I Was There (2015) Review

I Was There is a short about one mans strange encounter that put his suicidal plans on hold.

Michael Voight plays Charlie, a man whom is at the end of his chosen journey in life, until he finds a mysterious box under an overpass, the contents of which can not be explained. Charlie decides to continue his journey in life and we see him progress throughout the years, happily and content.

There are some major issues that I as a viewer had while watching the short. The major one was that I had to go back and read the description of the film to figure out what it was about. The acting is great, the chosen locations, beautiful. Where the film stumbles is in it's narrative, or lack there of.

Now don't get me wrong, I am a huge supporter of film that doesn't hand feed you the plot with a rubber tipped spoon, but even this one left me scratching my head in bewilderment after the first view.

Does this mean that it is a bad film that you should steer clear of? Absolutely not! In fact, now that you know the plot, watching it will free you up to enjoy the amazing acting, gorgeous locations, as well as the artistic design of the mysterious box and the creature within.

I Was There is a beautifully captured emotionally artistic journey for the viewer that any fan of film should dive into without hesitation. Not only is it a master silent class on acting, but it also has some great cinematography lessons to teach us as well.

Border Brothers (2015) Illegal Scene Screening Review

I was recently granted a limited time, secret knock code, that allowed me access to some scenes from the upcoming Hectic Films movie Border Brothers. I couldn't be more excited to see this film, but this wasn't necessarily the case before I made my way to that shady motel door, mentally repeating the knock code to myself, and trying to watch for movement out of the corners of my eyes. Maybe I was just brought out here to be robbed and have my body dumped in a dark alley? Hectic Films is legit... right?!

Before I was nervously toeing dirty syringes out of the way, and slowly shuffling up to that motel doorway, I was a bit apprehensive about a comedy that deals with illegal immigrants, drugs, and a white pool boy. I was worried that as an Indie Film, it would walk up to the line of decency and then just giggle and jump off the side of the moral mountain and leave us with something so offensive you just wanted to take a shower after watching it. I can happily report that that is not the case at all!

One of the first clips I saw showed me just how perfectly balanced the film is. That white knight pool boy who has the lead role? He's not the brightest bulb in the bundle. Those illegal immigrants who are so easily dropped into an obscure land of language barrier and ignorance that you see portrayed throughout Hollywood and television? They aren't in this film either. The illegal immigrants in Border Brothers are probably one of the greatest things about the film, as they are not the ones being judged, but instead, are doing the judging, in hilarious fashion!

Now, don't be scared off by the lack of offensive material, I assure you there is plenty here. It just manages to stay offensively safe, and never just completely runs off the rails. From a law enforcement officer telling his assaulter that he "Hits like a transgender", to the clueless ranting of a confused and out of his element white guy who never quite grasps that his racist remarks are not just being heard, but also understood.

Border Brothers has a little something for everyone, and I am excited to say, I will be one of the first in line to see it when it premiers!

You can see the trailer as well as help to get this movie finished by checking out the link below:

Mable (2015) Review

Mable Ain't No Mail-Order Cowboy Movie!

Hectic Films has done it again! Taking the world of Indie Film Making by the reigns and spurring fast and hard with it's latest short film, Mable.

The film finds a gang of ranch hands turned thieves pushing hard West with a few items stolen from Mr. Bedford, who had hired them on to work the fields. Among those items, is Mr. Bedford's daughter, Mable (Coryn McBride). 

The story picks up with us meeting Tom Landry (Shaun Piccinino) who meets with Mr. Bedford and company to hear of what has happened. Offering one item of his choosing from what the gang stole, Tom accepts and sets out on his sparrow catching mission. He soon tracks down the gang making camp for the night, and bullets fly. 

From the period clothing, to the grime and dirty dental neglect of the gang, this film pulls no punches and hits hard and fast. Delivering the action you want from a western, without all the ballyhoo you get from films twice as long.

Mable is a fun little whap of Western, that shouldn't be missed!

As The Man Drives (2015) Review

Disturbingly Awe Inspiring!

As The Man Drives is the kind of short film that stays with you, haunting your thoughts, and following you home. It takes a shot of dark noir and blends a little cigar smoke into the way you view the world, if only for a short while. Completely transporting you into the film experience in ways traditional Hollywood films can only dream about with future technology and the biggest record breaking budgets imaginable.

The score is nothing short of mesmerizing and hypnotic. It sets not only the tone and pace of the film, but also grabs you from the start and submerges you so deeply, you might just find yourself drowning in the cinematic experience, and not at all worried about coming back up for air!

D.T. Carney gives a spine chilling performance as the broken Detective Hank, struggling to make sense of just how far he has fallen. His partner, David (Rickey Bird Jr) struggles to give counsel as they make their way out of the city, into the night, where the truth waits with a finger on the trigger.

Volumes of Blood (2015) Review

Volumes of Blood is a horror film centered around the community of Owensboro, KY, or more directly, the library in Owensboro, KY. While this may seem insignificant from a review point of view, I assure you, it isn't. But more about that in a minute.

This film had me tossing my hands in the air and giving up in frustration after just watching the first three minutes of it. I sat here thinking, "This guy is playing a high school senior? He has a receding hairline and a bald spot for f***s sake!" Just as I was reaching for the off button and dreading the email I would have to send to my boss stating, "This is worse than some YouTube posted fan fiction of crayon colored Anime Vs. Brony in motion stuff." I hit the 3:20 mark in the film, and caught my first glimpse of true indie film making genius!

The writing in this film is good, the dialogue is pure genius, and the cinematography is nothing short of amazing.

The story centers around a group of four friends inside the library who have to come up with urban legends off the top of their heads. Each story is unique in plot as well as feel. D.P. Bonnell is credited with the cinematography, and just from this film alone, I can not heap enough praise their way. Taking a singular location and making it feel different for each of four urban legend stories, as well as the original plot takes a lot of skill, talent, and hard work, and every bit of it shows here.

The dialogue itself, while sometimes a little over the top, has it's own fair share of genius. The urban legends of the film may not make it into youthful circulation, but I assure you, some of the jokes and one liners surely will.

Now, let's talk Owensboro for a second. It is clear from just watching the film that the community itself plays a major role in supporting the film as well as becoming part of it, and as a film maker, that is always refreshing to see.

I feel like there is so much more to praise about this film, but it really can't be done without spoiling the movie itself, so I'm sorry for that, but rest assured, this film is 100% Indie Film Group approved! There are plenty of mediocre indie films in circulation out there, but Verite Cinema's Volumes of Blood is definitely not one of them. This is a great film for both film makers, as well as those who just enjoy a good horror film with a twist!

Sound in Film

To start off on the right foot, let’s name 3 movies: Jaws, Singing In The Rain, Star Wars. The list could be more elaborated and thought through, it could contain more titles, and different ones. For the Indie films lovers, the list could have been: C.R.A.Z.Y, Boyhood, and Trainspotting. Point is, anyone who has seen some of these six movies knows where they all meet: music. By the way, let it be said here before we go further: if you haven’t seen any of these films, elevate your week and take some time to do so.   

Now, I went to film school. Throughout these years, one thing kept coming back, from professor to professor, book to book and essay to essay. Being French, I always used sources from both American writers and French writers to conduct any type of research. The point is that every filmmaker agrees: the real difference between a good and a bad production is the sound. Let's skip through the details of sound recording, editing or mixing, even if this is what makes the real difference. Let's focus on what any viewer notices: music.

Two schools of filmmakers battle whether soundtrack should be completely original or, a contrario, be a mix of existing songs. If we go back to the early part of the 20th century, the battle even included a third category: the filmmakers who thought films should be completely silent. Back definitions for a minute. It is said that: “motion picture music falls into three basic categories: underscore (James Horner's score to Titanic); the pre-existing song or song and original master recording (the Guess Who's "American Woman" in American Beauty); and the song written for the film (Harold Arlen's and E.Y. Harburg's "Over The Rainbow" for The Wizard Of Oz)”. Sometimes, the choice relies only on money considerations, as music can get very expensive (cf the article referenced above).  

If, in the making of Inglorious Basterds in 2009, Tarantino said that he would “rather work with an editor and already existing titles rather than with a composer” and that “the idea of giving that much power to somebody else for his pieces was unconceivable” , he changed his mind when hiring Ennio Morricone to write an orginal score for Django Unchained. Does that prove that there is no more effective way to create a soundtrack? (Or just that Tarantino can get over his ego to make a better film?). I do have an easier time remembering and humming to “Djaaaango, have you always been alone” than to the Inglorious Basterds soundtrack. I am now exercising with the 6 initial films. Jaws' famous violins, Singing in The Rain's obvious eponymous song, Star Wars's grand trumpets. But then come CRAZY, Boyhood and Trainspotting. I want to do is to listen to their famous tracks on my Ipod, and create my own scenes as I’m listening to them. Let’s be real, when a good song comes on our Ipods, don’t we all pretend that we’re in a movie? But I want to believe that Tarantino didn’t change his mind on a whim, and I have hence come to  a realisation. Original soundtracks serve the purpose of the movie in an almost exclusive way.  However, using existing songs feeds the viewer beyond the purpose of the film. The director is throwing extra culture at them, on top of the piece they have created, for you. In that regard, I applaud both schools. On the one hand, I value the team work of certain directors and the tandem they often make with music composers. To name a few: J. J. Abrams and Michael Giacchino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Jon Brion, Wes Anderson and Alexandre Desplat, the Coen Brothers and Carter Burwell or Sam Mendes and Thomas Newman. But I also applaud directors who pick the right song at the right time. See for example Cedric Klapisch, the Nakache Brothers or Jean Marc Vallée.  

All in all, one thing is for sure, my teachers were right: there is no movie without good sound. There is no good movie without a good soundtrack.

Blue Is The Warmest Color

Blue Is The Warmest Color, 

by Abdellatif Kechiche

Palme D’Or at the Festival De Cannes, Blue is The Warmest Color is a real master piece that delivers, through the power of emotions, extraordinary performances by its two main actresses. A truly mind blowing piece. 

The story line: At age 15, Adele doesn’t really question her sexuality. To her, girls go with boys. Her life turns the opposite way the day she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who helps her discover the joys of desire and allows her to become both a woman and an adult. The film tells the story of that journey (very French new wave-y).

Blue Is The Warmest Color dares to be long (put yourself in a European context here: movies standard length is one and half hour to two hours) and hence offers its characters the opportunity to express their complexity and the evolution of such over the course of a few years. Adele starts off as a high school girl, Emma as a student at Les Beaux Arts, a prestigious art school in the heart of Paris. They run into each other on the crosswalk and although they don’t stop, the two girls notice each other, in contemplation. I have heard about that scene that it was the hardest one to shoot. Kechiche was apparently very particular and precise in the way it should happen. The girls meet randomly later at a lesbian bar where Adèle finds herself. Right then the motor starts rolling and love, through gazes that need no explanation, has hit the two females (the girl and the woman). From that point on, events just keep coming (in a very organic way, for that matter) and snapping the viewers through natural and lively dialogues, as well as grasping situations. In that way, Blue Is The Warmest Color very much knows how to make ordinary situations come across as extraordinary moments of life _which seems to be a recurring theme in today’s indie cinema, cf Boyhood.

Now, is it possible to write about the movie without talking about the most famous scenes of it all, the ones that made the director Abdellatif Kechiche so controversed? In the middle of the movie arrives a very intense sexual scene between the two women (at that point, it seems to me like Adele has crossed that step). The graphics were indeed very intense and, once again, daring but it seemed to me that, through the subtlety of the montage (almost invisible: no music, etc), the scene gave the story the power of great romance stories. It is even said that when shown at Cannes for the first time, the audience would have applauded during the 7 

minutes scene. 

At first, I found it hard to write words about that scene. In the theatre itself, my first reaction was to be shocked and trying to avoid as much as possible everyone sitting around me, but I then embraced the moment and remembered something: it’s a movie. I reopened my eyes to these fictional characters and took it all in. I discovered that the scene describes without making up the bodies and the ecstasy of the mind: it’s completely true and, once again, organic. The two actresses, sublime and fusionnel, give into their characters’ pulsions, guided by passion only. It is simply impossible to come out of there cold or indifferent. The scene scars in a way or another (and if it does that effect to the viewer, imagine being the actress!).

There is so much to say about what ends up not being so much: the feature merely is a representation of life has best to offer (love, obviously) and worst, the death of feelings and fatality. Blue is The Warmest Color remains hence, before and foremost, a terrible but wonderful love story, that ends on an interesting open note. If Adele and Emma’s story are over, Adele’s life isn’t. And there is no such thing as a sad ending to her story.