Inspired by an actual event in which fish and birds inexplicably turned up dead in mass quantities, the movie takes place in Claridge, Md., as the Chesapeake Bay celebrates Independence Day in 2009. Much of the footage we see comes courtesy of TV news intern Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue, Pitch Perfect) via a WikiLeaks-esque site, […]
vod
Posted inArts & Culture
Brooklyn Castle
The feature debut of director Katie Dellamaggiore, the documentary is now available on demand from FilmBuff. While this institution holds more championship chess titles than any other middle school in the nation (26), the film opens with them experiencing loss — well, second place, at least, among 862 teams. They win so often that not […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beauty Day
It debuts on demand Feb. 12 from FilmBuff. As Beauty Day informs us, Zavadil was a man before his time as cable-TV personality Cap’n Video, a David Lee Roth-looking, Jackass-style camcorder prankster who was doing his thing in the mid-1990s, before Johnny Knoxville and the gang even dreamt of getting paid to puke. Director Jay […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Paul Williams: Still Alive
Both documentaries deal with a musician wrongly presumed to be dead; the difference here is that the love comes straight from the director, Stephen Kessler (Vegas Vacation), whose impetus for the project is purely, deeply personal. With all the extra layers removed, I began to feel it, too; his adoration for his subject is infectious. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis
While undeniably watchable, the project is a pure puff piece. After all, it counts Lewis among its producers, so no way he’s getting treated with anything with less than kid gloves. Anything in his life that might be considered a boat rocker is absent: divorce, bankruptcy, Hardly Working, The Day the Clown Cried, etc. I […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Americano
Jetting to Los Angeles where she lived — and where he grew up for a few years until his father took him back to France, and where he hasn’t visited for five years — Martin plans on a quick trip to sign paperwork and put her condominium on the market. He doesn’t count on his […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Ostensibly, the film’s plot — wait, perhaps I should put that word in quotation marks, and then quotation marks around that set of quotation marks just to be safe. Yeah, I’ll do that. Let’s start over. Ostensibly, the film’s ““plot”” centers on Elena (Eva Allan, TV’s Caprica), a young woman trying to escape the labyrinthian […]
Posted inArts & Culture
5 Films by Dario Argento
2008 As it should, the blood flows bright red in the Italian giallo movies that comprise Anchor Bay’s box set “5 Films by Dario Argento.” Known for his stylish eye behind the camera —? not to mention the oft-traumatized eyes in front of the camera —? Argento is one of the few directors worthy of […]