indie
A Five Star Life
I don’t subscribe to the notion that a film must have a destination – that it must arrive at a conclusion – but I do believe that some form of progress is necessary. Leaving a film with its characters in the same position as they were at the beginning is only interesting if either their Read More
Fantasia 2014: The Drownsman
The Drownsman stars Michelle Mylett as Madison, a young woman we know absolutely nothing about. Madison’s best friend Hannah (Caroline Korycki) just got engaged, and after accepting Hannah’s request to be maid of honour, Madison nearly drowns in an accident. Madison had a vision of a hulking, demonic-looking person locking her in a basement while Read More
Child of God
James Franco continues his efforts of adapting classic literature into films, first with William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and now Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God. This is not a surprising choice considering Franco has a PhD in English literature and seems to get a kick out of adapting “unfilmable” novels. Those familiar with McCarthy’s Read More
Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story
First-time filmmaker Michael Lee Nirenberg interviews his father, Bill Nirenberg, in his new documentary, but fuzzy sentimentality and paternal adoration plays little to no part in their on-camera conversation. Michael’s father was, after all, a “pornographer”, as he so gingerly puts it in the film’s early minutes. For many years, Bill was the art director Read More
Fort Tilden
It may just be a coincidence that Lena Dunham was a guest speaker at SXSW the same year Fort Tilden won the Grand Jury Award at the festival, but it’s certainly fitting. The film has nearly the same setup of Dunham’s popular HBO program Girls–young privileged female hipsters living in Brooklyn, struggling to make it Read More
Faults (Fantasia Review)
Movies are a lot like cults. Think about it; strangers gather in a dark room to silently absorb a story directed, and often written as well, by one person (the leader) and told with the help of cast and crew (the cult members.) While not based on membership, the audience leaves the theater either as Read More
A Master Builder
At the start of A Master Builder, successful architect Halvard Solness (Wallace Shawn) is on his death bed. He looks weak, until a conversation with fellow architect Knut (André Gregory) reveals his ruthless nature. Knut wants his son Ragnar (Jeff Biehl), a lowly worker of Solness, to finally get the opportunity to become an architect Read More
West End
The mob drama may be played out, but that doesn’t stop writer/director Joe Basile from taking a crack at the all too familiar genre. West End takes place in New Jersey, a fact the film repeatedly likes to mention throughout. Vic Trevi (Neal Bledsoe) returns home after his father Victor (Eric Roberts), a mobster out Read More
Premature
If comedic Hollywood has anything to say about it, sex, and its pursuit, is pretty much all the average teenager has going on in life. What’s unfortunate for all those producing films for the teen comedy genre is that vulgarity envelope pushing seems to be par for the course (10 points for two idioms back-to-back). Whereas teen comedies Read More
