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FILM Buzz
  December 20, 2008  
 
Film Reviews

Kaffeine Buzz reviews independent and foreign films,
in addition to reporting the latest buzz behind Colorado's film festivals.

MILK (Gus Van Sant)

East Bay punk rock was the ostensible rational for the move from my Midwestern roots to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1992. But an underlying factor—which I was too terrified to acknowledge overtly at the time—was that I couldn’t wait to be in a place where I would feel comfortable with my sexual preference: a natural inclination that for my very survival, I had hide from everyone I had ever met beside the few people I with which I shared intimacies.

Upon my arrival to San Francisco’s Castro District, I was pretty disappointed.

I found the gay community to be, for the most part, homogenous (no pun intended) and off-putting. Izod shirts and Chanel shades abounded, and beside a few exceptional dives, unscrupulous punk rockers were the same scum in the Castro that they were anywhere else. Over the years, little of this has changed.

Harvey Milk migrated to San Francisco far before I did, and he stumbled upon the same Castro that defeated my expectations. The difference for Milk was that he didn’t have the expectations I did. He, in a sense, created them for me.

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  Idiots and Angels (Bill Plympton)  
 

Slumdog Millionaire (Big Night - Starz Denver Film Festival 2008)

A story of destined love set in the slums of Mumbai may not be the expected next step for acclaimed director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later,” and “Sunshine”) but it is the step he took with “Slumdog Millionaire.” One that was a departure from his other romantically toned film, “Alien Love Triangle.”

Aside from the plot’s subject style, the movie supports Danny Boyle’s reputation for creating engrossing, engaging, exciting, emotional, rich and vibrant films.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is about Jamal Malik, a contestant on the Indian set of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” who is getting so many answers correct, that the producers accuse him of cheating. After his arrest and during his interrogation, question by question, Jamal explains to his accusers how his gritty life in the slums of Mumbai has led to him to this place in time where he’s winning and on the verge of 20 million rupees.

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  Last Chance Harvey (Directed and Written by Joel Hopkins)
Starz Denver Film Festival - Closing Night - Sat, Nov 22
 
 
Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is a rejected man. His job is fragile when he leaves for London to attend his daughter’s wedding. And when he arrives, Harvey finds that his family has distanced themselves from him and even his soon-to-be-wedded daughter prefers her step-father over him.

Stressed out and desperate, Harvey leaves the wedding early to fly home, hoping to secure his position as a New York jingle-writer and make an all-too-important meeting. But again, Harvey meets defeat, arriving at the airport late and missing his flight.

At the end of his rope and completely devastated, he wanders into the airport bar where he strikes up a conversation with a reluctant Kate Walker (Emma Thompson).

Kate is a lonely 40-something who is uncomfortable with her current life. She’s lonely and mostly alone, with the exception of her overbearing and nosy mother. Reduced to the occasional blind date and romance novel, Kate wishes for something more; something different.

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  The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)  
 
“The Wrestler” is an honest and blunt look at the desperation and emotion involved in one man’s attempt to regain his glory days. Director Darren Aronofsky ("Pi," "Requiem for a Dream," "The Fountain") adds “The Wrestler” to his archives of movies about the dissention of people in desperation.

Randy “The Ram” Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is a retired professional wrestler who is trying to make his return by climbing his way back up through the independent wrestling circuit. Certain events cause him to reconsider his relationship; one with his daughter, who wants nothing to do with him, and the other with a woman he desires (Marissa Tomei), a stripper to whom The Ram is a “regular.”

The audience watches as Randy battles with various obstacles on his journey, including age, time, money, jobs, himself, his past, his passions, and of course, other wrestlers. In the end it almost seems that the audience is watching a man who is desperately attempting to connect with someone or something; needing to feel needed. This film puts the audience in a strange disposition of admiring a man who is not admirable, and hoping for a man who has brought ruin upon himself.

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  Idiots and Angels (Bill Plympton)  
 

Open Shelf Films Friday Night – “Groundhog Day” – Friday, December 12 - MCA DENVER – 7:30pm – 10:30pm

“Groundhog Day,” a classic snow season comedy with a message, starring the king of smartasses, Bill Murray, will be the feature film for the MCA Denver “Open Shelf Films” night this Friday, December 12.

Sure, you could watch this from the convenience of you couch. Unless you’ve got your own home theater the likes of an AIG of BofA CEO, it won’t be the same as enjoying the funny flick at the big screen of the MCA.

Plus, it’s a cool way to start the weekend and wash away the week’s anger and frustration of driving after the snow dump, or as a way to pre-de-stress if you’ve got plans to hit the mall for that all-time favorite pastime, holiday shopping.

www.mcadenver.org



FILM Buzz > ARCHIVES
  Idiots and Angels (Bill Plympton)  
 
Bill Plympton is probably best known for his political cartoons, which have been featured in many various newspapers. “Idiots and Angels” is a departure from the bluntness and pinpoint subjects of his newsworthy drawings. Instead, Plympton tackles much broader and less-definable human conditions, such as happiness, evil, self-content, and selfishness.

The Starz Denver Film Festival screening of “Idiots and Angels” was well received by the audience, and it was well talked about days later. The man himself, Mr. Plympton, was present at the screening, and when asked how he came up with the premise, he responded, “I just, one day, had an idea of an asshole guy who wakes up with wings one day.” True to his word, this is, indeed the premise.

However, Plympton takes the audience deeper into the journeys of this asshole with wings, showing us his perceived world response to a person with wings and that person’s response to the world’s response, and so on.

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  Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew)  
 
Maybe Prachya Pinkaew isn’t best known for his movie titles, or at least the English titles. What Pinkaew is known for is his Muay Thai movies “Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior” (who’s title is misleading because Ong-Bak was an idol, the warrior was Ting) and Tom yum goong, which in the U.S. was released as “The Protector.”

His newest film, “Chocolate,” has nothing to do with, well, chocolate. If you’re looking for a movie about the confection then you’ve come to the wrong place.

Aside from the absurd story, this movie is all action. Pinkaew is known for his amazing cinematic muay thai, his over-the-top stories, and his clever choreography. In the traditional Pinkaew way, all stunts in “Chocolate” are self-performed with no wires.

Zin (Ammara Siripong) is an autistic girl who finds interest in Muay Thai when her mother moves her next to a Muay Thai school. Her autistic mind absorbs the motions like a sponge, and even more so, the martial arts movies she watches thereafter. When her mother, Zen, is diagnosed with cancer and begins a treatment for which she cannot afford, Zin sets out to collect the debts her mother never received. Zin quickly finds herself entangled with the Thai mob.

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  Starz Denver Film Festival 2008 - Flick Picks November 14 - November 23  
 

31st Starz Denver Film Festival 2008

The flurry of films is here once again, as the 31st Starz Denver Film Festival kicks off tonight with a red carpet opening night, featuring “The Brothers Bloom,” starring Adrien Brody (yum), Rachel Weisz, and Mark Ruffalo.

Going every day, from November 13 through November 23, the Starz Denver Film Festival brings together over 215 films and shorts from all over the world, hitting on every topic imaginable.

To help you navigate the myriad of choices, Matty and I have put together our Flick Picks of films we’re looking forward to checking out.

It’s also important to know that once you decide what films you want to see, buy your tickets online at denverfilm.org. Many of these films, like “Gomorrah,” are already on the sold out. BUT – you may be able to get Rush Tickets by planning ahead and getting in line at the Concierge Desk at the Starz FilmCenter lobby one hour before the film starts.

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  Found Footage Festival - Friday, Oct 17 - Starz  
 

While I was out in San Francisco recently, I couldn’t help but pick up an envelope that was used as a note from one to another, because it was hand titled: “To the asshole who took my spot.” There is something wonderful about coming across treasures that provide such honest examples of the human condition, and I was pleased to find the screener for the Found Footage Festival upon my return home.

Talking to me from New York City, their home town, Found Footage Festival’s co-creator, Joe Pickett, had this to say about their nationwide tour that’s bringing them to Denver this Friday, October 17. “[Starz] sounds like our kind of place. Those are the kind of places we typically play, so it should be fun.”

Fun indeed. The hosts and treasure hunters, including Pickett and Nick Prueher, will have an array of celluloid clips of late ‘80s and early ‘90s in tow. Everything from a rapping employee training video, public access television shows, a few scary home videos, and a dirty mouthed RV dealer. Let’s just say, it’s a ‘laughing at them not with them’ type of film festival.

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  Fifth Annual Toofy Film Festival - September 13 & 14 - Boulder Theater - Boulder  
 

Now in its fifth year, the Annual Toofy Film Festival returns to the Boulder Theater this Saturday, Sept 13 and Sunday, Sept 14, featuring a weekend film, fashion and music.

In true Toofy tradition, there are a number of short program features planned for the weekend, including Mike Judge’s Animation Show that features “Key Lime Pie,” a student short by Trevor Jimenez, a graduate of Sheridan Animation program, about, you guessed it, Key Lime Pie, but with a film noir twist.

Then there’s Best of Toofy Showcase, where you get to revisit your favorite independent shorts from years past and check out the ones you missed.

Saturday’s feature film, “The Fix,” is set in L.A. with a host of seedy characters that are on a race of a different kind, taking the streets from Beverly Hills to Watts. The goal: for the doc filmmakers Milo and Bella to transport Milo’s brother from jail to rehab by 8pm. The risk: if they miss the deadline, Milo’s brother spends three years in jail.

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  What We Do Is Secret (Rodger Grossman)
Noisepop Film Festive, Roxy Theater, San Francisco - Opens Starz FilmCenter Friday, September 12, 2008
 
 
“What We Do Is Secret” explores the life of Darby Crash, founder and front-man for the pioneering Los Angeles punk band the Germs who died of an apparently intentional drug overdose in late 1980. What We Do…, having been conceived some fourteen years ago, has been highly anticipated, and with heavy skepticism.

Starring as Crash, accredited actor Shane West (ER, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, A Walk to Remember) is at the end of the critical barrel from jump street, having to appease a very sensitive and innately finicky Crash fan base not only as an actor, but as a musician, as he now performs live with the remaining Germs on the tour circuit.

In “What We Do…” writer/director Rodger Grossman cocoons the view from the beginning, re-enacting interviews with Crash and the other Germs, bassist Pat Smear (Nirvana, Fu Fighters), Lorna Doom (guitar) and Don Bolles (drums). The ‘band’ passes the oral baton, giving a retrospective history of the Germs before the film flashes back to the incendiary days when Crash first had the brainchild of forming a group.

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  Cinemocracy Rocks - Monday, August 25 - Red Rocks, 6pm  
 
During last year’s Starz Denver Film Festival, a panel discussion focusing on one of the more politically oriented documentaries led to the 2008 Democratic National Convention and the potential for showing films during the DNC that had a political bent.

Denver Film Society took that idea to heart, and together with the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and in partnership with the Denver 2008 Host Committee launches Cinemocracy Film Festival.

On the first day of the DNC, Monday, August 25, Cinemocracy kicks off at Red Rock at 6:00pm, featuring a number of acts, including The Apples in Stereo, Okkervil River, and Jill Sobule. Locally created short films were submitted, and online viewers placed their votes. The top 10 winners listed below will be shown the night of Cinemocracy, along with three special award winners. This will not only showcase the filmmaking talent in our state and our level of political awareness, but how more than ever, film is a key medium for educating the public on key issues within our society and culture.

Entry is $20, which includes a 1 year subscription (6 issues) of GOOD Magazine, along with preferred seating for the the Cinemocracy Rocks screening and concert. All $20 goes to supporting the Denver Film Society as a charitable contribution. Now that’s democracy in action, a tax deduction to get in the know on politics.

Here’s the official scoop from DFS:


FILM Buzz > ARCHIVES
  Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller)  
 

There have been numerous satires over the years. Classics like “Airplane,” which sits on many a DVD shelf at home, or “Scary Movie I, II, or III,” which have been on the favorites list for some, but not for all.

Then there’s “Tropic Thunder,” which will no doubt go down as THE most hilarious spoof on Hollywood to date. They’ve even gone so far as to create three trailers that play before the film…since this is a film about the making of the film that wasn’t made.

You’ll get the picture, trust me. Just make sure to get there for previews, which include a trailer for “Fatties Part Two” starring Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), which I’m guessing is a poke at the series of Eddy Murphy movies where all the characters are played by one guy with prosthetics and 6-hour chair time in the make-up trailer.

Essentially, Tug Speedman (Ben Stiller) is an action film star whose light has continued to fade over the years. His last attempt at being taken seriously was playing a mentally challenged “Simple Jack,” which seriously backfired on him, and he came out of it looking not much better than the character he portrayed. So playing one of the leads in this Vietnam-era epic may be his last chance, for real, so he’s got to get that “Platoon” reach-for-the-sky pose down to perfection.

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Sundance Channel Presents: Live From Abbey Road
Thursdays at 10:00pm EST

Episode 9 Premieres Thursday, August 14 – The Kills, The Fratellis, Sara Bareilles

It’s times like this when I miss cable, something I got rid of a few years ago. I figured I would put that money away to travel myself instead of sitting at home watching someone else have all the adventures. But yes, I do miss that damn Travel Channel, the Food Network, Comedy Central, IFC, and one of my “favorites” from those 200+ channel days, the Sundance Channel.

This summer Sundance has an adventurous series of a musical kind called "Live From Abbey Road," which takes place in the most famous of all recording studios, bar none. Within this intimate setting, artists perform and open up about themselves and their music. Some very noteworthy artists that have appeared include Elbow, MGMT, Stereophonics, The Black Keys, Manu Chao, Hard-Fi, Suzanne Vega...and some you may not be sorry you missed (Rascal Flats, Matchbox Twenty, James Blunt).

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ARCHIVES 2006
WHAT THE BLEEP - DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE - FEBRUARY 3

FRIENDS WITH MONEY - APRIL 4
SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS - APRIL 11
SIR, NO SIR! - APRIL 25
ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL - MAY 9

I AM A SEX ADDICT - MAY 23

THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS - MAY 23
PEACEFUL WARRIOR - JUNE 28
GITMO - THE NEW RULES OF WAR - JULY 5
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? - JULY 19
ANOTHER GAY MOVIE - AUGUST 9
CATCH A FIRE - OCTOBER 25
BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL
BREAKING AND ENTERING - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL
LOOKING FOR SUNDAY - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL
SHUT UP AND SING - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL

ARCHIVES 2007
THE GITS - SXSW 07 FILM FESTIVAL
THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK - SXSW 07 FILM FESTIVAL
THE OTHER SIDE OF BERLIN - APRIL 25

MICHAEL MOORE SENDS HIS 'SICKO' MESSAGE - MAY 23
MR. BROOKS - JUNE 1

FOLLOWING SEAN - JUNE 6

LA VIE EN ROSE - JUNE 15

MOVE-ON PUSHES SICKO - JUNE 29

EVENING - JUNE 29

CHALK - JULY 20
TALK TO ME
STEEL TOES
SHOWBUSINESS: THE ROAD TO BROADWAY

A YEAR AND A NIGHT WITH G. LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE

THE FLAMING LIPS - U.F.O.S AT THE ZOO
BELLE TOUJORS
10 QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA
OPERATION FILMMAKER (Nina Davenport)
STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL l 2007 PREVIEW & PICKS
AUGUST RUSH CLOSING NIGHT PARTY - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL 2007
DIRECTOR JON REISS RELEASES NEW GRAFFITI DOCUMENTARY, "BOMB iT"
DIRECTOR RONALD BRONSTEIN CREATES A STIR IN THE THEATER WITH HIS FILM FROWNLAND
JUNO (JASON REITMAN) - BIG NIGHT PARTY - STARZ DENVER FILM FESTIVAL 2007
THIS IS A GREAT MOVIE WEEK - JUNO, THE GITS AND KITE RUNNER
TEETH - SEPTEMBER 25

THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON

ARCHIVES 2008
KING OF CORN (AARON WOOLFE)
SCHROOMS (PADDY BREATHNACH)
TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (ALEX GIBNEY)

MEETING THE RESISTANCE (MOLLY BINGHAM, STEVE CONNERS)

CHICAGO 10 (BRETT MORGAN)

COLORADO LEGISLATORS REJECT BILL FOR FILMMAKERS TAX INCENTIVE

HOLLY (GUY MOSCHE)

MUSE– HAARP

LOVE SONGS (CHRISTOPHE HONORE)

Chapter 27 (J.P. Schaefer)

Irina Palm (Sam Garbarski)

BOMB IT Denver Premier - Denver Film Society DocNight

Daft Punk’s Electroma

 
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