independent film

Movies for the Recent College Graduate

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Do you ever just sit around on a certain day and think “Wow, the real world really sucks sometimes.” You followed all of the steps: went to college, got good grades, put up with less than ideal situations (crappy roomate, anyone?) and graduated college with your bachelor’s degree. It’s a time of celebration yet everyone (including your parents and the waiter that serves you food) is asking what you’re going to do now. A quick dialogue always runs through whenever a college graduation happens.

Society: “Do what you want.”

Society: “No, not that.”

A bit unnerving. Fortunately, there are things like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Redbox that can help you dive into a life of sweet media consumption (and procrastination). A lot of movies have fluff and give a stereotypical or unrealistic nature to them. No fear though, there are films out there that provide a good laugh and are insightful too. Look to the list below to see a list of films with characters practicing questionable antics, themes of growing up and the ever concerning question of “What now?”

Young Adult

This film is a fun take on the typical coming-of-age genre. It’s written by Diablo Cody (screenwriter for Juno). The film revolves around Mavis (Charlize Theron) who is a bitter, divorced 37-year-old ghost writer for a series of young adult novels. She’s had success all these years: being the popular girl in high school, moving to a great big city, being a successful writer. Things come crashing down when her book series is about to be cancelled due to low sales. She has one book left to finish but can’t find any inspiration to do it.

Considering she was the popular girl in high school, you know how this story might go. She gets a picture sent to her of from her old high school boyfriend who is married and now has a baby. To her, it’s a sign that they were meant to be together. She’s a little on edge and has nothing to lose so she drives out to her home town to relive some tender memories.

Young Adult is suprising in that it’s not the typical soapy, cliche inspirational film (if you want that, go look up The Breakfast Club or She’s All That). It displays a woman who had early success and is now crumbling. She had a successful book series and living in a great city but it still wasn’t enough for her. Her small-town former friends seem a lot happier with their simple lives.

Case in point? Success can be defined in a number of ways. Moving to a big city (like New York City) isn’t always the best thing. People change and move apart. The glam life of others isn’t always the answer. Appreciate the ordinary and find inspiration in the little things. Mavis is a combination of the over the top person you hate along with the bitter person inside yourself. Entertaining film with some interesting takeaways.

Ira and Abby

ira Ira is procrastinator extraordinaire. He’s been working on his PhD in Psychology for forever. Wait? A PhD in Psychology? He can’t even figure is own life out. He types away on his computer with mindless details. With a bitter view of people and the world, he doesn’t have much hope in the societal norms of getting a well paying job and starting a family.

Abby is a free spirit who loves everyone. She’s the type of girl who reminds you of that person you meet at orientation or camp who is overly happy and takes a bunch of pictures. Anyways…

Ira joins a gym that Abby works at. They hit it off, go through the typical relationship woes and start to question the society norms when it comes to relationships and life in general.

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The films above can provide some much needed cinematic take on the topic of the real world and transitioning into a new stage of life. If not, Office Space is always available to watch…

Film Review: Happy Christmas (2014)

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Do you ever watch one of those movies that deals with a person that’s down on their luck and makes bad life decisions? Happy Christmas is one of those.

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The story involves Jenny (Anna Kendrick), a no so responsible 27-year-old who has recently broken up with her boyfriend. With many options and lacking direction, she arrives in Chicago to live with her older brother Jeff (Joe Swanberg, who also wrote and directed the film).

Life Choices: Passing out on a stranger's floor
Life Choices: Passing out on a stranger’s floor

Jeff makes and produces films for a living. He lives a relatively happy with his novelist wife, Kelly, and their two-year-old son. Once Jenny arrives, things start to get a bit hectic. Her first night of living at the house, Jenny goes to a party to meet up with her friend Carson (Lena Dunham). Getting a little to festive, she gets smokes pot, drinks and ends up passing out in a bedroom, requiring Jeff to come pick her up.

After the passing out incident, jenny starts to form a bond with Kelly at the house. She notices that Kelly feels overwhelmed and wants time to write her novel. Trying to get her creative juices up and flowing, Jenny suggests an idea for a book that Kelly can write. Throughout the days, free-spirited Jenny and Carson get Kelly to open up, prompting a evolution of relaxation in Kelly.

At a quick glance, many will wonder why the heck a “christmas” movie is being released in June/July. Despite its title, Happy Christmas features very little of actual Christmas. The Christmas theme is meant as an accessible way to bring family together and show their interactions. A quick Christmas day scene is all that is featured in the 78 minute movie.

Director-writer Joe Swanberg is known for having his films center on the ordinary, daily interactions of a group of people. Happy Christmas features fully improvised dialogue. No set script was used for the film. The actors received outlines for each scene.

Life Choices 2: Smoking pot
Life Choices 2: Spending hours mindlessly surfing the internet

Happy Christmas is a “slice-of-life” type film. The film appeals to the viewer that likes movies heavy with improvisation, realism, and the scenes with the interactions of everyday life. Despite its slow pacing and lack of clear resolution, Happy Christmas goes above with witty dialogue, quotable lines and examining the nature of family dynamics. Happy Christmas might even give new meaning to the term “Christmas in July.” A

Happy Christmas is currently on video on demand platforms (Amazon, iTunes and others) and is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on July 25, 2014.

Film Review: Wish I Was Here

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wish I was here poster (2)   Aidan Bloom is a 35 year old struggling actor trying to find his purpose in life. His dad gets cancer and cannot pay for Aidan’s kids yeshiva school tuition anymore. This leads to Aidan attempting to homeschool his children. Throughout the film, Aidan reflects on the unpredictable and hard circumstances that come with raising a family. He wants to provide for his family yet follow his dream of being an actor. He wants him and his wife, who supports the family, to be happy. Throughout the film he tries to find meaning in life’s nature.   Aidan Bloom is a 35 year old struggling actor trying to find his purpose in life. His dad gets cancer and cannot pay for Aidan’s kids yeshiva school tuition anymore. This leads to Aidan attempting to homeschool his children. Throughout the film, Aidan reflects on the unpredictable and hard circumstances that come with raising a family. He wants to provide for his family yet follow his dream of being an actor. He wants him and his wife, who supports the family, to be happy. Throughout the film he tries to find meaning in life’s nature. IMG_1595 Although Braff has good intentions with Wish I Was Here, the film falls flat. The film has nice cinematography, pacing and acting yet it seems like something is missing. With Garden State, Braff explored a lost twenty-something. In Wish I Was Here, he explores a lost thirty-something. The film doesn’t seem to deliver any insightful nature because it’s caught up in Braff’s mind fantasies. It seems as though he wrote down all the challenges of raising a family, trying to be happy, making sense of life’s hardships, and so forth…but the film doesn’t ever go past depicting these things to provide any insightful nature. The film ends, basically saying “Hey, raising a family and trying to be happy is hard.” It never really has a full solution to Aidan’s endless doubts about life.  B-

Wish I Was Here: Austin Film Screening Q&A

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Zach Braff brought his film Wish I Was Here to Austin, Texas on June 2nd for a special advanced screening for Kickstarter backers that helped fund the film. After the film was screened, Zach came out and answered questions about the film with fellow co-star and friend, Donald Faison. He answered questions about the motivation to do the film, challenges of making a movie, soundtrack selection, and so forth. Check out this exclusive video to hear Zach answering some of the questions during the Q&A.

Hateship, Loveship (2014)

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Hateship, Loveship is a strange movie that wanders often without coming back. It goes slow at times and doesn’t have a clear resolution to it’s characters. Despite the shortcomings of the script, great performances by Wiig and Pearce make this a worthwhile viewing. Hateship_Loveship Synopsis The movie starts with Johanna Perry (Kristen Wiig), an extremely introverted woman, who has worked as a caregiver for most of her life. When the elderly woman she takes care of passes away, Johanna takes a job in a new town working as a housekeeper for an elderly man, Mr. Cauley (Nick Nolte) and taking care of his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld). Sabitha’s father, Ken (Guy Pearce), lives off in Chicago. He has had a life full of alcohol and drugs. A tragic accident involving a boat wreck, driven by a drunken Ken, kills Sabitha’s mother and leaves her in the care of her grandfather. Sabitha isn’t content with her living arrangement. Her and her friend, Edith (Sami Gayle), think that Johanna is weird and don’t really enjoy her presence. They decide to draft up a fake letter written by Ken, Sabitha’s father, to Johanna. In the letter, posing as Ken, they write about how much they enjoyed Johanna’s arrival and think of her as a good friend. When Johanna unexpectedly responds to the letter, Sabitha and Edith start to send more. This results in a long correspondence. Johanna’s dull life starts to become exciting. Reading the letters, she thinks that Ken really likes her. She is feeling things, doing things she normally wouldn’t. She is breaking through her shell. Review Hateship, Loveship is one of those quirky indie dramas that many people will not get. It drags on at times. Thoughout the film, there are several instances that pick at character development but end up getting abandoned. Sabitha is rebellious yet her attitude toward her father seems to change in an instant. Sabitha’s friend, Edith, who is the commander of the fake letter correspondence, drifts off in the middle of the movie not to be seen again til the end. Grandfather Mr. Cauley starts a romance with a local bank employee but no development is ever shown through the film. The indie drama’s tagline on its poster is “Dare to care.” Watching the film, it seems like the script tries to explore the various stages of life of a broken family and caregiver, Johanna, yet it never fully follows through on exploring it. The main attraction to this movie is the performances. Kristen Wiig, in her first leading drama role, captures the viewer as quiet, minimal Johanna Perry. The character has lines but a heavy emphasis is on what happens when Johanna is not talking. A well-known quote comes to mind when watching Johanna throughout the film:

Acting is reacting 

Wiig embodies this quote very well in her performance of Johanna. She is subtle and not to over the top. Every one of her eye movements, lip quivers, and hand mannerisms all seem to have a purpose. Wiig breathes life into a very dull character and you can’t keep your eyes off of her.

The concept of a dead beat dad character has been done often. In his role as Ken, Guy Pearce delivers well in providing charm and sensibility into a character that could have easily become a caricature.

Despite Hateship, Loveship not having any huge or clear character development, the performances by the main cast make it worthwhile to see. B

Hateship, Loveship is available on demand at iTunes, Amazon and other online video providers.

“Wanted: Someone to Go Back in Time with Me”

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WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

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Safety Not Guaranteed follows Jeff (Jake Johnson), a cocky writer at magazine who spots an ad in the classifieds that mentions time travel. Jeff wants to investigate the man behind the ad. With the help of two interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni), they set out on a trip to Ocean View, Washington to find the man.

The team is able to track down the guy who placed the ad. He is a man named Kenneth(Mark Duplass) who is in his 30’s working at a supermarket. Kenneth is resistant when confronted with the hard hitting efforts made by Jeff. Darius, using her sarcasm and deadpan humor, is able to quickly form a bond with him. Kenneth will take Darius along with him in his time machine. Kenneth wants to travel back to 2001 to save a girlfriend who died.

Safety Not Guaranteed, produced for just $750,000, is a film that enhances the mumblecore films that have come before it. It has a characters that are putting their quirky natures to use. The dialogue is great. Mark and Jay Duplass, producers on the film, helped start the movement with films like The Puffy Chair and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon.

The film is based upon an actual newspaper article. The inspiration for the script came from a 1997 Backwoods Home Magazine classified ad written by an employee as a joke filler.

The film’s performances are great. Mark Duplass shows how versatile an actor he is. Known very well for his award-winning directing and writing, Duplass brings something special to the character of Kenneth. Kenneth is odd but there are reasons for it. Duplass nails the job of giving long bursts of lines and making them all count. Aubrey Plaza shines in her first starring role. Plaza demonstrates more beyond her already widely known deadpan skills that she does on NBC’s Park’s and Recreation. Plaza play the role of Darius, a sarcastic recent college grad, very well. Plaza and Duplass are the standout performers of the film.

The film is vague when it comes to whether time travelling actually takes place or not. Nonetheless, the writer, director and actors provide a solid film to remember.

Derek Connolly, screenwriter for the film, won both the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.

Image by FilmDistrict from http://www.imdb.com/

 

Wish I Was Here (2014 film)

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Website for Wish I Was Here (film)
Website for Wish I Was Here (film)

Wish I Was Here, the movie Zach Braff co-wrote/directed, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two weeks ago. I was a little excited about the movie premiering due to the fact that I pitched in via Kickstarter to fund it back in April 2013 (I can call myself a movie producer!). While my excitement was somewhat high, it quickly went down. Zach Braff and the rest of the staff working on Wish I Was Here haven’t done a really good job of making their Kickstarter backers (which funded $3.1 million of the $6 million budget) feel very appreciated.

Being a public relations major I felt the need to point out some of the missteps that Braff and the rest of the Wish I Was Here team have done. Discontent among the backers for the project has become more evident since its premiere at Sundance. Flavorwire pointed out about how the film and its production is becoming a public relations nightmare. Read the article here.

The first thing wrong with the Wish I Was Here Kickstarter production is the delay of the rewards. Kickstarter backers were promised to receive rewards based on the varying levels of money they pledged to the project. Yet since the finish of the project campaign in May 2013, backers have gotten nothing except a few behind the scenes videos. They have basically gotten nothing more than the average user would get when purchasing the home media DVD.

To make matters worse, in November 2013 Braff decided to open the wishiwasheremovie.com site to everyone. Everyone had access to the videos. Backers who pledged their money were receiving nothing more than what the typical internet surfer could find.

Zach Braff should have thought twice before reaching out to crowdfund his film. He said the reasoning for the kickstarter campaign was so he could remain creative control over the film and not have to cut things. His rational doesn’t hold much clout given the fact than nearly all filmmakers have to be willing to sacrifice some things to get their movie made.

Veronica Mars, the other big film financed through kickstarter, differs from the public relations nightmare of Wish I Was Here. Veronica Mars was backed by fans before the campaign even started. Rob Thomas (creator of series) kept constantly communication with the backers. Rewards were put out not too long after the film finished shooting. Veronica Mars was not co-financed with the help of a major hollywood studio like Wish I Was Here.

Main Point: Communicate more with your backers Braff. Give them the rewards they were promised, sooner rather than later. Make them feel part of the production rather than just providing the stock behind the scenes videos.

Movie Review: Gimme Shelter

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You know that weird gut feeling you get sometimes? It’s a feeling you get whenever your tired of seeing the same type of movie over and over. It’s the feeling I had after seeing over the top comedies and big action movies one after the next. Going to see Gimme Shelter was the solution.

Plot: 16-year-old Agnes “Apple Bailey (Vanessa Hudgens) is a troubled, aggresive girl who has lived in abusive environments her whole life. Apple’s mother June, played by Rosario Dawson, is a sleazy drug addict who doesn’t care much for Apple besides the extra welfare money she gets for being her parent. Apple, fed up with her living situation, sets out to find her long lost father. Upon meeting him, she finds out that he is a successful Wall Street Broker with a wife and two kids. After a dispute she leaves. Apple eventually ends up in a shelter for pregnant young women run by a spritiual women.

Main Point: Despite a line of capable actors, the film falls flat with dull dialogue and a script that does little more than go beyond standard cliches.

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Slow mutterings start the movie. “I’m okay. I’m not scared. I can do this.” Apple says to herself in the mirror while chopping off her black hair strand by strand. It’s noticed from the get go that Apple is misguided, not having a clear head to make decisions. She is leaving the abusive house she lives in with her druggie mom. With an addressed letter to guide her, she lands at her long lost father’s house. Tom, her father (Brendon Fraser), greets her with a former look and a head of hair gel (typical).

Apple sticks out like a coffee stain on a t-shirt compared to Tom’s lifestyle. Tom lives with his wife and two kids in a wealthy, picket fence neighborhood. When the married couple find out Apple is pregnant, they schedule for her to get an abortion. Frustrated, she storms out and onto the streets again. Stealing a car and wrecking puts her in the hospital and under the guidance of a chaplain Father McCarthy (James Earl Jones).

Only halfway through runtime and the film is already unsettling. The dialogue feels weirdly unnatural. The acting and scripting does little to add originality to an environment that has been seen several times before. Apple is constantly in angst against the ones around her. Then suddenly shortly after arriving at the group home for pregnant teens, she changes. She likes the place she is at. There is stability and a sense of safety. The problem is that the viewer never sees this. The script does nothing to make it seem like  a new sense of being has been developed. The idea that Apple has developed close relationships and belonging with all the girls feels false. There wasn’t enough building. The whole film starts to feel like a gimmicky PBS TV special.

The start of the film was promising but interest quickly drops after Apple is taken into the care of the priest and group home. Despite the lacking script, Vanessa Hudgens, Brendon Fraser and Rosario Dawson give refreshing performances. This just isn’t the best work to see these actors in.  Hudgens shines farther with her acting chops in The Frozen Ground and Dawson with her performance in Kids. Rating: C