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.