What happens when you give Ringo Lam (City on Fire), Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China), and Johnny To (Exiled) the same camera? You get Triangle, a taut yet amusing entry in the heist-gone-wrong genre. The amusing part comes mostly from To, who contributed the final third. The first third comes from Hark and was built upon by Lam in the second third. Each director took what the other had created and added to it exquisite corpse-style. The only part I could recognize was To's, mostly because I've seen more of his films and also because it's hard to see an absurd/gorgeous shootout and not think, "To."
The next night, I checked out In a Dream, which can probably be described as the "breakout hit" of the fest. It sold out its first two screenings, prompting the addition of a third screening, which also sold out. It then made it into the "Festival Favorites," which meant a fourth screening, which, say it with me...
I made it to that final screening. On paper, I didn't expect it to be my cup of tea. A documentary about a Philly artist who creates these really cool mosaics that cover the inside and outside of entire buildings. I've been to one. It's cool. But I wasn't thinking, "Wow, I really need to see a doc about this guy!"
As it turns out, In a Dream is not a documentary about an artist; it's a documentary about an entire family. Director Jeremiah Zagar started filming his father Isaiah, the artist in question, almost ten years ago, and in that time the film has evolved into what it is now, a mesmerizing portrait of an American family. The art is there, of course, and plays a major (and quite beautiful) role, but it's not the heart of the matter.
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