Archive for Indi Films

Best Movie You’ve Never Seen – Larz and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real GirlIf ever a movie deserved the nod for best movie then Larz and the Real Girl is it.

This story has everything you've ever wanted. A screwed up guy, a blow up doll, and a small town that really cares about people (even plastic ones).

It's not some dirty film, it's truly a work of art. The film gives has real in-depth character developement. You care about the people and it's got some of the funniest scenes I've seen in a long while.

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Ryan Gosling stars in this awesome flick. This film is fantastic and highly recommended. Ryan's character is slowly becoming a hermit and with the help of his small town community and Bianca the silicon leading lady, he flowers into a normal guy once again.

Lars and the Real Girl

Don't let the doll fool you, even your dates will love this movie.

Lars and the Real Girl in church

Under the Same Moon

underthesamemoon.jpgBefore watching the film, I considered myself to be sympathetic toward illegal aliens' situations, but I actually became a little annoyed by the automatic sense of entitlement that most illegals are presented as having - especially when many of their real-life compatriots actually follow the rules and go through the process of becoming legal citizens. The film is of course entitled to its political views, but let's not pretend they're not there. At one point, a song comes on the soundtrack about how Superman should be forced to leave since he's technically an illegal alien; at another point we hear two Mexican DJs riffing on the hypocrisy of Schwarzenegger's anti-immigration policies. The expected scenes - the border patrol inspecting the car Carlitos is hiding in; police raiding a plantation to hunt for illegal immigrants - are filmed objectively, but there's a heavy pro- immigrant influence to the whole project.

The producers and directors will tell you that this is not a political film but just a simple story about a mother and son, but that just a bunch of poppy cock. Most of the attention poured on the film will undoubtedly be its stance on immigration. But when the grandmother dies, Carlitos smuggles himself across the border in an attempt to find his mother in Southern California. working as a housekeeper, sending money back home to Mexico for Carlitos and his grandmother. For the past few years, she's been living illegally in the U.S.

Mexican soap opera actress Kate del Castillo plays Rosario, mother of young Carlitos (Adrian Alonso from The Legend of Zorro). With a universal mother/son theme and extremely amiable actors, the praise is understandable - but not deserved. Under the same Moon received a standing ovation at Sundance, where it .

THE AIR I BREATHE: It’s Worth Taking A Breath And Jumping In

THE AIR I BREATHE: It's Worth Taking A Breath And Jumping In

By Curt Schleier

THE AIR I BREATHE received scathing reviews following its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last year. It seemed almost as though the critical establishment had a grudge against Jieho Lee, the young Korean-American director and screenwriter making his directorial debut. So I wasn’t expecting much and, frankly, was even tempted to skip the screening I’d been invited to.

Luckily I didn’t, because the film is an unexpected surprise. THE AIR I BREATHE is not only an interesting and at times exciting, it features sharply etched characters and proves intellectually satisfying as well. It is also a daring enterprise for the first-time filmmaker – one he comes close to succeeding at.

The film’s conceit (and ultimately its downfall) is that it was supposedly inspired by a Chinese proverb that breaks life down into four key elements: happiness, sorrow, pleasure and love. To start with, it seems there are far more basic human emotions than four; does greed ring a bell? What about anger and lust?

That aside, there are four inter-related vignettes, each featuring a cast member who is supposed to embody one of the emotions; the problem is that they don’t. Brendan Fraser’s Pleasure enjoys little during the film. Trista’s (Sarah Michelle Gellar) primary emotion is terror, not the sorrow she is supposed to symbolize. And Forest Whitaker enjoys little happiness as a hapless and timid banker who bets everything he has on what is supposed to be a sure thing – and loses it all.

Even Kevin Bacon’s Love is unrequited. He plays is a surgeon in love with his best friend’s wife. It seems Lee went a long way to make his story fit with the fable, when that was entirely unnecessary. The stories are actually fascinating on their own -- more so when they all come together in an exciting climax – and probably would have been even better if Lee hadn’t felt the need to mold them to fit the saying..

The unifying thread is Fingers (Andy Garcia), a hoodlum who earned his nickname because of his tendency to remove digits from those who don’t pay their debts in a timely manner. Garcia is brilliant, and his leering presence elevates the film. He’s so good an actor, he makes it look easy and I think that’s the reason he rarely gets the credit he deserves.

Pleasure is Fingers’ enforcer. He also has psychic power and can see into the future. But he has a troubled soul because she was unable to use his powers to save a childhood friend.

Happiness is a milquetoast who hears colleagues talk about a fixed horse race. He decides now is his time and places a large bet at Garcia’s emporium.

Trista also has a troubled past; she saw her father killed in an automobile accident. Her manager depleted her financial accounts and gave her contract to Fingers in order to keep his own. She is now his property.

Love needs to get a transfusion for the love of his life; the only person who has the rare blood type is Trista.

Lee does a really good job of weaving these disparate threads together. It’s hard to believe that this is his first film. The plot becomes a tad convoluted not only to fit within the framework if the proverb, but also to make the denouement work. But all in all, it’s a very satisfying flick. Lee has the potential to be big, and you can say you were there at the beginning. Go to Source