In Brief Jimmy the Saint (2017) Dances With Films 2017

Jimmy, a low level bagman for the Russian mob is a nice guy. Probably too nice for his own good. When an outstanding debt rears its head Jimmy is looking to get out. However things become complicated when he meet Kira, a fresh off the boat girl destined to for a life in a brothel.

Okay crime drama never generates much in the way of thrills thanks to no real sense of place or reality. The sets look more like re purposed rooms than actual locations. Perhaps it would have worked better had I not caught the camera in the reflections. Worse the performances, while adequate never thrill. We never have a sense of the characters life past the edge of the screen.

While not a bad film, it never generates anything to really make it memorable.

In Brief:Devil's Whisper (2017) Dances With FIlms 2017

A teenager and his father open a box that had been hidden in wardrobe and thus release an ancient evil that is intent on possessing the boy.  This middle of the road horror film could use a bit more action and less talk. While the performances are fine and the effects effective the pacing is much too slack to generate much tension. While better than most direct to video horror it's nothing special.

LAND OF HAPPY DREAMS (2016) Dances With Films 2017

Olivia is a  young girl who needs constant blood transfusions. Because of the cost her mother has to take matters into her own hands to assure that her daughters needs are met.

Well done film plays like the middle section of a longer film. In its current for LAND OF HAPPY DREAMS is a fifteen minute shaggy dog story with the pay off in the middle of the credits. Its good little film that leaves you wanting to know more.

The wanting to know more is a problem. We know there is something wrong with Olivia and we know she needs blood, which costs, but we are left kind of in the dark about anything else. Watching the film I felt we needed a bit more context or at least shading. We need a bit more of the whys and hows of the story. Its something I realized when I back and checked the write up on the Dances With Films website. The description provided shading and color that isn't in the film.

I'm torn. I like the film, but I don't love it. To me this would have been better either a couple of minutes shorter where it would have worked as neat little film with a good mid credits pay off, or as a slightly longer film where we had a bit more detail so the drama of it all played out and hit us. Ideally this could be turned into a feature.

As it stands now LAND OF HAPPY DREAMS is a good little film that's worth a look

A pointer for ALL I WANT (2017) Dances with Films 2017

You've heard this one before but don't stop me- a bunch of friends get together for a party, in this case the 10th anniversary of one of their own and laughter is had, ears are shed and food is eaten as secrets are revealed.

ALL I WANT is on the face of it the sort of thing that you've seen any number of times before. It's on the face of it absolutely nothing special...

...on the other hand the cast lifts the film up and makes this a film you'll want to take the time to see. Their chemistry makes this something more than the usual riff on the Big Chill.

ALL I WANT is a good enough variation on a theme that I'm not going to try and cobble together a review that doesn't do the film justice. Actually I did try to put something together but in the crush of festival coverage I can't make it sound the way I want it to. To that end I'm going to let this piece sit here and I'm going to simply say that ALL I WANT is worth you time and money and that you really should make an effort to see it when it plays tomorrow at Dances with Films (all the info you need for tickets are here). I on the other hand will circle back and do a proper review when the film gets a regular release down the line.

The Adventures of Woollyfoot and Friends (2017) Dances With Films

Big monster Woolyfoot meet up with Puffball thanks to music.

This first episode of an utterly charming kids series makes me want to see me see the rest. Unlike most other stop motion animation, the characters are knitted and the sets are discards, the series loks to be something special.

While my only complaint is one based on being an over thinking adult (Woollyfoot literally traps Puffball to make him his friend)  this is otherwise something I want to show to all the kids, and most adults I know.

In Brief:Thirteen (2017) Dances With Films 2017

Female operative being held by Isis is left in the care of a young boy. A heat argument ensues that is complicated by the battle coming to the camp where she is being held.

A nice idea that doesn't quite work, THIRTEEN has a couple of different problems from being too short, to not really feeling real (Isis I don't think would hold the woman down to do the waterboarding), to having a kid who doesn't look 13 be the one holding the captive,  to having a script which is much to arch to really work. The problem is that because the film is short the film has to get over certain pieces of information in a short period of time. People don't speak naturally they pontificate to get their point across.  We are not watching a moment in time but a stage arguement. It never rings true so I tuned out.

Watching the film I was struck by two things  first that the film might have worked better had it been longer. The need for polemic speaking would be reduced with more time. The other thought was this might have worked better on stage as a one act play where the heightened sense of reality would play better than on the screen where things have to be more real.

An interesting misfire.

One Less God (2017) Dances With Films 2017

ONE LESS GOD is based on the Mumbai Taj hotel  siege. It was put together by Writer/director Lliam Worthington in in reaction to his needing to tell the story of what happened to the loved ones of friends who had been caught up n the events. Worthington crafted his film based on personal accounts and the intercepted transmissions of the terrorists.

After a glorious opening sequence set during an Indian festival over which we hear our hero talk about life, the film shifts gears and becomes much more straight forward as we find ourselves in the hotel not long before the terrorists attack. We get to know everyone, even the terrorists before all hell breaks loose.

A very personal account about what happens the film is entirely the human story of what happened. Once the siege starts we almost never leave the faces of the people involved. There are few wide shots, we are simply low to the ground like everyone trapped in the hotel.  While it brings home what it would be like to be trapped the film goes from being claustrophobic to being visually unexciting very quickly. There isn't enough establishment for us to get a sense of where we are supposed to be.

My attention drifted.

Worse there are times where this all felt cliched and a tad by the numbers. I'm not certain how close the film is to the truth but it feels like Worthington was making it easy on the audience with victims that seem to have come from the cabinet of types.

I suspect that had the opening not been such a knock out I wouldn't have been as aware of the downshifting, but the promise of something special dissipates rather quickly. It also didn't help that the killer poster (above) and the promotional material a larger scale epic than the people in hotel rooms  film we get.

Apologies for making the film sound like a disaster- it isn't, its just that there is a sense that this could have been a great film instead on just an okay one.

Espionage Tonight (2017) Dances With Films 2017

The stated premise of the film is that the US government created a reality TV show about spies in order to give the various agencies transparency. However after the first season the tapes and everyone connected with the show disappeared.  To be honest some of that is right, but on some other level I have no clue as to what is really going on in the film because it wanders all over the place.

This is a technically well done film that tells a fragmented tale of spies and TV. Its a messy tale that has way too many threads. I'm not sure exactly how much of it connects up.  It doesn't help that the nature of the characters is not to be clear, these are spies after all, so they are trying to blur things. The fact the filmmakers are doing the same doesn't make it any easier. 20 minutes in to the film I was kind of hopelessly lost and I staggered my way to the end laughing at some of the jokes, but despising the films otherwise bizarre nature.

What the hell is this film about really? I don't know and I don't think the filmmakers know either. I think they had some good ideas (some sequences are great) but had no way of linking them up other than to make this a found footage project. The result is a mess  that is clever enough that I want to try it again to see if there is something there, but obtuse enough that I never want to waste my time doing so.

The best thing I'll say is it has moments but beyond that god help us.

In Brief:Supermom (2017) Dances With FIlms 2017

Nice little film about a little girl who thinks her mother is the superhero Skyfire.  She thinks this because she works long hours at night.

This is lovely little film about how we see our parents and how we view the first responders who keep up safe.  While I have a bunch of issues with how the film portrays firemen and women (there is no way in hell they would have just stood around looking on as one person ran into a burning building), the film still stand as a moving little film because it isn't about the details but the emotions - which it reveals quite expertly.

Worth a look.

SUPERMOM plays June 10 at Dances With Films. For more information and tickets go here.

Devin Rice’s Being Black Enough or (How to Kill a Black Man) (2017) Dances With Films 2017

Devin Rice's semi-autobiographical film concerns a black young man who grew up in a predominately white neighborhood. He decides to go and stay with his cousin who lives in the hood and live a gangster lifestyle so he can see what it means to really be black.

Odd mix of essay and drama is a unique effort at looking at race from a decidedly different perspective, that of someone who is not from the "hood" but isn't fully part of the white neighborhood he calls home.  At a time where most portrayals of what it means to be black in the media are very clear cut it is great that we have a film that isn't. I like that at last someone is starting to have a conversation about the grey areas.

When everything comes together Devin Rice has made a film that is vital and alive. It goes beyond giving us simply answers.

While there is much to love about the film and it's handling of social issues, there are problems. Part of the problem is that the films tone shifts a bit awkwardly at times. Some of the film is set up as if were an essay or something other than a straight drama. Someone speaking the words of WEB Dubois opens the film, We get a number of people stating what Cody, the Devin Rice character, is or isn't. We aren't always sure what we are suppose to feel, with some moments played for laughs and other moments not. While the film is most assuredly heartfelt it's not always clear what exactly it is.

In a weird way I keep thinking that this should have been an excellent theater piece. There is something about it that makes me think that all of the things that don't quite line up as a film would have been spectacular on the stage. At the same time I realize that a good number of scenes could not have been done on the stage.

At no time and in no way should BEING BLACK ENOUGH be considered bad film. Its is far from that. It is a living breathing piece of cinema that ultimately is trying to do way too much. We need more films that do that.  Give Rice a lot of credit for making one hell of a film and for dealing with issues in a unique way, even if it isn't perfect. I have to stand and applaud him for shooting for the stars...

...I also have to say that I'll be really curious what Mr Devin Rice does next because he has made a film of such ingenuity that he has my attention for whatever he follow this up with.

BEING BLACK ENOUGH plays Saturday June 10th at Dances with Films and is very recommend. For tickets and more information go here.

The Midnighters(2017) Dances with Films 2017

73 year old Vic gets out of prison after 35 years. trying to go straight he tries to reconnect with his old life. However he soon find that's things have changed and the money he thought would be waiting for him is long gone. He meets up with his son who has no real memory of his father other than as an abstract idea. Vic gets to know his son when he asks his father to help him with a plan to get out of the debt he owes to some very bad man.

Julian Fort has made a film that is hands down the best acted one I've seen so far in 2017. Beautifully acted by the entire cast, and Leon Russom in particular, this is a film that shows what great actors can do when given a great script. This film is the very definition of ensemble acting. I can't say enough good about everyone in in this film.

The film itself is largely gangbusters. a wonderful heist film has been wrapped a father and son tale with the result that we are treated to something truly special. Once this film gets going it is quite simply the very reason that I love to wade into small inde films - namely to find small gems like this that I can share with friends and readers because its going to knock their socks off.

The one small problem with THE MIDNIGHTERS is that for the first half or third the film is trying to do a bit too much. The advertised crime film is either missing or given a back seat to the story of Vic readjusting to life on the outside. Don't get me wrong, the scenes are great but even early on you know that the film is going to go off in another direction and you get kind of antsy waiting for it to happen...

...and then once it does get going the film moves like the wind and it just flies gloriously to the end.

I absolutely love this film

Highly recommended when the film plays tomorrow at Dances with Films. For more information and tickets go here.

Landing Up (2017) Dancing With Films 2017

Chrissie is a young woman who mostly lives in a homeless shelter makes ends meet by scamming rich people into letting her stay with them. When she meets, David, a really nice guy, she begins to fall in love and she isn't sure if she should come clean about her life or not.

How you react to this film will depend on how you react to Chrissie played by Stacey Maltin. Chrissie is a sweet girl you see early on how her web of lies is going be problematic down the road. Watching Chrissie deal with the complications in her life is amusing at times, touching at others and occasionally heartbreaking. We like her and don't want to see her mess it all up. The all over nature of her life makes this sometimes a slightly unpleasant film to watch.

I'm not sure what I think of the film. I love that the film isn't straight forward in any way. We are forced to consider what we are seeing and how the characters are behaving. But there is a bumpiness to all, much like in Chrissie's life, that makes this a hard film  to connect to. I never really connected to what was happening on the screen.

But because I didn't connect to the film this doesn't mean I think it's a bad film. Contrary to what you think I do like this film. I like that the film forced me to work with-and kept me watching because it made me engage with it. Its a film that I want to try again down the road-away from the festival crush- which is high praise.

Definitely worth a look

Holden On (2017) Dances with Films 2017

I am not sure how to write up HOLDEN ON. Its not that it’s a bad film, it’s not. Frankly it is one of the best written, best acted, hell, on most levels it’s one of the best films you’ll see all year. The trouble is that by the time we get to the end of the film I’m not sure I’m feeling what they want me to feel.

Based on a true story Holden On is the story of Holden Layfield and his two year battle with mental illness that ends in his suicide. It’s a moving film that shows the pain and suffering that some people face when their brain turns against them. It’s a film that feels real and by the end you feel as though everyone has become your friend.

The trouble is the tone of the film feels a tad preachy. On some level the film comes off as an extended after school special. The film is taking a very strong get help stance. While I appreciate it, the need for the film to make it’s point takes the edge off the drama. I wish the film had just told its story.

Another problem, and one I’m hesitant to mention lest I get brick bats flung at me, is that by having Holden narrate his tale we come to understand his plight much too well. We sympathize with situation and in weird way can see why he chose the route he did. Say what you will director Tamlin Hall and his crew have done too good a job explaining what it’s like to live with mental illness and while we may not agree with the choice we understand how it was arrived at.

Bumps or no HOLDEN ON is great film and is very recommended.

Lore (2017) Dances With Films 2017

More mystical trip than thriller or horror film LORE is a one of a kind film that isn't what you expect. That maybe a good thing or that maybe a bad thing- depending upon your pint of view.

The plot has the teenage son of a woman going hiking and disappearing. Because the parents are separated and the son is considered troubled the sheriff (eric Roberts in a brief cameo) stops looking past a certain point suggesting he may have just run off. His mother has other ideas since the dreams that she has been having  indicate he may be still alive. Heading on to a mystical mountain with a Native American friend the mother, and her estranged husband begin a search of their own. Things take a turn for the weird when they realize a mystical creature maybe hunting them.

The synopsis has more promise than the actual film which is much more brooding than scary. Stuff happens but its concealed in the darkness or off screen as if the directors were not really interested in the stuff that is going to draw most people to the film.

Instead of action the film is filled with lots of talk and implication of a mystical journey. Indeed the final bit of the film implies something more supernatural than natural with a payoff that doesn't thrill. I was with the film for a while but by the halfway point I was their simply to see how this was going to end and not because I cared about the characters.

Deep and meaningful is fine if you have something to be deep and meaningful about - and LORE despite some excellent filmmaking is wrecked  by not having anything deep to really say.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning (2017) Dances With Films

A great cast and superior direction make this modern noir a thing of beauty.

Based on the novel by Nancy Pickard, THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING tells the story of Jodie Linder. She awakens one morning to what she knows is going to be bad news- three members of her family are walking up to her door. It transpires that the man who was convicted of killing her father has had his sentence commuted. As old wound is opened, it suddenly becomes clear that what happened long ago was not what everyone thought.

Told in a wonderfully modulated style that bounces back and forth through time, this is a film of mood and emotions that sucks you in and drags you along. This is a kind of old school noir done now with color allowed to filter in.

Director Blake Robbins and his team of writers are to be commended for transferring Pickard's novel in such a way that the film remains spiritually intact. I say thing because the film alters a few things, such as the time frame which I think covers around 25 years in the novel but is about half that here. The alterations are deftly handled and it makes the film it's own thing as opposed to an exact copy of the novel.

The cast ( Maika Monroe, Mark Webber, Maggie Grace, Will Patton, Bonnie Bedelia, Justin Chatwin, Aaron Poole, Logan Miller, Brad Carter) is stunning from top to bottom and they make the film more than being just a sordid crime drama. Without the cast this would have been a TV time filler in stead of a curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn blast and a half.

I was not expecting to like this film as much as I did going in, but I did and I've been emailing people about it ever since.

Absolutely one of the most enjoyable films at Dances With Films and maybe of the year.

THE SCENT OF RAIN AND LIGHTNING plays June 11 at Dances With Films. For more information and tickets go here (Note: The film runs around 100 minutes and not the 73 listing on the Dances website)

Panic Attack (2016) Dances with Films 2017

Eileen O'Meara's PANIC ATTACK begins with a woman at a stop light pondering if she left the coffeemaker on and then spiral outs as she deconstructs her life.

Beautifully animated so that one metaphysical crisis blends into the next this film score huge points and more laughs by nailing how our minds work when left untethered. How we get from A to B to Z makes absolute perfect sense not so much because it does but rather we all have done exactly that.

Rarely has three minutes been so perfectly spent.

This charmer is one of the best films at Dances With Films and is absolutely something you have to track down.

Wink (2017) Dances with Films 2017

Sting in the tail short about a woman whose husband botches their anniversary and what happens the next day...

This is one of those shorts that is impossible to really discuss because any discussion on the film hinges entirely in the sting in the tail or the wink at the end of the film.

That said the film isn't bad but it takes a hell of a long time to get to the pay off. While I completely understand that the story has to play out, the pay off here doesn't justify the the length of time it took to get there.

Definitely an amusing tale but it may try your patience.

A pointer toward IMITATION GIRL (2017) Dances with Films 2017

I'm going to be completely honest  at the start and say that I am the wrong person to be reviewing Natasha Kermani’s film IMITATION GIRL. Fifteen minutes into the film I knew that the film was going right over my head and that I really should have shuttled this out to someone else. My wrongness for the film aside, I can completely see that this is one killer film with its own sense of reality

The film is the the dual story of an alien who comes to earth and takes the form of the woman on the front of a magazine it comes in contact with and the  actual woman who lives in New York and has to deal with her life not being what she'd like as it spins out of control. Over the course of the films the two women come together.

Technically top notch the film looks and sounds truly amazing. The soundscape and visuals of the film create a unique head space that completely enhances the performances and the script. Several times during the film I audibly "wowed" at the beauty of the image and the finale simply kicked it to the curb in coolness.

Additionally the performances by Lauren Ashley Carter are some of the best I've seen all year. There is a wonderful modulation that keeps both her roles unique and yet similar. Its a performance that should lift her up in the eyes of anyone who see it.

And despite being able to sing the film's praises the film never connected with me. Please do not see that as something bad, it is purely something on my end. The fact that the film as a whole didn't work for me doesn't prevent me from recognizing it for what it is, a stunning piece of inde science fiction and drama on the order of things like THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, which also does absolutely nothing for me but which I know is a great film.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a heady piece of science fiction.

Tater Tot and Patton (2017) Dances With Films

I love it when some one like writer director Andrew Kightlinger takes a situation we know from over use in movies, in this case two wounded people getting together and finding strength, and makes it something truly special.

TATER TOT AND PATTON is the story of  Andie who flees LA and goes to her Uncle Erwin's ranch in South Dakota. They haven't seen each other since before she could walk but they are family and she needs a place to be for a while.  He drinks too much, she is running away and they crash together in ways that only families can. You can kind of figure where it's going so I'm not going to say any more about it other than its wonderful.

What I will say is that Kightlinger has made one hell of a film. From the first frame to the last he has set up the telling of the story in such away that you're pulled in. Yes, we've seen a variation on this before but Kightlinger dresses it up so that we'll listen to it again and accept it as a new story.

I'm not being snide, I'm just saying that I could tell it all to you and you'd dismiss it as something you'v seen- but it isn't, There is a sense of life and weight that lives in the film. While we know the basic frame, we don't know where this will end up. The result is a fine gem of a film that really deserves to be seen.

Also credit Jessica Rothe and Bates Wilder as Andie and Erwin. They give performances for the ages and without them Kightlinger's script and direction would have withered and died. Five minutes into the film you buy them,and hence the film, completely. I'm so sure that they are their characters that I was looking at their IMDB credits and trying to connect the dots and couldn't do it.

Just see this film. Trust me you'll thank me. This is one of the best films at Dances With  Films and a must see

TATER TOT AND PATTON World Premieres on June 9th at Dances With Films. For more information and tickets go here

In Brief: To the Moon and Back (2017) Dances with Films

If you see Susan Morgan Cooper's TO THE MOON AND BACK bring at least two large boxes of tissues because your heart will be broken into a million pieces

The film is the story of several couples who chose to adopted disabled children from Russia just as Putin rose to power. In a political power play Putin stopped the adoptions of Russian children by American parents citing the death of several children once they got to AMerica. Never mind that the deaths were not malicious, Putin cut the children off and damned the kids and parents into a living hell.

I'm not going to really discuss the film, I'm too broken by it. Where normally in a case like this I would let a film sit with me for a week or so before picking it up, the need to discuss the film for the Dances With Films screening makes that impossible. SImply put I don't want to get weepy again.

A good film, that highlights something that I'm guessing most of us are completely unaware of TO THE MOON AND BACK is also one of the most heartbreaking. It is a tale without hope...or at least until Putin gets out of office, which is unlikely

Recommended for anyone who wants to have there souls crushed TO THE MOON AND BACK plays June 9th at Dances With Films. For tickets and more information go here.