Filmmaker Zach Clark's first two features, the scrappy nurse-turned-dominatrix comedy "Modern Love Is Automatic" and the wicked beach party noir "Vacation!," paired restless formalism with Clark's penchant for deadpan humor. By contrast, his touching Christmas tale "White Reindeer" funnels Clark's darker sensibilities and erotic themes into a decidedly more complicated vision of suburban unrest. With a mixture of pathos and dry wit, Clark delivers a solemn twist on the holiday movie formula that simultaneously inhabits the genre and turns it inside out. At first, "White Reindeer" looks like the set up for a routine studio comedy, with giddy real estate agent Suzanne Barrington (a superb Anna Margaret Hollyman) in good spirits as she closes a major deal and celebrates her weatherman husband's upcoming new gig in Hawaii just in time for the holidays. In a safer movie, things might go awry with the couple in their new surroundings; instead,...
- 12/5/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Filmmaker Zach Clark's first two features, the scrappy nurse-turned-dominatrix comedy "Modern Love Is Automatic" and the wicked beach party noir "Vacation!," paired restless formalism with Clark's penchant for deadpan humor. By contrast, his touching Christmas tale "White Reindeer" funnels Clark's darker sensibilities and erotic themes into a decidedly more complicated vision of suburban unrest. With a mixture of pathos and dry wit, Clark delivers a solemn twist on the holiday movie formula that simultaneously inhabits the genre and turns it inside out. At first, "White Reindeer" looks like the set up for a routine studio comedy, with giddy real estate agent Suzanne Barrington (a superb Anna Margaret Hollyman) in good spirits as she closes a major deal and celebrates her weatherman husband's upcoming new gig in Hawaii just in time for the holidays. In a safer movie, things might go awry with the couple in their new surroundings; instead,...
- 3/11/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
An ennui-filled nurse attempts to spice up her life by becoming a dominatrix in Zach Clark’s wickedly twisted feature-length comedy Modern Love Is Automatic, which has recently been uploaded in full online. Watch it embedded above, but be forewarned, it is definitely Nsfw or to watch with children around.
Modern Love Is Automatic roared across the underground film festival a few years ago, racking up numerous awards at the at the Arizona, Atlanta, Melbourne and Boston Underground Film Festivals. In fact, we loved it ourselves so much we named it runner up to Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film’s 2009 Movie of the Year, in a very tight race.
There’s so much to love about the film from Clark’s colorful and uniquely deadpan filmmaking style to star Melodie Sisk’s pitch-perfect bored housewife performance to Maggie Ross’ hilarious scene-stealing turn as an aspiring model who works...
Modern Love Is Automatic roared across the underground film festival a few years ago, racking up numerous awards at the at the Arizona, Atlanta, Melbourne and Boston Underground Film Festivals. In fact, we loved it ourselves so much we named it runner up to Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film’s 2009 Movie of the Year, in a very tight race.
There’s so much to love about the film from Clark’s colorful and uniquely deadpan filmmaking style to star Melodie Sisk’s pitch-perfect bored housewife performance to Maggie Ross’ hilarious scene-stealing turn as an aspiring model who works...
- 8/12/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
After a couple of years of talking about John Wildman's horror flick Stripped, things are finally moving, and the flick is ready to go before cameras with some new additions to the cast. Read on for details. Dig it!
From the Press Release
On the eve of principal photography for the film Stripped, Wildworks Productions, director/producer John Wildman, and producers Farah White, Adam Dietrich and Justina Walford announced key changes in the cast, with Melodie Sisk, Gabriel Horn and R.J. Hanson joining the horror thriller. Filming is set to begin in Dallas, Texas on Friday, June 8. Sisk has been cast to play the leader of a “family” of malevolent women that threaten the lives of a trio of young men on a birthday outing, with Horn and Sanford set to play two brothers that are part of that trio. Sisk and Horn replace the previously announced Tiffany Shepis and Michael Guarnera.
From the Press Release
On the eve of principal photography for the film Stripped, Wildworks Productions, director/producer John Wildman, and producers Farah White, Adam Dietrich and Justina Walford announced key changes in the cast, with Melodie Sisk, Gabriel Horn and R.J. Hanson joining the horror thriller. Filming is set to begin in Dallas, Texas on Friday, June 8. Sisk has been cast to play the leader of a “family” of malevolent women that threaten the lives of a trio of young men on a birthday outing, with Horn and Sanford set to play two brothers that are part of that trio. Sisk and Horn replace the previously announced Tiffany Shepis and Michael Guarnera.
- 6/6/2012
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
White Reindeer is the new indie film comedy by filmmaker Zach Clark that will go into production this winter and for which he’s raising production funds via Kickstarter.
This will be Clark’s third film made with his partners Daryl Pittman and Melodie Sisk following the film festival hits Modern Love Is Automatic and Vacation!, both of which are beloved here at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film. Clark has a unique low-key comic approach to outrageous subject matter and situations that sounds like will be full on display once again in White Reindeer.
The film is a twisted Christmas story in which housewife Suzanne Barrington, who forms an unlikely friendship with her murdered husband’s mistress, an exotic dancer named Fantasia. And that friendship sends Suzanne down into a swirling morass of depravity and criminality from which her friends try to help her escape.
Pittman will be...
This will be Clark’s third film made with his partners Daryl Pittman and Melodie Sisk following the film festival hits Modern Love Is Automatic and Vacation!, both of which are beloved here at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film. Clark has a unique low-key comic approach to outrageous subject matter and situations that sounds like will be full on display once again in White Reindeer.
The film is a twisted Christmas story in which housewife Suzanne Barrington, who forms an unlikely friendship with her murdered husband’s mistress, an exotic dancer named Fantasia. And that friendship sends Suzanne down into a swirling morass of depravity and criminality from which her friends try to help her escape.
Pittman will be...
- 8/29/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Absolute Must Read is a career overview of Spanish surrealist Carlos Atanes by Rob Smart for Bright Lights Film Journal. I’ve been touting Atanes’ work for years, so it’s really nice to finally see a much more respected film website than Bad Lit also champion him. His films are rarely seen — and that’s wrong! So, after you read the article, go Netflix the film Faq.For Filmmaker, Lauren Wissot interviews Zach Clark about his subversive feature films, Vacation! and Modern Love Is Automatic. Also on Filmmaker, Nicholas Rombes proves that Paranormal Activity 2 is an avant-garde film. Hey, he convinced me!For his latest Motion Picture Purgatory, Rick Trembles tackles the Jodie Foster cult classic The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. (Coincidentally, I just saw this film for the first time recently and immediately fell in love!)Candlelight Stories has some short...
- 5/15/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I first met Zach Clark last October when his excitingly subversive, sex-scene-less SXSW hit Modern Love Is Automatic opened Pornfilmfestival Berlin (where my own short The Story of Ramb O had its premiere). Since we barely had the chance to chat in the buzzing, jam-packed Moviemento hub, I was thrilled when I heard recently that Clark’s follow-up Vacation! (pictured above) was already on the festival circuit and would be playing theatrically at Brooklyn’s own reRun Gastropub Theater in May. Finally I had an excuse to find out what makes this offbeat yet seemingly well-adjusted director of a feature about a nurse who moonlights as a dominatrix, and now a flick about four chicks whose weekend getaway goes bizarrely awry, tick.
Vacation! plays for one week at reRun, beginning tonight, May 13.
Filmmaker: In terms of aesthetics, both Modern Love and Vacation! inevitably conjure up comparisons to John Waters and even John Hughes.
Vacation! plays for one week at reRun, beginning tonight, May 13.
Filmmaker: In terms of aesthetics, both Modern Love and Vacation! inevitably conjure up comparisons to John Waters and even John Hughes.
- 5/13/2011
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
As a filmmaker who makes G-rated porn I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being thoroughly excited when I learned that a festival devoted to celebrating sex onscreen had filled its opening night slot with a flick that contains not one sex scene. And writer/director/producer/editor Zach Clark’s SXSW 2009 hit Modern Love Is Automatic (pictured right), a refreshingly respectful and poignant comedy that centers around a jaded nurse who moonlights as a dominatrix and her aspiring (or rather delusional) model roommate, wasn’t the only selection to subversively screw with the very definition of porn. This year’s fifth edition, which concluded on Halloween, included some highly improbable subgenres in the mix — gay zombie and vampire porn and even a porn musical retrospective.
And Rambo porn. Or rather one critical essay in the form of my short, The Story of Ramb O, in which...
And Rambo porn. Or rather one critical essay in the form of my short, The Story of Ramb O, in which...
- 11/2/2010
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Cinekink, the NYC-based erotic film festival, is bringing its unique brand of sexuality to Los Angeles for three steamy nights on Oct. 8-10.
The festival’s definition of “erotica” is clearly a very broad one that includes neo-burlesque performers, bored dominatrices, kinky judges, randy sheep-women, 9/11 enthusiasts and more.
The feature films that are screening — the documentaries Waxie Moon by Wes Hurley and My Sexuality: A Sensory Experience by Felicia Giouzelis; and the fiction films S&M Judge by Erik Lamens and Modern Love Is Automatic by Zach Clark — were all award winners at the 2010 Cinekink. The short film program on the 9th, collectively titled “Best of Cinekink/2010,” also features a batch of award winners, while the other programs are a mix of general 2010 festival favorites.
Regular readers of Bad Lit will have noticed that one of our favorite films of 2009, Modern Love Is Automatic, will be screening, so we’re thrilled about that.
The festival’s definition of “erotica” is clearly a very broad one that includes neo-burlesque performers, bored dominatrices, kinky judges, randy sheep-women, 9/11 enthusiasts and more.
The feature films that are screening — the documentaries Waxie Moon by Wes Hurley and My Sexuality: A Sensory Experience by Felicia Giouzelis; and the fiction films S&M Judge by Erik Lamens and Modern Love Is Automatic by Zach Clark — were all award winners at the 2010 Cinekink. The short film program on the 9th, collectively titled “Best of Cinekink/2010,” also features a batch of award winners, while the other programs are a mix of general 2010 festival favorites.
Regular readers of Bad Lit will have noticed that one of our favorite films of 2009, Modern Love Is Automatic, will be screening, so we’re thrilled about that.
- 10/5/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Zach Clark’s third feature film Vacation! is a throwback to the late ’80s/early ’90s era of indie filmmaking. Its most obvious antecedent being Johnathan Demme’s 1986 film Something Wild, particularly in the way both films start out as lighthearted romps and eventually turn into much darker and explosive territory.
However, where Demme’s brutal second half comes as a total shock to unprepared viewers, Clark teases from the outset that not everything is going to end up ok for his four female leads — a quartet of college dorm friends who have drifted apart over the years and gather for a weekend at a rented beach house in North Carolina. Actually, that set-up also vaguely recalls another ’80s film, the Troma cult classic Mother’s Day. Although Vacation! doesn’t descend anywhere near into that film’s unbridled depravity, it does enjoy its own peripheral sleaziness.
In Vacation!, Clark...
However, where Demme’s brutal second half comes as a total shock to unprepared viewers, Clark teases from the outset that not everything is going to end up ok for his four female leads — a quartet of college dorm friends who have drifted apart over the years and gather for a weekend at a rented beach house in North Carolina. Actually, that set-up also vaguely recalls another ’80s film, the Troma cult classic Mother’s Day. Although Vacation! doesn’t descend anywhere near into that film’s unbridled depravity, it does enjoy its own peripheral sleaziness.
In Vacation!, Clark...
- 8/9/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Year: 2010
Directors: Zach Clark
Writers: Zach Clark
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: projectcyclops
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Imagine if Bret Easton Ellis and Daniel Clowes wrote a script approved by Fisherspooner and tinkered by Gregg Araki and you're almost at the point where you'd find Vacation! It's an art pop movie about four highly strung young women who rent a house by the ocean for a week, drink margaritas, hang out on the beach and buy drugs from the local surfer. Directed by Zach Clark (Modern Love Is Automatic), it's a dark comedy, "about life, death, sex, drugs and other sh*t that totally fu**s you up."
Suger (Maggie Ross) calls her friends Dee-dee (Melodie Sisk), Donna (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and Lorelei (Lydia Hyslop) and suggests a trip to the beach, so they pile into the car and zoom off on their holiday. "Got any green stuff?" asks Dee-dee,...
Directors: Zach Clark
Writers: Zach Clark
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: projectcyclops
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Imagine if Bret Easton Ellis and Daniel Clowes wrote a script approved by Fisherspooner and tinkered by Gregg Araki and you're almost at the point where you'd find Vacation! It's an art pop movie about four highly strung young women who rent a house by the ocean for a week, drink margaritas, hang out on the beach and buy drugs from the local surfer. Directed by Zach Clark (Modern Love Is Automatic), it's a dark comedy, "about life, death, sex, drugs and other sh*t that totally fu**s you up."
Suger (Maggie Ross) calls her friends Dee-dee (Melodie Sisk), Donna (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and Lorelei (Lydia Hyslop) and suggests a trip to the beach, so they pile into the car and zoom off on their holiday. "Got any green stuff?" asks Dee-dee,...
- 6/20/2010
- QuietEarth.us
Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
- 6/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 16th annual Bradford International Film Festival, which will run March 18-28, is a total celebration of all forms of cinema, from classic films to modern world cinema to a tribute to Cinerama and more. But, most excitingly, is a bombastic collection of some of the best, most exciting underground films being made today.
From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.
Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.
From Bad Lit’s perspective, the most thrilling screening of the entire 10-day affair is the new film by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead, Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In the U.S., Whitehead is a “lost” filmmaker from the underground’s heyday in the ’60s, being left out of most histories of the underground movement. Whitehead directed several influential films, including Wholly Communion and The Fall, before dropping out of filmmaking in the mid-’70s.
Film historian Jack Sargeant wrote extensively about and interviewed Whitehead for his wonderful book on Beat cinema, Naked Lens.
- 3/5/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The seventh annual CineKink Film Festival in NYC gave all kinds of perverts and kinky-minded individuals a warm haven during the cold month of February, Feb. 16-21 specifically. Lots of sexy fare was screened at the venerated Anthology Film Archives, but the sexiest of the sexiest? That would be these award-winning films listed below.
Your average kinky film fan was given the chance to vote for several Audience Choice Awards, but there was also a jury of super kinksters voting on short films; plus the ultimate kinky players, i.e. the staff of the CineKink fest itself, gave out a handful of special awards.
The licentious jury voting on short films consisted of Bad Lit pal Mike White of the legendary zine Cashiers du Cinemart, Lolita Wolf of the Leather Yenta (Nsfw) blog and Bill Woods of the long-running New Filmmakers screening series.
Finally, before we get to the full...
Your average kinky film fan was given the chance to vote for several Audience Choice Awards, but there was also a jury of super kinksters voting on short films; plus the ultimate kinky players, i.e. the staff of the CineKink fest itself, gave out a handful of special awards.
The licentious jury voting on short films consisted of Bad Lit pal Mike White of the legendary zine Cashiers du Cinemart, Lolita Wolf of the Leather Yenta (Nsfw) blog and Bill Woods of the long-running New Filmmakers screening series.
Finally, before we get to the full...
- 2/24/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The seventh annual CineKink Film Festival is set to undress for all kinky filmgoers in New York City on February 16-21. Included in the lineup are two fantastic, slightly dirty underground films, plus a full smorgasbord of sexy cinematic goodness.
The opening night festivities will begin on the 16th at the Kush Lounge (191 Chrystie St.) with music and performances, plus a screening of the lesbian ode to bestiality (sort of) The Sheep and the Ranch Hand, a beautiful and hilarious film by San Francisco filmmaker Loretta Hintz, and a newly found “lost” film by notorious ’60s radical, criminal and filmmaker J.X. Williams.
Then, on the 17th, the original museum of film, the Anthology Film Archives, will be transformed into an erotic museum when CineKink moves there for the duration of the rest of the festival.
But, on the 19th, don’t dare miss the wonderful S&M comedy Modern Love Is Automatic...
The opening night festivities will begin on the 16th at the Kush Lounge (191 Chrystie St.) with music and performances, plus a screening of the lesbian ode to bestiality (sort of) The Sheep and the Ranch Hand, a beautiful and hilarious film by San Francisco filmmaker Loretta Hintz, and a newly found “lost” film by notorious ’60s radical, criminal and filmmaker J.X. Williams.
Then, on the 17th, the original museum of film, the Anthology Film Archives, will be transformed into an erotic museum when CineKink moves there for the duration of the rest of the festival.
But, on the 19th, don’t dare miss the wonderful S&M comedy Modern Love Is Automatic...
- 2/10/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
One of the great things about producing Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film is that it has introduced me to the work of underground filmmakers from all over the world that I would not have heard of otherwise. Sure, there are tons of fantastic, talented filmmakers in the U.S. whose work I love seeing and reviewing, but there’s something exciting — especially as someone who’s rarely ever traveled — about getting DVDs from foreign lands.
Also, I wrote on the site recently that I didn’t know what types of films could truly be called “innovative” these days. “Innovative” doesn’t automatically conjure up a stamp of quality, of course. Plus, this past year I’ve seen tons of films that have been uniquely creative and have pushed boundaries. Many of the films that ended up as runners-up to this year’s “Movie of the Year” have totally...
Also, I wrote on the site recently that I didn’t know what types of films could truly be called “innovative” these days. “Innovative” doesn’t automatically conjure up a stamp of quality, of course. Plus, this past year I’ve seen tons of films that have been uniquely creative and have pushed boundaries. Many of the films that ended up as runners-up to this year’s “Movie of the Year” have totally...
- 12/17/2009
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
London -- Lynn Shelton's "Humpday" will kickstart this year's Raindance Film Festival, which includes an American Indie sidebar, organizers said Monday.
Shelton's movie, which stars Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass, opens the London event, which aims to set itself apart from other festivals here by focusing on discoveries, innovation and indie filmmaking.
The festival will close with Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" to round out a strong U.S. presence.
Also in this year's lineup is "My Suicide," featuring one of David Carradine's last turns before his death.
Steve Balderson returns to the festival with "Stuck!" starring Karen Black, Mink Stole and Susan Traylor.
Raindance will play host to the U.K. premiere of Canadian Ryan Ward's "Son of the Sunshine" and the unspooling of Zach Clark's "Modern Love Is Automatic" starring Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross and Carlos Bustamante.
Organizers said the 17th edition of...
Shelton's movie, which stars Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass, opens the London event, which aims to set itself apart from other festivals here by focusing on discoveries, innovation and indie filmmaking.
The festival will close with Steven Soderbergh's "The Girlfriend Experience" to round out a strong U.S. presence.
Also in this year's lineup is "My Suicide," featuring one of David Carradine's last turns before his death.
Steve Balderson returns to the festival with "Stuck!" starring Karen Black, Mink Stole and Susan Traylor.
Raindance will play host to the U.K. premiere of Canadian Ryan Ward's "Son of the Sunshine" and the unspooling of Zach Clark's "Modern Love Is Automatic" starring Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross and Carlos Bustamante.
Organizers said the 17th edition of...
- 9/1/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Year: 2009
Directors: Zach Clark
Writers: Zach Clark
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: agentorange
Rating: 6.3 out of 10
[Editor's Note: Modern Love is Automatic just had it's premiere at SXSW]
"Beyond Apathy" is the tagline of Modern Love is Automatic and, while I've choked down the desire to exploit it for use in some pithy headline (like everyone on the planet recently did for their reviews of Watchmen) the idea of apathy in filmmaking should be examined here because it both helps and hurts this film.
Look at the poster to the right. It doesn't exactly scream "apathy" does it? In fact it projects quite the opposite. It's coloring is loud neon, it's lettering is all caps and bolded as if to scream at you from the page. Hardly what you would expect from a film about modern dislocation. But this poster, like the character in Bettie Page attire on it, is playing out a role. It's desperately grasping for some sort of...
Directors: Zach Clark
Writers: Zach Clark
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: agentorange
Rating: 6.3 out of 10
[Editor's Note: Modern Love is Automatic just had it's premiere at SXSW]
"Beyond Apathy" is the tagline of Modern Love is Automatic and, while I've choked down the desire to exploit it for use in some pithy headline (like everyone on the planet recently did for their reviews of Watchmen) the idea of apathy in filmmaking should be examined here because it both helps and hurts this film.
Look at the poster to the right. It doesn't exactly scream "apathy" does it? In fact it projects quite the opposite. It's coloring is loud neon, it's lettering is all caps and bolded as if to scream at you from the page. Hardly what you would expect from a film about modern dislocation. But this poster, like the character in Bettie Page attire on it, is playing out a role. It's desperately grasping for some sort of...
- 3/16/2009
- QuietEarth.us
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