All posts by Larry Christopher

indie comedies, musicals, Quirky comedies, science fiction

Future Folk: Hipster Aliens Invade Brooklyn

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The History of Future Folk (2012), directed by J. Anderson Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker and starring Nils d’Aulaire and Jay Klaitz, is a strange, extremely quirky low budget independent film. Since the movie is based on an actual musical duo called Future Folk that is currently touring the country, you might say that it opened with a built-in cult following.

The movie is a science fiction-comedy-musical with an extremely thin plot that is full of holes, but this scarcely matters as the whole point is to give a showcase for the pair’s folk-bluegrass musical numbers (which they perform dressed in ridiculous red costumes and helmets). The film, however, isn’t really a musical. A few great songs are present, but overall the movie is more about the transformative power of music.

The gimmick here is that General Trius and Kevin, two aliens from the planet Hondo, arrive on earth and discover music for the first time. Although their original mission was to colonize earth and wipe out the population, they are so enamored of music that they abandon their plans and start a band instead. The audience must suspend disbelief on issues such as how these aliens arrive speaking fluent American English. It’s also a bit odd that they go from being wholly ignorant about music to expert musicians within minutes. Realism, however, is far from the point here.

The History of Future Folk is certainly not a great movie. It is, however, fun, energetic and original. If you look up reviews, you will probably end up reading accolades posted by prior fans of the group. If you’re new to the whole concept, you will probably still enjoy the film but won’t be quite as enamored by it as hardcore fans. The film also references Brooklyn’s hipster scene, as the duo play in a trendy club where the audience dresses up in space costumes just like the musicians.

All in all, The History of Future Folk is a good choice if you like campy, low budget independent films and/or bluegrass style music. If you demand logical plots and/or you hate hipsters, this is not the film for you.

Documentary, indie films

The Institute -Blurring Art, Myth and Reality

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The Institute (2012) -Directed by Spencer McCall

The Institute is another entry in that emerging genre that lies on the borderland between documentary and mocumentary. In the tradition of fascinating yet frustrating docs such as Catfish and Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Institute relays a story that obviously has some elements of truth, yet it’s impossible to determine how much of it was re-enacted or even fabricated for the film.

In this case, the subject itself is so nebulous and deliberately confounding that separating fantasy (or, in this case, a game) from reality is a futile enterprise. Yet, that very ontological quandary could very well be the whole point of The Institute -as well as the game upon which it is based.

The Institute is about a city-wide role playing game/social experiment/art project that was (presumably) carried out in San Francisco between 2008 and 2011. It involved a cult-like organization called The Jejune Institute, presided over (allegedly) by a Scientology-like leader. Participants were drawn in after seeing cryptic flyers around the city. Those who followed up were led to a building where they watched a video explaining the Jejune Institute’s vague but noble objectives. Participants were assured, for example, that their view of the world would be utterly transformed. Even more grandiose claims were made, as the Institute allegedly had possession of inventions and formulae that would solve all of humanity’s problems.

Those participants who chose to continue (we can assume that there were many dropouts) were drawn into an increasingly complex and murky scenario where the line between game and reality were collapsed. To make matters even trickier, viewers of the film have another layer of ambiguity to decipher -reality/game/film.

At first, it seems fairly straightforward that the film is simply documenting an extremely ambitious art project. Interviews with the game’s creators, such as Jeff Hull, indicate that it was a long term, open-ended and extremely creative project that encompassed multiple locations, many players and several overlapping plots.

Yet by the middle of the film, viewers will no doubt begin to wonder how much of this really happened as reported. For one thing, this game would have required substantial funding. For another, certain scenes and incidents seem to have been filmed during the time of the game, long before the movie was made. Does this indicate that the documentary was, from the start, a key aspect of the project? Or that some of these scenes were filmed for the movie and were re-enactments or utter fabrications? It’s impossible to say.

One of the bizarre yet interesting plot lines of the game involved making players immediately distrust the very Jejune Institute that had supposedly recruited them into the game. The Institute’s leader was labeled a fraud, someone who had betrayed the cause of “divine nonchalance.” The latter is revealed as the mystical quality that was, once again I must insert the word allegedly, discovered by a mysterious teenager named Eva who disappeared shortly after revealing her discoveries. Eva’s father was said to have been the inventor of some of the Institute’s inventions.

Divine Nonchalance, as the term implies, can be understood to mean going through life in a way that’s open to endless possibilities. It could also be compared to the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, or acting without effort. One image connected to the concept in the film is the tarot card, The Fool -the character who fearlessly stands at the edge of a precipice.

It’s almost impossible to describe the “plot” of The Institute without getting mired in uncertainty and confusion. What’s interesting is that, if you’re open to it, it can motivate you to ask some very basic questions, such as “what is reality?” Parts of it reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus Trilogy, a cult classic that involved (among many other things) warring secret societies, where you never knew exactly who the good guys and bad guys were. Wilson was also part of a movement/pseudo religion called Discordianism, which certainly could have been an influence here as well.

Those who are left with questions after watching The Institute might Google some of the people and terms from the film, such as Jejune Institute and Eva Lucien (Eva-Lucien -get it?). In fact, the Journals of Eva Lucien are available for sale online. Yet such a casual search will not prove whether these entries and characters preceded the film.

The Institute will fascinate some, bore/confuse/confound others and be of mild interest to still others. If you like to ponder the borders between fiction and fact and suspect that films such as The Matrix are not mere science fiction, The Institute may be just what you’ve been looking for. It’s available on Netflix streaming right now.

indie films

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus

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Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013) is a drug movie that is not really about drugs as much as a group of people who use them as an excuse for a pilgrimage in search of meaning. Written and directed by Sebastian Silva, the movie can be viewed in a number of ways.

On one level, it really is about the modern fascination with the transformative potential of psychedelic experiences. It’s also a kind of anthropological study of contemporary backpackers who drift around the world seeking memorable experiences. Finally, it reveals how people in other countries (Chile in this case) have very stereotyped views of Americans -which are, no doubt, justified in many cases.

Even though the film is about a group of youths -2 Americans and a group of Chileans, the spotlight is on the Americans, who are indeed stereotypes. Jamie (Michael Cera) is obnoxious, impatient and immature. He apparently lives from one drug experience to the next. He is obsessed with finding the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus, a mission for which he recruits his native Chilean friends (Juan Andres Silva, Agustin Silva and Jose Miguel Silva).

Joining them is Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann), who is -if her name doesn’t give this away- a flaky, new age-hippie type who spouts spiritual platitudes and psychobabble. The film is largely about the ongoing tension between Jamie and Crystal Fairy, as the others in the group look on with resigned amusement at the antics of the crazy Americans.

Crystal Fairy does, however, manage to be more than a superficial portrayal of annoying American travelers. Both Jamie and Crystal Fairy evolve to some degree and become actual individuals. While the San Pedro cactus plays a role in this, it is not really the dominant factor. In fact, the film only deals very briefly with the psychoactive experiences of the drug. Much more time is spent cataloging their quest for the plant and the elaborate preparations of it. When the characters finally reveal something of their true selves to one another, we get the idea that it’s less due to the cactus than that they were simply tired of all the posturing.

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is a slow paced character study that will disappoint people who are expecting action, sex, raunchy humor or intense portrayals of people tripping (though there is considerable female nudity). The performances are quite realistic, which almost works against the film at times, considering how unlikable the two protagonists are in many scenes.

This film’s realism is grounded in the fact that much of the dialogue was improvised. Furthermore, the director and Chilean actors are brothers. According to IMDB, Cera actually lived with the Silva family to prepare for the film. So the naturalistic style of the film did not have to be faked.

Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is a small film that is quite engaging in places while it drags in others. It does not offer any profound insights into psychoactive substances, but nor does it pretend to. Nevertheless, it will be of interest to anyone who studies this topic -or anyone who is fascinated by the myriad forms human interactions can take.


indie films

The Millionaire Tour -Suspenseful Direct-to-Web Movie

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The Millionaire Tour (2012)
Director: Inon Shampanier
Written by Inon and Natalie Shampanier

This direct-to-internet movie is a bit obscure, but it can be found on Hulu and perhaps other video streaming sites. Having never heard of the film or anyone associated with it, my expectations were not especially high. However, it turned out to be a surprisingly well-crafted and well-acted twisty suspense thriller, much better than not only the average streaming movie but the average Hollywood paint-by-numbers thriller as well.

The premise is simple, with a cast so small that it could almost have been a stage play -if it weren’t for the fact that it mostly takes place in a moving vehicle. It stars Jordan Belfi as Greg, a businessman who, just getting off a plane, is offered a ride by a cab driver named Sammy (Rick Gomez). Before they even leave the parking lot, the taxi hits a young woman. She is not badly hurt so she and her boyfriend arrange to share the taxi with Greg, which, naturally, proves to be a big mistake.

The young couple, Billy (Agnes Bruckner) and Casper (Dominic Monaghan) are a rough looking and talking pair who introduce the topic of The Millionaire Tour -a scheme where a wealthy victim is forced at gunpoint to drive from one ATM to another, withdrawing the maximum amount until all of his cards are maxed out. As we can expect, this turns out to be more than a hypothetical story when Casper pulls a gun and takes command of the taxi.

The film, which starts out as a suspenseful crime drama turns more complex when it’s revealed that Greg was not chosen at random. He is, according to Casper, a well known con artist who has allegedly ripped off Casper’s sinister boss The Roman. We are soon left to wonder if Greg is really who he claims to be (the victim of mistaken identity) or a true criminal mastermind. There is also the question of Sammy who, we learn early on, has a taxi license with someone else’s name on it. There is even the obligatory reference to Taxi Driver with Sammy uttering the familiar line, “You talkin’ to me?” Gomez actually resembles the young Robert DeNiro, which may or may not be coincidental as far as his being cast in this film.

Many of the best moments in the movie are small scenes that focus on tense dialogue or situations that can play out in a number of ways. For example, when Casper leads Greg into a crowded store to cash a check, there is a drawn out conversation with the naive salesgirl while we can practically hear Greg thinking about his options.

If you’ve seen quite a few suspenseful, noirish thrillers -especially the kind that became popular in the 1990s- you will not be too shocked by how things turn out. The real quality of The Millionaire Tour is in the quality of the acting, script and dialogue. Monaghan as Casper exudes the right amount of menace as a volatile thug. Billy is his confused and conflicted partner and/or girlfriend. Belfi does a masterful job at making Greg (if that’s who he really is) a resourceful guy who seems almost too adept at thinking on his feet. Gomez remains an enigma as the apparently fatalistic driver.

It’s always a nice surprise to find an impeccably created film of this type. Even if you can mostly guess where it’s headed, in this case the ride is enjoyable enough that it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully, we will see more from this talented crew in the future.

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Art School Confidential Review

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Art School Confidential (2006), directed by Terry Zwigoff, follows in the footsteps of the earlier, more positively received film Ghost World (2001). In between, he also directed Bad Santa, which I have not seen. Like Ghost World, Art School Confidential is based on a comic by Daniel Clowes. Although both films are about disaffected and artistic young people, they are quite different. Art School Confidential is actually quite a disappointment relative to the other, more focused and well plotted film.

Shot at an actual art college, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Art School Confidential is mostly a broad satire of the pretensions of art school students and, even more broadly, the contemporary art world in general. Although the film, as of this writing, is 8 years old, it still feels contemporary enough. In fact, an interesting observation that one could make is that modern art fell into a certain groove around the time of Andy Warhol and, despite all kinds of new trends and even brand new media (e.g. digital), it has retained its basic aura that fetishizes the obscure and non-objective.

Modern art is a fairly easy target for satire. So are art students, and Zwigoff wastes no time in having one of many cynical, worldly characters expound on the predictable types who enter art school -e.g. “suburban girl,” “vegan,” “nympho,” etc.
The star is Max Minghella, who is Jerome, a (at first) naive, almost absurdly idealistic first year student who is recovering from a lifetime of being bullied and misunderstood by the plebeian world of middle America.

Jerome quickly realizes that Strathmore, the fictionalized art college, is no bohemian paradise. The school is full of bitter and sarcastic professors (John Malkovich is perfect in one of these roles), oversensitive and fiercely competitive fellow students and even a serial killer in the neighborhood. The latter becomes an increasingly important part of the plot as the story awkwardly proceeds from high school parody to murder mystery parody.

Along the way, Jerome has the mandatory heartbreaking affair with Audrey (Sophia Myles), a model in one of his classes. This is the triggering event that transforms him, almost overnight, from wide-eyed future “greatest artist of the 21st century” to a misanthropic cynic.

Unfortunately, Art School Confidential, despite its promising premise and worthy cast (aside from Minghella and Malcovitch, there is Anjelica Huston and Steve Buscemi, who also appeared in Ghost World), the film itself turns out to be little more than a series of movie cliches. As I will discuss shortly, this may be a deliberate strategy on Zwigoff’s part, but if so it did not come across very effectively.

The whole serial killer subplot, which ends up being the main plot, turns Art School Confidential into a Tom Wolfe-style satire, not of the arts, but of pop culture and the mass media. This is hardly groundbreaking, and ends up derailing the film from its original focus.

Given how culturally savvy Zwigoff is, as evidenced not only by Ghost World, but by the world-weary snapshots of the art world taken early on in Art School Confidential, it’s a little hard to believe he would create a film that turns out to be so banal. That’s what leads me to suspect that the whole structure is itself meant to be a statement.

In several segments, we see Jerome, who is apparently talented and able to draw models realistically, snubbed by teachers and classmates alike, while students who scrawl chaotically are given high praise. This is another of the movie’s familiar and rather obvious social commentaries.

The film is full of movie cliches from beginning to end. There is a montage of bad dates that Jerome suffers through -a widely overused tactic in romantic comedies. The ending, once again (without getting too specific for those who still haven’t seen the film), regurgitates social satire covered in numerous books and films of the last few decades.

Could Zwigoff be presenting Art School Confidential as a satire, not merely of the art world, but of conventional movies and narrative structure? If so, it doesn’t make it any more satisfying. This certainly isn’t even close to being one of the worst movies ever made. It mainly suffers by comparison to Zwigoff’s earlier, exceptional films Ghost World and the equally fascinating documentary from 1994, Crumb.

indie films

Take This Waltz: Complex Toronto Love Triangle

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Take This Waltz (2011), directed by Sarah Polley, is a good example of the type of character and dialogue driven independent film that is too nuanced and slow paced for the average movie audience. It stars Michelle Williams as Margot, a young married woman who very tentatively slips into an affair with her neighbor Daniel, played by Luke Kirby.

Take This Waltz has certain contrivances and affectations that will alienate certain viewers as well as critics. The way that Margot and Daniel meet, for example, is more than a little farfetched. Not knowing that they live within a stone’s throw from one another in Toronto, they just happen to meet at an obscure historical reenactment event in Novia Scotia. They also happen to be sitting next to one another on the plane ride home.

What I admired about the film was the way it did not make Margot’s choice between Daniel and her husband Lou (Seth Rogen) easy. Both men are portrayed as decent people who truly care bout Margot. Everything about the film is ambiguous and fluctuating. While some people may find this disturbing, this is actually more like real life (though the film can hardly be considered realistic in other ways).

Margot and Lou have an odd but believable relationship that contains lots of teasing and flirting alternating with hostility. While Margot seems restless and not particularly happy, we sense that this is something intrinsic to her and not really Lou’s fault. Lou’s sister Geraldine (Sarah Silverman) adds a dimension to the movie. She is a recovering alcoholic who is almost as outspoken and unpredictable as Silverman is in real life.

As played by Williams, Margot is revealed as a fascinating yet frustrating character. Her facial expressions are constantly shifting between smiles and frowns and she conveys sense of being confused and adrift. While we can sympathize with her actions as she spends more and more time with Daniel, we can also sense that it will be hard for things to end well for anyone involved. All of the performances in Take This Waltz are excellent, and the script keeps us completely uncertain about the future for these characters.

One of the things that I found a little irritating about the film is that it inhabits a kind of indie film fantasy world where ordinary factors such as economics barely apply. Everyone seems to live in near luxurious circumstances despite the fact that no one has a real job. Margot is a writer who confesses that she hardly ever writes. Lou is a writer of cookbooks who spends the day experimenting with recipes. Indeed, one of Margot’s complaints is that he’s always cooking chicken.

Although late in the film it is revealed that one of his books becomes a big success, this doesn’t explain how they maintain a spacious apartment in a fashionable neighborhood up till that point. Daniel is a rickshaw operator who seems to always be free during the day to pursue Margot. Towards the end of the film, we see a montage sequence where two of the characters are living in a vast loft that looks like something out of Architectural Digest.

These issues don’t directly lessen our enjoyment of the film, but they do undercut its credibility in a subtle way. Take This Waltz is certainly not the only movie that is guilty of this, of course. It seems that many filmmakers feel that audiences want to be reassured that all of their characters live a life of relative luxury and can spend their days focusing on their emotions and relationships.

Take This Waltz gets its name from a Leonard Cohen song, which is played during the film. Despite some quibbles about contrivances and economic unrealities, I enjoyed this film and admire the way Polley micro-focuses on conversations and minute changes in emotional atmosphere. This is exponentially more complex than the type of relationships portrayed in a mainstream romantic comedy.

Sarah Polley, though still in her early 30s, has had a long career as an actress. After some roles as a child actress, she appeared in films such as The Sweet Hereafter (1997)Go (mentioned in the chapter on Ensemble Films), and Guinevere (1999). She also directed Away From Her (2006) and the documentary Stories We Tell (2012).

Indie film directors

Rubberneck: Workplace Stalker

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Rubberneck (2012)

Director: Alex Karpovsky

In Rubberneck, director Alex Karpovsky also stars as Paul, in the familiar movie role of an obsessed stalker. Yet the film is sufficiently subdued and character driven that it manages to be more engaging than the typical entry in this genre.

Paul has a brief fling with co-worker Danielle (Jaime Ray Newman). After a weekend together, however, Danielle is clearly tired of Paul, who remains willfully ignorant of her disinterest. Rather than having Paul immediately transform into the psychotic stalker, however, Rubberneck gives us a series of painful and awkward moments as Paul loses control.

Rubberneck is one of those rare films that is actually better than the description makes it sound. Aside from the stalker cliche, we learn that Paul has abandonment issues regarding his mother. This type of Freudian back story has been used so many times in the last 50 years or so of cinematic history that it has the potential to be painfully familiar. Yet here it actually seems fresh and believable. Karpovsky comes across like a real person rather than a foaming-at-the-mouth psycho. Although his nerdy, repressed character is never quite sympathetic, he is at least believable and human.

Part of Rubberneck’s authenticity comes from the focus of the workplace environment. Paul, Danielle and a dozen or so other people work in a claustrophobic lab that conducts tests on guinea pigs. Karpovsky (as director) does an admirable job at capturing the low key, everyday interactions that seem trivial but carry potent emotional undercurrents. For example, we see Paul trying to appear casual as he watches Danielle flirt with another co-worker. We can sense his inner turmoil, but Karpovsky (the actor) doesn’t overplay this. He never quite loses control -until he does.

Rubberneck is a small, indie film and is not exactly momentous or groundbreaking. Yet it’s a fascinating and fresh look at a subject that most movies reduce to near parody.

Alex Karpovsky has been busy with interesting, low key indie films in the last few years, in the role of actor and/or director. I also enjoyed his performance in Supporting Characters, an inside look at the making of a film.

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    Uncategorized

    Pulp Fiction Mystery

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    The Cracked video below is, as you might expect, tongue and cheek, but it nevertheless illustrates some reasons Pulp Fiction is still one of my all time favorite films. While it can be dismissed as an exercise in violence, vulgarity and all around excess, it has lots of layers that bring up issues such as morality, redemption and, as this video asserts, possibly even parallel realities.

    Apparently there is a slight discrepancy in the dialogue between the opening scene (with the bank robbers) and the return to this scene at the end. Was this a blooper or a deliberate device Tarantino snuck in the film. Another mystery -why has no one noticed this in the almost 20 years since its release? Perhaps it has been noticed and commented on -despite having a fledgling movie blog, I’m hardly a movie trivia savant.

    Anyway, this is something to watch for the next time you view Pulp Fiction!

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      dystopian films, indie films

      Branded: Interesting But Confusing Dystopian Satire

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      Branded (2012)
      Directors: Jamie Bradshaw, Aleksandr Dulerayn

      This movie is a confused mess, but an interesting and sometimes thought-provoking mess. I actually wanted to like it, as it had some compelling social themes and displayed some real originality. Unfortunately, the lack of focus and editing waters down any message about the role of brands in the modern world.

      The story is set in Moscow and is a Russian-American production, though most of the film is in English. The hero is Misha (Ed Stoppard), a marketing wizard who eventually discovers (in a truly bizarre manner) that brands are not merely a manipulative force in the world, but are living, predatory monsters who literally consume people.

      Branded is basically a dystopian sci-fi satire that is sort of an updated Brave New World. The main focus is on fast foods, and how large corporations set out to make it fashionable to be fat. Even though the film definitely contains the element of satire, the mood is too often deadly serious. This is part of the problem, as more humor could have made the bizarreness of it all more palatable.

      There are two main problems with Branded. The first is that it has a long middle where it drags. There is an extended period when Misha drops out of the ad game, has a strange vision, performs a Biblical style animal sacrifice and learns the weird truth about brands. Even if we are to accept this at face value, this part of the film dragged on longer than necessary and should have been edited.

      The other problem is that the concept of the living brands isn’t really coherent. We never learn how these monstrous creatures were created Was it deliberately done by corporations or did it just happen, the way Godzilla was a byproduct of nuclear radiation? The film never tells us. There also seems to be some confusion about what the real nemesis is here. At one point, Misha helps a company create a vegetarian chain of restaurants to dismantle the evil burgers that are making everyone fat. As if there weren’t enough subplots, people are dying from a mysterious disease that may or may not be Mad Cow Disease. This is another potentially interesting and topical point, but it creates more ambiguity as far as the film’s main plot is concerned. Is the problem with beef and unhealthy food or brands per se? Aside from addressing the problems of fast food, there are also stand-ins for Apple and other popular brands that are not food related. The theme so broad that it’s just too difficult to keep it hanging together.

      The romance between Misha and Abby (Leelee Sobieski), the niece of Misha’s boss, is sometimes interesting and provides some relief from the dystopian sociology. Yet this too drags out as the two are constantly coming together and breaking up until the very last scene.

      Branded is a movie that deals with some important and serious topics. In many scenes it does so in an intelligent and original manner. Yet it is ultimately too muddled to make the kind of impact it should have made.

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