Got my tickets…. Can’t wait!
Ah shame you’re missing Dan’s film, it’s terrific!
“Nobody Walks” (Director: Ry Russo-Young, co-written by Lena Dunham)
3/5
Despite it’s mumblecorish roots, writer/director Ry Russo-Young (“You Won’t Miss Me”, one of my favorite movies of the last few years) and writer Lena Dunham (“Tiny Furniture”, “Girls”) have stayed away from most of the elements that make mumblecore films mumblecore films with their collaboration “Nobody Walks” which has name actors like John Krasinski (“The Office”), Olivia Thirlby (“The Wackness”, “Juno”), India Ennenga (“Treme” and the great under-seen film “The Last International Playboy”) and, in a small role (that is near-cameo) Dylan Macdermott (“The Practice”, “American Horror Story”) and is also filmed like a “real” movie unlike most shot-on-obvious-video mumblecore films so people like Santino of Mubi.com who hate"the mumblies" might just really like it.
However, I found it a tad too mainstream and, yes even commercial for my liking.
That’s not to say it’s a bad movie at all. I’ve seen many worse movies however this is a bit of a disappointment IMHO.
It just felt like I’ve seen it all before.
Krasinski and RoseMarie DeWitt play a married couples with 2 kids (a young boy and a teenage poet, the latter of which is played by the brilliant, recent high school grad [according to Dunham in a post-film Q&A] India Ennenga) who let a 23-year old starving artist (Thirlby) live in their guest house while Krasinski’s character is helping her with her latest film and eventually Krisinski’s character falls for Thirlby (as does his personal assistant who Ennenga’s character has a crush on)
Throw in a few sub-plots about therapist DeWitt’s “affair” with a patient (Justin Kirk) and a creepy Italian guy who lusts after Ennenga and you have a moderately predictable, generally mediocre relationship dramedy that is hardly a mumblecore movie despite Russo-Young and Dunham’s involvement.
So if you don’t like mumblecore (Santino!) maybe this is the film for you but I happen to love mumblecore and this is an ok movie, I enjoyed it to an extent, but it lacks the PUNCH of real mumblecore.
Also, for a movie about sex and sexuality, it’s awfully chaste.
“The Comedy” (Director: Rick Alverson)
4/5
I saw Rick Alverson’s “The Comedy” at BAMcinemaFEST 2012!
Rick Alverson’s new film “The Comedy” is a very strange film.
Part character study of a deeply disturbed white male, part “Jackass” meets “Borat” practical joke, all filtered through the lens of Lars Von Trier’s “The Idiots”.
The film has been compared to Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (a film Alverson says he has never seen) but “The Idiots” just seems to make more sense to me.
What’s funny is that the film is more chuckle-funny than laugh out loud.
I laughed a lot and the film was a lot of fun even though towards the end it started to ware out it’s welcome.
Tim Heidecker (of Tim & Eric fame, Eric Wareheim also has a small role here) plays Swanson, a rich douchebag with the hots for his sister-in-law (his brother is in prison) and a dying father.
Alverson keeps our knowledge of Swanson (including his name, which we don’t find out until the end credits) at arm’s length.
We are plopped into his world as we watch him and his friends (played by Wareheim and LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, among others. I think Bam Margera of “Jackass” fame was there too. Someone correct me if I’m wrong!) make fun of each other, talk about how clean hobo penises are and just act like total assholes.
All throughout the movie we are given small glimpses that Swanson isn’t so bad after all, that he yearns to be “normal” just like the rest of us, but all that is side-swept by a startling scene on a boat with a co-worker (played by Kate Lyn Shiel) that left the whole audience speechless.
“The Comedy” is not for everyone, especially those easily offended.
It also isn’t really for diehard Tim and Eric fans either.
Yes, they are both in this movie but this is NOT a Tim and Eric movie. They are actually acting here (especially Tim).
I thought the movie was really good though.
I wouldn’t recommend this movie to Santino though. Dennis Brian might like it though.
It’s out in limited release in October!
There was a death in my family (my aunt) so I missed out on “Crazy and Thief” and “The International Sign for Choking”
Oh well….
Seeing Pavilion and For Ellen on Thursday :)
“Pavilion” (Director: Tim Sutton)
4/5
I saw Tim Sutton’s “Pavilion” at BAMcinemaFEST 2012!
Owing slightly more of a debt to Matt Porterfield’s “Putty Hill” than to David Gordon Green’s “George Washington” and the films of Gus van Sant and Larry Clark, Music Video Director Tim Sutton’s atmospheric debut feature “Pavilion” is a kaleidoscopic look at modern day American youth culture.
“Pavilion” stars a cast of young non-professional actors (including Addie Bartlet who is going to college next year, studying film), not unlike “Putty Hill” and “George Washington”.
However unlike “Putty Hill” and “George Washington”, “Pavilion” has less of a story (although Sutton’s original idea for the film would have been much more like “Putty Hill”, dealing with how a kid’s death affects a small town).
The story in “Pavilion” is literally this: a kid moves from the east coast to the west and hangs out with 2 different groups of friends.
It’s simple.
And that’s perfectly fine since there is wonderful cinematography and a great musical score by “the sea and cake” frontman Sam Prekop.
Honestly Sutton has made this film before as a Sea and Cake music video you can watch on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd1-pkdi5BI&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Watch the music video before you see the movie. If you don’t like the music video don’t see the movie since they are very similar.
But I liked “Pavilion” quite a bit :)
“For Ellen” (Director: So Yong Kim)
3.5/5
I saw So Yong Kim’s “For Ellen” at BAMcinemaFEST 2012!
Probably the 2nd most high-profile film at BAM this year (after “Beasts of the Southern Wild”) is acclaimed director So Yong Kim’s (“In Between Days”, “Treeless Monutain”) bid for mainstream success with the elegantly crafted yet ultimately cold character study “For Ellen” starring Paul Dano in the lead role of Joby Taylor, a role that will most likely get him tons of acclaim and nominations in the upcoming awards season (you heard it here first!)
Joby is a washed-up rock star who desperately wants to connect with his daughter and get custody from his cold ex-wife. Jon Heder of “Napoleon Dynamite” fame is perfect comic relief as his starstruck, mama’s boy lawyer and the performances by Dano and the young girl playing his daughter are close to flawless.
And I actually liked the lack of confrontation in the film. A tense scene towards the end that left me on the edge of my seat, doesn’t have the Hollywood-tacked-on main character getting in trouble for his actions. It happens and is never spoke of again.
The film also seems to be obsessed with Paul Dano’s face, which is fine. There’s a lot of close ups of his face.
The only real problem here is that the film feels cold and clinical.
Yes, we care about Joby and his daughter Ellen but we never get the feeling Joby REALLY wanted Ellen to start off with, even though he says he did several times.
See? Cold and Clinical.
And I’m fine with cold and clinical in some cases but this movie should be just a tad more heartfelt IMHO.
That’s why I’m only giving it 3 1/2 stars :).
My reviews for “Liberal Arts” and “Compliance” are coming up soon!
slightly curious about Liberal Arts
would have seen Radio Unnameable
if I was there
I’m not seeing V/H/S as originally planned
I’ll see it when it comes to on demand in October/November or whenever
I’m burnt out on the fest for this year lol
Saw 6 movies this year, much better than the 1 I saw last year lol
@Dennis-
Liberal arts was probably my least favorite film of the 6 I saw.
That being said, it wasn’t a bad movie by any means (much better than Radnor’s first film IMHO) but Olsen’s character was underwritten. It’s not her fault at all.
Like I saidx reviews for Liberal Arts and Compliance coming up whenever I decide to write them lol
“Liberal Arts” (Director: Josh Radnor)
3/5
I saw Josh Radnor’s “Liberal Arts” at BAMcinemaFEST 2012!
Towards the middle of Josh Radnor’s sophomore film, “Liberal Arts”, Elizabeth Olsen’s character tells Radnor’s character why she enjoys reading “those vampire romance books” (IE. “The Twilight Saga”).
She pretty much says they are fun, stupid and go down easy.
Even though “Liberal Arts” aims to be high art, the same could be said about this film too.
Too bad it’s so pretentious and self-important.
That’s not to say “Liberal Arts” is a BAD film.
It’s light years better than Radnor’s borderline-retched debut feature “happythankyoumoreplease” but “Liberal Arts”, despite being a comedy, takes itself way too seriously. It feels it has something important to say about college romanticization and nostalgia.
It doesn’t.
The film is about a guy played by Radnor who goes back to his alma mater for the retirement party of his 2nd favorite professor (old reliable Richard Jenkins) and ends up romancing a student (an underwritten Elizabeth Olsen), befriending a suicidal wannabe novelist and getting befriended by the school stoner (a hilarious Zac Efron, even though he feels like he’s in a different movie much of the time, he’s still the still the highlight of the movie for me).
Thing is, the film is likeable fluff that goes down easy yet it yearns to be so much more.
It yearns to be the voice of a generation.
Much like the Twilight Saga.
Neither are.
“Compliance” (Director: Craig Zobel)
4.5/5
I saw Craig Zobel’s “Compliance” at BAMcinemaFEST 2012. It was the last film I saw there this year.
“Compliance” by director Craig Zobel (of the widely acclaimed but underseen gem from a few back “Great World of Sound”) is the “Waiting for Guffman” of sex crime procedural dramas.
Everybody by now knows what this film is about ever since it divided audiences at Sundance in January:
Sandra (Ann Dowd) is a recently engaged fast food restaurant manager who gets a call one day by a guy who calls himself “Officer Daniels” (Pat Healy). He convinces Sandra to detain and eventually strip search Becky (Dreama Walker), an employee who he claims has stolen money. Sandra complies with “Officer Daniels”, hence the title, and is told he and his fellow officers are on their way.
“Compliance” is cold and clinical but with a story that’s fairly repulsive like this one, it’s ok (unlike “For Ellen”, whose story deserved more heart).
And despite being repetitive at times, “Compliance” works.
Once the real cops get there though and the film becomes a full-on Law and Order:SVU-style procedural in the final 20 minutes or so, it starts to get a little tedious.
And the ending is interesting, showing how ignorant some people are.
I thought “Compliance” was pretty darn good actually though it’s certainly not for everyone (one guy at my screening yelled “For Fuck’s Sake!” a few times lol).
JapeMan
Tickets go on sale to the general public Tuesday morning!!!!!!
Anyone (besides me) going? Last year I only ended up seeing one film but this year I plan on seeing a few more including “Compliance”, “Nobody Walks”, “The Comedy” and “Crazy and Thief”
I’m skipping “Beasts of the Southern Wild” mostly because it will be in regular theaters less than 2 months later.
I’m skipping “The Unspeakable Act” only because I can’t work it into my schedule. Sorry, Dan
I’m skipping “Francine” because, well, honestly it’s the night before “Nobody Walks” and I want to see “Nobody Walks” As my first film of the festival this year lol
I do plan on seeing " For Ellen" though and “Liberal Arts” but mostly the latter just for Olsen lol :p