Last two films I managed to see at the Melbourne Internationale film Festival.
First Position, In Breif: First Position is a Documentary about the trials of a 6 Youth from around the world, as they prepare and compete in the Youth America Grand Prix, a prestigious Ballet competition that doesn't just hand out awards for great performances, but also Scholarships and/or Positions with some of the most famed schools and companies around the globe.
Ruby Sparks, In Breif: A Romantic Comedy/Drama centering around an American writer, Calvin (Paul Dano) who's struggling to complete his second novel. His Therapist (Elliot Gould) suggests that to deal with some of his insecurities, that he write his idea girlfriend who's accepting of these things, and so he dreams up Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan, who also provided the script), and eventually she becomes a reality.
First Position, is a ... alright i got stuck there, i want to call it a great little story, but anyone that knows anything about Ballet, knows that there's a load of commitment put into it. But there really is something beautiful about this Documentary. The story introduces us to Six kids, ranging in age from 10 to 18 as they go into this Grand Prix. There's some great stories, Like the dedication of Aran and his family, who's father is in the military and the family is moved around from bases, show's what the whole family is willing to put into achieving they're loved ones ambitions. Then there's Michaela, an Orphan of the Sierra Leone Civil War who was adopted along with a friend by an American family, we see he Adoptive Mother re-dying the flesh colored straps and elastic to suit Michaela, and we hear the atrocities that She's lived through. Then there's Joan Sebastian Zamora who's moved away from his family in Colombia to live in America and pursue his dreams and support his family.
Seeing the kids in the show dance is amazing, the dedication, the strength and the grace they display when performing is something to behold, and the pain you see some of them go through. Also the financial expenses for the family really push the idea that this isn't just an investment in a after school activity, its a commitment for they're future.
Watching the 6 perform, especially during the finals performance. There are moments where your heart is in your throat for them, and you see that slight buckle of the leg and you become sure that its all over.
If i had one complaint about the film, its would be that not all the participants are treated equally through out, there are some that only have very little screen time during the show, admittedly, they don't come across as the most interesting members of the cast. With any documentary there's obviously a lot left on the floor.
First Position is a great documentary, well worth the 90 minutes it takes to watch.
Ruby Sparks is a different, but familiar. It's easy to instantly think of films like 'Stranger then fiction', but while the two stories start out about Authors with writers block who seemingly write a character into reality, Sparks deals with it from the opposite direction. Calvin doesn't so much write a story that brings ruby to life, but something more akin to a character guide of history. Once she's there, he hardly writes anymore other then to tweak her. It results in the character of Ruby feeling (what should be unsurprisingly) under developed. She's just there, a plot device to be screwed around with.
In all honesty, the story never really gets interesting until it starts heavily looking at the morality issues of what Calvin is doing, and changing Ruby to suit his needs.
Dano and Kazan give good enough performances, but they're not really the standouts, The more interesting characters are the supporting cast, especially Calvins family, with his Brother (Chris Messina) being the sole confident that he 'created' Ruby, his Mother (Annette Bening) and her Lover (Antonio Banderas), all shoot a dose of life and personality into the film, unfortunately, they're not in the film long enough.
It's really paint by numbers, and never brings anything overly interesting to the table. It might prove to be more interesting as a date film, but even at that, it's doesn't have much for those audiences either.
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