Blood on the Flat Track, Delirious, Interview

The second half of the title to Blood on the Flat Track is "The Rise of the Rat City Rollergirls," a name which would imply that the documentary has a story arc beginning with the inception and subsequent seasonal successes of these local roller skating queens and their rapidly increasing base of followers. The film unfortunately heads in no such direction, instead relying on a solid base of interview clips mixed with live footage from past events.

On the one hand, the subject is very strong, pulling all of us non-followers into the sometimes brutal and competitive world of the rollergirl community through entertaining first person accounts and very solid action-packed footage of the rink. It shows us something new, something funny, and also something kind of inspiring and touching at the same time, bringing in accounts of physical and emotional hardships as well as stories of friendship and reconciliation. It's likely that these varying perspectives were what the filmmakers wanted to hone in on and present in a unified form on screen. But on the other hand, the movie really limits our view of the experience to these brief windows of information and historic retellings. The documentary does not add anything particularly new or thought-provoking to the collected footage. Aside from the occasional humorous or shocking elements of women beating eachother up, it presents us with soundbite after snippet in an all too obviously organized progression -- first we hear about how it started, then about each team, then about the players, then about the player relationships, and finally more about the players, ultimately leading to an excessively long ending roll call of each and every member of the organization. One gets the feeling that the information presented here could all be gleaned from simply attending one roller derby.

While I don't doubt that a considerable effort was made in producing this documentary, and I really hate to frown upon a locally produced film, it seems that a better film would have come from actually following one team, or even one or two players, for the entire length of a season or several seasons. That means actually working on it for several years or more -- Heart of the Game by comparison came out of a 7 year effort. King of Kong physically followed its players around the country and didn't just rely on first person accounts, it was the first person account. Given the fact that the Rat City Rollergirls are ranked #1 in the nation now, the achievement of making it to first would have made a great story had cameras actually been around to follow the true "rise." Blood on the Flat Track may not have had the access, resources or foresight to be able to do this, but because of this lack of story arc it suffers a great deal. Its interview footage and unique subject-matter may pull it up and out for many people, but this may only be a brief spotlight in the present until the information contained within it is outdated and only the true fans and players are still left to care. The story of the rise would have made it timeless.

Delirious and Interview were both movies starring Steve Buscemi, with the latter also having been directed by him. Delirious was perhaps slightly less strong, but campy and an amusing diversion nonetheless. Buscemi plays a quirky paparazzi photographer who hires an assistant (Michael Pitt from Dawson's Creek, among other things) and ends up making himself nuts with all this added change to his life. It's a fun look at the life of the paparazzi and the idea of what fame really is and how it is spawned. At times a little over the top, but an amusing story with another great Buscemi role.

Interview is a remake of a movie by dutch director Theo Van Gogh who was most recently in the news due to his unfortunate murder. The original film is set entirely in one location, however Buscemi's remake opens up to a second and third location briefly. It's a very tug-of-war kind of story between a man and woman that seems sort of reminiscent in dialogue to something by Linklater or Altman (who is thanked in the credits). The man is a reporter who has been sent to do a fluff piece on a rising star actress, and is resentful about it while at the same time having enormous difficulty getting any information out of her. The two go back and forth between arguing and posturing and playing general mental games, moving between various locations of an enormous loft apartment that gives the film a lot of shooting space and flexibility. It's not exactly an entirely original concept by any means, but it's a solid script that works really well within its confined location, keeping things engaging with little twists and turns along the way. The film works because the script works and the actors draw it out. In that sense and primarily due to its single location, it calls to mind a stage play. It may not be entirely for everyone, but its execution with what it is is done very well.

Audience Watch: Some cheers during Blood on the Flat Track by audience members and a brief Q&A with the co-directors. Lots of irritatingly obvious questions during the Buscemi Q&A, somewhat of a SIFF tradition it seems.