This is turning into the Year of the Musical for me. Four of my favorite films of the year are music related.
Inni and Heima are concert films from the group Sigur Ros and have be come my go to films when I just want to chill out. Forget CDs or I-Pods I just go home and throw in one of the films and listen to that as I do chores or work on the blog. Actually I’m listening too much to them since I’m not watching anything else putting future posts in danger of not happening for lack of material. (Heima will be getting a review shortly)
Searching for Sugar Man is the film about Rodriguez that played Tribeca. It’s a film that is truly magical and turned me into a fan of Rodriguez. The fact that I actually got to meet the man and sit with him is nothing compared to just being able to now listen to his once under appreciated songs.
Girl Walk// All Day is a new treasure. Playing the Korean American Film Festival New York (KAFFNY), this is a joyous happy film about three people dancing their way across Manhattan. Driven by Girl Talk’s All Day album this is mashed-up dance trip across the city by a wonderful mash up album. The film is playing at the festival on June 6 at 8PM at White Space and it’s something that you’ll want to see on a big screen with big sound. I’m guessing that the audience won’t be seated for very long. (A review will follow shortly- I'm due to speak with the director tomorrow)
At this point I need to point out that with May rapidly running out it’s almost time for two film festivals to fill the first weeks of June.
The Brooklyn Film Festival starts June 1st and runs to the 10th. I’m planning on hitting a few films during the early days of the festival and I suggest you do too. Details and tickets here.
KAFFNY overlaps Brooklyn during the second half of the week starting June 5 and running to the 10th. Having already screened several of the titles I need to say you really need to be making an effort to attend. The films they are screening are for the most part excellent. While I will be running reviews closer to time, I'll tease you and say you really should make an effort to see Girl Walk// All Day (see above), and you should also try and see Ultimate Christian Wrestling. UCW was supposed to be a snide look at some people using wrestling to spread the word of god, instead it’s a moving portrait of three men trying to do their best to just get by. It’s a small treasure that will worm its way into your heart. As I said full reviews are coming. Get your tickets now, you want to be there. Info here.
You should make an effort to read Peter Gutierrez's two part piece on the film Chronicle and why we respond to it. I have a review in the cue of the film, but Peter'spiece is something more than a review and is light years beyond my piece, explaining the entire found footage genre beautifully. Part one is here and Part two is here.
I finally saw Dark Shadows last night. My bitching about Tim Burton seems to have been well founded. The man needs to be slapped up side the head, preferably with a large fish.
What the hell did he do? He has this great gothic horror movie that he keeps stopping for stupid humor. That's where I keep my macrame? Really?
The over produced prologue gives way to a moody opening on a train. Its absolutely amazing and shows what the film could have been. Then Victoria gets to Collinwood and it becomes a series of great sequences that end in a joke. It might have worked if the jokes were clever but they aren't.
I suppose I should be glad its not a a full on comedy since it would have been sub-Uwe Boll.
Earlier today I saw Battleship. It's another alien invasion story ala Skyline,War of the Worlds or Battle Los Angeles but set of Hawaii. Its also so much better than those films...at least the set pieces are.
The plot goes something along the lines of we send out a message to a far off planet and then they come and visit. Things happen and next thing you know we're at war. Into the mix add a slacker, with a heroic brother in love with the Admiral's daughter and you have an idea of how some of this is going to go.
The set up and some of the linking material isn't very good. Its beyond cliche, and if you missed the first 20 minutes of the film you could pick it up and not have missed anything. Once the action starts this film is gangbusters and it's easily the best of similar alien invasion stories over the last say five years. It works so well that even when the old salts end up recruited to help stem the alien invasion you're ready to go along with it (and of course it helps that they are great characters).
Did I need to see this in a theater. No. Did I have a good time. yes.
I think that's it for tonight. I'm sure there is more I could prattle on about but I won't. (Though you should try Beyond the Black Rainbow which has hit theaters and which is where it must be seen)
(This weeks films are a bunch of titles most of which I recently took a look at)
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