The saying goes that most documentary magic happens in the editing room. That’s an understatement for Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place, a found footage documentary assembled by Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood. Magic Trip takes us back to the cross-country road trip taken by Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters in their psychedelically painted bus, interchangeably called “Further” or “Furthur.” The trip was immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s pioneering work of New Journalism, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Fresh off the success of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey took the book’s proceeds to […]
Shortly after hitting send on this week’s newsletter, in which I wondered whether our current economic situation is similar to 2008, I came across this Reuters article by Joshua L. Weinstein, which wonders pretty much the same thing. Both he and I riff off this week’s Dow roller coaster ride, and while the Friday close was more optimistic than might have been expected on Tuesday, the macro challenges facing both the investment community and consumers remain. Hence, a potentially rocky road ahead. From Weinstein: But Hal Vogel, of Vogel Capital Management and the author of Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide […]
After watching Project Nim, the first half of Rise of The Planet of The Apes is like seeing a documentary (albeit a high production one starring James Franco). Or maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s like seeing the Hollywood-cast, fictionalized version of Project Nim, starring a remarkable digitally-captured performance by Andy Serkis as Caesar, our heroic chimpanzee; our Nim. Of course, like any good Hollywood adaptation of a documentary, halfway through Rise of the Planet of The Apes, the plot veers off from that of Project Nim into a more satisfying conclusion for the apes. Caesar is able to […]
Guillermo del Toro, best known for directing aesthetically impressive, intellectually thoughtful horror films like Mimic and Pan’s Labyrinth, steps into a slightly different role this summer by presenting Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, a remake of one of his favorite films as a child. I spoke to del Toro about his decades-long dream of bringing this film to life, the connection between horror and spirituality, and what makes a dark basement so damn scary. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark opens in theaters on August 26th. Filmmaker: I wanted to start by asking how you began working on the […]
Second #141 Some considerations: • Frederick Elmes’s lush, Freudian colors. • The hyper-red STOP sign, a warning to the audience? • The Eraserhead-like hair of the crossing guard. • The second and fourth child, carrying the same sort of brown paper lunch bag that Jeffrey would use later to transport the scissored ear to Detective Williams. • The cultishness of the film, already gathering in the open-furnace sky in the background. • The fact of SCHOOL taking up the entire lower-third of the screen, and the fact that Jeffrey is “home from school.” • The trust of children. • The […]
Tonight at the HSBC offices in midtown was the IFP’s Independent Film Week launch party. Attending were participating filmmakers, several of our 25 New Faces, and many folks from the New York production community. But flying in from L.A. were Mike Ott and Atsuko Okatsuka, whose Littlerock — winner of the Filmmaker-sponsored “Best Film at a Theater Playing Near You” Gotham Award — premieres today at Cinema Village. Read Ray Pride on the movie here, and then check out the film. It’s highly recommended.
The IFP announced today the slate for this year’s Project Forum, which will take place during the 33rd edition of Independent Film Week on Sept. 18-22 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center. The centerpiece of Independent Film Week, Project Forum is designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers. Read the complete press release and full list of titles in this year’s Project Forum. All 150 projects showcased in the Project Forum this year are narrative and documentary features […]
If one had to pick a film that represents regional, micro-budget American filmmaking at its finest, Malcolm Murray’s Albuquerque, New Mexico set Bad Posture would certainly have to be in the conversation. The story a recently unemployed graffiti artist with a bad cigarette habit and a dope dealing roommate, its the type of tale that at first glimpse seem superfluous. Our awkward, unassuming outsider artist, played by Florian Brozek, who also wrote the film, begins to hit on a young woman named Marisa (Tabitha Shaun) in a park but is thwarted when his roommate steals her purse and car while he’s laying […]
(Malcolm Murray’s Bad Posture, which premiered in Rotterdam, opens tomorrow in New York at Brooklyn’s reRun Gastro Pub theater.) You stay on this beat for long enough and things start to bleed together. One low-budget, poorly lit, competently acted, overhyped, overpriced festival hit after another seem to flood your brain with little sense of lived experience or aesthetic invention. No wonder the underpaid and overstimulated fall so hard for movies that have all of the symptoms of this toxic stew, as long as one seemingly clever gimmick is thrown in. (Oh look, a blonde who also writes! And jeeze Louise, […]
Funny or Die has made a very funny video with Paul Rudd pitching Harvey Weinstein marketing ideas for Jesse Peretz’s upcoming Our Idiot Brother. Check it out below. Paul Rudd Pitches Harvey Weinstein from Paul Rudd