What do you remember about the Cold War? I remember hearing about people standing in long lines for bread, the constant threat of the KGB and the comedy of Yakov Smirnoff. As Americans, we didn’t get much accurate information about what was going on in the Soviet Union. We were told that people were oppressed and that communism was very bad. But we didn’t really know why. Though it’s set in the post World War II Soviet Union, “Hipsters” sheds some light on what life was like for Russians the entire time they lived under communist rule. It also throws in some song and dance numbers to make light of it all. It’s the Russian “Swing Kids” complete with Russia’s own version of Frank Whaley.

Mels (Anton Shagin) is the outsider who quits the KGB Youth to join up with a happy-go-lucky group of jazz enthusiasts known as the Hipsters. Of course, a girl is involved. Her name is Polly and she’s brash and beautiful. But Mels is also enamored with the bright clothes, pompadours and the dancing…

Read the rest at Film Threat.

June 28, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

The standard family drama has become melodrama. Even indie fare like “Rachel Getting Married” and the films of Noah Baumbach tend to lean more toward hyperbole than authenticity. Likewise, the British crime film has certainly been played out. Guy Ritchie saw to that. But Director Ben Wheatley and his writing partner, Robin Hill, thought to combine the two genres (throwing in black comedy for good measure) and the result feels fresh and brilliant.

That result is “Down Terrace.” There are no cheeky one-liners or slow motion here. There are no long dramatic speeches about feelings. Instead, we have the sobering realism of a Mike Leigh film illustrated through interactions between father and son, husband and wife, son and mother. They’re in business together, a trade that was inherited from the Matriarch’s side. What they deal in is not made clear, but we do know that no one is particularly enthusiastic about the work. In fact, they approach work matters as lazily as possible. Regardless, the first order of business is to find out which one of their colleagues dimed on Bill and Karl, resulting in jail time for the latter. Further complicating matters is an appearance by Karl’s girlfriend, Valda. She sports a bun in the oven that may or may not be made from Karl’s yeast. He falls quickly into the dad role, clearly wanting to right the wrongs he perceives his own father as committing…

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June 28, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

Right out of the gate, “Miss Nobody” is an annoying film. It’s one of those movies that fancies itself incredibly quirky because of the body-count-to-joke ratio. But in actuality, there isn’t a thing quirky about it. In fact, it’s basically a “Greatest Hits of Indie Movie Clichés.” Among the extremely tired elements: Whimsical animated opening credits, freeze frames to bookend back story montages, back story montages, people standing in the rain on purpose, characters declaring that “things like that only happen in the movies,” breaking the fourth wall and, of course, voiceover. Dear god, the voiceover! There is so much voiceover that it’s amazing they had any time at all for actual dialog. And, as per usual, it’s superfluous. A monkey could follow the simplistic and predictable plot. And not only a monkey that knows sign language. One of those really obscure monkeys that’s never even seen a human being before…

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June 28, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

In a word, Neil Marshall’s “Centurion” is epic. In several words, it’s a big rip-off of several superior epics. If you liked “300,” the running parts of “The Two Towers” and HBO’s “Rome” series, you still may not like “Centurion,” but you will definitely recognize the elements that went into creating it.

I’m seriously done with movies that start mid-narrative and then flash back; it’s never used with purpose anymore. When we meet our protagonist, Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender), he is stumbling half naked through the snow. He tells us that this isn’t the beginning or end of his story. And then we flash back to two weeks earlier. We know we will come back to this point. But it’s by no means the most exciting thing that will happen in the movie. It’s not the climax. We meet him in this moment JUST so we can see the title “Two Weeks Earlier.” Screenwriters take note: This device is played out. You know what else is played out? Much of “Centurion.”…

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June 21, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

You know what’s incredible? The fact that humans survived evolution to become the dominant creatures on Earth. I guess an opposable thumb really goes a long way. Because compared to what the Loggerhead Turtle must face, humans are pathetically pampered. A loggerhead is born an orphan and must cowboy up immediately or dies trying. Once hatched, it must dig itself out what would otherwise be a sandy grave. Then it has to run a gauntlet of beach predators on its way into the ocean before embarking on a 4000 kilometer, quarter-of-a-century journey via the Gulf Stream to carry out their destiny. Being American, I don’t actually know how far 4000 kilometers is, but it sounds really far. “Turtle: The Incredible Journey” is basically a spin-off of “Finding Nemo” starring the surfer turtle. Only cuter and more intense.

“Turtle” is an absolutely gorgeous film with some astoundingly intimate scenes depicting the wild ocean. The camera is at turtle-level portraying her world from her point-of-view. She travels along the Gulf Stream encountering humpback whales, jellyfish, seahorses, sharks and contending with the deadliest predator of all… Giant Squid! (Just kidding. It’s Man.) There are some truly original shots of rare sea creatures including microscopic sea life at night…

Read the rest at Film Threat.

June 21, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

Hideo isn’t happy but at least he has the perfect relationship. After a grueling day waiting tables, he comes home to his beautiful girlfriend, Nozomi, and unloads his problems on her while she listens patiently. Following a relaxing co-ed bath, he unloads on her in another way. She’s always up for it. She was created for that very purpose. Nozomi is a sex doll. And she’s the only satisfying thing in Hideo’s sad, bitter life. Until one day, without warning, she comes to life.

For Nozomi, “finding a heart” is at once a blessing and a curse. Instead of waiting in bed, naked and undignified, for Hideo to come home, Nozomi now has freedom to leave the house and learn what it means to be human. Unfortunately, being human kind of sucks. There are many stories in the naked city, all of them terribly tragic. There’s a bulimic girl who sits alone in her apartment gorging herself on junk food, an insecure woman who is having a hard time dealing with her aging body, a single father and his young daughter and a man who eats the same meal alone every night…

Read the rest at Film Threat.

June 14, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

“Bass Ackwards” is a road trip film written, directed and starring one Linas Phillips. It’s about a videographer who, having been evicted from his friend’s couch and dumped without explanation by his married girlfriend, decides to reinvigorate his life with a road trip. The vehicle: an old VW van he acquires from an alpaca farm. The destination: his parents’ house in Boston. Along the way, he has many meaningful encounters. The character’s name is Linas. One assumes the film is at least semi-autobiographical…

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June 7, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

At the, ahem… core… of Mumblecore are characters who end up in extreme scenarios born from drunken conversations. In “The Freebie,” a married couple, following a pep talk to a newly single friend about boning as many people as possible, decide that the perfect way to rekindle their waning love life is to take a night off and screw other people.

Annie and Darren have one of those relationships in which they can be completely honest with one another without hurting each other. They’re an educated, cerebral couple. So cerebral that a long discussion about not being able to remember the last time they had sex ends, not in sex, but in a crossword puzzle race. That’s why when they both admit that they sometimes fantasize about sleeping with other people, their hypothetical conversation about “taking a night off” from their marriage actually seems feasible. After all, they’re both on the same page. They love each other and, as long as they are in agreement, it’s not cheating. They can have sex with someone else and come back to each other fulfilled and better people. They truly believe that as long as they think it through, they can rise above emotion. Annie and Darren are obviously forgetting their Dostoevsky. A certain young man named Raskolikov thought the same thing and he spent about 400 pages paying the price…

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June 6, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

I’m willing to bet cash money that writer/director Matt McCormick is a Miranda July fan. There is so much in “Some Days Are Better Than Others” that is reminiscent of her brilliant 2005 film “Me and You and Everyone We Know”. It’s impossible to ignore the uncanny similarities. Lonely characters plod through their mundane lives looking for beauty and meaning. One character drives around an old man. One character makes performance art videos wherein she interviews herself and gives brutally honest answers about her fragile emotional state. Indeed it’s so similar that it almost feels like a remake, albeit a poor one. The plot plays out like a reverse version of “Me and You…”; only “Some Days…” lacks a couple of key elements that made July’s film so wonderful. Namely: humor and performance…

Read the rest at Film Threat.

June 6, 2010
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat, SIFF . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment