film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Alton Williams

  • The Pool

    MARA PICTURES RELEASES THE POOL IN THE UNITED KINGDOM JANUARY 2010

    Bottom Line: A deceptively simple, deeply moving gem of a film

    -Chicago Sun-Times

    Mara Pictures, an independent theatrical distribution company, is releasing the Indian-American co-production feature The Pool in cinemas across the United Kingdom on January 31st, 2010.

    The Pool is the story of Venkatesh, a room boy working at a hotel in Goa, who sees from his perch in a mango tree a luxuriant garden and shimmering pool hidden behind a wall. In making whatever efforts he can to better himself, Venkatesh offers his services to the wealthy owner of the home. Not content to simply dream about a different life, Venkatesh is inquisitive about the inhabitants of the home-indeed about the world around him-and his curiosity changes the shape of his future.

    The film is co-written and directed by Chris Smith, who won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance Film Festival in 1999 for American Movie. “I read the story by Randy Russell titled The Pool and it was one of those things that just stood out and stayed with me as we were researching and looking at different projects,” says Smith. “The story was actually set in Iowa – but the more I thought about it, it seemed like it could be adapted to the world I experienced in Panjim, Goa. I had helped shoot a film in Goa several years ago and the whole endeavour had a big impact on me creatively. I thought it would be a great place to come back and film if it ever made sense setting or story wise.”

    The critically acclaimed film stars Indian cinema legend Nana Patekar and Ayesha Mohan as well as two local boys, Venkatesh Chavan and Jhangir Bhadshah, who were selected to play versions of themselves. Lending the story buoyancy is the soundtrack’s judicious use of music recorded in Mumbai’s only remaining analog studio, under the helm of retired Bollywood arranger Kersi Lord. The Pool received the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was selected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York as one of the Best Films of the Year alongside The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, Iron Man and Wall-E.

    “We shot the film for the big screen – shooting on 35mm and choosing to use many wide shots that allow you to take in the rich environment,” elaborates Smith. “I’m thrilled that The Pool is releasing theatrically in the UK. It connects with audiences and I am delighted that they will be able to see it on the big screen. We’ve had extended runs in the US and Canada theatrically and it has been great working with Mara Pictures to bring it to a new theatrical home.”

    ‘It’s hard to think of a more welcome piece of American filmmaking.’

    – Time Out NY

    ‘Uplifting without a drop of sap, the tale of a boy’s obsession with a glittering swimming pool and how it changes four lives offers numerous pleasures and one of the most satisfying and resonant conclusions to be seen in recent cinema.’

    –Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter

    ‘Extraordinary! Sneaks up on you and stays with you long after you’ve left the theater.’

    -Liz Braun, Toronto Sun

    ‘Few have gone as far, or achieved such impressive results, as Chris Smith in The Pool.’

    –Michael Hardy, Boston Globe

    Screening Venues and Dates:

    Cornerhouse, Manchester: January 31st www.cornerhouse.org

    Apollo Cinema with Asia House, London with Director Q&A: February 3rd www.asiahouse.org

    Watermans, London: February 5th-11th www.watermans.org.uk

    Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle: March 4th www.starandshadow.org.uk

    Rich Mix, London: Summer 2010 www.richmix.org.uk

    Additional Screening dates and venues TBA

    For further information please contact:

    Sanam Hasan, Head of Marketing and Public Relations, Mara Pictures

    sanam@marapictures.com

    Roopa Saini, Head of Acquisitions, Mara Pictures

    roopa@marapictures.com

    —
    Sanam Hasan
    Marketing and Public Relations
    Mara Pictures
    www.marapictures.com

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Around…

    Got this bad boy in the post. Hoping to organise a review soon…

    “My name is David Spaltro and I’m an independent filmmaker and producer in NYC. Last year I completed my first feature film “…Around“, starring Rob Evans and Molly Ryman, a labor of love about a young man with a dual life “living” out of Penn and Grand Central Station while going to film school, based on my own personal experiences a few years ago in this city. 21 shooting days, 190 locations all over the city, self-financed and done for $175,000 or 40 credit cards… no, seriously. I may have caused the fiscal crisis.

    Sorry. I’m writing because I’d love to possibly have you review the film. I think, as someone who is an avid lover of film, the story will really hit home. We have a soundtrack comprised of several local NYC buzz bands such as My Teenage Stride, Takka Takka, Black Hollies, and The Diggs as well as an impressive score by Vita Tanga and Grammy winning producer Carlos “Storm” Martinez that we are currently in negotiation to put out as a tie-in soundtrack through Universal.

    We’ve also been getting a lot of positive buzz and reviews (over 70 as of date) as we do the rounds on the festival circuit; a premiere at Tribeca Cinemas, NewFilmmakers NY, Big Apple Film Festival and awaiting selection into various festivals this Spring in the US and abroad. We are currently premiering theatrically on the West Coast at the Idyllwild Int’l Festival of Cinema as a special selection in-competition and are currently available on Amazon On-demand and on Netflix via CRM, a division of John Sloss’s Cinetic Media– real coup as one of the first films to get streaming status on Netflix without first having a proper DVD release.

    So much word of mouth is spreading that we are being approached by distributors about a small theatrical release both abroad and in the states. I think because of the struggle to make the film, the whole DIY approach with no previous experiences or resources, to fund, make, and distribute a feature film in two years and now to see it out there in these rough economic times, what the story stands for would make for an interesting and inspirational piece. Please check out our website www.aroundthefilm.com for more information and a trailer. I thank you kindly for your time and wish you the best in all your endeavors.

    David Spaltro
    www.aroundthefilm.com

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Please, No.

    I hope it’s just a rumour.

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Damien Sage Guest Piece 2 – Shart of Darkness

    Shart Of Darkness: A Maker of Ze Films Journal-Diary
    (aka My [Dr. Professor Uwe Boll’s] Personal Recollections of ze making of my seminal cinematic masterpiece In ze Name of ze King: A Dungeon Siege Tale)

    By Uwe Boll
    (as transcribed by Damien Sage)

    Introduction:
    Hello zer everyone, I am Doctor Professor Uwe Boll, Film Director and OBGYN. You may know me as ze maker of such heralded classics as Far Cry, Postal and BloodRayne III: Warhammer. In honor of my upcoming serious dramatic film about ze horrible genocide in Darfur, titled Darfur, in which I have ze annoying boy from Terminator 2, ze annoying robotic girl from Terminator 3 and Billy Zane star with real refugee and rape victims, re-inacting zer horrible plight… and rapings on ze camera for all to see, I have decided to release my most personal and secret thoughts about ze making of my cinematic film In ze Name of ze King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Zo, please sit back and enjoy my thoughts on ze making of ze cinema films.

    August 15th, 2005:
    I woke up early today… Cold grey sunlight and ze smell of death, decay and sorrow all around me. Ze stench filled my nostrils and chilled me to my very soul… Apparently I had fallen asleep ze night before in ze shallow bin zat I keep ze footage from my previous films in… As I took one last look around my film production studio (a 12 foot by 12 foot, 3 walled, no roofed wooden shack on ze outskirts of Hamburg) I decided I should keep zis feeling of dread and despair zat ze day was shoving at me wrapped up in my icy heart. Zis feeling would be my inspiration and motif for ze next project I was to hence forth surmount…

    August 18th, 2005:
    After tangling myself in ze film reels from Alone in ze Dark and becoming trapped for nearly 3 days, Michael Paré (star of such classics as Eddie and the Cruisers 2 and most of my films), came looking for some money I owed him and freed me from my celluloid bonds… After a brief fist fight and ze promise that I would make a sequel to Streets of Fire for him, I set myself out straight onto ze making of In ze Name of ze King: A Dungeon Siege Tale…

    August 20th, 2005:
    Today was a most good day. I convinced the government of Germany to give me Sixty Million American Dollars to make my film. It was a tough battle as always, but once I told zem zat I would be shooting a half baked, Lord of the Rings knock-off, loosely based on an obscure computer video game no one had ever heard of, with no script or cast yet in place I won zem over easily.

    August 21st, 2005:
    I spent Fifty Nine Million Nine Hundred Ninety Nine Thousand Dollars of my budget on Romanian whores, cheap Brandy, pixy-sticks and hiring Burt Reynolds to be in ze film. Needless to say, today has been quite productive. Ze script is still not written.

    August 22nd, 2005:
    Upon awakening from a diabetic coma I zen proceeded to hire several master thespians to round out ze cast of ze film. First I got ze brilliant, classically trained, Shakespearean Method Actor Matthew Lillard (best known for his turn as Lt. Todd ‘Maniac’ Marshall in Wing Commander: Ze Theatrical Film for Theaters) for a major role. I zen fought long and hard for ze gorgeous and talented Leelee Sobieski (mostly because I just enjoy saying her name, and she was in a movie about glass houses and such) for a huge role, but not as huge as either ze dungeon or ze King. It was a very good day all and all. We still have no script, but I cannot be bothered with such things at zis time, my soaps are on.

    August 24th, 2005:
    Last night at a poker game with Guillermo del Toro I won Three Thousand Dollars, a Calculator Watch and Ron Perlman. Instead of making him be my house slave or something as I had intended, I decided to put him in ze film. Apparently he is an actor of much acclaim and would most likely never work in one of my films had I not won him fair and squarzies. I wouldn’t know though, I don’t watch many movies, in fact I’ve never seen one. I have only seen Ron in Linda Hamilton’s seminal 80’s television series “Beauty and ze Beast” (which I own ze full series of on VHS.)

    August 27th, 2005:
    My associates (Teddy Rumskin and Rainbow Brite) and I have finally nailed down ze remainder of ze cast for ze Dungeon Siege Tale. Zey include: Zat short hairy guy from Ze Living Daylights, Ray Liotta, BloodRayne and a relative unknown named Jason Statham. In a very odd turn, for someone I had never heard of before, Statham demanded that he have practically no lines of dialog and a one word name that will never be spoken in ze film…. Naturally I decided to give him ze lead role… On a side note, I found a crumpled up napkin zat had a coffee stain on it… we vil be using zis as a script until one is written.

    August 28th, 2005:
    I gathered my cast and crew in ze abandoned parking lot behind Denny’s in Dusseldorf to begin shooting ze film.

    November 1st, 2005:
    We shot for nearly two months straight. Ze footage we ver getting vas gorgeous, breathtaking in scope in fact. Ze film was turning out to be ze ultimate meditation on life, death and ze metaphysical realm in between. It vas painstaking work, I was very meticulous. Much like Richard Donner whilest filming of ze Superman: Ze Movie I reminded everyone zat we were making history here, to respect ze material and above all else to keep verisimilitude in zere hearts. I believe zat everyone did as I told zem as all shooting went smoothly. We only had one rough patch and zat was when Burt Reynolds suddenly realized zat he went from starring in Deliverence to zis and tried to commit hari-kari with a styrofoam prop sword. I prevented zis naturally with my cool wit, quick tongue and all encompassing maniless and we proceeded with shooting as planned…. It wasn’t until I had sent everyone home zat I realized zat I left the lens cap on ze camera throughout all of ze shooting…. We still had no script….

    Three Hours Later:
    I called everyone back and shot ze entire film over in a gas station bathroom by ze highway.

    One Hour Later:
    Having performed all post production work on ze film myself I zen dug a hole in ze backyard, threw the complete film into it unprotected and covered it with a thin layer of peat moss. Zer I shall let In ze Name of ze King ferment for three years as I do all of my films, before I unleash it to my adoring public.

    January 11th, 2008:
    Ze film has been released to much acclaim and celebration. Zer is talk zat it may even sweep zis years Oscars Awards. I have already begun plans for a sequel which will bring back all of ze original cast, even those whose characters died and pit zem against the ze salty sea captain from House of ze Dead and ze creatures from Dig-Dug. We don’t have a script yet, but I shall move forward anyways.

    Epilogue:
    I vil never forget my time makings ze film In ze Name of ze King: A Dungeon Siege Tale… It was a harrowing ordeal for me, many lives were lost. I found love and happiness… and also trolled ze greatest depths of sorrow and pain my life had ever known. Ze final film is my ultimate masterpiece and I must find someway of dealing with zat and moving on. To find new and bigger goals for myself. Perhaps I will finally surmount a cinematic adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story Zombie Massacre… Perhaps I vil finally get to work with Luke Perry and Lauren Holly… Who can say?

    In ze Name of ze King was but a sliver of time in the grand scheme of things… a shart if you will… like a small shart of glass, broken in time, forever glimmering in ze moment of it’s creation…. But for me… it will always be a shart of darkness….

    Sincerely Wit Love,
    Uwe

    © BRWC 2010.

  • Damien Sage Guest Piece 1 – Megaforce

    We have a treat for you here at BRWC. Damien Sage, director of this film has kindly typed this ode to a lesser known classic. More to come from Damien real soon.


    Megaforce
    A Film by Hal Needham
    A Review by Damien Sage

    As not only a filmmaker, but a film fan, I love a good movie, a classic movie if you will. But does a movie have to be good for it to be a classic? (We all know the answer to this question, a resounding ‘no’, but hear me out, if you will.)


    Once Upon A Time In The West is my favorite film, it has an epic and organic beauty, unique cinematic language, operatic story, brilliantly crafted characters and an equally grandiose score. Once Upon A Time In The West is pure technicolor, cinematic bliss, that should be studied and loved for ages. It is what you would call a “good, classic film.”

    There are of course many other great films that I love. Well made, well written, well acted and just generally great films are awesome to watch. But, the fact of the matter is, there are more bad films than there are good ones. There are more utterly stupid films than there are intelligent ones. For every “Nightmare On Elm Street”, “Seven Samurai”, or “Wrath Of Kahn” there are a dozen films like “Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer”, “Year One” or anything by Michael Bay.

    Now here comes the tricky part. Sometimes there is a bad film, or a dumb film, that is SO bad or SO dumb that it becomes good, or even great. Sometimes the wealth of awfulness to be had in this one film is enough to make it become a “classic film” or a “cult classic”, if you prefer. MOST cult classics are knowingly bad. The films tongues are clamped firmly in their cheeks and being played for over the toppness by both the people in front of and behind the camera. Sometimes this isn’t the case, say with “Mommie Dearest.” But for the most part, films that become cult classics revel in their cheesy goodness and are paid back for it in spades (after many years of failure and degradation.)

    And that brings me to the subject of this review, the seminal cinematic masterpiece of 1982, Megaforce. The film is directed by famed auteur Hal Needham, of “Smokey And The Bandit” and “Cannibal Run” acclaim. The film stars Barry Bostwick of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Michael “Xanadu” Beck, Persis Khambatta aka “that bald chick from Star Trek The Motion Picture”, Edward Mulhare of Knight Rider fame AND Henry Silva, aka every bad guy from EVERY movie in the 80’s.

    The plot of the film really isn’t worth mentioning, as I’ve watched the movie about 20 times and can’t say for sure what it is. I will tell you that it involves a group of attractive, manly men, who like to wear skin tight silver jumpsuits and ride armored dirt bikes. They all also have lovely feathered hair and an abundance of brotherly love and respect for one another. OH and they are all members of an elite, world funded, top secret, pseudo-military fighting team, called Megaforce.

    The Megaforce is called into situations when other people just can’t get the job done or national politics wont allow action to be taken. And that is what they do in this film. Some small, insignificant, third world republic (the fictional nation of Gamibia) is threatened by a villain and Megaforce is sent in to kick pseudo-commie ass. All with hair flying and rockets blazing of course. There are a few twists thrown at them along the way, such as being forced to have a woman join their team. Despite this woman being a navy seal or something, they do thoroughly humiliate and test her to her limits (which she passes with flying colors) before they then…. don’t let her come on the mission. Oh, and the bad guy used to be the leader of Megaforce’s (Captain Ace Hunter) roommate.

    You see? I just can’t spell out in clear terms just what the movie is about, there’s a lot of stuff going on, most of it unimportant. But this movie doesn’t need a plot, it knows what you want and gives it to you by the spandex suit full. It throws cheesy special effects, hammy acting, missile firing dirtbikes, rampant misogyny and cornball dialog out a pace so dizzying even Dario Argento wouldn’t be able to keep up!

    And Megaforce never lets it’s whacked out badness go soft either; from it’s written AND narrated opening screen, to its blooper filled, Ace Frehley scored end titles, Megaforce is packed to the rafters with so much cheddar you’ll need a quadruple bypass once done with it.
    Once Upon A Time In The West may be my favorite good film, but Megaforce is my favorite bad film. If you’re a fan of dumb 80’s action films, the original G.I. Joe cartoon show… or if you’re a gay nerd, Megaforce will be like candy to you. But really, all this brings to mind is the Megaforce credo:
    “Deeds, not words.”

    Megaforce the film certainly throws enough weird and retarded cinematic deeds onto the screen, that my words truly cannot do it justice.

    Hunt down a VHS of it NOW. Pop it in, then sit back, send your brain away and let the campy, over the top, surreality of Megaforce wrap you up in shimmering silver spandex.

    Megaforce, a film by Hal Needham – 10 out of 10 pastel blue headbands.

    © BRWC 2010.