Weekly Review 79: MAUDE, MOTHER, MONTAGE, PITCH, FED

May 18, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Weekly Review Tagged Fed Up, Harold and Maude, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Mother, Pitch Perfect, Reviews, Weekly Review Leave a comment

Weekly Review is a place where I, your Silver Screen Riot editor in chief Matt Oakes, recap the week, providing a coverage overview of the past 7 days as well as shorter review segments on previously releases films or new releases I caught at home (usually by studio-distributed screeners).

It’s been a minute since our last visit, time well spent in New York City and the Seattle sunshine. Although summer is officially underway here, so too is the Seattle International Film Festival. And though I’ve ratcheted down my attendance from year’s past, I’ve still spent plenty a shiny afternoon in a dark theater or pinky-extended hotel room talking to directors, actors and even a (*gasp*) composer. SIFF being what it is, I’m sitting on reviews of Love & Mercy, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, Unexpected, Mr. Holmes and the excellent demon horror The Hallow.

In wide release, I took down the supremely received Mad Max: Fury Road – I’ll direct you to Chris’ review for full thoughts on the matter – in addition to the surprisingly gleeful Pitch Perfect 2. At home, I’ve still made time to catch up with the original Mad Max trilogy – which I podcasted about over at InSession Film – swallow some Bong Joon-ho for Mother’s Day and feed my mind with a pair of documentaries. All this installment and more on Weekly Review.

HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)

The birds and the bees dispatch from a thicket of old lady hair in this classic emo-rock, counter-culture cult classic. Harold – a depressive teen with an overbearing and yet frightfully distant maternal figure – dreams up inventive ways to feign suicide until he encounters a car-jackin’, booze-swillin’ inconspicuous grandma with no reservations and no speed limits. I’ve a fondness for Harold and Maude curated by years of frequent revisits and though delightful and insightful, it does pale in comparison to contemporary cumming-of-age tale The Graduate. Not that one ought to compare the two necessarily but for some reason I can just never help it. Cat Stevens soundtrack is unabashedly perfect though. (B+)

MOTHER (2009)

Bong Joon-ho’s fourth feature is predictably excellent, layered with energy and mystery and filled with a type of genre-defying narrative looseness that allows it to go just about anywhere at any time and exist as so many things at once. Mother tells the tale of a mom’s desperate search to redeem her slow-witted son who’s been framed for a murder she’s convinced he didn’t commit. Like Joon-ho’s earlier Memories of Murder, the film depicts the two sides of South Korean law as one and the same. The police force is dubious at best and, more likely than naught, riddled with corruption. Familiarity with his earlier work casts Mother in even more vivid, surrealistically satirical light, regardless of how humorless its core intentions remain. And this is Joon-ho’s greatest asset – he doesn’t force himself to choose one side or the other. He can have his great black comedy alongside cripplingly potent dramatic movements. From a distance, his filmography looks divided between crime sagas and genre films but for those actually looking, his chief concern remains human partaking in the inhumane and Mother is a damn fine example of that. And it has one of the best endings to a movie since Darren Aronofsky‘s Pi. (A-)

PITCH PERFECT (2012)

A cheery, pitchy retelling of that ever-recylced high school underdog story, Pitch Perfect imagines a world in which listening to acapella isn’t tantamount to torture. A punky Anna Kendrick plays a reclusive wanna-be DJ who joins up with the spunky Bellas, who’ve recently fallen from their high horse via a public puking incident. When the comedy works, it tends to be side-splitting – particularly when Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins are firing off their verbal guns – casting a growing, glowing cloud over the admittedly dumb trappings of what should be such a cliched slice of cinema. An impromptu sing-off battle just needs a spoonful of sardonic commentary to make the medicine go down smoothly and Pitch Perfect finds a good mix of the two in its formula. It’s not mixed by a perfect chemist, but Jason Moore does well enough. (B-)

KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK (2015)

I’ll give credit to filmmaker Brett Morgen for defying expectation with Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. Rather than dish the cold hards on Cobain’s dour rise to stardom, he points his camera into the man’s interworking by showcasing his unrestricted access to Cobain’s personal journal entries, pieces of artwork and stunningly animated accounts of Kurt’s young life. The result is about as unsettling and tragic as one would imagine – with xylophone covers of Nirvana tracks adding further laters to the haunting atmosphere – and features a trove of previously unreleased home video footage that will be sure to make the hardest of fans squeal. All evidence points to a man teetering on a dangerous edge for his whole life, primed for the white light with both barrels cocked. And though Morgen offers up the broad strokes of Kurt’s hellish plot through life, I’m not sure that doodles and scribblings really help me understand who the man inside the music actually is. And for that, I left feeling a little unfulfilled. Especially when the asking price is over two hours. (C+)

FED UP (2014)

As I posted on Twitter after viewing, Fed Up ought to be required viewing for all Americans who eat food. Find yourself included in that group? Then yes, this includes you. Almost more importantly, this is a documentary that should be force fed to politicians, in addition to school principals. Targeting the obesity epidemic in our country (and, to lesser degree, around the world) Fed Up (which can also be interpreted as F-ed Up) tells the story of how our food became, well, “food” and how our declining health has gone hand-in-hand with this government-approved transformation. Fed Up provides disturbing data points as well as heartbreaking testimonials from real live chubby kids, posing the question, “If a foreign party were targeting our children and profiteering off their declining health, wouldn’t we declare war on them?” And yet, we allow the food industry to wage war on children through distressingly ubiquitous ad campaigns paired with their addictive, misleading products. The doc is eye-opening and haunting but still provides feasible solutions that we as a nation should, and must, strive for. It’s available on Netflix and should be shared aggressively. (A)

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Out in Theaters: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

May 15, 2015 by Chris Bunker Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Charlize Theron, Fury Road, George Miller, Hugh Keas-Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Riley Keough, Tom Hardy 3 Comments

It has been a long, long time since I’ve put together one of these, but damn is it good to be back. That’s likely what Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller had on his mind his first day on set for one of the most impressive action films in the past decade. I can only marvel at what Miller has achieved with his latest film, mouth agape and eyes fully dilated. Fury Road was one of the wildest rides I have ever had the honor to take. Read More

Out in Theaters: PITCH PERFECT 2

May 14, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Anna Kendrick, David Cross, Elizabeth Banks, Hailee Steinfeld, John Michael Higgins, Kay Cannon, Keegan-Michael Key, Out in Theaters, Pitch Perfect 2, Rebel Wilson, Reviews 1 Comment

Your enjoyment of Pitch Perfect 2 will be directly correlated to your willingness to endure acapella puns. That is, it’s only acappealing to some. Still with me? Let’s continue. In so much as this Pitch Perfect silliness could be confused with the cloying high school sugar rush that is Glee, the two share poppy musical stylings but are dished up with distinctly different flavors: irritating and irreverent. I’ll let you suss out which is which. Read More

Out in Theaters: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

May 7, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Carey Mulligan, Far From the Madding Crowd, Juno Temple, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Out in Theaters, Reviews, Thomas Vinterberg, Tom Sturridge Leave a comment

A nobleman, a commoner and a soldier walk into a bar. There sits a property-owning, curly mopped brunette beauty. Which man does she choose to marry? Such is the premise of Thomas Vinterberg’s adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic 1874 romance novel; a 512-page amorous yarn, turned into a dramaturgical 107-page script, turned into a 119-minute film. In simplifying the story, good sense is tangled in expedited character arcs and though less plodding than many coattail and gown costume dramas, Far From the Madding Crowd is at best a handsomely photographed venture back in time and at worst a perfunctory, sloppily told bore.

As hot as an exposed ankle in 1870, Bathsheba (Carey Mulligan) is a feminist champion amongst old-fashion cods. Her free-wheeling ways are as accented as Beast’s Belle, which we see manifested in her willingness to hop in the slop and give lambs a good spanking to get a move on. “My lord, but what about your dress?” When she shoots down marriage proposal numero dos, you can almost hear the townswomen tittering, “Can you believe she didn’t marry that man?” Titter, titter.

But let’s back up in time. Before Bathsheba becomes a certified landowner and town-wide hot topic, she was naught but a lowly farm girl, her only holdings being her education and her sharp wit. Neighbor farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), upon retrieving her red scarf from the woods – Oh! Red! In June! How scandalous! – wastes little time in trying to secure a marriage. It’s your average “boy meets girl, boy proposes to girl, boy’s dog chase his sheep off cliff, boy loses farm, girl inherits farm, boy works at farm” saga.

English costume romances such as these thrive on their performances and none here disappoint. Mulligan offers up some of her finest work – a nuanced and lively portrait of a woman ahead of her time. Her inner workings are like a skeleton watch; her eyebrows flock hither and thither with each dutifully charged enunciation; her faint smile is a beguiling jewel. And magical though her work may be, it doesn’t prove enough to camouflage the bigger issues at play.

Take for instance Bathsheba’s romance with Mr. Oak – who might I say looks confusingly like a hot Charlie Kelly. Schoenaerts displays fierce subtly in his quiet, complacent role as Mr. Oak and in his own right is excellent as well but his chemistry with Mulligan is cursory at best. Considering that the weight of the film rests squarely on our investment in Mr. Oak and Bathsheba’s brewing romance, the fact that their entanglement is barely lukewarm makes everything else feel a touch soggy, soiled and businesslike. They have kind of a Luke ‘n’ Leia thing going on where you dread having to watch them kiss. For a romance, that’s a pretty huge problem.

Furthermore, they’re both kind of boring characters who like each other because the other one is equally boring. Everyone’s drinkin’ and dancin’ at the wedding? Best tend to heaps of hay!

No matter how fancifully dressed up it is – and believe me, from costumes to sets to cinematography, Far From the Madding Crowd is an appropriately distinguished visual feast – it cannot escape the Hollywood romance formula wherein we’re supposed to root for the centerpiece love story because they’re the sexy stars of the film and the sexy stars of the film are supposed to do it by the end. There’s certainly consolidation points earned for its free-spirited feminist lead – in addition to Mulligan’s apt performance – but that’s not enough of a cover job to disguise its disappointingly flat – and sometimes seriously head-scratching – narrative turns.

The most pronounced of which comes in the form of the character Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge) and his perplexing motivations. They prove particularly problematic in that his arc only makes sense if we regard him as a madman. His steadfast abandonment of former love Fanny Robbin (Juno Temple) works in and of itself but not in the context of his later developments with Bathsheba. Relationships like this may thrive on the page with much more time and care dedicated to them but on the screen, they just don’t make much sense at all old boy.

Vinterburg delivered a picture of staggering depth with The Hunt and unfortunately his vibrantly nuanced tendencies have all but disappeared here, like a children hiding beneath his mother’s dress. Though there’s much to like in Far From the Madding Crowd – especially Michael Sheen, props to Michael Sheen – there’s little to love.

C+

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Out in Theaters: LOVE & MERCY

May 6, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged Atticus Ross, Bill Camp, Bill Pohlad, Brian Wilson, Elizabeth Banks, Jake Abel, John Cusack, Love & Mercy, Michael Alan Lerner, Oren Moverman, Paul Dano

Film originally seen at Seattle International Film Festival ’15.

It’s no mystery that Brian Wilson was a tortured soul. Look no further than single “Heroes and Villains”, originally released on 1967’s Smiley Smile, and peel back the oily layer of Wilson’s lyrical metaphors to glance into the depths of his tortured soul. In the tune’s restless battlescape, cowboys and indians facing off in a dust-blown shanty town stood in for the forces of “good” and “evil” he saw himself trapped between. A perennial internal tug-of-war born from his turbulent upbringing and inbred insecurity. Psychedelics informed much of Wilson’s Pet Sounds/Smile era – and would later lead to a misdiagnosis that was almost the end of the pop genius – and allowed Wilson the power to probe the darkest corners of his painful past with bright melodies and rich orchestral arrangements. Similarly, Love & Mercy is dark and tender – like a good chunk of turkey – journey into deeper meaning; a filmic psychoanalysis of a man balancing on piano wire at the height of his fame and fortune. Read More

Out in Theaters: THE D TRAIN

May 5, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Jack Black, James Marsden, Jeffrey Tambor, Kathryn Hahn, Out in Theaters, Reviews, The D Train

Original, odd and almost entirely charmless The D Train exploits the lovable loser side of Jack Black to tell a high school reunion comedy that inexplicably transforms into a dour drama about sexual assault, repression and survivor’s guilt. I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “Wait, what?” I know how you feel, just stick with me. This is about to get weird. The D Train is duplicitous in its conceit, almost caught unawares of its violently two-faced nature. The off-colored handling of sexual tension proved riotous to some of the members of my audience but I felt left in the cold, deeply questioning those guffawing at instances of rape being made light of onscreen. So on the one hand, we have some very thematically heavy material, frightfully mismanaged and borderline harmfully mishandled and then we have JB, bounding around in tighty whities oblivious to the underlying implications of this sour narrative. The D Train is, to put it lightly, a very confusing (and confused) movie.

When we meet JB’s Dan Landsman all evidence points to the fact that he’s a noxious nobody. He’s the brand of personified stink bomb that claims insignificant titles (“Chairman of the Reunion Committee”) because he’s got nothing else going in his life. At home, he’s got a loving (if impractically supportive) wife in Kathryn Hahn but still finds himself deeply unsatisfied. I’m not sure if we’re meant to pity him or find his petulance amusing but hoisting said central figure up the flagpole by his underpants establishes some strange hurdles for the film to overcome.The script is tasked with turning JB’s Dan into a chubby Llewyn Davis right quick and writer/directors Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul are no Coens.

At a fated high school reunion committee meeting, Dan tasks himself with landing big fish Oliver Lawless (James Marsden), the pedestalized class cool kid and, more recently, shirtless Banana Boat spokesman. Dan insists they used to be as tight as his whities back in the day. Everyone else on the committee begs to differ. Not one to fall in line with reality, Dan cooks up a crackpot scheme that involves lying to his wife and – more importantly and completely unnecessarily – manipulating his boss into sending him to LA to land “a big deal” with a non-existent business mogul when he is only visiting the foothills of LA to meet up with Lawless with hopes of convincing him to attend the fated reunion. Sound like a movie scheme? Thought so.

Later in the film when all of Dan’s lies come to an inevitable head, a distressed Jeffrey Tambor – whose performance as a Dan’s tech-unsavvy troglodyte boss is way better than the movie deserves – asks why he had to be brought into all this. Sure the fine dining and champagne were all well and good in the moment but now the company’s in the drain. We, as thinking audience members ought to ask the same. Why Dan? Why you be such a douche? Magically, Oliver Lawless is three times as douchey. And herein lies the problem to D Train, it features two repulsive, manipulative men being repulsive and manipulative. And then there’s that whole raping thing. There’s so much to D Train that just doesn’t work, doesn’t make sense and leaves you with a fetid taste in your mouth and pretty much all of Dan and Oliver’s actions fall into this category.

D Train‘s only workable comedy comes in the form of Marsden’s inappropriate role as a sexual adviser to Dan’s son (Russell Posner), involving some image comedy involving stacked lawn chairs. Aside from that, I looked upon the characters with too much pity or resentment to summon a laugh of nearly any shape or size. That’s largely because its messages are so mixed and so off that one could conceivably confuse its confusion for malcontent. Worse, one could confuse it for actual comedy. In the age of bullying, Dan’s desperate pleas for Oliver’s approval holds a mirror up to society only to give it a big, approving thumb’s up. It’s like a movie made up 80s kids in leather jackets who still listen to White Snake while talking smack about the fat kids. Out all by it’s lonesome, this kind of thoughtless film is truly an island of shudders.

When it finally comes to a halt, The D Train arrives in the station a thinly veiled assault allegory poorly masquerading as a comedy; a stupid and ugly mess that doesn’t have the balls to own up to what it actually is and what it’s trying to say. It’s a very strange product, intended for those tickled by the “grossness” of man-on-man sex and with little capacity for sussing out deeper meaning. Which is frustrating because it really does have a good cast.

D

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Weekly Review 78: RIVER, TANGERINES, UNCLE, SUNSHINE, 45

May 4, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Weekly Review Tagged Lost River, Ms. 45, Reviews, Sunshine, Tangerines, Uncle Kent 2, Weekly Review

This week held the beginning of SIFF (at least for us press folk) which means I’ve started watching movies that I can’t yet talk about, including Brian Wilson biopic Love and Mercy. In theaters, I saw a little movie called The Avengers: Age of Ultron (though I’m not sure that anyone will really be talking about that one) as well as Jack Black/James Marsden “comedy” The D Train (more on that this week). In lesser news, I reviewed Russell Crowe‘s chintzy directorial debut The Water Diviner. For those looking for a good read that doesn’t exclusively pertain to the movies, I’d direct you to my interview with Nick Kroll of Adult Beginners, The Kroll Show and The League.

Though it’s been two weeks since this last weekly installment (isn’t that always the case?) we’ve had a chance to make our way through Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut, a 2015 Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, a strange Sundance sequel, an undersung science fiction flair up and a blood-stained cult flick. On the smaller screen, I’m down to pretty much only watching Game of Thrones on a weekly basis and I’ve been as impressed as ever with the season at hand. All this and more on Weekly Review.

LOST RIVER (2015)

Ryan Gosling‘s directorial debut shamelessly mimics the bright lights and brighter violence of Nicholas Winding Refn to dramatically lesser effect. Gosling’s wandering, minimalist narrative is slippery at best (the line between misogyny and feminism is frightfully blurred) and downright dumb at worst. It tells of a dark familial property struggle beset on all sides by inhumanly demonic forces with little subtly and even less sense. The result is a purposefully hallucinatory but egregiously substanceless affair. Gosling’s characters are shades of humans – often too hollow or meaninglessly brooding to deliver any actual impact -whereas his overarching feminist conceit seems truly lost in the woods here. Before Christina Hendrick finds herself encased in human-sized action figure bubble wrap with Ben Mendelshon raving about assaulting her against her will, the film had already lost its footing, and its soul. You’re left questioning whether stuff like this is just the accidental icing on top of an ill-footed attempt or a substance even more sinister. (D)

TANGERINES (2014)

An elderly crate-maker and tangerine farmer provides sanctuary for two wounded soldiers, each on different sides of a war. Though its easy enough to prognosticate that the two sides’ seeming irreconcilable differences will melt like snowfall in the spring, director Zaza Urushadze has an ace in the hole in star Lembit Ulfsak who plays the congenial fruit-farmer-cum-near-philosopher. Though it goes down a recognizable path, Ulfsak forces you to consider the intricacies in the stepping stones along the way. Though Tangerines will likely be remembered most for edging out (even more deserving) Force Majeure of its Best Foreign Language Oscar nomination, it itself is a bit of a force to be reckoned and one with a powerful, if familiar, punch. (B-)

UNCLE KENT 2 (2015)

No one has seen Joe Swanberg’s Uncle Kent which makes a sequel ripe for the picking in Todd Rohal’s idiosyncratic and masturbatory (both metaphorically and literally (there is a five minute masturbation sequence)) oddball follow-up. The pitch for Uncle Kent 2 – an in-joke that somehow found a budget, a production team and 83 minutes of film – is a hard sell to an independent film fan (let alone any casual moviegoers) as it features Ken Osborne playing a version of himself obsessed with making the sequel that we are indeed watching. Its existential trippiness could carve its own kind small chink for niche audiences of stoners and the like, although this is the kind of arthouse faux-mockumentary that will go over most’s heads and might prove full-blown adversarial for those looking for your run-of-the-mill movie experience. That being said, I give Osborne and company credit for breaking expectation and really going for something bizarre and indifferent to the tastes of the rabble. Also it has a five minute masturbation scene. (C)

SUNSHINE (2008)

Alex Garland and Danny Boyle’s third (or second if you discount The Beach) collaboration, Sunshine is a thinking man’s sci-fi film; the smaller, smarter cousin-in-law to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Featuring an enviable (and reputably diverse) cast that includes Cillian Murphy, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Mark Strong, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Bryne and Mr. U.S.A. himself, Chris Evans, Sunshine tells the tale of humanity’s last ditch effort to restart our dying sun by launching a nuclear bomb into its core. Disregard the inherent silliness such a premise could conjure to find a tale of intergalactic manifest destiny and cabin fever madness that transcends the likes of lesser science fiction fare. Sunshine is a great precursor to Garland’s brilliant Ex Machina and yet another impressive platform for Boyle to show off his multi-faceted skill set. Most of all though, it’s a interesting, engaging watch for genre fans. (B+)

MS. 45 (1981)

Drafthouse’s 1981 cult flick has been called the ultimate rape revenge movie and it doesn’t disappoint on that front. Abel Ferrara’s unapologetic portrait of feminine oppression at its breaking point isn’t coy about its intent, offering up an unblinking view of the dangerous side of sexuality in telling the tale of a mute seamstress (Zoë Tamerlis) violated not once but twice on the same day. Pushed past her breaking point, her thirst for revenge becomes quickly insatiable and her rage grows blind and singularly directed at those of the opposite sex. Ferrara’s use of violence is blunt and to the point with Tamerlis playing a sometimes disappointingly one-note angel of vengeance. This low-budg production has some laughable bad effects amidst its effectively chilling executions, earning its right as a cult film, though not one of my favorites. (C+)

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Out in Theaters: THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

April 30, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Iron Man, James Spader, Jeremy Renner, Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, The Avengers: Age of Ultron

What to say about The Avengers: Age of Ultron? It’s certainly a Marvel movie; a spectacle-heavy rationing of motormouthed zingers, busy with whip-pan, slo-mo action montages and done up like a prom queen with CG glitz. It’s the insatiable younger brother to Joss Whedon’s initial compulsory corporate softball tournament; a large and in charge super-conglomeration that rarely stops to make time to make sense, and though darker (emotionally), bigger (logistically) and meaner (spiritually), it’s not nearly as much fun as when space worms were involved. The Marvel brand has been defined by its sense of “fun” and Age of Ultron certainly houses the brand of larger-than-life, escapist entertainment that Marvel fans have emptied out their pockets for in the past but it misses the shock-and-awe boat that installment numero uno rode in on, instead serving up a welting reminder of the inconsequential, aggressively episodic nature of this whole shared universe business. By the end of Ultron’s short-lived age, tables have been set but little has actually changed. This is Lather, Rinse, Repeat: Age of Redundancy. Read More

SIFF 2015 Releases Line Up

April 29, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Film Editorials

This morning, the Seattle International Film Festival lifted the proverbial (and literal) curtain to unveil its impressive 2015 lineup. Arguably overstuffed to the point of popping, this year’s fest will feature an even 450 films including 193 feature length, 70 documentaries, 19 archival films, 164 short films and 4 secret films. Of those 450, 49 are world premieres (23 features and 26 shorts) while 51 are North American premieres (33 features, 18 shorts) and 18 are US premieres (7 features, 11 shorts). As is SIFF tradition, the films are relegated to 10 different (exclamation-filled) “Moods” including: Creative Streak, Face the Music, Love…,Make Me Laugh, Open My Eyes, Provoke Me!, Sci-Fi & Beyond, Show Me the World!, Thrill Me! and To the Extreme. So no matter what mood you’re in, there’s got to be at least one of the 450 that will tickle your fancy.

Of SIFF 2015’s impressive Gala selection, we over at Silver Screen Riot are well ahead of the curve, having already seen a bulk of SIFF’s centerpiece material. Paul Feig‘s Spy is set to open the fest on Thursday, May 14 in Seattle’s McCaw Hall and though we weren’t the biggest fan at its SXSW premiere, it’s very much crowd-pleasing comedy fare. More impressive is James Ponsoldt‘s The End of the Tour, which will play at the DAR Rainier Chapter House as SIFF’s Centerpiece Gala. Having seen 77 films this year to date, The End of the Tour is sitting at my top spot if that’s any indication of me feelings for the film. Closing out the festival is Patrick Brice‘s absolutely hysterical The Overnight which plays Sunday, June 7, the same day that the Golden Space Needle Awards are held.

Others that we’ve seen and would heartily recommend include the twisted Americana fairytale Lamb, Jason Schwartzman‘s other hysterical comedy 7 Chinese Brothers, Joshua Oppenheimer‘s Indonesian genocide doc follow-up The Look of Silence, Kodi Smit-McPhee/Michael Fassbender neo-western Slow West, Leslye Headland‘s surprisingly sweet shock-comedy Sleeping with Other People, NZ splatterhorror Deathgasm, 80s action figure throwback Turbo Kid, family road trip film Manson Family Vacation and Jemaine Clement as a semi-depressive comic book artist in People, Places, Things.

Of those that we’ve not yet seen but immediately caught our interest are: Norway’s Sundance (’14) little-seen but widely-loved Blind, Kevin Bacon-starring SXSW horror hit Cop Car, critically lauded Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys biopic Love and Mercy, Sundance breakout and audience/jury winning Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Room 237 director Rodney Ascher‘s follow-up doc The Nightmare, SXSW ’15 demons-in-the-woods horror flick The Hallow, Daft Punk-inspired 90s Parisian DJ drama Eden and “girl hunts down the pimp that broke her heart” dramedy Tangerine.

Be sure to check back often for SIFF15 updates and our thoughts on the films we see. For now, check out the entire lineup below with links to reviews we’ve written and asterisks on those of interest (growing list.)

————————————————————————————————————————————

1001 Grams
2045 Carnival Folklore
31⁄2 Minutes
54: The Director’s Cut
7 Chinese Brothers
808
Accused
Alleluia
All Things Must Pass*
Alyam, Alyam
Angkor’s Children
The Apu Trilogy: Song of the Little Road The Apu Trilogy: The Unvanquished
The Apu Trilogy: The World of Apu
The Astrologer
Atlantic.
The Automatic Hate*
Banana
Beach Town
Beats of the Antonov
Before We Go
Behavior
Being Evel
Best of Enemies
Beti and Amare
Beyond Zero: 1914-1918
Big Father, Small Father and Other Stories The Birth of Saké
Black Girl
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution A Blast
Blind
Blue Blood
The Blue Hour
The Boda Boda Thieves
Bodyslam: Revenge of the Banana Bonifacio
The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime Boulevard
Breathe Umphefumlo
A Brilliant Young Mind
Cartel Land
Cartoonists: Foot Soldiers of Democracy Caught
The Cave of Silken Web
Cave of the Spider Women
Challat of Tunis
Charlie’s Country
Chatty Catties
Cherry Tobacco
The Chinese Mayor
Chuck Norris vs. Communism
Circle
City of Gold
Ciudad Delirio
The Coffin in the Mountain
Color of the Pomegranates
The Connection
Cooking Up a Tribute Cop Car
Corn Island
Corrections Class Cub
The Cut
The Dark Horse
The Dark Mirror
Dearest
Deathgasm
Décor
Diner
Do I Sound Gay?
Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten:
Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll Dreams Rewired
Dukhtar
Eden*
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films
Elephant Song
The End of the Tour
Excuse My French Experimenter
The Farewell Party
Fassbinder – To Love Without Demands A Few Cubic Meters of Love
Fiddlesticks
The Fire
Flowers
Footloose
The Forecaster
For Grace
Fourth Man Out
Frame by Frame
Free Fall
Front Cover
The Games Maker
Gazelles
Gemma Bovery
Gente de Bien
Gentle
Ghadi
The Glamour & The Squalor
Glassland
The Golden Era
The Golden Hill
Goodnight Mommy
Good Ol’ Boy
Graziella
The Great Alone
The Grump
Güeros
Guidance
H.*
Haemoo
The Hallow*
Handmade with Love in France Happy 40th
A Hard Day
Heaven Knows What
Hedi Schneider is Stuck
Henri Henri
The Hollow One
How To Win At Checkers (Every Time)
I Am Michael*
I Am the People
I Kissed A Girl
I’ll See You in My Dreams
Inside Out*
In the Grayscale
In Utero
The Invisible Boy
Itsi Bitsi
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
Key House Mirror
Kid Kulafu
The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor
King Georges
Krisha*
Kurmanjan Datka Queen of the Mountains
The Lamb
Lamb
License To Operate
Listen to Me Marlon
The Little Death
Little Forest – Summer / Autumn
Little Forest – Winter / Spring
Liza, The Fox-Fairy
The Look of Silence
Love Among the Ruins
Love At First Fight
Love & Mercy*
Love, Theft and Other Entanglements Magicarena
The Malagasy Way
Manglehorn
Manson Family Vacation
Mardan
Margarita, with a Straw
Marshland
A Matter of Interpretation
Maya the Bee Movie
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl*
Meeting Dr. Sun
Meet the Patels
Me Him Her
Messi
Mirage
Molly Moon
Morbayassa
Most Likely to Succeed
Mountain Spirits
Mr. Holmes*
Murder in Pacot
The Muses of Bashevis Singer
My Skinny Sister
Name Me
natural history
The New Girlfriend
The New Man
Next Time I’ll Aim For the Heart Next to Her
The Nightmare*
NN
Not All is Vigil
The Old Dark House
One Million Dubliners
Our Summer in Provence
Our Terrible Country
Out of Nature
Overheard 3
The Overnight
Paco de Lucía: A Journey
Paper Planes
Paper Tigers
Paradise in Service
Paris of the North
Partners in Crime
The Passion of Augustine
People, Places, Things
Personal Gold: An Underdog Story Phoenix
Pilchuck, A Dance with Fire Pioneer Heroes
The Price of Fame
The Primary Instinct
Que Viva Mexico
Racing Extinction
Rebel Without a Cause*
Red Rose
The Red Shoes
Results
Revivre
A Rising Tide
Romeo is Bleeding
The Royal Road
Run
The Russian Woodpecker
The Sacred Arrow
Satellite Girl and Milk Cow
Saved From the Flames – A Trip to the Moon and Other Trips
Through Time and Space A Second Chance
The Second Mother
Senza Nessuna Pietá
Seoul Searching
Sergio Herman, F**KING PERFECT Set Fire to the Stars
Shaun the Sheep*
Sherlock Holmes
Sherry & The Mystery of Palo Cortado
Short Skin
Shrew’s Nest
Sleeping with Other People
Slow West
Snow on the Blades
The Son of the Sheik
Spanish Affair
Spy
Steak (R)evolution
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine*
Strangerland
Sugarcane Shadows
The Summer of Sangaile
Sunshine Superman
Sworn Virgin
Tab Hunter Confidential
Tangerine*
The Teacher’s Diary
Tea Time
Temporary Family
That Sugar Film
Theeb
These Are the Rules
Those People
Three Windows and a Hanging
Tig
Time Out of Mind
The Tournament
Trudell
Turbo Kid
Uncertain
Uncle Kent 2
Under Construction
Unexpected*
The Valley
Valley of the Sasquatch Venice
Very Semi-Serious
The Village
Villa Touma
Vincent
Virgin Mountain Virtuosity
War of Lies
Waterline
West of Redemption
Wet Bum
When Animals Dream
When Marnie Was There
Where I Am King
The Wolfpack
Xenia
Yosemite

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Talking With Nick Kroll of ADULT BEGINNERS, THE LEAGUE

April 28, 2015 by Matt Oakes Posted in Interviews

Nick Kroll first showed up on our televisions as a puka-shell wearing caveman in Cavemen, ABC’s short-lived, ill-fated adaptation of the popular Geico commercial. (Preparing for this interview, I watched an episode and Kroll’s bone-dry comic sensibilities are almost fully formed already, and it was surprisingly funny and apparently (ironically) ahead of its time.) Shortly thereafter, he collaborated with pre-fame Aziz Ansari, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel for a few eps of Human Giant before landing a major gig on The League alongside Scheer, where he played antagonistic lawyer Rodney Ruxin. Kroll got perhaps his widest audience exposure featuring as radio jockey “the Douche” on Parks and Recreations where he met now girlfriend Amy Poehler. In 2013, Kroll launched his own variety show, The Kroll Show, that has now seen its curtain call after three seasons. Read More