This week the Twitch-O-Meter column celebrates its 128th iteration. This is 10,000,000 in binary, so we decided to make it a huge multi-article one. Several writers will each contribute one article of the same theme, and put together these will form a MEGA-Twitch-O-Meter, or MEGA-ToM for short.
This time the theme is a pretty straightforward one: the writers will each give us their top 1,000 of favorite movies (which, thankfully, is only eight in non-binary…).
Our sixth entry comes from art-house connoisseur (and lover of all things absurd, apparently) Peter Cornelissen. The stage is your’s, Peter!
When asked what you think are “the best movies” it’s tempting to just list some of your favorites, maybe a few that are underappreciated along with a few indisputable classics, and of course I’m going to answer this amongst a similar line of thought. But I also picked those movies that for me represent the best kind of cinema. The kind that take the medium serious as an art form.
In cinema, elements like screen composition, sound design, movement in time or the close-up of a human face all work together to achieve a psychological effect. Movies tell their ‘stories’ in this way like painting and poetry, they go beyond just words and even beyond just images. Filmmakers that understand this tremendous subconscious - dreamlike and manipulative - power of the art form are able to make unforgettable pictures that are profoundly moving or unsettling, or both.
(Peter’s list can be found after the break…)
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,110 (or “6”)"...
I have just done a search of the Twitch archive and ended up shocked and appalled at the fact that we have never in these pages reviewed Ole Bornedal’s Just Another Love Story - a stellar Danish noir-thriller that I’ve actually programmed at more than one festival. I love this film. I’ve programmed this film. And yet, somehow, I’ve never actually written about this film. I am ashamed.
But the chance for redemption approaches fast, with the UK’s Revolver showing just how extremely clever they are by giving Bornedal’s picture a theatrical release on British shores at the end of the month and we’ve got the brand new UK trailer to prove it. I feel like the level of action in this trailer is amped up just a touch too much compared to the tone of the film as a whole but the level of awesome is just about right. Have I mentioned that this is a great film? You’ll find the trailer below the break.
Continue Reading "UK Trailer For Bornedal’s JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY"...
[Our thanks to Matthew Grinshpun for the following review.]
With his first feature film, Grace, director Paul Solet chases after that most elusive of emotions: dread. Not content to sucker-punch his audience with the thin stereotypes and jump-from-your-seat spooks that have become genre boilerplate, he opts to patiently cultivate a set of characters whose mores and manias are intimately, yet disturbingly, familiar, before plunging them into a nightmarish bloodbath. The investment pays off. Solet’s picture is at once a rollicking bourgeois farce in the tradition of Buñuel and a Polanski-inspired work of terror behind closed doors, a loogie hocked in the bright eye of American optimism.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: GRACE"...
I first caught Josef von Sternberg’s Underworld (1927) at the Pacific Film Archive von Sternberg retrospective earlier this year accompanied by Judith Rosenberg on piano. I welcomed the opportunity to watch the film again projected on the Castro’s giant screen with live piano accompaniment by the indefatigable Stephen Horne for the specific intent of savoring the scene where “Feathers” McCoy (Evelyn Brent) first comes to the attention of “Rolls Royce” Wensel (Clive Brook); namely, by way of an ostrich feather shaken loose from McCoy’s outfit, drifting down to Wensel who is sweeping the floor below. Entrances are rarely so insinuating.
Eddie Muller, the “Czar of Noir”, had the honors of introducing Underworld to its SFSFF audience. Often asked—in his capacity as the Czar—what he considers to be the first film noir, Muller admitted he rarely answers the question because he considers trying to pin down the first film noir as somewhat an absurd endeavor. Notwithstanding, an ever-expanding roster of scholars continue to sift through pre-1940 films in search of some sort of cinematic missing link to establish a proto-noir precedent. “Here’s the deal,” Muller punched, “to me, film noir applies to an organic, artistic movement within the business of popular entertainment and it has been more than sufficiently proven that its Hollywood incarnation began in the early 1940s, primarily with two films: the A-list The Maltese Falcon (1941) and a far-less influential—but not insignificant—64-minute B-film called Stranger On the Third Floor made by RKO in 1940.” The Maltese Falcon, based on Dashiell Hammett’s famous ‘30s novel popularized the figure of the wisecracking anti-hero up to his ears in an amoral world of greed and avarice. Stranger On the Third Floor introduced to small-scale Hollywood-made crime stories an extravagant expressionism in art direction and cinematography. Both these films, however, are mere touchstones, the progenitors if you will, the exemplars of noir’s content and style. The definitive film noir Double Indemnity would not be released until three years later in 1944.
Continue Reading "SFSFF09—UNDERWORLD (1927) Introductory Remarks"...
[Our thanks to Lauren Baggett for the following review.]
I must confess to being a little confused by some of the reception to THIRST. I rushed home immediately after Sunday’s screening, eager to finally read all of the reviews I had been avoiding in order to keep myself unspoiled, only to find that the general opinion has been pretty mixed. Turns out that the very same elements I thought to be assets to the film were seen by others as liabilities. It makes me wonder if Park Chan-wook is becoming a victim of his own success. Just look at the critical reception to I’M A CYBORG BUT THAT’S OK: sure, the film was uneven, but its charm was all but ignored in favor of pronouncements that Park should stick to revenge flicks.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: THIRST"...
The first big block of Gala and Special Presentation titles have been announced for the 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. Good list? Depends on how you feel about Johnnie To, Ricky Gervais, Bong Joon Ho, Steven Soderbergh, Nicolas Winding Refn and the like. I say yum. The full announcement is below the break.
Continue Reading "VALHALLA RISING! MOTHER! THE INVENTION OF LYING! First TIFF Gala Titles Announced!"...
[Our thanks to Olivier D’Amour for the following review.]
The festival has only just started and we’ve already been treated to many fine films, from Thirst to Grace to Sion Sono’s wonderful, unforgettable Love Exposure. Also, the Johnny Knoxville-produced The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia was a nice surprise. A documentary about the infamous White clan, family of Jesco White who made a name for himself as the “dancin’ outlaw” in the early 90’s. Sure, they redefine the terms “excess” and “crazy” but overall it was a funny, tender film. Dominic Murphy’s fictional White Lightnin’ is no generic biopic. It takes elements from Jesco’s life but only as a starting point or inspiration. Instead, it goes to a very, very dark place quite fast and then spirals straight into Hell. A layered, affecting story that’s basically a portrait of an outsider whose demons were always two steps ahead of him and who was painfully aware of his own weakness, even through the ravages of drugs and madness. Eventually, it becomes about his quest for redemption and peace. The pace is frantic throughout and there are welcome touches of humor and tenderness through the grime, not to mention jolts of harrowing, yet tasteful violence. In the end though, White Lighnin’ is sensitive and moving instead of being cheaply exploitative or shocking.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: WHITE LIGHTNIN’"...
When our Twitch-O-Meter column reached number fifty we did something cool: ten writers gave a list with five of their favorite directors, creating one huge Twitch-O-Meter which we lovingly called the MEGA-ToM. However, the next big round number is already upon us: 128, which in binary is 10,000,000.
It’s a 10 megaton MEGA-ToM!
Therefore this whole week will be devoted to a huge multi-article Twitch-O-Meter. And this time, the writers will give us their top 1,000 of favorite movies (which, thankfully, is only eight in non-binary…).
Fifth in line is the marvel who keeps this site up-and-running, called Opus. Why him? Well… behind all that tech-wizardry lurks one hell of a writer called Jason Morehead, and it always pays to read what he writes. Take it away, Jason!
Jason’s list can be found after the break!
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,101 (or “5”)"...
Apparently, Stephen Chow has left The Green Hornet completely and now the studio has open a casting call for someone else to play Kato. Here is what they are looking for according Spoiler TV:
[KATO] ALL ASIAN ETHNICITIES, Male, 20’s - early 40’s. Brit Reid’s manservant/chauffeur by day and Green Hornet’s martial arts-skilled sidekick by night. Actor doesn’t have to have Martial Arts experience.
With Chow gone, so too is my interest for the Green Hornet. The only reason I ever care for this movie was his involvement. Maybe Chow is better off not participating in this movie. Sony really dropped the ball when they won’t allow Chow full creative freedom as the director, even after his blow-out success in Asia. I trust Chow’s decision to leave was understandable and justifiable. If you look at the history of Asian actors crossing over to Hollywood, the roles that they got were usually meaningless duds. I personally think it would of been a big slap to the face to see Chow play second fiddle to a lesser comedic actor in Seth Rogen when you compare both their track record but hey, that’s just me. Bottomline: Its Sony loss.
Crazy 4 Cult is an annual art show held at the One Nine Eight Eight galleries in LA and San Francisco. What these show revolve around is getting 100 artists to portray their favorite cult films and the results are more than often amazing. What they also do is have a little contest and this year Nakatomi head honcho Tim Doyle gets to challenge your geek street cred.
What he has created is poster of cult movie and pop culture weapons from movies and animation and all you have to do is name them, all 40 of them. The prize is pretty damn awesome, a good chunk of the prints offered at this year’s show and an Artist Proof of Luke Chueh’s ”I Asked For Scrambled” print which is asking for quite the sum on the secondary marked.
Then if you don’t want to bother with the contest and just get the poster then it goes up for sale when the show opens, July 16th, and any remaining copies will be available on Nakatomi after that. Only 100 printed, signed and numbered, 3 color w/ metallic inks and hand printed with questionable love by Doyle himself.
Check out the Crazy 4 Cult website and take a look at what is easily one of the sweetest art shows out there, especially for us movie geeks.
Whoot whoot!
This week the Twitch-O-Meter column celebrates its 128th iteration. This is 10,000,000 in binary, so we decided to make it a huge multi-article one. Several writers will each contribute one article of the same theme, and put together these will form a MEGA-Twitch-O-Meter, or MEGA-ToM for short.
This time the theme is a pretty straightforward one: the writers will each give us their top 1,000 of favorite movies (which, thankfully, is only eight in non-binary…).
Our fourth entry comes from James Dennis. Take it away, James!
Rather than a top 8 in the conventional sense I’ve chosen my ‘top 8 films’ which, despite their brilliance, I have no desire whatsoever to see again. What came up after hours of navel gazing, is an eclectic mix of films that are hugely accomplished but for reasons that should become apparent I just don’t want to sit through again. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the process was how many films initially popped into my head, but which on second thoughts I would really quite like to see again (Breaking The Waves, funnily enough). Inevitably I have only seen most of these films once and so my memories range from crystal clear to freezing fog – I’ve purposefully not looked up plot details etc. so there may well be factual errors. Anyway, here’s how I remember them…
(see the list after the break!)
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,100 (or “4”)"...
Speaking as a member of Film Preservation Associates, the team that brought King Vidor’s Bardelys the Magnificent (1926) “back to life” after it’s having been believed lost for 70 years, David Shepard historicized that the film was based on a novel by Rafael Sabatini, a prolific author whose other work includes Scaramouche, The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood. MGM bought the story rights to Bardelys the Magnficent for 10 years and produced the successful filmic adaptation Bardelys the Magnificent.
By contract, in 1936 MGM had to either repurchase the rights “for an additional charm” or destroy the film. As nothing could have been deader than a silent film in 1936, MGM elected to duly destroy the negative (although MGM actually renewed the copyright for the movie in 1953). Except for a short fragment included in another Vidor film Show People (1928), nothing of Bardelys was thought to remain until 2007 when Shepard’s French film partners—Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange—purchased a miscellaneous lot of nitrate film and found within it the source copy that was used for the restoration. It was a worn, skuzzy print but has since been cleaned up.
Continue Reading "SFSFF 2009—BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT (1926) Introductory Remarks"...
When our Twitch-O-Meter column reached number fifty we did something cool: ten writers gave a list with five of their favorite directors, creating one huge Twitch-O-Meter which we lovingly called the MEGA-ToM. However, the next big round number is already upon us: 128, which in binary is 10,000,000.
It’s a 10 megaton MEGA-ToM!
Therefore this whole week will be devoted to a huge multi-article Twitch-O-Meter. And this time, the writers will give us their top 1,000 of favorite movies (which, thankfully, is only eight in non-binary…).
Third in line is our mysterious visitor from the far East: The Visitor!
The Chronological Failing Of My Fear Threshold
Or How 8 Horror Movies Gradually Made Me Lose My Nerve
My earliest memory of cinema is going to see Westworld with a bunch of kids from my neighbourhood when I was about 5. I remember till today how Yul Brynner’s face was melted by acid to reveal the circuitry underneath. That disturbed a 5-year-old no end.
But it also fascinated me.
From thereon began my journey into the heart of darkness, to speak in overdramatic terms.
Or in simpler terms, I entered pants-wetting territory and never looked back. So here, in chronological order, is how my horror diet developed:
(Find the list after the break!)
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,011 (or “3”)"...
[Our thanks to Justine Smith for the following review.]
Paul Solet was in Montreal for the Fantasia Film Festival to present his feature film debut, GRACE. A surprise hit at Sundance earlier this year, the film has already claimed at least three “casualties” who have fainted during the showing of the film. Though not necessarily graphic, the film is emotionally heavy, and within that context it is not difficult to understand why it would have such a great effect on people. Though the film has its fair share of blood and violence, it often takes a backseat to the psychological horror of a woman confronting motherhood.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: GRACE"...
Introducing the opening night film of the 14th edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Jeffrey Vance—author of Douglas Fairbanks (University of California Press, 2008)—offered: “Judging by this enormous turnout tonight, I’m inclined to think that talking films are just a passing fad.”
One of the great pleasures of Douglas Fairbanks’ career, Vance specified, were the action-adventure films of the 1920s; one of his finest being The Gaucho. “It’s also one of the most unusual of his features,” Vance qualified. “It’s dark in tone and it leaps frequently from comedy to tragedy to self-parody. Like the other great Fairbanks films, it has spectacular opportunities for him to showcase his wonderful athletic prowess and it also contains superb production values.” Characterizing The Gaucho as “a near masterwork”, Vance claimed it’s a pity that the film is rarely revived because—of all of Fairbanks’ films—it may resonate best with 21st Century audiences because the character Fairbanks plays is dark and ironic and his mesmerizing leading lady—Lupe Vélez—is no damsel in distress but “in every respect the equal of Fairbanks’ gaucho.” Indeed, one contemporary review dubbed her “the female Fairbanks.”
Continue Reading "SFSFF09—THE GAUCHO (1927) Introductory Remarks"...
A soulful melodrama about a dysfunctional family; a crippled farmer, his mentally handicapped wife and their adopted daughter. Is Zhang Jiabei’s Cherries as facetious as that synopsis makes it sound or is this another Chinese film that deserves more attention beyond the festival circuit and a mainland DVD release? Review after the break.
Continue Reading "CHERRIES review"...
This week the Twitch-O-Meter column celebrates its 128th iteration. This is 10,000,000 in binary, so we decided to make it a huge multi-article one. Several writers will each contribute one article of the same theme, and put together these will form a MEGA-Twitch-O-Meter, or MEGA-ToM for short.
This time the theme is a pretty straightforward one: the writers will each give us their top 1,000 of favorite movies (which, thankfully, is only eight in non-binary…).
Niels Matthijs a.k.a. Onderhond started the MEGA-ToM earlier today. I’m the second in line so here is my list!
The question seemed so simple: list your eight most favorite films. But it never stops at eight, of course. I would probably end up with a top forty of films scuffling for the top spot in my mind, the winner changing every minute with every mood swing I have.
Therefore, additional rules are needed to end up at eight. Niels already used one (films being under-appreciated) and I’ll use another: films that stung and surprised me. Often these were films I saw when they were already famous and my anticipation would be high, yet it was STILL topped by what I saw.
Here are my eight. Well, after the break…
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,010 (or “2”)"...
The spirit of Christ compelled me to attend opening night weekend of the 12th edition of Midnight Mass. I’m speaking of the spirit of Peaches Christ, of course, who scored a sold-out crowd for her Saturday midnight screening of The Exorcist, preceded by a dazzling pre-show number “Peaches Will Funk You” (with such provocative lyrics as: “I don’t care if your mother sucks cock as long as you line up around the block”) and enough Regan look-alikes both on stage and in the audience to make your head spin. Idol Worship racked one up for the eternal battle between good and evil by hosting the iconic Linda Blair, who—in conversation with Peaches—revealed some sweet anecdotes about filming The Exorcist.
Continue Reading "MIDNIGHT MASS 2009—Linda Blair on THE EXORCIST"...
Sci-fi from Taiwan? Director Hung Hung’s 2007 movie The Wall Passer is an audacious little film that wants to be everything at once; a genre flick on a microbudget, a thought-provoking, intelligent drama, a love story for the ages and a feast for the eyes. Is Twitch better late than never, or is The Wall Passer best bricked up and forgotten? Review after the break.
Continue Reading "THE WALL PASSER review"...
The trailer for Production I.G’s first foray into CG animated film Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror has arrive at the official site. In addition to the trailer, we are also hosting the featurette and a second teaser on our Twitch player. The verdict? As I mention many times before, Production I.G has shown why its the most innovative animation studio in Japan and this is no exception.
Your favourite teddy bear. That model kit that took so long to complete. The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park. Where do all your childhood’s treasures go when you grow up? In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten “treasures” into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy tale-like place called… Oblivion Island!
The theatrical release date is on August 22nd. You’ll find the trailers and the featurette after the break.
Continue Reading "Trailer for Production I.G’s OBLIVION ISLAND: HARUKA AND THE MAGIC MIRROR"...
It’s a big list. It’s a good list. It’s got the new films from Jared Hess and Yoshi Nishinura. It’s got an Estonian musical. It’s got an American musical. It’s got animated space explorers from Denmark and live action spacemen from Sweden. It’s got everything a growing boy needs and you’ll find the complete first wave announcement for Fantastic Fest 2009 at the link below!
The Canadian indie-rock and indie-film worlds have just collided with potential glorious results. Director Bruce McDonald (Pontypool, Hard Core Logo) has joined forces with frequent collaborator Don McKellar (Last Night, Twitch City and a Tony-winner for writing The Drowsy Chaperone) to create This Movie Is Broken. And yes, as the musically savvy among you may have surmised from the title, the story of the film revolves around a performance by local indie icons Broken Social Scene with sometime member turned huge solo hit Leslie Feist also turning up and bringing Emily Haines of Metric and Amy Millan of Stars along with her.
A sticky hot T.O. summer day. CAROLINE RUSH wakes in a strange bed. New to the big city, she’s accepted the hospitality of a friend
from her home town, BRUNO. And now it seems they’re lovers. Over brunch, Bruno tries to impress her with his connections. He pledges to secure backstage passes for the big show that night with Broken Social Scene, her favorite band.
The day passes fast in anticipation: Caroline preparing for the concert, BSS on her iPod; the band themselves at soundcheck; Bruno scrambling to secure the backstage passes while stuck at his job at the racetrack. But he pulls it off. And Caroline rewards him with sex—to be completed after the show. The two lovers head to the venue ...
Of course, things will get a little more complicated than that. This Movie Is Broken is going into production right ... about ... now.
Sam Neill should be brought in to introduce every trailer made from this point forward.
When teenage twins Rachel and Theo investigate the creepy old house next door, they discover the Wilberforces - shape-shifting creatures that lurk beneath Auckland’s ring of extinct volcanoes. Guided by the mysterious Mr Jones and with the help of their older cousin Ricky, the twins must rekindle the unique powers they once shared if they are to destroy this ancient evil - before it destroys them.
Under The Mountain is clearly much more family-friendly - not to mention much higher budget - than King’s previous film Black Sheep but that’s not to say it doesn’t look pretty damn good. If nothing else it puts a bit of an edge back into family oriented fantasy-adventure that has been entire lacking from the Walden Media films. Check the trailer below the break!
Continue Reading "Trailer Arrives For Jonathan King’s UNDER THE MOUNTAIN!"...
[Our thanks to Olivier D’Amour for the following review.]
Paul Solet’s Grace, his first feature film, is one of the strongest, most promising horror debut I’ve seen in quite a long time. By now, you’ve probably heard about people fainting at Sundance and other festivals but rest assured, while a lot of blood is on display, violence and gore is not what this film is about. It’s much more intelligent and sensitive than that, focusing on atmosphere and above all, actual fleshed-out, affecting characters. It is disturbing, yes, horrifying even, but also has a dark sense of humor (vegans beware!) and is satisfyingly moving.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: GRACE"...
[Our thanks to Justine Smith for the following review.]
DREAM is the latest effort from acclaimed filmmaker, Kim Ki-Duk, who is best known for his human dramas infused with Buddhist inspired ideas and style. In his first foray into fantasy he remarkably, brings little new to the table, while the film also lacks the simple profundity that made his previous efforts so beautiful.
Waking from a particularly vivid nightmare of a car crash, Jin’s curiosity drives him to the scene of the accident, only to find it was real. While disturbing, the fact that surveillance evidence puts a young woman, Ran, at the scene of the crime, instead of him, has Jin searching for answers. The common link between them is that both have recently separated from a significant other. The polarity of their reactions; one yearning for lost love, while the other seeks to erase that part of their life, seems to be the tie that binds them. It is that need for the universe to balance itself out that brings these two strangers together.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: DREAM"...
Contest updated with winners!
Yes, we’re giving folk here at Twitch and today what we’ve got to give away to our UK readers is three copies of Metrodome’s new release of Danish WWII film Flame And Citron, which released Monday, June 29th. We’ve written about this one extensively in these pages so you should all be well familiar by now, but for those who aren’t, this is director Ole Christian Madsen’s bio-pic on the life of two legendary Danish resistance fighters, played by Mads Mikkelsen and Thure Lindhart.
All you needed to do to win was name the big Hollywood film Lindhart just appeared in. The answer,, of course, is Angels and Demons. And our winners are Suzanne Woolcott, Paul Markey and Lena Pellow.
Check the UK trailer for the film below the break!
Continue Reading "FLAME AND CITRON DVD Giveaway Winners!"...
It’s my birthday today and to celebrate we’re giving something away here at Twitch. Actually, we’re giving away two somethings: Courtesy of Universal Home Entertainment we’ve got a pair of DVD copies of Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, due for release July 21st. Want one? Simple enough ... just .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and tell me which Gaiman novel has had Terry Gilliam attached as a potential director for some time now. You’ve got until Friday.
On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the Jeonju International Film Festival has released a handsomely packaged compilation of 27 shorts by filmmakers from Asia, Africa and Europe. For the past decade, JIFF has been commissioning films from three directors a year, awarding them each 50 million won (USD 38,000) to produce a digital film of around thirty minutes in length. Bong Joon-ho, Zhang Yuan, Sogo Ishii, Shinya Tsukamoto and Pen-ek Ratanaruang are just a few of the recipients who have contributed to the project. Spread out over nine discs, and running from just 12 to 42 minutes in length, the films cover a broad range of genres, encompassing experimental, horror, drama, science-fiction and documentary. The latter address issues as diverse as the hardship of the homeless in Portugal and the plight of Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore; a sobering look at a transit camp for deportees to the gas chambers during WWII; and a decidedly unconventional portrait of a transsexual dancer. Six of the entries in the anthology are by Korean directors. No fewer than four of the films in the collection were subsequently expanded, and one of them, Song-il Gon’s Magician(s), was made into a feature-length film. The Jeonju Digital Project offers the possibility of seeing short films by some of the world’s most acclaimed directors, works generally relegated to the film festival ghetto.
Continue Reading "DVD Review (Part Two): Jeonju Digital Project 2000-2008"...
Due to the extreme levels of awesome contained within this post will remain at the top of the page for the rest of the day. New content will continue to be added below.
Canada’s Jason Eisener burst into the public eye a few years back with Hobo With a Shotgun - a fake trailer that won a Grindhouse contest sponsored by Robert Rodriguez and was subsequently added to North American prints of the double-bill feature. Hobo became an online sensation and fans began clamoring for whatever Eisener and crew would come up with next.
And what they came up with was Treevenge. An arborist’s nightmare, the coniferous revenge film turned the tables on everyone’s favorite holiday season by re-casting the humble Christmas Tree as the angry victim of an annual genocide with the time arriving to take revenge on the wielders of the axe. Treevenge is a blood soaked, splattery affair that provoked enormous reactions on the festival circuit, racking up awards by the armful as it screened at Sundance, Fantastic Fest, Fantasia, Toronto After Dark and too many others to name. The only problem was that there was no way for audiences to actually see the damn thing outside of those festival appearances, with only a short clip available online.
Until now. Twitch is beyond proud to finally give Eisner’s evergreen opus a permanent online home. You’ll find it embedded below the break. It’s a big file - and looks rather good full screen - so give it a moment or two to buffer.
Continue Reading "Beware The Furious Foliage! It’s Jason Eisener’s TREEVENGE!"...
When our Twitch-O-Meter column reached number fifty we did something cool: ten writers gave a list with five of their favorite directors, creating one huge Twitch-O-Meter which we lovingly called the MEGA-ToM. We tried to do something similar for when the Twitch-O-Meter got to one hundred, but unfortunately this crashed and burned because (amongst other things) I cannot count properly.
However, the next big round number is already upon us: 128, which in binary is 10.000.000, so it’s not a regular Twitch-O-Meter we have here.
In fact, it’s a 10 megaton MEGA-ToM!
Therefore this whole week will be devoted to a huge multi-article Twitch-O-Meter. And this time the writers will give us their top 1,000 (or “8”) of favorite movies. Starting with our Belgian correspondent Niels Matthijs a.k.a. Onderhond!
Take it away, Niels: the stage is all yours…
Hi, I’m Niels Matthijs. My addition is not so much a list of favorite films, but films that are very dear to me and got overlooked pretty badly. Not because us Twitch people loathed them, but mostly because of their very limited visibility. So rather than come up with a bunch of familiar names, here’s my selection of rarely watched masterpieces, begging for some spotlights.
Find them after the break!
Continue Reading "The Ten Megaton ToM: Twitch-O-Meter turns 10,000,000 part 0,001 (or “1”)"...
[Our thanks to Lauren Baggett for the following review.]
First off, to answer some of the most common questions about Sion Sono’s newest opus. Yes, it’s really four hours long with no intermission (we were all advised to take a bathroom break five minutes before the screening started). Yes, it’s filled with man-hating schoolgirls, kung-fu panty photography, and enough religious imagery to flood the Vatican twice over. More importantly, yes, it’s worth the hype. LOVE EXPOSURE is the film of Sono’s career. It’s also a love story, and a surprisingly sweet and touching one at that. I caught more than one person in the Fantasia audience sniffling by the end.
Continue Reading "Fantasia 09 Review: LOVE EXPOSURE"...
