Reviews

With a blazing carpenter influenced score How the Sky Will Melt bounces between abstract comedy, introverted drama and psychedelic horror. This grainy 8mm film plays like an artifact of unknown origin that you're just never sure what to make of but you know you won't forget anytime soon. Per Wade's Q&A after the film, Sky is to remind you of that moment when you wake up at 3am to some random movie on the TV. You don't know the movie, you don't know its story, you are drowsy and the movie is using its own abstract dream-logic. Well, mission accomplished. Sky's narrative is far from straight forward and at times it feels a bit lost in itself. However, it was a real treat, especially projected on a large screen and blasting its terrific score. Some of the acting is amateurish but honestly this doesn't matter. The dialogue is sparse with intent and even the slightly off delivery works in favor of the strange artifact atmosphere.

The plot follows Gwen, a musician. Her band, let's say, is on hiatus after a bizarre event. She returns to her family home in a small town and becomes lost in the idleness of such. All sorts of weird sh*t happens, usually involving vibrant colors and "Magic Winks", a cassette playing pair of goggles that apparently matches visuals to audio for some augmented experience. All of this is presented in a colorful 80s yet timeless retro-future setting that matches the killer score. Yeah, It's a weird film . .FEED ME YOUR COLORS…FEED ME YOUR COLORS>> FEE D M E Y OU R COL OR S

peep that teaser tho: https://vimeo.com/96262793

You Make Me Feel So Young is the latest feature from Zach Weintraub, who I'd guess is a die-hard do-it-yourself indie filmmaker generating clever witted and artistically fresh cinema. The film follows the story of Justine, a girl doing her best to become comfortable with her fading relationship. Weintraub makes it look easy by presenting a simple story in a simple setting but it's the moody undertones and canted black and white melancholic style that serves it so well. And while that all sounds so drab there's brief moments of comedy that carries the film along. Weintraub also has a way with long takes by toying with our perception. He commonly uses off-screen action and/or plays with the depth of field in an act of cinematic language – a sort of punch-line by way of focus.

It's far too easy to let Hollywood control your cinematic experience so please do yourself a favor and look for those under-appreciated filmmakers out there.

Ken Russell and Dario Argento live in Rob Zombie's satanic panic throwback, The Lords of Salem. Here's an easy to hate film of the year - a simplistic story, choppy progression with an overt style over substance complex - but it's also the most noteworthy horror film of the year. Zombie has put out something original to himself and to the current stream of contemporary horror cinema - a bombastic, stylized, psychedelic slow burn with the most bold use of satanism I've ever seen on film. As mentioned above, Zombie is echoing the disturbing eclectic works of the likes of Russell and Argento. There's an underlying essence of oddity and ambiguity that makes this film something more than a run-of-the-mill spook-fest with all of modern horror's poor qualities. All of the Zombie "haters" really should be thanking him for being unique to the scene - I mean, how many generic ghost stories and paranormal crap-tivities can we endure?

An urban family, having moved to the countryside of Mexico, experiences raw drama and ambiguous fantasy in this cinematically fresh and rewarding film by Reygadas. The cinematography is ethereal and at times haunting when combined with such unsettling imagery. That's not to say the films imagery is horrifying in itself. The imagery of Post Tenebras Lux is unsettling in that it's picturesque and lush while also being new and confounding. This is partially due to it's hypnotic, almost tunnel vision take on the 4:3 ratio. This way of presenting the story only adds to it's mysterious nature. The narrative in itself is overtly expressionist as it's partial auto-biographical and moves with fluidity removed from reasoning. It's a film that's entrancing and bewildering at the same time - an atmosphere that just seems to work. It certainly worked to make one of the most original films of the year.

The best film of the year stars Gosling as he plays Julian, an American running a Thai boxing club/drug front in Bangkok who, in some sense, is facing the forces of divinity made manifest by the dynamics of his family and the Thai police. Rife with beautiful cinematography in a neon lit yet coldly engaging world and a zoning electronic score, Only God Forgives shows director, Refn's European sensibilities returning since his last film, Drive. This bloody violent film is stocked with symbolism and at times perplexing philosophical/psychological currents. Do not expect to follow Only God Forgives emotionally – it's expecting you to put the work in intellectually. Which is a reflection of the Spanish surrealist the film is dedicated to…

"If you are great, 'El Topo' is a great picture. If you are limited, 'El Topo' is limited"

– Alejandro Jodorowsky on his film El Topo.

Does that make it self-indulgent? Arrogant? Pretentious? I, for one, couldn't care less. It's art.

With his debut film Primer, Carruth introduced himself with a unique storytelling style that manages to make sci-fi on a budget more enjoyable than blockbuster sci-fi. It's not just his fresh style but the simple and always effective use of intelligent and original ideas. The same can be said of Upstream Color. One could sum up the story as easily as saying two individuals are introduced into the life cycle of some parasitic drug. They meet and slowly unravel the mystery of what has happened and is happening to them. Again, the real beauty here is the eclectic editing and visual poetry that Carruth utilizes to tell there story. One could spend days discussing and analyzing the story concepts - Walden, anyone?. Add in the cinematic aspects and you'll be at it for weeks.

When one hears of a sci-fi film about the massing of hyper-intelligent ants one immediately constructs a mental imagine of something akin to Them! (1954) with its ridiculous, though iconic, monster ants barely functioning well enough to move. However, Phase IV is an entirely different movie…and ant for that matter. Phase IV is nothing short of a sci-fi film for the "thinking man". While being fully aware of the genre's motifs its cinematic approach is that of the art-house – a 70s psychedelic sci-fi trip shrouded in hordes of ants directed by the famous Academy Award winning graphic designer, Saul Bass. For all this, its status in film history is nothing but a tragedy. It's the only feature film directed by Bass and it's almost completely forgotten and certainly isn't readily available for viewing.

The story is fairly simple: some undefined cosmic event occurs and augments ant evolution. This particular desert colony ascends to an intelligent collective consciousness making the ants capable of communication and great terror. The colony, per its aggressive expansion, drives out the local human population. A scientific lab is established with our main scientist protagonists. The proceedings eventually lead to a division between the two scientists and some inevitable chaos.

The brilliance of this film is the visual component. The cinematography by Dick Bush (not kidding) is in line with the best of the 70s. Furthermore, there are also a lot of interestingly beautiful shots of the colony and ant behavior. Straight away at the start of the film we are presented some truly striking images of the ant intelligence movement for several minutes – no dialog, no humans, just cinematic language.

In short one could say, If you're the type of person annoyed by a Space Odyssey or even Blade Runner, then you're the type of person that shouldn't watch Phase IV. However, if you're a total film buff and/or sci-fi nerd I highly recommend you seek out this hard to find, underrated, masterpiece – you will not regret it.

Review from Beguiled: http://brianbeguiled.blogspot.com/