Category: Cinevegas 2009

CineVegas Review: ‘Moon’

rockwellmoon

In an age when science-fiction films tend to be more big-budget special effects driven action/horror movies than actual science fiction, ‘Moon’ delivers an outstanding rare slice of what makes true science-fiction great. Duncan Jones makes a phenomenal debut with his first feature directorial outing. ‘Moon’ is an indie film with a relatively modest budget of $5 million, but the result is a priceless cinematic experience that leads us through a more psychological realm of the genre.

‘Moon’ stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, an astronaut working for Lunar Enterprises in the near-future after energy on Earth has become a rare commodity. Sam is stationed alone on the Moon at the company’s HE3 mining operation. HE3 is a clean-burning fuel for producing fusion energy that is abundant in the rocks on the dark side of the Moon, but rare and expensive to process on Earth. Sam’s contract states that he serve three years on the Moon station and in exchange, he would receive a handsome payout upon returning home to his wife and daughter. Sam’s family is the one thing keeping him focused and positive about this long and grueling experience as the film picks up two weeks away from the end of his contractual obligation.

Sam’s only companion during his three-year stint running the mining station is an AI robot named GERTY, featuring the smooth and morally ambiguous voice of Kevin Spacey. GERTY serves as both a light comic relief and as a dramatic catalyst for many of Sam Rockwell’s engaging moments. GERTY’s artificial emotions are inferred by a digital display of the pop culture yellow smiley face, but the face takes on an array of emoticon-like representations depending on how GERTY reacts to Sam’s various inquiries. Directly influenced by HALL from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, Jones created GERTY as both an homage and as an updated, somewhat more complex computer character. It’s difficult to read GERTY at first, as the story develops and it’s true motivations and alliances are revealed.

‘Moon’ is as much a mystery as it is science-fiction, as Sam is abruptly thrown a curve ball at the end of his term, leading him on an existential discovery of his true identity and the secrets that have been withheld from him about his situation. Sam finds both past and future, as well as his mind, crumbling before him as he struggles to cope with the truth of his own place in the world. Rockwell is absolutely brilliant in ‘Moon’ and delivers a performance worthy of Academy recognition. The emotions, the terror an the pain that Bell experiences are painted so vividly by Rockwell that the fact that the movie essentially is a one man show is completely lost in the fray, overshadowed by the intensity of the performance.

Duncan Jones has managed to prove that great storytelling in the science-fiction genre is not a dying art and can be accomplished without a massive budget and loads of special effects. While ‘Moon’ has a relatively minimal use of CGI, primarily found used to touch up, hide and fill in, Jones actually relied on the old school technology of set design and model miniatures a la ‘Star Wars’ with great success. Jones managed to reconstruct the exteriors of the Moon with a haunting realism that nearly becomes its own character.

In the end, ‘Moon’ proves to be one of the most intelligent and emotionally powerful films of the year and even longer within the science-fiction genre. ‘Moon’ places Duncan Jones within the pantheon of talented young directors that are bound to continue amazing audiences with their smart and original films for years to come. ‘Moon’ has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution and opens today in New York and Los Angeles. If you’re looking for something different, something smart and something worth your $10, then you should be in line to see ‘Moon’ and then telling everyone you meet about how you just had your mind blown by one of the coolest sci-fi films in years.

CineVegas Review: ‘In The Loop’

cinevegas_intheloop

‘In the Loop,’ the feature film adaption of the BBC series “The Thick of It,” is an aggressively funny, and oftentimes startling, depiction of the current, political structure.   Dividing the time between the US and the UK, it takes just about everything you believed to be true in terms of foreign affairs and political backstabbing, and turns them into a series of verbal sparring where each character tries to get the upper hand in the most lewd and intense way.   The backstabbing is pretty much reiterated, though.

It all starts with one, precise word, “unforeseeable.”   That is how the British Secretary of State for International Development refers to military action by the US.   That word becomes the catalyst for a series of conversations, some halfway civilized, some downright ugly, about whether the UN should or should not vote for the war.   Eccentric and, most of the time, fairly vile characters make for interesting window dressing along the way.

Directed by Armando Iannucci, ‘In the Loop’ is a film about politics, but the director never shows his cards or attempts to sway the audience.   Filmed in a style akin to “The Office,” Iannucci displays the characters and events in the film with ever-moving camera angles, zoom-ins and outs, and a jarring sense of place to bridge the audience into the film.   Every character within the film has their own opinions, and each is, deep down, a rather immoral person who will stop at nothing to get their way.   Iannucci does an incredible job keeping the different characters seperate, never allowing any one of them to get an upper hand in terms of importance to the story.

That story, by the way, grows ever more complex as the deadline grows near and the vulgarities grow ever more crass.   It is a complex story, and, if you aren’t paying very close attention, it is easy to get mixed up in the myriad of opinions and political discourse.   I wouldn’t go so far as to say it is ever convoluted.   The screenwriters at work here, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche, and Iannucci, keep the film just entertaining enough throughout to never be on the wrong end of confusion.   The overall idea is very simple.   Some people think war is a good idea.   Others don’t.   The red tape, career threats and reprehensible attitudes are all just part of the show.   These elements add seasoning (and a little gristle) to an already sizable steak.

The film leads you to believe that debates never really go anywhere.   You can never sway a politician’s initial ideaology.   You can only insult his mother and tell him where he can shove his belief system.   The film becomes extremely episodic through the thick, middle scenes.   I almost expected a scoreboard to pop up at the bottom of the screen, counting up insults from either side so that, once the scene was over, we might have a better understanding of who actually won.

Playing the parts of these crass characters are some extremely talented actors.   First and foremost is Peter Capaldi, who reprises his role from the BBC TV series as Malcom Tucker, the main spin-doctor for the Prime Minister.   Capaldi seems like he could insult someone in his sleep and without much thought put into it.   I hate to speculate on whether someone’s scenes are or are not improvised, but Capaldi never stammers over his lines.   I’m not even sure he ever even repeats himself on any of his insults.   Before the film is over, you will definitely have more than a few new ways of telling someone off.   They come from all of the characters, but Capaldi’s Malcom Tucker is the keynote speaker in this film, to put it one way.

Other notable performances come from James Gandolfini as a military general, Tom Hollander as the mush-mouthed, and oftentimes witless, Secretary of State who starts the whole mess, and David Rasche as a US State department official who uses a live hand grenade as a paper weight.   Each of these actors, and others too numerous to name here, gives an outstanding performance, and each brings in their own level of charisma that either turns you on or turns you off to that, specific role.   Steve Coogin pops up about halfway through as a citizen of the private sector who can’t get the UK officials to hear him about his decaying, brick wall.   It’s a fun performance, and the role is pertinent to the underside of the story, but it just seems a bit too heavy-handed in the realm of dry humor the rest of the film creates.

Complex, intelligent, and, most importantly, all-out funny, ‘In the Loop’ is a look at the political system you may have never seen before.   It is intensely comical, and it offers up enough different kinds of humor to just about satisfy anyone.   The lude nature of most of the characters might be a bit much to some people, and hearing Peter Capaldi scream for nearly two hours might not seem all that much fun to some people.   However, ‘In The Loop’ is anything but bland.   On the contrary, it is a riotous film for anyone willing to give it the time.

CineVegas Review: ‘Impolex’

impolexmovie

A young man, wide-eyed, gazes into open flames. Nervous, curious, afraid. The expression on his face encompasses many potential emotions, but only he knows what’s going through his mind at that moment. This is the opening scene of ‘Impolex’. The scene tosses us directly into the moment and sets the tone. Written and directed by Alex Ross Perry, this odd little movie appears frighteningly complex on the surface but given the sincere attention it deserves, the movie becomes insightful in ways that can only be interpreted by each viewer in their own way.

‘Impolex’ follows a young enlisted man at the end of WWII who is assigned the mission of collecting unexploded German explosive remnants. The soldier wanders through a dense forest obsessively seeking out his objectives. He quickly locates the second-to-last V2 rocket made by the Germans, but finds himself compelled to locate the last rocket as well. This journey takes him through an expedition of his mind, reflecting deliriously on past relationships, philosophical ramblings and the meaning of things personal to his own life.

The young military man encounters multiple characters born of fantasy and the subconscious. A bearded hippie wearing an eye patch spouting radical theories, an emotionally bipolar intimate companion from his past and a prisoner recently escaped from his confines and intent on being confrontational with the soldier all add their curious insights to ‘Impolex’. The story itself is unconventionally linear, except for one scene in which we are abruptly thrown into another time and place.

The soldier, presumably after his return from serving overseas, is dressed in a suit and sits on a park bench conversing and reminiscing with a fair-skinned woman with which he had been intimate. The conversation is disproportionately one-sided and the young actress made quite an impression on me with her lengthy monologue. The moment paints a calm intensity, drawn out by the lingering close-up on the actress, who delivers a respectable performance.

Personally, I found his encounters with the talking octopus to be some of the more rewarding portions of the story. I couldn’t help but be reminded by these scenes of Bill Lee conversing with the creatures of ‘Naked Lunch’ as interpreted by David Cronenberg, while at the same time several of the humorous scenes in ‘Impolex’ contain a hint of influence from the dry humor of Monty Python. It’s a peculiar combination to say the least, but one I found strangely enjoyable.

Perhaps I am reading to much into the story, but this is what makes ‘Impolex’ uniquely valuable and worth the effort of viewing. The playwright Samuel Beckett holds a special spot in my heart amongst writers I adore. The young soldier repeatedly draws from his supply of fresh bananas to nourish himself, particularly during his silent wanderings and moments of rest as he stares off into the woods, thoughts running in his mind that we shall never know. These moments in the film reminded me of Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape.

Whether these are the true intentions we can only guess, but it once again illustrates the type of storytelling the director has undertaken. Attempting to understand and convey the meaning of a film like ‘Impolex’ can be equated to the futile effort of trying to explain a work of modern abstract art with definite certainty to another person. One individual’s interpretation will differ immensely from another’s and to argue the point is, by definition pointless.

The movie is clearly shot on a low budget, or perhaps only shot with that appearance in mind. The majority of the story takes place in the forest, following the young soldier around with a hand-held camera, grainy and unsteady, perhaps like the soldier’s state of mind, whom frequently lapses into moments of blank paralysis during his conversations. Despite lacking fanciful camera work or expensive effects, the film succeeds because of it’s content. ‘Impolex’ is a thinking person’s film, a joy ride for the casual philosopher and an ode to the theater of the absurd.

CineVegas Review: ‘Redland’

redland

You know well from the opening shots of ‘Redland’ the direction Asiel Norton is taking you.  The less said, the better, even in the film’s opening scene, but the starting point of Norton’s film, which he wrote and directed, is as memorable and as shocking as anything else found in the film.

It is a film about a family living in the rural area of America during the Great Depression, but that’s like saying ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is a film about a war.  On the surface, ‘Redland’ tells the tale of a young girl who lives in the wilderness with her two brothers, mother and father.  The family is struggling, fighting off the hunger and even starvation that faces them day-in and day-out.  The young girl is hiding a secret from her family.  She has had an affair with a young man, and that affair is the catalyst that drives the narrative forward.

Norton’s story, which was co-written by Magdalena Zyzak, goes to the heart of what holds a family together and what can, eventually, tear it apart at the seams.  It is a story that never wavers, never lets you feel that the screenwriters behind it have lost their own way.  Norton and Zyzak know full well where their story is headed, and every, little detail that stems from the screenplay serves towards the film’s final moments.  There aren’t any real surprises to be found in the screenplay, but that is hardly an issue in the way ‘Redland’ plays out.  Even if you have a sneaking suspicion where the story is headed, you aren’t fully sure how Norton is going to handle it or what the ultimate outcome will truly be.

There is a feeling of mystery at play within ‘Redland,’ as well.  The characters are splayed out before you.  The story is set.  However, you aren’t quite sure what direction the film will take in the overall sense.  There are countless paths Norton’s film could follow.  It could grow incredibly violent.  It could even delve into the supernatural.  Norton never hand-delivers the film in any, single box to its audience.  Instead, he forces you to sit back, observe what he has in store for you, and, once it has reached its conclusion, make your own decision as to what it was truly about.

Not long into the film, the story breaks off into two directions.  A trio of men go off into the wilderness to hunt for food while the young girl stays at home with her mother and younger brother to fend off the starvation that is slowly creeping in.  The screenplay neither neglects one party nor favors the other.  Equal time is given to both sides and the struggles each party must endure, and nothing, not one intricacy about the ways the two groups must survive, is left out.  This level of detail brings the world of Norton’s film into full view.  It surrounds you, forces you to see it through the character’s eyes, even when what you are forced to see is anything but pleasant.

But, even with the powerful story the film tells and the underlying themes that resonate, Norton captures so much more here than just an interesting story.  ‘Redland’ is a beautiful film.  You can just sit back and look at the visuals Norton and cinematographer Zoran Popovic have culminated together to help move the story along.  There is a very Terrance Malick feel to ‘Redland.’  Often we get seemingly random shots of nature and glimmering light through the trees.  However, nothing is random in Norton’s film.  As the message he puts before the end credits states, ‘There is no beginning and there is no end.’  ‘Redland’ is about, more than anything, life in the face of certain death, the notion that everything goes on, even when death touches you.

Norton is a lover of the craft, and he knows full well how to handle his way around a shot.  Every frame of the film is a painting, and Norton and Popovic utilize every aspect they can get their hands on to make the film as appealing to look at as possible.  But the film never falls into the “style over substance” trappings that it easily could have.  Everything builds the film up as a complete package, and it’s power is undeniable.

There is even room in ‘Redland’ for its actors to shine.  A few of them appear to act as stand-ins for necessary roles, but a few of them are quite remarkable.  Lucy Adden as the young girl and Mark Aaron as her father serve as the film’s leads, and they each give incredible performances that are as subtle as they are bold.

‘Redland’ is a film that stays with you.  Every aspect of it, from the story to the acting to the immaculate usage of the Northern California environment helps aid in the full effect of the film.  It is a hard film.  Even when the lense appears soft around the edges, the story and theme is certainly not.  Regardless, each aspect is unquestionably flawless.  ‘Redland’ is a film as beautiful as it is painful, and, sometimes, painful is necessary.

CineVegas Review: ‘Saint John of Las Vegas’

stjohnlasvegas

Lady luck is a fickle woman. She can be the most splendid, incredibly beautiful apparition you may ever behold. Then again, she can also be a cold, cold heartless wench without mercy. For John, played by Steve Buscemi, she’s mostly the later, relentlessly teasing John with plenty of luck, just not the right kind. John used to be a big shot, a high roller in Las Vegas. Everyone knew his name and they knew his game, but that’s before his luck changed.

First-time director Hue Rhodes scores a winner right out of the gate with this comedy about John, an average middle-aged Joe who had his time of glory on the strip but now settles for the simple life of a quaint little house in a gated community of Albuquerque, New Mexico. John works in a cubicle, filing insurance claims for his arrogant boss Mr. Townsend, played by character actor Peter Dinklage.

The only really positive thing John has in his day is being cubicle neighbor to Jill, played by Sarah Silverman, an obsessively, perhaps even psychotically nice woman who is literally fixated on those annoying yellow smiley faces. Her cubicle is covered with them, she wears them and even paints them on her fingernails. Silverman somehow manages to be both cute and a little scary at the same time. Sort of in that, she’s such a nice girl she may actually be able to rip your head off if you get out of line, sort of way.

John is about to get a raise, or so he thinks, as he meets with his boss and finds himself thrown into learning the ropes of becoming a fraudulent claims investigator. Mr. Townsend send him out on a job with his seasoned investigator Virgil, played by Romany Malco (Weeds, 40-Year Old Virgin),   and the two never quite hit it off. Virgil doesn’t like John and John doesn’t trust Virgil. The awkward relationship at play here is the focus for most of the movie, but the underlying story involves John’s gambling addiction which permeates every aspect of his life and career.

‘Saint John of Las Vegas’ is filled with bizarre characters and uncanny situations, including a love triangle involving John, Jill and Mr. Townsend that plays out brilliantly. Danny Trejo and Tim Blake Nelson appear in cameo roles that, despite their short time on screen, add some great color to the story. As always, Dinklage is a hit with the audience and injects his welcome sense of sarcastic humor into the mix that plays well against Buscemi’s portrayal of the neurotic man who once lived in Vegas.

Amidst the most bizarre scenarios in the film include the stripper named Tasty Delight who has filed the claim Virgil and John are investigating, whereas she is confined to a wheelchair while still working as a waitress. One of my favorite scenes involves Virgil and John visiting Smitty the Fire Lord (John Cho) at a circus side show attraction. Smitty the Fire Lord, who doubles as a tow truck operator to supplement his income, is questioned in connection to the fraud investigation, but the scene plays out comically as his fire suit is malfunctioning, producing one perfectly constructed scene between Cho and Buscemi.

Watching Steve Buscemi perform is a joy, as always, and Sarah Silverman delivers with her trademark style of humor (in reverse) to great effect. Generally speaking, ‘Saint John of Las Vegas’ has few flaws. The only thing about the movie I found difficult to embrace was John’s dream sequences, which were fine in and of themselves, but their relative place within the film was lost on me.

Ultimately, the movie is about whether John will ever reacquire his gambling mojo, regain his good luck or just plain find some sort of happiness in his life. ‘Saint John of Las Vegas’ has een touted as being inspired by Dante’s Inferno, and I suppose some of that can be seen in the movie, but for me it’s all about one man’s struggle to figure out what what went wrong in life, attempting to recover some of his dignity and in the process, ends up finding something much more simple and fulfilling to live for.

CineVegas 2009 Preview: ‘Humpday’

humpday3

CineVegas 2009 is right around the corner (this week to be precise), and We Are Movie Geeks are going to be there in full force. Throughout the festival, which runs from June 10th through the 15th, we are going to be bringing you all the coverage you need including reviews, interviews, party breakdowns, and red carpet premiere coverage.

Have you ever propositioned your wife to participate in an amateur porn film festival? Me either, but that’s exactly what happens in ‘Humpday’. Ben and Andrew are best friends, who after getting really messed up at a party, decide that it would be the ultimate form of art for 2 straight guys to have sex with each other in order to submit the tape to ‘Humpfest’. — Scott

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

It’s been a decade since Ben and Andrew were the bad boys of their college campus. Ben has settled down and found a job, wife, and home. Andrew took the alternate route as a vagabond artist. When Andrew shows up, unannounced, on Ben’s doorstep, they easily fall back into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship. After a night of perfunctory carousing, the two find themselves locked in a mutual dare: to enter an amateur porn contest. But what kind of boundary-breaking porn can two dudes make? After the booze and “big talk” run out, only one idea remains—they will have sex together on camera. Judging by writer and director Lynn Shelton, it takes a talented woman to unearth the biggest ironies in the male ego. HUMPDAY is a buddy movie gone wild. The three lead actors deliver fine-tuned performances amidst postmodern patter and tight, crisp storytelling. Shelton’s command of her craft shines brightest when our two gentlemen finally get down to the task at hand: creating a classic “wriggle in your seat” moment of truth.

‘Humpday’ screens on Saturday, June 13 at 8:00 pm.

CineVegas 2009 Preview: ‘Youth Knows No Pain’

youthknowsnopain

CineVegas 2009 is right around the corner (this week to be precise), and We Are Movie Geeks are going to be there in full force. Throughout the festival, which runs from June 10th through the 15th, we are going to be bringing you all the coverage you need including reviews, interviews, party breakdowns, and red carpet premiere coverage.

Welcome to HBO’s newest documentary ‘Youth Knows No Pain’ that tackles America’s obsession with getting old. Mitch McCabe is the daughter of a plastic surgeon and in this doc she takes us on a revealing journey into the lucrative business of beauty and anti-aging and the minds of those who patronize this business. The film looks to be a hit, presenting a real contemporary topic in a humorous but insightful way.

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

In this thoughtful look at modern problems, director Mitch McCabe sets off across the United States to look at the ins, outs, nips, and tucks of the anti-aging industry. From Minnesota to Texas, from eye lifts to hair transplants, McCabe talks to those – too saggy, too wrinkled, too bald – who have undergone some form of age-reducing surgery or treatment, leaving the director to question her own appearance and (surgical) potential.

McCabe, the daughter of a plastic surgeon, touches upon the American fascination with beauty, culture, celebrity, and vanity, combining unique perspective for a sensitive yet amusing outlook. McCabe doesn’t distance herself from the subjects but engages them, admitting her own desire for youth and her fear of aging — even if it means thousands of dollars in debt from attending film school and a low-paying temp job that will never cover it, the desire for a smooth and youthful complexion is hard to resist. McCabe combines more than two years of interviews with more than a decade of home video footage, giving us an engaging and enlightening behind-the-scenes look at the least wrinkled, most compelling people behind the $60-billion-a-year industry.

‘Youth Knows No Pain’ screens onSaturday, June 13 at 6:30 pm and on Sunday, June 14 at 10:00 am.

CineVegas 2009 Honorees

2009cinevegashonorees

Each year, CineVegas honors people in the industry, actors, directors, producers, etc.  Honorees in the past have included Anjelica Huston, James Caan, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Viggo Mortensen, Don Cheadle, Sam Rockwell, Christina Ricci, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Cage, Julian Schnabel, Holly Hunter, Mike Newell, Taylor Hackford, Ann-Margret, Helen Mirren, and David Lynch.  At this year’s CineVegas, two actors, two directors, and two video game pioneers will be given similar honors.

Here is the release:

Jon Voight will be given the Marquee Award, recognizing his artistic excellence, professional accomplishment and dedication to cinema. Willem Dafoe will be honored with the Vanguard Actor Award, which honors the distinctive mark he has made in film through his brave performances. The Vanguard Director Award will be given to George and Mike Kuchar, which recognizes their distinctive vision and ability to make films without compromise.

In addition, CineVegas will be honoring Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago with the inaugural Planet Illogica Award for Excellence in New Media. This award is for artists working in the realm of video gaming who have pushed the boundaries of storytelling in their field.

The awards will be given out on Sunday, June 14 at the CineVegas Awards Reception, to be held at Rain Nightclub at the Palms Casino Resort.

“What an honor it is for CineVegas to have the opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of these esteemed actors, directors and artists at our 11th annual Festival,” stated Groth. “In addition to paying tribute to such powerful acting forces as Jon Voight and Willem Dafoe, as well as two pioneers of underground cinema the Kuchar Brothers, we are also proud to partner with Planet Illogica to award Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, two revolutionaries in the video gaming design world, for their outstanding achievement in the world of new media and as trailblazers in a compelling new era of storytelling.”

Jon Voight has had a long and distinguished career as both a leading man and, in recent years, a character actor, with an extensive and compelling range in both film and television. He came to prominence at the end of the 1960s, with a performance as a would-be hustler in 1969’s Best Picture winner, Midnight Cowboy, for which he earned his first Academy Award ® nomination. Throughout the following decades, Voight built his reputation with an array of challenging roles and has appeared in such landmark films as Deliverance, and Coming Home, for which he received an Academy Award ® for Best Actor. Voight’s impersonation of sportscaster/journalist Howard Cosell, in the biopic Ali, earned him critical raves and his fourth Oscar ® nomination. He is currently starring in the seventh season of 24 as the villain Jonas Hodges. As part of Voight’s tribute, CineVegas is proud to present the rare, newly re-mastered director’s cut of Lookin’ To Get Out (1982), directed by Hal Ashby, starring and co-written by Voight and filmed in Las Vegas. The screening will be followed by a special Q&A with Voight and guests.

Willem Dafoe is a two-time Academy Award ® nominated actor and has appeared in over 70 films. He is also one of the founding members of The Wooster Group, the New York based experimental theatre collective, where he has created and performed in all the group’s work from 1977 to 2005, both in the U.S. and internationally. Some upcoming film releases include Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, Werner Herzog’s My Son My Son and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox as well as Day Breakers and Cirque du Freak. A conversation with Dafoe will be held on Sunday, June 14 at 3pm, followed by a screening of his 1982 film The Loveless.

The monarchs of homemade movies, the Kuchars impressed art world film kings like Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner and Jonas Mekas, and influenced future film legends like Buck Henry and John Waters. Born in the 1940s, the brothers swooned over classic 1950s Hollywood. Borrowing their Aunt’s 8mm camera, George and Mike reinterpreted their neighborhood friends as Rock Hudson and Lana Turner types, wrote fantastic melodramas and genre stories, cobbled together props and costumes and set out into remarkably diverse locations around the Bronx. Their classic films include Hold Me While I’m Naked, Sins of the Fleshapoids and Summer of No Return. Now in their 60s, both have continued working with video, their projects numbering in the hundreds. A collection of new shorts by the Kuchar Brothers will be shown as part of their Vanguard Directors Award presentation on Sunday, June 14 at 9pm. In addition, Jennifer Kroot’s documentary about the brothers, It Came from Kuchar, will play in the Pioneer Documentaries section at this year’s Festival.

Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen met each other while earning their MFA degrees at the University of Southern California Interactive Media program, housed in the School of Cinematic Arts. Santiago’s research focused on game design, interactive narrative, and physical and gestural interfaces for digital media. Chen was focusing on interactive animation and video game design when the two collaborated with a student team to develop the game, “Cloud.” “Cloud” went on to become critically acclaimed, after which the two decided to found their own studio, thatgamecompany, and landed a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. to develop downloadable games for Playstation Network. Their most recent critically-acclaimed release, “Flower,” explores the tension between urban and nature, as you blow wind and fly petals across dream-like natural landscapes, and has been the top-downloaded game on the PlayStation Network.

CineVegas 2009 will take place from June 10th through June 15th.  We Are Movie Geeks will be there to bring you news, reviews, and interviews.

CineVegas 2009 Preview: ‘Thor at the Bus Stop’

thoratthebusstopmovie

CineVegas 2009 is right around the corner (this week to be precise), and We Are Movie Geeks are going to be there in full force. Throughout the festival, which runs from June 10th through the 15th, we are going to be bringing you all the coverage you need including reviews, interviews, party breakdowns, and red carpet premiere coverage.

‘Thor at the Bus Stop’ is one of the “little” films I am anticipating in a big way. On the surface, it may appear somewhat ridiculous, but that’s bound to be a big part of it’s charm. I predict this indie flick will please crowds, combining the best influences of both Quentin Tarantino and Judd Apatow in transplanting an age-old character firmly into our contemporary culture. Or, it could just be ridiculously fun.

Here’s the film’s synopsis:

The Norse God Thor has landed in a Nevada suburb, leaving a jocular mess in his wake as he attempts to save the world. Overwhelming? Just wait until you meet the outrageous characters that make up that mess: the man impaled by a traffic sign who can find no help, the swindler who finds a nice car to steal, the swindlee who is way too chill to care, the pizza delivery guy who takes way more than 30 minutes, the precious 10-year-old “angel” who tries to make the hammer-holding hero happy during the homestretch, and several more.

Directing duo Jerry and Mike Thompson return to CineVegas after two short films, combining their previous efforts into a feature framework. Using a group of colorful characters, special effects, and side-splitting dialogue THOR AT THE BUS STOP reminds us that help is often a lot harder to find than humor – be it in a cave, in a car, or at a place as simple as a bus stop.

Thor at the Bus Stop from Mike Thompson on Vimeo.

‘Thor at the Bus Stop’ screens on Saturday, June 13 at 5:30 pm and on Monday, June 15 at 5:30 pm.

CineVegas Review: ‘Easier With Practice’

easierwithpractice

For many, the act of finding and then retaining a meaningful relationship is easy. It comes naturally to these people, for some it occurs once and lasts forever and for many more it occurs over and over, with varying levels of success. Then you have that group of deserving individuals who just don’t have that ingrained knack for making the romantic bonds between two human beings work for them. The formula for getting from point A to point B with an intimate relationship eludes these people and they find themselves feeling like outsiders, even though they yearn for the same connection as everyone else on the inside.

‘Easier With Practice’ is a wonderful little film written and directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, based on a GQ article by Davy Rothbart. Brian Geraghty plays Davy Mitchell, a writer who works as a temp to pay the bills. Davy and his brother Sean (Kel O’Neill) set out on a book tour across the country together in Sean’s old POS station wagon to promote Davy’s book. During their journey from town to town, Sean spends his free time in the bars and picking up chicks while Davy, exhausted from the weeks of traveling and living off of PB&J sandwiches, spends most of his free time in hotel rooms, bored and lonely.

Davy is one of those individuals unable to make that romantic formula work. He struggles with this, seeing this come so easily to his brother, but at the same time frustrated with him for taking that gift for granted. During one of their stops, Davy receives a phone call on the hotel room phone from a mysterious woman. Davy believes this call to be a wrong number at first, but the woman aggressively forces her sexuality upon Davy, who finds himself strangely drawn to her advances. After a relatively “successful” first call, Davy and the woman named Nicole choose to continue their intimate phone relationship throughout the book tour.

The heart of ‘Easier With Practice’ lies within Davy’s longing for the type of relationship that has eluded him his whole life. Davy sees the the signals from interested parties but lacks the ability to move on them. Davy and Nicole maintain a healthy phone sex relationship, but it also develops into a more intimate and personal friendship as well. Davy’s life seems to be turning around for him, until he asks to meet Nicole and she refuses. She prefers this type of arrangement with Davy, and for a while Davy feels the same. With time, however, Davy feels this relationship could never truly be real unless they can physically be together, but is Davy truly ready to match a face and body to the voice he has come to hold so close?

‘Easier With Practice’ embraces that uncomfortable feeling of self-inflicted loneliness. The film perfectly captures Davy’s unrealized passion for a partner he has not yet met, building on his expectations, should the day he and Nicole meet ever occur. Davy attempts to keep his relationship with Nicole a secret, concerned that he feel ashamed of the fact, which only fuels his insistence on meeting her. Once home from his trip, Nicole stops calling and Davy truly realizes how much his virtual time with Nicole has affected him and his life as he shuts himself off from the world, hoping Nicole reconnects with him.

The entire film was shot on the new RED ONE digital technology and it shows. The atmosphere of the film is moody and slightly tarnished, but the camera manages to pick up on and elaborate an incredible amount of detail and the color palette is at once drab and alluring. ‘Easier With Practice’ leads the viewer down a slower, more methodical path of revelation that allows for Davy to reflect on the direction of his life. Slow and boring, however is not an appropriate way to describe the film.

As an audience, we really get to know Davy and we empathize with his heavy heart and longing. One of my favorite visual themes in the film is the use of isolation to convey Davy’s feeling of the same. The film was shot in New Mexico, a state with vast stretches of barren landscape, easy to isolate one’s self while at the same time surrounded by immense natural beauty. It’s a metaphor for Davy’s situation, isolated but still surrounded by so much beauty.

If the visual acuity and attention to the cinematic conveyance of feeling was great, the incorporation of indie music into the film’s landscape was down right brilliant. Kyle Patrick Alvarez is said to be quite the indie music enthusiast and it shows, having meticulously selected and placed an absolutely perfect soundtrack into his film. The songs were carefully chosen and used not just to fill silent space, but to accentuate a scene or emotion and further move the story along in a constructive fashion. The soundtrack to ‘Easier With Practice’ reads like a pop fans worst nightmare, featuring indie musicians and bands unknown to many like Emily Easterly, Source Victoria, Deer Tick and Grizzly Bear, not to mention the other 10 or more bands with licenced music featured on the theatrical playlist.

I have to admit, ‘Easier With Practice’ has a bit of an advantage from the start as it’s the type of indie film that I’m really enthusiastic about. With that said, the film still had to impress me and I can honestly say I am impressed, even more so after researching the making of the film and learning that Alvarez managed to put together such a great film in so little time and seemingly without a hitch. If there’s one movie that will premiere this year and deserve the attention of audiences on a massive scale, ‘Easier With Practice’ is definitely ranked highly amongst the candidates.