s Gonna Get Worse was another gem. It starts off not a million miles away from Weirdsville with some slackers whiling away their time with drink, drugs and the odd illicit football match. Trouble is, they’re living in communist Czechoslovakia and that’s not something that goes down too well with the authorities who have no problem expressing their disapproval. The whole thing is done in lo-fi black and white reminiscent of Clerks and like that (and Weirdsville) it’s basis is the sympathy it builds up for its characters, drawing you in through all the messed up things they do. I’m not sure if it’s going to get a UK release but I certainly hope so – it deserves to be seen.

Other things that spring to mind as being particularly worth checking out are Once (which is a bittersweet romantic drama about musicians; people seem to keep calling it a musical), Two Days In Paris (smart and very funny; I came out of the cinema with an enormous grin on my face) and In Search of a Midnight Kiss (which was my pick of the festival – I wrote about it earlier).

Next year the festival will be held in June. I’m not sure I approve of this – half the fun is wandering around the city when it’s alive like it is during August, checking out some of the other things that are going on. On the bright side, it does mean I’ll be able to attend the Debian UK (international) barbecue.

The script and acting both share many of the best elements of Kevin Smith’s work, being very funny but in the context of a real drama with engaging and very real characters. The humour is never a result of consequenceless gags – the characters say and do things that are funny but this always feels natural and if what they’re doing is not actually terribly clever it’s obvious that they feel the results.

This would make for a very good movie even if that were all that was going on (it might be something close to 2 Days in Paris, another great movie that was at the Edinburgh Film Festival this year) but the way the film is shot adds an extra something. Everything is shot in a clean 1940s black and white, complete with soft focus for the leading lady, and manages to make LA appear beautiful in a way that it rarely does. The visual style softens some of the hard edges that the script has – there’s a constant reminder of a fundamentally nice kind of film, making everything feel much warmer than it might have done. This warmth is the main thing I took away from the film and judging from the atmosphere in the room during the Q&A afterwards I don’t think I was alone.

The film being released in cinemas in the US on Valentine’s Day 2008, hopefully it’ll get a cinema release over here too. Seeing it in the cinema is may be the only chance to see the original black and white version – a colourised version is being prepared for the DVD release, though I hope that both versions will be included.

Planet B-Boy is a commercial but very impressive documentary about the break dancing world championships. As well as doing a great job of showing the dancing it also manages to do a very good job of showing the people involved – what sort of people they are, where they’re from and so on – with a great deal of economy. There’s a strong preference for showing things with little narration and relying on images and body language to convey what’s needed. It’s all very slickly done.

Doubletime is a much smaller scale film about jump rope and double dutch teams trying their hands at a version incorporating much more dance than they are used to. There’s less emphasis on the performances, in part because the teams are just learning, but otherwise the objectives seem broadly similar. Thing is, it’s all very much bare talking heads and dry observation with nothing to break it up. There’s nothing wrong with doing things this way, it’s a perfectly standard way to make a documentary. Normally it works pretty well, quietly and non-intrusively showing the characters of the people involved.

I normally don’t find any problem with clashing styles either – usually the differences in the worlds portrayed make it easy to snap out of one film and into the next. It’s just that being so close together in both time and content made Doubletime really suffer. The fact that it wasn’t really trying to do the same thing and wasn’t primarily aimed at showcasing entertainment was neither here nor there, I ended up just not enjoying it so much purely because of scheduling.

I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK: madcap fantasy. From the director of Oldboy. Scary under the surface but sweet.

Stardust: Yay. Good job; gotta love the di Niro typecasting.

Julie Delpy: Interesting. They seem to have sorted the technical problems which is a relief.

The Counterfeiters: Engrossing. Nice trick creatiing suspense by giving a large part of the ending away.

Tekkonkinkreet: The whole mystical thing just does nothing for me I’m afraid.

Weirdsville: “Satan is supposed to be helping us, bot plaguing us with midgets and junkies” Total class.

John Waters: This Filthy Life: yay. His advice for running a film society is spot on. I’ve *no* idea what the five minute walkouts expected

Once: aww. Low budget romantic drama about some musicians. Manages to be a realistic musical as a result.

Castels: Best. Team. Sport. Ever. These Catalans are insane.

Shrooms: Kids, doing drugs leads to poor crisis management.

Serpentine: Stylish and inventive revenge thriller. Darkly commercial as one would expect.

Manufacturing Dissent: Nice stuff; nothing new but it’s nice to see a bit of a Michael Moore job on the guy himself. Temptation for them… Someone nailed it ib the QA saying Moore is his own worst enemy for not engaging with people pulling him up.

Documentary Shorts: Started very slowly but some great stuff towards the end.

Breath: enigmatic korean drama.

The New Man: Drama about forced sterilisation in 50s Sweeden. Well made for those who like that kind of film.

Namikabashi Shorts: worth seeing these if you can; (mostly) spoof informational films about japanese customs.

Yo: Monosyllabic Catalan suspense drama. Builds to be very psychologically effective.

Brothers in Dreans: Four very different cinemas throughout the world and the people who eun them. Sweet and charming.

The Interpreter: Cold and measured Swiss-Russian thriller. Diverting but not going to set the world on fire.

LYNCH: beautiful. Certainly fascinating for Lynch fans, and I think it’d appeal to others too. Lynch is a fascinating person to watch

WAZ: Tough, brutal thriller up to near the end where it changes gear up. Lots of close, shaky handheld camera work. Above average.

What Would Jesus Buy?: lots of fun. Some structural problems but fun and nice message. Well worth seeing – http://www.revbilly.com/

It’s Gonna Get Worse: lo-fi drama aboiut slackers in Communist Czechoslovakia. Lovely, though not for the easily offended and some hard edges

Samantha Morton: funny, mostly anecdote based interview. Lots of problems with the sound.

Day Watch: I already saw Night Watch… Still love the way they’ve designed the subtitles into the film, doing FX and playing with them.

Yella: monosyllabic psychological drama. Interesting perspective on the world of business. Wish I could’ve stayed for more of the Q’n'A

Billy the Kid: great stuff. One of those films about a person who is open without beinging entirely aware; makes you question the morality.

Planet B-Boy: Wow. Impressive dancing, involving stories behind it and well filmed. Souta African crew called Ubuntu wearing light brown…

Doubletime: Um. Watch Planet B-boy instead. Much better made film, more involving stories and stunning performance.

Crazy Love: The first time I’ve been handed a large lollipop on the way into a film. One to watch: amazing, insane story, very well told.

Trader’s Dreams: different sorts of people using eBay around the world; interesting, not spectacular

The Hottest State: Good, involving drama. Starts out telling you there’s going to be heartbreak then lets you forget that for a while. All from a male perspective which makes an interesting change.

Tilda Swinton recommends working with people you like. Good interview; shame Hannah McGill looked so bored doing it.

Teeth: oh, my. I think there’s a reason the rings they use aren’t silver.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss: class – someone saw Before Sunset and some Kevin Smith movies and knew what to do. Adorable.

Beauty in Trouble: the headspace of this film is so Arab Strap.

Mr Vig and the Nun: above average; a bit slow but worth looking out for on TV.

Intolerance: Aged extremely well. Apart from being a tad direct and some outmoded beliefs it works. I wonder if Christ is supposed to be quite so vacant.

Hallam Foe: Go see. Nice sense of humour, tight plot and grit.