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.
Two films — two questions about America’s future
(First published on blogcritics.org) Opening night of the 2013 Film Independent (FIND) Forum, a three-day intensive on filmmaking at the Directors Guild on Sunset Boulevard, featured a preview of Dallas Buyers Club and a question and answer session with its producers, Robbie Brenner (Escape Plan, Immortals) andRachel Winter (Brooklyn Rules, The Lather Effect). Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Jered Leto,Dallas Buyers […]
(First published on blogcritics.org) There no shortage of either documentaries or polemics at the Anthem Film Festival, and they serve their role to advance the cause of Libertarian thought. But, and I heard this message last year and even more this year, before you can have an impact on the political system, you must change […]
Originally published on blogcritics.org Writer/director David Lowery has what seems like a cliché story. In 1970s Texas, an outlaw escapes from prison to find the wife and the daughter he’s never met. But Lowery paints this story with a different, intimate, film-noir brush. Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints opened at the LA Film Festival Saturday, June 15. He is aided in […]
(First published on blogcritics.org) I don’t like hippies or recreational drug use and that’s what Sebastián Silva’s Crystal Fairy is all about. Strangely, I enjoyed the film and recommend it. Part of the Los Angeles Film Festival Summer Showcase series, Crystal Fairy chronicles the road-trip and psychedelic-trip adventures of Jamie, played by Michael Cera, (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Arrested […]
(First published on blogcritics.org) Hey, screenwriters and filmmakers, here’s a challenge for you. Make a movie about WWII, but with no battles. Make it a mystery, but assume the audience knows how it turns out. Make it a love story, but tell it completely in flashbacks. Make it a film about soldiers, but no gutsy infantryman […]
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Someone whose name has been lost in time said, “Pain reminds us we’re alive — love reminds us why.” Based on this observation, it’s safe to say that the characters in debut Director Dennis Lee’s Fireflies in the Garden are very much alive. Fireflies in the Garden sets us down in a family reunion […]
(Originally published on blogcritics.org) Producer John Aglialoro obtained the rights to Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged 18 years ago. Several attempts to move forward with the film failed. In April 2010, he called Harmon Kaslow and told him he had three months to start filming or the rights world revert to Ayn Rand’s literary estate. By June, the […]
(Originally published on blogcritics.org) Cold Weather, which opens at LA’s Laemmle Sunset 5 Theater Friday, February 11, is not your typical American movie, despite the fact that it takes place in Portland, Oregon, with an all-American cast and a purportedly Raymond-Chandler-like plot line. It left me dazed and confused, but, in a good way. This was not a […]
The Interrogation, written by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Lilly Thomassian,debuted January 9 at the monthly meeting of the Alameda Writers Group. The short subject film deals with the interrogation of an Iraqi woman by an American soldier, but the reason for the interrogation is left vague. The focus of this study is not about politics or military […]