Drama Film Festival

LA Film Fest: Kiernan Shipka of ‘Mad Men’ and Meg Ryan make ‘Fan Girl’ Fun

Leo SopickiComment(0)

‘Fan Girl’, by director Paul Jarrett and screenwriter Gina O’Brien, was a total trip when it premiered at the LA Film Festival. A “trip”? Dude, that’s so last century. If there is anything this movie isn’t, it’s last century. Fan Girl is a winner of a movie because of the writing, the casting, and the acting. If all that works together, the director deserves credit as well. On the surface Fan Girl is a story of teenager Telulah Farrow, played by Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men, Flowers in the Attic), who adulates the punk band All Time Low. She thinks she needs to connect with the band and create a music video for her filmmaking class to launch her movie career. What she really needs, and the story beneath the surface, is to learn what is really important in human relationships.
Film Festival Horror

LA Film Fest: Tying People Up for Laughs and Revenge

Leo SopickiComment(0)

I’m making sure the windows are locked tonight. Three consecutive films I viewed at the Los Angeles Film Festival, June 10-18, dealt with tying people up. Not in a nice way, but at least in two cases, a funny way. ‘Caught’ tells the tale of a teen having an affair with a married man who is kidnapped by the man’s wife and, among other things, tied up. In ‘Shevenge’, three BFFs fantasize about how to punish men, which involves tying them up. In ‘Old Tricks’, a burglar learns that you should never try to steal from a retired magician and escape artist. They’re kind of hard to tie up.
Film Festival Filmmaking

DWF: Three Shorts – Fantasy, Love and Our Fragile Grasp on Reality

Leo SopickiComment(0)

Why do filmmakers create short films? Sometimes they are truly motivated to tell a story which only fits in a short format. Other times, it is to show off their skills in order to establish their credentials. Once in a while, they may make a short version of a film that they ultimately want to turn into a feature length production. At this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) festival, held in Hollywood in June, the selection of short films was impressive and contained examples which both fit into and transcended the above reasons. Three films I found impressive all dealt with our perception of what is real: ‘Funny Love,’ ‘Waste Paper,’ and ‘Waiting for You.’
Drama Family Film Festival

‘Wildlike’ – A Journey through Loss and Abuse to Redemption

Leo SopickiComment(0)

‘Wildlike’, a film by writer/director Frank Hall Green, was shown during the eighteenth Dances With Films (DWF) indie-film festival in Hollywood. Dances With Films promotes itself as relying on “innovation, talent, creativity and sweat equity” rather than celebrity. All those good qualities are evident in ‘Wildlike’. The film has an intriguing story, great characters and an interesting production history.
Action Drama

‘Kidnapping Mr. Heineken’ – Anthony Hopkins Gets Kidnapped by Sam Worthington

Leo SopickiComment(0)

How much is the life of a billionaire worth? That and other questions about life, relationships, and greed are explored inKidnapping Mr. Heineken, staring Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Lion in Winter, Silence of the Lambs) as Dutch beer entrepreneur Alfred “Freddy” Heineken, and Jim Sturgess (The Other Boleyn Girl, Cloud Atlas) and Sam Worthington (Avatar, Clash of the Titans) as the brains behind the grab.

Directed by Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest), this film is not the typical “heist flick” in the Oceans 11-The Italian Job genre. It goes much deeper.
Drama Romance SXSW

SXSW: ‘Manglehorn’ – Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, and a Cat

Leo SopickiComment(0)

Most movies are the merging of technology and short stories, novels or sagas. Manglehorn is technology merged with a poem. It is the story of a locksmith who has lost the love of his life because of something he has done and lives in self-imposed isolation. Manglehorn has constructed a cocoon of memories and fantasies, keeping his son, a former protégé, and the hope of new love at arm’s length.
Film Festival Horror Science Fiction SXSW

SXSW: Christian Slater and Lucy Lawless Get Creepy in ‘Mr Robot’ and ‘Salem’

Leo SopickiComment(0)

Christian Slater and Lucy Lawless were on hand at SXSW 2015 to explain just why they are so creepy. Not, personally, of course, but in their new roles. Slater in the new sci-fi series Mr. Robot (SXSW Audience Award Winner – Episodic) premiering on USA Network. Lucy Lawless (Xena, Spartacus) joins the cast of WGN America’s Salem for its second season.

Classics Film Festival Romance SXSW

SXSW: Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy Come Back to ‘The Breakfast Club’

Leo SopickiComment(0)

SXSW hosted the premier of the restored classic, The Breakfast Club, written and directed by John Hughes. But the event wasn’t so much a premier as it was a celebration of a movie that has touched a generation or two. With its upcoming special theatrical showings and release to Blu-ray and video, it is sure to touch a few more. When the doors opened, we were given Breakfast Club t-shirts and treated to a breakfast of donuts, coffee and mimosas. Thank you, Universal Studios.
Fantasy Film Festival Science Fiction SXSW

SXSW: Fire, Rodriguez, and Frazetta

Leo SopickiComment(0)

t’s a rare moment when two artistic talents you have admired for decades intersect in your presence. Robert Rodriguez has been one of my favorite directors since I saw ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’. Frank Frazetta has been my favorite artist since his paintings began appearing on the covers of Tarzan and Conan books in the 1960s. At SXSW, I participated in a tour of the Robert Rodriguez Museum, conducted by Rodriguez. He explained how, like many others, he found the paintings of Frank Frazetta amazing and inspirational for his own art. He recalled how when he first met Frazetta, and saw his original paintings up close, he was amazed at the depth and detail that never appeared in any of the prints or book covers.