more movies

let's catch up before the awards are announced tonight and before I see the Doc shorts.

Momma's Man

This really hit home with some of the NYC crowd. I really liked it, but I couldn't relate as much as others.

A guy goes home to stay with his artist parents in NYC- his world and NYC are changing and he is having problems and dealing by lying to everyone and trying to hide in his childhood room.

Acting is great- the director cast his parents to play the parents in the film. Azazerl Jacobs is the son of avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs. His parents are really great in this film- this movie will have a great festival run so you should get to see it at a fest near you. It is funny and touching with a devastating ending- shot in the Jacobs apartment that has a personality of it's own- the apt. is a character in the film.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S Thompson

Not a fan. Too long, never got below the surface- did a bad drug bit- I hate that. I did really enjoy the section about Fear and Loathing on the Campaign trail- maybe for someone who new nada about HST this would be fun- I had already done the introduction so I found the doc to be flat. But I will nonetheless post a pic of the man


Goliath


Funny and Absurd but I wanted a little more. A guy loses his wife is demoted at work and then his cat, Goliath, is missing- he unravels. There is hilarious shit in this movie-hilarious. I mean- look at this poster
But in the end I felt the film was a little stretched to be a feature- don't get me wrong- I would program this in any festival. I laughed very hard and the opening of the film is so strong I can;t stand it. There is the best font joke ever in this movie. And amazing use of a chainsaw on a stick-type pruning device. See this movie and go to their site later and watch their awesome shorts HERE

BALLAST

My pick for Dramatic Grand Prize. Nonprofessional cast gives an amazing performance in this quiet, superbly shot drama set in Mississippi River Delta. I don't want to give you the synopsis or any of that- I saw it cold, didn't know a thing and I loved it. I think it is the only way to really see films but that's me. It feels like the filmmakers were just there to capture things- it didn't feel lit or like a heavy hand was there controlling it. Just a beautiful film. Slow Burn- not for fans of plot driven poops. It plays Berlin next.

Pretty Bird

this movie is nuts. Paul Schnieder writes and directs his first feature an it is a bit of a rudderless ship. it has funny stuff and it definitely feels that Schnieder has a handle on scene work but the film as a whole is all over the place and ultimately tough to accept. Billy Crudup plays a nut who wants to sell rocket packs. Him and Paul Giamatti team up and make them- things are batshit crazy scene to scene and the movie takes a weird and dark turn when a character turns up dead. If you get a chance- an I don;t know if you will- watch this film. You will laugh and not believe the level of absurdity that is committehtted to in every aspect of production- every prop, set dressing, blocking, line reading- everything is crazy and fun for about an hour. use of a wolf poster right out of Robert Paraguassu's arsenal.

Be Like Others

Everything that happens in this doc is fucked. every idea, every action made me put my heads into my hands. Listen to this set up: In Iran homosexuality is punishable by death- but having a sex change is legal. So everyone in contact with anyone gay- or someone denying they are gay by having a horrible mutilation of an operation because they want to be accepted for being attracted to the same sex. The filmmaking is fine but the movie is tough to watch- if the punishment for being gay is death, then the punishment for having the operation seems just as bad. The whole thing makes Alabama look like the most progressive place in the world.


STRANGERS

Good stuff. The film is about an Israeli and Palestinian woman who meet in Germany an have a brief affair. The film was made by two directors- that's it. I like the film a lot- it has a Truffalt kind of feel to it- the it easily drifts between comedy, drama, love story. Great scting that the filmmakers said was all improv, but is edited well enough never to feel like it. The characters also speak in broken English a lot which I thought was really charming. They throw in really dynamic editing towards the end that I loved a la Jules and Jim- there was some split screen (yuck) but that's just nitpicking because the film is great. And because it was a first feature they do get the 'we have a 360 shot' award for including that shot in their film.

I talked to the lead actor and directors almost everyday. we took a picture

Heath Ledger at Sundance!!!!

What? Too soon, too soon?

I walked by the press office and outside the door on this couch a Film Threat writer was passed out a and his buddy laid that Entertainment Weekly on his head.

it was a sunny day in Park City- high of 36. this is the view from my bus stop on my last shift.




I spend most of my time staring at this heater to keep my face warm

Good thing it was my last day because I sure am over being nice to assholes- I must say that I don't encounter very many of them- but on friday they must have had a 'Cocksuckers get Half Off' fare sale to SLC because they were sure out in drones. But i never lost my shit and yelled at anyone- I did have a dream last night that I was at a little league baseball game and some guy was acting up and I beat him with a very small metal bat. There was some other weird Gwar type of band hanging around the ball field in my dream too.

My favorite type of bus stop asshole is one that asks for directions and then asks the bus driver the same thing. That or the classic asshole that thinks he's so special he can get across town on a bus in five minutes. Some people......

Wackness, Man on Wire and more!

me and Mountains
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

so tired

I need a nap before a midnight movie. quick update- The Wackness is awesome, Man on Wire is wonderful and Goliath is absurd. I will blog more.

Funny Games, SWAG, Slamdance

Saw the FUNNY GAMES premiere in SLC. It was a lot of work to get there an no Haneke Q&A- but the movie is good. Plenty of walkouts from the Salt lake locals- people were actually- audibly arguing during the screening, that is amamzing.

This is a remake- shot for shot- of Haneke's Funny Games- by Haneke, but it is very different.

Casting Naomi Watts and making the movie in English will finally get the audience Haneke's last Funny Games was intended for into some seats. Mike Brune said it best- the film is for American Audiences- you like violence..well here you go, you want to see a home invasion...really? see if you can handle this. But in casting N. Watts an audience that says, "let's go see that N. Watts movie " get a serious bit of nastiness. Michael Pitt holds it together in the lead but the previous version is far superior in every performance. The movie will be fun to watch with a full house- couples were getting into agruements about staying to see the film...AT A FILM FESTIVAL- just wait till/if it hits the burbs. There is a weird new slant of sadism in a section that wasn't present before and the breaking the 4th wall stuff is way heavier this time around.

Here's some Funny Games SWAG- that's just wierd


pic is a little crappy but you got it. The golf ball has the title of the film on it.


went to Slamdance and saw some old friends projecting

that's a little BLAKE MYERS

and I saw ARON BARNES- they both project at Slamdance

check out slamdance:


polar opposite of Sundance


MY MOTHER'S GARDEN

This is a doc on a subject that fascinates me- thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gife horder, clutterer disorder. I first heard this given a name in an amazing NPR bit. Check it HERE These are people who can't throw anything away, people with stacks of old newspapers filling a bathroom, drawers of pens that don't have ink- houses that you can't see the floor in. there are different degrees of this disorder- and the subject of this film has a serious one.

I had a high school friend with a mother with this problem- to walk to his room- or any room- you went through small pathways through the house. The kitchen was buried, as was the living room and back door. If there ever was a fire, it would be over in no time because of all the collected newspapers and magazines- stacks and stacks 5 or 6 feet high.

The doc is directed by Cynthia Lester- the daughter of a women with the disorder- the film has a handicam feel to it- the camera work is shoddy- but ti doesn't matter and can't stand in the way of how shocking/frightening the story is.

The back story is deep and barely delved into- When the director was 13 she left home because her mother's problem forced her out of the house and into preforming sexual acts for money- her two brothers ha it tough too, one joined a gang and was shot in the face, the other is an alcoholic. When the city calls to condemn their mother's home the family is forced back together to eal with the problem they have avoided their whole life.

It is amazing stuff that could be developed into a serious narrative work that I wouldn't mind writing. The mother uses environmentalism to justify digging through dumpsters and keeping tons of recyclables in and around her home. The mother can't even sleep in her home- she camps outside- when the camera and family take us into the home it becomes scary.

I don't want to tell you everything that happens in this doc- you should see it. It raises issues about the nature of consumerism and the fact that this disorder really has no diagnosis or treatment. Tell your local fest to program it

Oh this is awesome....MORE ANVIL!!!!!!

I saw ANVIL LIVE!!!! That's right, Tattoo. Here's Katie and I before the show:



just to the left of that picture Tarantino an the corpse of Otto Preminger are doing coke off a donkey that is doing coke off of Dakota Fanning- yeah...we party like that

we chatted with the director and producer of the film before- awesome folks, I hope they blow up like the World Trade, yo. Funny side note- the director was in some crappy band with his friends in the UK- he quit because they had no future, they changed their name to...Bush. he also turned down writing some wizard-boy script called Harry Potter. He said it wasn;t commercial- that's also funny. Well, he picked the winner here with ANVIL! (i'm no Potter Bush fan anyway)

here's pic of leadman Lips starting the show with some wicked shredding (right term?- I dunno) in my face. He ran out into the crowd- the club was really small- great place to see a show


then Scott Ian from ANTHRAX came out to play on their anthem METAL ON METAL


Oh! you ho's want video? ta dow:




Just when I thought it couldn't get better....Slash shows up. Yes, Slash. That Slash...the Slash. You'll never guess what they played- watch this video:



yes yes, you can buy me dinners and wines and ask me to tell the story

OLDER POSTS

I'm reposting some older stuff