Looking almost like a color Bela Tarr film but with all hues bled out of it, The Load is a dark brooding film about guilt and secrets in a country torn by war.
A truck driver is given the keys to a truck and told to drive from Kosovo to Belgrade. He is not to stop, not to pick up anyone and not to look in the back. He doesn’t really know the way but he’ll do his best. Things go wrong from the outset when a bridge he needs to cross is blocked off by the wreckage of an “accident”. Thrown on to truly unfamiliar roads he picks up a hitchhiker who promises to show him the way.
More interested in mood than suspense this is a film that is going to play best with those who love brooding films about things other than on the surface. If you want a film of ideas this is for you. This is a film that is full of ideas, kind of at the expense of the characters who to me seemed more like pieces to move around rather than real people. And while I wanted to know what was in the van and at the end of the journey I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.
Recommended for hardcore art film fans. All others need not take the journey.
A collection of reviews of films from off the beaten path; a travel guide for those who love the cinematic world and want more than the mainstream releases.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Zero Days (2016)
Zero Days is Alex Gibney’s look at the malware known as Stuxnet. A nigh perfect bit of programming, it was a much more complicated than most other malwares and while it spread across the globe it was aimed at only one thing, the Iranian nuclear enrichment program.
Intriguing documentary about what the US and Israeli government will do to stop the Iranian nuclear program is a compelling film. This is a wonderful trip down the rabbit hole of espionage and dirty tricks. It’s a film that split my feelings since part of me was upset that they were unleashing such a potential bad virus on the world, not to mention it ignoring the rule of law- but at the same time I thought it was just damn clever.
While you might think a film about computer code would be dense and too technical, that’s’ not the case. Gibney keeps the story human and explains everything neatly.
If there is anything really wrong it is that running almost two hours the film is a little long. A little trimming could have helped make this great instead of just good.
Recommended.
Intriguing documentary about what the US and Israeli government will do to stop the Iranian nuclear program is a compelling film. This is a wonderful trip down the rabbit hole of espionage and dirty tricks. It’s a film that split my feelings since part of me was upset that they were unleashing such a potential bad virus on the world, not to mention it ignoring the rule of law- but at the same time I thought it was just damn clever.
While you might think a film about computer code would be dense and too technical, that’s’ not the case. Gibney keeps the story human and explains everything neatly.
If there is anything really wrong it is that running almost two hours the film is a little long. A little trimming could have helped make this great instead of just good.
Recommended.
Friday, March 29, 2019
Princess Cinderella (1941)
Princess Cinderella is a one of a kind movie that is a kind of must see for those who love fairy tales, comics based films and off beat children’s films. Made in Italy 1941 it was released in the US in 1954 or 1955. It is based on a comic that was started in 1917 by --- and tells the story of Cinderella after her marriage to the prince. Hanging out with the help she disappoints the king and queen. When the glass slippers are now found to be too small for her she is turned out to the wilderness where she has adventures.
Done in a pantomime style with stylized make-up and sets the film is a trippy film the likes of which we don’t see any more. It kind of reminds me of the Red Riding/Big Bad Wolf films that K Gordon Murray imported in the 1960’s except more surreal and possessing a wicked sense of humor. The jokes in the English dub are quite good and it adds to the madness of the proceedings. Interestingly the version of the film I saw would slip back into Italian for the songs. Its an odd touch but somehow works.
I honestly don’t know what I think of the film. I loved seeing a film that was off the beaten path and lost comic film. I loved the take on what happens after “they lived happily ever after” . I was a little less thrilled with some of the style of the telling but I still liked it.
Ultimately if you want to see a one of a kind film that is truly off the beaten path track this film down.
Done in a pantomime style with stylized make-up and sets the film is a trippy film the likes of which we don’t see any more. It kind of reminds me of the Red Riding/Big Bad Wolf films that K Gordon Murray imported in the 1960’s except more surreal and possessing a wicked sense of humor. The jokes in the English dub are quite good and it adds to the madness of the proceedings. Interestingly the version of the film I saw would slip back into Italian for the songs. Its an odd touch but somehow works.
I honestly don’t know what I think of the film. I loved seeing a film that was off the beaten path and lost comic film. I loved the take on what happens after “they lived happily ever after” . I was a little less thrilled with some of the style of the telling but I still liked it.
Ultimately if you want to see a one of a kind film that is truly off the beaten path track this film down.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
"Sister Tempest" A Full Length Genre Bending Feature Film Currently on Kickstarter!
Having recently kicked off it's Kickstarter Campaign, "Sister Tempest" is a full length Thriller, Art-house, Body Horror, Sci Fi, Surreal Dark Comedy. It describes itself as Mulholland Drive meets Holy Mountain meets Zardoz!
It's written and directed by Joe Badon who, last year, made his way through the festival circuit with his first feature film: the surreal, thriller, dark comedy "The God Inside My Ear" (which is set to be released through Gravitas Ventures on April 9th)!
Now, with his new film "Sister Tempest", Badon aims to create a strange mash up of cinematic elements from 60's B-movies to 70's Art House and 80's Body Horror!
The funding goal for the film is set at $25k. Badon's last film, The God Inside My Ear, was shot for just under $10k so it looks as if he can do a lot on a tiny budget.
Check out the kickstarter campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/ projects/1857321894/sister- tempest-full-length-genre- bending-feature-f
It's written and directed by Joe Badon who, last year, made his way through the festival circuit with his first feature film: the surreal, thriller, dark comedy "The God Inside My Ear" (which is set to be released through Gravitas Ventures on April 9th)!
Now, with his new film "Sister Tempest", Badon aims to create a strange mash up of cinematic elements from 60's B-movies to 70's Art House and 80's Body Horror!
The funding goal for the film is set at $25k. Badon's last film, The God Inside My Ear, was shot for just under $10k so it looks as if he can do a lot on a tiny budget.
Check out the kickstarter campaign here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/
The Legend of Cocaine Island aka White Tide starts on Netflix March 29
With LEGEND OF COCAINE ISLAND hitting Netflix tomorrow here is a repost of the brief review I did hen it played Tribeca as WHITE TIDE
Very funny, largely unbelievable, but apparently true story of a legendary buried stash of cocaine in the Caribbean that set a regular guy in financial trouble after it.
This is one of those stories that is a great story, if a bit of a shaggy dog one, to the point I really can't say discuss it until you see it because the whole film is the unfolding of the tale.
Do I believe it?I don't know but it was fun hearing it told to me.
Very funny, largely unbelievable, but apparently true story of a legendary buried stash of cocaine in the Caribbean that set a regular guy in financial trouble after it.
This is one of those stories that is a great story, if a bit of a shaggy dog one, to the point I really can't say discuss it until you see it because the whole film is the unfolding of the tale.
Do I believe it?I don't know but it was fun hearing it told to me.
Assault on the Pay Train (aka Train Robbery Confidential) (1962)
A gang of men manage to pull off a daring robbery of a pay train. The men are all paid off and told they can only spend ten percent of the money a year lest the cops catch on. They also must watch each other to make sure no one does something stupid. But they get stupid, spending freely and shooting off their mouths, and the cops begin to piece together what happened.
A kind of realist film noir this this a film that reveals ho crime doesn't pay but also makes clear why people are willing to turn to it. It also shows us the devastation left in the wake of the crime as lives are pulled apart and family broken as the men who stole the money are hauled off to prison or worse.
This is a small gem of a film that is criminally under seen. In an age where we are rediscovering small and important works of cinema, especially ones that highlight social ills the fact that ASSAULT ON THE PAY TRAIN is on no one's radar is a sin. While it is first and foremost a solid crime drama the fact that it was shot on location and highlights the places that spawned it make it all the more worth tracking down.
One of the great finds of 2019.
Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Joe Bendel on Sobibor (2018) which opens Friday in LA and on VOD as well
It was hard being a hero of the Soviet Motherland. Alexander Pechersky’s service during WWII was indeed truly heroic. The Jewish Red Army officer-conscript was instrumental leading the mass escape from the Sobibor concentration camp. In later years, Pechersky wanted to continue to fight against his National Socialist captors, but the Soviet Union denied him exit permission to testify against any accused war criminals, including the celebrated Eichmann trial. He was also dismissed from his position during the anti-Semitic “Rootless Cosmopolitan” campaign. It is worth keeping the frustrations of his later life in mind when viewers revisit the triumph of the uprising he sparked in Konstantin Khabenskiy’s Sobibor, Russia’s official foreign language Oscar submission, which opens Friday in Los Angeles as well as hitting VOD .
As a Russian, Pechersky was considered suspect by the rest of the Jewish prisoners, especially when they learned of the disastrous revolt he led in Minsk. Nevertheless, he had the right combination of military experience and practical know-how to lead the camp’s resistance cell. The group had been working on various escape schemes, but Pechersky insisted on an everybody or nobody approach, based on the reprisals he witnessed in Minsk. Of course, the actually planning and execution was still confined to the core group.
Obviously, Khabensky’s Sobibor depicts the same historical events chronicled in the TV-movie Escape from Sobibor, starring Rutger Hauer and Alan Arkin, which was quire respectable, especially by the standards of its day. Frankly, Khabensky’s film is not as strong in terms of characterization, but it captures the horrors of the camp with far more visceral intensity. Especially disturbing is a night of SS revelry that might be one of the most nightmarishly surreal sequences ever recorded on film over the last several years.
However, the greatest surprise in this Sobibor is Highlander’s Christopher Lambert, who is nearly unrecognizable playing camp commandant Karl Frenzel. If anyone ever writes a book length survey of his career, this film will factor significantly within it. Instead of trying to outdo Ralph Fiennes ragingly demonic performance in Schindler’s List, Lambert takes it the other way. His Frenzel is emotionally detached and socially awkward, even with his own colleagues. There is also an aspect of self-loathing to his persona that manifests itself it truly horrific ways. It shows range we rarely get to see from the generally dependable genre star.
Khabensky himself (primarily known as a thesp in Wanted and the Night Watch franchise) is also witheringly intense as Pechersky. He definitely has the right hardened battle-veteran presence (much like Hauer). The entire ensemble is quite credible, but they most blend in, looking like they belong in the grim environment, whereas Khabensky and Hauer stand out.
Quiet Storm: The Ron Artest Story (2018) Queens World Film Festival
I’m not quite sure how to begin this review of Johnny Sweet’s portrait of Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace called QUIET STORM. It’s not that there is anything bad I want to say about the film but it’s more I’m left pondering why this moving film hadn’t been snapped up by some of the biggest festivals. This is the sort of film that is sure to generate positive buzz … I suppose that once again the Queens World Film Festival is snapping up another must sees that the bigger fests missed out on.
QUIET STORM is the life to date of basketball star Ron Artest. Growing up in the infamous Queensbridge house development, Artest managed to survive the mean streets to become a world famous basketball player, all the while dealing with mental health issues that made him hard to deal with and fodder for the news where his physical battles with officials and fans put him front and center nightly.
The easiest way to describe the film is to think of it as the best ESPN sports doc but grittier and minus the white wash. Director Johnny Sweet puts it all on screen and he doesn’t sugar coat it. Artest could be both a loving person and monster depending on which moment We see and hear stories of both sides of the man and as a result we truly get to see his complex character. We also get a dive into his mental health issues that includes something more than a simplistic look at its roots.
Because Sweet wants us to fully understand the complexity of Artest he doesn’t rush through things but gives us background and full panoramic views of his life. While I can quibble that the film’s two hour running time is a little long, it is more than counter balanced by the fact that it is filled with details that anyone else would gloss over. For example the film opens with a discussion not of Artest but of the Queensbridge projects. A place no one really ever wanted to be, it is best known for giving birth to a whole slew of legendary rappers like, Nas, who not only fought their way out but chronicled the existence in their music. The detailed explanation isn’t strictly necessary but it adds shading to why Artest is who is and why his game is a physical as it became. It’s the fact that the film takes the time to give us all the small details that enhance understanding that make this film as great as it is.
There is much to love here. What I adore is that Sweet lets everyone in the story tell the story in their own way. Language isn’t toned down and nothing is sugar coated. We are not so much watching a documentary but hanging out with a bunch of people shooting the breeze. As a result we get a sense of the man at the center of the story and the world he inhabits. It is something that most filmmakers, even ones making great films often fail to do.
QUIET STORM: THE RON ARTEST STORY is story telling at the highest levels an it is one of the great finds of 2019.
Highly recommended.
QUIET STORM plays Saturday night Match 30th at the Queens World Film Festival. For more information and tickets go here.
QUIET STORM is the life to date of basketball star Ron Artest. Growing up in the infamous Queensbridge house development, Artest managed to survive the mean streets to become a world famous basketball player, all the while dealing with mental health issues that made him hard to deal with and fodder for the news where his physical battles with officials and fans put him front and center nightly.
The easiest way to describe the film is to think of it as the best ESPN sports doc but grittier and minus the white wash. Director Johnny Sweet puts it all on screen and he doesn’t sugar coat it. Artest could be both a loving person and monster depending on which moment We see and hear stories of both sides of the man and as a result we truly get to see his complex character. We also get a dive into his mental health issues that includes something more than a simplistic look at its roots.
Because Sweet wants us to fully understand the complexity of Artest he doesn’t rush through things but gives us background and full panoramic views of his life. While I can quibble that the film’s two hour running time is a little long, it is more than counter balanced by the fact that it is filled with details that anyone else would gloss over. For example the film opens with a discussion not of Artest but of the Queensbridge projects. A place no one really ever wanted to be, it is best known for giving birth to a whole slew of legendary rappers like, Nas, who not only fought their way out but chronicled the existence in their music. The detailed explanation isn’t strictly necessary but it adds shading to why Artest is who is and why his game is a physical as it became. It’s the fact that the film takes the time to give us all the small details that enhance understanding that make this film as great as it is.
There is much to love here. What I adore is that Sweet lets everyone in the story tell the story in their own way. Language isn’t toned down and nothing is sugar coated. We are not so much watching a documentary but hanging out with a bunch of people shooting the breeze. As a result we get a sense of the man at the center of the story and the world he inhabits. It is something that most filmmakers, even ones making great films often fail to do.
QUIET STORM: THE RON ARTEST STORY is story telling at the highest levels an it is one of the great finds of 2019.
Highly recommended.
QUIET STORM plays Saturday night Match 30th at the Queens World Film Festival. For more information and tickets go here.
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
CineLife Entertainment Announces the Theatrical Premiere of BIG SCREEN SHORTS
Four-part series of of award-winning
documentary, comedy, drama and animated short films
will begin screening in March at select theaters around the country
Appears in theaters beginning March 15
SO MUCH YELLOW
CineLife Entertainment, the event cinema division of Spotlight Cinema Networks, has teamed with Reel Plan to bring Big Screen Shorts, a four-part series of curated short films from around the world, to select theatre across the country beginning March 15.
Big Screen Shorts will include documentaries, comedies, dramas, and animated short films. The inaugural U.S.-based theatrical release showcase features eight selected shorts, that range from a Cuban comedy, to a touching tale of loss, to an adrenaline-filled look at an inner-city police officer’s evening.
Each shorts series will have a thematic bent, working to unify the films as part of a single cohesive showcase, with several films having won awards at film festivals around the world, as well as some films having been Oscar shortlisted. In addition, each program of short films will also be introduced by a noted film critic, journalist, or luminary. The first showcase will be presented by Ann Hornaday, chief film critic at The Washington Post, and author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies.
Big Screen Shorts is created and curated by veteran film festival programmer and taste maker, Jon Gann, Executive Producer, Reel Plan, and founder of DC Shorts Film Festival.
Gann said, “Film going audiences are constantly in search of something they have not seen before – something rare, something exciting, something that captures their imaginations. Short films have long been a thriving part of the film festival ecosystem, so much so that more and more festivals devoted solely to the screening of shorts are popping up each year. Big Screen Shorts will feed that hunger for entertainment that goes beyond the typical feature film format. It fuses great storytelling with the immediate rewards of the short subject. It takes the thrill of something that grabs us on YouTube making it go viral to a big screen presentation. We see a hunger out there for these films, and we seek to feed that hunger.”
““We are thrilled to partner with Jon Gann and bring the four-part series of award-winning shorts to the U.S. theaters,” said Mark Rupp, SVP, Programming & Acquisitions, CineLife Entertainment. “Jon is well-known across the film festival world and has helped us develop an amazing lineup of short films that fit together as a cohesive program and meet the demand of moviegoers across the country.”
Big Screen Shorts kicks off in several markets, including; Alabama (Prattville); Florida (Fleming Island and Miramar Beach); Illinois (Bloomington and North Pekin); New Jersey (Cranford); Ohio (Columbus); Pennsylvania (Allentown and York); and Wisconsin (Fitchburg).
Showcase 1 for Big Screen Shorts includes;
Maeve Jackson’s THE BEAUTIFUL: THE STORIES SHE TELL - a personal film where a young woman removes her head wrap, provoking questions of identity and culture.
Charlie Lynn’s FISH STORY, which won Best Documentary Short at the Denver Film Festival, as well as taking the Audience Award at AFI DOCS, is about a gathering on the Welsh island of Anglesey, which was attended exclusively by people with fish surnames – or so the story goes.
Narrative comedies within the program are;
Aldofo Menas Cejas’ THE MACHINE, winner of the London Eye International Film Festival’s Best Narrative Film Award, which focuses on a Cuban woman who decides to leave for America after learning she has just won the American Visa Lottery – even if it means abandoning her family.
Frédéric Hambalek’s MOUNTAIN FEVER, which takes a comic look at an alpine team conducting a hazardous search during an apocalyptic snow storm, when one of the team’s members goes missing.
Greg Chwerchak’s SAC DE MERDE - an award winner at Atlanta ShortsFest, NOVA Festival, and Chicago International RREL Shorts Film Festival. The film follows an unlucky-in-love, yet irrationally optimistic New Yorker who thinks she just spent the night with the man of her dreams – unless he’s just full of crap.
Dramas include;
Amanda Renee Knox’s NIGHT CALL, which takes us on a routine patrol, where an accomplished L.A. police officer is forced to make a life-altering decision at one of her stops. The film was a winner at the Bermuda Film festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival, and a Directors Guild of America West Region Jury winner,
Ilay Mevorach’s OPEN YOR EYES - a dramatic short about an Israeli woman whose prejudices are challenged during a critical eye care appointment.
Erica Milsom’s SO MUCH YELLOW - another winner of multiple awards, including jury awards from the Ashland Film Festival (Best Short) and Deep in the Heart Film Festival (Best Writing for a Short Film), as well as the Audience Award from the Austin Film Festival). The film follows a little girl whose world is changed forever during what seems to be an uneventful family road trip.
Watch the trailer here. For more info, please go to: https://www.cinelifeentertainment.com/event/big-screen-shorts/
ABOUT BIG SCREEN SHORTS
Big Screen Shorts brings award-winning shorts to audiences in a special theatrical presentation. Distributed through CineLife Entertainment to theatres across North America, this limited series gives eager audiences a chance to view short films as they were intended to be watched — on professional cinema screens.
ABOUT SPOTLIGHT CINEMA NETWORKS
Spotlight Cinema Networks is the only cinema advertising company dedicated to serving the needs of art house and luxury exhibitors for cinema advertising, preshow entertainment, event cinema and digital display distribution. The company is a national advertising vehicle with a focus on the top 25 DMAs providing cinema advertising, in-lobby promotions and integrated experiential programs for advertisers targeting affluent and highly educated moviegoing audiences. CineLife Entertainment® acquires and distributes event cinema and alternative content titles in the U.S. and international markets. Spotlight Cinema Networks represents the top exhibitors in these genres, including segment leaders Angelika Film Center, Cinepolis Luxury Cinemas, Flix Brewhouse, Laemmle Theatres, Landmark Theatres, and Silverspot Cinema. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, with offices in New York and Chicago.
Ponyboi (2019) BFI Flare and Tribeca 2019
PONYBOI is the story of young intersex man who works at Laundry on the Jersey shore. All he wants is to find true love, perhaps with the bearded man in the white Mustang he always dreams of.
This is a small bittersweet gem of a film about the search for love and a place where we can be who we really are. Anchored by a heartbreaking performance by writer/director River Gallo, PONYBOI is a film that will bring a tear to your eye. It is a film that revolves all around our hero who bleeds a sad strength that moves us. Gallo gives us a performance that makes us do more than just sympathize but feel deeply the aching need to love and bee loved for who we are. Clearly Gallo is putting himself out there and the result is a moving and heartfelt film.
Very real and very raw, PONYBOI is a film at is very recommended when it plays today and the 28th at BFI FLARE and at the end of April at the Tribeca Film Festival.
This is a small bittersweet gem of a film about the search for love and a place where we can be who we really are. Anchored by a heartbreaking performance by writer/director River Gallo, PONYBOI is a film that will bring a tear to your eye. It is a film that revolves all around our hero who bleeds a sad strength that moves us. Gallo gives us a performance that makes us do more than just sympathize but feel deeply the aching need to love and bee loved for who we are. Clearly Gallo is putting himself out there and the result is a moving and heartfelt film.
Very real and very raw, PONYBOI is a film at is very recommended when it plays today and the 28th at BFI FLARE and at the end of April at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Palace (2019) plays Friday at the Queens World Film Festival and is a must see
Andrew Paul Davis‘s PALACE is a genuine gem of a film. A lovely little multi-character drama it is a grand graduation of a long time short filmmaker to features.
Set around a bar called Palace the film primarily focuses on Chris. A young man who works at auto repair place. He regularly goes to AA meetings but it is something he only pays lip service to since every night he is knocking them back at the Palace. He lives with his girlfriend and he thinks it’s all shits and giggles until she discovers she’s pregnant. Into the mix we have Chuck,an older man, also in AA with health problems and Alexa young woman at a Christian college who has a love and knack for poetry and rap, which are odd things to want to be part of in a dying Midwestern town. While they are the main focus we also get to know the people in their orbits.
I don’t know whether to thank or smack the Duplass Brothers. While I love that they have set fires under the asses of countless filmmakers to simply go out and create, I despise that many of those they inspire give up their own voices in order to ape their heroes. I mention the brothers because when I was sent PALACE it came with notes mentioning how the film came out of a contest they ran in order to secure financing for the winner. I was instantly wary of the reason stated above, but thankfully Andrew Paul Davis has his own voice and the Duplass Brothers should be thanked for instilling the drive to get the film done.
A great looking film PALACE feels like it is set at the end of the world. These are people off the beaten track and the lights are slowly going down. I loved how one early shot of one of the characters driving through the deserted streets of the town instantly set the mood of a world closing in on its self. There are once grand buildings and wide streets and only a car or two. It’s a simple shot. In a way that means absolutely nothing in the bigger picture of the story but it sets the tone and it sets the world than the ten establishing shots a show off director might have chosen.
Davis‘s script speaks volumes about life. There is an aching lived in to the quality to the lives we see on screen. One kind of wonders what sort of wide varied life Davis must have had since the notes of lives that have taken the wrong turn seem dead on write. I see echoes of my own and the lives of the people around me. There is the quiet desperation and sadness of people who want to change but can’t seem to pull it together or too scared to step away from the safety of this pain.
That it works as well as it does is thanks to a killer cast who seem to be living their lives on screen. Of course it isn’t true, but it feels it. Only Todd Bruno as Chris sometimes feels out of sorts. He feels more like he is channeling Jack Black’s devil may care attitude more than himself. Its only a couple of times and while it isn’t fatal it keeps an otherwise flawless film from being perfect.
This is a film you’ll want to see.
Highly recommended PALACE will be playing at the Queens World Film Festival on March 29th. For more information and tickets go here.
Set around a bar called Palace the film primarily focuses on Chris. A young man who works at auto repair place. He regularly goes to AA meetings but it is something he only pays lip service to since every night he is knocking them back at the Palace. He lives with his girlfriend and he thinks it’s all shits and giggles until she discovers she’s pregnant. Into the mix we have Chuck,an older man, also in AA with health problems and Alexa young woman at a Christian college who has a love and knack for poetry and rap, which are odd things to want to be part of in a dying Midwestern town. While they are the main focus we also get to know the people in their orbits.
I don’t know whether to thank or smack the Duplass Brothers. While I love that they have set fires under the asses of countless filmmakers to simply go out and create, I despise that many of those they inspire give up their own voices in order to ape their heroes. I mention the brothers because when I was sent PALACE it came with notes mentioning how the film came out of a contest they ran in order to secure financing for the winner. I was instantly wary of the reason stated above, but thankfully Andrew Paul Davis has his own voice and the Duplass Brothers should be thanked for instilling the drive to get the film done.
A great looking film PALACE feels like it is set at the end of the world. These are people off the beaten track and the lights are slowly going down. I loved how one early shot of one of the characters driving through the deserted streets of the town instantly set the mood of a world closing in on its self. There are once grand buildings and wide streets and only a car or two. It’s a simple shot. In a way that means absolutely nothing in the bigger picture of the story but it sets the tone and it sets the world than the ten establishing shots a show off director might have chosen.
Davis‘s script speaks volumes about life. There is an aching lived in to the quality to the lives we see on screen. One kind of wonders what sort of wide varied life Davis must have had since the notes of lives that have taken the wrong turn seem dead on write. I see echoes of my own and the lives of the people around me. There is the quiet desperation and sadness of people who want to change but can’t seem to pull it together or too scared to step away from the safety of this pain.
That it works as well as it does is thanks to a killer cast who seem to be living their lives on screen. Of course it isn’t true, but it feels it. Only Todd Bruno as Chris sometimes feels out of sorts. He feels more like he is channeling Jack Black’s devil may care attitude more than himself. Its only a couple of times and while it isn’t fatal it keeps an otherwise flawless film from being perfect.
This is a film you’ll want to see.
Highly recommended PALACE will be playing at the Queens World Film Festival on March 29th. For more information and tickets go here.
Monday, March 25, 2019
Ariela Rubin on Working Woman (2018) which opens Wednesday
With WORKING WOMAN opening Wednesday here is Ariela's review from last year's Toronto Film Festival.
Working Woman is an Israeli movie about a woman named Orna who gets a job as an assistant to a powerful real estate agent. Orna has 3 kids and a husband who just opened a restaurant and is scrambling to make ends meet. Orna’s assistant job is promising for her to make money to help support her family, quickly being promoted into sales, but she has to deal with her boss’ sexual harassment.
This movie was very timely, I thought it was really well done and as expected, it’s a very heavy film. I recommend it!
Working Woman is an Israeli movie about a woman named Orna who gets a job as an assistant to a powerful real estate agent. Orna has 3 kids and a husband who just opened a restaurant and is scrambling to make ends meet. Orna’s assistant job is promising for her to make money to help support her family, quickly being promoted into sales, but she has to deal with her boss’ sexual harassment.
This movie was very timely, I thought it was really well done and as expected, it’s a very heavy film. I recommend it!
Hurley (2019)
Hurley Haywood is an auto racing legend. Able to take any car and drive it at the peak of its ability he ruled the racing for years,wining the 24 Hours of Daytona 5 times, Le Mans 3 times as well as numerous other races. He was also a closeted gay man in one of the most macho and sexy sports there is.
Good but unremarkable documentary hits all of the expected points in a sports biography. We have the talking heads, the clips and the man himself helping tell his tale. Its all fine and completely enjoyable but it somehow never quite excites.
I am a fan of most forms of auto racing. I watch Daytona and Le Mans and Formula One I love it when I see a film about someone who is a legend that sparks me to go off and find their old races. That didn't happen with HURLEY. About half way in I started to get distracted because it never quite grabbed me. I think the problem is that as good as the interviews and footage are the filmmakers didn't do anything with them.
HURLEY isn't bad film, it just isn't even close to being as legendary as the man at its center.
Good but unremarkable documentary hits all of the expected points in a sports biography. We have the talking heads, the clips and the man himself helping tell his tale. Its all fine and completely enjoyable but it somehow never quite excites.
I am a fan of most forms of auto racing. I watch Daytona and Le Mans and Formula One I love it when I see a film about someone who is a legend that sparks me to go off and find their old races. That didn't happen with HURLEY. About half way in I started to get distracted because it never quite grabbed me. I think the problem is that as good as the interviews and footage are the filmmakers didn't do anything with them.
HURLEY isn't bad film, it just isn't even close to being as legendary as the man at its center.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Why Don't You Just Die (2018) What The... Fest 2019
This blood soaked black comedy would have been a better opener of this years What The... Fest rather than its closer since it's insane cartoon like quality will make you wonder what the hell is going on. I mean that in a good way because this is a one of a kind poisoned confection that will make you laugh even as it makes you wince.
The film opens with a twenty something young man arriving at the home of his girlfriends parents. We know he is there for an evil purpose by the way he grips the hammer he is hiding behind his back. The purpose is to kill his girlfriend's father, a large evil police detective that no one much likes. However things go wrong from the outset and before long blood is flowing.
If this had been played straight this would have been a totally unbearable film. The gruesomeness and the dark turns would have made for an ugly film that would be well into the realm of torture porn. However director Kirill Sokolov manages to hit the sweet spot tone wise with the result the film plays more like a blood soaked Roadrunner cartoon or a live action Itchy and Scratchy comic. I went into the film expecting to be hiding my eyes instead I was simply tense with anticipation that was often released by the laughter.
This film is a happy little trip into the heart of mankind's darkness and we are better for it.
While absolutely not for all tastes WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE is highly recommended for anyone who likes sick and twisted comedies and doesn't mind the blood.
WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE plays tonight at the What The Fest at New York's IFC Center. For tickets and more information go here.
The film opens with a twenty something young man arriving at the home of his girlfriends parents. We know he is there for an evil purpose by the way he grips the hammer he is hiding behind his back. The purpose is to kill his girlfriend's father, a large evil police detective that no one much likes. However things go wrong from the outset and before long blood is flowing.
If this had been played straight this would have been a totally unbearable film. The gruesomeness and the dark turns would have made for an ugly film that would be well into the realm of torture porn. However director Kirill Sokolov manages to hit the sweet spot tone wise with the result the film plays more like a blood soaked Roadrunner cartoon or a live action Itchy and Scratchy comic. I went into the film expecting to be hiding my eyes instead I was simply tense with anticipation that was often released by the laughter.
This film is a happy little trip into the heart of mankind's darkness and we are better for it.
While absolutely not for all tastes WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE is highly recommended for anyone who likes sick and twisted comedies and doesn't mind the blood.
WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE plays tonight at the What The Fest at New York's IFC Center. For tickets and more information go here.
Saturday, March 23, 2019
To The Night (2019) What The ...Festival 2019
In To The Night Caleb Landry Jones is an artist obsessed by the death of his parents years earlier in a fire. A complete and total mess he begins to disconnect from reality causing troubles with everyone around him especially his wife and new born child. It also sets him on the path to his own destruction…
Dark moody film more concerned with recreating Landry’s headspace than being a straight forward narrative, To The Night is going challenge its audience to like it’s hero. Occasionally normal and loving but more often bat shit crazy and struggling to hold on to a normal mind set, Landry’s character tests and tries our willingness to not only go into his head but like him. His behavior is at times tough to take.
Equally tough to take is the film itself which gives the audience no quarter. You either belt in and go where this film is taking you or you don’t. I belted in and took the ride but I’m not sure it’s worth the ride. Like our hero’s art this is a film that challenges you to confront it and what it is showing you. The trouble is that instead of looking at an installation for short amount of time To The Night is almost two hours of punishing head space. While I don’t mind walking around with someone else’s thoughts in my brain now and again, I need a reason to do so. I’m not sure To The Night gives us a reason. Personally I think this is two hour attempt to provoke us into feeling but with no real reason for it beyond it being able to do so.
Honestly while I made it to the end of the film with its uncertain final images, I was lost to it about a quarter of the way in. This was form over substance in the most pretentious way. I kept watching the film hoping that somehow the film would snap together to mean something or give me insight instead of just watching Jones give an Oscar worthy performance in film that just sets him adrift.
While I know that some people love the film, hence it’s appearance at multiple film festivals, I don’t think the vast majority of film goers, even those who love the off beat and weird, will ever respond to it. Frankly it’s too artsy fartsy in the wrong sort of way.
Not recommended for any reason other than Caleb Landry Jones’s stellar performance (and even then I’d take a pass)
Dark moody film more concerned with recreating Landry’s headspace than being a straight forward narrative, To The Night is going challenge its audience to like it’s hero. Occasionally normal and loving but more often bat shit crazy and struggling to hold on to a normal mind set, Landry’s character tests and tries our willingness to not only go into his head but like him. His behavior is at times tough to take.
Equally tough to take is the film itself which gives the audience no quarter. You either belt in and go where this film is taking you or you don’t. I belted in and took the ride but I’m not sure it’s worth the ride. Like our hero’s art this is a film that challenges you to confront it and what it is showing you. The trouble is that instead of looking at an installation for short amount of time To The Night is almost two hours of punishing head space. While I don’t mind walking around with someone else’s thoughts in my brain now and again, I need a reason to do so. I’m not sure To The Night gives us a reason. Personally I think this is two hour attempt to provoke us into feeling but with no real reason for it beyond it being able to do so.
Honestly while I made it to the end of the film with its uncertain final images, I was lost to it about a quarter of the way in. This was form over substance in the most pretentious way. I kept watching the film hoping that somehow the film would snap together to mean something or give me insight instead of just watching Jones give an Oscar worthy performance in film that just sets him adrift.
While I know that some people love the film, hence it’s appearance at multiple film festivals, I don’t think the vast majority of film goers, even those who love the off beat and weird, will ever respond to it. Frankly it’s too artsy fartsy in the wrong sort of way.
Not recommended for any reason other than Caleb Landry Jones’s stellar performance (and even then I’d take a pass)
Friday, March 22, 2019
Ariela Rubin onTigerland (2019)
Tigers are going extinct. A century ago, there were 100,000 tigers in the wild,now there are only about 4,000. Tigerland shifts back and forth between India and Russia, the two places where tigers exist today. Watching this documentary came at an interesting time, as a friend and I had been researching going to try to see tigers in India.
Tigerland is about the people who are making an effort to help save tigers in these two places. The film focuses on Pavel Fomenko, who has been dedicating his life to help save the tigers for 25 years,and Kailash Sankhala, who died in 1994, who was one of the first people in India that started protecting tigers. We hear his stories through his family members, who are continuing to help preserve tigers, and through research that Kailash had written down.
Tigers are going extinct mainly due to poaching, and the destruction of the forest. When the Soviet Union fell, people needed money quickly, and so many became poachers. In India, kings participated in the sport of killing tigers. People would get brownie points if they killed one.
Some parts of the documentary, I almost felt like I was there, as men in India were anxiously awaiting to see if they would spot a tiger in the wild. In Russia, it almost felt like I was watching a suspense movie as the team was out urgently searching for tiger cubs.
Many species of tigers are already extinct. They are doomed to extinction if things don't change soon.
I enjoyed this documentary a great deal. I didn't love the parts with the animated drawings though, and I thought the way the movie began was odd. I actually think this is the first documentary that I have seen on tigers, and I found it very informative. I also found the film beautifully shot, and when we did see the tigers on screen, it was really mesmerizing. We see true dedication from these men, and it makes one feel good to know there are people out there who are trying to make a difference in the world. A must see for any animal or nature lover. I am also hoping that this documentary changes the way that people see tigers in circuses or zoos.
TIGERLAND opens in LA at the Monica Center. It opens March 29 in New York at Cinema Village.
It will be available on Discovery Go March 23. It premieres globally March 30 on Discovery
Tigerland is about the people who are making an effort to help save tigers in these two places. The film focuses on Pavel Fomenko, who has been dedicating his life to help save the tigers for 25 years,and Kailash Sankhala, who died in 1994, who was one of the first people in India that started protecting tigers. We hear his stories through his family members, who are continuing to help preserve tigers, and through research that Kailash had written down.
Tigers are going extinct mainly due to poaching, and the destruction of the forest. When the Soviet Union fell, people needed money quickly, and so many became poachers. In India, kings participated in the sport of killing tigers. People would get brownie points if they killed one.
Some parts of the documentary, I almost felt like I was there, as men in India were anxiously awaiting to see if they would spot a tiger in the wild. In Russia, it almost felt like I was watching a suspense movie as the team was out urgently searching for tiger cubs.
Many species of tigers are already extinct. They are doomed to extinction if things don't change soon.
I enjoyed this documentary a great deal. I didn't love the parts with the animated drawings though, and I thought the way the movie began was odd. I actually think this is the first documentary that I have seen on tigers, and I found it very informative. I also found the film beautifully shot, and when we did see the tigers on screen, it was really mesmerizing. We see true dedication from these men, and it makes one feel good to know there are people out there who are trying to make a difference in the world. A must see for any animal or nature lover. I am also hoping that this documentary changes the way that people see tigers in circuses or zoos.
TIGERLAND opens in LA at the Monica Center. It opens March 29 in New York at Cinema Village.
It will be available on Discovery Go March 23. It premieres globally March 30 on Discovery
About a Donkey (2018) Queens World Film Festival 2019
ABOUT A DONKEY is only kind of about a donkey. Certainly the film’s events are triggered by the purchase of a donkey by a family’s patriarch, but what it is really about is the way the family interacts. It is the family interactions which makes the film work.
As much as I like ABOUT A DONKEY (go see it at the Queens World Film Festival I kind of want to shake writer director Christina Raia. While she has crafted a beautifully written and heartfelt family comedy she had saddled it with a donkey. Yes, it makes the film memorable or noticeable, but at the same time many people who should see the film because they are going to love it are going to see the premise and then move on to the next thing. The family drama is so good it doesn’t need a goose. Then again if it didn’t have a donkey in the title I wouldn’t have noticed it and would have missed it.
What I love about this film is that the interplay feels real. Everyone is busting on each other, cracking jokes about everything, but despite that there is a real sense of love. More importantly there is these moments when people are taken aback by the affection under what is being said. There are times when characters suddenly understand that they are understood. I love the exchange when Cecelia is told by her grandmother that she should ask out her aide. Cecelia is shocked that grandma would be so brazen as to ask if her aide liked girls, but was also taken aback that she had feelings that way. It’s a small thing but it rings true and it is the small moments like that that make the film alive.
Donkey aside this is a great filmmaking and great story telling. Director Christina Raia has made a wonderful film that is highly recommended. She has also put herself on my directors to watch list.
ABOUT A DONKEY plays at the Queens World Film Festival March 24. For tickets and more information go here.
As much as I like ABOUT A DONKEY (go see it at the Queens World Film Festival I kind of want to shake writer director Christina Raia. While she has crafted a beautifully written and heartfelt family comedy she had saddled it with a donkey. Yes, it makes the film memorable or noticeable, but at the same time many people who should see the film because they are going to love it are going to see the premise and then move on to the next thing. The family drama is so good it doesn’t need a goose. Then again if it didn’t have a donkey in the title I wouldn’t have noticed it and would have missed it.
What I love about this film is that the interplay feels real. Everyone is busting on each other, cracking jokes about everything, but despite that there is a real sense of love. More importantly there is these moments when people are taken aback by the affection under what is being said. There are times when characters suddenly understand that they are understood. I love the exchange when Cecelia is told by her grandmother that she should ask out her aide. Cecelia is shocked that grandma would be so brazen as to ask if her aide liked girls, but was also taken aback that she had feelings that way. It’s a small thing but it rings true and it is the small moments like that that make the film alive.
Donkey aside this is a great filmmaking and great story telling. Director Christina Raia has made a wonderful film that is highly recommended. She has also put herself on my directors to watch list.
ABOUT A DONKEY plays at the Queens World Film Festival March 24. For tickets and more information go here.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
Depraved (2019) What The Festival 2019
DEPRAVED frustrates me. It is so damn close to being a great film I want to scream. It is at times one of the most thoughtful riffs on Frankenstein you'll run across and at others its just an okay inde film.
A young man leaves his girlfriend after a fight. As he walks the streets he is set upon by an unknown person and stabbed to death. Waking up in a new body and unsure of who he is Adam has to relearn what it is to be human as well as deal with Henry his creator and the madness of Polidori his "assistant". As Adam learns more about who he is and how he came to be the stage is set for a grand tragedy.
Writer director Larry Fessenden has made a intriguing film. Updating Mary Shelley's tale to modern day Brooklyn, he shades it not just with a mad genius trying to usurp god but with thoughts of trying to help those left broken by war. Henry's trying to heal those killed and hurt in our current wars. In doing so he truly makes us debate the notion of what Henry is doing on a more practical level than almost any other version of the tale.
This being a Frankenstein film we also get the requisite riffs on what it means to be human and the struggle to truly discover who we really are. Fessenden's takes have unexpected resonances and get the mind working in ways that most of us haven't considered before.
This is also a film that is often visually delightful. There are short montages and overlays that add a sense of what Adam is thinking. Adams look is also incredible. While I'm uncertain about how or why some of the scars are there it still looks impressive.
As much as I like the film there are things that bother me.
While I appreciate Fessenden treating the proceedings almost as if it is a drama, the tone of the film never quite feels right. There is a strange lack of suspense because on some level we know how this is going to go. As a result there is a lack of engagement as I was intellectually invested but not emotionally.
I'm also not sure about the Polidori character. The dark soul pushing Henry and events, he is the one character who seems out of place.Where pretty much everyone else seems, for the most part, to be or could be a real person (and I am including Adam) Polidori feels out of place. I don't know if it is the performance or the role, but he feels like he exists simply to push events along. It weakens things more than it should.
The film also has a problem with pacing. The film feels every one of it's 115 minutes with some bits feeling a little too long. There was a point around the half way point when I realized that there was still another hour to go. It's never fatal but it gave me time to think about some of the problems of the film instead of being carried past them by the momentum of events.
Don't think I hate the film, I don't, but I am frustrated because what is here is good enough that I should have loved it instead of just liking it.
Worth a look for fans of thoughtful rethinks of classic tales
.
A young man leaves his girlfriend after a fight. As he walks the streets he is set upon by an unknown person and stabbed to death. Waking up in a new body and unsure of who he is Adam has to relearn what it is to be human as well as deal with Henry his creator and the madness of Polidori his "assistant". As Adam learns more about who he is and how he came to be the stage is set for a grand tragedy.
Writer director Larry Fessenden has made a intriguing film. Updating Mary Shelley's tale to modern day Brooklyn, he shades it not just with a mad genius trying to usurp god but with thoughts of trying to help those left broken by war. Henry's trying to heal those killed and hurt in our current wars. In doing so he truly makes us debate the notion of what Henry is doing on a more practical level than almost any other version of the tale.
This being a Frankenstein film we also get the requisite riffs on what it means to be human and the struggle to truly discover who we really are. Fessenden's takes have unexpected resonances and get the mind working in ways that most of us haven't considered before.
This is also a film that is often visually delightful. There are short montages and overlays that add a sense of what Adam is thinking. Adams look is also incredible. While I'm uncertain about how or why some of the scars are there it still looks impressive.
As much as I like the film there are things that bother me.
While I appreciate Fessenden treating the proceedings almost as if it is a drama, the tone of the film never quite feels right. There is a strange lack of suspense because on some level we know how this is going to go. As a result there is a lack of engagement as I was intellectually invested but not emotionally.
I'm also not sure about the Polidori character. The dark soul pushing Henry and events, he is the one character who seems out of place.Where pretty much everyone else seems, for the most part, to be or could be a real person (and I am including Adam) Polidori feels out of place. I don't know if it is the performance or the role, but he feels like he exists simply to push events along. It weakens things more than it should.
The film also has a problem with pacing. The film feels every one of it's 115 minutes with some bits feeling a little too long. There was a point around the half way point when I realized that there was still another hour to go. It's never fatal but it gave me time to think about some of the problems of the film instead of being carried past them by the momentum of events.
Don't think I hate the film, I don't, but I am frustrated because what is here is good enough that I should have loved it instead of just liking it.
Worth a look for fans of thoughtful rethinks of classic tales
.
Roll Red Roll (2018) opens tomorrow
ROLL RED ROLL begins with an audio recording of some teenagers laughing and joking about how one of their number raped a young girl to death (she didn’t die) and saying that it was “the funniest thing ever” and by the time it ends you have gone to the dark side and begin to understand just how fucked up humanity is.
The incident that happened in Steubenville Ohio involved members of the high school football team. The boys were considered gods and allowed to pretty much to do whatever they wanted since they brought so much happiness and pride to the town. However when a girl from across the river went off with some of the team she ended up drinking way too much and was sexually assaulted although she was so drunk she didn’t remember it. When her parents found out they had rape charges filed against two of the boys. The town was shocked (in a Casablanca sort of way) that anything like this could happen- until it came out that pretty much everyone in the high school knew all about it since it was being openly discussed, with pictures, on social media.
If you want to come to hate people then ROLL RED ROLL is for you. Don’t get me wrong it is a truly great film (it is one of the best at Tribeca) but the behavior of the teens and many of the adults make you want to wipe them off the face of the earth. Clearly we are not better than that. The fact that so many people knew what happened and either did nothing or found it hysterical crushes the soul when it comes to future of mankind. I was so pissed off by the time a second earlier incident was revealed involving an even younger girl that I just kind of died inside.
Director Nancy Schwartzman has to be applauded for putting together a film that shows just how rotten many people are. What is shocking is that she doesn’t have to interview anyone to tell the story, all she need do is present the public record. Everyone, including the rapists, put it all out there on social media and Schwartzman simply plays it back to us. Further she presents the police interviews which damns many others whose words of explanation just hangs them out as morally dead.
I have no idea what to say. This is a great film. It is also a really tough film. It’s a film that must be seen. People have to understand that it really can happen anywhere they are. The rot on the human soul that is causing terrible things to happen around the world is in ourselves.
One of the best films at Tribeca.
The incident that happened in Steubenville Ohio involved members of the high school football team. The boys were considered gods and allowed to pretty much to do whatever they wanted since they brought so much happiness and pride to the town. However when a girl from across the river went off with some of the team she ended up drinking way too much and was sexually assaulted although she was so drunk she didn’t remember it. When her parents found out they had rape charges filed against two of the boys. The town was shocked (in a Casablanca sort of way) that anything like this could happen- until it came out that pretty much everyone in the high school knew all about it since it was being openly discussed, with pictures, on social media.
If you want to come to hate people then ROLL RED ROLL is for you. Don’t get me wrong it is a truly great film (it is one of the best at Tribeca) but the behavior of the teens and many of the adults make you want to wipe them off the face of the earth. Clearly we are not better than that. The fact that so many people knew what happened and either did nothing or found it hysterical crushes the soul when it comes to future of mankind. I was so pissed off by the time a second earlier incident was revealed involving an even younger girl that I just kind of died inside.
Director Nancy Schwartzman has to be applauded for putting together a film that shows just how rotten many people are. What is shocking is that she doesn’t have to interview anyone to tell the story, all she need do is present the public record. Everyone, including the rapists, put it all out there on social media and Schwartzman simply plays it back to us. Further she presents the police interviews which damns many others whose words of explanation just hangs them out as morally dead.
I have no idea what to say. This is a great film. It is also a really tough film. It’s a film that must be seen. People have to understand that it really can happen anywhere they are. The rot on the human soul that is causing terrible things to happen around the world is in ourselves.
One of the best films at Tribeca.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Out of the Blue (2018)
An astronomer is found dead inside of her observatory. Low key raspy voiced detective Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is set on the trail of the killer which has echoes to a long ago serial killer.
Based on a Martin Amis novel called Night Train, which was changed enough that they altered the title, OUT OF THE BLUE is either going to thrill you or send you screaming from the theater. Walking the fine line between serious mystery and parody one is never certain if one is supposed to laugh at the proceedings going on or be on the edge of their seat. I was shaking my head from the get go and I never stopped as Clarkson's efforts to play a mumbly Clint Eastwood never clicked for me. Add dialog that mixes quantum physics with hard boiled noir cliche and you have a film that is certainly one of a kind.
Part of the problem is there are no real characters. There are position points. We get the ideas behind things but no real notion that anyone on screen is a person. There is heady discussion of quantum physics and astronomy which is used in such away as to make you think its going to be mean something to the mystery as well as the world at large. Every one talks large as if over written by someone who needed to prove themselves smart. While there are frequent wicked lines of dialog more often than not they hang in the air because real people aren't saying them put a position point.
I suppose that I should be happy that we have an actual film about ideas and about intelligent things but I really would have liked someone I could care about.
While never bad as such it never comes together to be anything I ever will really remember as being other than a game misfire.
Based on a Martin Amis novel called Night Train, which was changed enough that they altered the title, OUT OF THE BLUE is either going to thrill you or send you screaming from the theater. Walking the fine line between serious mystery and parody one is never certain if one is supposed to laugh at the proceedings going on or be on the edge of their seat. I was shaking my head from the get go and I never stopped as Clarkson's efforts to play a mumbly Clint Eastwood never clicked for me. Add dialog that mixes quantum physics with hard boiled noir cliche and you have a film that is certainly one of a kind.
Part of the problem is there are no real characters. There are position points. We get the ideas behind things but no real notion that anyone on screen is a person. There is heady discussion of quantum physics and astronomy which is used in such away as to make you think its going to be mean something to the mystery as well as the world at large. Every one talks large as if over written by someone who needed to prove themselves smart. While there are frequent wicked lines of dialog more often than not they hang in the air because real people aren't saying them put a position point.
I suppose that I should be happy that we have an actual film about ideas and about intelligent things but I really would have liked someone I could care about.
While never bad as such it never comes together to be anything I ever will really remember as being other than a game misfire.
Two takes on One Cut of the Dead (2018) which is playing at the What The Fest?
With ONE CUT OF THE DEAD playing at the What The ..? Fest I'm reposting both of the reviews we ran when it played at the New York Asian Film FEstival last year. The first by Nate Hood. The second by Joe Bendel
It takes a little time to figure out exactly what’s going on in Shin'ichirô Ueda’s ONE CUT OF THE DEAD. But as the film barrels on, the bits and pieces click into place and one can’t help but smile at Ueda’s cleverness and the sheer complexity of his undertaking. This is a film that works best when audiences go into it completely cold with no preconceptions. But since the phrase “Please go see this movie” is about 395 words short of my minimum for reviews, I’ll have to let part of the cat out of the bag. But only a small part.
The first thirty minutes are presented as a found footage movie about a film crew shooting a cheesy zombie film at an abandoned factory when—surprise!—real zombies attack. Filmed in one long take with a handheld camera, it’s awkwardly paced, irregularly acted, and most crucially, not scary. The whole things reeks of unintentional camp, from a middle-aged make-up artist demonstrating women’s self-defense techniques straight out of Diedrich Bader’s karate class in Napoleon Dynamite to a twist revealing the director went insane a long time ago and deliberately led the film crew to the zombie-infested site so he could film their “real fear.” (This director is responsible for the single genuinely entertaining part of the documentary when he suddenly reappears after seemingly being bludgeoned to death, throwing open one of the side doors of the car the surviving actors are trying to escape in, pushing a zombie into it, and maniacally screaming “Action!”) It finally ends with an amateurish climax where the Last Girl—an actress who’d been berated by the insane director for blowing takes with her mediocre acting skills—confronts her freshly zombified co-star and behind-the-scenes love interest with an axe. She raises it, begs him to come around, steels herself, and pauses as if she forgot her line or that she’s on a roof being attacked by a zombie. She raises it a second time. Again she chokes. A third time, and she finally manages to chop his head off. With the zombies defeated, the camera pulls back into the sky for a bird’s-eye view revealing she’s standing in a giant pentagram of blood. And then the film abruptly jumps a month into the past where we watch the producers, director, film crew, and cast get together to plan the fateful zombie shoot we just watched.
I refuse to spoil what happens next, but please believe me when I say that it’s nothing you might expect. One Cut of the Dead represents everything great about the New York Asian Film Festival: a celebration of bold new talents, unexpected genre mashing, and audacious filmmaking that leaves your mouth on the floor.
Rating: 9/10
It was supposed to be the Rope of zombie movies, filmed in one continuous shot. Then the zombies attack for real. However, if you think that sounds crazy, wait until you see it all again from a different perspective. Zombies get the mash-up treatment like never before in Shinichiro Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead (trailer here), which screens during the What The Fest.
Higurashi is a bullying director a thousand times worse than Peter O’Toole in The Stunt Man. He has so little regard for cast and crew safety, he awakens the zombie curse hanging over their remote location, an abandoned industrial site, where the Japanese military reportedly staged sinister occult experiments during WWII. As crew-members turn into feral zombies, Higurashi finally gets the realistic performances he wants from his terrified thesps.
However, there is much more going on outside the camera’s field of vision. In a complete change of tone, the film goes from a Night of the Living Dead rip-off to a worthy successor to Noises Off. It is hard to explain out of context, but Ueda’s editing is absolutely masterful. You just need to see it for yourself.
One of the many cool things about Cut is how completely Ueda and his cast commit to each phase of the film. The second and third acts are so wickedly clever, precisely because we were with the cast-members when they were running for their lives during the opening set-up.
jap
Takayuki Hamatsu could possibly give the performance of the year as Higurashi. He certainly shows phenomenal range. Yet, Harumi Syuhama arguably eclipses his lunacy as Nao, the makeup artist who turns into a berserk killing machine and also acts pretty nuts in the third act as well. Mao develops some smart but endearing chemistry with them both as her namesake, an aspiring filmmaker.
Eventually, Cut evolves into a hilarious valentine to underdog independent genre filmmaking. It would pair up nicely with Graham Kelly Greene’s criminally overlooked Attack of the Bat Monsters. In fact, at one point a character in the Cormanesque spoof rather wistfully states: “in the future, people will watch these movies and laugh, but they’ll never understand how hard we worked on them.” That sentiment also perfectly fits Cut. It is a total winner that will charm the pants off horror fans. Very highly recommended
It takes a little time to figure out exactly what’s going on in Shin'ichirô Ueda’s ONE CUT OF THE DEAD. But as the film barrels on, the bits and pieces click into place and one can’t help but smile at Ueda’s cleverness and the sheer complexity of his undertaking. This is a film that works best when audiences go into it completely cold with no preconceptions. But since the phrase “Please go see this movie” is about 395 words short of my minimum for reviews, I’ll have to let part of the cat out of the bag. But only a small part.
The first thirty minutes are presented as a found footage movie about a film crew shooting a cheesy zombie film at an abandoned factory when—surprise!—real zombies attack. Filmed in one long take with a handheld camera, it’s awkwardly paced, irregularly acted, and most crucially, not scary. The whole things reeks of unintentional camp, from a middle-aged make-up artist demonstrating women’s self-defense techniques straight out of Diedrich Bader’s karate class in Napoleon Dynamite to a twist revealing the director went insane a long time ago and deliberately led the film crew to the zombie-infested site so he could film their “real fear.” (This director is responsible for the single genuinely entertaining part of the documentary when he suddenly reappears after seemingly being bludgeoned to death, throwing open one of the side doors of the car the surviving actors are trying to escape in, pushing a zombie into it, and maniacally screaming “Action!”) It finally ends with an amateurish climax where the Last Girl—an actress who’d been berated by the insane director for blowing takes with her mediocre acting skills—confronts her freshly zombified co-star and behind-the-scenes love interest with an axe. She raises it, begs him to come around, steels herself, and pauses as if she forgot her line or that she’s on a roof being attacked by a zombie. She raises it a second time. Again she chokes. A third time, and she finally manages to chop his head off. With the zombies defeated, the camera pulls back into the sky for a bird’s-eye view revealing she’s standing in a giant pentagram of blood. And then the film abruptly jumps a month into the past where we watch the producers, director, film crew, and cast get together to plan the fateful zombie shoot we just watched.
I refuse to spoil what happens next, but please believe me when I say that it’s nothing you might expect. One Cut of the Dead represents everything great about the New York Asian Film Festival: a celebration of bold new talents, unexpected genre mashing, and audacious filmmaking that leaves your mouth on the floor.
Rating: 9/10
It was supposed to be the Rope of zombie movies, filmed in one continuous shot. Then the zombies attack for real. However, if you think that sounds crazy, wait until you see it all again from a different perspective. Zombies get the mash-up treatment like never before in Shinichiro Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead (trailer here), which screens during the What The Fest.
Higurashi is a bullying director a thousand times worse than Peter O’Toole in The Stunt Man. He has so little regard for cast and crew safety, he awakens the zombie curse hanging over their remote location, an abandoned industrial site, where the Japanese military reportedly staged sinister occult experiments during WWII. As crew-members turn into feral zombies, Higurashi finally gets the realistic performances he wants from his terrified thesps.
However, there is much more going on outside the camera’s field of vision. In a complete change of tone, the film goes from a Night of the Living Dead rip-off to a worthy successor to Noises Off. It is hard to explain out of context, but Ueda’s editing is absolutely masterful. You just need to see it for yourself.
One of the many cool things about Cut is how completely Ueda and his cast commit to each phase of the film. The second and third acts are so wickedly clever, precisely because we were with the cast-members when they were running for their lives during the opening set-up.
jap
Takayuki Hamatsu could possibly give the performance of the year as Higurashi. He certainly shows phenomenal range. Yet, Harumi Syuhama arguably eclipses his lunacy as Nao, the makeup artist who turns into a berserk killing machine and also acts pretty nuts in the third act as well. Mao develops some smart but endearing chemistry with them both as her namesake, an aspiring filmmaker.
Eventually, Cut evolves into a hilarious valentine to underdog independent genre filmmaking. It would pair up nicely with Graham Kelly Greene’s criminally overlooked Attack of the Bat Monsters. In fact, at one point a character in the Cormanesque spoof rather wistfully states: “in the future, people will watch these movies and laugh, but they’ll never understand how hard we worked on them.” That sentiment also perfectly fits Cut. It is a total winner that will charm the pants off horror fans. Very highly recommended
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
How To Be Alone (2019) SXSW 2019
A woman is left alone when her husband goes off for the night shift. She instantly goes into trying to remain sane and safe by running down the rules of being alone at night.
Gloriously wonderful short film is as good as it gets on every level especially the entertainment one. Grand exploration of something we've all done- trying to fight the fear when left alone in a dark hose with a racing mind. While we know its all in our heroine's mind there is still chills as the dark images come calling.
No it is no truly scary hut more suspenseful and humorous, as director Kate Trefry manages to collide the fear with all fear with the silliness of what we are thinking. That a first time director can a horror comedy that works like this says volumes about her skill as a director. Please someone give her a feature film.
One of the great films of any length I've seen in 2019.
Highly recommended.
Gloriously wonderful short film is as good as it gets on every level especially the entertainment one. Grand exploration of something we've all done- trying to fight the fear when left alone in a dark hose with a racing mind. While we know its all in our heroine's mind there is still chills as the dark images come calling.
No it is no truly scary hut more suspenseful and humorous, as director Kate Trefry manages to collide the fear with all fear with the silliness of what we are thinking. That a first time director can a horror comedy that works like this says volumes about her skill as a director. Please someone give her a feature film.
One of the great films of any length I've seen in 2019.
Highly recommended.
Skid Row Marathon (2018)
Skid Row Marathon will make you get misty. The tale of the running club at the Midnight Mission in LA’s Skid Row is a heartwarming tale of people getting their lives together and struggling to do more. It’s a must see.
The running club was started by Judge Craig Mitchell after he visited the mission the at the request of a man he sent away to prison. When he got there he was challenged to do something to help the people living there. Mitchell, an avid runner, started a running club that meets several mornings a week. They then hold events to fund the trips the Judge uses as rewards for those who remain clean and out of trouble to travel the world to run in races.
I don’t know what to say. This is a kick ass film that I wish I had caught up with during its festival run. It maybe me feel good. And it made cry. Somewhere toward the end tears were running down my cheeks as the people who thought they couldn’t do something so “simple” as run a race did so.
What an absolute joy.
I’m sorry this isn’t much of a review but sometimes you run across something that doesn’t need explaining it simply needs to be shared. I want to share this with everyone reading this small piece. You need to see this because it will show you what it is possible and how people can rise up when they just believe they can- which is something too many of us don’t understand.
One of the great finds of 2019. This film is a must see.
SKID ROW MARATHON opens March 22 at Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena ahead of the Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
The running club was started by Judge Craig Mitchell after he visited the mission the at the request of a man he sent away to prison. When he got there he was challenged to do something to help the people living there. Mitchell, an avid runner, started a running club that meets several mornings a week. They then hold events to fund the trips the Judge uses as rewards for those who remain clean and out of trouble to travel the world to run in races.
I don’t know what to say. This is a kick ass film that I wish I had caught up with during its festival run. It maybe me feel good. And it made cry. Somewhere toward the end tears were running down my cheeks as the people who thought they couldn’t do something so “simple” as run a race did so.
What an absolute joy.
I’m sorry this isn’t much of a review but sometimes you run across something that doesn’t need explaining it simply needs to be shared. I want to share this with everyone reading this small piece. You need to see this because it will show you what it is possible and how people can rise up when they just believe they can- which is something too many of us don’t understand.
One of the great finds of 2019. This film is a must see.
SKID ROW MARATHON opens March 22 at Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena ahead of the Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
Monday, March 18, 2019
Slut in a Good Way opens March 29
Charlotte's boyfriend reveals that he is gay and she spirals out of control. while wandering the aidles of the local Toy Depot she and her friends notice all the cute guys working there, and promptly get jobs. As seasons change the romance and sex comes and goes.
Amusing teen sex comedy is unexpectedly charming. while the film tries a little too hard to be different with some arty camera work and black and white photographers, the sterling cast wins your heart. They make some obvious laughs seem funnier than they are (for exampleCharlotte getting drunk in the play ground early on).
More amusing trifle than earth shaking comedy, SLUT IN A GOOD WAY simply entertains. While I could pick it apart (is teenage life in French Canada really an endless stream of weed, alcohol and sex?), there really isn't a point because in the ends you'll remember the delights, the laughs, the characters, and the score. (And I need to point out I love how the end credit segue effortlessly into the film)
Worth a look
Amusing teen sex comedy is unexpectedly charming. while the film tries a little too hard to be different with some arty camera work and black and white photographers, the sterling cast wins your heart. They make some obvious laughs seem funnier than they are (for exampleCharlotte getting drunk in the play ground early on).
More amusing trifle than earth shaking comedy, SLUT IN A GOOD WAY simply entertains. While I could pick it apart (is teenage life in French Canada really an endless stream of weed, alcohol and sex?), there really isn't a point because in the ends you'll remember the delights, the laughs, the characters, and the score. (And I need to point out I love how the end credit segue effortlessly into the film)
Worth a look
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Black Book
Anthony Mann’s Reign of Terror/Black Book has been a public domain staple for decades. Appearing in cheap DVDs and VHS copies for years I have it I don’t know how many oldie thriller sets. Amazingly I had somehow never managed to see it until I saw it Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Joe Dante retrospective. Dante programed he film as one of his influences. We were not told how it influenced him but it’s good enough that it’s not hard to imagine how it could.
Set toward the end of the French revolution’s reign of terror, the film has Robert Cumming’s anti-Robespierre hero taking the place of a “prosecutor” from Strasburg who was sent for by Robespierre. Its seems that someone has stolen the infamous black book in which all those to be denounced are listed. It must be discovered before the convention which will make Robespierre dictator of France. Complications arise for Cummings as an old love shows up and Robespierre and his men are running a larger game.
A taught thriller I’m at a loss as to why the film isn’t better known. Yes it’s workman like and very much of it’s time but it dos what it does with incredible skill and is a hell of a lot more entertaining than most other films from the same time. It’s a film I would gladly put on again and again.
The love of the film as sealed for me with the sequence in the farm house when soldiers are looking for Cummings, his girlfriend and the black book. Roused by the approaching soldiers Cummings flees leaving the book behind. A game of trying to hide the book and not let anyone know it’s there ensues and it’s a sequence worthy to be compared with the best of Hitchcock.
I can’t say enough good about the film other than see it- and if you can see it big.
An absolute delight.
Saturday, March 16, 2019
Dangerous Flowers (aka Chai Lai Angels)
This is a Thai version of Charlie's Angels. Here there are five girls instead of three. Its a total goof.
Everything about the film from the plot (the angels have to protect a little girl who has a rare pearl) to the characters (one is a guy in drag) to the action sequences (they are sending up action sequences) are very silly. At no point are we ever expected to take any of this seriously on any level, even if they are playing it all reasonably straight. If you go in expecting a straight action film you are going to be disappointed. if you go in expecting a Thai blend of action (the action is the reason to see the film) and comedy then you are more likely to have a good time. If there is any flaws its that the film doesn't quite work in the non-action scenes. The comedy there comes off as heavy handed. Thankfully the talking scenes tend to be brief.
Forgive me for not saying more but the plot is very slight. Its the action that stand out, and thankfully its all set pieces beginning with a fight on an airplane that's cross cut with a fight in a house and car chase on to the kidnapping of the girl to a fight in towels in an office tower on and on to the final girls in white dresses bit which takes things about as far as you can go. Its all well done and very tongue and cheek (often suitably cheaply)
Worth a look for action fans with a high tolerance for silly things.
Everything about the film from the plot (the angels have to protect a little girl who has a rare pearl) to the characters (one is a guy in drag) to the action sequences (they are sending up action sequences) are very silly. At no point are we ever expected to take any of this seriously on any level, even if they are playing it all reasonably straight. If you go in expecting a straight action film you are going to be disappointed. if you go in expecting a Thai blend of action (the action is the reason to see the film) and comedy then you are more likely to have a good time. If there is any flaws its that the film doesn't quite work in the non-action scenes. The comedy there comes off as heavy handed. Thankfully the talking scenes tend to be brief.
Forgive me for not saying more but the plot is very slight. Its the action that stand out, and thankfully its all set pieces beginning with a fight on an airplane that's cross cut with a fight in a house and car chase on to the kidnapping of the girl to a fight in towels in an office tower on and on to the final girls in white dresses bit which takes things about as far as you can go. Its all well done and very tongue and cheek (often suitably cheaply)
Worth a look for action fans with a high tolerance for silly things.
Friday, March 15, 2019
Man and Child (1956)
Eddie Constantine plays the head of a perfume company who discovers that his company is being used to smuggle drugs when a man kidnaps Eddie's adopted daughter and demands that Eddie find his daughter who went missing as a result of the drugs coming from his company.
Misnamed film, the girl only shows up at the start and end, is an otherwise pretty good Eddie Constantine film. Filled with witty remarks and more than its share of suspense this is light entertainment that holds your attention.
As with many Constantine films there is a knowing wink that helps glance over the rough patches. Eddie is clearly aware this is a film in such as the moment when someone doesn't believe who Eddie is in context of the film and says " Yea, well I'm Eddie Constantine" to which Eddie says "Well I have no idea who that is" as he glances into the camera.
Ultimately this is a lot of fun and is recommended.
Misnamed film, the girl only shows up at the start and end, is an otherwise pretty good Eddie Constantine film. Filled with witty remarks and more than its share of suspense this is light entertainment that holds your attention.
As with many Constantine films there is a knowing wink that helps glance over the rough patches. Eddie is clearly aware this is a film in such as the moment when someone doesn't believe who Eddie is in context of the film and says " Yea, well I'm Eddie Constantine" to which Eddie says "Well I have no idea who that is" as he glances into the camera.
Ultimately this is a lot of fun and is recommended.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Dream (2008)
Kim Ki-Duk's tale of how a man and a woman become linked by dreams.
It begins with Jin waking up from a vivid dream involving a car accident. Going to the scene he finds the police are investigating a hit and run accident. Following information from a traffic camera the police go to Ran's home find that she was asleep. Hauled to the police station Ran tries to protest but there are pictures of her driving the car. Jin tries to intercede and soon its discovered that Ran has taken to sleep walking recently.It seems that when ever Jin dreams Ran acts out his dreams but in an opposite way which means that Jin who is trying to see his ex-girlfriend whom he still loves, causes Ran to see her ex boyfriend whom she despises.
This is a dark romantic tale is an often uncomfortable to watch since we know what the dreams mean. Ran is getting hurt because of what Jin is dreaming and there is little that the pair can do. Well acted, we feel for the characters because the actors makes it clear that sometimes its so hard to stay awake. They have created two nice characters that we feel bad for.
Unfortunately the film has a couple of problems that work against the valiant attempts of the actors. First the score is not very good. It seems to belong to some cheesy exploitation film from the 1970's. For me it was all wrong and from the first notes it set a really bad mood. The other problem is that script doesn't really work. The characters are never fully fleshed out and as much as the actors try to breath life into them they sill feel a bit hollow or unformed. The trajectory of the story kind of seems too artificial. The film seems not to always be moving in a natural direction, I had the feeling that the director wanted it to go in a certain direction and thats the way it goes. This being a Kim Ki-Duk film it's ripe with a sense of darkness and or even dread. This is not a wholly happy tale even if it is ultimately a love story (there is some violent imagery).
In the end I don't know what I make of it. I like the idea, I like the characters, but there is something about the way the film is told that rubbed me the wrong way. I think its an interesting misfire. (And lest you think that I don't "get" Kim Ki-Duk's style or his films, understand that I am a fan having all but his films in my collection.) if you're a fan of the director or adventurous, I think its worth trying for the characters and the pieces that work.
It begins with Jin waking up from a vivid dream involving a car accident. Going to the scene he finds the police are investigating a hit and run accident. Following information from a traffic camera the police go to Ran's home find that she was asleep. Hauled to the police station Ran tries to protest but there are pictures of her driving the car. Jin tries to intercede and soon its discovered that Ran has taken to sleep walking recently.It seems that when ever Jin dreams Ran acts out his dreams but in an opposite way which means that Jin who is trying to see his ex-girlfriend whom he still loves, causes Ran to see her ex boyfriend whom she despises.
This is a dark romantic tale is an often uncomfortable to watch since we know what the dreams mean. Ran is getting hurt because of what Jin is dreaming and there is little that the pair can do. Well acted, we feel for the characters because the actors makes it clear that sometimes its so hard to stay awake. They have created two nice characters that we feel bad for.
Unfortunately the film has a couple of problems that work against the valiant attempts of the actors. First the score is not very good. It seems to belong to some cheesy exploitation film from the 1970's. For me it was all wrong and from the first notes it set a really bad mood. The other problem is that script doesn't really work. The characters are never fully fleshed out and as much as the actors try to breath life into them they sill feel a bit hollow or unformed. The trajectory of the story kind of seems too artificial. The film seems not to always be moving in a natural direction, I had the feeling that the director wanted it to go in a certain direction and thats the way it goes. This being a Kim Ki-Duk film it's ripe with a sense of darkness and or even dread. This is not a wholly happy tale even if it is ultimately a love story (there is some violent imagery).
In the end I don't know what I make of it. I like the idea, I like the characters, but there is something about the way the film is told that rubbed me the wrong way. I think its an interesting misfire. (And lest you think that I don't "get" Kim Ki-Duk's style or his films, understand that I am a fan having all but his films in my collection.) if you're a fan of the director or adventurous, I think its worth trying for the characters and the pieces that work.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Nothing Stays the Same (2019) SXSW 2019
NOTHING STAYS THE SAME is probably one of the most important documentaries of 2019. I know it's a weird thing to say about a film about a music venue in Austin Texas that is trying to stay open, but it’s absolutely the truth. NOTHING STAYS...speaks to every town and village in America, and asks what happens when you allow crazy construction across your town when, more often than not, it is going to destroy the very thing that you are known for?
The film is the story of Austin Texas, specifically the the Saxon Pub. Austin has been known as a mecca for live music, and the Pub was considered one of the best venues to see great music. People from all over the world have gone to the pub and Austin, because they loved the music and the community that exists around it. The city was had once dozens of places like the Pub to see all sorts of music. However, as more and more people came to town costs rose and the venues that hosted live performances were driven out via taxes or problems with landlords, who either raised rents to impossible levels or simply kicked the tenants out to build apartments. The Austin music scene, as a result is dying.
This is the case with the Saxon Pub, which faces closure because the landlord got an insane offer from a developer who wants to build more apartments like the ones that surround it. As the bar faces an uncertain future, filmmaker Jeff Sandmann investigated what the loss of a legendary space such as the Saxon Pub would mean in the short and long term.
Filled with glorious music, NOTHING STAYS THE SAME is just a great film. A spot on examination on the crazy gentrification of not just Austin, but America, the film ponders what will happen to the city when music that once filled every corner of the city goes silent. What do you do when the cost of living in the city is so prohibitive to anyone who just wants to make music? Worse the venues the musicians once played in are closing. The reason that many people go or move to the city is rapidly disappearing. The city that once had a charming character is now becoming a land of dull apartment buildings.
Director Sandmann is to be commended. He has made a film that not only shows us what is in danger if our culture goes away, but also the battle to stop it. It’s a battle that is being fought across the country on all sorts of levels. While specifically aimed at music this is battle that libraries, museums and other cultural institutions are fighting across America. By showing us the battle for the Saxon Pub Sandmann makes the fight something we can all understand.
Not to put too fine a pint on it, NOTHING STAYS THE SAME is one of the great films of 2019. Not only does it inform but it also entertains (as I said it filled with great music). This is a must see. And don’t let the fact the film runs just over an hour fool you, it has more information and emotional punch then films running twice or three times as long.
NOTHING STAYS THE SAME screens again on March 16th
The film is the story of Austin Texas, specifically the the Saxon Pub. Austin has been known as a mecca for live music, and the Pub was considered one of the best venues to see great music. People from all over the world have gone to the pub and Austin, because they loved the music and the community that exists around it. The city was had once dozens of places like the Pub to see all sorts of music. However, as more and more people came to town costs rose and the venues that hosted live performances were driven out via taxes or problems with landlords, who either raised rents to impossible levels or simply kicked the tenants out to build apartments. The Austin music scene, as a result is dying.
This is the case with the Saxon Pub, which faces closure because the landlord got an insane offer from a developer who wants to build more apartments like the ones that surround it. As the bar faces an uncertain future, filmmaker Jeff Sandmann investigated what the loss of a legendary space such as the Saxon Pub would mean in the short and long term.
Filled with glorious music, NOTHING STAYS THE SAME is just a great film. A spot on examination on the crazy gentrification of not just Austin, but America, the film ponders what will happen to the city when music that once filled every corner of the city goes silent. What do you do when the cost of living in the city is so prohibitive to anyone who just wants to make music? Worse the venues the musicians once played in are closing. The reason that many people go or move to the city is rapidly disappearing. The city that once had a charming character is now becoming a land of dull apartment buildings.
Director Sandmann is to be commended. He has made a film that not only shows us what is in danger if our culture goes away, but also the battle to stop it. It’s a battle that is being fought across the country on all sorts of levels. While specifically aimed at music this is battle that libraries, museums and other cultural institutions are fighting across America. By showing us the battle for the Saxon Pub Sandmann makes the fight something we can all understand.
Not to put too fine a pint on it, NOTHING STAYS THE SAME is one of the great films of 2019. Not only does it inform but it also entertains (as I said it filled with great music). This is a must see. And don’t let the fact the film runs just over an hour fool you, it has more information and emotional punch then films running twice or three times as long.
NOTHING STAYS THE SAME screens again on March 16th
Pusher (2019) Pasadena International Film Festival
PUSHER is an emotional short about Brittany Lee, a young woman who is both an addict and a dealer. In the wake of her connection telling Brittany that she is done with dealing, a turn of circumstances forces her to reflect and consider the roads that lead her to this place.
Gloriously low key PUSHER is a reflective slice of life simply lets life unfold. There doesn’t seem to be judgement, there just is life. This is the hard scrabble life of a woman in the middle of nowhere, where there is nothing much to do other than drugs. As one person infers toward the end there really wasn’t much choice not to become an addict since where they live there isn’t much else to do. It’s a sad but tragic fact.
Writer, director and star Andi Morrow needs to be commended for her small gem of a film that rises above so many other films with similar plots. As someone who spends a great deal of time in the inde channels of filmdom I’ve seen five to ten films each year over the last decade that highlight the drug problem in rural America. There is sameness to many of them. Morrow beautifully avoids all the pitfalls and sameness making a rich character study that gets under your skin and breaks your heart. It is a film that engages us on both an emotional level and an intellectual one, forcing us to consider if we were in similar circumstance if we would end up following her path.
PUSHER is a must see. It is not only a solid movie and a calling card of a filmmaker to watch.
PUSHER screens as follows:
Pasadena International Film Festival - March 15th (World Premiere; Best Short Film Nominee)
Chattanooga Film Festival - April 11-14 (Tennessee Premiere)
Gloriously low key PUSHER is a reflective slice of life simply lets life unfold. There doesn’t seem to be judgement, there just is life. This is the hard scrabble life of a woman in the middle of nowhere, where there is nothing much to do other than drugs. As one person infers toward the end there really wasn’t much choice not to become an addict since where they live there isn’t much else to do. It’s a sad but tragic fact.
Writer, director and star Andi Morrow needs to be commended for her small gem of a film that rises above so many other films with similar plots. As someone who spends a great deal of time in the inde channels of filmdom I’ve seen five to ten films each year over the last decade that highlight the drug problem in rural America. There is sameness to many of them. Morrow beautifully avoids all the pitfalls and sameness making a rich character study that gets under your skin and breaks your heart. It is a film that engages us on both an emotional level and an intellectual one, forcing us to consider if we were in similar circumstance if we would end up following her path.
PUSHER is a must see. It is not only a solid movie and a calling card of a filmmaker to watch.
PUSHER screens as follows:
Pasadena International Film Festival - March 15th (World Premiere; Best Short Film Nominee)
Chattanooga Film Festival - April 11-14 (Tennessee Premiere)
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Brief word on WOODSRIDER which hits VOD today
Woodsrider is a film about Sadie Ford.At 19 she drives off to the wilds of the town of Governments Camp to snowboard and to just be alone in the wilderness with her dog.
Low key documentary is going to delight audiences that click with low key off the grid vibe. – is a kindred spirit to many of the crazy mountaineers we see profiled who go off and simply go from mountain to mountain without a real care in world. Sadie just wants to snowboard and hang out in the wilderness. Yes she occasionally goes back to town to hang out with people but mostly she just is.
The problem with the documentary for some is going to that this is film this is reflective and meditative. There is a kind of Zen observational quality to it that is going to drive anyone who wants explosions and gun fights up the wall. It’s kind of like if Frederick Wiseman made a film on a snowboarder.
I like the film and its quiet nature. If you think that is up your alley then I heartily recommend the film.
Low key documentary is going to delight audiences that click with low key off the grid vibe. – is a kindred spirit to many of the crazy mountaineers we see profiled who go off and simply go from mountain to mountain without a real care in world. Sadie just wants to snowboard and hang out in the wilderness. Yes she occasionally goes back to town to hang out with people but mostly she just is.
The problem with the documentary for some is going to that this is film this is reflective and meditative. There is a kind of Zen observational quality to it that is going to drive anyone who wants explosions and gun fights up the wall. It’s kind of like if Frederick Wiseman made a film on a snowboarder.
I like the film and its quiet nature. If you think that is up your alley then I heartily recommend the film.
Human Nature (2019) SXSW 2019
Human Nature is a look at our ability to splice genes and thus manipulate the lives and beings of every living thing on earth.
I am not certain what I think of Human Nature. While the film is full of great information and wonderfully doesn’t talk down to the audience, thus making it one of the best explorations of the subject in any media that I’ve run across. it has a couple of problems that kind of keeps me from jumping up and down and raving about it.
First the telling is so restrained that it never fully engages. I loved at what I was being told because the film simply and expertly gets the science across. The problem is it really straight forward. It remains on a single emotional level and stays there always tickling the head instead of the heart.
The other problem for me is it never really goes into the dark side. While the hubris of what happens in Jurassic Park is discussed, it is largely poo pooed as something that scientists would never do. Yes even the talking heads about how they might make changes to their children, while down sides like breeding kids to be super athletes is discussed the tone of it all always seems to be “yea we could do those things but other than for a purely good reason we wouldn’t do that”. While I would love to accept the altruism on it’s face I’ve been around the block to know that while saying they would all do the right things doesn’t mean that’s what would happen. Let’s face t there is too much money in doing evil.
And despite my nitpicks I like the film. I love that the film beautifully lays out everything you need to know to have at least a basic understanding of the subject. I just wish it was a little more realistic and a little more exciting.
I am not certain what I think of Human Nature. While the film is full of great information and wonderfully doesn’t talk down to the audience, thus making it one of the best explorations of the subject in any media that I’ve run across. it has a couple of problems that kind of keeps me from jumping up and down and raving about it.
First the telling is so restrained that it never fully engages. I loved at what I was being told because the film simply and expertly gets the science across. The problem is it really straight forward. It remains on a single emotional level and stays there always tickling the head instead of the heart.
The other problem for me is it never really goes into the dark side. While the hubris of what happens in Jurassic Park is discussed, it is largely poo pooed as something that scientists would never do. Yes even the talking heads about how they might make changes to their children, while down sides like breeding kids to be super athletes is discussed the tone of it all always seems to be “yea we could do those things but other than for a purely good reason we wouldn’t do that”. While I would love to accept the altruism on it’s face I’ve been around the block to know that while saying they would all do the right things doesn’t mean that’s what would happen. Let’s face t there is too much money in doing evil.
And despite my nitpicks I like the film. I love that the film beautifully lays out everything you need to know to have at least a basic understanding of the subject. I just wish it was a little more realistic and a little more exciting.
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