SIFF Capsule Reviews: 'Eden' And 'Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films'

The 2015 Seattle International Film Festival may be officially in the books, but I've got some catching up to do. In that sprit, here are a couple more reviews from SIFF, one is a dance music coming of age tale, the other a documentary that will make you want to watch a slew of questionable, and awesome, films.

Eden

A tale of a young man chasing musical success, Mia Hanssen-Love’s Eden follows Paul (Felix de Givry) as he pursues his dream of becoming a DJ over the course of 20 years. He hangs around clubs, forms a duo, gains notoriety, has relationships, loses relationships, is a success, is a failure, does a lot of blow, and learns a few life lessons along the way. While Eden never falls completely into the traps of similar films, it can’t completely avoid them either. Regardless if you’re a fan of Garage (techno that’s “like house, but more disco”—I don’t know what that means either), the music keeps things moving, and it is compulsively watchable, even if it is overlong. Even if Paul’s emotional journey does stick in a familiar repetitive pattern—he meets a girl, his career is going well, he fucks it up—not to mention is a wee bit pessimistic, Love’s film about the transition from idealistic youth to resigned, realistic adult, is never stale and keeps you moving along. [Grade: B-]

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films

If you’re like me, you grew up on a steady diet of Cannon Films. That iconic logo showing up before a movie was a sign that you were about to experience something, maybe not necessarily something good, but something to behold certainly. Behind the scenes, the world of duo of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus was somehow even more insane than the countless films they churned out—most studios did six to eight pictures a year, they were more in the neighborhood of fifty. New documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films captures the madness and mayhem and energy of their meteoric rise, and just as spectacular downfall, as well as their lasting legacy of glorious cinematic schlock and spectacularly bizarre films. A complete and total blast, this is movie that will make you want to dust off your copies of The Apple, Death Wish 2, Ninja 3: The Domination, and countless other under-celebrated gems. [Grade: A-]