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Written by Trent Daniel
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Wednesday, 20 May 2009 |
Recently, Bruce Frigeri defined a movie with IT as follows:
So what is this IT? In other words, what makes a film work? For me, it's a balance between acceptable technical standards, innovative style and honest, inspired storytelling. Each film has its own mix of these qualities. There is usually a rigorous courage of sorts that one can see in these films that have IT. It’s the courage to not sell your themes short, to not take the easy way out, even if it might be dramatically expedient.
To expand on the subject, I decided to offer 10 relatively recent films that I think have IT, as defined above. The list was somewhat hard to make, as many good film, even Oscar winners, can still miss the mark, particularly with regards to slightly manipulating their themes and perhaps taking the easy way out. The list below is quite an eclectic mix, ranging from relatively obscure foreign films to Hollywood mega-blockbusters. Still, I think all the films below have IT:
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Read more... [So what is IT?]
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Written by Trent Daniel
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Wednesday, 20 May 2009 |
 In trying to up with my top 10 sexy scenes list, I realized it would be much more challenging than I thought, as well as a little intimidating. In making this list, I realized I’m revealing something about myself, but if I am going to be an honest film reviewer, I need to have the courage to do that.
I making this list, I realized that nearly half the films on it are from the early 80’s, around the time I was moving from adolescence to so-called adulthood. I guess those moments I encountered when I was first truly becoming sexually aware made a very profound impact on me.
Read my list after the fold...
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Read more... [Top 10 Sexy Film Scenes]
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Written by Trent Daniel
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Tuesday, 12 May 2009 |
 The Reader. A drama starring Kate Winslet, David Kross, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz and Lena Olin. Directed by Stephen Daldry.
The Reader, one of the best films of 2008, starts off as the story of an older woman’s affair with young man, yet uses this story as a springboard to ask its audience harsh, difficult questions concerning guilt and responsibility. It never lets the audience off the hook with a simple answer and still crafts a story that is, at the end, profoundly moving.
In post war Germany, a woman in her mid-30s named Hannah (Winslet, in her Oscar winning role) has an affair with a 15 year old named Michael. The boy, carried away with his first sexual experience, develops a helpless crush on the woman. Hannah never conveys that she loves Michael back, yet the relationship does fulfill a key and curious need for her-it is more important for the young Michael to read classic literature to her than to satisfy her sexually (indeed, the sex is pretty much a reward to him for reading to her).
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Read more... [DVD Review: The Reader]
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Written by Bruce Frigeri
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Thursday, 07 May 2009 |
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Last week we published a post about how people judge the quality of a film. What standards and criteria do they apply, etc. to choose which films "work" and which ones don't. We started to refer to that combination of style and inspiration that is always found in a "good" film as IT.
First quarter Hollywood releases have been noticeably short of IT. These things go in cycles of course and one can only hope that the upcoming summer releases have a higher batting average in hitting/achieving IT.
Those of us still soldiering on in the world of Independent Distribution are keenly aware of IT, both when we experience it and when ITs absence is painfully missed in the independent films we screen. We know that when a film has IT, the prospects for its success increase exponentially. Sometimes we convince ourselves that a film has IT, when in reality it just flirts with IT or is just a poseur altogether. Audiences, especially theatrical ones, have an uncanny ability to clear that confusion up for a distributor.
So what is this IT? In other words, what makes a film work? For me, it's a balance between acceptable technical standards, innovative style and honest, inspired storytelling. Each film has its own mix of these qualities. There is usually a rigorous courage of sorts that one can see in these films that have IT. It’s the courage to not sell your themes short, to not take the easy way out, even if it might be dramatically expedient. When the recipe is just right, well then we get to experience IT. Two very different films recently in release, the animated CORALINE, and the very straightforward ADVENTURELAND, both have some of that IT. Two films that try very hard but miss the mark are THE SOLOIST and KNOWING.
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Read more... [What Makes A Film Good Part 2]
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Written by Trent Daniel
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Tuesday, 05 May 2009 |
 A reviewing of one of the films listed below gave me inspiration for a new list: what are some films that I feel have been unfairly savaged or dismissed by critics that I feel are good, possibly great, films? Furthermore, what are some films that I feel have been grossly overrated, either by critics and/or the Academy?
I know the list below is totally subjective and reveals much about my personal taste. Looking at the list, I realized that 1) I want a movie to thrill me in some form or fashion, be it by scaring me, making me laugh, or moving me emotionally in some way; 2) I do NOT want to be preached to by a movie.
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Read more... [They Got It Wrong]
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Written by IndieFilmChat
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Sunday, 26 April 2009 |
 Enter to win what the Guardian considers "a pungent ghost story, evocatively played out in a creaking haunted house." The French thriller Fissures comes out on DVD May 5, 2009.
You can enter a chance to win it by emailing contest[at]indiefilmchat.com with the subject line 'enter to win Fissures'. You have until May 4th to enter an must be residing in the US or Canada.
WATCH THE TRAILER:
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Written by Ed Flynn
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Friday, 01 May 2009 |
Fissures (Ecoute Le Temps). A thriller starring Emilie Dequenne, Lumilla Mikael, Matheieu Demy and Jaques Spiesser. Directed by Alante Kavaite.
“Sometimes, when something happens, it leaves a trace of itself behind. Like when someone burns toast.”
The above line, from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, applies perfectly to the French thriller Fissures as well. Who hasn’t wondered, if the walls in nearly any home could talk, what they would say? Does it not seem feasible that an action involving intense emotion, be it happiness, anger, extreme sadness or horror, could create such a core of energy that a trace of such energy could remain, long after the event has passed?
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Read more... [DVD REVIEW: Fissures (Ecoute Le Temps)]
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Written by Trent Daniel
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 |
 Notorious A biography starring Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke and Anthony Mackie. Directed by George Tillman Jr.
Though I am not a fan of rap music, I was aware of the meteoric rise to fame, then tragic death of The Notorious B.I.G., as well as how his murder was the key moment in a brutal and senseless “East Coast/West Coast” rap feud that erupted in the lat 1990s. Like a good biography, Notorious is both informing and moving in the way it tells a true “rags to riches” story, albeit one that ends cruelly, robbing not only the music world of a talented artist, but even worse, robbing a young man the chance to right past wrongs in his life, “become a man” (in the words of his mother) and start in a new direction.
The film begins when its protagonist was simply Christopher Wallace, a heavyset child raised by a single mom in Brooklyn. He soon falls into the world of drug dealing, not only for the money, but for the “street cred” he receives. When he inevitably gets arrested, he turns to writing his rap songs while doing his time, finds he has talent and is encouraged by others to follow his dream.
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Read more... [DVD Reveiw: NOTORIOUS]
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Written by Bruce Frigeri
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Monday, 16 February 2009 |
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Our resident "know-it-all" film critic, Walter Ego, returns to review Adam Sandler kid's movie, Bedtime Stories.
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DVD review: Clone HunterOften, sci-fi and low budget indie productions go together about as well as chocolate and onions....
What to make of the ending to Inception?So far, my favorite film this year is Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Not only does it deliver all...
DVD Review: The White RibbonThe White Ribbon is a drama starring Christian Freidl, Ulrich Turkl and Burghart Klaussner....
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Black Swan - Trailer