Josh Johnson’s documentary chronicles the VHS format from birth to death, and those for whom the words on its “Be Kind Rewind” sticker remain a way of life. In 94 minutes, he covers a ton of ground: the Beta vs. VHS showdown, the porn explosion (pun intended), the dawn of sell-through tapes, the lost art […]
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Die, Monster, Die!
That would be a sinister, humming force that can turn people — Witley’s wife included — into hideous mutant freaks. The special effects are not so special until you get a glimpse of the giant octopus or, better yet, when Witley turns into some sort of glowing metal man. (Again, don’t ask why — this […]
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Freestyle flow
Vahid Farzaneh However, none of this would have come to pass if not for a class taken on a whim at the University of Oklahoma. “I initially wasn’t interested in filmmaking at all,” said Freestyle Productions owner Vahid Farzaneh. “I was kind of drifting around. I took an intro to film class for the credit […]
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Break point
Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore — the married couple behind Denver indie pop act Tennis — didn’t expect much to come of the humble band the two formed after a seven-month sailing trip; they expected nothing, to be precise. “When we were starting out, we didn’t have any plans or ambition to turn this into […]
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Willis — The Understanding
From the opening R&B samples and powerful horn section that triumphantly blasts the arrival of a new hero on the scene, Willis’ The Understanding perfectly captures the inner-city swagger of a blaxploitation movie icon. Strutting through these dirty streets like he is God almighty, Willis unashamedly kicks the doors in and sits at the head of […]
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Bottoms up
Photo: Mark Jaworski Things are definitely looking more up than down and out for The Front Bottoms. The indie punk act spent more than a few tours playing hole-in-the-walls and sleeping on floors but it now finds itself selling out sizable clubs and getting pegged to open up for well-known bands like Brand New, which […]
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Killer tunes
Photo: Ben Aqua Sam Chown, best known as one-half of the Texas experimental psych duo Zorch, constantly has music rattling around in his brain. It forced him to form his latest outfit, Shmu, a shoegazing R&B trio, to get all the sounds he has been collecting out into the open for public consumption. “This is […]
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We Are What We Are
From Stake Land director Jim Mickle, this American do-over finds its fever in a religious fervor, with scripture-quoting sourpuss Frank Parker (Bill Sage, Precious) mourning the accidental death of his wife. That tragedy leaves their eldest daughter, Iris (Ambyr Childers, The Master), in the unenviable position of assuming the family duty of … let’s just […]
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Badges of Fury
OK, so that’s not really a joke. It is the setup for Badges of Fury, an Asian film that is a joke. Investigating this string of so-called “Smile Murders” are two police detectives: the grizzled old pro (Jet Li, The Expendables 2) and the young renegade (Zhang Wen, The Guillotines). Having Li in a film used to be a surefire […]
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A Single Shot
Shot‘s sights are set on John (Sam Rockwell), a dirt-poor hunter who mistakes a young woman for a deer — not necessarily a negative except that a trigger was involved and John’s aim is true. When he tends to her dead body, he finds a lot of cash next to her and assumes it won’t be missed. […]