Spooner


Dir: Drake Doremus


Matthew Lillard (Herman Spooner) and Christopher McDonald (Dad Spooner) reprise their father and son roles with a different dynamic than their first outing in SLC Punk in this So Cal tale of mushy love. If I hadn't seen it at Slamdance I would automatically put it in the chick flick category. The fact it screened at a film festival pushes it into the strange no man's land of indie chick, a whole different sort of sappy movie: the extra earnest kind. You could call this the "growed up" version of Napoleon Dynamite where a hopeless shmuck quasi wins the girl at the end of the film and engenders unnatural "romantic" feelings in its audience. Spooner straddles the fine line between saccharine and genuine.


I thought it was medium to medium rare, if a bid slow paced at times. The performances were all competent. And anyone with sales experience can laugh along as they see their previous boss reincarnated on screen as Spooner's Car lot boss encourages higher sales in front of a bar graph. Enjoy the Southern California scenery and the beauty in Spooner's object of affection, the amazingly winsome Nora Zehetner (Brick) as Rose. This woman is amazing and primed for uber stardom, based on that cute little smile alone. I wanted to pop her head off her body but kept my hands to myself at the premier. Thankfully. SLUG doesn't need any more starlet blood on its hands.


I'm sure your tattooed future ex girlfriend will make you watch this movie before your eventual break up leaving you with terrible feelings about the film in general. Until then, enjoy it for what it is: "an odd ball love story" or whatever bullshit they're going to sell this to you as at the indie house this year.




3 out of 5*


Screenings: No more screenings of this film.




by Jon Paxton

Tromadance!


The founder of Troma Entertainment, Lloyd Kaufman, is back at it again, giving the denizens of Salt Lake, Park City, and the world another free film festival for the avant garde. In it's tenth year the festival runs from January 20th through the 23rd all over the hot bed of the film fest action in northern Utah.


I caught the opening night short block at Brewvies and had a great time watching several films. Several screening locations are still active in Park City and Salt Lake.


I enjoyed all the films I saw and look forward to the screenings in Salt Lake City at the downtown Library today from 10 am to 6 pm*. Did I already mention it's free? There we go again, then.



Fish

Dir: Dylan Thies and Danny Dikel

I thought the short stop motion animation film Fish was very well done. Not much can describe this other than a few words: fish cakes, dead trout, swimming dried fish and a blender.


4:20

Dir: Max Margulies and Naoko Masuda

4:20 is everything a stoner could desire. The film is short (:45), uncomplicated and very much to the point. There is an alarm clock, a dedicated herbalist (wearing a very unconvincing/hilarious Rasta wig) and a crappy acrylic piece. Most people this short would appeal to won't make it to the screenings but they would like it if they but remembered to see it.


Uniweria Zekt

Dir: Evan Husney

This was an amazingly intricate little piece of avant garde cinema from Director Husney. The soundtrack is very ethereal and well paced with the film. This is too long for some at 26 minutes, but die hard buffs will really like the trippy imagery and sound effects. Not much dialogue here so leave your narrative anticipation at home.


Cars III

Dir: Bobby Hacker

"Get out your fucking checkbook!" screams the man with the bad mustache as this film explodes in your face. This is a fucking hilarious movie from start to finish based on the successful Cars viral shorts (watch here). This is easily one of the funniest films I've seen out of all three festivals that I have attended. Kudos to Hacker and crew for pulling off a low-budget masterpiece with twisted and convoluted interdimensional ramblings. Run time: 27 mins.



Tromadance is a vital part of the alternative movie scene and SLUG is proud to be a sponsor. Kaufman mentioned to me that without groups like SLUG he wouldn't be able to bring true, "Reel independence" as he describes it, to the people who need it the most. Go get mystified at the current edge of indie cinema at the events listed on the Tromadance site and see some films for free. There's no better offer than that.




*Also these films will playing in Park City at the Sidecar from 11 am to 5 pm to be followed by a Troma panel discussion on Friday night. Ask at each of these events how to attend the Troma final party up at the Sidecar Friday night, if you're interested.



posted by jp

Hori Smoku Sailor Jerry

I screened this at X-Dance

Location at the Sailor Jerry Website or

its original location at SLUGmag.com

Dir: Erich Weiss


"Stewed, Screwed and Tattooed" was a mantra Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins seemed to live by as we see in this very interesting peek into the life of one of the old school flash progenitors. As the supposed creator of purple ink, among many other innovations in the world of tattoo, Jerry is still respected as "one of the firsts." This film was very informative for your average non-tattoo expert. Many a tattooed lady and gent were sitting in the theater and they all seemed to really enjoy the pic as well (I won't name drop but a veritable "who's who" in the world of local tattoo shops were sitting in the X-Dance screening).

The film had a very colorful host of characters who recreated Sailor Jerry's life through their anecdotes as Burnsian-style images of the early days of tattoo played across.
"Crazy" Philadelphia Eddy Funk spoke very colorfully on the subject as did Zeke Owen, Lyle Tuttle, and Mike Malone among others. They all sat as sage living history examples of the old style and the harder working version of what they derided as the newer school "black t-shirt kids" in these more modern days of socially accepted body art. The old cat's tattoos are myriad and all seem to run into each other. Ed Hardy, one of Jerry's most well-known prodigies, had plenty to say on the subject of "Old Ironsides" as well. His tattoos were looking very legit and still classy after all this time, however.

If you need an easily consumed bit of tattoo history and a look at how World Wars influenced the influx of the art in Hawaii and then worldwide, search no further. Look for this in a theater soon, or on DVD this year.

There are no further screenings of this film.


by JP

The Road to Fallujah


Dir: Mark Manning


Director Manning dives deep into the maelstrom of controversy over one of the most famous of the Iraq War's battles in this informative documentary. Manning, a former underwater construction worker on off-shore oil rigs, states at the beginning of the doc that he couldn't support the war via his job, so he quit, picked up a camera and went traveling the world looking for a solution. Manning snuck into Fallujah, unembedded, to catch what the mainstream press wasn't picking up.

The doc shows footage I've never seen from the war before: severed limbs of children, people with half of their head blown off, and thousands of broken homes. As the documentary rightly portrays, humanizing the Iraqi populace would be a mistake the war machine would not enjoy. Certain footage was not shown the US populace during the siege of Fallujah and it gets full coverage in this film. Perhaps the most tragic of the footage shows the inside of the general hospital in Fallujah: broken glass and equipment littering the floor in a mockery of good medicine. An Iraqi interviewed in the hospital said that even the lightly wounded brought for help would die after a time. The supplies and staff were simply not there.

Manning took his quest beyond just Iraq and uses effective graphics and quotes to show the failings of the past administration in it's dealings with Fallujah, and the war in general. It is an effective piece and one I highly recommend: the best doc of Slamdance so far. And it was made by an average guy with a conscience who took a night class in documentary film.


5 out of 5*

No more screenings are available for this film.


by JP

I Sell the Dead

Slamdance

Dir: Glenn McQuaid


Ron Perlman (Hellboy) and Dominic Monaghan (Lost, Lord of the Rings) star in this nicely orchestrated little indie comedic thriller. The concept is deceptively simple, perhaps one of the reasons why it is so fun and easily enjoyed: two grave robbers are in prison upon trial for murders they claim they didn't commit. The film begins in Arthur Blake's (Monaghan in a spectacular non-Hobbit role) cell and spins backward in a series of revelatory flashbacks as he converses with a priest (Ron Perlman in a decidedly non-red demon role).


The gents on trial are just your average 18th century blokes who rob the dead, until the dead start wanting more than rest. Vampires and zombies begin to attack them from their coffins and the robber's business picks up in the black market for the living dead's supposed secrets to eternal life. But their good business plan begins to run afoul of the wrong crowd when they start poaching on another gang's undead turf. Perlman does a great job as a holy man, with a twist, and doesn't slaughter the accent too much. Monaghan is fully legit, of course, and his spot-on brogue is exactly what saves the others from bad-accent land (in between Jersey and Philly, if you were wondering).


I'd say this is one of the better creature features that I've seen, mainly due to the starpower and chops the leads bring, and I wouldn't be surprised if it did very well in the cult movie scene. There's still time to catch it at Slamdance though, and I would if I were you.

4 out of 5 *

Next Screening
1:00 PM Wed, Jan 21

plays with...

A Little Mouth to Feed
| Jack Daniel Stanley 2008

Unwanted Witness

Slamdance Film Festival 2009

Director: Juan Jose Lozano

Hollman Morris is a tragic figure as we can see in this well-crafted and informative piece. The man constantly endures death threats as a journalist in the embattled Latin American country of Colombia. The tension and strain on his personal life and family are starkly portrayed as he goes into the field battling silence from the government and threats from the guerilla groups of FARC and ELN. Even surrounded by awards for international journalism in his office––and during a prestigious Latin American award ceremony given for fearless journalism––his haggard expression is that of a off-road-weary man, weathered by conscience and duty.

His TV program, Contravia, has been pushed to a midnight time slot, in favor of more entertaining programs reporting on celebrities. He says it is a subtle form of censorship. The film also observes the journalist's journalist during his constant displeasure in the field at the unreported losses coca farmers suffer at the hands of the government of Colombia’s troops. The film is about the War on Drugs, without mentioning much regarding it at all. We can inherently understand this is why Morris suffers and will continue to suffer (perhaps even needing to go into protective exile, as he has before in Spain). Throughout the film he visibly tires under pressure resulting from his disruption of all the groups intent on either cleaning up the coca scourge with no regard to human decency or continuing onward with decades-long guerrilla tactics and trafficking.

Morris must endure the pain of leaving his family in dangerous situations as well. And his apparent obsession with fact finding has put his children into the daily routine of being chaperoned by uzi toting security squads. His wife slowly unravels throughout the duration of the work due to her life of fear and her husband’s workaholic sprees. Ultimately, the audience is left wondering if Morris will take his family into exile once again after a particularly bad death threat is received, or if he will get caught in the wrong place at the worst time and be just another dead Colombian journalist with prizes on his wall.

4 out of 5 *

Next Screening
5:30 PM Wed, Jan 21@ Treasure Mountain Inn - Gallery (PC)
plays with...
Theo by Georgi Banks-Davies 2008

––JP