The Sneak vs. the St. Louis International Film Festival, Round Two (Saturday)

The Doctor, my mysterious long-time gentleman caller, had a similar experience in the theater, though with his snuck snack, not the movie.

Among his many generally fine qualities, the man has a required daily intake of sodium that would stun a bull moose. Frequently, beef jerky somehow finds its way into my bag when we see movies together, especially double features. This time, he ate some of the jerky, made a pained face and put it back in my bag.

After the show, he confessed that it tasted all right but that it wasn't in typical jerky strips but rather in cubes that were...disturbingly familiar. We are both now somewhat afraid that he may not be able to tell the difference between beef jerky and dog treats at the store.

The best film I've seen at the festival so far is Terribly Happy, a darkly comic Danish modern noir where all sorts of things have a tendency to fall into the bog surrounding a supposedly sleepy rural town that hides the dark heart of evil itself. This film succeeded in being the tight, atmospheric thriller that Ligeia was aspiring to be (see the previous column) and has the great ending that Stolen Lives was missing. The script is witty (via excellent subtitles) and unpredictable, following the twists and turns of a sympathetic police officer with something to hide getting involved with a woman who very credibly claims she's being physically abused by her husband.

There were more films showing on Sunday, but even God rested on Sunday and I'm not half as sneaky as the guy who invented marsupials. Yet.

Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits (from an undisclosed location) every Monday.