Film School Rejects » Austin

Mystery Team Sets a Date to Inspect Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse

Neil Miller — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:28:38 +0000

And here, I thought Thursday was going to be a wash. The awesome folks at the Alamo Drafthouse have officially announced today that the Sundance sensation Mystery Team will be making its debut here in Austin at the Alamo Ritz on Friday, August 28th.

This is something that director Dan Eckman mentioned in an interview with our own Kevin Kelly at Comic-Con last week (watch that video here), but it is nice to get some official confirmation from our friends at the Alamo. I couldn’t be more excited, as Mystery Team is still one of my favorite films of the year — and easily one of the funniest films to be shown in any theater, anywhere in 2009.

From the Derrick Comedy group, the same kids who brought you Bro Rape and Blowjob Girl online, Mystery Team is the story of three high school seniors who never let go of their days as Encyclopedia Brown-esque gumshoes. It is an absurd story about mal-adjusted youths, drug kingpins and what happens in the back, back room of a local strip club. As I said in my Sundance review, it is “irreverent, dark and beautifully self aware.” Oh, and it is absolutely hilarious. Not the kind of movie that any lover of dark comedy should miss.

The opening night screening will take place at the Alamo Ritz (320 E 6th Street) at 7:00p. Tickets go on sale the Monday before the screening. For more, check out the Alamo Drafhouse website. Also, check out the trailer for Mystery Team below.

Fantastic Fest Brings Inglourious Basterds Premiere to Austin

Neil Miller — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:30:30 +0000

The official Fantastic Fest blog has announced today that Quentin Tarantino’s latest film Inglourious Basterds will be coming to Austin for a premiere event on August 15 at 9 PM at The Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street). Tarantino will also be on hand for Q&A after the film.

The film screened to surprised crowds this past weekend at Comic-Con in San Diego and made its official world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, but the Austin audience will still be one of the first audiences to see the film in the United States.

The screening will kick of Cinemapocalypse, a dusk-til dawn movie marathon. Basterds will be followed by a double feature of repertory films programmed by Quentin Tarantino. Tickets for Cinemapocalypse are $65 and will be available to Austin Film Society members and 2009 Fantastic Fest badge holders on Thursday, July 30 at noon CST. Remaining tickets will be available to the general public starting Friday, July 31 at noon CST. Tickets can be purchased here.

As can be expected, we will be there in force to see what all the fuss is about.

About the Film
In the first year of the German occupation of France, Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish American soldiers to perform swift, shocking acts of retribution. Later known to their enemy as “the basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquis, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own… Employing pulp and propaganda in equal measure, Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS weaves together the infamous, oppressed, real and larger-than-life stories of WWII.

Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:00:07 +0000

Release Date: November 22, 2006

As people stumble blindly out of the Borat (review) daze they’ve been in for the past two weeks, they will wander the town like zombies, wondering if they’ll ever experience anything as good or if they should end it all right there and vow never to watch movies again. Luckily, and as if by fate (which is how the D like it), someone went ahead and made the greatest film of all time to fill the void. The Pick of Destiny, in all its over-the-top-glory, is bad news for Citizen Kane and Beavis and Butthead Do America, and AFI will undoubtedly have to reconsider their respected top film list.

JB (Jack Black) is stuck in Bible belt mediocrity with a desperate need to rock, fueled on by anthropomorphic posters of Ronnie James Dio and hindered by his close-minded father (Meat Loaf). KG (Kyle Gass) is a burn out, buskering on Venice Beach with insane guitar skills and less then a dollar in loose change in the hat he’s passing. After they join forces and JB flies through KG’s rock school, they stumble upon an ancient artifact – a guitar pick made from Satan’s tooth – that has made every rocker who uses it into a legend. They set out on a quest to find the pick which takes them through a cast of wacky cameos, the bumbling security of the Rock and Roll Museum, and the open mic contest that could set their career on its path to greatness. It culminates in an epic battle against the Dark Lord himself – the original, Lucifer, not Voldemort.

Pick of Destiny is a classic heros’ journey that combines the old school comedy of the vaudevillian two-man act with the quirkiness of Tenacious D. It’s also a nice blend of beloved Tenacious gags (the lovable cock push up) and completely new story concepts (KG trying a solo act that only sings back up). Fans of the group will recognize elements of their television show and albums, but people previously unaware of the duo’s brilliance will still have a ton to laugh at. The triumph of two insane, pompous rockers will invoke more than a dozen laugh-out-loud moments

The story is incredibly simple, but the filmmakers knew it, had fun with it, and use it as a strength to keep the audience laughing. As a result, there are several moments where the film makes fun of storytelling without being self-aware or taking the audience out of the experience. Plus, like a decently-made turkey served with delicious stuffing and gravy, the incredible supporting characters and clever dialog act to dress a simple storyline in a fancy tuxedo. Mixed metaphors aside, the movie will surprise at every turn.

Joining the fun are Ben Stiller as a crazed Guitar Center employee who clues our heroes in on the pick’s history, Paul F. Tompkins as the constantly unimpressed open mic host, and Tom Robbins who shines as a creepy stranger that wants the pick for himself. All three slide seamlessly into the plot and join the comic conversation between JB and KG like comedy ships passing in the night. The chemistry between Black and Gass is effortless, but it’s actually elevated when they share the screen with their cameo counterparts.

Liam Lynch directed this film with consummate skill, letting the D be who they are while marking the movie as his own. Above all else, Pick of Destiny invites the audience into the party of the year and makes them feel like they’re part of the world that flashes on the screen. That, afterall, is what successful movies are meant to accomplish, and Tenacious D does it with style, innovation, and Dave Grohl in a Satan costume.

The Upside: Laughing that hard is a great calorie burner.

The Downside: The reviews on this will probably be a mix of A’s and F’s. It’s either love or hate for the D, and movie-goers won’t be able to know which side they’re on until they pay their ten bucks for a seat.

On the Side: Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters reprises his role as Satan from the music video for the song â€œTributeâ€.

Final Grade: A

AFF Diary – Day 7: So close, yet so far out

Dr. Cole Abaius — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:45:18 +0000

I was excited for the end of the festival to come because I was anxious to get home, and also because the last two days’ movies were going to be a great experience. Word came today that the last TBA film for the closing night would be Nightmare Detective, a movie I figured I’d have to import on DVD in two years. Of course, there’s always the Pick of Destiny and the closing night blow-out bash to look forward to.

With that in mind, I stayed sober in preparation.

I was also looking forward to the films of the night, because they were both comedies, and after seeing The Room the night before, I was ready for an intentional laugh. One is the heartwarming tale about a robot and the other is the heartwarming tale of the brave men and women of World War Two and its heartwarming devastation. Altogether, it was to be a heartwarming night – I blame most of that on not being able to afford another adjective. On my salary, I was lucky to get one with three syllables. Also, both films had exclamation marks, which could only be a good thing.

On with the reviews!

Run, Robot, Run!

And

Military Intelligence and You!

Military Intelligence and You! (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:42:34 +0000

Release Date: TBA

Making movies just isn’t good enough anymore. We’re thrusting headlong into an exciting new world where movies aren’t just biographical, but fictionally biographical; not just documentaries, but mockumentaries; not just fictional, but reality-based fiction. With meta-humor becoming as commonplace in comedies as explosions in action flicks, it’s getting tougher to create the next big twist on classic stories. Despite this, Military Intelligence and You! has found an incredibly entertaining way to achieve that task.

Military Intelligence and You! splices old World War II movie footage with newly shot scenes to create a satirical look at how vital gathering information can be to the war effort. On one side of the front are the brave men of the sky trying to take down the dreaded Nazi Ghost Squadron that keeps thwarting their advances on enemy bases. On the other is Major Nick Reed (Patrick Muldoon) and his crack team of intelligence gatherers lead by Gen. Jake Tasker (John Rixey Moore) and filled out by the voluptuous Lt. Monica Tasty (Elizabeth Ann Bennett) who once shared a love and a bed with the dashing Major Reed.

This film is so tongue-in-cheek it’s lucky to be talking out of the other side of its face. It’s as dry as they come despite being a not-so-veiled jab at the Bush administration’s handling of the war. Unfortunately, many of the best jokes are ruined when they go just a step too far, and instead of hinting at the target, the filmmakers point a spotlight at it with sirens blaring. For as smart a movie as it is, it should have had more faith in its audience. On the other hand, Military Intelligence succeeds in keeping interests piqued by changing pace just before the audience rolls its eyes from Bush bashing to clever mockery of the educational film style of the late 1950’s.

Adding its name to the list of hybrid comedies, Military Intelligence is presented as a training film that features an enthusiastically sarcastic narrator, backed up by stock film footage from other fictional World War II accounts, real war footage, and the brazen black and white world of Nick Reed’s central command. But don’t think that half of the weight is carried by older movies. Writer/Director Dale Kutzera ingeniously weaves his storyline into the old footage by using fake German subtitles and new narration to take the older films into a new direction. It works incredibly well.

Kutzera also captures the feel of the old movies in his own shots with great use of lighting that makes every actor have a glow about them. The dialogue also bolsters the cheeky feel of the classroom series of the time and of propaganda films. Best of all, is the acting. Muldoon, who most will remember in the other military satire Starship Troopers plays brilliantly as the shallow soldier fighting the good fight and trying hard to come up with something profound to say once he’s brought his men home safely. Elizabeth Ann Bennett’s Monica Tasty is done with a delicate balance of truism to the time period and feminism of the current. Even though she plays a smaller role, she continually finds ways to shine. The rest of the cast also finds ways to individualize their characters while all striving to achieve the same stereotype. By the end, when Reed and Tasty finally share their victory kiss, the inevitable Hollywood, hero ending becomes something of a mockery when placed against the fervor of warmongering in the headlines – the very butt of the satirical joke. It’s a great moment of triumph and the height of an awkward punchline.

Military Intelligence is a hilariously clever movie. Even if it does take the joke a bit too far at times, the vehicle for the set up is innovative and carried out to its full potential. Not only will this movie entertain, but it’ll be added to the long list of films ushering in a new era of comedic styles.

The Upside: Incredibly fun narrative structure, and a ton of laughs.

The Downside: If you’re at all a fan of Bush, a Republican or even tired of politics, you’ll get bored with this movie’s constant attacks. As popular as it is to bash the president, this film could have been miles better if it had allowed its audience to connect the dots at times. Also, the guy that never changed his leather pants the whole festival guffawed so loud it made the screening fell like a Democratic convention sponsored by the local patchoulli company.

On the Side: Technically, because of the splicing of old footage, Director Dale Kutzera can claim he’s made a movie with cult star Ronald Reagan.

Final Grade: B+

Run, Robot, Run! (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 14:33:35 +0000

Release Date: TBA

There are more than two parts to making every movie, but if it had to be done, the process could be split into concept and execution. Every critic knows this since many of them rely solely on the arsenal of insults involving the execution of a film, praising its concept as genius while distressing over how it could have been made better. I’m not one to follow trends, but after watching this movie, I’m forced to say that I loved Run, Robot, Run!’s ideas and yawned at the way they were presented.

Surrounded by the brilliant technological advances of the future, every moment of Kent Weston’s (Chris Gibbs) life is dictated by his planner and his habits, most of them surrounding his unfulfilling office job and his continual pining for his attractive colleague Allison (Lara Kelly). With comic relief from his zany, inventor friend Garth (Christian Potenza), Kent’s life is unbearably pedestrian. Enter Adam (Peter Mooney), a state-of-the-art robot that takes Kent’s job, outperforms, outcharms, and generally outdoes Kent in every facet of his life – both personal and professional, leaving Kent with only one recourse: to destroy his symbiotic nemesis.

Run, Robot, Run! is a cute movie. With tons of throwaway gags about future life, it imbues the audience with a sense that the filmmakers had a ton of fun making it. Writer/Director Daniel O’Connor certainly had a bag full of great tricks that made his vision of the future innovative, yet campy. In other words, his future wasn’t a flying car filled, food-in-pill-form laden cliche. It’s a fairly thoughtful look at a future that is technologically advanced enough for robots, but emotionally tied to our own time. This is a big reason why the characters are likable and relatable.

For the most part, the movie is pretty simple. It follows a pretty predictable storyline of boy wants girl, boy loses girl to impressive robot, boy tries to destroy robot and learns something about himself along the way. Although the escapades that Kent and Garth fall into trying to destroy Adam are clever, they are ultimately lacking in any real excitement. Even the love story between Allison and Kent is colored by the fluorescent lights of the office instead of any real passion.

The movie is funny. It’s a good movie, not a great one. I laughed out loud several times during the film, but I kept wanting something more, something more exciting, a little bit more interesting. The concept is creative, the plot takes an easy path but is still decent, and the direction isn’t half bad. However, the elements keeping this movie from making the leap from good to great are the dialogue and the acting. Beginning with a simple storyline leaves the actor’s without a safety net, and they fall several times. It’s clear that the conversations of the future office world are bland, but without any charisma or chemistry, most of the actors seem like they are talking their way through a script they know is sub-par. Because of this, and perhaps some average editing, the film never gets a good rhythm going.

There are moments of good acting – Peter Mooney’s Adam is solid throughout most of the film, and he also gets a bulk of the interesting lines. Plus, his suave attitude makes the audience care about him and enjoy every time he wriggles out of Kent’s traps to destroy him. Chris Gibbs as Kent is dreadfully boring and shares little spark with Lara Kelly’s Allison, even when they start to like each other. Probably my biggest complaint, though, is Christian Potenza’s Garth, the comic relief that never seems to cut loose and whose ‘over-the-top’ antics seem forced and only come waist high.

It’s not a bad movie by any means, and it would be great to see the script rewritten a bit for dialogue’s sake and for the film to be reshot with a more capable cast. It’s a decent pick up on DVD that’s bound to entertain more than a few. If you’re in the mood for a no-brainer that will make you laugh more than once, and you’re willing to overlook a few dialogue problems and stale acting, it’s not a bad 82 minutes to spend.

The Upside: Clever concept marked by some great jokes.

The Downside: The acting and dialogue make it seem like a much longer movie than it actually is.

On the Side: O’Connor and Potenza worked together before on a short film called A Wing and A Prayer.

Final Grade: C+

AFF Diary – Day 6: Downhill from here

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 06:23:59 +0000

The festival is almost over by this point – most of the L.A. types (excluding myself) have all flown back to their respective homes where they are, as all know, waited on by man-servants and washed by professional bathers. Yes, rich and poor alike all take in the luxury that is Los Angeles.

With no panels to go to anymore and limited transportation, I found a way to get Arrested Development Season 3 on DVD and sat transfixed in front of the warm glow of television as a change of pace from the warm glow of the aperture. At least I could lay down in the hotel room. Theaters usually frown on that sort of behavior.

I feel like I almost didn’t give justice to the two movies I saw that night since I was notably excited about the closing night film – a rare underground piece called Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny that will probably crowd art houses in larger cities and only attract those who truly â€œgetâ€ film. However, looking back now I see the night as one big high and one big low. If you could measure the width of height, that is.

Although you probably haven’t heard anything about this films, you should really check out these reviews because they will make you want to see one of the movies and know to avoid the other. I’m not telling which is which. You’ll have to read for yourself.

I know, it’s hard work:

The Night of the White Pants

and

The Room

The Room (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 06:18:15 +0000

Release Date: TBA (festival circuit)

Coming straight from Belgium, the horror capital of the universe comes the striking tale of a morally repugnant family that finds a door in their house where one wasn’t there before. It sounds intriguing, but although the idea is interesting, the execution is terrible. It plays to every cliched rule in the thriller book, and has the originality of a forgery of a bad painting.

Melinda (Caroline Veyt) is leaving home after continual abuse from her maniacal father Max (Phillipe Resimont) and shallow mother Marie (Francoise Mignon). As if she wasn’t treated poorly enough before, the torturous environment has only intensified with the knowledge of her unwed pregnancy and her refusal to say who the father is. Melinda leaves behind her wheelchair bound, mentally challenged brother Alex (Pascal Duquenne) who is scared to lose the one caring face he’s come to depend on. Her last night at home, the family finds itself confronting the mysterious door and titular room that lies behind it, beckoning them to face their darkest fears.

The laundry list of things wrong with this movie is too long to bear in one review. Plus, the movie just doesn’t warrant the time. Here’s just a few. First, writer/director Giles Daoust approaches the movie with the pretentious air of a man with no plot. As a result, The Room feels like it had a hard deadline to start filming, and Daoust failed to get past the conceptual phase. As a thriller, it has it all – a magical, mentally challenged character, black and white flashback scenes with exposed red for more significance, two guessable twist endings, and unnecessary film school camera tricks.

Two, the characters act inexplicably. There’s a fine line between interesting character choices and unbelievable ones, and The Room chooses unbelievable every time. After the movie throws away the younger brother (Maximillien Jouret-Maron) and his friend (Henri Luyckx) flippantly into the room, Max and Marie fight for a few moments to get into the door, which has locked itself, trapping the boys inside, and then resign themselves to the living room to have a good old fashioned sit. They watch some TV, get in a fight, but certainly don’t call the cops or discuss the freakish new development in their lives. In fact, they handle the supernatural situation with the same blas© that the director handles the movie.

Overall, The Room carries itself like a genre-bending, ingenious thriller with an incredible twist when it actually has nothing to offer. Daoust treats his own material as if its high art. Unfortunately, the art is stolen symbolism from other, better movies. In short, it offers nothing new creatively. It insults the audience by offering cliche and random behavior where a good film would have featured ingenuity and creative outlook. Luckily, The Room will probably never reach a wide, American audience since it’s low budget and foreign, but that should be comforting. If the slim chance arises that you have the opportunity to see it, walk away knowing that the only thing scary about it is that it every got made at all.

The Upside: It’s only 80 minutes long.

The Downside: You’ll never get them back.

On the Side: The actress slated to play the main role quit after the first day of filming.

Final Grade: F

The Night of the White Pants (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 06:12:07 +0000

Release Date: TBA (festival circuit)

If The Night of the White Pants was categorized, it would end up being either the shortest road trip, the most unlikely hero’s journey, or an incredibly funny drama. This is a good thing. The movie doesn’t suffer from the dreaded â€œnot knowing what it isâ€ that critics often slam films with. It knows exactly what it’s doing, and the result is an unorthodox story that pits character study against awkward situations and true relationships. Just when you think it’s all gone serious, it make you fall down laughing.

Max Hagan’s world is crumbling. Once the successful Dallas business man featured prominently on magazine covers, his lifestyle, divorces, and a heart attack have left the empire to rot. His son Millian (Fran Kanz) is a drugged-up burn-out living at home without ambition. Max (Tom Wilkinson) is facing divorce from his second wife Barbara (Janine Turner), a young trophy desperate for more than fifty percent, while his first wife Vivian (Frances Fisher) has developed a new romanticism for him after visiting the hotel where they spent their honeymoon. The only positive force in his life is his daughter Beth (Selma Blair) whose small record company is about to be purchased from a larger company based in New York. Fortunately, on the night that all these situations crash together, Max is set to meet Beth’s boyfriend Raff (Nick Stahl), a punk rocker/computer programmer whose hidden his life as a drug dealer from her. After Barbara seizes the house, Max chooses to follow Raff for the rest of a drunken night that becomes an escalating series of terrible events – hard drug use, cowboy hats, breaking and entering, mounted elk heads, sex, a wedding, a judge’s good name, family feuding, jail time, expensive bottles of wine, and, of course, white pants.

If they sound like entries in a MadLib, they probably should. Writer/Director Amy Talkington weaves every wacky element of the film together flawlessly to maximize the humorous moments and the tender conversations. Dealing with a family and a world on the cusp of destruction is no easy task, but Talkington and the cast handle it with the grace of a ballet dancer at a demolition derby. It’s a tale of good people who find they’ve lost their way, or didn’t have one to begin with, and it’s fascinating to watch them try to get it back.

Along the way, The Night of the White Pants doesn’t settle for the typical humor of today, opting instead to place characters in unlikely situations to see how they’ll react or get out of them. The bottom of Max’s particular barrel is the dive bar where Raff’s punk band performs. The buttoned down Republican tycoon finds himself surrounded by a â€œFuck everythingâ€ world of teens and twenty somethings trying to rebel against The Man. Raff is stuck between growing into the golfing-centric business world and the hard rock place in his life. Beth struggles as the black sheep of a dysfunctional family trying to leave them behind for the big city.

There’s a lot going on – characters, subplots, set up gags with long term payoff – but it’s done brilliantly. What could have been a mess of a movie in lesser hands becomes a genuinely thoughtful piece, aided along by Talkington’s writing and her direction of a strong cast. Heading it up is the compelling Wilkinson whose range takes the spotlight throughout most of the piece. He handles shifting between desperate, joyous, drug-induced, selfish, and loving with ease. Almost equally strong are Selma Blair and Nick Stahl who show impressive maturity, portraying complex characters in a relationship that the audience finds itself rooting for.

Surprisingly, there are not too many things wrong with The Night of the White Pants. This is probably because of the copious amount of people, places and plots on screen. It could have either been a terrible disaster or a constantly entertaining film. With Talkington’s and the cast’s talent, they could have followed up a pie in the face with a heartfelt talk about sticking together as a family, and it would have flowed well. But don’t get lost in the art of it all. At the base of White Pants is a seriously funny movie that you’ll hopefully get a chance to pay ten bucks for. Trust me, it’s worth it.

The Upside: Tom Wilkinson is impeccable as Max, and the way the rest of the cast works together makes it seem like they actually grew up together as a family.

The Downside: The Name. Hear me out on this. I get it, but the pants aren’t featured in any big way – Max wears them, and that’s about it. They could act as a metaphor for his naive sentiments being tarnished by the reality of his family, but if the word Pants is in a title, I just need more pants. Clearly, every reader can tell I’m stretching to find something bad about the movie. I don’t hide it well, I know.

On the Side: Fran Kanz who plays Millian was also in The TV Set which played at the Austin Film Festival as well.

Final Grade: A

The Book of the Dead (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 03:53:12 +0000

Release Date: TBA (festival circuit)

If there’s one thing that American movie consumers are clamoring for, it’s a tale of ancient Japan told with puppets in stop motion animation. For the most part, the only exposure to puppets that America’s had has come in the form of the satirical Team America, and stop motion comes in the form of The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, while The Book of the Dead probably wouldn’t win against Tenacious D’s Pick of Destiny on opening day, it’s a brilliant film that will end up on the favorite’s lists of those industrious enough to dig through the underground for it.

Set in the Nara period, a time of change for Japan and its religious and social values, a young girl named Iratsume becomes entranced by Buddhism. One night, after hand copying an intense amount of religious tracts, she is led to a temple in a daze. There, she encounters the ghost of Prince Otsu who has mistaken her for the last person he saw before his execution. With the same dedication that Iratsume has for religion, Otsu begins visiting her, his spirit unable to rest. As she takes refuge from the visits in a temple, she takes the steps toward saving Prince Otsu’s spirit and herself.

The Book of the Dead is a piece of artwork. It is detailed and beautiful which only adds to an incredible tale. Director Kihachiro Kawamoto uses the styles of Noh theater and Kubiki to create something new that uses the magical realism of Japanese culture and creates a memorable film.

One downside to The Book of the Dead is it’s length. At just over an hour, the story could have been much more complex with another hour to tell it. And, in typical fashion, the film leaves a lot of blanks for the audience to fill in. However, it’s artistic without being pretentious, which might just be reason enough to give it the hour it takes to watch it.

Overall, The Book of the Dead is a good story brought to life by gorgeous visual techniques. It’s a fun movie to watch, especially for fans of Japanese cinema. Kawamoto doesn’t challenge too many conventions with this film, but it’s an impressively crafted piece of art that shows the dedication and love of its maker.

The Upside: Beautiful stop motion animation.

The Downside: It expects a lot of its audience.

On the Side: The trailer for this underground, Japanese art film is available, along with everything else, on YouTube.

Final Grade: A-

AFF Diary – Day 5: Half Over

Dr. Cole Abaius — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:04:42 +0000

I figured that â€œHalf Overâ€ was a good title for this journal entry because 1) It’s midway through the festival 2) The panel ‘half’ of the festival is over and 3) I’m a huge fan of my own ideas. That is a great title.

Moving along, yes, the panels are over, and it’s only movies from here on out. This means that afternoons are spent stranded in the hotel room with no transportation, trying hard to coordinate what shows to see. After Sunday’s films, I was feeling a bit better about my picks (festival film-going can be brutally hit or miss), so I figured to go with my gut today and check out The Quietest Sound and The Book of the Dead Both are conceptual, which can be a risk, but I was feeling lucky…

The Quietest Sound (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 05:01:03 +0000

Release Date: TBA

For most, the recent environment of cinema is the unthinkable mix of brilliant innovation and boring stagnation. The former, is characterized by filmmakers like Gondry and Aronofsky who are brave enough to play around with storytelling styles and camera work. The latter is characterized by the majority of films that can be found on the marquee at your local 800-screen mega-multiplex-o-rama. This situation has created high demand for independent films that take a different slant, but it seems that many of these films – admittedly amateurish – either rely solely on a hook or bypass being interesting in hopes of selling out. The Quietest Sound does not fall into these categories. With a shockingly innovative narrative style bolstered by an intense storyline, this film satisfies in a way most films can’t.

The Quietest Sound has guts. It is one, seventy-five minute long, continuous shot of a woman as she sits in a police interrogation room. There are no cut-aways, no fade outs, no punch ins. What you see is what you get for over an hour. If that’s enough to get you to the screening, great. If it sounds like it might get boring, it doesn’t. Plus, the filmmakers were smart enough to explain the gimmick within the story – it’s the camcorder tape that the detectives made of her interview, and they can’t turn it off or they risk facing scrutiny of falsification once the tape is used in a court of law. By this point in the movie, you realize you’re not watching a gimmick, you’re watching a great film.

Elizabeth (Catherine E. Johnson) is frantic. Brought into the police station for another round of questioning about her missing four-year old daughter Chloe (Elanor Koster), she cannot understand why the police are wasting time recounting her details instead of out looking for the creepy man she saw just moments before losing her daughter in a Wal-Mart. On the other side of the table are Blake (Michael Tezla) and Ryan (Chris Carlson), the policemen trying to get to the truth. After a winding path of frustration, doubt, allegations of child abuse, unreliable details, and police bullying, the interview leads to a startling climax and a twist ending that leaves the audience ice cold.

One thing I can’t do enough is praise the concept of the film, but it’s execution is really what deserves the credit. Too often, films are made to stand on the legs of some clever hook alone. Too often, critics claim that an idea behind a film is good, but could have been done better. Too often, independent films stay below the radar because they deserve it. The Quietest Sound defies all of these to take a gripping story, tell it in a fascinating, different way, and tell it using capable actors. Catherine E. Johnson does an outstanding job as the worried young mother dealing with a missing child. She’s dynamic – vulnerable and submissive, but she grows in determination and then fluctuates between emotions as the policemen guide her along. It’s also impressive to see an actress handle herself on screen for over an hour and never lose an audience’s interest.

Oddly enough, there’s not much more to talk about – editing and cinematography don’t exist. But that’s a great thing. Imagine a film where storytelling, great storytelling, is the only focus. There are no explosions or fancy tricks, which may bother some, but for those out there that want to be brought near heart failure with only spoken words and a static camera, this film will deliver. It’s realistic, gritty, and a great mystery thriller that relies on its situation to shock. Considering the current movie environment and its lack of creativity or follow-through, more films like The Quietest Sound need to be made.

The Upside: A completely different narrative style, done well.

The Downside: It takes a few moments to dig into this movie, and the rolling time/date marker at the camcorder’s bottom left corner is a nice touch, but it’s also a bit distracting.

On the Side: It was filmed entirely in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Final Grade: A

Austin Film Festival Diary – Day 5: Above the Hype and Below the Radar

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 05:53:23 +0000

Feel free to sue me (you can have my entire Film School Rejects salary if you’d like), but I skipped out on the panels today in favor of catching up on some much needed sleep and some much needed hydration. Plus, I felt the need to get prepared for the movies of the night since I was gearing up for the highly anticipated, ire-raising Death of a President and the bloody, psychological trip Noriko’s Dinner Table.

Feeling well-rested and ready to go, I set out from the hotel after accidentally charging a twenty dollar can of nuts to my account, and took a seat in what ended up being a packed house. Everyone wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The real question is, should you, dear reader, bother? I’ll try to answer as best as possible with these brilliantly written reviews:

Death of a President

Noriko’s Dinner Table

Noriko’s Dinner Table (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 05:46:40 +0000

Release Date: TBA

Looking in on Japan is a difficult thing to do for American audiences with limited first-hand knowledge of an ancient culture that has survived into modern times. Interestingly enough, this culture harbors some similar values: respect, honesty, and the old-fashioned family dinner – a quality of life that Writer/Director Sion Sono exploits to the fullest degree in this brilliant dramatic flick. Noriko’s Dinner Table is a semi-sequel to The Suicide Club, and although it was listed under the horror heading at the festival and in most reviews, it contains virtually no semblance of the horror genre except for a sizable amount of blood.

Noriko (Kazue Fukiishi) is bored with her life – her popular sister (Yuriko Yoshitaka), her inattentive father (Ken Mitsuishi) and all-but-absent mother (Sanae Miyata). Seeking refuge on the internet, she stumbles upon a website chat room decorated by ominous red and white dots. Touching base with Ueno54 (Tsugumi), its moderator, she makes her escape to Tokyo to meet up. What follows is a series of incredibly disturbing events that will have audiences questioning the nature of self, family and relationships. Immediately upon meeting Ueno54 aka Kumiko, Noriko dons a new name, meets Kumiko’s family and is rushed off to meet two grandmothers and a grandfather. She is treated like a close relative at every house.

What’s brilliant about Noriko’s Dinner Table is its ability to concern the audience with deeper questions by using psychotic characters and blood lust. Kumiko, as it turns out, runs a company that lends extremely dedicated actors (to the point that they’d commit suicide for a part) to lonely people who want to experience a family – old people who feel neglected, a man who’s lost both his daughters. Once Noriko enters this world, reality and fantasy are blended. After all, isn’t the concept of being a good father, mother or child a simple matter of playing a role?

Once Noriko’s sister Yuka runs off to join her, their father begins a desperate search for them which leads to one of the oddest confrontations in film history – a father playing a client who has hired his nihilist daughters to play his children so that he can play a father. It also acts as probably the most unsettling denouements on record. You will not feel at ease by the end of this movie.

The acting is superb especially from veteran Ken Mitsuihi and the young, but relatively experienced Kazue Fukiishi. As usual with Japanese film, the cinematography his handled with pain-staking detail and the result is a frame of a man covered in blood being as beautiful as the sunset that was shown moments before. Also, as most Japanese horror directors don’t shy away from the elongated quiet scenes of contemplation that will ultimately hit the cutting room floor for the Americanized version starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sion Sono doesn’t shy away from the elongated heavy breathing moments that follow a blood splattering knife fight.

The only problem with Noriko is the length. At a gruesome 159 minutes, some of it laden with faux-meaningful art shots, an American audience might get a bit bored at times. So sue it for being good, right? Oddly enough, it could be recut to a strict two hours and almost nothing would be lost from the story. The additional thirty-nine minutes spread throughout seem superfluous to the tale-telling or the character development.

Despite that, Noriko’s Dinner Table is a solid, engaging picture that is as twisted as they come. So often we hear comments about loving family members but not having to like them, blood being thicker than water and family pride being a strong link in the social chain. Noriko challenges that, asking whether we can throw away an old life in exchange for a new one. For Noriko’s mentor Kumiko, it’s about taking on the roles in life no one else wants, being anyone that she’s paid to be in order to lose her own identity. As the credits role, this film asks its audience, what will it take for you to start playing the role of yourself? If that sounds like an odd question to end with, it should, because this is an odd (and brilliant) film. Plus, if you think Noriko sounds creepy, you should see what the red and white dots on Kumiko’s website represent.

The Upside: Horror seems to blend with so many elements – politics, slapstick, satire – but Noriko’s Dinner Table accomplishes something different, a horror film blended with social philosophy that applies to all who watch it. Instead of taking on taboo, it challenges the most well-rooted concepts in the social hierarchy, and it does is amazingly well.

The Downside: A bit too long, a bit too many long silences, and you might never get to see it unless its released as The Grudge IV: Dinner Time.

On the Side: This is the second film in a trilogy planned by writer Sion Sono.

Final Grade: B+

Related Technorati Tags: Horror, J-Horror, Japanese, Austin Film Festival

Death of a President (Austin Film Festival ‘06)

Dr. Cole Abaius — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 05:39:10 +0000

Release Date: October 27, 2006 (limited)

If you haven’t heard buzz about this movie, you’ve probably been too wrapped up in Borat hype or have taken a vow to never remove the sound proof headphones wrapped around your ears. If the second part to that introduction seemed weak, it was a replacement for â€œyou’ve been in Canadaâ€ since that one’s unusable due to Death of a President being made in (where else?) The Great Land to the North.

For the one person that hasn’t heard of this movie, it is the fictional documentary of the years following President George W. Bush’s fictional, unsolved assassination. The first section of the movie is a look at the USA of 2007, following Bush’s crew around to an event in Chicago where he is taken down (fictionally) by a sniper’s bullet. The second section follows the man-hunt to find the perpetrator – it is a standard mystery featuring interviews and tracking the clues. Most of the circumstantial (fictional) evidence points to a Syrian-born man who is summarily charged, convicted and tossed onto death row. However, like any good murder mystery, the audience is never really sure who the real killer is, and there are plenty of decent suspects.

When all is said and done, this film belongs more on the sidewalks of Venice Beach passing a hat for loose change than it does in a museum for all to admire. The first half hour is a startling look at life, colored by two particularly (fictional) moments that makes the skin crawl – the assassination which was put together by old footage of Bush and inventive CGI methods and the eulogy given by Vice President Dick Cheney at the funeral. This harsh fictional ism creates stone silence in an audience. Even the liberal, button-wearing lady on my row kept her comments to herself once the (fictional) assassination actually took place.

The second half is a different story. The direction this movie takes is a tale of what a director is forced to do when his ground breaking concept would make a great short, but he has to fill a feature length time slot. Bottom line, Death of a President runs out of steam once the shock factor wears off. The results of the assassination and the ensuing investigation are so predictable that it makes the film makers look as inept as they paint the secret service and FBI to be.

The effects are done well – only a few awkward computerized moments – and the acting is solid, serving as a necessary component for a film which hinges on its ability to sell something that people not only know hasn’t happened but hope doesn’t. Suspending disbelief is the highest hurdle, and Death of a President leaps it with ease. Unfortunately, it stumbles hard on the second hurdle of maintaining interest past the incendiary moments.

Oddly enough, one of the things that sinks this film is the surrounding hype. Most that I talked to afterward agreed that they would have enjoyed it more if they hadn’t heard so much about it. That seems lucky for the one person who hasn’t heard of it, but for everyone else it would be wise to hold off on seeing it until it comes out on DVD. Better yet, wait until the first half hour shows up on YouTube and skip the second half all together. Overall, the movie fails despite having a riveting first section – the second and third acts just can’t live up to expectations.

The Upside: Jaw dropping subject matter and brilliant acting from unknown faces.

The Downside: A lackluster storyline beyond the hype.

On the Side: Death of a President includes some uncanny predictions about the future that we now know to be true, like North Korea’s declaration of nuclear testing, a declaration that was made after the film was finished.

Final Grade: C+

Related Technorati Tags: Death of a President, Documentary, Controversial, Politics, Bush, Assassination, Cheney

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