Seattle International Film Festival 2022, Report #1: RIVER & SPIN ME ROUND
The 48th Seattle International Film Festival is here and it is a hybrid, baby! With several theaters throughout (and beyond) the Emerald City along with the comfort and safety of at-home streaming, SIFF 2022 has kicked off with quite a few incredible films. Comedies, dramas, horror, documentaries – it’s all here, but let us focus on two films: River and Spin Me Round, the latter of which is exclusively available in the cinema.
River (Jennifer Peedom, Joseph Nizeti)
With unimaginable imagery and a score that features Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, River has all the makings of a timeless, groundbreaking documentary about an enormous part of our natural world that is easy to overlook. Narrated by Willam Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home, At Eternity’s Gate), River is as hard-hitting as it is gorgeous, with the beloved actor painting a brilliant picture against the backdrop of some serious footage of some of the earth’s most captivating rivers and every part of the planet that they touch, from the tops of mountains to the lowest valleys to the sea, and then back up into the sky – an eternal cycle.
Dafoe speaks of rivers being revered as gods and how, despite their incredible power, have become “vulnerable to our harm” as time-lapse photography reveals rivers disappearing over time and different cinematic shots showing these red, dried-up riverbeds resembling extracted nervous systems, all thanks to industrialization and so-called progress. Intercut with these celestial views of the rivers is footage of people from all over the world living their lives and using the rivers for various things like farming, drinking, cleansing, and play.
A looming message throughout the documentary, of course, is a necessary reminder of climate change and the damage done by human interference. River does a fine job of hitting home the fragility of rivers and how human life depends upon them but in the end, is it enough? Is it likely that River will bring about some self-aware cultural change that can the course that the world is set on or, like one solemn scene from the film, where a boy attempts to clean plastic and other trash out of a river? He’s trying his best but the reality of the situation is far too massive for an individual can take on – will River have a big enough impact to make enough individuals take on what’s happening to the earth’s rivers and bodies of water?
The film, and its brilliant score, swell with hope as a dam is destroyed, returning the lifeless, long-stagnant sediment back to the water and thus granting a resurrected river a chance to create life again, so there is a chance for action. Sadly, though I see this gorgeous film getting lost in the undercurrent.
Spin Me Round (Jeff Baena)
The second film to be co-written by star Alison Brie (Horse Girl, Glow) and director Jeff Baena (Horse Girl, The Little Hours), Spin Me Round marries the former’s trademark earnestness and the latter’s love of humorous chaos to make a great comedy set against a gorgeous Italian backdrop.
Inspired by the benign story of a chain restaurant manager winning a company trip to Italy and having a completely underwhelming time, Spin Me Round is about Amber, a kind and dutiful manager of an Italian chain restaurant called “Tuscan Grove.” After her boss nominates her for an immersion program reserved for the company’s top managers, Amber is sent on a free trip to Italy with a bevy of oddball fellow managers that include Zach Woods, Debby Ryan, and Molly Shannon, the film’s indisputable scene-stealer.
During a cooking demonstration of the company’s menu, Amber catches the eye of the franchise’s owner Nick Martucci (Alessandro Nivola) who has his personal assistant Kat (an ever-captivating Aubrey Plaza) sneaking Amber away from the program, leading her down a wild and absurd misadventure that has Baena‘s fingerprints all over it. The dialogue is absurd but still organic, and the unbridled chemistry between Brie and Plaza will keep you begging for more.
Funny, sexy, and an inescapable recipe for Italian countryside FOMO, Spin Me Round is a major comedic highlight for SIFF 2022.
Both films were featured at the 48th Seattle International Film Festival on April 15, 2022. Don’t worry, there’s plenty more coverage to come!
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