It’s not hard to visit another world if you know where to look, and Marc Singer‘s  Dark Days takes us into such a world that existed, not long ago, underneath Manhattan.  The film revolves around an encampment of possibly thousands enjoying the benefits of the modern world with their own homes, pets, and electricity, all while covered in total darkness.

The film begins by examining what life is like below the surface of the earth.  It asks what brought them down there and what it takes to survive in a world without light.  Then it changes course and turns into a struggle film as outside factors complicate life in the tunnels. Read More…

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is truly a director to watch out for.  As the second film of his which I’ve seen, I have to say that this, his latest film, is remarkable.

It follows the procession of police and associated acts as they bring a criminal around the underdeveloped but ancient region of Anatolia in Turkey. Yet this definitely is not your grandmother’s fast action criminal investigation show. Most of the time takes place in the waits between spots as they go from place to place searching for it. In this time, we are able to watch the characters interact, creating a fascinating atmospheric tension which is not immediate, but not remote either. Read More…

Clown (Klovn)

Belguim’s movie version of the country’s popular episodic show of the same name has little to offer other than its resemblance of an extended road trip version of Curb Your Enthusiasm, only this seems to be directed by an 11-year-old boy fixated on shocking potty humor and wanting to replicate the closing photo montage of The Hangover.

The movie is scene after scene of two unlikable lead characters displaying lewd punchlines.  Having unlikable characters isn’t always a turnoff, in fact, there are a lot of films that focus on the antagonist that I love, but these characters in particular, Frank and Casper, were too uninterestingly juvenile for me to ever be invested in.

Those able to block out all the Curb Your Enthusiasm similarities and are looking to see something featuring a lot of child molestation humor might have a good time with this movie.  What else can I say – it wasn’t for me.  The only reason I’m giving this film two stars instead of one is because I now know what a shnozzle is and are looking forward to giving my fellow Filmbalayans one the next time I see them. Read More…

Before I start, I just want to say that I love Indie Fest. No matter what movie you watch, good or bad, you are going to see something you have never seen before. To me, that’s the most important thing a film festival can bring to the table.

Exley

The main premise of the film is a man, Exley, trying to make a quick $1000 to catch a cross country flight and visit his dying mother.  He travels through a surreal and shady world of criminals, weirdos, and scum who are all more unusual than the last.  The one thing they all have in common is that they are so annoying they transcended the world of the film to actually annoy me, the viewer.  Any time my thought process when referring to an annoying movie character goes from “that would be so annoying” to “that is so annoying” to me the movie has made a critical error.  I suppose an experimental film could use this technique to make a point, and Exley does have a certain experimental tinge to it, but any movie that has a clear narrative should not have characters that require multiple alcohol beverages in order to tolerate.  It’s also hard to get sucked into a movie that’s so visually unpleasant that it makes you want to break the DVD into splinters and then use them to gauge your eyes out.  This is an all to common and unfortunate side effect of micro-budget filmmaking that I just can’t overlook.  Add to this mix that I didn’t care what happened to the main character one way or another, and you get a film less appetizing than a lukewarm Hot Pocket.  Exley has an interesting plot but comes up short on the execution and presentation. Read More…

Girl Walk All Day

Indiefest’s closing night film is a 71 minute dance video set to the  sounds of that mighty maestro of mash-up music, Girl Talk.  Mash-up music, for those who don’t already know, is another level of audio sampling in where the artist manipulates already existing music to form a new song entirely.  Usually rap lyrics are involved, but not always.  Think of it as an audio collage.

This particular collage, impressively shot on digital, features a talented group of dancers traversing across the city, transforming Manhattan into their own stage.  Hair salons, malls, ferry boats, museums, Yankee Stadium, bridges, bodegas, statues, subways, graveyards, parks, and much more are all turned into a dance playground.

So, what does one get out of seeing an hour-long improvisational mashed-up music video?  How about a sense of overwhelming joy and assurance in all that is good with humanity.  Yeah, I took it there.  Loved this movie so much I even found myself smiling and bobbing my head along to the featured Beatles songs.  For me, that’s a big deal, because I’m not a big fan of The Beatles.  Actually, I’m barely a little fan of them.  Come to think of it, I don’t like them at all, yet, I enjoyed them in the context of this movie – go figure. Read More…

4:44 Last Day On Earth

How would you spend your last days on Earth if you knew the world was going to be destroyed in the morning?  That’s the premise in Abel Ferrara‘s (King of New York, Bad Lieutenant) claustrophobic new movie, starring Willem Dafoe and newcomer Shanyn Leigh in where the two play a Manhattan couple coming to terms with their final moments of existence.

Ferrara’s choice to shoot the majority of the film in one setting with a minimal amount of takes made me feel as if I were watching a play – not at all a bad thing, especially when the lead actor is Dafoe.  This play setting, along with the ‘sky is falling’ scenario practically begs for fueled performances to which both Dafoe and Leigh delivered.  The actors made the most of their surroundings and turned their emoting skills on high, only occasionally finding themselves being caught in fits of overacting.  This is where the movie falters, when the attention pays too much to the acting and not the scenario.  Still, the little bursts of over-the-top moments weren’t enough to detract me from the movie as a whole.

4:44 Last Day On Earth is a depressing way to kick off a film festival, yet not as depressing as kicking it off with a bad movie.  Fans of both doomsday scenarios and movies that show close-ups of Willem Dafoe’s pubic region should walk away eerily pleased from this one.

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On January 22nd, 2012, a tribute to Vera Caspary was presented as part of the Noir Film Festival at The Castro Theatre.  The festival started on January 20th and ended on the 29th, showing classics such as Mr. Dynamite, Gilda, The House On Telegraph Hill, Point Blank, Unfaithfully Yours, Naked Alibi, The Great Gatsby and many other noir works of art.  As cited before, Vera Caspary was honored with a double feature night of her own writing work, including the hardly known british “Bedelia” and the very famous Otto Preminger adaptation of “Laura”.  Reviews of Bedelia and Laura after the jump

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Man, Yuichi Shinbo and the folks over at Funimation sure know how to spin a yarn. You know, when I first heard that they were coming out with  Full Metal Alchemist: The Sacred Star Of Milos, I wondered cynically to myself where in the hell they were going to bring the plot this time. I mean they’ve kind of taken this world to the limits of where it can go. All the cards are on the table so to speak. This is probably a good thing though, I doubt anyone wants any more flying magic Nazis trying to take over Amestris. Read More…