“Ask Me Anything” qualifies as “serious,” funny, and touching cinema, so when it opens on December 19, you should watch it. Then, blog about it.
Author: Leo Sopicki
I focus my creative efforts on celebrating the American virtues of self-reliance, individual initiative, volunteerism, tolerance and a healthy suspicion of power and authority. I write about other subjects at my personal blog
(http://leosopicki.com/). I also have a Martian friend who posts here: https://leoofmars.com/ .
Family Film Fest: Zane and Eastwood Help Producer Pull-off Hat Trick
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Two famous Hollywood names, Zane and Eastwood, helped producer Jeffery Patterson score a hat trick (the hockey kind, not the cowboy kind), winning two awards at the International Family Film Festival this month in Hollywood, California. Patterson won the Best Feature Drama award for Hot Bath an’ a Stiff Drink, and […]
‘Cocktails and Camouflage’ Comedy Show Raises Money to Employ Veterans in Film and Television
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Cocktails & Camouflage was an evening of laughter, memories, and hope at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, California, on November 6, 2014. The laughter came because on the surface it was a night of stand-up and a darn funny one at that. Emceed by KLOS radio personality Frazer Smith and headlining […]
Family Film Festival: ‘Centurion AD’ and ‘Leaving Limbo’
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Two films at the International Family Film Festival, Centurion AD and Leaving Limbo took two radically different paths to get you in touch with things spiritual, although they both involved a character out of their normal place in time. Centurion AD is billed as a sci-fi action adventure, set in current […]
IFFF: The Kid-Safe Hollywood Film Festival
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Not everything that comes out of Hollywood is full of sex, violence, and drugs. That is especially true of the 19th annual International Family Film Festival (IFFF), which took place at Hollywood’s Raleigh Studios (the former United Artists lot), November 7-9, 2014. The IFFF (“I triple F” is the cool kid […]
CITIZENFOUR
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when history was made? CITIZENFOUR gives you that opportunity. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras has created a truly unique documentary in her film about Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) employee who felt morally obligated to expose surveillance being done on Americans. The film is special in several ways: how it came about, its structure, and its subject.
White Bird in a Blizzard
White Bird in a Blizzard, written and directed by Gregg Araki, adapted from a novel by Laura Kasischke, is like an ultra-realistic painting of a bloody car crash. You can almost smell the smoke and the blood. This is a film you can praise for its technical and storytelling virtuosity, without saying that watching it was an enjoyable experience.
Automata
Forty years into the future, an Earth scared by massive solar flares sets the stage for a film-noir sci-fi adventure, which is at once both new and familiar. Automata, written and directed by Gabe Ibáñez, evokes both Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot and Philip K. Dick’s Blade Runner, but goes much deeper in its exploration of what it means to be human. In this future world, a much diminished human race is served by a multitude of robots provided by the ROC Corporation.
Motivational Growth
Motivational Growth could be performed as a stage play, if it wasn’t for that heads-blowing-up thing. Written and directed by Don Thacker, Motivational Growth takes us into the twisted mind and apartment of Ian Folivor, played by Adrian DiGiovanni. Ian hasn’t left his apartment in 62 weeks. Then his 1960s era TV goes on the fritz, and his world goes crazy. Well, crazier.
Honeymoon
Honeymoon, the directing debut for Leigh Janiak, breaks the rules and it breaks them in exactly the right way.
The trailer and the first act make it look like you’re about to see another “bloody teenager” movie. There’s the young, charming, horny couple. There’s a cabin in the woods. There’s even a crystal clear lake. But, director/writer Janiak and co-writer Phil Graziadei do what you are supposed to with a perfect genre set-up. They spin it in an unexpected direction.
Jamie Marks Is Dead
Jamie Marks is Dead, a Sundance Selection, is bound to become a cult classic for its deep, moody, scary, and seductive tale of adolescent confusion carried over into the world of the dead. It is based on the novel One for Sorrow by Christopher Barzak.
Anthem Film Fest: Countryside vs. City – Two Wars
An attack on Vietnam veterans – I suddenly felt like I was back at UCLA in 1971. Beyond Courage: Surviving Vietnam as a POW brought back questions, controversies, and anger from a war which was the model for the Chinese Communist vision of the peasants in the countryside rising up and overcoming the city. Empire State Divide brought viewers into the world of today and a war by the city on the countryside.
Anthem Film Fest: Mind Reboot
Two of the documentaries at the Anthem Film Festival caused my brain to do a reboot.
Anthem Film Fest: ‘Cough’ – A Must-Watch for Filmmakers
This is an amazing 11 minutes of film. In the space within which most films are still on the titles, Australian Writer/Director Jason Kempnich gives us a “save the cat” moment, a character flaw (despair), an inciting incident, a character arc, conflict and a resolution. And the special effects are good, too. I saw Cough at the Anthem […]
Anthem Film Fest: A Dark Future, but with a Few Laughs
Two films — two questions about America’s future
Anthem Film Fest – ‘America: Imagine the World Without Her’
It is a rare experience to have a documentary film move you emotionally as narrative films often do. New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza’s defense of America did just that.
Anthem Film Festival – Yes, the NSA is Listening
If you thought Edward Snowden was the first NSA whistle blower, you need to see this film.
‘Premature’ – Dan Beers’ Directing Debut
There is a fine line between comedy and tragedy
Film Distribution Workshop with Gravitas
Melanie Miller is responsible for distributing 500 films per year, reaching 100 million homes in North America.
Academy Award Winner Dan Lindsay Shares His Story
Undefeated takes viewers on a journey with the 2009 Manassas High School Tigers football team from North Memphis, Tennessee, as they struggle to win the first playoff game in the school’s 110 year existence.