Jennifer Beals – Way Too Indie http://waytooindie.com Independent film and music reviews Fri, 02 Dec 2016 17:34:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Way Too Indiecast is the official podcast of WayTooIndie.com. Our film critics grip and gush about the latest indie movies and sometimes even mainstream ones. Find all of our reviews, podcasts, news, at www.waytooindie.com Jennifer Beals – Way Too Indie yes Jennifer Beals – Way Too Indie dustin@waytooindie.com dustin@waytooindie.com (Jennifer Beals – Way Too Indie) The Official Podcast of Way Too Indie Jennifer Beals – Way Too Indie http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/waytooindie/podcast-album-art.jpg http://waytooindie.com A Fuller Life (TJFF Review) http://waytooindie.com/review/movie/a-fuller-life/ http://waytooindie.com/review/movie/a-fuller-life/#respond Mon, 11 May 2015 13:03:53 +0000 http://waytooindie.com/?p=34975 A compelling, star-studded documentary on the life of filmmaker Sam Fuller.]]>

There’s been a recent trend with documentaries to use the memoirs of the late and the famous as a primary information source. That trend involves celebrities reading the memoirs, diaries, and other writings of the famously departed. In 2013’s Love, Marilyn, actresses including Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Uma Thurman, and Marisa Tomei speak words written by the iconic Marilyn Monroe. From earlier this year, Listen to Me Marlon uses audio recordings of Marlon Brando—from the actor’s private collection—to offer a narrative as well as get a glimpse inside the legend’s mind.

Now, making its Toronto premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, comes A Fuller Life, a documentary about the late writer/director Sam Fuller. The source for the doc is Fuller’s memoir, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking. Conceived and directed by Fuller’s daughter, Samantha, the film gathers a collection of celebrities to read excerpts from that memoir.

The list of celebrity readers is an eclectic one. Some were chosen because of their work with Fuller, like the quartet of Robert Carradine, Mark Hamill, Perry Lang, and Kelly Ward, all of whom appeared in Fuller’s The Big Red One (1980). Others were chosen for their personal relationships with him, like longtime friend and actress Jennifer Beals. And others still had no direct connection to Fuller, but still seemed to “fit,” like James Franco who, according to Samantha Fuller, reminds her of “a young Samuel Fuller during his formative years.” Fifteen celebs in all contribute to telling Fuller’s story.

That story is, for the most part, a highlight reel of his life. Entries include tales of his youth in New York’s newspaper industry, where he went from being a paperboy to the youngest crime reporter in the city; his time as a spec screenwriter in Hollywood, where he cranked out gritty thrillers (like 1963’s Shock Corridor); and his experiences serving in the Army in World War II. (It’s noted by Samantha Fuller at the start of the film that Fuller is the only person to have stormed the beaches at Normandy AND made a film about that fateful day.)

As was the case with Love, Marilyn, the structure of this doc allows for varying degrees of quality and interpretation of material based on who is reading. I found Franco to be rather uninspired and Bill Duke (a terrific character actor whom I’ve always liked) overselling it somewhat. Everyone else is fine, with the exception of actor Tim Roth and director Wim Wenders, both of whom are remarkable. This is not simply because of their “performances,” but also because of the stories they read. Roth reads of Fuller’s military training (using live ammo) and the storming of Normandy, while Wenders follows immediately with a glorious tale of how Fuller met Marlene Dietrich at a USO show. Their delivery of these points in Fuller’s timeline are hypnotic.

It isn’t only the recitations that make A Fuller Life such a compelling watch. The dialogue is all Fuller’s, having been pulled straight from his memoirs, and every word of it crackles. The author of the hard-hitting novel The Dark Page never lost his literary flair, and it pays off huge here.

Also well-executed is Samantha Fuller’s direction. This film isn’t simply a collection of men and women reading from a book, of course. As those readers read, footage culled from 160 reels of Sam Fuller’s personal collection is shown. This footage adds great weight to what is being read. It is combined with what looks like b-roll, so sometimes it’s easy to forget what is Fuller’s footage and what isn’t, but the overall presentation is still quite good.

Samantha Fuller’s use of clips from films written for the screen by her father is also interesting. The clips directly correlate to the points in Fuller’s life being covered at the time of the doc. It’s fascinating to see how heavily Fuller’s screenplays were drawn from, or influenced by, his personal experiences in journalism and war and elsewhere. It’s so compelling, in fact, that a visit to Fuller’s filmography feels in order.

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Cinemanovels http://waytooindie.com/review/movie/cinemanovels/ http://waytooindie.com/review/movie/cinemanovels/#respond Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 http://waytooindie.com/?p=22920 In the world of Cinemanovels, the name John Laurentian stands next to famous directors like Bergman and Antonioni. When the film opens the fictional Quebecois filmmaker is dead, and his estranged daughter Grace (Lauren Lee Smith) is handling his affairs. After hearing about plans to program a retrospective of her father’s work, Grace unexpectedly volunteers herself to handle the now posthumous tribute to her dad’s films.]]>

In the world of Cinemanovels, the name John Laurentian stands next to famous directors like Bergman and Antonioni. When the film opens the fictional Quebecois filmmaker is dead, and his estranged daughter Grace (Lauren Lee Smith) is handling his affairs. After hearing about plans to program a retrospective of her father’s work, Grace unexpectedly volunteers herself to handle the now posthumous tribute to her dad’s films.

It’s a decision met with surprise by those around her, including her investment banker husband (Ben Cotton) and close friend Clementine (Jennifer Beals). Grace despises her father for having an affair with, and eventually leaving, her mother for the lead actress in most of his films. Grace uses the opportunity to go through her father’s work (she’s never seen a single one before), although it looks like she’s using it as a means to escape from her own life. Grace seems to go through her marriage with a severe emotional detachment, going so far as to secretly sabotage their attempts to conceive a child.

Cinemanovels indie movie

Terry Miles, the writer/director/editor/cinematographer of Cinemanovels, lets Grace’s exposure to her father’s work function as an exploration of what parents pass on to their children, but his results are severely lacking. Grace is poorly defined as a character, with most of her behaviour left unexplained or just chalked up to grief over her daddy issues. Her lack of emotional connection to her husband (It took me a while to figure out he was married to her and not some sort of casual partner) establishes itself in the opening scene, but it’s unknown if her feelings have always been that way or just because of her father’s death. These kinds of questions linger throughout, serving as more of a distraction to the storyline.

Not that there’s much going on story-wise, though. Miles wears many hats behind the scenes, but he’s not very good at any of them. His screenplay is bland, mostly consisting of phony and unnatural conversations between characters. The lack of definition for Grace as a character extends to the direction, with Miles seemingly unsure as to whether or not he’s making a drama or comedy. He inserts clips from Laurentian’s films at different points, but these scenes scream “bad student film” rather than “master filmmaker.” Is Miles making fun of arthouse films with these scenes? The insipid tone and cinematography suggest otherwise, but if it’s meant for laughs it’s just bad parody. The synopsis describes Cinemanovels as “slyly humorous,” a term that really translates to “having almost no humor at all.”

Miles does succeed in rounding up a good cast for his film. Lauren Lee Smith adds a compelling quality to her role; when Grace begins turning her life into the plot of one of her father’s films, Smith makes Grace’s actions feel convincing. Jennifer Beals imbues a small, useless role with enough character to show she deserves better. Kett Turton and Katharine Isabelle, playing Grace’s neighbors, also elevate mostly thankless roles. Ultimately the film, while well-intentioned, has little else to save it aside from its strong cast. For a film about parental loss and cinema itself, Cinemanovels is too dull to leave any lasting impression.

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