Category: 4. Joe Bendel

LFM Reviews 400 Days

By Joe Bendel. It sounds like a reality show, but it will be much more serious than that. For astronauts, isolation is a much greater concern than G-forces or anything physical. Therefore, the potential crew of an upcoming privately funded interstellar mission are auditioning by spending four hundred days in an underground simulator. They expect Kepler Industries will have plenty of planned challenges in store for them. However, the real surprise might be unleased on the Earth above them in Matt Osterman’s 400 Days, which opens this Friday in New York.

Cole Dvorak is the hard charging blowhard who will be making the crew’s regular broadcasts to the outside world. “Bug” Kieslowski is the squirrely one, but somehow he is also the crew’s only married parent. Dr. Emily McTier will be tracking everyone’s mental and physical health, so she is going to be really darn busy. Theo Cooper is their loose cannon captain, slightly in the Kirk-ish tradition. Unfortunately, he started the mission with a nasty hangover, but he had a good excuse. He had just been dumped by McTier.

Everything went swimmingly well during launch, but the crew lost radio contact with mission control shortly thereafter. Assuming it is all part of the plan, they carry on, notching their mission objectives as the four hundred days count down. However, as the near the day of their simulated re-entry, strange things start happening. Stress has clearly taken a toll on everyone, but when a half-starved wretch of a man breaks into their simulator, they realize something well outside the simulation’s parameters is underfoot. When they venture outside, they find the world has changed. It is now a very dark, predatory place—perhaps even post-apocalyptic, but the vibe is more Kafka and Sartre than Mad Max.

Executive Producer Dane Cook reportedly takes a lot of flak from other comedians, but he really gives 400 Days a tremendous boost of energy as the boorish, ego-inflated Dvorak. He gets over some of the film’s best lines as Dvorak becomes increasingly unhinged. Brandon Routh is more than a little bland on-screen, but one could argue he is appropriately taciturn as the glumly competent Cooper. Despite her growing cult following, Caity Lotz glams down for McTier, projecting her intelligence and sensitivity. Ben Feldman’s Kieslowski over relies on twitchy mannerisms, but Grant Bowler brings plenty of oily charisma as Kepler Industries’ CEO, Walter Anderson. It also seems fitting to have a Lost alumnus on board in some capacity.

From "400 Days."
From “400 Days.”

In many ways, 400 Days shares a kinship with the original Twilight Zone pilot, “Where is Everybody?,” but it delves deeper into the dark side of humanity. Somewhat frustratingly, Osterman guards the film’s unsettling ambiguity and never gives us a grand unified explanation of anything. That is both good and bad, because that means the film will keep bugging you well after the initial viewing. Yet, for those who were raised on Rod Serling, it is sort of refreshing.

Regardless, Osterman maintains an air of mystery and slowly but surely keeps the tension mounting as soon as the crew loses communications with the outside world. 400 Days is the first release of SyFy’s new theatrical arm, which probably creates a certain level of expectations, based on SyFy originals like Lake Placid vs. Anaconda and Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus, but this is in a whole different league. It is decidedly small in scale, which might leave many sf fans unsatisfied, but its paranoid tautness is rather impressive. Recommended to a surprising extent for fans of the weird, 400 Days opens this Friday (1/15) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:42pm.

LFM Reviews The Man Who Shot Hollywood @ The 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival

Clark Gable from "The Man Who Shot Hollywood."
Clark Gable from “The Man Who Shot Hollywood.”

By Joe Bendel. Jack Pashkovsky was sort of the Vivian Meier of Hollywood, but he lived a more fulfilling life. He wanted to be a Hollywood cameraman, but he found the nepotistic fix was in at the union. Undaunted, Pashkovsky still managed to work with and document the movie stars that fascinated him, but he contented himself with a conventional still camera instead. Barry Avrich introduces viewers to the late Pashkovsky and gives us a peek inside his largely unseen treasure trove of photos in the short documentary, The Man Who Shot Hollywood, which screens during the 2016 New York Jewish Film Festival.

Yasha Pashkovsky’s family emigrated from St. Petersburg, settling in New York, where the young boy was dazzled by motion pictures. He made his way to Hollywood, to seek his fame and fortune, but it did not go exactly according to plan. However, he would meet and romance his beloved wife, while working on studio lots in jobs with fewer barriers to entry. He soon bought a camera and started taking charmingly relaxed shots of the biggest stars of the day.

in "The Man Who Shot Hollywood."
Jack Pashkovsky in “The Man Who Shot Hollywood.”

Pashkovsky laughingly concedes to Avrich that he might be the original paparazzi, but he always asked permission first. It is a point worth stressing. Since everyone recognized him from his studio work, nobody turned him down. Clearly, they had good reason to trust Pashkovsky, considering he almost never sold his pictures to publications. However, some of his shots might have well served his subjects’ publicity campaigns. His photos are candid, but never embarrassing. In some cases, the stars look better without their elaborate makeup and wardrobe.

There is a great deal about Pashkovsky that is both touching and instructive. He faced professional disappointments in life, but still made the best of things. He also found a measure of artistic satisfaction independently producing his own short subjects. It is therefore quite nice to see Pashkovsky get his posthumous due. Recommended for its sweetly elegiac tone and Pashkovsky’s wonderful visuals, The Man Who Shot Hollywood screens twice this Thursday (1/14) with Art and Heart at the Walter Reade Theater, as part of this year’s NYJFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:41pm.

LFM Reviews The Mill at Calder’s End @ The 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. There has always been a macabre side to the art of puppetry, going back to the commedia dell’arte roots of Punch and Judy. We sort of lost sight of it because of the Muppets, but it would occasionally manifest itself in ambitious Henson projects like The Dark Crystal. However, Kevin McTurk raises old school rod puppetry to new gothic heights in his visually arresting short film The Mill at Calder’s End, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

After a long absence, Nicholas Grimshaw is returning to Calder’s End to claim his inheritance. It is a lonely drive, but his destination is even drearier. His family estate is a shunned place in the Lovecraftian sense. He would gladly relinquish all his claims to it, but an ancient Faustian bargain binds his family to the evil force centered in the ominous looking mill.

Of course, everything in Calder’s End looks ominous, even including Grimshaw’s late but still accursed father, who bears an unmistakable resemblance to the great Peter Cushing, which has to be one of the coolest cinematic hat tips ever. It is altogether fitting too, since the influence of Hammer Horror and the Corman Poe films is evident in the wonderfully rich and atmospheric production and art design. As if that were not enough fan service, Barbara Steele, the Giallo legend and a semi-regular Corman repertory player gives voice to the malevolent Apparition of the Mill.

From "The Mill at Calder’s End."
From “The Mill at Calder’s End.”

The story of Calder’s End would still be a satisfying little gothic hair-raiser had it been a conventional live action drama, but as a piece of puppet theater, it is kind of stunning. McTurk (whose technical credits include films like Iron Man, Hugo, and Pacific Rim) and his accomplished team have done some of the best special effects, set construction, and costuming you will see in a film of any length, with any sort of cast.

Calder’s End doesn’t seem very Philip K. Dick-like, but who cares? Fans of Cushing, Hammer, and gothic British horror in general will absolutely flip for it. So far, McTurk has been honing his macabre puppetry in shorts (this being only his second), but when he applies this concept to a feature, it will be a major event for genre fans. Very highly recommended, The Mill at Calder’s End screens as part of a short film block this Friday (1/15) at the Cinema Village, during this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A+

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:38pm.

LFM Reviews The Incident @ The 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. That copy of Philip K. Dick’s Time Out of Joint could come in handy for Carlos. While his situation is somewhat different, it could help him think about reality in more outside-the-box terms (it also made his film a perfect selection for this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival). At the very least, it will help pass the time. Rather than a box or a Potemkin world, Carlos is stuck in an infinite staircase. He is not the only one facing such a predicament in Isaac Ezban’s The Incident, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

The corrupt cop was leading Carlos and his brother Oliver out through his building’s staircase when they heard the bang. At that point, the stairs became an endless Escher loop. They walk down nine flights and find themselves right back at the ninth floor landing. Needless to say, the doors are sealed, but the vending machine mysteriously keeps replenishing itself. The situation would be dire enough, but the copper, acting on a perverse impulse, shot Oliver in the leg right before the happening. Soon the festering wound becomes life-threatening.

IncidentMeanwhile or something, Daniel is on a road trip with his mother, her trying-too-hard boyfriend, and his little sister, but that highway never seems to end—because it won’t. There is an empty service station that never runs out of supplies, but they do not carry asthma inhalers. Unfortunately, Daniel’s sister will be needing one after hers is damaged. These two cosmically closed loops do not appear to be related, except for the occasional hint suggesting they really are.

There are no significant visual effects to speak of in The Incident, but it is a wildly ambitious, decade-spanning, mind-reeling genre film. It starts out merely unsettling in a Sartre kind of way, but it turns into a deeper, metaphysical horror show. Reportedly, some fans of the show Lost find various hat-tips throughout the film. Whether they are intentional or not, The Incident is certainly in keeping with the show’s spirit (whereas it is wholly dissimilar from M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening).

Considering the circumstances, The Incident boasts a surprisingly large cast. Nobody really stands out per se, because the entire ensemble is convincingly freaked out and then bitterly resigned to their fate. Essentially, they look like real people in some kind of Hell (but it isn’t really, or is it?).

Ezban tries to connect too many dots in the third act, but that is a rather valiant mistake. Regardless, he announces himself as a major new talent with The Incident, while also providing a heck of a calling card for his design team. This is a painstakingly crafted film that masterfully controls what the audience sees and the temporary assumptions they form. Pretty impressive stuff, recommended for fans of Lost and David Lynch’s better mind-trips, The Incident screens this Friday (1/15) at the Cinema Village, as part of this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on January 13th, 2015 at 12:39pm.

LFM Reviews Sympathy for the Devil @ The 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. The Process Church of the Final Judgement has been repeatedly linked to Charles Manson and his followers, but it seems this was rather unfair to the cult. However, they truly started out as a Scientology schism group, making them plenty scary enough. Yet, the former members do not remember it that way. The so-called church was just a part of the 1960s. The cult’s rise and fall are chronicled in Neil Edwards’ bizarre documentary Sympathy for the Devil: The True Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgement, which screens during the 2016 Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York.

Everyone basically acknowledges the Process Church was essentially, strictly speaking, more or less a cult, but as cult’s go, it was relatively harmless. They may have fleeced some silly rich members, but they were nothing like Jim Jones’ socialist Peoples Temple or Charles Manson’s evil flower children. They argue they were wrongly demonized as Satanists due their strange Trinity of Jehovah, Satan, and Lucifer, sometimes expanded into a quartet including Jesus. According to the former Processeans, it was really all about the ultimate forgiveness and reconciliation of Heaven and the fallen angels. Satan and Lucifer were also somehow separate and distinct, but there is really no point in getting hung up on that.

SympathyfortheDevilOf course, the Processeans played their roles to the hilt, parading through London’s fashionable Mayfair district in black capes. Charismatic former Scientologist (and official Suppressive Person) Robert De Grimston was the cult’s front man, but former members consider his wife Mary Ann to have been the real brains of the operation. It seems she was the one who decided they had to relocate to Mexico, where adventures ensued.

Obviously, the former members remain uber-defensive when it comes to Manson. Maybe he picked up parts of their doctrine or maybe not, but they were certainly inviting extreme personality types. All of Edwards’ interview subjects clearly think the lack of a mass grave with the Process Church’s name on it vindicates them on all counts and by the standards of the 1960s counter-culture they are probably right, but they are still weird.

How weird were they? Weird enough to attract the attention of John Waters, who duly sits for interview segments. Even if you are incredulous about all facets of the Process Church, their story is absolutely train-wreck fascinating. Edwards tells it well, teasing out many wonderfully strange details and conveying a sense of their milieu through era-evocative animated sequences.

This is one doc that is never dull. Even if the Process Church truly was as benign as cotton candy, their story is all kinds of creepy. Edwards talks to most of the people who were there, giving us a full flavor of their ideology and times. Highly watchable and debatable, Sympathy for the Devil is one of the most provocative docs of the last two or three years. Highly recommended for the innately skeptical and individualistic, it screens this Friday (1/15) at the Cinema Village, as part of this year’s Philip K. Dick Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:37pm.

LFM Reviews Beeba Boys

BeebaBoys-1By Joe Bendel. Jeet Johar combines the worst of the old traditional ways and jaded modern sensibilities. He still lives with his parents, but he is not shy about unambiguously calling out his rivals in television interviews. Most women would avoid long-term entanglements with him, but Canadian Katya Drobot was never accused of being a deep thinker. Regardless, she will be the least of his problems in Deepa Mehta’s Beeba Boys, which releases today on DVD in Canada.

The Beeba Boys are like goodfellas and pretty like that Boy Floyd. They are Vancouver’s nattiest South Asian gang and their leader Johar has become a role model to innumerable bullied Sikh youngsters. He has plenty of enemies, but old school “local businessman” Robbie Greywal is the most dangerous.

Unbeknownst to Johar, Greywal has placed a traitor in his midst. However, as Nep befriends his fellow Beeba Boys as well as Johar’s grade school son, he starts to have ninth and tenth thoughts about his loyalties. Fortunately, Greywal had the foresight to let his attractive daughter Choti handle their undercover mole. It is pretty clear Nep is interested in her. He and “Manny the Joker” also befriend Johar’s lonely new wife, Drobot, but that is a pretty platonic relationship. Emotionally, Drobot might be in a state of arrested development, but she is not suicidal. Of course, there is no need for anyone in Johar’s orbit to kill themselves. There will be plenty of gangsters and hitman out to do the job for them.

Who knew Deepa Mehta had such a slickly violent gangster beatdown in her? Granted, none of the elements here are jaw-droppingly new, aside from its Sikh cultural identity, but she marshals them with the spiffy style of a Michael Mann film. Even if the broad strokes of their carouse-and-fall story are familiar, she puts everyone through their paces and makes sure they always look good.

From "Beeba Boys."
From “Beeba Boys.”

Without question, Mehta’s ace card is Indian movie star Randeep Hooda, whom you might recall from Sunny Leone’s Bollywood debut (hmm, what was that called again?). As Johar, he snarls quite charismatically. His Cheshire Cat smile and so-deep-it-is-almost-demonic voice are enormously gangster-cinema-friendly. Frankly, a good two-thirds of the Beeba Boys are basically incredibly well-dressed extras, but jewelry designer and Wes Anderson repertory player Waris Ahluwalia makes the most of his Tarantino-esque dialogue as Manny.

Probably the most important thing about Beeba Boys is that everyone really looks fab. That is not a bad thing—shallow perhaps, but still a lot of fun. Recommended for fans of gangsters movies and Bollywood crime dramas (sorry, no musical numbers here), Beeba Boys releases this week on Canadian DVD, and surely some sort of American distribution will soon follow.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on January 13th, 2016 at 12:37pm.