Just marking some random films, I saw, but didn't feel like writing up
QUEEN OF CHESS on Netflix is a good documentary. Far from meaty but entertaining.
DEAD OF WINTER with Emma Thompson is good. I clearly missed something because I never fully understood what was going on or why, but it wasn't bad
Nate Hood insisted I watch RAP WORLD which is on You Tube. Its documentary about some guys trying to make a rap record over the course of a night. It looks like a home movie...but somehow manages to be so much more. It's a drug fueled fever dream that is unlike anything you've seen before.
I fear people trying to copy it's style.
At the same time its a must see movie for cinema fans who want something that isn't typical, and ultimately really good.
THE BLUFF on Amazon has some great action sequences, but the plot is MIA and it is so artificial it all feels fake. I gave up an hour in because I had no idea what I was watching.
CASINO is better than GOODFELLAS
WAR MACHINE on Netflix is essentially Preadtor meets Indepenence Day. Its entertaining but way too familiar so that its not anything other than a something to watch and then forget. I hope to hell they don't do the implied sequel
Got whiplash going between NUREMBERG and JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG as I was writing this afternoon.
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I'm getting questioned about how much I am covering SXSW. When I say I am only covering what is sent to me I get further questions. In order to set the record straight I will explain.
I am not a fan of SXSW. They are a festival that wants you to go there to cover it, and by all accounts it's a pain in the ass to do so. The festival's remote viewing choices when I did cover officially were minimal and it didn't really pay to be official when I got just as many if not more from the PR people I know.
Additionally, I have vowed never to cover the festival as official press ever again because of something that happened a couple years back.
The short version is that one PR person, who I will no longer work with, told multiple writers that if they did not take down their negative and mixed reviews of the dog he was repping, he would have their SXSW credentials pulled. When the writers, their outlets and friends wrote to the SXSW offices they were told, that it was within the PR reps rights to have the credentials pulled and that they would pull the credentials if asked. And lest you think it didn't happen, it did because I had several writers ask me how to handle the whole matter and they sent me the email chains. I also got an email from the SXSW PR office saying they would pull the credentials.
As a result, SXSW can go take a flying leap into whatever will kill it most painfully.
That said, and something that is wonderfully in keeping with our weird world- I will probably have a curtain raiser in a few days- because I am pissed at the fest and not the filmmakers.
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And look for possible curtain raisers for Cinequest and CPH: DOX because they are this week as well, and I have been him deep into their slates as well.
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For the first time in all the years of covering festivals I watched and did not review twice the number of films I reviewed. (Actually, other than watching and not reviewing more than two films never happens).
This year it happened for Slamdance and I'm kind of bothered by it.
It was not my intention, but to be honest two things happened with the films this year, first a lot of them, particularly with animated films and the really super short films, they were not easy to write up. Either the films were too experimental or surreal or artistic that I couldn't find the words to accurately describe the films, or in some cases to properly write them up meant that I would have to give away the sting in the tail or twist. I don't want to ruin a film that changes if you know the outcome.
And then there were a large number of films that really didn't work for me. Normally I don't mind writing a piece that explains why something didn't work for me, but this year, with all the Slamdance films ending up with short pieces, I didn't want to just write something that seems mean without explaining why... and I would have done so but the films didn't thrill me enough to explain.
It really bothers me that I couldn't muster enough to note the films I saw at Unseen, but sometimes it happens.
What bothers me even more is that as good as some of the film s this year were, few outside of MURPHY'S RANCH, ZUMECA and SILVER will be carried by me after the fact. They just aren't memorable enough
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