“TONY MANERO”

By Jason Guerrasio

Set during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship in Chile during the 1970s, director Pablo Larrain mixes social commentary and the love for cinema to create a horrific (and darkly humors) tale with a tour-de-force performance by lead actor Alfredo Castro.

We meet Raul (Castro) as he shows up to a popular talent show prepared to take the crown as the Chilean Tony Manero. Yes, John Travolta’s legendary character from Saturday Night Fever. Unfortunately for Raul he shows up on the wrong week (they’re currently finding the Chilean Chuck Norris). A small man with little to say, we almost feel sorry for Raul and his quest. Once he realizes it’s the wrong week he rushes back to the movie theater to study Travolta’s moves. Even repeating his lines in English.

But quickly Larrain forces us to change our perspective of Raul as he goes on a string of murders… Read the rest

“STAGECOACH”

By Jason Guerrasio

Legend has it when John Ford read the short story that would be the inspiration behind his first Western with sound, he immediately took it to his boss David O. Selznick, who, just as quickly as it was pitched to him, tossed it aside as a forgettable picture.

Lucky for us, Ford didn’t move on. He dug into his own pocket, made the film himself (and later sold it to United Artists), packed up the production and went out to Utah’s picturesque Monument Valley (which would be the site for many of his Westerns to come) — far from the prying eyes of the studio exes  — and brought along a young actor known at the time for his B-movie work to be his star, John Wayne.

Still as exciting and enjoyable to watch today as it was when it was released to high critical praise in 1939, Stagecoach… Read the rest

POSSIBLE FILMS, VOL. 2

By Jason Guerrasio

In 2004 Hal Hartley released a series of shorts he made from 1994-2000. Titled Possible Films, which is also the name of his web site where he sells his films and music, Hartley has compiled a second anthology that highlights his time living in Berlin, Possible Films, Volume 2. (He recently moved back to New York.)

The five shorts are similar in style (shot on DV) with many of them shot in the same apartment, vary from fiction to non, and were all made within a few years of each other. Exploring small ideas that couldn’t be fleshed out in feature form, Hartley creates intimate works that are honest and feel like they’re done by an artist doing it for the love of the craft, not looking for a quick buck. But would we think anything less from Hartley?

A/Muse (2009) -  We follow an… Read the rest

“PRESSURE COOKER”

By Jason Guerrasio

Gaining attention on the regional fest circuit after premiering at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2008 (followed by a small theatrical release), Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker’s look at a strong-willed culinary arts teacher in Philadelphia as she molds her students through a school year is both uplifting and a love letter to elective classes in high school that are quickly disappearing.

Wilma Stephenson, teaching for close to 40 years by the time the filmmakers shoot her class at Frankford High School, is known through Philly as teaching with an iron fist. The first day of class, she announces to her kids that most of them won’t be around by the end. She screams, she gets in your face, but aren’t those the teachers we remember the most and made the biggest impression on us?

As the school year goes on, the students quickly realize that… Read the rest

“THE MISSING PERSON”

By Jason Guerrasio

It’s hard to go head first into film noir and not regurgitate the themes, styles, dialogue and characters from the past. But Noah Buschel in his latest cleverly dances around the genre to tell a story of a man who’s hit rock bottom and how he unknowingly redeems himself.

Set in the modern day, Michael Shannon gives one of his best performances in a budding career as a gifted character actor with his portrayal as sauced Chicago private eye John Rosow. When we meet Rosow he’s extremely hung over and gets a call to do a job tailing a guy with little information on why but for a lot of money. Given instructions by the attractive Miss Charley (Amy Ryan), Rosow is onboard a train to L.A. As his job continues he begins to learn more on why the guy he’s following is so important and why… Read the rest

“AFGHAN STAR”

By Jason Guerrasio

If you thought you were crazy about American Idol, imagine if you grew up in an area of the world where singing and dancing were forbidden. Well, that’s what director Havana Marking highlights in her moving documentary which follows four contestants competing in the wildly popular TV show Afghan Star.

Since 1995 the Taliban have made it illegal to sing or dance in Afghanistan. But recently with the Taliban fleeing the country a freedom of expression has surfaced that’s unlike anything the country has seen in a brutal, war-torn 30 years. Starting in 2005 the TV network, Tolo TV, in Kabul capitalized on this liberation by creating the singing contest Afghan Star, which, like American Idol, travels the country searching for the best singers and then eliminates them until they get down to one. But unlike Idol the fandom over the singers is Beatlesesque, leading to the… Read the rest

“FANTASTIC MR. FOX”

By Jason Guerrasio

Not often does a director with an indie pedigree seamlessly segue into subject matter like… children’s literature.

But in many ways Wes Anderson has been training for the moment to use his hyper-stylized, extremely detailed storytelling to make a film like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Based on the Roald Dohl classic, Anderson (and co-writer, Noah Baumbach) use the book’s premise of a sly fox who outwits his farmer neighbors to steal their food to create a film that dazzles children and adults alike with it’s Andersonesque storytelling and stop-motion animation.

When we meet Fox — voiced by George Clooney with motormouth charm (similar to his character Everett in O, Brother Where Art Thou?) — his life is about to change as he learns he’s going to become a father and swears to his wife (Meryl Streep) that he will give up robbing chickens from coops and other dangerous stunts,… Read the rest

“BIGGER THAN LIFE”

By Jason Guerrasio

A maverick of the 1950s Hollywood system, with Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without a Cause already under his belt earlier in the decade, Nicholas Ray’s melodrama Bigger Than Life was perhaps his most structured work when it came out in 1956. Starring James Mason (who also produced) in a uncharacteristic — yet riveting — role, the film was virtually ignored by audiences when it opened, but with its look at American suburbia during the nuclear-era (and a precursor for highlighting the abuse of prescription drugs) it has since become a popular title of critics and cineastes alike.

The film opens with teacher Ed Avery (Mason) finishing up his last day of the school year before running off to work as a taxi dispatcher. Too proud to tell his wife what he’s doing, he’s also hiding debilitating chest pains. Finally overcome by the pain, he’s rushed to the… Read the rest

“FIX”

By Jason Guerrasio

If you’re craving the look and feel of an indie from the ’90s then Tao Ruspoli’s debut feature Fix may be the disc you’ll want to pop in.

Chronicling a wild one day journey around Greater Los Angeles, we follow Bella (Olivia Wilde) and Milo (Ruspoli) as they shoot a documentary on Milo’s brother, Leo (Shawn Andrews), who they pick him up from jail and attempt to drop off at rehab before 8pm. The catch: they have to raise the $5,000 needed to get Leo in the clinic or it’s back to jail.

With an impressive soundtrack leading the way, we follow the three as they steal cars, dog, expresso machine and anything else they can find to pawn off (oh, and they sell some weed).

Shot in a first-person, handheld style, with fast-paced editing, it’s part road trip movie part gritty faux-doc. Certainly not the most… Read the rest

“THE STONING OF SORAYA M.”

By Jason Guerrasio

This powerful adaptation of a 1994 book by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam of the same title exposes the inhuman practice of stoning women accused of adultery, which supposedly continues to this day.

Jim Caviezel stars as Sahebjam, who after his car breaks down is towed to a small Iranian village where he’s approached by Soraya’s aunt (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who reveals to him the village’s dark secret. The film then is told in a flashback as we follow Soraya (Mozhan Marno) as she attempts to provide for her two sons and two daughters though she receives no support from her husband, who spends most of his time away from them with another woman.

When she won’t give him a divorce, Soraya is offered to work for a neighbor who recently lost his wife in the hopes she’ll earn enough money to provide for her children after a divorce.… Read the rest