99 Homes

Rahim Bahrani, a prominent 21st century auteur in American independent cinema, returns with a post-economic meltdown thriller with 99 Homes starring Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon.

Garfield plays Dennis Nash, a young builder who is in need of work to pay back the loan to his bank before they foreclose and his family, mother (Laura Dern) and young son have to be evicted. Richard Carver, monstrously played by Michael Shannon, is the man who works for the banks to evict people. Carver then buys the house cheap from the bank fits it up by stealing appliances from other houses and then sells for profit by charging the government for his supposed community services.

Upon confronting one of Carver's employees for a supposed theft, Carver offers Nash work on his labour force which quickly grows into a more substantial role becoming Carver's right hand man as they get close to landing a huge development deal. One that could make Nash rich beyond his wildest dreams.

The film has a lot to say about the tumultuous effect the economic crash had on many people, and with the film being set in 2010 gives it the feel of a historical artefact with America now on the mend.   However, the screenplay falls too quickly into cliche with Nash choosing to get in bed with the devil too quickly due to the allure of financial wealth, and his decision to hide his means of earning from his family is too obvious a plot point with inevitable consequences.

Nash is heading for a fall, yet Bahrami chooses not to show the fall fully; there is no comeuppance for Carver per se, instead the film's conclusion is one lacking fulfilment having invested so much time in these characters.

This is a shame considering Shannon adds Carver to his cavalcade of criminals offering such nuggets of truth as, 'America does not bail out losers' to Nash. And whilst Garfield convincingly emotes and projects, notably in a car park showdown with someone he eras evicted, you get the sense that Nash should be closer to Carver's age than the late 20s age he appears to be.

The film could have been a real ear marker for the economic letdown of America but a combination of directorial decisions let down good work by the cast.

99 Homes is out on DVD and Blu-ray from Monday 18th January - http://po.st/99Amzn

I was given a review disc by Think Jam in exchange for an honest review.

Trailer Talk: Kumiko The Treasure Hunter

Soda Pictures are pleased to release the trailer for the forthcoming Kumiko The Treasure Hunter starring Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi as the eponymous heroine of the film.

Kumiko is a disillusioned soul in a city of 35 million people.  She works in a dead end job that makes her unhappy and unappreciated, has a nagging mother and successful peers.

Yet while living alone she watches a copy of an American independent film.  Night after night she watches the film for clues as to where the stash of money in the film has been buried, with the belief that the film is a real document. So begins Kumiko's journey to America to find her treasure in this beguiling and equally bizarre tale.

Written and directed by the Zellner Brothers and produced by Alexander Payne (a director not adverse to films about journeys); the film looks like one of those rare breakout independent films due to the original content, eccentric lead performances and brilliant screenplay.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20th February from Soda Pictures

Touchy Feely

Lynn Shelton, director of Humpday, returns with her third feature, Touchy Feely which tells the story of a masseuse who suffers an aversion to skin whilst her older dentist brother starts showing signs of healing powers; whilst both suffer crisis of confidence, their closest relationships with boyfriend and daughter respectively suffer.

In the same vein of atypical American independent cinema, Shelton sets up a family dynamic with the two siblings and their problematic relationships, yet Shelton is also able to tell us more about the characters by way of their profession.

When Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt) suffers this aversion to touching clients, she feels lost as it is the only thing profession she has had in her adult life. The same came be said of her humdrum brother Paul (Josh Pais) who has only ever been a dentist and does not want to be anything other than a practising orthodontist, yet the people coming to his surgery means he misses the needs of his daughter expertly portrayed by Ellen Page.

The semi-improvised dialogue between the four main players gives the film a genuine feel of authenticity helped by the natural cadence of the acting, unfortunately the pay-off comes short of justifying our investment in these characters.

This is a shame as Shelton again shows herself to be an assured hand in proceedings, however like a predecessor Nicole Holofcener (Lovely and Amazing, Enough Said) perhaps Shelton needs to get more personal for her work to crossover to the mainstream.

Touchy Feely is out Friday 16th May

The Kings of Summer

Jordan Vogt-Rhodes' film The Kings of Summer was an audience favourite at Sundance this year, and following a brief cinema run it gets a DVD release where it might garner the more wide-ranging audience it deserves.

Utilising a script by Chris Galletta that is both funny and sentimental in equal doses, the film tells the story of three teenage boys in surburban Ohio, who upset by the actions of their parents and another boring summer decide to go live in the woods where they will build a house and live off the land for the summer.

We know that coming-of-age films from Stand By Me follow this thread of thought, whereas that stellar work was more a journey for the boys as they went to discover a body, those boys were always wanting to return home; here the boys are just rebelling as they are not happy with their current situation.

Joe (Nick Robinson) is dismissed at school and wants to be one of the boys, plus he and his Dad, Frank (Nick Offerman) are at continual loggerheads since the passing of Joe's mother.  During a game of Monopoly, Frank swindles some property prompting Joe to phone the police reporting a theft.  Patrick (Gabriel Basso) is the jock with an ankle injury meaning he has to wear a boot all summer; he is not happy at home as his parents drive him crazy, his mother is played by Megan Mullally of Will and Grace fame.  They are joined by the eccentric Biaggio (Moises Arias) who provides the most laughs by way of his odd behaviour.

Galletta's script is quite funny in places and maintains that flow of laughs throughout the film, whereas some scripts can suffer from a willingness and need to get sentimental and dramatic in tone.  The ending involving a scare with nature is played straight but the back and forth of Joe and Frank's dialogue helps the action bounce due to the already cantankerous nature of their relationship.

Special credit to the cinematographer, Ross Reige who shoots with a great eye and gets some great shots in the woods where the boys reside even providing a great crash zoom and focus during the blowout keg party at the start of the film.

Entertaining, well acted and a great addition to the pantheon of coming-of-age films.

The Kings of Summer is out now on DVD (£15.99RRP) from StudioCanal, my thanks to EM Foundation for the screening disc

Simon Killer

Following on from the critical success of Afterschool in 2008, Antonio Campos returns with Simon Killer starring Brady Corbet and Mati Diop.

Simon Killer tells the story of Simon (Corbet), a New York postgradute who's just split up with his girlfriend of five years (who we never see) and visits his cousin Carlo in Paris, France.

Whilst attempting to flirt and interact with French females he comes across Victoria (Diop), a prostitute who Simon attempts to make feel sorry for him.  And so begins an intriguing dynamic between the two as the intensity cranks up and the need for companionship.

Campos in a screenplay he co-wrote with the leading actors, has created a very unnerving viewing experience for an audience who may be used to such questionable subject material with a European persuasion.

In Simon, the creative team have created an unsympathetic leading male who wants nothing but sympathy as his reward for being in a relationship.  Simon attempts to use Victoria as a mark to blackmail rich husbands she sleeps with; this casual misogyny hides the equally casual disregard Simon has for women in general.

This is enhanced by the use of the non-existent Michelle, Simon's ex-girlfriend, who is invisible to us and yet has a voice in the emails she exchanges with Simon.  The one she does send to Simon, is read by Simon himself, another way of controlling his own narrative and viewpoint.  Simon is only happy if you hear just his side of the story.  In his first sexual encounter with Victoria he masturbates himself to climax whilst in view of a naked Victoria, in the scene before this encounter he masturbated online in a video chat.

For a film that has one character in every scene such as Simon - we watch the action five feet behind him by way of a roaming camera over his shoulder, you would expect a margin of empathy towards him but maybe we are not meant to as it becomes apparent Simon is manipulating the truth of his published university work and the full extent of his breakdown with Michelle.  We are also subjected to what Simon hears by way of his iPod being part of the soundtrack when he is walking in Paris streets.

Simon's actions may remind people of another sociopath who roamed European streets, Tom Ripley from Patricia Highsmith's novels; yet whilst Ripley was seduced by the elite classes, Simon is firmly living in the squalor and petty blackmails that Ripley would dare not touch.

Another literary character Simon is reminiscent of is Adam Gordon from Ben Lerner's 'Leaving the Atocha Station', in that Adam lives in Madrid on a fellowship but he does not know much Spanish and is left to look like anything but the brilliantly minded poet he is meant to be.

In the film Simon is a postgraduate, meaning currently unemployed and so lacking direction in his career seeks to gain some control over women in his life; whilst Simon can speak French, when Victoria tells him off for spending the night with another woman and denouncing him in French, it is telling that Simon yells, 'I can't understand you when you speak French'.

Brady Corbet is certainly building a quiet momentum as a go to guy for off-the-handle misanthropes and this is a fine performance in unison with the esteemable Diop.

There is an undeniable level of uncertainty in the film's direction and leaves a somewhat questionable impression on the mind's eye, yet Campos shows an assured hand with the subject matter and having gone from high school to a postgraduate, it would be interesting to see if he completes the trilogy and shows us a traumatised awkward married man with a dark side.  Campos maintains his exposure as a director with great potential to offer something both unsettling and intelligent.

SIMON KILLER is released by Eureka Entertainment in UK and Eire on 12th April 2013 and scheduled for a DVD/Blu-ray relese on 24th June 2013.

The Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best

First time director Ryan O'Nan gives us this heartwarming tale of a group rabbled together in the search of winning a battle of the bands contest in California on a roadtrip from New York via Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Mississippi.

O'Nan also wrote the screenplay and stars as Alex, a deadbeat musician who works in a dead-end job as an estate agent yet can not give up on his dream of being a successful singer-songwriter.  After being dumped by his latest partner, Kyle (Jason Ritter - fine cameo) over creative differences; Alex writes songs of feeling and honesty, Kyle writes about sex crazed werewolves which he deems autobiographical.

After hearing one of his sets, Jim (Michael Weston) comes up with a plan for them to work together as a musical duo.  Jim claims himself to be a musical revolutionary, and Alex can write the words for them to sing.

To get to that stage of the plan being hatched by Jim; we firstly though have to navigate a tough first act of meeting Alex.  A depressed individual whose heart has been broken by Erin, a girl we never see but who wrote a letter to Alex explaining why they cannot be together.  This heartbreak causes Alex to act somewhat sociopathically when we first meet him - he dresses as a musical moose playing for mentally handicapped children.  When one child pretends to stab him with a fake knife, Alex punches said kid in the face numerous times.  Then he throws a water dispenser in his estate agent office at a threatening colleague, probably breaking his neck.

This sort of unnerving behaviour is in stark contrast to the heart-tugging music Alex is obviously capable of, and the film could have gone into darker territory.  Luckily the injection of Jim into the storyline, by punching Alex in the face, takes the film out of New York city and onto the highways and byways of America.  


Reluctantly, the two of them proceed with their dual dream of performing winning music; the scene when they compose their first song in the car whilst recording it is one of magic thanks in part to the feeling of spontaneity elicited by the musical performance and the use of Jim's toy instruments (player pianos, toy trumpets, gazoos) mixed with the natural harmonies they create.  This scene changes the film from a piece about a guy who feels sorry for himself into one that is confident in praising the value of sharing your dreams with like-minded people.

Once they get to the first gig, they attract the attention of Cassidy (Arielle Kebbel) a young entrepreneur but inexperienced tour manager who likes their alluring sound ('sounds like something Bowie would do when he was 6'); the connection between Alex and Cassidy is evident from the start and this blows into a romance until she runs off with the guys money.

This prompts the guys to break up and Alex to show up on his brother Brian's (Andrew McCarthy - yes he of Weekend at Bernie's/Mannequin) house looking for a place to stay.  Whilst Brian is over-religious and deflecting onto his genius son Jackson, Alex rekindles his belief in himself as a musician when he composes a song with Jackson at bedtime.

The inevitable final act of reformation and reunion is handled with distinction and not overdone with sentimentality; a victory for sheer belief and resilience.

A film that could have been twee and off the cuff is instead one of freedom and creativity; both funny ('I like your sound like a mix of The Shins meets Sesame Street') and engaging.  It follows in the footsteps of recent American independent road-movie films Easier With Practice (2010) and Passenger Side (2009) that are brilliantly acted, shot well (here by Gavin Kelly) and have kick-ass soundtracks.

The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best is distributed by Signature Entertainment and is in cinemas across the UK on Friday 20th July

http://www.signature-entertainment.co.uk/

Rodrigo Garcia Interview

Rodrigo Garcia (director of Mother and Child) allowed me his time on the phone from Los Angeles to talk briefly about his new film being released in the UK on Friday 6th January, 2012 by Verve Pictures.

What is the appeal to you of women in your work?
I dont know, I first wrote the script in my mid to late 30s and found that the men I was writing were all too similar to each other or myself, and writing women allowed me more tools to approach the story with.  They were more complex and more varied from one another.  But I would not say I am a feminist director with a pro-women agenda, as I feel female characters are more satisfying for me and my work.

What was the genesis for Mother and Child?
I had been working on the script on and off for nine years, the most complicated thing was the structure of putting together Karen's story from 35 years ago up to the present day combining with events that take place but not necessarily at the same time.  And then the problem with independent cinema in America especially, is that you can have a good script but you need a big name actress/actor to sell to financiers.


I read that Naomi was the first person you went to in that respect?
Naomi was one of the first but my ideas of actors always changed, and then when we approached her she was pregnant so we waited for her to give birth, but that is her tummy for real in the movie.  And the sex scene she shot just 5 weeks after giving birth.

I found Annette Bening's performance to be outstanding, how did she come on board?
Well, again Annette was one of the first people we approached but due to family commitments she could not commit herself and then Naomi fell pregnant and so the window was open for her to take part.  I felt her work was first rate on set but only in the editing suite did the appreciation of her work take shape as she went from misanthrope to a sympathetic grandmother.

What was your research for the three women and their backgrounds?
I did research about adoption mostly, but for the women I felt Karen had to be near 50 and no longer able to have children.  Elizabeth had to be 35 yet successful in her career but still able to bear children and Lucy had to be near 30 and unable to.  Its about the calendar and how it relates to people being able to have children.

What is the appeal of multi-strand cinema and why is it so apparent in Latin American cinema?
I was not conscience of it, and it is seemingly a coincidence because Magnolia has it, Robert Altman has it, Crash had it, it is good for cinema were flukes and destiny are thrusts to the narrative. 

Were you nervous shooting a sex scene between a black man (Samuel L. Jackson) and white woman (Watts), still a taboo subject in Hollywood?
I did not feel race was an issue in the film and it did not compel me.  What interested me most about race was giving Karen an african-american child - a child she could be close to in terms of proximity and yet be different from her.  Karen also falls in love with a Latino man, something that she did not anticipate or presume to happen.
The sex scene I felt had to be about more than just sex and tell us something about Elizabeth - her sexuality, her career, her relationships, her identity.

Its taken a while for this film to reach our shores, in hindsight would you have changed anything?
Oh definitely, you know Truffaut used to say 'you start every film hoping it to be a masterpiece, and at the end you are relieved it is breathing'. The movie is a version of what you had hoped for, however I am happy with work of actresses and satisfied with it definitely.

And on that lovely note, I bid farwell to Mr.Garcia wishing him every luck for the future.

Mother and Child is released from Verve Pictures on Friday 6th January in selected cinemas nationwide.

The Interrupters

From the acclaimed director Steve James of the seminal 1990s basketball documentary Hoop Dreams, comes another tale of small people with big ambitions as we follow them on their day to day life.

Steve James takes his obtrusive and investigative camera onto the streets of Chicago as we follow in the footsteps of three interrupters - from the Ceasefire organisation who work intimately in their local areas to avoid political incidents becoming violent episodes on the streets, over the summer of 2009 to the early spring of 2010.

Alex Kotlowitz, whose original article is the basis for the film, wrote the script as he knows these people and their whereabouts and how they do their work. Kotlowitz's article focused on the groups founder Gary Slutkin, who equates violence with an infectious disease, insisting that its spread can be combated the way one would contain an outbreak of cholera or TB: by going after, as Kotlowitz (who serves as producer and also collaborated on interviews and sound) explains in his article, the most infected areas and stopping the sickness at its source.

James has a keen eye as a filmmaker and is a strong non-fiction director giving a voice to those rarely if never heard on such a vast platform, he follows the three mainstays of the group - Amena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra - all have criminal pasts, like most of the organization's outreach employees; their histories give them not just street cred but an understanding of how to defuse volatile disputes between family members, neighbors, and schools. CeaseFire, as The Interrupters points out more than once, isn't a substitute for the police, or even a partner; indeed, the group operates at times within a gray area. The focus, as one worker explains, "isn't trying to dismantle gangs but to save a life"—in other words, to stop a trigger from being pulled.

Following on from the seminal success of The Wire - this is equally gritty, full-on, graphic at times in its too close to the bone content but still this is a gripping, important and most significantly, hopeful document of good souls who do exist in this unique urban milieu such as Chicago suburbs depicted here.  Good sometimes will out.

The Interrupters is released from Dogwoof Pictures on DVD from Monday 5th December.

Holy Rollers DVD review

Holy Rollers is one of those rare conundrums, a film that aims to shoot high with ambition but unfortunately relied upon the critical acclaim of another film before it saw the light of day.

Following the critical reception for The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010) which told the story of the forming of Facebook and Mark Zuckerburg, along with the Oscar nominated performance of Jesse Eisenberg, these trailers for a Jewish film started to appear.

Holy Rollers tells the story of Sam Gold (Eisenberg), a fair to middling loyal Jewish man who is about to wed in an arranged marriage set up by his parents.  To earn some extra cash, Sam becomes a drug smuggler led by community rival Yosef Zimmerman (Justin Bartha - The Hangover) which unfortunately has tie-ins to an Israeli drug cartel.

As with most easy money films, the pluses are exaggerated but unfortunately the net becomes tighter and tighter with mistakes starting to happen.  Can Sam set himself straight and return to the Orthodoxy before too late.

Kevin Asch directs his feature debut and he handles it very well, boasting some credible performances and a real zest in its directional flair coupled with a killer soundtrack, along with some great location shots of New York, giving the film a real sense of place and feel for the Jewish environment.  Asch also handles the material seriously, all the more credible considering it is a true story.

Holy Rollers is out now on DVD from Crabtree Films at all good stockists.  The DVD features a director's commentary with Kevin Asch; trailers; deleted scenes and an exclusive UK interview with Jesse Eisenberg.

Watch the trailer here.

Putty Hill - review

Matt Porterfield's breakthrough Sundance fested award winner gets a UK release with a limited run at the ICA.

Following the death of a young man, his family and friends congregate in Baltimore, Maryland to commemorate his passing at his funeral as is the custom.  Using handheld techniques, we follow these late teenagers and young adults as they go about there day to day lives as is the custom of documentary realism narratives.  However, then the fourth wall is broken seemingly, when an off-camera presence makes himself known by asking the youth in the frame questions about his life, the funeral and the boy, Cody, who passed away. 

The interviewer is in the same vein as Nick Broomfield would be, provocative in his questioning and leading with his meaning.  Unlike Broomfield though who would inject himself into the frame whenever possible, on this occasion the interviewer remains off-camera and serves merely as a therapist for the people he talks to.  It allows these young people, who are constantly put in their place by society and hierarchial structures of family dynamics, to speak for themselves.



The interviews are never confrontational or antagonistic, Porterfield is making a subtle reference and political comment about these people.  Sometimes they just want to talk, and if they are afforded the time to talk and shown due respect they can speak freely, openly and with suprisingly clear clarity.  Unlike the usual fame hungry people so often thrust before the camera in other documentary films and programmes.  The need to communicate face to face in this age of instant messaging and contact has never been more prevalent.

Credit for these to camera dialogues should go to Porterfield and his co-writer Jordan Mintzer (who also produced) as they give these young people proper things to say allowing them to be intelligent yet with under the surface complexities waiting to burst out; the performances from the young cast go hand in hand with the effectiveness.

When there are not interviews on screen we are given some beautiful photography by Jeremy Saulnier, especially the woodland of the Baltimore area portraying a stillness in the surrounding Maryland state, lets not forget this is a funeral movie after all - the chill and still of funerals are portrayed with great humanity and subtlety.  This is helped by the sound design as evidenced by the paintball scene that opens the film, the hum and bang of paintballs impacting on tree bark, metal and flesh gives us a sonic spectrum for the mind and eyes.

Following in the footsteps of Cold Weather, Catfish and the obvious debt of the influential works of Gus Van Sant, especially Elephant, the combination of naturalistic performances and documentary realism genre are woven together to creditable effect.  It tells you so much in an interview, yet a look can say so much, a film that never gives its full hand away; but there is no danger of it bluffing, this is the real deal.

If you can get to the ICA in the next two weeks, you shall not be disappointed.