CineXmas

Before American Hustle, there was I Heart Huckabees

My Kickstarter project - MONTAUK, a road movie about two friends at the tip of NY by Kevin Duffey — Kickstarter

MONTAUK, a road movie about two friends at the tip of NY by Kevin Duffey — Kickstarter

This is very upsetting (but see my note below): "Stanley Kubrick Filmed Fake Moon Footage"

Note: None of the interviewees in this video mention Kubrick directly (although it's implicit that his wife, Christiane, would be referring to him, though the footage). They all say "he", which tells me there's a possibility that the footage was culled from numerous sources, after which such implications could be made.

However, I am way more convinced now than I was after watching the doc Room 237 that this is indeed a possibility.

check this out on Netflix Instant Watch now

Screen caps from the beautiful but talky The Wall (Austria/Germany, 2012)

Film Review - Grabbers

The monster movie is a raped genre. It’s been pillaged to death ever since filmmaking became a technologically cheaper and hence more accessible undertaking. But we’ve seen some interesting films nonetheless. Finland’s yuletide horror Rare Exports, and Dead Snow and Trollhunter from Norway exhibit a DIY hipness while not skimping on well-executed CGI, giving even Hollywood a run for its money.  Ireland now joins the ranks of the island-bound, indie monster movie elite with Grabbers, a hilarious title for any movie ever named, but justified given the fact that director Jon Wright makes it cleverly comedic as well.

Grabbers opens with a speeding meteorite crashing into the waters off Aran Island, a small Irish fishing town. In no time at all, some unsuspecting fishermen are gobbled up by a giant, gummy, cephalopod-looking thing. Something like an alien octopus, this organism can survive in liquids and air most likely elementally different than its home planet's.  Although there appears to be no causal explanation for it's origin or it's miraculous survival, this slimy creature - which seems to roll on land using it's many spear-ended tentacles - moves it's attention to the island. This is when people start getting, you know, grabbed.

Lisa, played by the wonderfully astute Ruth Bradley, is a newly transferred policewoman - conservative, plucky, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and despite being Irish and all, wouldn't touch a drop of alcohol with a ten foot tentacle.  To her dismay, she defaults into partnering with cynical Garda Ciaran O’Shea (Richard Coyle), who spends nearly all of his off-duty hours in a pub.  Their patrol kicks off with a call to a beach where a ghastly sight has been reported - some very large fish have been mangled and then thrown ashore by some...thing.  Well, numerous locals, some large, creepy translucent eggs and logical explanations by a snarky scientist later, we are confronted with the film’s creative yet somehow inevitable hook: this gross monster is anatomically incapable of ingesting humans which have been inebriated.

Naturally, this makes way for a romance to kindle twixt the two Gardas - and for the libations to flow, of course, all while trying to run the beast aground for once and for all.

There is no shortage of Irish tropes in this bucolic monster flick. A winsome irish sheep herder, complete with cane and golfing cap; a quibblesome, Hobbit-looking couple are the bartenders at the local pub. Much of this is done with a winking Irish eye of course, and that’s what makes this such an enjoyable romp.  What are the Irish if not hearty self-reflexive jokesters?

While Grabbers is no monsterpiece, it’s funny, smart, surprisingly beautiful to look at and, like it’s smaller budget ilk, shows some skillful CGI.  We can't forget why we watch movies.  Watching Grabbers will remind you.

Good movie, bad poster

"...Tarkovsky plays dumb and says nothing.  And this is what convinces me of his potential.  Those who spend too much time explaining their own films don't have much of a future."

-Akira Kurosawa on Andrei Tarkovsky