Notoriety can be a boon, and the best example of that is the movie “Faces of Death”. To say the video version of it was famous in the eighties is a major understatement!
My classroom could be divided into two groups: the people who had seen “Faces of Death” and were bragging about it, and the people who didn’t want to see it and thought it was disgusting.

Even now, thirty years after its original release, few people I’ve mentioned this title to have seen it but everyone seems to have heard of it. Even when they’re not sure of the title, you’ll surely get a reaction when you mention “people clubbing a monkey to death and eating its brains”. Ah, THAT movie!

I was always in group number two. I thought watching real-life footage of people dying just to satisfy your morbid curiosity was disgusting and in poor taste at best, and criminally vile at worst. So I wasn’t exactly jumping for the chance to review this disc, until I heard about (of all things) the commentary track.

For this edition’s greatest virtue over previous versions is that director Conan LeCilaire finally tackles all controversies concerning the footage in this film, and candidly divulges which parts are real and which are fake.
Indeed, this is a prime example of the extras being better than the film, and I go as far as to say that in this case they actually warrant the purchase of this movie if you have any interest whatsoever in exploitation cinema, documentaries, mockumentaries or just plain horror.

More after the break!

Continue Reading "FACES OF DEATH 30TH ANNIVERSARY DVD Review"...

Jonás Cuarón’s début is an exciting, charming and genuinely touching coming-of-age movie that defies conventional generic boundaries. The son of Alfonso, Cuarón Jr. draws on many notions from his father’s work and indeed the broader context of recent Mexican cinema; a cross generational relationship, the trials of puberty and the fleeting moments that shape young lives, so intense and affecting at the time yet painfully short-lived.  But here they are shaped into an experimental and fresh piece of work that resembles the exotic child from a union between La Jetée and Y Tu Mamá También. A documentary spliced with coming-of-age drama composed entirely of still photographs edited into a narrative that spans a year in the lives of Molly (Eireann Harper), a 21 year old American travelling through Mexico, and Diego (Diego Cataño), a typically and perpetually horny 14 year old – naïve, romantic and troubled by a persistent ingrowing toenail.

Continue Reading "Año Uña (Year of the Nail) Review"...

It was in 2005 that the Asian Film Archive issued the first DVD collection from its archives entitled Singapore Shorts Volume 1, and given its title, you’d come to expect more from this particular anthology series to emerge. It’s been a long three year anticipation for Volume 2 to materialize, which was recently launched last week, but as the adage goes, all good things come to those who wait.

Continue Reading "DVD Review of Asian Film Archive’s SINGAPORE SHORTS VOL 2"...

I’m looking at the schedule for the 6th annual 3rd i (as in “eye") San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival, starting this Thursday November 13.  The festival kicks off Thursday evening at the Brava Theater, continuing there Friday evening, and moves to the Castro for longer programs over the weekend.  I’m reviewing nine and a half of the fifteen offerings to see what I would choose if I had only one full consecutive day and night to devote to it.  Don’t get me wrong—I personally think it’s worth following around all weekend, but most people have non-festival lives to lead and errands to run.

What makes both Saturday and Sunday long but rewarding slogs is the excellence of their morning films.  (My thinking is, if you’re at the Castro for an 11:30AM screening, why not stay the entire day and night?) Saturday’s is the lovely 1929 silent film A Throw of Dice (Pranpancha Pash), directed by German director Franz Osten, who made Hindi films with Bombay Talkies producer (and Dice villain) Himanshu Rai.  Osten/Rai’s previous works Prem Sanyas (1925) and Shiraz (1928) have been shown at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.  Dice, a UK-India-Germany co-production that predates Bombay Talkies, dramatizes episodes from the Mahābhārata in which gambling junkie King Ranjit loses his kingdom and fiancée in a crooked wager instigated by a jealous rival.  When Ranjit’s loyal vassals learn of the cheat dice, they storm the vast deserts and majestic forts of Rajasthan (where the film was shot) in epic numbers.

Continue Reading "3rd i 2008—Frako Loden Previews the Line-up"...

Home Movie is the video document of one family’s descent into darkness by their own hand. It uses a compilation of found home-made footage, a lot of it around holidays, a time meant for family togetherness. In the remote woods, the Poe Family lives a idyllic American family life. But an unsettling evil is growing and it isn’t in the woods. Something is very wrong with ten-year old twins, Jack and Emily Poe. Evil is has a synergy David and Clare Poe make many startling discoveries about this growing evil nature in their children. No one could ever imagine or accept the evil growing inside the Poe household. It is an unbelievable nightmare pitting parents against their own children. 

Continue Reading "TAD2008: Home Movie"...

Wild crow she’s a rabbit
She tells you she’s a crow
She smiles her sea-shell smile on you
Like she was your very own
She ain’t no Picasso
She ain’t no Bill Monroe
She plays lead guitar with history
But she looks like rock & roll!

—Eric Anderson, “Wild Crow Blues” (For Patti Smith)

In 1975, I arrived in San Francisco with one suitcase in hand, $20 in my pocket and a heart full of dreams. I found a job as a busboy at Fanny’s Cabaret in the Castro, rented a room from an acquaintance for $100 a month, and used one of my first paychecks to buy Patti Smith’s Horses, which was all the rage at that time. At parties in the Haight people were smoking marijuana, hazing out on angel dust and LSD, and Patti’s voice was the raw serenade ubiquitously pulsing through it all. She didn’t quite catch me—I was more folk-pop than punk—and so I turned away from her subsequent recordings. Truthfully, it was her Rimbaud-esque stance that I was fond of and not so much her vocals.

Somehow in my mind over the years she morphed into a snarling sullen Queen of Punk Rock—a completely unfair characterization—and it wasn’t until I listened to her heartfelt remembrances of Robert Mapplethorpe in James Crump’s Black White + Gray (2007) that I reassessed my memories to place her creative contributions in articulate perspective. With Steven Sebring’s crazy cowboy quilt Patti Smith—Dream of Life, I’ve had to thoroughly revamp my image of Patti Smith’s persona. Especially as—waiting in line for a screening at San Francisco’s Lumiere Theatre—Patti Smith with her iconic floppy felt hat walked up and down the line of fans waiting outside to catch her in-theatre appearance, greeting us all with a jetlagged smile and the sweet grace of all these years between then and now. Perhaps I had to wait until my heart was more full of memories than dreams to finally love the worn timber of her voice and the sheer poetry of her survival. In possibly one of the most generous Q&As I’ve ever attended, all I wanted to do afterwards was rush home and play 1975 all over again.

Continue Reading "PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE—Q&A With Patti Smith and Steven Sebring"...

Mike Figgis’ (Internal Affairs, Leaving Las Vegas, Timecode) latest film was commissioned by Gumball 3000, the burgeoning ‘lifestyle and entertainment company’ behind the Gumball Rally. But don’t worry because as you’d expect from a 21st century Figgis work, this isn’t by any stretch a grooming promotional piece. Rather, it continues the director’s fascination with digital cinema (from 2000’s Timecode onwards) and the diverse possibilities the technology throws up; an exploratory film built around the Gumball event.

A trans-European, 3000 mile road trip for a bootful of assorted trustifarians and moneyed celebrities, The Gumball Rally has garnered its fair share of press coverage since its inception in 1999. When approached by Gumball 3000, Figgis has admitted being less than ecstatic at the prospect of a straight documentary on the rally. But when a second offer came in to simply make a film that in some way involved the rally, he decided it could be a project worth pursuing. What resulted is a single camera digitally shot genre mash-up, which encompasses everything from conventional documentary, through mockumentary and video diary, to pure fiction.

Continue Reading "London Film Festival Review: Love Live Long"...

I’m barely able to savor my bowl of coffee and croissant before needing to move on to the next festival in San Francisco’s daunting October calendar, but didn’t want to say adieu to the inaugural French Cinema Now series without summarizing that—due to popular response—the series has officially established itself as an annual event in the Bay Area’s cinematic landscape.  Kudos to the San Francisco Film Society and particularly to SFFS programmer Linda Blackaby for the program’s successful launch.

In his introductory remarks to FCN’s closing night presentation of Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre les murs), SFFS Executive Director Graham Leggat admitted that this year’s festival was “under significant constraints” about when SFFS could accomplish the festival “and, as a result, we managed to conflict with about everything you could think of: The New York Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, Fleet Week air show and the Jewish holidays.  Next year we’ll do our best to miss at least three out of the four of those events.” Further, he promised that next year’s edition would expand to a week’s worth of French cinema.

With his characteristic humorous intelligence, Leggat commented that the closing night film, Entre les murs or The Class by Laurent Cantet unanimously won the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, “which makes it—essentially—the best film in the world.  Not to raise your expectations or anything of that nature.” Proudly, he advised that—as is frequently done by SFFS—the film was shared earlier in the festival with a packed house of Bay Area students who loved the film.

Continue Reading "FCN—Review of THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS, 2008)"...

New York, Seattle, Toronto and even Minneapolis have all started their own Arab Film Festivals in recent years.  But the fact remains that the first, the biggest and—dare I say—the best North American festival of films from the Arab-speaking world and its Diaspora remains right here in the Bay Area.  Now in its 12th year, the 2008 Arab Film Festival ("AFF") begins this Thursday, October 16 and continues at various venues in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose through October 28.  More than 70 features and shorts from 15 countries will be screened, including works from such rarely heard from countries as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Yemen.

This year’s opening night festivities will once again take place at San Francisco’s Castro Theater.  The evening begins with the presentation of the 2nd annual Noor Awards (Noor being the Arab word for light), with cash prizes being given to directors of the fest’s Best Feature, Documentary, Documentary Short and Fiction Short.  As part of the Noor Awards Ceremony, a posthumous lifetime achievement award will be presented to acclaimed Egyptian auteur Youssef Chahine, arguably the best known Arab director in the history of cinema.  Chahine passed away this summer at the age of 82.

Following the Noor Awards, which will be hosted by Egyptian-born, American TV sit-com director http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0445380/"target="new">Asaad Kelada, AFF presents its opening night feature, Daoud Aoulad-Syad’s Waiting For Pasolini.  This movie from Morocco won the Best Arabic Film prize at the 2007 Cairo Film Festival, and is set entirely in the picturesque desert town of Ouarzazate.  When an Italian film company arrives to shoot a biblical epic, the entire town goes crazy.  Everyone wants to get into the act because their economic well-being depends on it.  I recently watched the film on screener, and found it to be an entertaining social comedy about cross-cultural misunderstanding and exploitation.  Ouarzazate has been used as a location for numerous film productions, and Waiting For Pasolini really shows the place off.  This will look glorious on the Castro’s big screen.

Continue Reading "2008 AFF—Michael Hawley’s Preview"...

If you’re thinking you’ve seen a post about this trailer before, you are correct.  The director of the film provided an early, rough version of the trailer a while back so that something would be out there prior to the Toronto International Film Festival.  But he was never happy with that one, asked to have it taken down shortly thereafter and has now replaced it with a brand new, extra shiny version.  Enjoy.

The Shaolin Temple.  Just naming the place immediately conjures up images in the minds of any martial arts fan, the legendary birth place of Chinese kung fu featuring large in scores of films.  Even casual fans know of it, and yet it’s easy to forget that the Shaolin Temple is a real place, populated by real people learning the ancient arts.  Just announced as part of the Toronto International Film Festival, Alexander Lee’s The Real Shaolin tracks the lives of four people entering the temple to train, following the demands of the ancient way of life.  It’s compelling stuff, fascinating both as history in action and human drama and it’s amazing to see the lengths people are willing to go in pursuit of their dreams.  Check out the trailer for the film below the break.

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Risa Morimoto’s feature documentary attempts to examine the truth behind the notorious kamikaze (divine wind) pilots who sacrificed their lives in the final months of Japan’s involvement in World War 2. Through interviews with surviving Tokkotai (the Japanese name for these Special Attack Units) and the US naval servicemen from one of the sunken battleships, the USS Drexler, Wings of Defeat is a fresh take on a little understood part of military history.

Continue Reading "Raindance Film Festival Review: Wings of Defeat"...

Following up the world premiere of their documentary Zombie Girl: The Movie at Fantastic Fest 2008 I caught up with 66% of the directing team of the film I called a ‘candy store Heart of Darkness‘. Aaron Marshall, Justin Johnson and the absent Eric Mauck followed young filmmaker Emily Hagins as she set out to make her first feature film, a zombie film, at the tender age of 12! They did so for two years and came up with a very fun and inspiring documentary as the end result. What follows is the conversation I had with Aaron and Justin… first starting with a bit of background from each filmmaker.

Continue Reading "Zombie Girl: The Movie - A conversation with Aaron Marshall and Justin Johnson."...

Quick, when the mainstream media opts to cover a comic book convention, who are the attendees they swarm to?  You know the answer to this – they go after the most obvious, geekiest fans; the guys who are often in homemade costumes.  Such is the way of Larry Charles’ (“Borat”) new documentary/comedy, “Religulous”.  To be fair, “Religulous”, by all accounts, actually belongs to its star and writer, Bill Maher.  Over the years, Maher has built a name for himself first as comedian (a very good one), then as a political commentator of sorts (an often controversial one).  This film follows the ever-skeptical Maher on a global trek with the mission of taking on various religions of the world.  “Religulous” (an aside – could they get a worse title?!?  This one is not just hard to pronounce, it’s hard to type.) is both funny and thought-proving as it stirs its pot of absurdity.  The movie is never dull, and that’s saying something, considering that world religions can be some of the driest material one can deal with.  But perhaps that’s the problem with “Religulous” – in the filmmakers’ attempts to simultaneously entertain and provoke, they’ve reduced a very serious and personal topic to a series of punch lines and quirky exchanges.

Continue Reading "RELIGULOUS review"...

The 31st Mill Valley Film Festival ("MVFF") is set to begin this Thursday, and since posting my first program overview, we’ve seen two new films added to the line-up.  The first is Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire—arguably the film with the biggest buzz from this year’s Telluride and Toronto festivals—and the other is Rian Johnson’s follow-up to Brick, the Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz-starring The Brothers Bloom.

What follows are (mostly) quick takes of nine MVFF films I’ve had the chance to preview in recent weeks.  The first three were screened for press, and the remainder were seen on DVD screeners.  Wendy and Lucy and Lemon Tree are due for U.S. release and therefore restricted to 75-word hold-reviews.

Continue Reading "2008 MVFF31—Michael Hawley’s Quick Takes"...

At the end of the festival my tally stands at:
26 feature films
2 barbecue runs
1 shotgun range
1 opening night party
1 party at Bill Pullman’s suite
1 100 best kills party
1 Fantastic Feud/Karaoke Party
1 Fantastic Debates
9 very late nights
Unknown numbers of beers consumed

It seemed fitting that my last night at Fantastic Fest was spent enjoying the fine work of our Aussie brethren. I caught the much lauded Ozploitation documentary Not Quite Hollywood and then one of the fine examples from the era of filmmaking, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s Turkey Shoot, at the Ritz at midnight. Bango Kablooie! I got my fill of booze, blood and boobs in only a couple hours. Something I’d never thought possible.

What we witness is a young generation’s response to a cultural absence. Up until the 70s Australia did not have their own film commission. When they did get started they certainly weren’t going to fund films with naked women, excessive violence and all sorts of promiscuity. Still, there was a void to fill and as soon as the first R-Certificate in the world was issued many young upstart filmmakers like Brian Trenchard-Smith and producers like Antony Ginnane began banging out every type of genre film, answering the call to fill this void of genre cinema. Their films spanned the spectrum: booze, blood and boobs. They were low budget but the body and booty counts were high. They laughed in the face of their well-mannered contemporaries then shoved their faces into the ‘chunder’ [vomit]. 

Continue Reading "Fantastic Fest 2008: Not Quite Hollywood"...