This past January two horror films were released using a hand-held documentary style. The faux doc style has been used in many genres for years, including dramas like LENNY and crime tales like GANG TAPES. Horror films, particularly, have used the “found footage” approach ever since Ruggero Deodato’s controversial cult gore fest CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST. In recent years, the mockumentary has grown in favor due to the wonderful work of Christopher Guest. So this edition of This Weekend’s Film Festival cuts between the terrifying and the humorous to look at how faux docs help bring realism to their productions when the technique is used effectively.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Dariush Mehrjui’s THE COW is credited as making modern Iranian cinema possible. As the story goes, Ayatollah Khomeini liked the film, allowing it to play in theaters across Iran, despite being approved and partially funded by the Shah’s government. In 1971, the film was smuggled out of Iran and played at the Venice Film Festival, where is won awards and became the first Iranian film to get a wide reception outside Iran. Taking a page from the French New Wave, this neo-realistic drama is like THE BICYCLE THIEF combined with UMBERTO D.

Based on Gholan-Hossein Saedi’s play, the story follows Masht Hassan (Ezzatolah Entezami), a man who holds a high status in his village because he owns the only cow in miles. His relationship with his animal is move loving than his relationship with his wife. A great deal of his personality is wrapped up in owning the cow. One day while he is away on business, the cow mysteriously dies. The town’s smartest man Eslam (Ali Nassirian) believes that Hassan won’t be able to handle the news and convinces the town to cover it up, telling Hassan that the cow ran away and that the local thug Esmayil went to find the beast. When Hassan does return, no version of the story is comforting. Slowly, Hassan slips into insanity, eventually taking on the role as his cow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Apted’s brilliant documentary series has checked in with the same group of people every seven years since they were seven. As the title suggests, this installment is the third in the series. Now as young adults, some of the subjects have stronger opinions about the way they are portrayed in the previous two films. Some have stayed the same, while others have taken surprising turns. Being older, the young men and women begin to comment on the others, as well as their pasts.

In the first film, John, Charles and Andrew were attending the same lavish pre-preparatory school. John and Andrew have gone onto the same colleges they said they would attend at seven. However, John, the most conservative of the group, points out that the films make it seem like they’ve had it easy, underplaying the hard work that went into how they got where they are today. Charles didn’t make it into Oxford as he planned at seven, but rather enjoys avoiding the pre-prep to Oxford conveyor belt. Since the first film, both Charles and Andrew’s parents divorced. While Andrew seems reconciled to the split, Charles seems to struggle with how it really has affected him. When asked about their opportunities in life, John believes it’s his duty to give back to England, which has given him so much. Charles agrees, but adds that they have no more opportunities than any of the others in the series.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

A little over 10 years after starring in the quintessential mockumentary, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Christopher Guest stepped behind the camera as well for his own mock doc, which skewers the world of local theater. Like SPINAL TAP, the performers in this celebration of a small Mid-West town have an over-inflated sense of their own talents. Played by Guest, Corky St. Clair failed to make it on Broadway, but his big city experience brings some glamour to Blaine, Missouri.

St. Clair runs his little production like a serious production. Having starred in Corky’s previous stage renditions of BAREFOOT IN THE PARK and BACKDRAFT, Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard & Catherine O’Hara, BEST IN SHOW) audition knowing the have secured spots. Their outgoingness and over eagerness sometimes make others feel awkward. Dentist Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy, AMERICAN PIE) whose less than perfect singing still impresses Corky, landing him the coveted roll as the town’s founder Blaine Faban. Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey, SUPERMAN RETURNS) is the youngest cast member, who contemplates her future in the ice cream business at Diary Queen. Corky also recruits handsome mechanic Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar, ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL). Narrating the play is the earnest Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette, SCREAM 2).

Read the rest of this entry »

Iranian filmmaker Tahmineh Milani opened eyes around the world with her frank look at the role of women in Iran in this gripping production. Her following film, THE HIDDEN HALF, landed her in prison for two weeks. Her most recent film CEASE FIRE has become the best selling movie in Iranian cinema history. For TWO WOMEN, on a low budget, she crafts a moving melodrama about two promising female architecture students whose lives eventual go in very different directions.

Roya (Marila Zare’i, THE FIFTH REACTION) works at an architecture firm with her supportive husband when she gets a phone call that her good friend from college Fereshteh (Niki Karimi, THE HIDDEN HALF) is at the hospital with her dying husband. Roya hasn’t heard from Fereshteh for years, because her prideful father (Reza Khandan) kept them apart. They original met when Roya asked Fereshteh, an exceptional student, for help with her Math class. They soon became inseparable friends. However, Fereshteh gains a stalker named Hassan (Mohammad Reza Forutan) who threatens violence on her unless she marries him. Later tragedy will lead to Fereshteh agreeing to a marriage with the older Ahmad (Atila Pesiani), whose paranoia leads to mental abuse.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

I was reminded of another Pennsylvanian filmmaker while watching M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film — George A. Romero. The apocalyptic storyline where an unknown event makes humans act strange reminded me of Romero’s zombie films or THE CRAZIES. Being that THE HAPPENING is Shyamalan’s first R-rated film, the gory bits and “big kill” moments felt like the touch of Romero as well. However, the weak acting, which never truly undermines Romero’s work, does undermine Shyamalan’s attempt at the supernatural paranoid thriller. Additionally, Romero knows how to set up a scare to make it frightening and when he adds in humor we know we’re supposed to laugh with Shyamalan the two become interchangeable.

As the story begins, some phenomenon has begun in New York City, which causes humans to become disoriented, freeze and then kill themselves. Over in Philadelphia, Science teacher Elliot Moore (Mark Wahlberg, THE DEPARTED) is discussing the recent decline in bees on the planet when they receive word of a terrorist attack in NYC. As they evacuate the school, Elliot’s fellow teacher and best friend Julian (John Leguizamo, SUMMER OF SAM) plans to leave the city with his wife and young daughter Jess (Ashlyn Sanchez, CRASH), inviting Elliot and his wife Alma (Zooey Deschanel, ALMOST FAMOUS) to come along with them to his parents house. But the “event” follows them and Elliot begins to wonder if plants have something to do with the strange happening.

Read the rest of this entry »

In 1964 the WORLD IN ACTION TV series followed a group of children in England from different backgrounds. The half-hour program was meant show the potential future leader of the country in 2000. Later a researcher on the project Michael Apted stepped into the director’s chair to see how the children had grown seven years after the first film. Apted has checked in with the subjects for a new film every seven years since, giving the world a filmic time capsule of these individuals and the times in which they lived.

John, Charles and Andrew were young boys at the same pre-preparatory school in the first film. All three in the second film are attending the schools they said they would be attending in the first. While all three came off fairly snobbish in the first installment, only John retains a conservative pretension, while the others seem more progressive, especially Charles who finds the pursuit of wealth to be a road to unhappiness because of all the people you have to ruin to get there. John, on the other hand, wants fame and power, but doesn’t believe he has to be ruthless to get it, only smart. Suzy, a girl from a wealthy, sheltered background, at 14, lives on her family’s Scottish estate. The distance and indifference from the first film has only grown. The other wealthy child in the film was Bruce, who at seven wanted to be a missionary, but by 14, decided that he wouldn’t be good at it because he isn’t good at public speaking.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Having liked the Ang Lee version of the HULK, I had trepidations going into this reboot of the franchise for one major reason. Would Marvel sink to the level of pandering to a juvenile section of the audience who just want to see Hulk smash stuff real good? Nothing in the trailer made me think otherwise. What I got in the end, however, was another character-based superhero saga that honors the original source without indulging in the desires of the lowest common denominator. And Hulk smashed stuff real good too.

Over the opening credits we get a quick recap of the origin of the Hulk, which skillfully walks the line for those who liked Lee’s HULK and those who hated it. The other HULK’s existence is up to the viewer now. As we catch up with Bruce Banner (Edward Norton, FIGHT CLUB) he’s on the run in Brazil. Working with a secret partner in the States, he is looking for a cure for his rage problem, which transforms him into the big green guy. Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN) is determined to find him, believing that Banner’s body is the property of the U.S. military. He enlists ruthless soldier Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth, PULP FICTION) in the effort. His pursuit of Banner has estranged him from his scientist daughter Dr. Betty Ross (Liv Tyler, LORD OF THE RINGS), who is in love with Banner. When he is found in Brazil, the Hulk emerges and Blonsky becomes drunk with the idea of gaining that same power.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

This anthology film is a love letter to Paris and to love itself. Twenty short films were commissioned for the feature-length project set in the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Only two of those films did not make the final cut. Directors such as Gus Van Sant (GOOD WILL HUNTING), Joel and Ethan Coen (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN), Walter Salles (CENTRAL STATION), Sylvain Chomet (THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN), Wes Craven (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), Tom Tykwer (GO) and Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT) all helmed sections. Stars such as Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Natalie Portman, Gena Rowlands and Gerard Depardieu (who also directs) provide the film with their acting talents. Altogether it works as a joyous experience.

Director and star Bruno Podalydes begins the film with a hate story to Paris parking, which ends in a lonely man having a pretty passerby (Florence Muller) fall for him. Gurinder Chadha (BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) brings us a tale of a young white man (Cyril Descours) who meets a young Muslim woman (Leila Bekhti) at the park, but what will her grandfather think when he follows her to their mosque? From Gus Van Sant, there is a tale of a print shop customer (Gaspard Ulliel, HANNIBAL RISING) who is smitten instantly with the young worker (Elias McConnell, ELEPHANT), but there is a hidden obstacle to the customer’s bold declaration of his affections. In a typical Coen Brother unsentimental fashion, their “love story” finds an American tourist (Buscemi, FARGO) trapped in the middle of a lovers’ spat between a pretty young girl and her hotheaded boyfriend.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last year the American Film Institute released its 10th anniversary version of its Top 100 American films list. In a previous This Weekend’s Film Festival, I took a look at some of the new editions of the list. Many covered overlooked performers and films such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (SWING TIME) or Buster Keaton (THE GENERAL). Newer films made the list like LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS. The other two films I looked at where IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, Sidney Poitier’s best film, and the searing drama WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?

With the next AFI list of 10 top 10 genre films, being announced next on June 17th, it’s a good time to return to the Top 100 list to look at some of the other newly added films. Over the next three months, I’ll be looking at 15 more films. So in the end, there will be four lineups featuring 20 of the 23 new films to make the list. This week’s lineup features a classic comedy, two musicals, a silent drama and a retro drama. All five films have received four-star reviews from me, so you’re in for a treat.

Read the rest of this entry »