Nashville Film Festival: Dispatch 2
Whatever farcical overtones the title of Francisca Alegría’s debut feature might suggest, The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future is a richly layered fable bursting with mystery and secrets. From its opening moments, cryptic messages flow from chant-like songs as we explore a river plagued by dead fish. From somewhere beneath this ruin, a young woman (Mía Maestro) wearing leather and carrying a motorcycle helmet surfaces, gasping for air. Soaking wet, she makes her way into town where she is spotted through a window by an aged man (Alfredo Castro) who appears to know her. After calling out the name “Magdalena,” the man promptly has a heart attack and falls to the ground.
And thus begins the enigma of The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future. What follows is a small-scale story about a family coming to terms with its dysfunction through a series of puzzling encounters with the past, wrapped up in a large-scale comment on ecological disaster and corporate environmental responsibility. As the riddle of who the woman in the river is and how she got there unfolds, it becomes clear that her past is inextricably entwined with not only the unaddressed grief and trauma of those around her, but the surroundings from which she emerged.
Alegría continually keeps her story’s secrets closely guarded, offering only incremental hints at the truth via surreal visions and cleverly-placed moments of guilt-ridden emotional projection. While this method doesn’t always provide clear-cut answers, it does fantastically enhance the mystery by keeping things almost irresistibly dreamlike and esoteric. Perhaps most interesting, though, is that Alegría has crafted her film so that interpretations of it will likely differ from viewer to viewer. The solution to The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future might not be an obvious one, but it’s certainly worth exploring all the same. Grade: B-plus —James Rosario
Photo by Joshua Britt
For a 50-minute documentary about the label co-founded by John Prine, Big Old Goofy World - The Story of Oh Boy Records is somewhat of a slog. The inspiring content and A-plus tunes from one of our best songwriters are all there, but directors Joshua Britt and Neilson Hubbard take little inspiration from the material in their rote presentation. The visual quality and editing choices would land in the reject pile at a regional PBS affiliate and the narrative’s mix of art and commerce rarely gel into any notable takeaways. Pretty much the lone ingredient holding it all together is Prine, and he’s thankfully featured prominently, serving as a constant reminder that his legacy deserves better. Grade: B-minus —Edwin Arnaudin
Alex Lehmann’s Acidman involves Lloyd (Thomas Haden Church) and his daughter Maggie (Dianna Agron) trying to reconnect amidst a mutual desperation to be understood. When she unexpectedly shows up at his secluded house in the Pacific Northwest, they begin a journey of discovery about themselves and, more importantly, each other.
Church gives an especially restrained performance as the emotionally troubled absent father, endearing himself to viewers by letting his emotions play on his face. Agron’s Maggie is just as troubled and brings her own emotional baggage to the fractured relationship.
Lloyd has his own personal mission, however, and is convinced that UFO sightings near his house are an attempt at aliens communicating with him. Maggie watches as he strives to make contact with the aliens and not her, ultimately bringing their relationship to a head.
The performances are excellent and Acidman is beautifully photographed, but the narrative stalls out and the film begins to drag at times, recycling arguments and conversations between father and daughter that don't move the story along. Grade: C-plus —Joel Winstead
(Photo by Juan Pablo Medina)
