If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman (2011)
For the past few years Michael Moore has added a few very intriguing documentaries to the Traverse City Film Festival lineup that have to do with some sort of environmental rights. This years big entry appeared to be If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front. The name pretty much sums up what you get in this doc. Continue reading
Project Nim directed by James Marsh (2011)
Nim is a chimpanzee that shortly after his birth was taken away from his mother to live with a family while being raised as a human child. At the families home, Nim was breast-fed by the mother, was allowed to run wild through the house, smoked pot and drank, all in the name of of science. The experiment was to see if Nim could be taught to communicate using sign language. Continue reading
The Most Beautiful directed by Akira Kurosawa (1944)
Shot during World War II, The Most Beautiful, is nothing more than an ode to the girls who dedicated themselves to their country during the war. This was not shown in the United States because it was said to be anti-American. There was one line in a song the girls sang about destroying America. I guess that is pretty anti-American but it also was made in Japan during a war against America. Continue reading
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail directed by Akira Kurosawa (1945)
In Kurosawa’s third film, a lord and his six samurai guards must disguise themselves as monks in order to evade the Shogun, also his brother, who is angry about his brothers earlier actions. Understanding who these characters are and what they are attempting to do is not necessary to enjoying this early Kurosawa picture. What you get is a glimpse, the running time clocks in at just under an hour, of the famous directors future. Continue reading
Last year I was lucky enough to see the amazing Tiny Furniture at the Traverse City Film Festival. This year when I was planning out my festival watch-list I came across a film called Rid of Me that looked like a quirky, little, indie film. I was hoping I would get lucky twice and get to see a really good movie before it came to the local art-house theatre. Well as much as I loved Tiny Furniture, which everyone should still see, James Westby’s Rid of Me blew it away. You can read my review of Rid of Me here. Continue reading
The Auteur directed by James Westby (2008)
Melik Malkasian (Scotty Pelk from Film Geek) plays acclaimed porno director Arturo Domingo in indie director James Westby’s The Auteur. Domingo is being honored at a pornography convention in Portland, Oregon, long after his popularity has plummeted, following a falling-out with his star actor Frank E. Normo. Continue reading
Film Geek directed by James Westby (2005)
This film may have hit a bit too close to home for me. Scotty Pelk is an encyclopedia of film. His entire life revolves around movies, he works at a video store, in which he annoys his co-workers, the customers and his boss, he writes his own reviews and essays on his website, and his apartment is floor to ceiling in movies and movie posters. Continue reading
Source Code directed by Duncan Jones (2011)
The second feature film from Duncan Jones, son of rock legend David Bowie, following 2009s awesome Moon, is another inventive science fiction film with plenty of twists and turns. Actually there are quite a few surprises which make this film difficult to review. Continue reading
There are usually two groups of cinephiles, those who see a film because of the actor and those who see a film because of the director. I am in the latter group. I love to see how a certain director grows over the course of their career, or how they handle different genres. I will go and see any film the directors on this list are associated with no matter what. Again, I do not mean this to be a list of the greatest directors of all-time, these are just my ten favorites. Continue reading
Kumare directed by Vikram Gandhi (2011)
Vikram Gandhi has always felt out of place with religion. Even though he admired his grandmother for her faith he has always questioned what it really means and more importantly, where does he fit in. While filming for a documentary about Indian Gurus, Gandhi realized what phonies most of them seemed to be. Only looking for people to worship them, and often times young women to sleep with them. So he decided to change the focus of his documentary to a Borat style film, creating a character Guru Kumare, to see if he could find people to follow him. Continue reading
