I was watching RED- but I wasn't feeling it so I thought I would catch you guys up on all the awesome stuff I have seen.
THE WACKNESS
Let me first say that an 830 am movie after 4 hours of sleep is hard….real hard.
During the opening scene of The Wackness, when the lead starts to fantasize about some fly girls (a-la In Living Color) ancing for him on an empty subway car, I was in. He looks into the lens, nods and the title comes across the screen and I wanted to cheer. I love The Wackness. Love it. It takes place in 1994 in NYC. The lead is an outsider pot dealer who just graduated high school. He trades pot to his shrink played by Ben Kingsly and falls in love with the shrink’s daughter played by Famke Jansen. Both characters help each other grow up and learn about women.
This movie captured my high school years perfectly because I was in fact, a loner pot dealer with really no friends. The movie is shot wonderfully, is hilarious and it has a lead character that is white and into hip hop that is not cliche. Can anyone name another of those? The soundtrack is- to say the least, the dopeness- taken from those great years during the emergence of The Notorious BIG, when hip hop was starting to take a hold with young white kids- before it reached the sorry ass state it is in now. This was the kind of film that was so good that when it reached the third act I was praying they wouldn’t fuck it up with a bad ending or some kind of stupid moral, and for my money- they don’t. I predict an Audience Award for this film or some kind of special mention for all the drugs consumed through Ben Kingsly’s performance.
Did I mention that there's an Olsen twin in this movie on mushrooms? there is.
MAN ON WIRE
In 1974 a French man strung a wire between the two towers f the world trade center and walked it. That’s what the doc is about. It is a close second to ANVIL! In the “goddam that was a great doc” competition I am having in my head. It is almost like a heist movie, following these guys in their planning of the stunt, sneaking into the building and doing the deed. When it finally happens in the film, it made me cry it was such a wonderful moment. The film also does a great job of cross cutting through time to keep things from slowing down- and the archival footage is all (insert something equal to awesome). Towards the end of the film there is a news clip with the arresting officer on the day talking about watching thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifhe Man on the wire and knowing he was seeing something that could never happen again. It is a really special moment that stands out among every film I have seen at this festival.
BAGHEAD
Rock ass Duplass Brothers. Just cut down that ending- it drags a bit.
Baghead is the story of 4 actors who go to a film festival (and see the film We Are Naked- holy shit it was funny) and then get the idea to write a movie themselves, so they can star in it and not be extras any more.
The movie was shot in the mumblecore fashion and transferred to 35mm- much like their absolutely gut busting hilarious and rockin short films. WATCH THEM HERE
The movie is funny and scary and bounces back and forth in a really original way I have never really seen before. The acting is great- the camera work and lighting is secondary to story and performance- but they did do quite a bit of night work that they pulled off.
For some reason I always hear a really negative response to the films of Duplass, Swanberg, and and the like. I mean nasty comments about the production that doesn't make sense from some random asshole- these guys make good films- don't be a hater. or make a movie if you wanna say 'I can do that' kinda shit.
KATIE REVIEW
At the screening we ran into Joe ,Ronnie and David
they are doing a little Sundance coverage for Spout/MySpace HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment