Thursday, April 2, 2015
Review of "Reverb", a short film
Pill-popper Helia has just lost her boyfriend, and is living in a big empty house all by herself. The first night we meet Helia, she is annoyed by late-night phone call attempts from her ex, “Cupcake” (although she denies to friends having heard from him). Soon, though, she is soon more disturbed by a creepy presence outside her home at night. Could it be her ex, hoping to get some of his things? Could it be some new stalker, or could it just be her imagination? She is a pill-popper, remember… (and over the course of the first 3 days, she doesn’t seem to change her shorts – if I were her boyfriend, I would’ve bailed too). One day, though, when we don’t see Helia take her pills, things start to get a bit more wild, and whomever has been outside her house (or on the fringes of her mind?) gets closer.
Review of "World Spins Madly On" - hipster cell-phone commercial or art film?
This short is wonderfully shot by Roger Metcalf, but it feels like an extended Verizon commercial that Director Jeremy Jed Hammel wanted to fit at least 3 of his favorite indie bands’ songs into (though he bested my sarcasm by actually fitting 5 in).
The highlight of this short came from the performances of the 2 guys behind the main character in line at the crosswalk (Dennis Hurley and Quentin James, from Friends of Gertrude). Whether written or improvised, their comedic banter was the only point of realism in this fairy tale – reminding viewers not to take the short too seriously.
The highlight of this short came from the performances of the 2 guys behind the main character in line at the crosswalk (Dennis Hurley and Quentin James, from Friends of Gertrude). Whether written or improvised, their comedic banter was the only point of realism in this fairy tale – reminding viewers not to take the short too seriously.
Monday, March 2, 2015
Review of "Bounty Killer" - A fun-as-f*** thrill-ride through a dystopian wasteland
In an alternate universe (or the near future), where corporations have taken control over world governments and destroyed civilization through the latest batch of corporate sponsored world wars, the remaining people’s only hope lay in the hands of a select crew of Bounty Killers.
These bounty killers are sanctioned by the grassroots “Council of Nine” to execute all white-collar criminals, and compete with one another to see who can stack up the highest body count (and sign the most autographs for their adoring fans). The two top bounty killers are Drifter (Matthew Marsden) and Mary Death (Christian Pitre), best friends and sometime lovers – but when word gets out that the “Council of Nine” has issued a death warrant for Drifter, Mary Death is forced to decide what matters most – money & fame, or true love.
Review of "Sad Clown", a short film
What do you do if your job is to make people laugh, but you can’t find joy for yourself?I recently watched Jason ’P. Schumacher’s short film, “Sad Clown”, a new 11-minute story featuring the tortured but treasured and timeless character. The film opens with a professional clown, putting on his makeup before a live show. The ringmaster enters and is alarmed, as this clown is not wearing a big red smile, but instead is in the process of painting on a frown and little blue teardrops. How can this be? With the show only moments from starting, what can be done to make this clown change his mood?
While in the traditional story of the clown and the doctor, we never know why the clown is depressed, but in “Sad Clown”, we learn the history… a jovial clown, once in love with a beautiful lady clown, has had his happiness whisked away by the whizz-bang flash of the circus magician… or should I say, illusionist? And now, this poor clown has no joy left to share with the world.
Review of "A Killer Conversation"
“What’s the use of having an ‘almost’ shitty life? The ‘almost’ is hardly any consolation, is it?”A Killer Conversation, written by Michael Haberfelner and directed by David V G Davies, stars Melanie Denholme (also serving as producer), Ryan Hunter, and Rudy Barrow.
It takes less than 1 minute for Karl (Hunter) to hear a knock at the door, and upon answering, be knocked out by a burglar (Barrow) who then enters Karl’s flat with plans to rob and kill him. Before getting to the plundering, however, the burglar is a bit hungry and decides to keep Karl alive for a few moments so that the burglar can enjoy some company as he eats the meal that Karl had just been preparing for himself.
Thus begins this absurd dark comedy, where the burglar and Karl philosophize about life, love, and proper manners around Karl’s kitchen table. The burglar even promises to do the dishes after he kills Karl, so that when the neighbors find his body, they don’t judge him as a filthy beast.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Review of "54 Days" - A Successful Experiment in Rugged Filmmaking
At the beginning of this gritty Sci-Fi drama, diplomats are fleeing Beijing and Moscow as Washington is increasing sanctions against the East. Meanwhile, a posh party among social elites is getting underway on a downtown Sydney rooftop. Just as things seem to be getting off to a good start – boom! International war breaks out and everyone must flee for shelter against nuclear and chemical weapons!
The main characters, led by Nick (Michael Drysdale), find their way to an old bomb shelter and lock themselves inside, barely in time to protect from a chemical agent that has been dropped on major cities worldwide. Cutoff from the world, these 5 survivors must find a way to survive until the fallout has dissipated safely, though they don’t know when that will be. Lack of resources leads the survivors to succumb to their primal survival instincts, and things begin to turn deadly.
The main characters, led by Nick (Michael Drysdale), find their way to an old bomb shelter and lock themselves inside, barely in time to protect from a chemical agent that has been dropped on major cities worldwide. Cutoff from the world, these 5 survivors must find a way to survive until the fallout has dissipated safely, though they don’t know when that will be. Lack of resources leads the survivors to succumb to their primal survival instincts, and things begin to turn deadly.
Review of "How I Buried My Ex-Boyfriend's Body"
“The perfect crime… kind of… not really”
An action comedy from Fat Foot Films, directed by Dennis Nadeau, “How I Dumped My Ex-Boyfriend’s Body” (HIDMEBB) tells the story of Maxine and Shae as they look for a way to discretely dispose of a dead body, Maxine having accidentally killed her ex-boyfriend during an argument. Missteps along the way push the girls to ask Shae’s cousin Mikey (who has underground connections) for help. He recommends a “fixer” by the name of Tony, a cleaner for the mob. When Tony shows up, he is not at all what the girls expected, but does his job disposing of the body and covering all their tracks. The girls mistakenly believed that Tony did the job as a favor, when in reality, now they owe Tony $10,000, which they don’t have. This sets them off on another adventure to try and get that money before Tony comes back to collect. All along the way, Maxine’s weird neighbor with an obsessive crush, Roger, bumbles in & out of their mess, creating even more missteps for our leading ladies.
This was a fun and raunchy comedy, made on the lowest of budgets. All the proper elements of a film combine well to prove Dennis Nadeau is a talented comedy director. While some of the story jokes are easy to pre-read, that doesn’t make them any less effective. The pacing of the action along with the camerawork and editing are spot-on for good comedic timing. The dialogue between the characters is witty and fun all the way through, however, I got the feeling (correctly) that even though the lead characters are women, the script was written by a man. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (as George Constanza would say), and I know many women that are as crude or worse than their male counterparts, but it seems men have a tendency to steer any situation towards a dick joke when possible. However, in this case, I think it worked in the film’s benefit to have leading ladies rather than leading men, as it would have been a sausage-fest otherwise, but also it’s nice to see women in less stereotypical roles.
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