All posts by Larry Christopher

Craigslist Joe

Note: an edited version of this review was recently published on Devtome.

Craigslist Joe (2012)

This is a fun and uplifting documentary about the experiences of Joe Garner, who spend a whole month traveling the country without any money -relying entirely on Craigslist postings for rides and shelter.

If the point of this movie is to prove that anything is possible (in a good way) on Craigslist, or in the contemporary U.S., then it doesn’t quite live up to its goal. On the other hand, it’s still quite entertaining and rather inspiring to watch Joe on his journey, which is a kind of modern day vision quest.

As much as I enjoyed Craigslist Joe, I couldn’t forget the presence of the camera. Although we never see or hear the cameraman, his existence takes away some of the documentary’s credibility. While it would be difficult to make a documentary (or any film) without a camera, in this case it creates a never addressed artificiality, as everyone interacts with Joe as if he was alone when we know that he isn’t.

In quantum physics, there is something called the Observer Effect, where the mere presence of an observer effects the outcome of an experiment. The same is often true with documentaries. We are never entirely sure if the people who welcome Joe into their home so freely would have done so without his cover story that he was making a movie.

This is a relevant point, as he discusses early on about his need to discover if people have become disconnected in today’s high tech world. Yet, people today are also media obsessed and often willing to do almost anything to be filmed. Additionally, the camera also establishes Joe as a respectable member of society, rather than another (potentially dangerous) individual living on the fringes.

Additionally, Garner is not just a random person making a low budget indie film. He has quite a bit of Hollywood experience. See: IMDb Joseph Garner. Zach Galifianakis is actually listed as the film’s executive producer. So, like many documentaries, Craigslist Joe may not be exactly what it appears at first.

Despite all of that, however, Craigslist Joe still manages to succeed at showing how connections can be quickly fostered on the road. While Joe might be a little overdramatic at times (as he makes clear, he has a comfortable life and family to help him if he really needs it), he still manages to touch the hearts of many of the people he meets along the way.

What I liked best about Craigslist Joe is that it’s a road movie that’s a celebration of spontaneity and breaking free of deeply ingrained assumptions.

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    Other People’s Parties

    Other People’s Parties (2009) -Written and directed by R.A. White.

    This is an ultra quirky, uneven and sometimes awful indie comedy that nevertheless has some redeeming qualities (I think).

    I almost turned it off early as the first few scenes just showed people bickering pointlessly. Yet, being too lazy to switch it off I stuck with it. I suppose it can be categorized as a chick flick, as it’s mainly about the contentious friendship between two women (Molly Bryant & Tamara Baranov Ham) who are trying to start a party planning business with little success.

    Then it turns into a kind of road movie as they drive into the desert and stay at a resort where they appear to be the only guests. They get drunk and do some peyote with the wacky owner of the resort. Through a bizarre series of events, this leads to them booking a Hollywood party and more chaos ensues.

    Other People’s Parties, as I indicated, starts off rather weakly. It is populated with lots of boring suburbanites and a bunch of guys playing poker. By the second half, however, it starts to take on the kind of offbeat and zany spirit I like in indie films.

    I found this rather obscure film on Netflix and gave it 3 stars, which is probably generous but I have a soft spot for films that are so unconventional that you never know what’s going to happen next.

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      Young Adult (2011) – Original Dark Dramedy

      Young Adult is a surprisingly interesting and original movie that might be called a dark dramedy. My expectations for this film were not especially high, and at first I ignored its presence in the list of Netflix new releases. As it turned out, however, I was pleasantly surprised by it.

      Charlize Theron plays Mavis, a woman who is not really a young adult (she’s 37), but writes books for that age group. She is the type of single, professional, big city thirty-something that you find in a typical Hollywood romantic comedy.

      That, however, is where the similarity ends. Mavis is not the average, sweet character you find in such movies, but utterly self-absorbed, most likely an alcoholic and possibly suffering from one or more personality disorders. Still, she is not entirely unsympathetic, at least if you have a tendency to prefer antiheroes (or anti-heroines) to the virtuous yet bland good guys/gals who inhabit mainstream films.

      Mavis gets an announcement in her inbox that an ex-boyfriend is a new father. She randomly decides that this is a clue from the universe that she should return to her hometown and try to reignite this relationship from decades ago. It hardly needs to be pointed out that this scheme is ill-thought out, or not thought out at all. Yet Charlize Theron manages to make Mavis believable as she pursues her obsession.

      What happens for the duration of Young Adult is less interesting than the way the characters interact. Mavis’ ex is a rather typical small town nice guy named Buddy (Patrick Wilson), who is ultimately forced to reject the increasingly irrational Mavis.

      The only anchor Mavis has in her hometown of Mercury is Matt (Patton Oswalt), a nerdy, disabled and possibly gay former classmate from high school. He attempts to talk Mavis out of her plans to break up Buddy’s family. While she doesn’t listen, the strange friendship that develops between Mavis and Matt prevents her from going off the deep end.

      Young Adult was directed by Jason Reitman, who has made a couple of other outstanding yet low key dramas –Juno (starring Ellen Page) and Up in the Air (starring George Clooney). It was written by Diablo Cody, who also wrote the script for Juno.

      I admire the way Young Adult presents us with a character who has blatant and probably incurable flaws, yet doesn’t reduce her to a caricature or even a villain. The few films that dare to buck the saccharine plot lines of conventional romances and romantic comedies usually go to the opposite extreme, flaunting their cynicism and the conclusion that everyone is corrupt and selfish beyond redemption.

      Young Adult certainly heads in that direction, but has more nuances and ends on an ambiguous note. Mavis can be seen as almost a parody of the negative Generation X stereotype. She is sarcastic and utterly narcissistic, her values apparently formed entirely by popular culture. We see evidence of this as we hear the lines she writes for her teen romances (many of which she steals by eavesdropping on actual conversations).

      If you read a typical book on screenwriting, or attend one of those weekend workshops, you’ll be told that the protagonist has to grow or change in some significant way by the end. The same advice is given to aspiring novelists. Apparently, the experts who dispense this type of wisdom haven’t heard of postmodernism or seen many films not made in America.

      Whether Mavis “grows” or learns anything by the concluding scene of Young Adult is actually a difficult and interesting question. This very ambiguity is one of the things I like so much about the film.



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        Tales From the Script (2009)

        Tales From the Script (2009) is a documentary about screenwriting in Hollywood. Aside from aspiring screenwriters, it should be quite fascinating to anyone who’s intrigued by the whole movie-making process.

        The format is quite familiar, and simply shows one screenwriter after another giving his or her perspective on the craft, with no signs of an interviewer. So many modern documentaries follow this model and it has advantages as well as drawbacks. We get to hear many points of view, but it means that the feedback on every issue is scattershot more than in depth. I suppose modern attention spans are deemed too short for old fashioned interviews or dialogues that last more than a few seconds.

        As might be expected, the writers tend to focus on the many absurdities of life in Hollywood and how the industry keeps writers in a relatively powerless position. Much of this material is already pretty well known, not only among industry insiders but to anyone who’s seen films such as The Player (which, oddly enough, is not mentioned here).

        For example, the writer’s original script might be rewritten dozens of times. Actors and directors may change lines, and in some cases the final product bares little resemblance to the writer’s first draft. There is also a segment that laments the modern preference for franchise type movies, often based on comic books, rather than traditional character and story based scripts.

        Tales From the Script, of course, is only talking about mainstream Hollywood here and doesn’t mention the growth of low budget independent movies, many of which are written, directed and produced by the same person (or small group).

        Even if the insights aren’t exactly earth-shattering, it’s still great to hear from so many legendary screenwriters. After all, the public seldom gets to see them and in many cases probably wouldn’t even recognize them. Unlike actors and directors, writers generally remain behind the scenes.

        Many of these writers spend a lot of their time griping about their low place in the hierarchy of filmmaking. Yet they also appreciate how fortunate they are to be in the enviable position of making money doing what they love.

        Some of the screenwriters featured in Tales From the Script include William Goldman, Paul Schrader, Allison Anders and John Carpenter.

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          Obselidia (2010)

          Written and directed by Diane Bell.

          Obselidia is an intellectual, dialogue driven film that echoes earlier movies of this type such as My Dinner With Andre. Even though Obselidia offers far more interesting scenes and landscapes than My Dinner With Andre, though, it’s never quite as fascinating or multi-dimensional.

          Perhaps that comparison is not entirely fair or ideal, as Obselidia has a mood and possibly an agenda all its own. The protagonist here is George (Michael Piccirilli), a withdrawn librarian who collects all things that are, or will soon be obsolete.

          He meets Sophie (Gaynor Howe), a movie projectionist (a profession that may soon become extinct) and for most of the film the two exchange ideas and engage in some tentative flirting.

          Also included in the mix is Lewis (Frank Hoyt Taylor), a doom-and-gloom scientist whom George and Sophie visit in Death Valley. Since Lewis believe the whole world (or at least humanity) is about to become extinct, this renders everything into the realm of “obselidia.”

          At some points, I wondered if one motivation for making this film was to give Lewis a chance to recite his diatribe. Yet, this doesn’t make too much sense, since he tells us the situation is hopeless anyway.

          The cheerful and uplifting mood of this film ranges from discussions on global warming to the existentialist dilemma of how to live when everything may soon end.

          Even though some interesting issues are raised, I found George’s fussy and insulated lifestyle a little hard to take. His fear of sleeping in a tent for one night makes you wonder why Sophie bothers to be chasing after him (though in an ambivalent manner). While his character is perhaps meant to be charmingly anachronistic, it can also tax your patience. When combined with Lewis’s apocalyptic outlook, it’s a bit of an ordeal to sit through.

          The potential romance between George and Sophie faces obstacles both predictable and not so predictable. The ending was ambiguous and a bit depressing, though I suppose anything else would not have been true to the film’s spirit.

          Obselidia is the kind of serious, idea-filled film that indie film lovers will want to like and perhaps even try to like. While it’s definitely quirky and interesting, it’s also pedantic and annoying as well.

          Available on Netflix streaming.

          Obselidia on IMDb

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            Best Sources For Movie Reviews

            Reviewing The Reviewers

            There are thousands of places to find movie reviews online, from obscure independent sites (like this one!) to giants like the MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine).

            This is a short and extremely biased review of some of my favorite (and not so favorite) places to find movie reviews.

            VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 2013

            This is the largest print book of movie reviews you can find, and it gets updated every single year. I often wonder how they can keep putting it out each year and still include all the new movies that are released.

            The partial answer is, as huge as it is, it’s not close to comprehensive. In fact, in the few editions of it I’ve owned, I’ve noticed that each one has more movies missing.

            Still, it’s by far the best of its kind. This doesn’t mean I always agree with the reviews. Far from it. In some cases, the reviewers seem to try too hard to pander to mainstream and conventional tastes. Still, it’s a superb reference, especially if you want a hard copy movie review resource.

            Movie Review Query Engine

            This is not a movie review site per se, but a meta review site. That is, it lists reviews for any movie you look up. Once again, it’s not comprehensive. Many indie films you might find on Netflix, for example, can’t be found here. The focus is on mainstream movies that get reviewed by major reviewers -e.g. Variety, The New York Times, Roger Ebert, etc. For this, however, it’s a great resource.

            IMDb

            This is probably the most complete movie resource on the internet. It’s the one place you are almost certain to find any movie that’s been released, whether a TV movie, an obscure indie film or a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster.

            That said, the reviews on this site are nothing special. They are simply reviews written by users of the site. The reviews are on a 10 star scale, which, in my opinion, is too many stars to be useful. Furthermore, many films are not reviewed at all. All in all, Imdb is better for looking up information, such as the year, cast or director of a film than reviews.

            Netflix

            Netflix is strange when it comes to reviews. The whole system has seemed very buggy over the last couple of years. For example, I’ve noticed that for many films, all reviews were rated 100% “helpful.” The whole “helpful” vs. “not helpful” system, which I believe started on Amazon is very dubious in itself, but as long as you’re going to use it, you may as well make it honest. And when all reviews are rated helpful, it renders the whole thing pointless.

            As for the reviews themselves. Netflix customers on the whole tend to be a very mainstream and/or conservative bunch. You’ll find many reviewers, for example, objecting to curse words or the immoral values of a certain movie. This puritanical bent is quite common among Netflix reviewers, and can result in reviews that don’t really tell you much about the movie.

            Amazon

            Amazon.com reviews for movies are similar to their reviews for books (and everything else they sell), which means a very mixed bag. Overall, however, Amazon reviewers tend to be more sophisticated and educated than Netflix reviewers, probably because of the literary origins of Amazon.

            The main limitation of Amazon for movie reviews is that you’ll only find movies that are available for sale in at least one format. This includes lots of movies, of course, but it also excludes some good ones.

            My Amazon Reviews (this includes book reviews as well as movies)

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              Lost Cause (Sans Dessein)

              Lost Cause (Sans Dessein) (2009) is an offbeat French Canadian comedy that mixes slapstick, vulgar and completely original types of humor.

              Paul (Steeve Leonard) is a thirty-something slacker who stumbles through life doing as little as possible. He is content enough to live alone in an apartment where nothing has been unpacked and to work as a janitor, watching miscellaneous how-to videos in his spare time.

              He is visited by a ghost who turns out to be his future self, who inhabits various objects, including a mop and an old sock, which creates many opportunities for the slapstick humor.

              The ghost, who causes him to lose his job by knocking over his boss’s Eiffel Tower sculpture (made from Q-Tips), informs him that if he doesn’t change his ways he will die a particularly humiliating death in his own bathroom.

              For a lighthearted comedy, Lost Cause is rather complex and quite long (just under 2 hours, but seems longer). Paul must choose between two love interests, a woman with whom he had a crush on in elementary school (Julie Tetreault),  who is obsessed with (what she thinks are) his telekinetic powers and a quirky neighbor (Caroline Labreche, who co-directed it along with Leonard).

              Although the plot takes various silly twists, it’s really more a series of funny, sometimes touching and sometimes tedious scenes. If you’re used to seeing French films, you’ll notice that the French Canadian accents are noticeably different.

              Lost Cause is mostly enjoyable, but it could be more compact and focused. Based on the lack of reviews, or any mention on the MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine), it appears to only be available on Netflix.  There is, however, a listing for it on the IMDb, which is the most complete online movie database. Lost Cause IMDb

              While not perfect, I’d recommend it to fans of indie films who like offbeat humor. Some of the laughs were truly bizarre and unexpected, which is more than you can say for the average Hollywood comedy.

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                Backflash (2002)

                This is a low budget, direct to video movie directed by Phil Jones that borrows a lot from Quentin Tarantino and other directors of popular twisty-funny-action packed films of recent years. While Backflash is definitely derivative and not a great film, it’s a lot better than I expected it to be.

                It’s a fairly typical plot for this kind of film,  full of twists, betrayals and humorously grotesque villains. It starts off with a straight-laced guy named Ray who is taking a break from running his video store. He picks up an attractive ex-con hitchhiker named Harley (Jennifer Esposito) -the kind of hitchhiker that you only see in the movies- and trouble naturally follows.

                The problem with movies like Backflash is that once you’ve seen a few of them, you start to expect the supposedly unpredictable twists. Still, this one actually held my attention quite well and was funny in places too. One of the gangsters is a lunatic named Gin (Colm Meaney) who pretends it’s Christmas all year long.

                Don’t rent Backflash expecting anything original, but if you like B movies, road trip movies and twisty noirish thrillers, you could do worse. Available streaming on Netflix.

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                  Entrance

                  Entrance (2012), directed by Dallas Richard Hallam and Patrick Horvath is an interesting and extremely minimalistic indie film. In fact, the movie is only 84 minutes long, and hardly anything happens the first hour.

                  Entrance is about the quietly unfulfilling life of a single young woman (Suziey Block) in Los Angeles. She lives in the trendy Silverlake neighborhood, has a roommate and must walk to her job at a coffee house when her car breaks down.

                  It’s difficult to say too much about the plot without giving away crucial details. Suffice it to say that the film is effective about building a very gradual sense of foreboding. This builds to a climax that turns it into a more traditional type of genre film and in this sense it was a bit of a disappointment.

                  I have a higher than average tolerance for very slow moving films that focus on mood, character and atmosphere. Yet Entrance still tested my patience as it crept along at a snail’s pace for the first hour. I think the payoff could have been handled with a little more originality, as what emerged was a rather cliched villain whose type can be found in thousands of low budget films and TV shows.

                  Still, I admire the way the directors were willing to take their time and emphasize the everyday life of the characters. I wouldn’t be surprised if their next film is more impressive overall.

                  Entrance on IMDB

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                    God Bless America -Bobcat Goldthwait

                    God Bless America, written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait is billed as a black comedy that satirizes modern American culture. It’s not really much of a satire, though, as the pop culture that it portrays is not much of an exaggeration of reality.

                    The black comedy part comes in the form of Frank (Joel Murray) and Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), who become serial killers who kill supposedly deserving victims for their political or cultural transgressions (or, in some cases, merely because they are rude). Frank is a divorced, middle-aged guy who has just been fired and diagnosed with a terminal illness. Roxy is a teenage misfit who becomes his sidekick on a cross country rampage.

                    This film can be seen as an extremely low brow version of Network (1976), as many of the long-winded tirades that Goldwaith puts in Frank’s mouth are reminiscent of the “I’m mad as hell” speech from that far superior film. This movie is full of paradoxes and ironies, and I’m not sure that they are intended.

                    To begin with, this often self righteous bromide against pop culture was made by a man whose main claim to fame was starring in the slapstick Police Academy movies of the 1980s. I’ve also seen bits and pieces of Goldwaith’s standup performances and I’m not exactly clear how his type of humor is so much more highbrow than the kind he clearly loathes in God Bless America.

                    Of course, one thing that Frank keeps repeating is that his main problem with modern culture is how mean and unkind it is. Yet, when we watch him channel surfing, it clearly goes beyond that. What’s obviously meant to jump out at us is the sheer mindlessness and idiocy of a culture that worships celebrities and finds nothing funnier than pure stupidity.

                    Popular culture makes an extremely easy target for this type of argument, and considering this, God Bless America could have done a much better job of satirizing it. The problem is, this film has a basically teenage sensibility. If it had been made by some kid with a $2500 budget, I’d be more forgiving of its simplicity and immaturity. Both Frank and Roxy are constantly having gleeful discussions about who deserves to be killed. The main underlying irony of the film is that it focuses on shows like American Idol as the epitome of decline, while  itself displaying a much more fundamental symptom of cultural depravity -the automatic dehumanization of people who you don’t like, agree with or who offend you in any way.

                    While this is ostensibly a comedy -and there are a few laughs, to be sure- you can’t overlook the fact that Goldthwait is obviously using this movie as a mouthpiece for his own beliefs. Given this, there’s something perverse about advocating wonton violence in the name of kindness. Many of the people who are killed have committed rather minor “crimes,” such as making noise during a movie or taking up two parking spaces. In the final scene, someone is blown away simply because he confesses to a desire to be on TV.

                    It doesn’t take an intellectual giant to see that modern American culture is largely a wasteland. Unfortunately, God Bless America is more a manifestation of this than an antidote.

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