tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82168883713124286262008-08-07T09:22:49.832-04:00Webmasterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03643468321632241172noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-16698583274366297202008-08-07T01:16:00.004-04:002008-08-07T09:22:49.846-04:00

“The Robert Frank Project” is an ambitious long term publishing program from Steidl which encompasses every bit of images the great Robert Frank created. Known for his photography, primarily with his book “The Americans” (first published in 1958 in Paris and then in 1959 with a text by Jack Kerouac), Frank also made many films, wanting to capture narratives further than he could with stills.

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-55862015246220548162008-07-29T16:53:00.002-04:002008-07-29T16:58:32.076-04:00

The vastly different worlds of Mardi Gras and Chinese factories meet head-on in Mardi Gras: Made in China. Asking the question where do those beads come from, director David Redmon captures the insane atmosphere of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, where thousands and thousands of strings of beads are bought and given away to revelers. More common than just handing out beads is the ritual that started

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-64281749086826822652008-07-26T15:51:00.026-04:002008-07-28T22:29:27.304-04:00

With word that Quentin Tarantino has FINALLY begun work on a remake of Italian director Enzo G. Castellari's EuroCult classic The Inglorious Bastards, Severin Films has put together a remastered three-disc release of the original, the first time it's been available in the States (though there have been numerous incarnations -- you may recall Deadly Mission and G.I. Bro). An homage to war

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-83859962225859273852008-07-23T20:19:00.000-04:002008-07-23T20:20:57.220-04:00

I gotta admit, I had no clue who Daft Punk was when I got a DVD of their first film, Electroma, in the mail. Now, I did vaguely recall the title because people were telling me that it was a bore (it premiered at Cannes in 2006). But after watching it I strongly disagree. A beautifully shot, intimate story with no dialogue, Daft Punk (Thomas Bangalter & Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) creates a

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-57375944728411604642008-07-21T18:14:00.004-04:002008-07-21T18:31:05.857-04:00

A town waits for two exiles to come home. The two (con-)men were leaders of a sort in the old days, then a social experiment of a farming community. Now abandoned, the townsfolk are almost ghosts, wandering through their daily lives. A bar offers some insanity to them. Even the children are harshly treated by the world. Upon their return the men have lofty ideas. In the world of film, there are

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-26530391023315151132008-07-18T14:28:00.012-04:002008-07-20T00:39:45.039-04:00

Nominated as one of the "Best Films Not Playing at a Theater Near You" at last year's Gotham Awards, Jeremy & Randy Stulberg's Off The Grid: Life on the Mesa examines a group of people who have given up the amenities we all take for granted to live an existence that includes little food, water and no electricity. In the middle of the barren prairies of New Mexico, a small community of war

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-28201685196078180752008-07-09T20:48:00.006-04:002008-07-09T21:45:51.898-04:00

Knee Deep tells the story of Josh Osborne, who has put his entire life into the family farm. Not just philosophically – he stopped school after 6th grade, he’s never taken a vacation, he has never been to a doctor. So after his Father dies he is shocked that his Mother wants to sell the farm and move on. With a cooperative girlfriend and friends with suggestions, he considers killing his

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-55286440217492502372008-06-14T13:23:00.013-04:002008-06-15T17:27:38.301-04:00

Highlighted in The New York Times as well as our magazine during it's impressive run through the festival circuit that included Toronto, Berlin and SXSW, Eddy Moretti and Vice magazine creator Suroosh Alvi's documentary on the only heavy metal band in Iraq is a gripping account of survival and the escape that music can bring. The band, Acrassicauda (English translation: Black Scorpion), is

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-74030097988810919772008-05-05T21:44:00.009-04:002008-05-05T23:45:49.008-04:00

Winner of the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006 followed by an impressive festival circuit run, Mexican director Alejandro Gomez Monteverde's moving debut feature follows the events that occur during one day in New York City to a former soccer star turned Mexican restaurant cook (Eduardo Verástegui) and a fired waitress (Tammy Blanchard), who recently learned she's

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-65668122004687815082008-03-23T23:18:00.018-04:002008-03-24T17:20:21.009-04:00

A feminist voice, maverick filmmaker, or just an egomaniac? Filmmaker Henry Jaglom has been called many things and all of them are explored in Henry-Alex Rubin and Jeremy Workman's brief (only 58 minutes) but entertaining documentary. Armed with his trademark hat, loose tongue and nonstop-running camera, Jaglom explores the inner psyche of his actors and the audience by filming the "reality"

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-34887175637810006092008-03-15T17:00:00.016-04:002008-03-17T16:00:28.184-04:00

Inspired by true events, director Ti West (The Roost) throws out the typical elements and traps of the horror genre to create what he calls an "experimental horror." Shot with one HD camera, West uses sparse dialogue, long takes and a haunting score to tell the story of three friends who travel from New York City to the woods of Delaware to hunt deer. Similar to films like Deliverance, The

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-26219607904607150522008-03-10T16:20:00.004-04:002008-03-13T15:01:06.718-04:00

Few films have had an effect of making people think differently about the world, or at least confirming their worst instincts about it. No Country For Old Men is one of those films. Set against the arid backdrop and sparsely populated tableau of West Texas, Joel and Ethan Coen paint a bleak depiction of human nature in which there is no country for good men, who are helpless to stop the evil

Rupert Chiarellahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10479454451191285001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-73903183923276418782008-02-21T00:29:00.003-05:002008-02-21T01:21:48.861-05:00

Every once in a while you remember an old film and wonder if you actually saw it or just had this amazing dream of an incredible movie. And every once in a while an old film is mercifully released on DVD for a new generation to discover. Today's dream DVD release is Payday (1973), starring the overboard Rip Torn as an overboard country singer on a three-day binge of life on the road. Torn is

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-48164572266015145702008-02-18T09:53:00.027-05:002008-02-18T23:53:37.446-05:00

With more eye-catching docs coming out of Sundance in 2007 (Manda Bala (Send A Bullet), Crazy Love, My Kid Could Paint That, No End In Sight, War Dance, Zoo, ect.), Daniel Karslake's For The Bible Tells Me So was lost in the flurry, but this interesting look at how decades of religious anti-gay bias is based almost solely upon the misinterpretation of the Bible, the film should certainly be in

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-72772464037743540312008-02-11T12:44:00.000-05:002008-02-11T23:58:42.153-05:00

This heartfelt doc of one man's attempt to give something back to the world before he leaves it has gone on to win the hearts of festival goers all over the world. Following the journey of Mr. Vig, an elderly Danish man who's been a lifelong bachelor and recluse, he offers up his 50 year old castle to the Moscow Patriarchate so that they can turn it into a Russian Orthodox monastery. But seeing

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-2347870334548426262008-02-04T13:32:00.000-05:002008-02-05T00:37:12.967-05:00

In Julie Delpy's directorial debut she stars opposite Adam Goldberg in this intimate and funny look at a couple, Marion and Jack, who during a trip to Venice stop over in Paris for two days to visit Marion's parents (who in fact are Delpy's real parents) on their way home to New York. Delpy and Goldberg are perfect together as they argue over petty things like "black mold," their immune

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-38835454959009458772008-01-28T13:58:00.000-05:002008-01-29T00:02:07.384-05:00

There were a number of teen angst movies this past year -- Eagle vs. Shark, Superbad -- but the one I thought brought the most originality to a very watered down genre was Jeffrey Blitz's Rocket Science, and seeing it again just reaffirms my belief. Armed with great writing, a humorous yet sensitive performance by the talented Reece Daniel Thompson as the film's unorthodox lead Hal Hefner, and

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-72418426129723814212008-01-05T01:31:00.000-05:002008-01-08T13:26:24.857-05:00

In remaking the 1957 classic Western starring Van Heflin and Glenn Ford, director James Mangold (Walk The Line) thankfully doesn't bastardize the solid story or the sanctity of the original. Instead he returns to the source material (an Elmore Leonard short story) and creates this battle of wills between a struggling rancher and the notorious leader of a band of outlaws with respect to the

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-74148474220417486312007-12-23T04:37:00.000-05:002007-12-23T11:24:23.908-05:00

In Chameleon Street, the enigmatic Doug Street goes through a series of cons, sometimes to make money, sometimes to prove he can do more than what the world expects of him. In short time he goes from a simple extortion plot to complex impersonations, including as a reporter from Time, a Yale student, a lawyer and even a surgeon. Yes, a surgeon – who performed 36 successful hysterectomies. The

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-16186781588243102312007-12-13T20:20:00.000-05:002007-12-13T20:46:03.665-05:00

In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. See, they live in a monastery in the French Alps, as mythic as you could think of. Sixteen year later the monks said ok. Living with them and a camera, Gröning created an amazing document of their world, what they see and do. To call it a documentary might suggest it is a

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-30224101775163942752007-12-03T20:58:00.000-05:002007-12-06T13:10:18.713-05:00

Drama/Mex is the bittersweet night-in-the-life tale of three intense, interlaced human relationships. Once a luxurious port but now in slow decline, Acapulco serves as the backdrop for the stories of a suicidal man, a 15-year-old runaway, and a young couple facing hardship after a tragic breakup. As we catch glimpses of a night that will change their lives, we are also given different

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-9750086106774720032007-12-03T11:30:00.000-05:002007-12-03T11:58:15.304-05:00

Some DVD titles have been issued and re-issued to the point where it's a bit difficult to get excited when a new edition is announced. Such is the case with F.W. Murnau's expressionist horror masterpiece, NOSFERATU. We've seen crappy un-authorized versions, one with a goth-metal score by Type-O Negative, and even a nice authorized version by Kino, put out not too long ago. Which is another

André Salashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10779600060293938945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-49590525612183544212007-11-28T20:40:00.000-05:002007-11-28T20:49:31.158-05:00

Close to his 18th birthday and living in a tiny apartment with his divorced Dad, Wes is tortured by his virginity. After getting fired for beating off at work, he befriends Dusty, an older neighbor who writes for porn mag Dear Pillow. (Sorry dude, those letters aren’t real.) Becoming an earnest writer himself and avid listener of other peoples’ sex phone calls, Wes partners up with Dusty and

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-77313388931334190592007-11-18T21:32:00.000-05:002007-11-28T23:00:39.486-05:00

A compilation of videos/short films for the legendary "band" Negativland, made by themselves with collaborators. One of a few pioneers of culture jamming - attacking the notions of copyright laws and media conglomerates - Negativland has made incredible new songs from existing audio of songs and voice samples, ranging from U2 and irate wanna-be lawyers to the unforgettable bootlegged tape of

Mike Plantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12937498008599903450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8216888371312428626.post-59240995107469012872007-11-18T11:49:00.000-05:002007-11-19T18:21:26.208-05:00

So Yong Kim's intimate debut feature about a young teenage Korean girl who tries to adapt to American life and the separation of her parents has been beloved by many since it premiered at Sundance in 2006 (the film caught our attention back then as well, as we named Kim one of our "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in '06). Shot handheld on DV with no score, the film uses its guerilla mentality

Jason Guerrasiohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14958031172216065142noreply@blogger.com