Hyper-edgy Movies

I recently watched two really hyper-edgy movies on Netfilx. You might like them if you’re into radical, cutting edge filmmaking. The first was Child of God.

Child of God is based on Cormak McCarthy’s novel of the same name and was directed by James Franco. Child of God revolves around degenerating Appalachian character Lester, played by Scott Haze, who loses everything but his rifle. Lester is not a sympathetic character. He squats in a backwoods shack and things rapidly go downhill from there. Actors Tim Blake Nelson and Jim Parrack add color and chemistry to the film. This film is dark and backwoods, one hundred percent.

You will see a lot of Scott Haze in the future. Guaranteed.

James Franco is maligned to a degree as a director. I believe he’s a great talent, reveres literature and strives toward art.

Check out Child of God here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1951095/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The second was Snow on Tha Bluff. Radically different from Child of God but pushes the edge of filmmaking.

Snow on Tha Bluff revolves around real life armed robber and crack dealer Curtis Snow who stars in the movie. He steals a video camera from college kids looking to score a dope deal and gives the camera to one of his homies to documents his life; dope deals, robbery, gunfights and hanging on the street. The hyper-documentary style film is shot on location in “The Bluff”, one of Atlanta’s most poverty ridden and violent neighborhoods.

What’s interesting about Snow on tha Bluff is that it’s impossible to differentiate between what’s scripted and what’s not. It’s the most realistic film that’s come out in years.

Another interesting fact about Snow on the Bluff is how it was marketed. Chris Knittel, the producer, copied scenes on a few hundred blank VHS tapes. He then kicked the tapes around in the dirt and smeared blood on them. He then sent them without a return address to politicians, police stations and media outlets to get a buzz going. He called it “Operation Stir Up Shit.”

This film is loaded with ghetto warfare and is fascinating to watch.

Check out Snow on Tha Bluff here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1719634/

Virgil Bliss

Every once in a while a gem of a movie pops up out of nowhere. One such movie is Virgil Bliss. I first though, yeah, another low budget stinker but I was dead wrong. Virgil Bliss is a great film. Low on budget, yes. High on writing and talent, yes.

Virgil Bliss is an urban tragedy. Virgil’s chances of success in the outside world appear to be doomed from the onset, from the sarcastic prison guards messing with him before his release, to being fired from his job as a janitor for being an ex-con.

Virgil is released from prison to a halfway house in New York where he meets the confrontational Manny Alvarez, who Virgil eventually befriends. After unsuccessfully trying to pick up women, Manny takes Virgil to the gritty, post-industrial street corner that Ruby works. Virgil makes the tragic mistake of falling in love with her, much to Manny’s protests. Virgil is played by Clint Jordan. Ruby is played by Kirsten Russell. Both performances are truly authentic and convincing.

It looks like Virgil and Ruby may have a chance of a new life, but it doesn’t work out that way. At all.

An added bonus is the soundtrack, nearly perfect for this film.

Virgil Bliss was written and directed by Joe Maggio.

Grade A

Godzilla

…in 1954 we awakened something…

I just watched the trailer for the new Godzilla movie and it’s really good. Brian Cranston plays a feature role (looking  nothing like Walter White) and adds quality acting to an otherwise SFX based flick. The trailer is full of cool cliches, such as the obligatory, trumpeting BWAAAAS in the back ground and it’s the first I’ve heard  Gyorgy Ligeti’s Requiem and Lux Eternal in a movie since the apes were running up and touching the monolith in 2001 – A Space Odyssey.

It took me forever to connect to the Godzilla website (consistent mySQL connect failure) which isn’t a surprise. I’m sure it will be  swamped for awhile. Godzilla is directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and written by Max Borenstein.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc

I bet it’s a hit.

The Wall (Die Wand)

The Wall (Die Wand) is a German film about a woman (played by Martina Gedeck) who goes to a hunting lodge with friends and winds up alone, trapped in the mountains by an invisible wall. Sure, you’re thinking, just like Under the Dome. Well, it isn’t. The Wall is a visually stunning movie about the unnamed woman who slowly accepts her situation and eventually harmonizes and integrates with nature.

Every scene in this film is well thought out and incredibly well shot. Based on the novel by Marlen Haushofer, The Wall was written for the screen and directed by Julain Polsler.

The woman spreads out from the hunting lodge, looking for a means to escape and tried to locate other people. She sees a few, in particular an elderly couple that live in a simple cabin, but they appear to be frozen in time.  They and others cannot see her.

Her steady companion is a dog named Lynx. If you like dogs (like I do), this movie also explores the deep, unique and complex relationship between canines and humans.

This is not a plot-driven movie and non-formula to a huge extent. The Wall revolves around overcoming loneliness, self-acceptance, self-reliance and the grit and determination it takes to survive living off the land. Don’t expect a big climax in the third act (if you can tell when it begins- I can’t).  I watched The Wall on Netflix.

You can check out more here: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-wall-2013

and here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1745686/

The Wall is a movie I look forward to watching again.

Grade: A

 

Starlet

Came across a really, really good movie while scanning through Netfix earlier this week- Starlet. It’s worth watching for the sensitivity and subtlety of the acting, cinematography and story.

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Starlet is about a 21 year old adult film actress, Jane, who goes to yard sales to find items to decorate her room. Jane buys a thermos to use as a vase from 83 year old Sadie for five dollars. Once she’s home Jane finds rolls of hundred dollar bills stuffed in the thermos. She goes back to give the woman back the thermos (and money) but is cut short by “NO REFUNDS”. Sadie slams the door on her. It turns out that Sadie’s deceased husband was a professional gambler.

Jane becomes obsessed with starting a relationship with Sadie and the story moves along from there. All in all to me this is a story about the onion skin layers of relationships. The film depicts mundane daily life in the San Fernando Valley and provides a brief glimpse into the mechanical, indifferent, soulless porn industry.

Starlet is Jane’s pet chihuahua and the namesake of the film. Through all of the rocky relationships in the film, Starlet is always present and is a catalyst to move the story forward.

Starlet was written Sean S. Baker and Chris Bergoch, and was directed by Baker.

Dree Hemingway plays Jane and carries the movie singlehandedly. Hemingway is Mariel Hemingway’s daughter and the great granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway. This is Hemingway’s screen debut and she is literally stunning in her performance.
Starlet was first shown at SXSW in March 2012 and won the Special Jury Prize, Young Americans Selection from AFI Fest and Dree Hemingway was the winner of Variety’s Actor to Watch in 2012.
If you run across Starlet take the time to watch it. There’s a short, very explicit adult scene so be warned if that puts you off.

Here’s a link to the movie page: http://www.musicboxfilms.com/starlet-movies-44.php

Grade: A

 

Transformers 4 Update

Thought I’d take a look at what was left of the Transformers 4 set in Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit today. Not much! I shot these with my iPhone from the People Mover.

 

It looks like a construction company was wrapping up a demolition project.

Here’s more debris:

Even though a lot has been removed, there’s a long way to go until the area is clear.

I know I said it before, but when you total the cost of multiple sets/locations like this throughout the country (and world) it’s easy to see how this film will easily burn through its $170 million budget.

Man of Steel Shot in Detroit?

Big time rumors are flying around regarding Detroit being used as the location for the Man of Steel sequel. The other buzz is that Ben Affleck is playing Batman in the movie. The announcement should come out next week. If the movie is indeed shot here, I’ll get as many set photos as I can and post them on this blog.
Here are a couple of links for more info:
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/detroit/index.ssf/2013/08/detroit_to_get_man_of_steel_se.html

http://www.freep.com/article/20130823/COL36/308230117/superman-batman-detroit-man-steel

 

THE DETROIT TRANSFORMERS 4 SET

I walked down to Grand Circus Park in the heart of downtown Detroit today to check out the set for Transformers 4. This is as close as I could get.

The set is a replica of a portion of Hong Kong.

 

The set was cordoned off and there was no action or activity.

I was impressed how elaborate the set was- debris everywhere, building size ads and realistic structures. The budget for this film is $170 million and you can tell, just by this set alone, how that amount of cash can be burned through like a stack of old newspapers.  Maybe it’s a bellwether of the future: co-financing with China. Transformers 4 is being co-produced the China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises, along with Paramount. Movies of this magnitude and genre play well and make a lot of money in China. Just look how Pacific Rim is doing there.

Yes, the Transformer franchise is made for kids, but it’s interesting and very impressive to see the production from a technical point of view. A lot of objects and props on the set could have been rendered with CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) alone, such as the massive piles of rubble, destroyed buildings and full building size ads. But they weren’t.

When CGI is added in post-production the real props will make a huge difference.  I’m going to try to get some better shots from beyond the pagoda later this week before the set is torn down and will post them here.

The Transformer series has developed into a huge franchise, and it’s satisfying to see big films shot in Detroit again.

 

Low Budget Successes vs. Big Budget Flops

It’s been a rough summer for Hollywood in terms of big budget losses (the one exception is World War Z, which has made 266 million). Look at The Lone Ranger, After Earth,  R.I.P.D, White House Down and to a lesser degree Pacific Rim. All of these films cost between 100 and 200 million dollars to make. The Lone Ranger alone is estimated to lose 150 to 190 million dollars.

Then comes along The Conjuring, which cost 20 million to make and brought in 41.5  million its first weekend. Compared to R.I.P.D. which brought in only 12.8 million and cost around 130 million to make, The Conjuring is a great success. Why? A compelling story, not built on CGI.

Check out The Conjuring trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/trailers?ref_=nb_mv_6_tr

Heavy CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) isn’t a substitute for a good story. Take a look at John Carter, which from the first trailer had flop written all over it. Same with After Earth. As much as I like Del Toro, I get the same feeling with Pacific Rim.  All of these films are thin on story and thick on CGI. They lack the hooks to draw people to it, in my opinion. That’s where The Conjuring hits the mark. Story is everything.

Check out the trailers here:

The Lone Ranger: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1210819/?ref_=sr_1

After Earth: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1815862/?ref_=sr_1

R.I.P.D: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790736/?ref_=sr_1

White House Down: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334879/?ref_=sr_1

The Sharknado Buzz

I got caught up in the Sharknado buzz and watched the reprise on Thursday night. Sharknado is a true stinker, not only in the implausibility of the plot, but by the bad acting and poorly executed action sequences.

In case you’re not familiar with Sharknado. the plot revolves around a hurricane building off the coast of southern California (Santa Monica Pier, exactly) producing a set of waterspouts sucking up densely populated sharks and spewing them all over Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, consuming people in their trajectories.

Was this the sanitized version? I suspect so since it was placed in the 7-9PM time slot. Here’s a typical action sequence: we see a stock wide angle shot of a surfer gliding across a wave, the surfer tiny and the scene panoramic, then cut to a head and shoulder shot of the actor in front of a green screen, barely wet, pretending to surf. This is pretty much the motif of most of the action sequences, including sharks eating people. We rarely see  any real, raw action. It’s all implied and highly unsatisfying.

The voice over CNN reporter really was the cherry on top of this badness cake. The nervous lady who articulates “attention K Mart shoppers” at our local outlet sounds more professional and polished.

I just read about The Asylum studio that produced Sharknado and countless other low budget science fiction and horror flicks in the latest GQ that came this morning. Apparently their budget per film is $500,000, produce “mockbusters” such as Atlantic Rim from Pacific Rim, American Battleship from Battleship, etc. , and haven’t lost money yet. They have a fanatical following and Sharknado is right up their alley.

Yes, there is a big buzz about Sharknado’s campiness, and a Sharknado 2 is in the works. By all means, go ahead and watch it, but be prepared to be disappointed. I expected to be mildly entertained, but Sharknado missed the mark. I’m sure The Asylum fans love it. If you want to see a good, low budget shark movie, watch The Reef.

Grade: D

Links to trailers:

Sharknado  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwsqFR5bh6Q

The Reef http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UD2gbjB3vw

The Asylum http://www.theasylum.cc/