Video game slacker Miroku accidentally stumbles upon a strange new game, one with deadly implications. Wicked Flowers, a Lewis Carollian mixture of David Fincher’s The Game and the cult film Cube wrapped within a non-linear video game structure, offers some powerful imagery in a very transparent commentary on contemporary Japanese society. Unlike The Cube, The movie ends far too neatly, feeling the need to offer unnecessary explanations to nearly event. Overall, Wicked Flowers is neat little package with some occasionally interesting puzzles and dazzling set pieces.

Not seeing The Last Winter was a blunder of my own doing since I left my schedule at home, relying on my memory. I knew I wanted to see both Winter and Timecrimes, but got the times wrong. No worry, I can see Winter later in the Festival.

A well-crafted, ingeniously plotted time travel thriller, Timecrimes made its WORLD premiere at the Festival last night. Not only that, director Nacho Vigalondo had literally just finished the final cut one week before. Previously nominated for an Oscar for the 2003 short film "7:35 de la mañana", Vigalondo beautifully shot his first feature on a tiny budget. Like all great time travel stories, Timecrimes lures you with red herrings and misdirection. The film lags a bit in the second act as it falls into stereotypical plotting, but is redeemed with a fantastic third act and superior acting throughout.

The conversation with Vigalondo after the film– he was in attendance- was entertaining. Vigalondo, whose English is self-admittingly not that good, provided several purposefully humorous and insightful moments.

Someone in the audience asked a complex time travel question which Vigalondo could not understand in English. Another patron translated it into Spanish. The director shook his head. "I don’t even understand the question in my native tongue. Next."

When discussing the overall morality theme of the movie: "[When a cheating man is caught with his mistress by his wife], the only way to save the marriage is to kill the girlfriend."

On how he raised the funds for his first feature: "I’m the only one in the world to use an Oscar [nomination] to make a time travel movie."

Due to Yom Kippur, there may not be another entry until Sunday morning, when I should have four films to review.