All posts by rmw

Review: Four Lions (2010)

fourlionsDirected by Chris Morris

Starring Kayvan Novak, Riz Ahmed, Nigel Lindsay, Adeel Akhtar

Ever since the 2005 al Qaeda attacks on London, there has been a siege mentality in the UK. That makes first-time director Morris’ broad comedy about homegrown jihadists in the post-industrial English city of Sheffield so timely and essential. This extraordinary combination of high farce and lo-fi filmmaking is a textured and incisive examination of what drives ordinary people to become suicide bombers – with added exploding crows for giggles.

Controversial British satirist Morris made his reputation as a ruthless critic of the media and government on TV and radio, As he explained during the films debut at SXSW, even with his reputation this was a difficult project on which to sell backers, noting that  they saw it as “delicious like a lobster and revolting like a locust.”

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Review: The Dungeon Masters

dungeonmastersDirector: Keven McAlester

If a group of friends gets together once a week for years to swap stories and share a meal, they’re sociable. Put a Dungeons & Dragons rule book in the middle of the table, and suddenly they’re written off as socially malformed. Rather than picking apart the world of role-playing games or mocking the players, director McAlester’s documentary takes three gamers and shows how tabletop fantasy fits into their lives.
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Review: Smash Cut (2009)

smashcutDirected by Lee Demarbre

Starring: David Hess, Sasha Grey

Somewhere on his car, Lee Demarbre probably has a sticker that says “WWHGLD” – What would Herschell Gordon Lewis Do?

The man behind zero-budget schlocker Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter has placed the man that turned a cow tongue into a star up on a pedestal in one of Fantastic Fest’s quirkier outings (and that’s saying something).

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Review: Camp Victory, Afghanistan (2010)

campvictoryDirected by Carol Dysinger

The people of Afghanistan, who have endured millennia of invasions, have a saying: “You have the clocks; we have the time.” These words open up this depiction of three years in the forgotten war from a group whose voice is seldom heard – the Afghan National Army.

Dysinger liberates the compromised term “embedded journalism” and uses her incredible access to depict a war of inertia and ancient feuds. As foreign forces come and go, the only constant is the haunting central figure of Gen. Fazil Ahmad Sayar.
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Interview: Axelle Carolyn, Mike Mendez and Ryan Schifrin on Tales of Halloween (2015)

Are you afraid of the dark? "Grim Grinning Ghost", producer/director Axelle Carolyn's segment for new horror anthology Tales of Halloween
Are you afraid of the dark? “Grim Grinning Ghost”, producer/director Axelle Carolyn’s segment for new horror anthology Tales of Halloween

When Axelle Carolyn was a kid, she had a cousin who would tell her the most terrifying urban myths. Now, as one of the 11 directors known as the October Society, through their new anthology horror Tales of Halloween she gets to share a small but perfectly formed spooky tale of her own. She said, “Horror lends itself to bite-size chunks of spookiness.”

The bones of the October Society were laid a few years ago, when Carolyn was living in London and commuting regularly to Los Angeles. There she met a cabal of horror enthusiasts, including Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV), Adam Gierasch (Toolbox Murders), Lucky McKee (May, All Cheerleaders Die), and Neil Marshall (The Descent, Game of Thrones). The undectet joined together to conjure mini-nightmares for their hybrid creation. Carolyn said, “We’ve seen anthologies that have 26 stories and anthologies that have three, and we’re in the middle.”

Continue reading Interview: Axelle Carolyn, Mike Mendez and Ryan Schifrin on Tales of Halloween (2015)

Review: Shuttle (2008)

shuttleDirected by Edward Anderson

Starring: Peyton List, Cameron Goodman, Cullen Douglas, Dave Power, James Snyder, Tony Curran

There’s no sinking feeling like taking a cab and the driver going left instead of right, into a bit of town that just can’t be the quickest route. That loss of control is the start of Shuttle‘s horrific road trip, where five travelers get picked up by an airport shuttle, putting their increasingly gory fate in the hands of the stranger at the wheel.

It starts as a dry, subdued thriller, where small acts of violence happen offscreen or silently; the film incrementally ratchets up the tension into a realm some may dismiss as torture-porn.

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Review: The King of Texas (2008)

Directed by René Pinnell & Claire Huie

Starring: Eagle Pennell, Chuck Pinnell, Lin Sutherland, Lou Perryman, Richard Linklater

The restoration of Austin movie classic The Whole Shootin’ Match for last year’s SXSW reintroduced the world to the work of mercurial director Glenn Irwin “Eagle” Pennell: The King of Texas is his nephew René’s attempt to explain the man. Through interviews with those that knew, loved, and sometimes fought with him (including his family, collaborators, and the Chronicle‘s own Louis Black), René portrays an artist who was both role model and cautionary tale. Just as Willie Nelson proved a successful country musician didn’t have to go Nashville, Pennell proved the power and artistry of regional cinema.

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Review: House of the Devil (2009)

hotdDirected byTi West

Starring: Jocelin Donahue, Greta Gerwig, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov

There are three theories about how Ti West made House of the Devil evoke the 1980s so successfully. One, time machine. Two, deal with the horned one. Three, astonishing horror director. Considering what a masterful retro supernatural chiller it is, option two seems reasonable.

This isn’t just an homage to early 80s creeping horror: It’s a reproduction so exquisite that some members of the audience were convinced that they must have rented this on VHS in 1986. West has channeled that Satanic cult scare that Geraldo Rivera whipped up and the whole cinematic genre of unease that it summoned. As West told the audience attending Monday night’s Fantastic Fest screening, there’s a lot more to recreating a decade than “some douchebag flipping a Rubik’s Cube.”

Continue reading Review: House of the Devil (2009)

Review: A Film With Me In It (2009)

afilmDirected by Ian Fitzgibbon

Starring: Dylan Moran, Mark Doherty, Keith Allen, Amy Huberman

One death is an accident. Two are a coincidence. Three and a dead dog, well, that’s just bad DIY. In this coal-black farce, set among the elegant but crumbling Victorian apartments of Dublin, the luck of the Irish is all dreadful. Indolent actor Mark (Doherty) and his neighbor, failed film writer and failed recovering alcoholic Pierce (Moran), are wastrels with no lives. But they quickly become the only characters left alive as a series of avoidable deaths in the ill-repaired house they share claims everyone they would have a motive for killing.
Continue reading Review: A Film With Me In It (2009)

Review: Lake Mungo (2009)

Directed by Joel Anderson

Starring: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin Sharpe

As Blair Witch is to The Shining and Cloverfield is to Godzilla, so Lake Mungo is to Picnic at Hanging Rock. In that Australian gothic classic, four schoolgirls went into the Outback; only one came back. This time, the four members of the Palmer family go for a swim, but only daughter Alice (Zucker) never makes it back to shore.

Continue reading Review: Lake Mungo (2009)