Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Dan Holland on July 1st, 2015
It is always a privilege to watch an Official Selection of the Sundance Film Festival. I have had the pleasure to screen a few films from Sundance 2013, and I have not been disappointed. Soldate Jeanette (‘Soldier Jane’ translated to English) is not the most captivating I have seen from Sundance, but with its digital camera aesthetics and visually striking images, it definitely carries a certain charm. Director Daniel Hoesl’s first feature-length film focuses on Fanni, an aging woman who is faced with eviction from her apartment. Fanni considers rent an unnecessary expense after twenty long years of living in her home, so she has refused to pay rent for the last three. Instead she spends her money on leisurely activities such as Tae Kwon Do classes or going to the Cineplex to watch silent films. Eventually her ignorance of standard living expenses catches up to her, and she escapes to the country, evading every necessary payment possible, be it a train ticket or a rental car (she takes a dealership car for a “test drive”). Soon Fanni finds herself at a farm run by a group of men and a woman named Anna, who begins to look at Fanni with jealousy. Eventually, Fanni and Anna develop a meaningful friendship.
This film’s biggest enemy is its pace. While it has very intriguing content, the amount of time it takes to either resolve conflict or introduce new conflict is very difficult to sit through. I am normally a fan of long takes or lingering shots, but in this film they are a dime a dozen. Because they are so frequent, it is hard to find a solid purpose in their existence (if they have any purpose at all). Largely, they are frustrating. If viewer frustration was Mr. Hoesl’s goal in consistent lingering scenes or long takes of minimal activity, he certainly achieved it. This is unfortunate, as the film has such incredible strength behind the snail-like pace.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 29th, 2015
"There's always a consequence for breaking the rules."
Maybe that's why the crew from The Lazarus Effect decided to use all of the rules and conventions in the book without daring to really break any new ground of its own. By the time I was finished with the film, I felt like I had watched several horror movies at the same time. It's most intentionally Frankenstein meets Flatliners meets insert-your-favorite-ghost/possession-movie meets every-Stephen-King-film-ever-made. With all of that at its fingertips and a pretty bright cast, all The Lazarus Effect could do was raise itself to mediocrity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 29th, 2015
It honestly took me a while to get over the opening shot of The Forger. The shot itself is rather unremarkable: it's a simple close-up of star John Travolta sitting in a small room by himself and staring straight ahead. But between his ridiculously obvious wig and the waxy texture of his face — the actor now looks like he's wearing a Michael Myers-style “John Travolta” mask — I knew it was going to be pretty difficult to take him seriously, no matter who or what was playing. It's a shame because there's actually a pretty decent family drama to be found within The Forger.
Turns out Travolta is playing Ray Cutter, a Boston-based, world-class art forger who has 10 months remaining on a five-year prison sentence. With the light at the end of the tunnel in sight, Ray suddenly decides 10 months is too long to wait, so he makes a deal with local crime boss Keegan (Anson Mount) to pay off a judge and get out of prison early. In exchange, Keegan forces Ray to forge Claude Monet's “Woman with a Parasol”, steal the real thing from a local museum, and replace it with the forgery. So why would Ray indebt himself to a volatile mobster instead of merely serving out the rest of his sentence?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 26th, 2015
"In these mountains roams one of the rarest species on our planet. A shy, elusive, and gentle creature: the giant panda."
If you are old enough you will remember President Richard Nixon's famous trip the China. He was the first President to make the voyage, and it was heralded as a foreign policy breakthrough for the nation. Long after, the hoopla had died down and the only time it seemed Nixon was in the news was for Watergate. But even amid the scandal, one bright legacy of that trip remained for years to come. That was, of course, the Chinese gift to the United States to celebrate the event. We received two pandas named Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing that would capture the hearts of a nation even as Nixon was losing them. We all paid close attention as various attempts were made to mate the animals. Unfortunately, there were only five successful matings, and the pups only lived a few days at most. It was a disappointing end to a marvelous story. The pandas did live into the 1990's, breaking records to panda lifespans outside of China. Today there are new pandas at the National Zoo, and they have given birth to pups that have been returned to China based on the deal we brokered to get them. You can still see those guys today.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 25th, 2015
"We're just a typical American family that just happens to run a multimillion dollar outdoor empire. We create, test and sell the world's coolest products for the modern outdoorsman, and we find our inspiration on a little slice of Heaven called the Busbice Family Ranch in Louisiana."
Sounds like an infomercial, doesn't it? It's actually the intro to A&E's latest in their collection of redneck families who happen to be in the dough. If you like Duck Dynasty, this show was made for you. It's another one of those eccentric families in the outdoors business. With names like Uncle Hard Luck, these guys fit right in with the Robertson family over at Duck Dynasty. In fact, they're buddies, and Willie guests in the pilot episode. He'll also pop up later as well. It's the whole A&E family of outdoorsmen as Swamp People's favorite Troy "Shoooooot" Landry comes by a couple of times to visit. It's more down-home reality television and "accidental" humor.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2015
Right off the bat, the first 10-minute flashback in Lost for Words that repeats verbatim at the end could have been left on the cutting room floor. If you’re looking for an in-your-face, action-packed summer blockbuster, this isn’t for you. If you have more sophisticated tastes and are seeking a slow to medium-paced love story that transcends country and race, Lost for Words tells the beautiful bilingual tale of American ex-Marine-now-IT-guru Michael and Chinese modern dance ballerina Anna.
Almost stealing limelight from the story is the incredible backdrop in which the story unfolds. Lost for Words is set against the exotic setting of cosmopolitan and rural Hong Kong. Over 40 days, the cast and crew of Lost for Words travelled across Hong Kong to capture its beauty on film. Though Jimmy Wong, cinematographer, is a veteran of Asian film, this was his first English-language feature film. The contrasting imagery is stunning and rich, and I expect Mr. Wong will be finding more work in American theater.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on June 25th, 2015
“Jihadists are people too!” That’s probably the big, blinking takeaway from Timbuktu, director Abderrahmane Sissako’s Oscar-nominated drama about the occupation of the titular city by extreme Islamists. But it’s also the most reductive possible interpretation of a film that doesn’t shy away from portraying some of the beauty in thoroughly ugly circumstances. More importantly, Timbuktu tells a volatile story with tremendous grace.
“Here, in Timbuktu, he who dedicates himself to religion uses his head and not his weapons.”
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
Design activists Matt and Emily come to a small town in North Carolina which is struggling to get by. Their goal is to start Project H, a design class for high school students, to help get kids interested in school and lift the town out of a recessive period. The students start by building things as simple as a cornhole game, to designing a real building for a farmers market to help the town. Matt and Emily must work against incredible odds, like not getting a salary for their work and an oppressive school board, in order to see this dream come to reality.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 23rd, 2015
"My name is - . This is my true story like it's never been told before."
You can fill in that blank with any one of six names or groups for the first season of Gunslingers. Each episode picks up the story of a legendary icon of the West. We're not talking about the fictionalized characters from the long run of television westerns. These are the real infamous gunfighters whose history has become the stuff of mythology over the years. The episodes are told from the point of view of that week's subject, as played by an actor, of course. Other parts are also played out, but the focus is the point of view of that gunslinger. That means the story is going to be slanted somewhat. To balance that perspective we have input from western historians and even actors who might have portrayed the story in Hollywood. Together with dramatization of the pivotal moments, we get a somewhat unique look at an otherwise widely known story.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2015
by Dustin P. Anderson
Floyd is a down-on-his-luck ex-bank robber who has had enough of his current life and wishes to pull one last heist with his old partner Mitch. The two plan the robbery, quit their meaningless jobs, and complete the job, getting five hundred thousand dollars in cash split between seven cases. After their success, they go to a remote hideout to wait out the authorities and celebrate. The next day, they discover their money is gone and has been replaced with a cassette tape. A voice on the cassette tape tells them that there are torture devices attached to seven people the duo knows, and their cases of money are with them. The two must choose between money and the people that they may care about; if they try to dismantle the devices a bomb will go off that will kill everyone. Can the two put aside their greed in order to save the people they care about?
