The 2017 Dallas International Film Festival brought many amazing films and documentaries to DFW, but few hit as close to home (musically speaking) as Matt Schrader‘s feature, SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. Schrader’s film profiles various personalities and titans in the industry to chronicle the history of film music, reaffirm its importance in our culture, and attempt to explain why certain scores continue to resonate decades later. I can honestly say I’ve been a music fan longer than I’ve been a film fan, and as such, forgive the pun, this doc was music to my ears. We spoke to Schrader in 2015 while he was in the middle of interviewing the composers for…
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[DIFF Review]…Sweetwater
Set in the American Old West, Sweetwater is a story of one woman’s vengeance against a religious extremist (Jason Issacs) who claims himself a prophet, and the town that allows him to rule with tyranny. After Sarah’s (January Jones) husband goes missing a chain of events eventually lead her to take justice into her own hands. With a little help from an eccentric sheriff, played by Ed Harris, whose brilliant performance is something everyone will be talking about, she may just get her revenge. The film is set in New Mexico sometime in the 1800s. We are first introduced to Sarah (Jones) and her husband Miguel (Eduardo Noriega), as a…
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[DIFF Review]…Between Us
Between Us deals with the harsh realities that exist in friendships, love marriage and life that are rarely depicted in films. Director Dan Mirvish, co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival, adapted the film from an Off-Broadway play by Joe Hortua. The film revolves around the lives of Carlo (Taye Diggs) and Joel (David Harbour), two friends who first met in art school, and moves between present moments and flashbacks into the past where we are introduced to Joel and his wife Sharyl (Melissa George) as they are hosting Carlo and his new wife Grace (Julie Stiles) at their large home in the Midwest. At this point we learn Joel and…
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[DIFF Review]…Diving Normal
Character-driven narrative feature Diving Normal that tells the story of a love triangle that occurs when two unlikely friends fall for the same girl. The film is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed play of the same name, and centers around the lives of Fulton and Gordon (played by Philipp Karner and Scotty Crowe, respectively, who also produced and co-wrote the adapted screenplay with playwright Ashlin Halfnight). Fulton and Gordon are an odd pair; Fulton is an adorable, successful graphic novelist who has no problem attracting attention from the ladies, despite (and maybe slightly because of) brief moments of insecurity, and Gordon is his sweet, yet extremely socially awkward neighbor…
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[DIFF Review]…A Teacher
While A Teacher may appear on the outset to be a typical tale of the inappropriate student/teacher relationship that has become all too familiar due their sensationalized media coverage, writer/director Hannah Fidell takes an in-depth, psychological approach, asking the audience to ponder the inner workings of a mind capable of such a taboo. The film begins in medias res, though Fidell chooses not to fill us in on how a lonely teacher named Diana (Lindsay Burdge), and her student Eric (Will Brittain) who epitomizes what every teenage boy is really like, confident and carefree as if invincible, ignorant to the hard truths of the world and therefore naïve to the…
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[DIFF Interview]…'KINGS OF SUMMER'
Fifteen-year-old, Joe Toy, finds himself increasingly frustrated by his single father, Frank, who tries to control his life. Declaring his independence, Joe escapes to the woods with his best friend, Patrick (Gabriel Basso), and a strange kid named Biaggio (Moises Arias); the three build a house there—free from responsibility and parents. Families and friendships are tested in this rare comedy that succeeds visually and manages to be nostalgic while remaining sincere. Go, See, Talk sat down with writer/director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, and the film’s young stars, Moises Arias and Gabriel Basso to talk about how the story evolved, improvisation, bringing cinematic flair back to comedy and filming Kings of Summer in Ohio. When…
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[DIFF Interview]…’PIT STOP’ Writer/Director Yen Tan
Gabe (Bill Heck) struggles with his identity as a gay man living in a small, rural Texas town, finding comfort in his relationship with ex-wife Shannon (Amy Seimetz) after his recent breakup. Ernesto (Marcus DeAnda) is also plagued with the demons of a failing relationship, as he is simultaneously forced to deal with another past lovers impending death. Pit Stop follows the lives of these two men as they unknowingly drift toward one another, demonstrating the way life often has a funny way of pointing us in the right direction, even in the moments we feel most lost. Go, See, Talk chatted with Pit Stop writer/director Yen Tan about his writing process, collaboration, and filming…
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[DIFF Review]…Juan of the Dead
Considering zombies are the walking dead, it’s surprising to see how popular they have become. They are mindless beasts that are incredibly uninteresting. Maybe that’s why they are perfect targets for horror comedies. Juan of the Dead is clearly a riff on the title of Edgar Wright’s horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, yet Juan manages to be creative enough to keep from feeling like a retread and instead makes a case why two films with similar titles and similar premises can exist in the same universe. Clocking in at 96 minutes, the film is perhaps a bit meandering at points but keeps the story moving forward with laugh after…
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[DIFF Review]…The Pact
Nicholas McCarthy brings his previous short film (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011) to its full feature potential at the 2012 DIFF. It’s all sorts of eerie and scary, though not so much straight up horror The Pact is more of a horror mystery. It’s the blending of those two genres that make this extremely atmospheric work on many levels. In short it’s entirely effective and well crafted. In a way it’s fitting that it is being shown at the same Festival where master of horror Takeshi Shimizu is screening his film TORMENTED. Could make for a great Double Feature. Annie and her sister have begrudgingly returned home for their mother’s funeral.…
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[DIFF Review]…My Way
Unbelievable, True Story, and Epic are but a few terms used to describe this absolutely amazing film from Korean director Je-kyu Kang. My Way tells the story of two childhood friends whose lives are drastically changed when they are both forced to enlist in the Army. WWII serves as the backdrop for an almost Shakespearean story about friendship, passion, loyalty and pride. The only thing more amazing than the scenes and sequences in the film is the fact that it’s all based on true events which have only recently come to light in the last 6 years. During the time when pre-WWII Korea was being colonized by Japan, many Korean workers were employed…
