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indie films

Guns, Girls and Gambling: Pulp Fiction Redux

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Guns, Girls and Gambling (2011)
Directed by Michael Winnick

After the success of Pulp Fiction, there was a whole slew of Tarantino inspired spin-offs, similar to the endless parade of mafia flicks that followed The Godfather in the 1970s. Most of these were quite forgettable, but some were okay. While this trend faded away as even Quentin Tarantino moved in other directions, it’s back with a vengeance in Guns, Girls and Gambling.

From the opening sequence to the complex shifts in time, this film tries its best, with modest success, to be a present day Pulp Fiction. Even the cast, which includes Christian Slater and Gary Oldman is reminiscent of early Tarantino (both were in True Romance which QT wrote but did not direct).

The film also borrows from another 90s Tarantinoesque film, The Usual Suspects, most famous for its line, “Who is Keyser Soze?” One of the characters in Guns, Girls and Gambling turns out to be a similar mastermind of a whole string of unlikely events.

A movie that is derivative in so many ways is not destined for greatness, but Guns, Girls and Gambling still manages to be mostly entertaining. At least it doesn’t take itself at all seriously. I enjoyed it despite recognizing all the gimmicks that were unfolding scene after scene.

The plot is way too complex to summarize coherently, but it’s basically about a group of Elvis impersonators who compete (often violently) to find a Native American mask that was stolen from a casino. Christian Slater plays a man known as John Smith who gets beaten up in practically every scene.

The movie introduces so many freaky characters that it’s almost a parody of a Tarantino film. Considering that Tarantino’s work itself is blatantly derivative, by the time you start parodying him you’re on rather thin ice creatively speaking. It’s kind of like a painter copying Andy Warhol.

The most absurd character is probably a tall blond assassin who looks like a model. She walks around wearing two holstered guns and quotes Edgar Allen Poe before blowing her victims away. Remember the Daryl Hannah character in Kill Bill?

If you’re bored and a fan of Tarantino circa 1990s, you will probably enjoy Guns, Girls and Gambling despite your better judgement. Unlike Pulp Fiction, however, which fans can watch over and over again, watching this one more than once would be rather tedious.


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    Red State -Sex, Religion and Politics

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    Red State (2011) -Written and Directed by Kevin Smith

    As the credits roll at the end of Red State, the film is divided into 3 sections -“Sex,” “Religion” and “Politics.” Viewers should be warned that this film takes a rather dim view of all three, at least as they are practiced in the 21st Century.

    Red State is a film that’s hard to categorize because it mixes genres in a way that is alternately confusing and thought provoking. It starts out with a typical Texas Chainsaw Massacre type setup, with a bunch of teenagers heading out to a remote rural location where mayhem inevitably waits.

    Kevin Smith’s film, however, is not a simple slasher film. Far from it. It is also about religious fanaticism and government cover-ups. Ultimately, this leads to a movie that is not only hard to pigeonhole, but one where it’s hard to sympathize with anyone. The teenagers are the least loathsome of the lot. They are the usual dumb but basically harmless group -in this case, answering an internet ad for sex with an anonymous woman. This turns out to be a trap, however, as they end up being held prisoner at a compound run by right-wing Christian fanatics.

    Red State references several actual people and movements. The religious group is clearly meant to evoke the Westboro Baptist Church, which is militantly anti-gay. This real group and its leader Fred Phelps is mentioned in the film to acknowledge this, though the group in the movie is even crazier.

    Later, as federal agents surround the compound, we are reminded of Waco and the rather compelling conspiracy theories around that event (where the government killed everyone in the compound run by cult leader David Koresh). Still another reference that was thrown in was in the name of the reverend who runs the church -Cooper. William Cooper was an actual militia leader who was killed by the government in 2001. I suppose the name could have been chosen randomly by Kevin Smith, but I doubt it.

    Red State does raise some legitimate issues about religion, cults and the abuse of government power. Michael Parks as Cooper does a good job at playing a fanatic who is both wild-eyed and soft spoken. His followers nod their heads mindlessly as he works them into a murderous rage. The scene where the teenagers are about to be killed for their attempted sins is an effective illustration of how blind fanaticism can lead to heinous actions.

    The government is scarcely any better in its response. The local sheriff turns out to be a closet gay who is afraid to expose Cooper for fear that he will be outed. When the ATF gets involved, it becomes clear that the only thing that matters is that nothing unseemly is publicly reported -even if that means innocent people (including children) have to die. Sadly, recent history shows that all of this is completely plausible.

    Red State is a violent, chaotic hybrid of a movie that is worth seeing if you approach it with an open mind and don’t expect it to follow a straight line.

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      Jeff, Who Lives at Home

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      Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011) is another in what has become a popular genre in both mainstream and independent movies -grown men who literally live in their mother’s basement. In fact, the directors of this film, Jay and Mark Duplass have already covered this territory in one of their prior films, Cyrus. Fortunately, they manage to create original and compelling characters in both films and go beyond the mere slapstick and vulgar humor of Hollywood versions of man-boys, such as Stepbrothers.

      Jeff, Who Lives at Home may not even be the ideal title for this movie, as it’s more about coincidences and synchronicities (another popular topic in movies) than about an adult still living at home. This is made explicit right from the first scene as Jeff (Jason Segel) raves about how much he loves the movie Signs.

      Jeff, of course, lives his entire, apparently aimless life following signs. The entire film takes place in a single day as Jeff follows one “sign” after another. It all starts with a wrong number where someone asks for “Kevin.” This leads to Jeff getting mugged, intervening in his brother Pat’s (Ed Helms) marital problems and eventually playing a crucial role in a life-and-death situation.

      Susan Sarandon also has a role as Jeff and Pat’s mother who is dealing with an existential crisis of her own that parallels her sons’ situations.

      I have some fascination with signs (though I’m not a big Shyamalan fan, at least post Sixth Sense), so I mostly enjoyed this offbeat and often funny look at someone who follows them with a passion. On the other hand, Jeff, Who Lives at Home definitely tests our credibility as it wraps everything up in an unbelievable, almost TV movie type manner.

      All in all, however, I appreciated the questions posed by Jeff, Who Lives at Home and enjoyed the performances and the quirkiness it displayed for most of the journey. It’s a short film, less than 90 minutes but the length feels about right.

      I think a more ambiguous ending would have been more appropriate, as in real life signs (at least metaphorical ones) seldom point things out in a manner as concrete as this movie suggests.

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        indie films

        Obselidia (2010)

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        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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          Rid of Me -Culture Clash in the Suburbs

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          Note: This review has recently been re-published on Devtome.

          Rid of Me is a good example of the kind of indie film that’s fun to discover, despite its flaws. I cannot say it’s a great film, but it’s certainly original, funny and insightful at times. On the other hand, it’s also uneven and some of the characters are too much like caricatures.

          On Netflix, it’s described as a black comedy and this is fairly accurate. It follows the travails of Meris (Katy O’Grady), a housewife who reluctantly moves to Portland with her husband Mitch (John Keyser). As soon as they arrive, things go badly for her. It turns out that Mitch, who is from Portland originally, has a whole clique of friends, as well as an ex-lover, with whom he grew up. These people are immediately portrayed as the worst possible stereotypes of suburban conformists. Meris cannot fit in with these people, and soon her marriage falls apart.

          Rid of Me opens in an interesting and somewhat shocking manner. The music and ambiance resemble those of a horror movie as it begins with a rather gruesome (though not violent) scene that is actually from the middle of the film. It’s something you’d never see in a mainstream film, though I’m sure many viewers would be happy to never see anything like it.

          The first problem with the whole scenario is that, while Mitch’s friends are wholly unsympathetic -in case we had any doubt how vile they are, they exhibit blatant racism towards an Islamic couple- Meris herself comes across as so socially awkward that it’s difficult to completely sympathize with her. That is, it would be hard for anyone to warm up to someone who only stares and stammers when you talk to them.

          I suppose we have to forgive the film, or more properly writer and director James Westby for making Mitch and his friends almost unbelievably obnoxious and insensitive. After all, the film is basically a satire about mainstream suburban America. Yet it’s a little hard to believe that such people in a place like Portland would be quite so narrow minded and intolerant, at least openly.

          As the film progresses, it goes in a completely different direction as Meris and Mitch divorce. Meris gets a job at a candy shop, where she is befriended by an ultra alternative girl named Trudy. She soon falls in with a whole subculture of misfits, who dress in black, get wasted and show a thorough contempt for anything middle class -such as Meris’s ex husband and his friends.

          The alternative characters in Rid of Me are just as extreme and stereotypical as the suburbanites in their antisocial posturing. Ultimately, Meris manages to find a kind of middle ground when she hooks up with a fellow misfit (albeit a more mellow sort than her new alternative friends), a record store clerk who shares many of her bizarre mannerisms to an unlikely degree. For the most part, however, the film draws an extreme line between the two extremes to make it’s point, and I suppose for laughs. One of Meris’s co-workers at the candy shop, an ultra straight woman who is a stickler for the rules states, “I hate alternative people.” Does anyone really say things like that?

          Rid of Me is one of those interesting indie films that works in some places but not others. At a certain point, it sort of drags and becomes repetitive as Meris goes back and forth between missing her old life and embracing her new one.

          All in all, Rid of Me is a mostly compelling and funny portrayal of culture clash that doesn’t always hit the mark but is worth watching for the times it does.

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            The Future -Written and Directed by Miranda July

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            The Future is the second feature film directed by Miranda July, best known for Me and You and Everybody We Know (2005). While the latter was a popular and well received indie film, The Future is even more offbeat and challenging to mainstream viewers. Nevertheless, it’s well worth watching if you can appreciate movies that are non-linear and that cross boundaries when it comes to genre.

            The Future is kind of hybrid drama, comedy and fantasy. You know it’s going to be something offbeat when it starts off being narrated by a cat. This cat, who is ill and may not live much longer, is scheduled to be adopted by Jason and Sophie, a couple in their thirties who are somewhere in between hipsters and slackers.

            There’s not too much of a plot here. Fans of Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise (1984) may appreciate the scenes of apparently pointless dialog and inaction -though the style of this film is quite different overall. I actually admire movies like this one and Stranger Than Paradise, though, where the characters are allowed to exist in a state of existentialist aimlessness.

            Both Jason and Sophie quit their jobs. Sophie drifts into an affair with an older man for no apparent reason. Jason meanwhile, begins volunteering for an environmentalist group that makes him go door to door selling trees. There’s a kind of randomness to it all. At the same time, like Me and You and Everyone We Know, there’s an underlying theme  of how important and yet tenuous connections between people are in today’s world.

            To make things more complicated and bizarre, Jason apparently has the ability to stop time. This is where the fantasy or paranormal enters into the mix, and where some viewers might lose patience. For there’s no real attempt to weave this into the story in a logical manner.

            If you watch this film on Netflix, as I did, I suggest you don’t even bother to read the customer reviews. Netflix viewers are notoriously mainstream and conservative, and have little patience for oddball indie movies. They will mercilessly savage any script that dares thumb its nose at cinematic conventions (not all the reviewers, to be fair, but a sizable percentage).

            Overall, The Future succeeds at doing something that the better quirky offbeat films manage to do -get you to take a step back from ordinary life and society and realize that the normal and everyday aren’t necessarily all there is and that there may be other, more interesting alternatives.

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              Martha Marcy May Marlene

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              The title of this film refers to the identity crisis suffered by a young woman (Elizabeth Olsen) who has recently escaped from a cult. The film switches back and forth between the past and present, as Martha (her real name) comes to live with her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and Lucy’s new husband Ted (Hugh Dancy). Lucy and Martha have been somewhat estranged, for reasons never spelled out (much in this enigmatic film is left unstated), making their reunion especially awkward.

              Through flashbacks that intrude in an unsettling way into the present, we see that the rural “community” led by a bearded, guitar playing hippie-survivialist-philosopher named Patrick (John Hawkes) is a lot more sinister than it first appears. Martha is having trouble adjusting to the almost painfully normal bourgeois lifestyle of Lucy and Ted. She strips naked to go swimming, and even jumps into the couple’s bed in the middle of the night as they are having sex.

              Martha Marcy May Marlene is a difficult film to summarize, as it’s a combination psychological thriller, character study and social commentary. Actually, it only hints at the latter, and this is where it fails to deliver the intellectual punch that the early scenes promise.

              At first, the juxtapositioning of scenes involving the cult with those taking place in Lucy and Ted’s serene lake house seem to invite a comparison of the two diametrically opposing lifestyles. Martha criticizes the couple’s materialistic ways -the size of their home, their focus on money and career, etc. Yet the film never really goes anywhere with this comparison. Ted and Lucy never really show themselves as anything beyond a archetypically bland middle class couple.

              The cult, meanwhile, quickly degenerates into another kind of stereotype. It’s hardly shocking that Patrick, with his charming yet intimidating personality, brainwashes his recruits into an ascetic, conforming way of life and “initiates” all of the young women sexually -this is, after all, what cult leaders do. Yet, he turns out to be even worse than your run-of-the-mill cult leader, as he leads his flock into grotesque actions reminiscent of the Manson cult.

              From a sociological perspective, the film could even be seen as a critique of anything countercultural. Indeed, some conspiracy theorists imagine that Charles Manson was “created” to discredit the hippie movement. Not likely, but nevertheless, the way this film depicts a group of people who are attempting to live an alternative lifestyle, it makes even the most mundane middle class existence seem the epitome of sanity by comparison. Yet, I don’t think writer-director Sean Durkin was actually aiming for a Message with this film -which is, in a way, unfortunate, considering all of the interesting variables it introduces.

              If I was slightly disappointed by Martha Marcy May Marlene, it’s only because it promises to cover some truly original and profound territory, and then turns out to be little more than a thriller, albeit a subtle and very well acted one. Elizabeth Olsen is utterly convincing as a cult victim, with her affectless stare that’s occasionally interrupted by outbursts of rage. The other noteworthy performance is that of John Hawkes, who can’t be faulted if his role was written a little over-the-top. He was also outstanding in another impressive indie film, Winter’s Bone.

              Martha Marcy May Marlene has been described as an investigation into the slippery nature of identity. In that way, it’s more of an existentialist than sociological tale. The vagueness that’s sometimes annoying (so many details about the past -such as anything that happened to Martha pre-cult- are left out) can be seen as part of the film’s overall theme. It’s not giving anything away to say that the ending is frustratingly ambiguous.

              Overall, Martha Marcy May Marlene is an extremely impressive debut for both writer-director Sean Durkin and for Elizabeth Olsen.

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                indie films, Quirky comedies

                The Extra Man

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                The Extra Man (2010) is one of those ultra quirky indie comedies that tries a little too hard to be eccentric. Traditional comedies, for example, will typically pair up a bizarre character with a “straight man” who sees the eccentricities of the other character through the supposedly normal eyes of the rest of the world. There are no straight men, or women in The Extra Man -only varying types of weirdness. This film has two directors, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

                The very able cast consists of veteran Kevin Kline, Paul Dano as his young quasi-protege, Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly. Dano plays Louis Ives, a shy young man who fantasizes about living in a novel like the Great Gatsby. Only his classical demeanor is complicated by a secret desire to dress in women’s clothes -which gets him fired from his job as a teacher.

                Louis moves to Manhattan in the attempt to become a writer, and becomes the roommate of Henry Harrison (Kline), who is like two or three separate quirky characters rolled into one. Henry is a poverty stricken playwright who is an “extra man,” a kind of refined gigolo for rich, elderly women. He also recites the type of politically incorrect lines (he is against women going to college, and approves of the Muslim practice of keeping the sexes separated) you might expect from a would be Old World bohemian/aristocrat. Henry also collects Christmas balls and engages in a morning dance ritual that has him gyrating like someone having a seizure.

                Henry recruits Louis into this dubious profession, and it’s not clear what the younger man would find so appealing about this, as there’s no financial rewards involved (nothing sexual either -it’s all strictly chaste).

                Louis gets a job at an environmentalist magazine, where he develops an interest in Mary (Holmes), who is a stereotypical downtown, vegan, politically active type. In the world of The Extra Man, Mary is probably the most normal character, as her character is fairly believable and only comes across as parody in a very mild way. We can’t see much of a future between Mary and Louis, who represent very different types of naive idealism.

                Thrown into the mix is Louis and Henry’s downstairs neighbor, Gershon (Reilly), who inexplicably (except to add to the film’s quirkiness) has a squeaky voice, a beard that makes him look like a hobo and an apartment full of random collectibles. The Gershon character really epitomizes the problem with this film -both he and the film itself are like random collections of bizarre traits.

                The elements of this film don’t really form much of a coherent whole. Louis explores his sexual fantasies by visiting a dominatrix he finds in the Village Voice and, later, a club for transvestites. Meanwhile, he tags along with Henry as a kind of “extra extra” man while half heartedly pursuing Mary.

                I probably enjoyed The Extra Man more than the above description suggests. I laughed in quite a few places, and all of the performances were good. It’s just that the story wasn’t very cohesive, and a lot of the quirkiness seemed gratuitous.

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                  Indie Film Director Profile -John Sayles

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                  A recent interview with veteran indie film director John Sayles prompted us to take a closer look at his fascinating career. The interview, by the way, is about his forthcoming film Amigo, about the little known Philippine-American war.

                  His film debut was Return of the Secaucus Seven (1979), about a group of friends reminiscing about getting arrest at a 1960s protest years ago. This film was a precursor to The Big Chill and a few other movies about characters who might be labeled yuppies waxing nostalgic about their fading youth. While this description may sound uncharitable, it’s actually a quite compelling film. It’s a good example of a character/dialogue driven story done on a low budget.

                  Sayles has directed a total of 16 films -Amigo will be #17, and we won’t describe each one. However, one of his quirkier ones (for a director who specializes in a type of quirkiness) is Brother From Another Planet (1984). Joe Morton plays the “Brother,” a black man from another planet who wanders around the earth, unable to communicate verbally with people, but still able to interact meaningfully with those whose paths he crosses.

                  In The Secret of Roan Innish (1994), Sayles explores the rich world of Celtic mythology. The setting is the seaside Irish county of Donegal and the film explores the legend of the Selkie -a creature who is half human and half seal. This theme, incidentally, was explored more recently in a lesser known film called Ondine (2009), although in this case it’s not clear until the end whether the woman who’s suspected of being a selkie really is one, or if she’s a human with another type of secret.

                  These are just a few highlights in the career of esteemed indie film director John Sayles.

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                    1970s films, indie films

                    Straight Time

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                    Straight Time (1978) is a lesser known film from another decade that has quite a bit to offer contemporary fans of indie films. The last film I reviewed on this blog was John and Mary, which starred Dustin Hoffman along with Mia Farrow. So, in keeping with the theme of older Dustin Hoffman films, I decided to revisit Straight Time, directed by Ulu Grosbard.

                    Straight Time is a sneaky movie -like it’s protagonist, Max Dembo (Hoffman), the movie doesn’t quite play it straight and let you know where it’s headed. In fact, it might be good advice to not even read this review until you’ve seen the movie (if you’ve never seen it before or don’t remember it). While I won’t reveal the ending, it’s hard to give a relevant description without revealing a little more than you should really know before seeing it.

                    The film starts out with Dembo being released from prison after serving a sentence for burglary. He is unlucky enough to have the parole officer from hell, Earl Frank, expertly played by M. Emmet Walsh. Frank is an underhanded, racist redneck type who does everything he can to hinder Dembo’s rehabiliation. So at first we think this is what the film is about -a non-violent ex-con trying to go straight, and coming up against social injustice. The fact that Dembo is played by the normally mild-mannered Hoffman makes us all the more likely to see things this way. But that’s not quite what’s really happening here.

                    There are clues from the start that Dembo has real problems conforming to authority in any form. His first confrontation with Frank comes when, instead of spending his first night of freedom in a halfway house as he was ordered to, he slips into a hotel. He unsuccessfully tries to reach Frank and tell him this, and the two are immediately at odds. Now we can sympathize with Dembo’s desire to be free of the system, and see that Frank is a stickler for the rules, but we can also see the futility of breaking the rules the first day you get out of prison.

                    Things start to look up for Dembo when Frank relents and lets him stay in a hotel (albeit an awful looking one-room fleabag) and he manages to get a job in a factory. Not only that, but he manages to land a date with the young woman who works at the employment agency, Jenny (Theresa Russell).

                    When Dembo hooks up with an old friend, Willy Darin (Gary Busey), things go downhill for him. Darin, a drug user, shoots up in Dembo’s hotel room and the next day, Frank discovers evidence of this on a visit. Dembo is thrown back into jail and tested for drug use. Although he’s only there for a night, we see that this experience has taken away any chance of rehabilitation. When Jenny visits him, he looks back at her with dead eyes that tell us that, no matter what else happens, his fate is already sealed.

                    The rest of the film is a mainly depressing look at Dembo’s slide back into a life of armed robbery. He meets up with another old friend and fellow thief, Jerry Schue (Harry Dean Stanton, another great character actor), and the two begin a two man crime wave around Los Angeles. We also see more and more evidence of Dembo’s violent nature and inability to change.

                    Straight Time is not exactly an uplifting film, as it has a theme that’s akin to Greek tragedy, where a person’s destiny is determined by fate and his inborn character. While we want to root for Dembo and see him as a victim of society (as personified by the undeniably evil Frank), the film forces us to confront the fact of his own culpability in everything that happens.

                    Max Dembo is a fascinating character not because he’s a hardcore sociopath, but because he’s an understated one. He almost appears too lazy to look at himself honestly and make the effort to change. We can imagine that, had everything worked out perfectly for him, and had he run into a sympathetic rather than a sadistic parole officer, he might have actually gone straight. However, life seldom works out perfectly. So the film suggests that social ills such as crime are not simply a result of the flawed characters of the criminals or the flaws of society, but a complex mix of the two.

                    Straight Time is a vintage 1970s movie with a great cast. For complete details see the IMDb page for the film.

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