From Jaume Balagueró, director of [REC] and [REC] 2, comes one of the best and most suspenseful films I’ve seen in at least a decade. It’s a taut, complex and magnificently dark thriller that doesn’t let up until the credits roll. Sleep Tight (or Mientras Duermes) follows a tortured soul named Caesar (Luis Tosar) who by some weird personal quirk is unable to be happy. Nothing will brighten his sour mood…except seeing others more upset, displeased or depressed than him. Yet before you think this sounds like some hokey story or an odd iteration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, this really is something special. The visuals are wonderfully intricate for such simple surroundings and the…
-
-
Off the Netflix Queue…’Bernie’
Bernie, Richard Linklater’s black comic docudrama about Bernie Tiede, has two great tricks up its sleeve. The first happens to be Carthage, Texas, the city in which both the events that inspired the film and the events that occur within the film take place. Choice in location may not seem like an impressive sleight of hand, but Linklater so successfully installs his production “behind the pine curtain” that we’re not only transported to Carthage proper, we’re drawn into their culture. The townsfolk we meet– bona fide Carthage residents who knew Tiede and witnessed the circus surrounding his 1998 trial– breathe rural, down-home authenticity into Bernie, but more importantly they talk…
-
Off the Shelf…’The Muppet Christmas Carol’
Who doesn’t just love the Muppets? With delivery and material geared for kids and adults they have such universal appeal exemplified by they fact that they’re so honest direct and friendly. The Muppet movies are known for their original humor and lovable characters but The Muppet Christmas Carol treads new ground though a lot of the tones and structure here just seem an odd fit. The film is an important distinctive film in the Henson legacy for reasons outside of the on-screen antics. First off, it is the company’s first outright adaptation. Second, and more importantly, it’s the first Muppet film following the passing if the legendary Muppet founder Jim Henson. As such this adaptation, very…
-
Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Trailer War’
From the deepest darkest pit of forgotten film reels comes Drafthouse Films’ latest time capsule feature. Trailer War is simply a collection of off-beat, hokey and trailers for some of the film world’s oddest flicks. Although cast off, they are not trash. After all, films like these are what have influenced scores of filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, for decades. War is a patchwork of advertisements for films the likes of which have seen by only a handful of modern day film audiences or people from the time of the film’s release. But this presentation isn’t just a brainless compilation of trailers lined up end to end for 110 minutes. No, there’s a little more to…
-
Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Miami Connection’
Story has it that one afternoon in 2009, a curator from Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema stumbled across an eBay listing for a 35mm print of something called “Miami Connection.” The Alamo bought Connection unseen and just as blindly added the print to their film archive. Like opening a time capsule that no one (including the people involved with the film) hoped would ever be found came a film that most likely would be a dud. Well luck favored the Alamo that day as Miami Connection was not a bad investment. Quite the opposite in fact as this deliciously wretched B-Movie has been wonderfully accepted at off-beat festivals and movie houses across…
-
Off the Shelf…’Finding Nemo 3D’
Finding Nemo is essentially a family drama combined with a new spin on an Abbott & Costello road movie. It’s also deep, affecting and a story about a father getting to know his son, and vice versa (even though they are apart for the whole movie). As Pixar religiously puts story ahead of the effects, what’s on display here is a very touching family element that proves more impacting with each viewing. Sure everyone gets emotionally invested in these characters but it’s chalked up to three factors; lovable design, top notch voice acting and finally Thomas Newman’s brilliant score. Newman (who would work together with Stanton again on WALL-E) creates a theme that is so finely tailored and…
-
Off the Shelf…’The Odd Life of Timothy Green’
If you stop and think about the impact that Disney has had on all of our lives, it’s simply staggering. It would be almost impossible to find someone you know who has never seen a Disney film or TV show. Disney’s formula for success is often imitated, but there is only one Disney. With The Odd Life of Timothy Green, you have a Mary Poppins tale of sorts. You understand it’s a Disney family film and you suspend disbelief, just long enough to allow yourself to get sucked into the movie. You put the Disney name on a film and it’s almost guaranteed to make a profit. But, does Odd Life this compare to the…
-
Off the Netflix Queue…’God Bless America’
According to Bobcat Goldthwait, American culture has grown too vicious, too mean, too unfeeling, too rude, and too self-serving for its own good. Frankly, I can’t say that I strictly disagree with him, but that doesn’t make me accept any more readily the thesis of his fifth film, God Bless America, which may be the most intentionally odious picture I’ve watched all year. Tired of the obnoxious and boorish qualities of modern popular consumer culture? Arm yourself and gun down the bigots, hate-mongers, and morons clogging up your television and radio airwaves. Goldthwait’s being cheeky, of course– at least at first– but he’s also in the throes of a blind, murderous…
-
Off the Shelf…'Brave'
Brave, the latest offering from animation giant Pixar, comes to home video following its successful theatrical run. And just as it was a sight to behold in the cinema, the Blu-Ray transfer is even more mystical and enchanting. Now Brave, either on paper or as a finished product, could be defined very quickly by an odd tension struck between two different bodies: its studio and its pedigree. The very idea of Pixar, long-established as a font of creativity and raw talent put forth in service to compelling and original storytelling, tackling princess films and fairy tales is admittedly weird on its face; at a distance that move seems like a step back.…
-
Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘The Ambassador’
A surreal and yet gravely realistic fish out of water documentary, The Ambassador offers a look into a part of the world that only a rare but unsavory few can know or comprehend. Posing as a businessman, Brügger attempts to become a foreign diplomat in hopes of exposing the corrupt diamond smuggling and those who live free of moral boundaries in a lawless African state. Yet one thing that needs to be known up front, since it is not explained in the film, is that Mads Brügger is a Danish comedian as well as a filmmaker. That tiny tidbit goes a long way in understanding that there is a hidden hidden agenda behind this entire…
