OLDER THAN AMERICA (D: Georgina Lightning, U.S.). 102 minutes. October 19, 7 pm, Royal. Rating: N
The festival’s closing-night gala falls somewhere between a lame horror exercise and a disposable movie of the week. The people of a small Minnesota reservation try to figure out why so many bad things are happening at the old residential school out in the woods. (Uh, because it’s haunted? That’s usually how these things go.)
Adam Beach, Bradley Cooper and Wes Studi wander around looking for something to do while writer-director Georgina Lightning takes the key role of a young woman having visions of sinister priests and scared native children. Lightning’s a marginally better actor than she is a filmmaker or a storyteller, but that’s not saying much.
