Clone Hunter is the perfect curiosity piece. It's reasonably well-written and adequately performed, and yet it's not really a good movie in the sense that it never really engages the audience with the characters or story, because the film's making-of story is on the screen at all times. Made for must what have been a pittance in garages and homes using green screen and other computer effects, it's the first homemade example of the "digital backlot" technique that Sky Captain and Sin City used. The result, given the extreme limitations at hand, looks like a lost 1997 CD-ROM game, but it's a pretty impressive achievement that director Andrew Bellware and his team of actors managed to piece the whole thing together.

The plot is a slightly incomprehensible mash that uses five parts Blade Runner and a handful of other random sci-fi tropes, in which two bounty hunters, Ca...Read the entire review

The Film:

When a movie is slow and bad, it's boring. When a movie is slow and good, it's deliberately paced. "El Camino" is deliberately paced.

The film, directed by Erik S. Weigel (making his feature debut) and written by Weigel and Salvatore Interlandi, is about as pure as a road movie can get - characters engage in minimal dialogue, as if their shared journey of self-discovery owes more to the passing landscapes than to the time spent with each other. Weigel puts everything to a rhythm that's restrained, almost meditative. It's a tempo that threatens to push things toward boring, but there's enough confidence in the film's quiet tone and enough energy in the performances to push right back.

The road trip involves three young strangers connected when a mutual friend, Matthew, dies of cancer. Elliot (Leo Fitzpatrick) knew him growing up, when they shared a foster family. Lily (Elisabeth Moss) is a...Read the entire review

THE FILM

While viewing the French chiller "Fissures," the 2000 time-warping thriller "Frequency" sprung immediatley to mind as its Hollywood counterpart. Both films use fantastical means to explore the murder mystery genre; they head to the edge of complete and utter lunacy with outlandish plot developments, only to shoot the tube of absurdity with the grace of a pro surfer. Certainly it takes a few mouthfuls of suspension-of-disbelief pills to settle in with the peculiar mood of "Fissures," but it doesn't take long for the sheer invention of the filmmaking to seep through the sludgy illusion, making for a perceptive, engaging thriller.

Reeling from the murder of her estranged mother, Charlotte (Emilie Dequenne, "Rosetta") has returned to her family home to sor...Read the entire review

THE FILM

For some, fantasy is a place to go when the real world is too much to stomach. It's a temporary portal to other worlds where identity can be rebuilt and victory is within reach. For others, fantasy is a requirement; a critical linchpin that removes real-world consequences and demands, and allows insular behavior to grow unchallenged by outsiders. There's a home for these people, and it's called LARP (live action role-playing).

"Monster Camp" is a documentary taking a look at the Seattle NERO (New England Role-Playing Organization) outfit and their struggle to put on a show during the cold winter months of 2006. For these individuals, NERO represents the great release of pent up frustrations, a chance to fly their geek flag proudly, and offers a few of the participants a comfortable place to meet like-minded souls who also enjoy dressing up in homemade costumes, strapping...Read the entire review

THE FILM

"Slippery Slope" recalls Trey Parker's 1998 farce "Orgazmo," only without the comedic vigor and frat house entertainment value. Instead, "Slope" is a wacky comedy with a foundation in intellect, asking interesting questions of feminism between scenes of thrusting and Benny Hill-style undercranking (no joke, it's really in here). The mix is uncomfortable, but not completely unpleasant.

Gillian (Kelly Hutchinson, "Catch Me If You Can") is a gender idealist, hoping to expose the evils of the world in her documentary film, "Feminism for Dummies." When the doc is accepted at Cannes, she's floored to find $50,000 in lab fees just to reclaim her one and only print. Convinced by a smut peddler (Laila Robbins) to helm a series of sophisticated porn parodies, Gillian reluctantly accepts the offer, forced to hide the work from her conservative husband (Jim True-Frost, "Singles"). Wh...Read the entire review

The Movie

Crystal River is the sort of deadly earnest, ham-handed tripe that regularly clogs up the Lifetime channel or WE or Oxygen or whatever other gyno-centric cable offering you'd care to name. It's not particularly well acted, blazingly original or even remotely compelling, but those who have an affinity for well-intentioned indie films (and an iron will) may find something redeeming amid all this overblown mess.

Starring Sean Patrick Flannery (just when you think you can't fall any further ...) and Emily Carpenter (whose only other credit is another indie film, 1999's Southern Heart ; she penned this gem herself), Crystal River is a down-home slice of life story that follows Davie Nance (Carpenter), a woman reeling from a recent miscarriage. Faced with that reality, she turns away from her husband Paul (Robert Pralgo) and toward to her neighbor, Cla...Read the entire review

The Movie:

If you've ever daydreamed about what you would do if you won a million bucks in the lottery -- and, really, who of us hasn't entertained that notion? -- Millions: A Lottery Story can be instructive. Documentary maker Paul La Blanc catches up with a handful of past lottery winners and spends time with them to see if sudden wealth transformed their lives into the stuff of fantasy.

As it turns out, the answer is: Not so much. Two lotto winners eventually blew through their bonanza, while others surveyed in the doc are barely dipping into their bounty at all. But Millions doesn't come with an agenda. La Blanc does not reach for any grand statements about state-sanctioned gambling or get-rich-quick mindsets. His aim is more modest and inviting. He just wants to get to know some folks who happened to have Lady Luck on their side -- at least once in thei...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I admire anyone who can create something out of nothing.

Truer words are rarely spoken within a film than in this case. Fear House looks like it was made for next to nothing, yet its script and a creepy performance by its lead - Aleece Jones - help elevate this film into something that at least passes the time entertainingly for fans of fright house ghost flicks.

After an introductory scene - mixed in with the movie's credits - where two horny kids are dispatched within an old house in the middle of nowhere, Fear House begins with successful horror novelist Samantha Ballard (played by the aforementioned Aleece Jones) purchasing said house from an elderly agent. She views it as a great place to write her next book.

Nine months pass by and no one hears from her - or the agent for that matter. Thus, one night, Samantha's hemophiliac brother and ...Read the entire review

The Film:

A meditative journey in the frozen lands of Mongolia Khadak bets on complicated symbolism and impeccable camerawork to tell a story with characters often impossible to deconstruct. Ambient soundtrack and prominent role for silence blend well with pic's moody tone and are surely going to impress those with a special appreciation for the work of Gus Van Sant.

Bagi (Batzul Khayankhyarvaa) is a young shepherd with a special gift - when he goes into catatonic fits his ancestors speak through him. He also sees, hears, and communicates with spirits ordinary people fear. When a local shaman (Tserendarizav Dashnyam) is summoned to enter Bagi's mystical world and guide him through the perils of the unknown the young man nearly dies. Shortly after the communist authorities order Bagi and his family to abandon their livestock and move to the city.

KhadakRead the entire review

The Film

A weekend in the country irrevocably alters the lives of four middle-class Londoners in this charming sex comedy by first-time director David Scheinmann. Using methods reminiscent of the films of Mike Leigh, the skeletal storyline written by co-stars Danny Scheinmann and Sarah Sutcliffe is given flesh through the improvisation of the small ensemble. There are no scripted laughs, but plenty of cause for grins during the film's 92 minutes.

Kath (Sarah Sutcliffe), desperate for sex after a six-month dry spell, invites Jamie (Danny Scheinmann), an everyman who never wins, for a getaway to a friend's empty weekend home in West Wittering. To make her romantic plans appear less contrived, she invites along her best friend Natasha (Rebecca Cardinale) and Natasha's boyfriend Greg (David Annen). Things begin to go awry when Natasha, having discovered signs ...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE:

Kim Ki-Duk's films have made me squirm before, but never in the very first scene. His latest North American release, Time, opens with some rather gruesome footage of a plastic surgery operation that is not for the faint of heart. If, like me, you hit the "next channel" button as fast as you can whenever you see that E! is showing an episode of "Dr. 90210," be prepared.

You'll be okay after that, though. Ki-Duk gets it all out of his system in one go. The rest of Time is less visceral, making it a bit of a departure for the Korean filmmaker as far as his non-spiritual pictures are concerned. The writer/director spends the movie ducking and weaving around our expectations. This can make Time a little slippery at times, but it never f...Read the entire review

I could count the number of times I've been fishing on one hand, but that didn't stop me from enjoying Trout Grass (2007), a short documentary about bamboo and its contributions to the sport...or hobby...or just a way to catch dinner. Directed by Ed George and Andy Royer, this 48-minute film drifts along two continents, providing a short history of the plant and its many uses...including as a fishing rod, a practice in effect for well over a century. Written and warmly narrated by fly fishing enthusiast David James Duncan, Trout Grass takes a down-to-earth look at a most unique corner of the bait-and-tackle industry.

Collected on the mountains of southern China and carried down in carts a half-ton at a time, the bamboo in question is carefully stripped and inspected for quality and overall stren...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Every so often a film comes along that turns out to be better than you can possibly imagine. "Shaking Dream Land," a film I knew nil about, qualifies as one of those films.

The dramatic story begins with a man named Robert (Philip Winchester) marrying a gorgeous woman named Alice (Cloudia Swann). At first, their marriage is heavenly. When Alice becomes pregnant, the dung hits the fan. Suddenly, Robert's past of being abused as a child begins to haunt him and threaten his marriage. Will Robert be able to pull himself together and salvage his relationship with his wife?

Had Philip Winchester not been cast, I am not entirely positive the film would work. Winchester dives into the role without reservation and brings the script to life. His descent into a tortured soul is so real that it grabs the viewer and drags them down the dark path along with his character. Your stomach may ...Read the entire review

Warning - this review is written from the perspective that the new documentary American Cannibal is actually a work of fiction. There is much controversy surrounding the artistic "aesthetic" used to realize this film, a debate that the directors purposefully propagate in interviews and press releases. This critic suggests that, after reading the review, you Google the movie and the various reactions to it to gain a wider, and more informed perspective.

The Product:
For those of us burned by all the Blair Witch hoopla, a moldy old proverb definitely applies. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice...and we'll cut out your throat - or something like that. That goes for all mock documentaries that hope to hoodwink us into thinking terrible events transpired in front of a conveniently available camera. Even worse is the post-production sham, which uses the naïve nature ...Read the entire review

Shot in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, Last Seen At Angkor is an indie, shoestring budget film by writer, director, actor, and no doubt grip, soundman, caterer, etc Michael Morris. It is a pretty conventional exotic locale, missing person, mystery film. Morris stars as Jeremy Oden, a haunted man who four years prior lost his fiancee, Kate, when she disappeared during a trip to Cambodia. Because of the way she vanished, he naturally suspects foul play. The police were of little help, so he now travels back to the area every year and tries to gather leads into what happened.

On this particular trip, Oden gets help from inside man Lo Jin (Wee Hong Thomas), who claims that he can help track Kate and that there is the possibility she was abducted by a crime organization and sold into white slavery. This means that Oden is kept at an arms length, told he cannot meet with the informants or tag along ...Read the entire review

If you could design a robotic impression of mankind, would you alter, degrade, or just flat-out copy yourself? That's the compelling issue in James Bai's Puzzlehead, a slick sci-fi drama revolving around one man's desire for a technological mirror of himself. It's a difficult, dark film without much heart at the core, but Puzzlehead undoubtedly serves up a harsh, fuming portrait of the power struggle between mankind, his creation, and the controlling exchange between the two.


The Film:

Our story starts with a gruff, narrative overview of our scientist's history as we pan over the lifeless body and surrounding tools used for his assembly. Walter (Stephen Galaida) has done something bordering on the scientifically inane. He has taken his own idealistic self and molded a cybertronic replication, from head to toe. It takes some effort to craft his "Puzzlehead...Read the entire review

THE FILM

The softball term to describe a film like "Things to Do" would be "navel-gazing." It's the go-to description for twenty-something cinema. Perhaps the "Garden States" of the world have done their best to turn the natural progression of youthful self-doubt into a cultural off ramp, but "Things to Do" is a gem. A Canadian gem. So it's maple-flavored and generous to a fault.

Adam (Mike Stasko) has moved back to his suburban childhood home to settle his mind. A traumatic blow was dealt to him in the cubical world and he wants out. Now back with his parents, Mike stumbles across Mac (Daniel Wilson), a slightly loony man-child with a profound hunger for adventure. Facing a life crisis, Adam makes a "to do" list for his life, counting on Mac to help he accomplish his elaborate goals. The two set off to enhance their lives, but for Adam, it means confronting his hidden pain.

"Thing...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Goofing off as a defense mechanism

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Good indie movies, quirky comedies
Likes: Canada
Dislikes: Copycats
Hates: Films that linger

The Movie
When a film critic references another film in the course of a review,it's normally for one of two reasons. Either the film is extremelysimilar, to the point of being a rip-off or the writer is trying to drawan easy comparison or contrast to aid the reader in getting the point.

In the span of four short quotes on the box for Things to Do, comparisons are made tofour other movies and TV shows. That definitely got my guard up beforewatching this movie. Fortunately for the film, the references are moreof the shorthand variet...Read the entire review

The Film:

Far away from the hustle and bustle of city life Blaise (Denis Lavant, Lovers on the Bridge) accepts a job as a beach guard on a secluded but busy summer camp. There he encounters the beautiful, half his age, Camille (Islid Le Besco, A Tout De Suite) who immediately attracts his attention. The duo begins an open game of flirting eventually succumbing to sexual desire. But a torrid affair between an older man and a teenage girl is the last thing the campers need.

Rising French star Isild Le Besco who recently won the prestigious Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Benoit Jacquot's L'Intouchable (2006) teams up with old charmer Denis Lavant whose knack for difficult roles once a...Read the entire review

Truly potent films about man's self discovery are few and far between. Some might invoke true inspiration, yet reluctantly shy away from the life's true grit; others might display such grittiness and honesty about a situation, then fail to deliver enough heart to truly inspire. Mendy, a film by Adam Vardy, is one powerhouse of a motion picture that blows both segments out of the water by being poetic and harsh in all the right spots. Sincerity, condemnation, and spirit gush from this film like a scorching volcano's raging blood. All thanks to the impeccable performance from Ivan Sandomire, Mendy crafts deep sincerity as it delves deep into the heart of a cornered man scraping together the answers to salvation.


The Film:

Mendy (Ivan Sandomire) belonged to a stringently engulfing Jewish sect of New York. At birth, he has been molded in the image of the arc...Read the entire review

The Movie

As I've noted in other reviews of Iraq War-centric works, the flood of films continues unabated -- with as sprawling and diffuse a conflict as this, it's inevitable that filmmakers of all political persuasions and backgrounds will weigh in, cinematically speaking, on this bloody battle that is rapidly beginning to define the first decade of the new millennium. But while many films may give you a grunt's-eye view of life on the front lines or the repercussions for those left to wait and wonder at home, few will take you where Andrew Berends does in his searing, often chilling The Blood of My Brother.

Placing you inside the midst of a grieving Iraqi family as they wrestle with the sudden, premature death of one of their own -- Ra'ad al-Azawi -- and the violent circumstances of his death -- guarding a mosque in Kadhimiya, a section of Baghdad, Iraq -- as well as t...Read the entire review

The Movie

The Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming, home to the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, is situated on beautiful, sweeping plains, the sort of place you'd expect to see in a big-budget Hollywood production — Daniel Junge's Chiefs does feature a swooping, gorgeous aerial shot or two but is as far from a Tinseltown epic as you can get (unless of course you're talking about Hoosiers). Originally broadcast on PBS as part of the "Independent Lens" series, Chiefs is a powerfully affecting look at how one community clings to its basketball team, drawing strength from these young athletes.

As the film opens, it's established that the Wyoming Indian High School Chiefs are a dominating force on the court — but it's been seven years since the team took home a state championship trophy. Viewers follow along as a handful of play...Read the entire review

The Movie

Much of Romanian director Ruxandra Zenide's debut Ryna plays out like a grungy documentary about the hard life of blue-collar workers in the rough-and-tumble town on the Danube delta – featuring a sterling performance by Doroteea Petre as the titular character, it's a film that builds slowly, allowing viewers time to contemplate Zenide's measured compositions.

Daughter to a mostly dysfunctional but close family, Ryna is a no-fuss tomboy, forced to wear overalls and cut her hair in a distinctly masculine style, who's nevertheless maturing into a strikingly beautiful young woman, much to her stern father's (Valentin Popescu) chagrin. Despite spending her days pumping gas and slaving away as a mechanic, Ryna still has time for her true passion – photography – and even starting a timid romance with a local boy. Soon, a visiting French university studen...Read the entire review

The Movie

Comparisons to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets run rampant throughout the marketing materials for Frédéric Balekdjian's Gamblers (aka Les Mauvais joueurs), but all I could spot was one major likeness: The flick deals with a pig-headed young delinquent who takes great pains to annoy the very street thugs he should be trying to placate. Meanwhile, one of the more sensitive thugs tries to keep the kid out of trouble -- and has very little success in doing so.

Clocking in at a scant 84 minutes and deftly avoiding all the grit, mood, and atmosphere of the classic crime flick it so desperately wants to emulate, Gamblers is a dry and fairly uneventful little street drama ... but at least it's short.

The setting is the Paris garment district, where low-end French criminals rub elbows with the teeming masses of illegal Chinese immigrants. One such "illegal," a...Read the entire review

The Product:
It's time to introduce a new term into the lexicon of independent moviemaking. It's a word that accurately portrays self-indulgent claptrap as the time-stealing anti-entertainment it truly is. It's a label that let's audiences know to beware of conversational contradictions, a total lack of narrative drive, and an artistic vision so insular that you'd need an x-ray machine to see it. It happens all the time in the realm of outsider cinema. Someone stubs their toe, or purposely gives their partner an STD, and that individual inadvertently believes that the whole world wants to see a fictionalized account of said omniscient mind crime. The end result is the shoe gazing equivalent of watching grass grow. Like listening to a Nyquil addicted Goth gal read her suicide poetry aloud for hours on end, this type film makes us feel like we're trapped inside someone's own private hissy fit, ...Read the entire review

The Film:

Even though Antoine (Julien Boisselier) makes plenty of money and his friends often envy his successful career he feels lonely: his heart aches for that special person with whom he can share his life. So when Antoine meets the beautiful Clara (Julie Gayet) at the subway in Paris he decides to give faith a chance and invite her for a drink. Without exchanging any words Antoine hands Clara a tiny note asking if she would accept to see him. She smiles and hands back another note with a positive answer.

A few days later Antoine calls Clara and asks if she would like to have dinner with him. She agrees and the couple attends a quiet bistro where they spend most of the night enjoying a bottle of wine. Soon Antoine and Clara fall madly in love and begin drawing plans for their future. Antoine tells his friends that his life is now complete and that he could not be any happier. Bu...Read the entire review

Though I'm not exactly familiar with Croatian films, Director Tomislav Radic's What Iva Recorded on October 31, 2003 ("Sto Je Iva Snimila 21, Listopada 2004") is a most unusual and interesting piece of work. Our story revolves around Iva (Masha Mati-Prodan, above), a young girl who's just turned 15 and receives a shiny new digital camera for her birthday. Fascinated by this new toy, she sets out to capture the day from her point of view---and though it's not exactly a "fly on the wall" perspective, it's still more engrossing than your average home movie. As her dysfunctional family's day spirals downwards, the illusion of What Iva Recorded is maintained through excellent performances, clever camerawork and plenty of realistic characters.

As our "tour guide", Iva is equal parts instigator an...Read the entire review

The Movie

You'd be forgiven for thinking Luella Miller was some sort of Skinemax soft-core delight if you had to judge writer/director Dane Giraud's film by its opening moments – but this New Zealand import has more on its mind that mere titillation. A ragged, low budget drama that's fueled by equal parts sexual tension and small town intrigue, Giraud's screenplay leans a little too heavily on cliche but manages to be an effective character study.

The film centers on a close-knit Kiwi community and one of its residents, Lydia (Sara Wiseman), who lives in a rambling old homestead and pines for "the boy next door," Christian (Philip Brown). When Lydia discovers the gorgeous, battered Luella Miller (Sia Trokenheim) hiding in her house, she takes pity upon the woman, who shakes things up in short order with her intense sexuality. As expected, Luella's vivacious sens...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

The best thing about "Echoes of Innocence" might be its title, which sounds like it's going to be soft porn, or maybe a Lifetime Network movie about child molestation. The funny part is that it's actually a movie about NOT having sex.

Innocence has been echoing in the ears of morose high school senior Sarah (Sara Simmonds) for years. A devoted Christian who goes to Catholic confessional but who attends her own makeshift church services out in the woods, complete with candles and fervent prayers, Sarah decided long ago that she would save herself for marriage. Ever since middle school, when she gave an impassioned speech on the chasteness of Joan of Arc, Sarah has been known as The Virgin, or just Virge. She's kind of pretty despite dressing all Gothy, and she's a frequent recipient of unwelcome advances by horny high school boys, each believing he can be the one to break ...Read the entire review

I've never traveled outside of the United States. Even though I live less than three hours from Vancouver—the closest thing to "foreign" near me—I've never even made the short trip there, let alone overseas. Maybe that's why I have trouble describing just how appealing I find New Zealand's national coming-of-age tradition/compulsion: the OE. Europe is usually the destination for the "overseas experience," which typically begins in London and ends, well, wherever and whenever the cash runs out. Every year, swarms of young Kiwis descend on places like the Eiffel Tower and the Roman Coliseum in their cheap Volkswagon Kombi vans, living in youth hostels or on campgrounds, partying, drinking, and having sex; in general, experiencing the rest of the ...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

As far as non-American film industries go, Croatia's isn't exactly Bollywood. The Internet Movie Database shows fewer than 600 films to come out of Croatia EVER, and many of those were straight-to-video or TV productions.

So you cut a little slack for a war-ravaged country where most of the citizens have more urgent things on their minds than making movies. But "Sorry for Kung Fu" ("Oprosti za kung fu"), the third feature from writer/director Ognjen Svilicic, requires more than a little slack. It's slow-moving and feels padded, even at only 72 minutes.

It has some good ideas, though. It begins with the return of Mirjana (Daria Lorenci) to her remote Croatian village from Germany, where she has been staying during the recent military conflicts. Mirjana is under 25, unmarried ... and pregnant.

Her parents, Jozo (Filip Rados) and Kate (Vera Zima), insist that rather tha...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A boring examination of a fascinating topic

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves:
Likes: Documentaries
Dislikes: Boring movies
Hates: Religious hatred

The Movie
Anyone who's seen Andy Warhol's Empire knows a bit about what it's like to watch Wall. A 485-minute opus in which nothing happens, Empire is an exercise in patience that never, ever rewards the viewer. Literally nothing happens, except in the mind of the viewer, where the experience of watching the Empire State Building for hours, is processed.

Wall is, in many ways, very similar. The conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is not different at the beginning of the film than it is at the end, and nothing ever ...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
A prostitute and a thief try to make it work

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: A good hooker movie
Likes: The Dutch
Dislikes: Boring movies
Hates: Depressing movies

The Movie
Steve + Sky opens and closes with two stories that are alike, yet different, and in neither case can I understand their point. Then again, there's an hour and a half of story in between that's relatively meaningless as well, so I guess it all fits together. Directed by Felix van Groeningen, with a sense of gritty style, the film is half a meditation on what kind of bad deal life can be, and half a portrait of loneliness. What it is not, is a happy film.

The titular Steve is a small-time loser, who ends up in a nice, cle...Read the entire review

I have to admit that while I have seen several foreign films in my time, Rouleman is my first Greek cinematic endeavor. To say that I was left baffled about the movie would be a rather large understatement. It's such an odd piece of filmmaking that melds a fictional story and a mock-documentary together to tell a story that is neither relevant nor interesting. At many points during the movie I was either bored out of my skull or so completely indifferent to what was going on that I didn't care.

It's hard to tell what the aim of the picture really is in the end. There are a lot of artistic industrial and natural shots used during the course of the film and a whole lot of folks sitting around looking depressed. I mean it, I don't think I've seen a movie with this little dialogue in a very long time and most of the movies important scenes are simply character...Read the entire review