Authors — Brandon Harris
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PARK CITY CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK #1: WOMEN IN TROUBLE
On the night the latest edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicked off, I was approached by a man in a beat-up looking bubble coat and slacks three thousand miles away in a Crown Heights, Brooklyn laundromat. He extended his hand, in which he was holding six plastic sheets with DVDs in them, and tersely said, “Movies.” I looked down at the half-a-dozen bootleg discs in his hand, most of which were sequels to “urban” thrillers I had never heard of in the first place. “I’m good,” I brusquely whispered, causing him to saunter off into the fluorescent hum and […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 22, 2011 -
ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL
Rich in oil and excess, Abu Dhabi, unlike its slightly more hip and newly bankrupted Emirate cousin Dubai, is for the time being at least, a city on the come. It’s also a place that is a symbol of “progress” in an age when that term has come to have no meaning. Why else would they set the irrepressibly offensive Sex and the City 2 there or have a skyscraper which is unfinished but already in the Guinness Book of World Records for being18 degrees crooked or build a so called “zero emission” city that no one may ever live […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 19, 2011 -
HANS PETER MOLAND, “A SOMEWHAT GENTLE MAN”
In Hans Peter Moland’s glumly humorous, sneakily moving Norwegian dramedy A Somewhat Gentle Man, a graying, ponytailed ex-con named Ulrik, played with droll aplomb by the always reliable Stellan Skarsgard, fumbles his way back into civilian life after 12 years in prison for manslaughter. He finds a job as a mechanic for a body shop owner (Bjorn Sundquist), who insists he be on time and stay away from oddly alluring office secretary Merete (Jannike Kruse). After finding a room in the basement of an aging, horny matron (a terrific Jorun Kjellsby), the sister of Ulrik’s former boss and petty crime […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 12, 2011 -
21st Century Man: Abel Ferrara
In person, Abel Ferrara is a whirlwind of gestures and jokes, of quick smiles and vulgar asides, digressions piled upon digressions, even if he’s much sharper and in control of his staccato New Yorkese vernacular than he lets on. Ferrara, who will turn 60 this year, has had one of American indie cinema’s strangest and most fascinating careers, one which has taken the Bronx native from the old 42nd Street’s row of exploitation and porn cinemas to the Croissette in Cannes. Often we talk of middle-aged artists mellowing, but Ferrara maintains a manic, youthful energy that is both infectious and […]
by Brandon Harris on Jan 11, 2011 -
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO FILM FESTIVAL
While it doesn’t have to stretch to come off as a sexy and intoxicating (or from the number of casually inebriated drivers, intoxicated) place, Trinidad and Tobago has a reputation as relatively unassuming. Although it is not reliant on tourism to fuel its economy thanks to its abundance of oil and natural gas, it hasn’t escaped the fate of many struggling Caribbean economies, trying to gain traction in a world increasingly dominated by information technology and increasingly scarce resources. Trinidad and Tobago’s modest prosperity and egalitarian vibe seem to make this largely forgotten southernmost outpost of the Afro-Caribbean world an […]
by Brandon Harris on Dec 5, 2010 -
Duane Baughman, Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto, the two time Pakistani prime minister who in 2007 was assassinated just days after she returned from military imposed exile in Dubai to once again attempt to take control of the country, was the countries’ most significant civilian political figure of her generation. Using the tragic life and times of the Muslim world’s most dynamic and successful female politician as a lens through which to capture the larger political machinations and social upheaval that has led to the sixty-seven year old Pakistani state constantly being handed back and forth between an imperiled civilian government and a conservative military establishment, […]
by Brandon Harris on Dec 1, 2010 -
JUST NORTH OF THE BORDER, A NEW FESTIVAL THRIVES
Although it might be surprising to learn that it isn’t actually held in a loft, the first annual edition of Tucson’s Loft Film Festival, centered at this southern Arizona college town’s venerable, long running Art House the Loft Cinema, maintains the home made, speakeasy vibe that the title implies. Its inaugural run having come to a close with a Thursday night screening of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, this first edition was a glimpse at the type of festival the regional circuit needs more of. Lets hope they keep it going, as it proved to be a welcome […]
by Brandon Harris on Nov 20, 2010 -
DAMIEN CHAZELLE, “GUY & MADELINE ON A PARK BENCH”
Damien Chazelle’s Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench is a throw back and perhaps a harbinger of things to come, a bebop tinged DIY mumblemusical that, despite its New Wavesque 16mm B&W aesthetic, is very much a movie of this time and moment. It concerns a relatively young, black and talented trumpet player named Guy and his would be, perhaps still his lover, a white grad student named Madeline (the oddly alluring Desiree Garcia). Played by real life Boston jazz scene leading light Jason Palmer, Guy engages in a series of pseudo-romances, bemoans the marginality of the relatively esoteric Jazz […]
by Brandon Harris on Nov 3, 2010 -
This Gun for Hire
Both a Cannes sensation and a hit television miniseries in France, Olivier Assayas’s Carlos, an incisive and exciting look at left-wing mercenary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez and the political culture that sustained him, now comes Stateside.
by Brandon Harris on Oct 25, 2010 -
FREDERICK WISEMAN, “BOXING GYM”
This year the Museum of Modern Art’s Film Department launched a year long retrospective of a prominent octogenarian documentarian. On opening night of the series, with the filmmaker present, the curator of the series asked during a Q&A, “do you think you’ve mellowed a bit with age?” Frederick Wiseman responded, “why does one have to mellow?” In fact, at eighty, he hasn’t at all. Yes his films have grown a touch more lyrical and perhaps one could even say tender as he enters his sixth decade as our country and perhaps the world’s most vital documentarian. Since bursting on the […]
by Brandon Harris on Oct 21, 2010
