Indieville
October 2008 - Posts
The week on IFC.com: Makeup artistry, child vampires and black eyes.
Fri, Oct 31 2008 5:40 PM
What's been happening on the rest of IFC.com: + Video: How to Give Yourself a Black Eye - For Halloween, or just to scare your parents -- makeup artist Rachel Pagani demonstrates how to make your own shiner, + Feature: Puddy In Their Hands - The Experts Speak - Stephen Saito gathers opinions from the pros on their favorite creature and makeup effects work from the history of horror flicks. + Interview: Tomas Alfredson on "Let the Right One In" - Aaron Hillis talks to the director about his vampire/coming-of-age movie, working with child actors and how technology has crushed the Swedish film industry. + Feature: Puddy In Their Hands - Ten Old Movie Makeup Jobs That Hold Up, Part I - Matt Singer gets into the Halloween spirit by looking back at famous movie makeup jobs that are at least 25 years old that have kept their power to...
Critic wrangle: "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."
Fri, Oct 31 2008 5:23 PM
I liked Kevin Smith's rom-com just fine when I caught it at Fantastic Fest last month, though I'm getting pretty tired of the Smith/Apatow tendency to obscure sappiness with poop jokes. Own it or get over it, boys. The critics are all over the place with "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," which is either heartfelt, tiresome or both. On the pro side: Roger Ebert, who compares Smith, favorable, to a line cook, and Robert Wilonsky at the Village Voice, who shrugs that "nothing about Zack and Miri feels terribly fresh, much less transgressive," but adds that "there is something decidedly novel (nay, revolutionary!) about this particular Kevin Smith film: It looks professionally made, which counts for something." Noel Murray at the Onion AV Club puts it this way: "It's nice to be able to break from the ritual of Smith-bashing for a change and say that his latest movie,...
"Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father."
Fri, Oct 31 2008 1:19 PM
The common refrain when describing Kurt Kuenne's documentary "Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father" is that you shouldn't -- that the shocking events that occur over the course of the film should blindside audiences as much as they blindside the filmmaker and his subjects. But you wouldn't be watching "Dear Zachary" if it were merely the film Kuenne first set out to make: a celluloid memorial to his childhood friend Andrew Bagby, a cheery 28-year-old with a touch of the hobbit to him, an Eagle Scout, an eager on-camera participant in all of Kuenne's teenage attempts at moviemaking, and a doctor who was finishing up his family practice internship when he was murdered in 2001, almost certainly by his ex-girlfriend. That loss spurred Kuenne to begin creating an obituary for Andrew, a collage of home movies and interviews with friends and family that would represent "everything...
Rudy Ray Moore, 1927-2008.
Mon, Oct 20 2008 3:22 PM
The man was Dolemite, not to mention otherwise funny like burning. From Mike White: Moore passed away at age 81 on Sunday October 19, 2008. Via rhymed couplets, free form verse, and dirty versions of the alphabet, Moore entertained audiences for decades. His best-remembered routine, "The Signifying Monkey," continues to echo through the world of popular culture. Without two turn tables, and only a mic, Moore rocked the world as Dolemite. [Photo: "Dolemite," Dimension Pictures, 1975] + Dolemite to Kick God's Ass (Impossible Funky)...
Trailering: Heartbreaking memorials, Irish dramas, more superheroes.
Mon, Oct 20 2008 3:00 PM
Here's a trailer for "Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father," Kurt Kuenne's documentary that begins as a memorial to his murdered best friend and goes to even more distressing places from there. The film, which has had a very successful festival fun since its premiere at Slamdance, opens in New York on Halloween and L.A. the week after. Here's a trailer for "Eden," "from the producers of 'Once'," or maybe just its executive producer, according to IMDb. An adaptation of Eugene O'Brien's play about a suburban Irish couple facing marital problems on their tenth anniversary, the film received decent reviews when it played at Tribeca, and nabbed an acting prize for lead Eileen Walsh. It's getting a November 7th release from Liberation Entertainment, who are surely hoping it'll seem "Once"-like enough to pull in some of that title's audience. Here's the trailer for "Push" -- more...
The Gothams big heart "Ballast."
Mon, Oct 20 2008 10:35 AM
Lance Hammer's self-distributed Sundance hit "Ballast" is the favorite amongst the Gotham Awards nominees, with the film's four nominations including Best Feature, Best Ensemble Performance, Best Breakthrough Director and Best Breakthrough Actor. The Gothams are now officially called the "Gotham Independent Film Awards," and while their criteria for which films can be nominated are not as stringent as those of the Spirit Awards, which give a budget cap, this year's awards have been limited to films that have received a "theatrical release through a specialty division of a studio, an independent distributor or via self-distribution" -- no more "The Departed." The full list of nominees can be found at indieWIRE; here are the nominees for Best Feature: Best Feature Ballast Lance Hammer, director; Lance Hammer, Nina Parikh, producers (Alluvial Film Company) Frozen River Courtney Hunt, director; Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan, producers (Sony Pictures Classics) Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman, director;...
The week on IFC.com: Catherine Deneuve, comebacks and Ukrainian mustaches.
Fri, Oct 17 2008 4:12 PM
What's been happening on the rest of IFC.com: + Video: Lars Ulrich Loves Indie Film - The Metallica drummer on how '07 was a great year for independent film, his friendship with Thomas Vinterberg and why there's still hope for low-budget cinema. + Feature: Four Actor-Director Duos Who Are Joined at the Hip - Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott aren't the only actor/director pair attempting to be the John Wayne/John Ford of our time. + Interview: Eugene Hütz on "Filth and Wisdom" - Wrangling with the Gogol Bordello frontman over perversity, mustaches and his role in Madonna's directorial debut....
Critic wrangle: "What Just Happened?"
Fri, Oct 17 2008 3:37 PM
"And Bruce Willis as himself" -- Barry Levinson's industry satire "What Just Happened?" wasn't the buzzy Sundance hit those who made it clearly had expected, despite a bright and shiny cast of biggish names like Robert De Niro, Robin Wright Penn, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci. Catherine Keener and the aforementioned Willis. In theaters today, it's generated mixed reviews -- I'd count myself amongst the many that seem impatient with continued tales of high-larious Hollywood woe. "What Just Happened? is a doodle, but its aura of dread seems earned," writes David Edelstein at New York, saluting De Niro's "killer timing" and the fact that "Barry Levinson directs snappily." Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly agrees that the film "rambles a bit, but it has dryly obscene, laugh-out-loud lines, and its portrait of Hollywood as a giant anxiety attack is fused by De Niro, who musters a desperate, nagging warmth beneath his grumbly...
Critic wrangle: "Filth and Wisdom."
Fri, Oct 17 2008 11:32 AM
Ah, it's been a while, By the way, did you hear Madonna made a movie? "Filth and Wisdom" came out of its premiere at Berlin this year with some of the expected scorching reviews and a few others that noted, with a shrug, that the movie wasn't actually so bad, which about reflects the reviews not that it's reached theaters. And why not? As Manohla Dargis notes at the New York Times, the film "is a ridiculously easy target, but it also creaks and strains with more ambition than most mainstream throwaways that just recycle the usual guns and poses," like, perhaps, the recent entry from Madonna's soon-to-be ex. "[I]t does keep you interested from scene to scene, which is a more generous compliment than it might seem." "Considering that everything she does is subject to tabloid scrutiny, I can't help but respect the courage it took for Madonna to...
"W."
Fri, Oct 17 2008 10:21 AM
When the "South Park" boys looked at George W. Bush not long after he'd been sworn in in 2001, they saw in the malapropism-prone Texan we'd sort of elected the perfect sitcom character, a genial doofus whose hijinks could always be resolved in the space of half an hour, even though those problems hung on the unresolvable ones over which our country regularly tears itself apart. And with all that's happened in the intervening years, with "W." we find that when Oliver Stone looks at our current president, he apparently also sees...a genial doofus. "W." isn't a vitriolic indictment of G.W., or, despite the goofy soundtrack choices ("Yellow Rose of Texas," more than once), so much a satire -- it's a "Nixon"-esque timeline-leaping biopic that, like many films in the genre, attempts to solve its subject as if he were a math problem. The answer here is: daddy issues....
NYFF 2008: The rest.
Wed, Oct 15 2008 3:55 PM
"I'm Gonna Explode" An unhappy girl and a troubled boy meet in detention in their high school in a suburb of Mexico City, and before you can shout "Holy Nouvelle Vague, Batman!" they're running away on a dreamy days-long adventure together, having found their perfect co-conspirator. Their parents don't take this well, but their on-the-lam offspring haven't actually gone further than the roof of the boy's house, where they sunbathe with the radio on, divest themselves of their virginity, curl up to movies in a tent, and sneak food and booze from downstairs when everyone's out. The lad's father is a former activist turned right-wing politician, but the film's rebellion is more of the usual teenage variety, a swooningly enjoyable series of episodes set to a languid soundtrack of Bright Eyes and Zoot Woman that convey a thorough sense of all-consuming and self-centered pubescent angst. It's a shame that it...
Starting up "The Stagg Party."
Tue, Oct 14 2008 11:25 AM
Episodes one and two of the new web series from mumblecore's own Joe Swanberg are now up on the main site of IFC.com: "The Stagg Party" is a documentary series about Ellen Stagg, a Brooklyn-based photographer whose commercial career is sometimes at odds with her passion for shooting high-end erotica. (Stagg also has a small role in Swanberg's "Nights and Weekends," which opened on Friday.) Needless to say, this one is NSFW. + The Stagg Party (IFC)...
NYFF 2008: "Happy-Go-Lucky."
Tue, Oct 14 2008 11:10 AM
You're not supposed to take to Poppy right off the bat. She rides through London in her wildly colored outfit over the opening credits grinning so cheerily that at any moment a chorus of animated forest creatures threatens to leap out and provide backup as she burst into song. She pops into a bookstore and tries to chat up the utterly resistant cashier as she browses. She is, to put it lightly, irritating as all hell. When she rounds the corner to leave, her bike is gone, and she just sighs "We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye," a response which seems to come from a mindset far beyond that of zen happiness, one that might be considered insanity....
NYFF 2008: "Ashes of Time Redux."
Thu, Oct 9 2008 11:05 AM
When Wong Kar-wai's lone attempt at a martial arts film, "Ashes of Time," first came out in 1994, it was considered by most to be awfully pretty and mystifyingly elliptical. "Redux" finds it restored, re-edited, seven minutes shorter, with feverishly heightened colors and dramatic new music from Yo-Yo Ma. Having never seen the original version, I can't speak to whether it's also been clarified, but here's what I got: The Blind Swordsman (who's more in the process of losing his vision) loves his wife Peach Blossom, but left her because she has a thing for Huang Yaoshi, a warrior who's a bit of a wandering playboy, having also stolen the heart of, and then jilted, Murong Yin, who's nutty and has developed a separate personality in which she cross-dresses and claims to be her brother, Murong Yang. They all, along with Hong Qi, a rural would-be assassin, his wife, and...
NYFF 2008: "The Wrestler."
Wed, Oct 8 2008 4:23 PM
Mickey Rourke is one magnificent wreck. "The Wrestler" holds off from giving you the full-frontal of his face for a while, as if he were the monster in a low-budget horror flick. When it does finally creep around, you see misplaced tautness, semi-mobile features, starlet lips, an overall impression of carved putty. One of the film's visual jokes is that Rourke's character, faded pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, is a shambling but still formidable hunk of meat, but he's aging in the style of a South Beach matron. It's not just the too often overhauled mug -- we follow as he gets the roots of his long, brittle hair (which he often keeps in a bun) bleached to cover the grey, as he bronzes himself against the colorless New Jersey winter in a tanning bed, as he puts on a pair of prim wire-frame glasses in order to read....
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