Archives for bloghouse

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

The Person I am When No One is Looking (2019)

Unrated

An exploration into the aching desire for fame in the age of social media, The Person I am When No One is Looking gets a boost from its lead actor (and director Kailee McGee) and its meta-humor.

The short film is narrated in voiceover by the person we’re watching as she directly addresses the audience watching her. Kailee’s eager for stardom and boasts of her social media following—which isn’t really that large, but larger enough to give her hope. The back of her car is filled with empty cans of Lacroix, of course, and parking violations, but she looks and plays the part of a star.

We sense that looking and playing that part is an essential component. Kailee tells us how she fakes injuries for attention and regales us of her arbitrary tattoos and keepsakes. It’s funny stuff because it’s played straight and delivered precisely in continuous voiceover. We began to wonder why the voiceover is necessary when the actor can just talk directly into the camera, but then she tells us she want her story narrated like a movie. I don’t know if that makes sense, but it’s funny.

We’re swept along on this journey as we meet her equally vapid half-siblings and best friend. There are glamorous photo shoots and dueling bloggers and selfies overlooking L.A. at sundown. And let’s pause to admire an abrupt dance interlude that’s ridiculous for the character, but an impressive feat by the actor. Our star just can’t get enough traction on social media. Maybe a short film shown at a film festival (the one she’s living and we’re watching) can do the trick.

The film is a marvel of editing from Rich Costales: slyly making us believe it’s as capricious as most mishmash social media editing, but there’s real skill behind what we’re watching. Note the jilted girl montage. Even as she’s bummed by rejection from her crush, Kailee can’t help but to goose her followers stats by adding adroit posing and music to the proceedings. It’s real-deal filmmaking posing as slapdash social media shenanigans.

Kailee McGee is superb at blurring the line between documentary and fiction in a town where it doesn’t matter. Her quick wit and excellent delivery turn The Person I am When No One is Looking from a creative exercises into an insightful critique of our lust for fame. There is no person when no one is looking, McGee’s performance suggests. In this day and age, she may have a point.

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

Philophobia (2019)

Unrated

Fablemaze

Deep longing permeates nearly ever scene of Guy Davies’ new film Philophobia. And why wouldn’t it? The drama details the coming-of-age of an assortment of teenagers in a small town in the English countryside. It’s well-trodden material that we expect to veer into either sex comedy, feel-good love tale or unexpected tragedy. We get a bit of all of that, but Davies’ velvet-hammer touch amplifies a raw, naturalistic depiction of withering adolescence; well-rounded, stirring performances further elevate the proceedings.

As the school year wanes, we follow several kids awaiting summer. Some, more than others, are ripe to escape not just the school year, but the provincial, listless town that’s squeezing the life out of them.

Kai (Joshua Glenister) certainly seems to have a bright future. He’s a writer with burgeoning talent, despite his fears of pushing through his insecurities. Kai hangs with and gets high with Sammy and Megsy. Sammy (Charlie Frances) drives a milk truck and initially seems to balance his dreams and reality. Megsy (Jack Gouldbourne) is the stereotypical foulmouthed, loud-speaking, trouble-seeker who seems to exist to constantly plunge his friends into unnecessary situations. It’s a testament to Gouldbourne’s performance that Megsy ultimately escapes the archetype foisted upon him.

The boys make up the heart of the film. There’s not a misstep in their performances. It’s interesting that each of the boys is being raised by single mothers. There are adult male influences—good and bad—to be found, including a fed-up policeman and a writing teacher who practices tough love with Kai.

The three main protagonists plug into a wider group of peers who are strategizing their senior prank. Despite various characters moving in and out of scenes, Davies connects us to them (and to a broader sense of longing youths) with strong dialogue and by resisting pushing them beyond their unfocused immature existences.

Into the mix tumbles Grace (Kim Spearman), a beautiful, pensive, mysterious girl who lives directly across the street from Kai. Of course he peeks at her through her window as she undresses. But it’s not simply lust. For quite some time Kai has loved Grace from a distance. She’s smart enough to be aware of his desire and talents, and insecure enough to be entangled in a relationship with the monstrous Kenner. Older, bigger, braver and crueler than the high schoolers around him, Kenner tears through the film like a bull in a teashop, leaving most scenes full of broken china by the time he’s done. Alexander Lincoln plays him with virtually no outward redeeming qualities. His relationship with Grace is one of dominance; with the boys one of neck-stomping Alpha-male humiliation. There’s some sad, distant longing within him, but Kenner’s not going to let us anywhere near it.

One other character is a stag. The majestic creature, usually only seen by Kai, shows up fleetingly at key junctures. I didn’t completely buy the intent of the stag; it seemed more a setup for a late scene of tragedy than providing any real connective tissue to the post-adolescence milieu so well constructed.

Otherwise, the film takes the characters through their paces—there’s a love triangle; a sociopath about to boil over; a make-or-break final exam; a school prank that’s constantly in flux; and a reckoning to grow up for each of the protagonists. We observe the youths at house parties, packed around lunch tables, scattered in classrooms; hiding out on rooftops, frolicking at the lake. All the while, the dialogue and performances pull us to invest in these gatherings. Davies has an ear for dialogue. I especially liked Kai’s moments of poetic voiceovers that speak not only to his worldview, but his knack for spinning words. His speaks to an inner boy who knows there’s a world waiting for the man he will soon become … if he can hold things together long enough to make it out of his town. He carries a dictionary with words underlined and his own notes scribbled in the margins.

Suspense comes in the form of afternoon getaway in which Megsy’s goaded into bringing along his deceased brother’s rifle, and when a senior prank seems to take a dark turn. Davies allows each scene to defy expectations by tweaking them with humor. The Kai-Grace love story is complex in the subtext of abuse, abandonment and self-loathing, but affecting in the outward attempts of the lovers to connect. We see possible redemptions for each of them in their coupling. Spearman and Glenister are excellent in all scenes together. We get a couple of dark turns in the finale I suppose we should have seen coming, but that ultimately reaffirms love and friendship.

We consider one of Kai words “philophobia,” the fear of falling in love. Late in the film we realize especially Kai and Grace, but most of the character, are locked in place by fear. The film seems to speak to the specific period of our youth when we confront and/or retreat from encroaching adulthood, knowing—as all teens do—that a better life awaits outside of our familiar spaces. If only we can summon the means to take the plunge.

 

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

Impossible Monsters (2019)

Rated R

In the first scenes of Impossible Monsters, an attractive woman passes through a narrow alleyway, making her way to mysterious lounge and into a hidden room. The way the tracking-shot scene is lit and tightly framed, backed by a crescendoing soundtrack, evokes a creepy dreamlike quality. The scene that immediately follows is the opposite: clean and clear and shot close up. Now, the woman’s grooming herself before the bathroom mirror … until she gets the urge to start pulling out her teeth in a bloody mess. It’s soon revealed as a nightmare. So, we’ve gone from a dreamlike scene that was actually reality (we later learn), to a reality-like scene that’s actually the dream. This blurring of waking and dreaming moments will pervade this cerebral thriller. Characters often occupy scenes walking a knife’s edge between what’s real and imagined.

Director Nathan Catucci has seeded his film in those opening sequences. Now, we are introduced to other main characters.

Otis (Dónall Ó Héalai) is a brooding, laconic painter whose artwork seems borne from a landscape of nightmares. For me his work evokes body horror. He sits alone in a small diner that’s obviously influenced by Edward Hopper’s iconic “Nighthawks” painting, but this might be a dream. Otis is suffering from insomnia, you see, which is affecting his work. He’s referred to a second character, Rich Freeman (Santino Fontana), a college psychology professor specializing in sleep paralysis. Into Rich’s class walks Jo (Devika Bhise), the woman from the opening. Soon, Rich has secured grant money for a group study on the sleep disorder, which ultimately includes Jo and Otis.

Two important minor characters include, Charlie (Chris Henry Coffey) and Leigh (Natalie Knepp). He is a professional rival to Rich, who is revealed to have deeper, darker motivations as the film unspools. She is social worker, a quiet cutie who falls for Rich, and seems to harbor secrets.

With the characters in place, the plot begins to spin them in and out of each other’s orbits, even as reality and dreams began to overlap. We are certainly primed for a lover’s triangle, as each of the males are drawn to Jo; she too is attracted to Otis’ dark, reckless persona and Rich’s comforting intellect. Did I mention that Jo is a student by day and an escort by night? Or that there’s a possible serial killer on the loose in the city? Rich is repeatedly courted by another university through a former colleague. There’s a sense that this represents a road not taken by Rich, and in hindsight might have been his best bet.

Catucci’s film is mainly a psychological drama, but eventually its thriller aspects kick in when one of the characters is murdered and another is framed for the death. Indeed, all along there have been sinister character motivations beneath the proceedings, but only Charlie’s are made manifest. The other characters—often facing themselves in the mirror—remain ambivalent throughout, struggling with regrets or secrets that strike out at them from their dream states. A dogged detective on the case (Geoffrey Owens, The Cosby Show) may have bitten off more than he can chew.

The cast is very good, with each actor finding the right notes at portraying the duality of their characters’ beleaguered realities while toying with their darkest natures in the dream worlds. Fontana is particularly good as a seemingly stable, straight-laced man whose darker nature makes us bristle precisely because we buy into his fundamental goodness. Bhise’s Jo could have a movie of her own. Her character is smart, but reckless, icy, but vulnerable.

The sound and camera work are superb. The look of the film is exquisite. Whether it’s beautiful college campus architecture or slick art gallery fetes or ominous sex lounges, the cinematography shines. The beauty of reality is repeatedly contrasted with off-kilter atmosphere (desaturated tones, snakes, slow motion) of dream worlds.

You might not get all the answers you’re looking for, or even those the characters are seeking, but like a dream, Impossible Monsters has an intangible texture that lingers even after it has ended.

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Award, Film festival, Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

The Magical Mystery of Musigny (2018)

Unrated

Here we have a beautiful, simple black and white animated short film codirected by John Meyer and Emmett Goodman. Meyer, whose voice was made for audiobooks, also narrates. Every word is annunciated with the precision of an orator.

An award-winner on the film festival circuit, Magical Mystery is cleverly inked on cocktail napkins. Every now and again we get a pull-back that reveals the napkins among an arrangement of plates and utensils on a table.

The wonderfully descriptive language is sure to please oenophiles: “the angle of the vineyard hill (of limestone soil) provides excellent drainage.”

A turning point for John arrives at a wine-tasting event, when he imbibes the perfect vintage 1969 Musigny Burgundy. The sip transports him to a shimmering riverbank in Russia as colorful “onion spires of a Russian church” pop up around him. The transcendent serenity of the experience is lost on John’s wife, Suzie. Of course it would. She finds John’s musings on wine pretentious—and the wine itself a nonstarter for his attempts at lovemaking.

A turning point for Suzie comes during dinner at a bistro. She tries the special, a Auxey-Duress, and has an epiphany of her own—scored by the “1812 Overture,” and conducted by Serge Koussevitzky! Ah, finally, a meeting of minds. John gets the last laugh and, it seems, some overdue loving.

The film is wonderful in its construction, execution, scoring and narration. It leaves you with a smile on your face and an urge to reach for the vino.

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

 

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Film festival, Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

3100: Run and Become (2018)

Unrated

Illumine Group

We meet Finnish runner Ashprihanal Aalto in his sparse home eating Ramon noodles right out of the pot. The 45-year-old paperboy is soon to compete in New York’s Self-Transcendence 3,100 Mile race, the longest certified road race in the world. As the window for running such marathons is beginning to close for him, Aalto states his goal as using the race to become a better person. Indeed, the race is promoted as one that leaves its participants “changed.”

The man’s idol is famed Indian spiritualist and runner Sri Chinmoy, who saw “no barrier between spirituality and athletics.” The late Chinmoy founded the race, in its 20th year at the time of the filming.

CHECK OUT MY INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR SANJAY RAWAL

The participants are an array of accomplished runners from across the global. Aalto himself is a top-ranked runner who set the record at last year’s race. Now, about this race: the runners must run 60 miles a day, for as long as 52 days, around a half-mile loop in New York, totaling 3,100 miles.

We immediately become aware of the small number of competitors, a dozen, surely a sign of how daunting this run must be. What we aren’t aware of is how Run and Become will take us beyond these city blocks, beyond this race and on a more expansive journey.

The documentary dispenses helpful factoids via screen text: volunteers provide food and medical assistance; runners must consume more than 10,000 calories daily; the race course is open from 6 a.m. to midnight each day. Chinmoy’s legacy is on vivid display. His portrait and posters can’t be missed. He’s quoted in voiceover throughout the film. Meditation is encouraged as much as staying hydrated. A volunteer choir along the route sings of “give and take,” “never quitting,” and “being brave.”

The film is essentially a day-by-day diary for some runners and a peek into some of their lives. Running’s presented as more than a hobby for these folks. It’s more of a deep dive within themselves, a meditation. Runners are seeking meaning and connection, it seems. “Pray through your feet, your breath,” they are told.

Director Sanjay Rawal’s film utilizes wonderful camera movement at ground level, sometimes in lockstep with the runners. The summer days in the city’s concrete jungle are brightly captured: trees between the sidewalks, fenced-in basketball courts, caution barricades and parked cars and buses. Later we’ll see equally impressive camerawork (by Sean Kirby) on African plains, in a Japanese temple and mountains and across exquisite Arizona deserts. Michael A. Levine’s music is understated and blends wonderfully with crosscutting between various locales; it puts the film on a grander scale.

Run and Become invites us to see the Great Good of running as the film reveals its impact across the globe.

In Africa, original tribes ran to hunt, in other words, they ran for their very survival. Bushmen connect hunting and running and spirituality. Once hunting is banned in their indigenous lands, it triggers a conflict for their way of life. Now the Bushmen feel forced to rely upon the government for survival. This is a blow not only to a way of life, but to a sense of sovereignty and dignity.

In Japan, Buddhist monks circle a mountain in search of enlightenment, undertaking a task not unlike the Self-Transcendence runners. Miles and miles of movement and prayer, totaling a seven-year challenge for monks like Ajari Mitsunaga. For Mitsunaga, the path was chosen, the hardships accepted and now he hands his wisdom down to others.

On an Arizona Navajo reservation, we learn of how thousands of Native American children were forced to attend government boarding schools. The children were taught America history that was not their own and not allow to speak their native language. A Navajo descendant Shaun Martin undertakes a ceremonial run from the school to his family’s ancestral home 110 miles away. The run honors his father and others who tried to escape the school. Again, we see a link between running and spiritually as Martin prays for strength and guidance before he proceeds.

Our star, Aalto, is a titan in an unassuming package. He looks plain, he speaks and acts plainly. It is running that defines him. He is described by an admirer as a “bird,” “tiny,” but “physically and mentally” the best for such a task. The film offers a brief and sweet moment between Aalto and his sister in which we come to understand the runner’s motivations.

The hazards of Self-Transcendence are real. We are concerned for Austrian cellist Shamita, who is known for pushing herself beyond her limits. Years ago, she barely survived a difficult marathon. Her daughter worries about the Self-Transcendence. Rightfully so. It’s difficult to watch the effects of the run overwhelm her physical—if not mental—capabilities. We see how the run takes its toll on other participants. Too exhausted to eat, physically rundown, emotionally broken. We are impressed by their commitment and concerned about what they’re doing to their bodies and minds. But they seem driven by a purpose higher than physical worries.

A masterful montage sequence links images of Japanese countryside, an African sunset and Martin’s run through the sprawling Arizona desert (drone photography is especially captivating here), while the soundtrack is filled with Shamita’s perfect cello.

A bit of suspense arrives during the final laps of the race as the gap between the top two runners narrows to a single mile. In the end there is no prize money; of course not. No one runs Self-Transcendence for financial rewards.

 

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

Talking to Director Anne de Mare

Posted on by in Film festival, History, Information, Interview, Politics | Comments Off on Talking to Director Anne de Mare

A FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE BRINGS NEW DOCUMENTARY

2016 Election Inspires Director Anne de Mare to Deepen Film on Voting Protection

Election Protection LLC/Providence Productions

A project begun small and intimate for director Anne de Mare and reshaped by a troubling political climate into a full-fledged feature documentary, has become as timely as the latest headlines about red and blue states, election fraud and voter disenfranchisement.

Capturing the Flag, a Providence Productions featuring tireless voter protection volunteers, was originally intended as a short film, according to de Mare.

CHECK OUT MY REVIEW OF CAPTURING THE FLAG

“The story came to us through the lead character, Laverne Berry,” she says. Indeed Berry, a Brooklyn-based entertainment lawyer and volunteer protection worker, makes for an interesting subject.

Years ago at a polling site, Berry had an epiphany watching a janitor fashion a pushcart and chair into a transportation system for woman who struggled to walk to the polling booth. The experience drove Berry get more involved in volunteering. She also is a producer of the documentary.

“We set out to do a short film, but the tenor of the [2016] election brought things down to the fundamental issues of voting and democracy,” de Mare says. “It feels like something fundamental changed in our nation.”

And so the project was fundamentally changed, expanding to a full-length film, which follows three additional volunteers and encompasses a broader scope in detailing and investigating voter suppression.

“I think when we talk about voter suppression people think of the civil rights era and Jim Crow,” de Mare says. Shameful past efforts to deny a democratic voice to minorities was blatant. “Modern voter suppression is insidious. There are barriers combined with legislation that targets a specific group. People don’t really realize what’s happening.” They are sent to wrong polling places, intimidated because of past legal issues, deluded of their power through gerrymandering.

De Mare adds, “Making this film I learned that the battle that happens at the polls is vital.”

Despite its scope, the film maintains a level of intimacy through its on-the-ground, person-to-person perspective. If we’re given insight into voter suppression methods and historical context of disenfranchisement, the film is mostly concerned with how workaday folks, the power of regular people, make a difference.

Volunteer voter protection worker, Brooklyn-based entertainment lawyer and producer of Capturing the Flag, Laverne Berry. Photo credit: Nelson Walker III

“They care!” de Mare says. “Volunteers lobby for people to vote—to protect everyone’s rights. People have to be involved to decide elections.”

The controversial subject matter of voter suppression might seem an odd choice for a New York-based artist whose previous career involved theatrical works. “People don’t go to the theater anymore,” de Mare says. “They go to see films.” Her debut film, The Homestretch(2014), documented three homeless Chicago teenagers fighting to stay in school. The film, co-directed with Kirsten Kelly, garnered acclaim, including an Emmy.

After watching minority voters not being able to cast ballots and reliving the 2016 election, de Mare was asked how we inspire those who may be ground down by apathy?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” de Mare replies. She cites organizations like Democracy North Carolina that works to register voters as well as get them to the polls. The organization also pushes for legislation.

“I think it’s a model for what we need to look at.”

Looking ahead, de Mare has plans to rework her documentary for educational purposes.

“We’re hoping to create an hour-long ‘cut-down’ for educational use so that the film can be used by people involved in this kind of work.”

Also down the road is a historical film documenting women who worked in munitions factories during World War II, and a co-directing effort (with Kirsten Kelly) that looks at an interesting intersection of domestic violence and law enforcement.

Capturing the Flag has its world premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2018.

 

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

Down with the Fallen debuts Nov. 7

Posted on by in Books, Short story, Writing | Comments Off on Down with the Fallen debuts Nov. 7

My story “Grandfather’s Room” appears in the post-apocalyptic horror anthology, Down with the Fallen, edited by Jordon Greene and available Nov. 7 from Franklin/Kerr Press. Click here to order. To read an excerpt, click here.

Quik Flix Hit

Posted on by in Movies | Comments Off on Quik Flix Hit

Video review

Kept Boy (2017)

Unrated

Breaking Glass Pictures

Kept Boy steadily endeared me to its character as it rolled along. The gay romantic comedy is definitely funny, and its breezy pace kept me involved despite my initial reservations with the clichéd characters: the rich, aging sugar daddy; his buff mindless kept man-child; his brash male housekeeper; and the new stud who lobs himself into the mix like a live grenade.

Out now on DVD and VOD, the film, director by George Bamber (a veteran assistant director, moving to the big chair here), won me over despite its expected love triangle; it gets a mighty lift from humor and his actors.

We meet Farleigh (Thure Riefenstein) and Dennis (Jon Paul Phillips) during what must be a routine house party. We sense they’ve been living this way for years: the swimming pool fetes, limitless bottle of wine and champagne, flashy name-dropping guests. The men seem tired, disconnected, and suspicious that something’s changing between them.

Farleigh is the celebrity breadwinner, the aging host of a once-popular home-design reality TV show. In his tailored suits, deliberate speech and accoutrements of importance, Farleigh plays his role of parent/husband/alpha male in a house of flighty men. Dennis is the kept boy of the title, having long been faithful in his role of eye candy companion (his skills are working out and pouring drinks). Not to be forgotten is Javi, the multiple hyphened helpmate who, Dennis learns belatedly, was the previous kept boy. Javi (Deosick Burney) could be the stereotypical funny black guy, but the script gives Java a couple of nice scenes to discuss his role in Farleigh’s life and Burney elevates the character.

How long was this makeshift family going to last? Fading youth and stagnant routine have a way pecking at longtime lovers, doesn’t it? When Farleigh urges Dennis to get a job and announces he’s selling the Porsche (ostensibly Dennis’ car) Dennis draws out of his lover that their halcyon days may be waning. Farleigh’s carrying massive debt and his ratings-challenge TV show appears to be in its final season.

More troubling to Dennis, who’s completely without job skills, is Farleigh’s interest in the younger, handsome Jasper (Greg Audino), Farleigh’s pool boy turned sudden assistant for the TV show.

Farleigh and Jasper seem to flirt in plain sight, which Dennis absorbs with brutal dignity. But Dennis is not without weapons in this battle. He knows Farleigh’s weak spots and can intuit his sugar daddy’s reactions like nobody’s business.

The film grows interesting because Farleigh, Dennis and Jasper are as self-aware of their roles as we are. Farleigh and Dennis each seem to realize what they had for years is coming to an end—or a transition neither wants to face. They’re playing their roles, but also preparing for life without each other. Beefcake Jasper, more calculating than we initially expect, has sincere motivations. The lovers’ triangle is put through its sexual paces; each combination gets a shot at getting busy.

Bamber’s film has a couple of surprises up its sleeve. A getaway island trip—make or break, as far as Dennis is concerned—teeters fascinatingly between slapstick and drama, culminating in abrupt violence and gunplay. A sweet, quiet, honest long-in-the-coming discussion between Farleigh and Dennis ends with a turn that deepens the proceedings. The island drama notwithstanding, much of the film flows by on strong currents of humor, aided by the likability of the characters. Speaking of likable characters, let’s give shout-outs to Dennis’ lonely-hearts kept-mates, Lonnie (John-Michael Carlton) and Paulette (Toni Romano-Cohen): he, hanging on to his rich-widow sourpuss; she, bemoaning her lot as an aging trophy-gal. The trio slurps mixed drinks in various lounges while strategizing—with well-timed, hilarious dialogue—their next moves as the users who have become the used.

Dennis, most importantly, takes on unexpected dimensions from Phillips’ assured performance, and final scenes between he and Javi, then he and Jasper, really feel authentic, taking the film farther away than expected from its opening scenes of debauched cliché.

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive

DOWN with Grandfather

Posted on by in Books, Short story, Writing | Comments Off on DOWN with Grandfather

Excited that my story “Grandfather’s Room” was selected for the upcoming post-apocalyptic horror anthology, Down with the Fallen, from Franklin/Kerr Press.

THE FIELD among Year’s Best Horror

Posted on by in Books, Information, Short story, Writing | Comments Off on THE FIELD among Year’s Best Horror

The Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 2 is out now! The anthology, edited by Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax from Comet Press, includes my short story “The Field.” Get your copy NOW!

← Older posts