If Ti West’s interview with Karina Longworth recently caused a bit of a stir, Brandon Harris’ just-posted conversation with Weapons director Adam Bhala Lough at Hammer to Nail ups that ante and then some. Bhala Lough spills the ugly beans about what took Weapons so long to get released, and while it’s blunt and candid, it never feels bitchy or bitter. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the art—and, more cruelly, the business—of independent cinema.
I find it surprising that Dominic DeJoseph’s Johnny Berlin 2: Notes From the Dumpster didn’t get more festival attention. Granted, it’s what amounts to a 70-minute videotaped monologue, but taking into account the fact that it’s none other than Jon Hynes (Johnny Berlin, Woodpecker) doing the monologuing, this becomes a more enticing proposition. With hilarious, excruciating frankness, Hynes explains what he’s been up to since being a train porter on the west coast in the Johnny Berlin days. His visions of an odyssey in Southeast Asia where he would finish his novel became muddled when he gambled all his money away. From there, things got more dour. With nowhere to hide—DeJoseph lets his takes run long so that the stories can build in a more honest fashion—Hynes tells it like it is, beautifully expressing that confused, deflated feeling that afflicts so many of us. If this sounds bleak and depressing, it isn’t, for Hynes knows how to shape language in deeply funny ways.
The film shows at Anthology at 7:30 tonight. As an added bonus, DeJoseph will participate in a post-film discussion with none other than Shooting People‘s Ingrid Kopp. Visit the Flaherty NYC page for more information.
If you live in Los Angeles, be sure not to miss the LA premiere of Dave Boyle’s hilarious White On Rice, which I wrote about over at Hammer to Nail a few weeks ago. It’s at the DGA theater this Sunday evening, May 3rd, at 6:30. This is one of 2009’s under-the-radar gems, so check-a-check it out…
In addition to the continuing The Films of Shirley Clarke retrospective (read Cullen Gallagher’s piece at Hammer to Nail if you haven’t already), Anthology Films Archive is also unleashing Happiness is a Warm Gun: The Films of Thomas Imbach. The only film of Imbach’s I’ve managed to see is 2001’s Happiness is a Warm Gun, but based on that alone, this promises to deliver some of the weekend’s most head-spinningly dazzling cinema. Based on the real life 1992 murder of German activist Petra Kelly by political ally Gert Bastian (who then killed himself), Happiness is a Warm Gun doesn’t technically qualify as a biopic. While Imbach does include archival footage of Kelly in action, he sets his film nine years later, in a strange sort of purgatory as Kelly returns to Earth and reunites with Bastian and struggles to come to terms with his outrageous act. If this sounds complicated and strange, it very much is, but Imbach brings a sincerity to the table that makes his exploration more invigorating than overbearing. What could have felt exploitative in less mature hands instead feels pure and sincere. From the sounds of it, the rest of Imbach’s work is as wildly inventive. I hope to see as much of it as I can.
As if I weren’t upset enough to not be attending Cannes this year after perusing the Official Competition lineup, today’s announcement of the Director’s Fortnight films has me seriously contemplating making my way to France. Hong Sang-soo? Pedro Costa? Francis Ford Coppola? Hot diggity!
First off, a hearty congratulations to Lynn Shelton and the entire Humpday team, who have made one of the smartest, funniest, and most entertaining films of 2009.
More importantly, now that it’s gone public, I can speak more freely about Josh and Benny Safdie’s Go Get Some Rosemary, which I have seen in its just-about-all-the-way-finished form. I am happy to report that Go Get Some Rosemary finds the wunderkind filmmakers venturing into an even deeper, more heartfelt place. The biggest complaint I heard about The Pleasure of Being Robbed was that the character wasn’t grounded in any fiscal, real world sense. Well, the Safdies fixed that problem by telling the story of a divorced father of two who struggles not to lose his job as he babysits his young boys for two weeks. In Ronald Bronstein (Frownland), the Safdie Brothers have found the perfect individual to give their flighty vision a refreshing jolt of heaviness. Bronstein is heartbreaking as Lenny, a guy who seems to be getting beaten down further and further by life every single day.
Watching this film will also show critics just how personal, individual, and carefully orchestrated Josh and Benny Safdie’s vision is. Many reviews of The Pleasure of Being Robbed appear to have been written by people who were entering the Safdie universe for the very first time. As a result, the jarring blend of almost docu-reality in the photography with the film’s wackier content was difficult to swallow, like hearing an unfamiliar language for the first time. Go Get Some Rosemary continues to merge these seemingly contradictory elements in a way that is unique to the Safdies. Maybe this time around, when things occur that don’t seem all-the-way “realistic,” a viewer won’t be distracted and will understand that this is coming from a more fanciful, yet emotionally grounded, place.
Go Get Some Rosemary is whimsical, inventive, and humorous, but it also throbs with struggle and heartache. Get ready, Cannes. The Safdies are back.
Syndicate this site