Indy Film Fest

Last week I was lucky enough to go to the Indianapolis International Film Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana. Here are some of the films I was able to see and I highly recommend seeing at your first opportunity.

Cinema Six

            -Written and Directed by Mark Potts and Cole Selix

            The movie follows the lives of six twenty-somethings trying to figure out there way in the world all the while working in a movie theater. Heavily influenced by Kevin Smith films and movies like High Fidelity this movie is fun for all involved.

Video Stop

            -Written and Directed by Adam Newell

            Filmed in Indiana and produced by the guys at GrillBust.com, this movie tells the coming of age story of R.J MacReady, a young man who loses his job at a movie theater due to his hatred of Brendan Fraser. He eventually finds a dead-end job at a local video store and learns what it means to grow up and follow your dreams.

Searching for Sonny

-          Written and Directed by Andrew Disney

            Starring Minka Kelly, Masi Oka, and Jason Dohring this movie tells the tale of Elliot Knight who one day gets a letter from an old friend a few days before his ten year high school reunion. Soon enough he learns that he and all his old friends are chief suspects of a murder mystery that very similar to a play they did in high school. This movie was hilarious and  the best feature at the entire fest.

Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters

            -Directed by Adam Cornelius

            A documentary about the creation of the 2010 Tetris World Championships, telling the story of over two decades of Tetris Mastery and the search for the greatest players in the world. I never thought I could get so worked up watching Tetris but this movie makes you care about every single one of these players.

Side by Side

-          Written and Directed by Christopher Kenneally

            A documentary on the history and workflow of both traditional and Digital filmmaking, starring all the best filmmakers of the day and narrated by Keanu Reeves. I would recommend this movie to any film lover out there.

Andrew Bird: Fever Year

-          Directed by Xan Aranda

            A documentary on folk musician Andrew Bird’s chaotic touring schedule where he spends most of his time in a perpetual fever and tries to make the finish line on crutches. Fans and non-fans alike will be impressed by this expert musician in this movie.

 Shorts

Cadaver

-          Run Time 8 Minutes

-          Written and Directed by Jonah Ansell

-          Starring Tavi Gevinson,  Christopher Lloyd and Kathy Bates

A Cadaver wakes up to say his final goodbyes to his wife and learns  more truth in death than he ever did in life.

Bear

-          Run Time 11 Minutes

-          Written and Directed by Nash Edgerton

Jack has a tendency of taking things too far…

Stan versus Squirrel

-          Run Time 23 Minutes

-          Directed by Lily Ann Boruszkowski

Stan just wants to feed the birds but the squirrels keep getting in the way…

The Pedestrian Jar

            -Run Time 5 Minutes

            -Written and Directed by Evan Morgan

            A group of office workers come up with their own solution to stopping the constant pedestrian related accidents in the city.

Moonrise Kingdom Review

            

            Wes Anderson is one of the best writer/directors out there today and his newest film Moonrise Kingdom, which finally came to town, is his most personal film to date. It was definitely on of his best, but surprisingly not his most yellow.

            Set on a small island off the coast of New England in the 1960’s, Sam (Jared Gilman) runs away from his khaki scout troupe to meet up with Suzy (Kara Hayward), the girl he loves. Shortly after they are discovered missing the entire town creates a search party to find them, turning all their lives upside down. The search party includes police officer Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and the rest of his troupe, a Social Services officer (Tilda Swinton), and Suzy’s parents Walt and Laura (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand).

            As I said before, this is Wes Anderson’s most personal film, perfectly capturing the feeling of a person’s first love, but it’s also his most daring suspenseful movie to date. The cast, which also includes Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben, Harvey Keitel as Troupe Commander Pierce, and Bob Balaban as the narrator, is great and there should be an Oscar Nomination for Edward Norton in this one. This is the most Wes Anderson has ever stepped out of his comfort zone since The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and yet it still has plenty of his quirky style and humor in the film.

            This is the best movie all year and is a shoe-in for the at least a few awards this coming Oscar season. I’m unsure whether it is my favorite Wes Anderson movie, but it is definitely up there. I give it an A.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

            

             I’m a little late on this one, but as everyone knows at this point The Dark Knight Rises recently came out to theaters. The third and final Christopher Nolan film on Batman was one of the most anticipated films of the year and it lived up to those expectations.

            Set eight years after the phenomenal film The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse and Batman is no more. As the injured and beaten Bruce hides out his good friend Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) is struggling with the lies he has told Gotham City about the death of Harvey Dent. New characters are introduced including Anne Hathaway as the jewel thief Catwoman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a rookie cop named John Blake, and Marion Cotillard as a new business partner named
Miranda Tate. Meanwhile as things in Gotham seem safe, a new and stronger villain rises by the name of Bane (Tom Hardy), causing the need for Bruce Wayne to become Batman once again.

            This is the best end that the Nolan brothers and David S. Goyer could have ever come up with for what is now being called The Dark Knight Trilogy. There is not a bad performance in the film with stars like Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, and Morgan Freeman stealing every scene they are in. The movie looked great and Christopher Nolan has proven that the film format, as opposed to digital, is not dead yet. Most Batman fans were worried about the portrayal of Bane in this film, but Tom Hardy’s Bane, although not as iconic as Heath Ledger’s Joker, is every bit as menacing as Batman villains in the past.

            I didn’t enjoy this movie as much as I enjoyed The Dark Knight, but it was definitely one of the best films of the year and one of the best superhero movies ever made. I would even go so far as to mark this as the best superhero trilogy out there, not  just because Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises are amzing superhero movies, but because they are the first movies to transcend the superhero genre and just simply be considered great film. Christopher Nolan is the only director out there to continually impress me and seeing this in both regular movie theaters and IMAX, he was right to film in IMAX. Go spend the extra dollar and see it an IMAX theater it’s worth it. I give it an A.

The Best of, Kind of, Sort of, a Little More Than, Half Year Review

 10. Ted

Directed by Seth MacFarlane

Written by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin, Wellesly Wild

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth MacFarlane, Rob Corddry, Joel Mchale, Giovanni Ribisi 

9. Dark Shadows

Directed by Tim Burton

Written by Seth Grahame-Smith

Starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Johnny Lee Miller, Bella Hethcote, Christopher Lee, Alice Cooper

8. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

Written by Seth Grahame-Smith

Starring Benjamin Walker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Rufus Sewell, Alan Tudyk

7. The Five-Year Engagement

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Written By Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller

Starring Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie, Jacki Weaver, Rhys Ifans, Mindy Kaling, Kevin Hart, Molly Shannon, Chris Parnell, Brian Posehn

6. Brave

Directed by Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell

Written by Mark Andrews, Steve Purcell, Brenda Chapman, and Irene Mecchi

Starring Kelly Macdonald, Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Craig Ferguson 

5. Prometheus

Directed by Ridley Scott

Written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof

Starring Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Guy Pearce, Logan Marshall-Green

4. The Amazing Spider-Man

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent, and Steve Kloves

Starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary

3. The Cabin In the Woods

Directed by Drew Goddard

Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford

2. Seeking a Friend at the End of the World

Directed by Lorene Scafaria

Written by Lorene Scafaria

Starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Nancy Carell, TJ Miller, Rob Corddry, Adam Brody, Martin Sheen

1. The Avengers

Directed by Joss Whedon

Written by Joss Whedon

Starring Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlet Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston, Colbie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, 

Seeking a Friend For the End of the World Review

            

           Steve Carell is one of the few comedians who can do more than just play the goofball in a movie and this year he returns to a more dramatic role in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. I’ll start this review by saying that this comedy-drama written and directed by the writer of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Lorene Scafaria, is one of the best movies I’ve seen all year.

An asteroid is heading towards Earth and there is no hope left for humanity, normally this would be a blockbuster directed by Michael Bay, but rather than tell the story of a crew of astronauts frantically trying to save us, this movie tells the story of Dodge (Steve Carell), a man who at the end of days finds himself alone. At this time Dodge inadvertently befriends a neighbor girl named Penny (Keira Knightley). Penny convinces Dodge to go after his high school sweetheart and the two go on a road trip that’ll change their lives, what little there is left, forever.

Everything you need to know about this movie’s plot is in the title, but simply put, there is much more to this film. Steve Carell’s character Dodge is the perfect example of the way most of us treat our lives, he is a man who walks through every day of his life until he finds out there isn’t much of it left. The cast is superb with appearances by Adam Brody, TJ Miller, Nancy Carell, Rob Corddry, Patton Oswalt, and Martin Sheen. Like most movies, this film all goes back to the script and this is a great one.

A solid script, great direction, and some stunning performances make this movie well worth the watch, one of the best films of the year. I give it an A.

TED Movie Review

           

            He’s the man who created TV’s Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show and now Seth MacFarlane has released his feature film debut Ted. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis theater goers lined up to see if Mr. MacFarlane would strike comedy gold or be forced to release more Family Guy knockoffs for the rest of his life.

            As a young boy John Bennett didn’t have a whole lot of friends, so naturally when he was given a stuffed teddy bear for Christmas John only wished that it when he talked to it, it could talk back. Magic prevails and the next morning John wakes up to see his teddy bear come to life and instantaneously the two become famous. Cut to several years later where our story takes place and John (Mark Wahlberg) and his teddy bear, Ted (voiced by Seth Macfarlane), are still living together and still best friends, but when Lori (Mila Kunis), John’s girlfriend of four years, asks for Ted to move out John and Ted’s friendship is tested like never before.

            I was a big fan of Family Guy when it first started with its mix of witty pop culture references, political humor, and just amazingly stupid situations which is something Seth MacFarlane can be very good at balancing which is what he has done with Ted.  Every part of this comedy is solid but there are two things that stand out about it. One being the only downfall of Seth MacFarlane’s blend of comedy, which is he has a tendency to rely on easy jokes such as fart jokes that can be funny but if used too much they become the most obnoxious and annoying jokes a movie can have, but what surprised me the most about this movie is the heart behind the characters, a person will find themselves genuinely caring about what could happen to this talking, walking teddy bear.

            This is by no means the best comedy ever written, but definitely the funniest movie I’ve seen this summer. Some great jokes and great cameos make this movie worth watching. I give it a B.

Prometheus Review

                          When it comes right down to the science fiction film genre there is only one god and his name is Ridley Scott. This weekend Mr. Scott, the man who brought the world Blade Runner and Alien, and writer/producer Damon Lindelof, one of the brilliant minds behind television's LOST,  have released the much hyped Prometheus. Surrounded by secrecy and speculation, fans lined up to see the sci-fi horror.
                       Set towards the end of the twenty-first century, Weyland Industries, the leader in new technology, has funded a voyage on their custom made ship, Prometheus, to the darkest corners of the universe. The crew, led by the science team of Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green), is seeking answers about where humanity came from. At first the mission appears to be unsuccessful , but as usual with these types of movies, they are horribly, horribly wrong.
                      Prometheus has a few things really going for it, one of them being the brilliant acting job of Michael Fassbender as David, an artificially intelligent robot created by Weyland Industries. Michael Fassbender makes this movie, nobody else could have done the role better and there aren't a whole lot of fans of the film that would argue otherwise. The main problem with this movie is that there isn't a whole lot of time spent with all the characters, so naturally when they die it is hard to find reasons to care, and for that I blame the writers who raise too many big questions with not enough answers.
                     Watch this movie prepared to think. Prometheus raises a lot of questiions about humanity and faith, and for that I can respect Ridley Scott for what he was trying to do. It's not an amazing movie and definitely does not live up to it's hype, but it is entertaining and displays some really superb performances from the likes of Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, Idris Elba, and Guy Pearce. I give it a B.