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 November 19, 2008 SHORTS COLUMN | An Unlikely Partnership Results in Short Films with Something to Say
Back in May 2008, eight UCLA graduate students were given good news: the nonprofit organization AARP wanted to give each of them $10,000 to make short films on the hot-button topics of healthcare and financial security. The bad news was the students had only three months to shoot and edit their pieces, which had to be completed by an August 1, 2008 deadline. The eight shorts made under the Stolen Dreams competition umbrella were then whittled down to four finalists, which were shown on October 23, 2008 to AARP's Emilio Pardo and industry heavyweights Steven Bochco, Curtis Hanson, and Reggie Hudlin. After an intensive morning spent screening then deliberating, the four-man jury awarded a $7,500 cash prize to Anthony Onah's "The Cure." Onah's short will go on to be integral part of AARP's bi-partisanship Divided We Fail initiative. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Monthly Short Film Column ]  REVIEW | Dream On: Tom Gustafson's "Were the World Mine"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] The least one could ask of a wish-fulfillment fantasy film is a little buoyancy and breeziness. Yet for all its good-natured intentions, Tom Gustafson's "Were the World Mine," in which a put-upon small-town gay teen converts his hopelessly straight town (including his corn-fed jock crush) to the pink team with the help of a magical, squirting purple pansy, is a mostly leaden affair, suffering as it does from a lack of realization and clarity. A film can't simply be "light as a feather" or contagiously sweet by virtue of its conception, but rather by the fine, clean lines of its craft. And this is no simple matter of budget: oodles of ingenuity have historically been wrung from more impoverished film productions than this one. [ read more in Movies ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Queer Cinema, Reviews ] November 18, 2008 REVIEW | Dull Flame: Shamim Sarif's "I Can't Think Straight"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot. You would think that a cross-cultural, cross-religious lesbian romance should have enough built-in conflict to sustain an 80-minute feature, but Shamim Sarif's "I Can't Think Straight" slumps and stretches its way from its first uninspired set piece, an engagement party for Jordanian-Christian Tala (Lisa Ray), to its mildly embarrassing closing montage, cut to, natch, Jill Sobule's "I Kissed a Girl" (hello, 1995!). As with her other feature, "The World Unseen" (released to theaters earlier this month), Sarif adapts and directs her own novel here, with Ray and Sheetal Sheth playing the lead roles. For "I Can't Think Straight," she enlists the help of co-writer Kelly Moss, but to no avail: Sarif has crafted a movie with such paper-thin characterizations and so lacking in dramatic incident that it's frankly surprising that she was working from a novel at all -- much less one she wrote herself. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Queer Cinema, Reviews ] November 14, 2008 REVIEW | Close Encounters: Yair Hochner's "Antarctica"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] One can't accuse director Yair Hochner of not giving his target audiences what we want: in the opening fifteen minutes of the Israeli filmmaker's ensemble dramedy of hook-ups and hang-ups among a small group of gay men in Tel Aviv, he fills the screen with all manner of groping titillation. As one eye-catcher (Ofer Regirer) plows through a succession of one-night-stands, Hochner dissects the screen into boxes, temporally overlapping one another, allowing for a flurry of casual indulgence; there's no music to accompany this man's seemingly endless dalliances, just heavy breathing and the occasional clipped conversation. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Queer Cinema, Reviews ] November 13, 2008 REVIEW | Fan-dumb: Josh Koury's "We Are Wizards"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Full disclosure: I have never read any of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. I have never seen any of the blockbuster movies based on her series. That I plan to never do so is not entirely because of any perceived intellectual and emotional poverty of these books and movies--I know plenty of smart people who enjoy the Harry Potter stories, and there could be, at extremely generous moments, a certain side of me that would consider giving them a shot. But not as long as there are movies like "We Are Wizards," and not as long as there exist the Harry Potter-crazed subjects who comprise this painful documentary's meretricious survey of kitschy fandom. [ read more in Movies ] [ 2 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Reviews ] November 12, 2008 REVIEW | Yawn of the Dead: Vadim Glowna's "House of the Sleeping Beauties"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Intended as a meditation on mortality and morality, Vadim Glowna's adaptation of a Yasunari Kawabata novel simultaneously strives towards portentous poeticism and thriller intrigue, but falls more into tawdry B-movie territory instead. Written, directed, and produced by the German filmmaker, who also stars as protagonist Edmond, "House of the Sleeping Beauties" follows a man in the literal and figurative winter of his life. Edmond begins to visit the titular maison upon the advice of longtime friend Kogi (Maximilian Schell), who creepily persuades him by saying, "I only feel really alive when lying beside someone somnolent." [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] November 11, 2008 REVIEW | You Can Go Home Again: Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Though it often seems the nadir of schmaltz and sentimentality, the Hollywood Christmas movie has always been a bit bipolar. From "A Christmas Story" to "Gremlins," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" to (undoubtedly) the forthcoming "Four Christmases," the subgenre requires a course of dysfunction and chaos before the dessert of earnest holiday cheer is served. Mom and Dad's best-laid plans go awry, Santa Claus gets trapped in the chimney and asphyxiates, and Arnold and Sinbad vie for the last available Turbo Man action figure -- but in the end, families are reconciled and the true, noncommercial meaning of Christmas is reified. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews, World Cinema ]  REVIEW | Trivial Pursuit: Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] A noisy, sub-Dickens update on the romantic tramp's tale, "Slumdog Millionaire" zips around a boy's hard-luck life with a strange verve. Ragtag children run through a labyrinthine Indian shantytown with a police officer in hot pursuit. Two boys ride atop a moving train, hanging upside down over the side to steal food from a wealthy family. The same boys arrive at the Taj Mahal and give bogus tours to German tourists. Later they guide an American couple around a scenic village by foot while locals strip their fancy car for parts. The kids are cute, shots are stylishly skewed, cuts are whip-quick, and rousing remixes of M.I.A.'s ubiquitous "Paper Planes" pop-pop and ching-ching throughout. Poverty can be so much fun. [ read more in Movies ] [ 4 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] November 7, 2008 PRODUCTION REPORT | "Cartoon," "Company Men," "Entre," "Happy," "Last Job"
[EDITOR'S NOTE: indieWIRE's monthly production report looks at independent films in various stages of production. If you'd like to tell us about a film in production for future columns, please contact us.] In November's edition of indieWIRE's production column, Jason Guerrasio profiles five new films in various stages of production. This month's group includes Tara Wray's "Cartoon College," Raul Sanchez Inglis's "The Company Men," Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte's "Entre Nos," Stephen Burke's "Happy Ever Afters" and Sinohui Hinojosa's "The Last Job: Redemption." [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under In Production, Lead Story ] November 5, 2008 REVIEW | Hack Attack: Darren Lynn Bousman's "Repo! The Genetic Opera"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] A helpful shortcut for negotiating the heaps of texts in this modern world: all attempts to give something familiar or antique a self-consciously edgy, gritty makeover can be, de facto, written off as terrible. Reassuring American songbook standards ("Over the Rainbow," "What a Wonderful World," etc.) performed in breakneck pop-punk style? Terrible. Movies set in centuries past where actual rules of comport are ignored and everyone acts like frisky undergraduates with ruffled collars? Terrible. Steampunk? Terrible, terrible, terrible. [ read more in Movies ] [ 3 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] November 4, 2008 REVIEW | The Other Side of the Fence: Mark Herman's "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] For a little, promising while, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" seems to be a welcome, if belated, response to "Life Is Beautiful." Whereas Roberto Benigni's self-deifying exercise in Holocaust schmaltz--one of the most repugnant and false movies ever made--sincerely believes obliviousness (not imagination, as its defenders claim) can shield the innocent from horror, Mark Herman's film understands this is not only impossible, but that any attempt to do so is unconscionably insulating and opposed to developing human awareness. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] October 30, 2008 SHORTS COLUMN | Don Hertzfeldt Tours the Nation with his Most Ambitious Short Ever
Don Hertzfeldt is hitting the road. Having won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award in Short Filmmaking for his epic short film "Everything will be ok," the 32-year-old animator of such instant-classic shorts as "Rejected," "The Meaning of Life," and "Billy's Balloon" is spending October and November 2008 touring North America in a rare series of one-night-only screenings to premiere his longest piece ever, the 22-minute "I am so proud of you." With ten more cities on his schedule, Hertzfeldt updates indieWIRE on his touring experiences to date. [ read more in Movies ] [ 5 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Monthly Short Film Column, Shorts ] October 29, 2008 REVIEW | Out of the Past: Amos Gitai's "One Day You'll Understand"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai doesn't seem to have a career so much these days as a mission. It would be difficult for this ambassador of his nation's cinema to break away from Capital-t Topics at this point, but his lugubriousness as a filmmaker indicates that he believes in his own cause as much as his admirers do. Long, slow single takes and tracking shots that call attention to themselves and humorless, self-consciously "penetrating" close-ups are normally the order of the day for Gitai. And this one-man film warrior has finally, with his latest, "One Day You'll Understand," made his first explicit fictional work of Holocaust remembrance. While its intimacy occasionally brings out some memorable pocket-sized moments, the film is still burdened with Gitai's dry art-cinema tactics and narrative didacticism. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] October 24, 2008 REVIEW | Running Wild: Christina Clausen's "The Universe of Keith Haring"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] The best compliment that can be paid "The Universe of Keith Haring," a straightforward, fast-moving documentary about the Pennsylvania phenom who made his way from New York City bohemia to the art world and transcended all to become one of the most recognizable names in popular graphics in the late 20th century, is that it is as inspiring at the level of a cinematic portrait as its subject was at the level of pure creation. As directed by newcomer Christina Clausen, the film looks to Haring as an artistic role model for his preternatural talent, of course, but also for his infectious lust for life that had him as committed to social activism and teaching children as to his latest painting. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Reviews ] October 23, 2008 REVIEW | A Matter of Taste: Philippe Claudel's "I've Loved You So Long"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Juliette, a middle-aged woman, waits alone, gray and taciturn -- two words that pretty well describe "I've Loved You So Long." She stands to haltingly greet her rendez-vous, her sister, Lea. We gather they've been apart a long time. Juliette's been "away," her past a talked-around negative space that's filled out as the film nurses us for two hours on a drip-feed of withheld backstory. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews, World Cinema ]  REVIEW | Winter Kills: Tomas Alfredson's "Let the Right One In"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] With its calm, wintry rural setting, Tomas Alfredson's adaptation of novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist's Swedish best-seller "Let the Right One In" depicts slaughter, death, and dismemberment as though sprung from the stanzas of Robert Frost. This is hardly the first film to drench teen angst and burgeoning sexuality in supernatural bloodletting (De Palma's "Carrie," Romero's "Martin," and, more recently, John Fawcett's "Ginger Snaps" equate, respectively, telekinesis, vampirism, and lupine transformation with pubescent turmoil), but Alfredson sets his film apart with a memorably stringent (dare I say, Scandinavian) visual design. [ read more in Movies ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Reviews, World Cinema ] October 22, 2008 REVIEW | A Self-Made Man: Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Staring into the abyss through a kaleidoscope, Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" sees ecstatic, innumerable facets in the depths. Another of Kaufman's Alice in Wonderland narratives, his first directorial effort is more gnarled and coiled than his scripts for Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation") and Michel Gondry ("Human Nature," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), yet also more emotionally direct. Impossible to fully grasp on first pass, the film nevertheless has a rigorous -- and perversely funny -- through-line of extreme anxiety and sorrow. "I won't accept anything but the brutal truth," says his protagonist, theater director Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman). "Brutal, brutal," he repeats, hammering home the cliched, self-conscious overstatement, but he means it every time. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ]  REVIEW | Army of Shadows: Fear(s) of the Dark
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Like any omnibus film, the Christophe Jankovic and Valerie Schermann-produced French collection of creepy, crawly cartoon shorts, "Fear(s) of the Dark," succeeds on the strength of its best components. Though it seems that in animation it's easier to convey an "idea" of fear to an audience than impart in the viewer fear itself, the film nevertheless pleasantly lodges in the brain. A persuasive showcase for a handful of contemporary animators, "Fear(s)" is comprised of mostly beautifully designed segments which get exponentially better as the film continues, going deeper and deeper into an ever darkening rabbit hole. Like the famed sixties compilation "Spirits of the Dead," which wisely saved Fellini's astonishing "Toby Dammit" for its just-desserts course, "Fear(s) of the Dark" sends us out on a high, low note. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] October 19, 2008 REVIEW | Crash Landing: Gonzalo Arijon's "Stranded: I Have Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] In his 1993 review of "Alive," a film based on the infamous 1972 true story of the survivors of a Uruguay rugby team that crashed in the Andes on their plane ride to a tournament, Roger Ebert wrote, "We care about the characters while we watch the movie. But at the end it all seems elusive. The movie characters complete their dreadful ordeal, but somehow, walking out, we feel the real Andes survivors would not quite recognize themselves." Ebert suggested that "Alive"'s problem was one of evocation: despite the attempt to impart what the survivors went through, their incredible physical endurance (72 days in freezing cold temperatures) and mental fortitude (being forced to eat the flesh of their dead comrades to continue living) couldn't even be approached, let alone translated to the screen. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Reviews ] October 15, 2008 REVIEW | Like a Virgin Redux: Madonna's "Filth and Wisdom"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] The filmmaker of "Filth and Wisdom" has a lot to say. She's got big ideas and some clever ones too, and she's letting it fly. She's repulsed and fascinated by hypocrisy in the world, and wants people to just get over themselves, to abandon fear, pride, and learn to fly their freak flag high. She found this cool new band and its awesome-looking Ukrainian lead singer, and made a film all about him and his friends making it in the big city. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Lead Story, Reviews ] October 14, 2008 REVIEW | Electoral High School: Caroline Suh's "Frontrunners"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] This year's race comes down to a clear choice between vitality and experience. On the one hand, you have a young outsider running on a ticket of change; on the other, an older, more experienced candidate who nonetheless wants to "raise the bar." The former is accused of being all style and no substance, but balances this with an experienced running mate. The latter occasionally seems too intense, but has cleverly joined forces with a likable female vice-presidential candidate who might help soften his image. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Reviews ] October 9, 2008 REVIEW | Junior League: Luke Eberl's "Choose Connor"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Often notable for the ways in which its naive, teenage protagonist's slowly eroding positive outlook seems to be duplicated by the director himself, "Choose Connor" is a movie about politics and disillusionment made by a first-time filmmaker barely out of his teens. This film, in which a middle school-age wannabe politician finds out about how dirty and disappointing the world is, originated as a script written when actor-turned-debuting-director Luke Eberl was just 17, and went into production when he was 20. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ]  REVIEW | The Naked Truth: Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig's "Nights and Weekends"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig, the costars, cowriters, and codirectors of "Nights and Weekends," spend a good part of their film naked. At the film's outset, while in a long-distance relationship, James and Mattie enter the former's Chicago apartment and promptly make love on the floor; toward the end of the film, after a year and an off-screen break-up, they fleetingly try something similar in a hotel in New York. In between, the film often pauses to ponder the many levels of these characters' self-exposure: showering, sitting on the can, dressing and undressing themselves and each other, critically scrutinizing themselves in mirrors and photographs. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ]  iW OCTOBER PRODUCTION REPORT | "Delegates," "Manure," "Cool," "Nombre," Untitled, and "Win"
[EDITOR'S NOTE: indieWIRE's monthly production report looks at independent films in various stages of production. If you'd like to tell us about a film in production for future columns, please contact us.] In October's edition of indieWIRE's production column, Jason Guerrasio profiles five new films in various stages of production. This month's group includes Cameron Hickey's "The Delegates," Michael and Mark Polish's "Manure" and "Stay Cool," Cary Fukunaga's "Sin Nombre," Nicole Holofcener's Untitled Project and Robinson Devor's "You Can't Win." [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under In Production, Lead Story ] October 8, 2008 REVIEW | Taking No Prisoners: Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Happy-go-lucky is a term that smacks of anachronism in both diction and meaning. Conjunctively evocative of will-o-the-wisp and devil-may-care, merry-go-rounds and tilt-o-whirls, any present use of the term usually implies irony or condescension. The word, and whomever it might describe, can't possibly survive in today's jaded world. Coming from a filmmaker who has put his share of characters through reality's ringer ("Naked," "Career Girls," "Vera Drake"), and has at times (though not as often as some would assert) slipped into theatrical caricature, the title of Mike Leigh's latest film, "Happy-Go-Lucky," would seem like an invitation to watch the other shoe drop. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] October 7, 2008 REVIEW | The Perfect Storm: Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time Redux"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Eradicating bad memories of the moldy "My Blueberry Nights" in one fell swoop, Wong Kar-wai's gussied-up reissue of his 1994 "martial-arts action epic" (in quotes because it never actually feels like any of those things) is a reminder of why we fell in love with the Hong Kong auteur in the first place. Just as "Fallen Angels" is hardly a crime caper, "In the Mood for Love" is never quite able to blossom into the romance we expect and hope for, and "2046" only elegantly limns the edges of the science-fiction it intimates, "Ashes of Time" promises a wuxia saga that never quite arrives. ("Chungking Express," meanwhile, barely fits a genre template at all, but more than satisfies Wong's delight in sending us down blind alleyways). [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] October 2, 2008 REVIEW | Easy Bake: Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs's "Humboldt County"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] From its simple title font evocative of another era to its opening and closing shots reminiscent of "The Graduate" to its casting of filmmaking icon Peter Bogdanovich, "Humboldt County" acknowledges its immodest aims early on. Taking as their subject matter a happy, hippie hideaway in the marijuana-rich forests of Northern California, writing and directing team Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky seem to believe that representation of the unconventional marks their debut effort as such, but the film fails to break any new aesthetic or narrative ground. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] October 1, 2008 REVIEW | Jesus Fish in a Barrel: Larry Charles's "Religulous"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Bill Maher has had quite a run. Fourteen years have passed since "Politically Incorrect" saved him from Shannon Tweed vehicles and endless stand-up. A Washington meets Hollywood twist on the McLaughlin Group, "PI" proved surprisingly durable for Comedy Central before losing steam (and some bite) on ABC. After ill-timed (if courageous) comments led to the show's cancellation, Maher moved right along to "Real Time" on HBO (tweaking the format by losing the left-right debate and giving more time to Maher's emboldened commentary), where his notoriety, and wonky-smug shtick, hasn't waned. [ read more in Movies ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Documentary, Reviews ]  REVIEW | We Regretfully Decline: Jonathan Demme's "Rachel Getting Married"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] What if Jonathan Demme threw a party and asked you to come? You'd probably initially be flattered by the invitation; after all, the Oscar-winning director and longtime music scenester has certainly racked up an impressive roster of friends over the years. But while it sure would be swell to hang out with a random cross-section of multiculti hepcats for a couple of hours, eventually you'd probably feel that you don't quite belong. This is the feeling I got not long into Demme's new self-consciously "back-to-basics" independent film, "Rachel Getting Married," in which he shoots a script written by Sidney Lumet's daughter as an excuse to throw a backyard soiree celebrating his handpicked community of actors, musicians, and artist friends. [ read more in Movies ] [ 1 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ] September 30, 2008 REVIEW | Just Don't Look: Fernando Meirelles's "Blindness"
[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.] Perhaps a decent film couldn't have been made from Jose Saramago's "Blindness." Like any great work of art, Saramago's novel resists transference. A gathering of words beaded into narrative, paced by rhythmic commas that both push forward and trip the eye, organized into paragraphs like economically shaped capsules of character and consciousness, and chapter breaks that arrive suddenly, stranding the reader in portentous white space, "Blindness" exists fully, necessarily, on the page. [ read more in Movies ] [ 0 comments ] [ filed under Reviews ]
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