I’ve been in a bit of a crime drama mood, so I figured it would be fitting that I watch a film that inspired both Quentin Tarantino and the Beastie Boys, and also will be horribly remade by Tony Scott, Denzel Washington and John Travoltae next year. I think everyone can agree that they would rather watch Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw instead, that is why next week I will be watching The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

I bet you think running this site is all fun and games. Oh sure, I have an unhealthy addiction for Mahjong that I have been trying to pass off on Anna, but that is besides the point. I don’t get to just lay around all day, watching whatever I want whenever I want. I have, like, a system. A rigorous, temperamental system.

When I first started this column it was meant to be an excuse for me to finally watch certain films I had always wanted to watch when I was younger, but for whatever reason, had simply never gotten around to doing so. But while that selfishly worked well as an initial idea, that wasn’t going to be enough to fuel a column, let alone an entire site. So thus my initial idea inevitably began to expand.

Soon I began to look for films that would push me out of my comfort zone, as well as those that would have appealed to me when I was a youth. From there it was just a hop, skip and a jump to include reviews of true independent films and hard to find foreign films as well. Finally, I began to track down movies that were out of print or simply never released in the US. And as I added on each new group of films, the list of movies I planned to watch and review grew increasingly larger and more daunting.

(more…)

I’ve never really given much thought about what I would consider the perfect crime. I’m not exactly ambitious so it probably wouldn’t extend much further then trying to purchase comics for my collection without Anna’s knowledge. She watches the movies and the Wii games like a hawk after all, so if I want to buy something perfectly crappy without having to listen to her grumble to me about it comics are really my only legitimate avenue of deception. Hey, I already feel guilty about buying Spider-Man comics, I don’t need her adding to my own self-imposed lecture.

Now sure, I found the whole Brand New Day storyline interesting at first, as writing out Mary Jane was the kind of huge shakeup that might recover the comic from the truly terrible Civil War storylines I had previously suffered through. But the whole concept has quickly stagnated, resulting in what now appears as nothing more then a blatant attempt at erasing everything J Michael Straczynski had written over the length of his tenure.

Now I know JMS wasn’t exactly popular with the Marvel fanboys. I mean really, attempting to add more depth to a character that was over 40 years old was simply unacceptable. Marvel and its fans simply would rather have numerous Spider-Man books that follow a basic plot by numbers arc rather then suffer through something that might actually result in a new experience for both the character and the reader.

(more…)

Note to self: If ever I decide to write a movie that is based in Wisconsin, evidently it is a requirement to include some sort of wood cutting scene with a ginormous axe.

Having just recently watched The Wintress, I found it a bit amusing that another film starring Bill Elverman would focus so much on splitting wood with an ax. Knowing Elverman wrote both The Wintress and TREE I secretly wondered if Elverman had an unhealthy obsession with axes. My guess is he watched The Shining one too many times as a child. I know I did. But evidently, their was a far more innocuous reason for including so many axes in both films, TREE was made first, and Elverman likes to plagiarize himself because this idea works quite well in the context of these two films.

(more…)

Growing up in Iowa I always wanted to be a Native American, specifically a member of the Blackfeet Nation, because I was fascinated by their ability to hunt buffalo. But mostly because I thought the name sounded super cool. Over the years I began to accept, begrudgingly, that I was stuck being white boy. From Iowa. How uncool is that? But my fascination with Native American culture still lingers.

It wasn’t until I came to college in Minneapolis that I finally saw my first real life Native American. He was standing on Hennepin Avenue a block before a freeway on-ramp begging for change. Needless to say, it was not the noble introduction I had been hoping for. Over the years sightings like this would become painfully familiar, as these members of a once proud culture struggled to exist in a world that has been anything but kind to them.

Older Than America pulls back the curtain and one of the many horrible acts perpetrated against Native American cultures. But while most people can rattle off a laundry list of lies and deceptions perpetrated by the United States government and its citizens against Native Americans, generally people would think these things occurred decades, if not hundreds of years before they were ever born.

(more…)

Growing up in Iowa and later in Wisconsin, it was difficult to find films that weren’t decidedly mainstream. As such, the idea of making a film seemed even more out of reach. Thus I eventually moved to Minneapolis, content to watch and critique films at my leisure. Thankfully Bill Elverman, writer and director of The Wintress, took a different path then I did.

While there are numerous films about small Midwestern life, very few ever seem to truly reflect the unique cultural and environmental dichotomy that makes up Wisconsin. But unlike other fare, The Wintress manages to capture the look and feel of Wisconsin. The noticeable film grain adds not only atmosphere to the picture, but gives the air surrounding the characters a thick humidity eerily familiar to anyone who has lived through a Wisconsin winter.

But the look of the film isn’t the only great quality of The Wintress. Like the best short stories, The Wintress creates a lived in world that can be easily entered by the viewer. Clocking in at 26 minutes, The Wintress deftly manages to create fully fleshed out characters that are easily to identify with, and then manages to end just when the rug has been pulled out from under you. The ending, not so much a cliffhanger but a punch to the gut, is bound to linger in audience’s minds long after the credits have rolled.

(more…)