LAFF 2012: DEAD MAN'S BURDEN By: Faiz No comments

Martha (Clare Bowen) in Dead Man's Burden.

Sins of the daugther

By Don Simpson

Dead Man's Burden is clearly made by someone who unabashedly loves the western genre, though writer-director Jared Moshé does make some notable updates to the genre. Most importantly, Moshé places a strong female character in the lead role, a character -- Martha McCurry (Clare Bowen) -- whose closest cinematic kin would be Michelle Williams' Emily in Meek's Cutoff.

Despite being married to Heck (David Call), a man with a violent criminal past, Martha maintains full control over her household. After murdering her father (Luce Rains) in the film's striking opening scene, Martha becomes a full-fledged landowner. The problem is, she does not want the land; Martha wants to sell her family's New Mexico homestead to a mining corporation for enough cash to open a hotel in the burgeoning town of San Francisco. With her father dead, it seems as though Martha's dream will certainly come true, but then a long presumed dead brother reappears. Wade (Barlow Jacobs) has lofty aspirations of turning his family homestead into a full-fledged farm. Thus, a family feud begins.

Shot on lush 35mm film (by Robert Hauer) with impeccable production design (Ruth De Jong), costume design (Courtney Hoffman) and art direction (Jason Byers), Dead Man's Burden is a visual masterpiece. Bowen's unsettlingly conflicted performance as Martha is nothing short of amazing; Jacobs and Call's performances are also spot on. Occasionally, a few performances do veer a bit too far into the realm of the melodramatic for my tastes. However, I will chalk that up to the periodically stilted dialogue and the film's studious allegiance to a machismo-yet-melodramatic genre.

LAFF 2012: NEIL YOUNG JOURNEYS By: Faiz No comments

Neil Young in Neil Young Journeys.

Rocking chairman

By Ed Rampell

Jonathan Demme is one of those rare directors who seems to effortlessly foray from major Hollywood productions -- including the 1990s features, The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia -- to documentaries, such as 2003’s Haiti-shot, The Agronomist. Neil Young Journeys is Demme’s third nonfiction collaboration with the prolific performer and composer who has been one quarter of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as a mover, shaker and rocker with Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse.

The documentary opens with Young driving around his old stomping grounds in Omenee, the town in North Ontario he plaintively sang about in CSNY’s "Helpless" on their landmark Déjà Vu album. Neil Young Journeys alternates between Young’s peregrinations around his beloved hometown and a one man show at Toronto’s Massey Hall where he performs new and classic songs from his considerable repertoire.

Some of those vintage numbers include "Down By the River" and "After the Gold Rush," wherein the socially conscious Young updated the lyrics, singing, 'Look at Mother Nature on the run in the 21^st century.' A rousing rendition of "Ohio" includes four names projected on the screen, who turn out to be the 'four dead in Ohio,' CSNY lyrically lamented after National Guardsmen killed a quartet of college students protesting the Indochina War at Kent State on May 4, 1970. The sequence is intercut with archival footage of the unarmed Kent demonstrators and the National Guard assassins. It’s hard to believe that each of the slain students was only around 20, youths robbed of their lives by Nixon’s henchmen. Thank you very much, Mssrs. Young and Demme, for remembering them, and for doing so in such a stirring, touching manner.

When I think of Young I remember a high pitched voice and acoustic guitar. Perhaps my memory is faulty? In any case, in Neil Young Journeys Young strums a variety of electric guitars, belting out amped up licks with lots of heavy reverb. He can still hit the high notes, but his voice is more gravelly and raspy here. It seems to be the opposite of the, say, Eric Clapton trend of taking and taming classic rock hits, such as Derek and the Dominos’ immortal "Layla," and updating them with more mature, tranquil acoustic, “unplugged” versions. In Neil Young Journeys Young is very much “plugged”; at the end of his set Young “plays” the speakers, inducing mindbending feedback worthy of Jimi Hendrix. (BTW, the only good thing about Hendrix’s untimely death is that we didn’t have to hear him play unplugged versions of Purple Haze and Foxy Lady on acoustic guitars when we grew up.)

The glammed down rocker also tickles the ivories of a number of keyboards during his solo performance, which features many searing extreme close-ups of Young, who is extremely emotive and soulful as he sings and plays. The film has a cinema verite, “you are there” flavor. At least one camera is, literally, in spitting range and some may have problems with Declan Quinn’s cinematography: Call it “Spittle-vision.” The audience is also rarely seen in this concert film, wherein the Canadian also croons newer tunes, such as 2010’s "Love and War."

At 66 years old, he remains forever Young.

 

  

  

 

LAFF 2012: BEAUTY IS EMBARRASSING By: Faiz No comments

Wayne White in Beauty is Embarrassing.

This White world

By Miranda Inganni

Neil Berkeley’s feature length documentary, Beauty is Embarrassing, can’t go wrong with its subject matter. It chronicles the artistic and chronological evolution of Wayne White.

Known for his work on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and music videos such as Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and Smashing Pumpkins “Tonight, Tonight” the Emmy-award winning White has spent much of his existence creating and producing art in one form or another -- whether it be puppets, set design, paintings, sculptures or other medium. White’s mission is to bring “humor into Fine Art.” And he does so with aplomb. There is nothing but joy and love in this movie.

While White can be a little too self-conscious in the film, his irreverent, “fuck it” (repeatedly) attitude and creative acumen shine. With Berkeley’s footage of White’s live performances/presentations -- theatrical productions which really are the culmination of standup comedy, lecture, slide show and banjo concert -- White’s own home movies, interviews with friends and family, documentation of White’s life and animation (some of which is done by White’s equally creative wife of 27 years, Mimi), Beauty is Embarrassing animates the life and art of this prolific creator.

White is an absurdist. He is a ham. He is a loyal, loving and encouraging husband, father, son and friend. He is a dreamboat. He swears like a sailor and paints like there’s no tomorrow. And Berkeley’s documentary catches it.

Beauty is Embarrassing screens at the Los Angeles Film Festival: June 21, 7:30 p.m., Leo S. Bing Theater at LACMA.

LAFF 2012: SATURDAY MORNING MASSACRE By: Faiz No comments

Nancy (Ashley Rae Spillers) in Saturday Morning Massacre.

Spooky do

By Don Simpson

A group of friends run a floundering ghost-hunting business, modeled loosely after a certain Hanna Barbera cartoon. (Yes, they even have a dog. No, the dog does not speak.) The group's founder is Nancy (Ashley Rae Spillers), the Velma of the gang. Equal parts cute, sexy, smart and empowered, Nancy has found herself in a bit of an existential quagmire, not knowing what to do if ghost hunting does not begin turning a profit.

The future of the gang hinges upon their newest client, Mike Ryan (Chris Doubek), a banker who is trying to a spooky mansion of its murderous ghosts. Nancy, Gwen (Josephine Decker), Chad (Adam Tate) and Floyd (Johnny Mars) pack up the VW van fully expecting to unravel yet another hoax masterminded by an evil capitalist trying to scare people away from a get-rich-quick scheme. What starts off as a horror-comedy flick takes a sharp turn into some serious violence. There will be blood, buckets of blood.

Director Spencer Parsons (I'll Come Running) had never made a horror feature, but as a film professor and fan of the genre, he was obviously well-versed in the medium. If you have seen any of Parsons' earlier work, you have probably noticed his subtle -- and downright classic --  approach to comedy, a technique that makes Saturday Morning Massacre quite unique within its genre.

It is also nice to see such well developed leading characters – especially the leading ladies – in a horror film. When Nancy, Gwen, Chad or Floyd make bad choices, it comes off as a parody of the genre, rather than stupidity on her or his behalf. They are not mere pawns whose only destiny is death; the gang has plenty of complicated issues to contend with outside of financial security and ghost hunting.

LAFF 2012: RED FLAG By: Faiz No comments

Alex (Alex Karpovsky) in Red Flag.

Stop in the name of ___

By Don Simpson

In Red Flag, writer-director Alex Karpovsky plays a somewhat fictionalized version of himself. His character, Alex, embarks upon a tour of the southern United States with his cinema verite mockumentary, Woodpecker. The trip immediately follows an emotionally tenuous break-up with his longterm girlfriend, Rachel (Caroline White). While I have no knowledge of Karpovsky's real romantic history, I do believe that Red Flag was mostly shot during an actual theatrical tour of Woodpecker. Taking his cue from the neo-realists, Karpovsky intersperses his fictional characters within real settings and among real people. Then again, this might be another elaborately staged ruse along the lines of Woodpecker – so, maybe it is all just fiction.

Karpovsky wrestles with concept of truth on the personal level as well. Alex has a tendency to lie and exaggerate; we can only assume that this -- along with his incredibly self-involved, head-up-his-ass attitude -- is why he has such a difficult time convincing any of his friends to join him on tour. In addition to his fear of marriage, we can only assume that Alex's ex-girlfriend has grown tired of the perpetual charade, never knowing when to believe Alex and not knowing how to deal with his overinflated ego.

Red Flagevolves into a road movie with two -- then three, then four -- lost souls traveling in the same car together. Rachel, Henry (Onur Tukel) and River (Jennifer Prediger) propel Alex along the course of his narrative arc, but they each have arcs of their own with which they must contend. Their goals are to determine what relationships and love mean to them while doing their best to avoid a life riddled with loneliness.

LAFF 2012: BREAKFAST WITH CURTIS By: Faiz No comments

Syd (Theo Green) and Curtis (Jonah Parker) in Breakfast with Curtis.

Bad taste

By Don Simpson

Writer-director-actor Laura Colella'sBreakfast with Curtis begins as a seemingly grumpy old hippie threatens to crush the skull of a nine year old boy. We then jump forward five years... Now 14 years old, we can only assume that Curtis (Jonah Parker) has stayed far away from his hippie neighbors – or at least their cat – ever since his frightening encounter with Syd (Theo Green), the de facto leader of the household. It is also not surprising that Curtis is still a bit skittish when Syd makes a neighborly attempt to speak with him.

See, Syd runs an online bookstore. In an effort to keep up with the Joneses of the Internet, he has decided to record a series of video blogs showcasing his wine-fueled diatribes to attract more traffic to his website. Syd recently overheard that Curtis has shown a propensity for making videos, making Curtis the ideal (read: cheapest) candidate to direct, shoot and edit Syd's vlogs. It takes some convincing, but Curtis eventually acquiesces and together they begin to make some movie magic.

The scenes of Syd and Curtis working together – and the clips of their resulting projects – are really the only interesting parts of  Breakfast with Curtis. Otherwise, this film loses its purported authenticity whenever its non-professional cast decides to over-emit and overact. Breakfast with Curtis is far from the life-caught-unawares production I expected it to be; instead, this ragtag group of non-professional actors hams it up for the camera. The end result is a no frills, home theatrical project in which a bunch of inebriated housemates decide to put on a show – and, unlucky for us, record it on video. And, yes, it is as goofy and low-quality as it sounds.


Breakfast with Curtis screens at the Los Angeles Film Festival: June 20, 8:10 p.m., Regal Cinemas.