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![]() Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our seventh calendar year! ![]()
By Nolan B. Canova
Seen in the audience for this go 'round, Marivamax's own Larry Buchovey (RISK), Steve Stavrakis (star of The Cross), and Tampa's Film Commissioner, the amazing Krista Soroka. ICON Film Studios head and co-founder of the Tampa Film Network, Chris Woods, was out of town on vacation (home in Utica, NY), but partner Joe Davison was present. Most local filmmakers who had entries were also present.
Like last month, the "opening" crowd was modest, but grew quickly. And, like last month, by the end of the program, there were in excess of a hundred people there.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. On with the show....
Before The Fall by John Matheny (listed as "The Cactus" in a previous announcement. Actually, this film is based on "The Cactus" by O. Henry): Two longtime friends have just returned from the wedding of the sister of one of them. The other had dated the sister for a long time. The two explore the reasons why the relationship broke up. Nicholas A. Denmon and Kevin Bangos play two friends, Travis and Brett, discussing their situation in a, basically, one-room, one-act play. The source material for this is classic, so the script is pretty solid. Despite this, the two lead male actors never really comfortably inhabit their roles, and unfortunately come off like they memorized the script only minutes before showtime, particularly Nick Denmon (Kevin Bangos was OK, but I've seen him better). Like I wouldn't blame any girl for dumping these über-losers, haha. Aggravating the situation were uninspiring camera set-ups and fairly flat lighting. The editing was pretty good (although jarring in a few cases), and I really liked the music, coincidentally composed by director John Matheny who also has a cameo as the minister. I'm just afraid that the seemingly drawn-out and fairly deadpan dialogue delivery may have cost some of the impact of the wonderfully twisted surprise ending so typical of an O. Henry story. John Matheny was much more on top of his game with Disconnection (reviewed in PCR #269).
The Wright Stuff by Ford Austin: Follow the hilarious adventures of the Wright Brothers as they use "Powered Flight" when President Teddy Roosevelt dispatches them to combat crime and evil around the globe. An out-of-town entry and, without doubt, the runaway hit of the night. Rendered in black & white/sepia-tone as an homage/send-up/imitation of late '20s-style filmaking, four hilarious shorts make of the chapters of this previously-unknown history of Wilbur and Orville Wright (snark snark). Each chapter is between 5 and 10 minutes, so they run at break-neck pace. "Fight or Flight", "Chinese Takeout", "Zombies from the Bermuda Triangle", and "Revenge of Mr. Wright" make up this disc, and it's impossible to pick a favorite because they're all similarly demented. Director Ford Austin himself plays Wilbur Wright, Scott Ingalls is brother Orville, and Ethan Phillips positively chews up the scenery as a mad-mirror version of President Teddy Roosevelt. John Payne is the Telegram Boy in all chapters. Steve Duke masterfully adds the atmospheric period music. Add the film-look effects (pulsing exposure, scratches, sepia-tone) and writer-director Austin has admirably pulled off some of the most convincing retro-cinema I've ever seen. Toss in an AtAt Walker from Star Wars and the mind-f*ck is complete. Very highly recommended.
Push by Brian Feldman Unannounced on the previous schedule and only a few minutes long, if that. As I recall, this was an entry to a filmmaking contest. Unfortunately, I don't have the disc for it, but from memory it had to do with some young guy trying to get a prize out of one of those arcade-type machines with the drop-down claw---except this was a variation that involved pushing the prize toward the escape shoot, all to industrial/dance music. If there was any further point to this, it was lost on me. Brian Feldman is host of Flicks on Fairbanks.
The Mechanics of Choice by Chris Giuffre (in a collaboration with Andrew Hawthorne, and Wes Pratt): The Mechanics Of Choice was originally commissioned by the Arts Center in St. Petersburg for a show show entitled "X-ing", which explored themes based on the idea of a "metaphorical crossroads". The filmmakers took this idea at face value and stripped the concept to its most basic element, Choice, and built on that. In this multi-channel video, the viewer observes what seems to be, at least at first, three different storylines played out concurrently. As the piece moves on, however, we see that these characters are in fact, bound together.
Readers may remember that Chris Giuffre was responsible for last month's The Watchman. As avante-guard as that was, The Mechanics of Choice is a far more experimental film, requiring close attention to the action. I admire and respect Chris's bold ideas, and if you do pay close attention, it (theoretically) all makes sense in the end. If I remember correctly, Chris said the 5-panel motion pivotal to the film's core concept was accomplished with Adobe's After Effects, after basic cutting was done with iMovie.
Armed by Joe Sanchez: It's 3 in a morning and someone is missing. Detective Douglas knows that sometimes procedure can wait. Tonight he'll go out and look for her but who is she. He's armed and ready but what's her story?
"Hand Delivery" by Damien and Josh Kincannon, listed last week as appearing at July's TFR, was not shown as final rendering could not be completed in time. It has been re-scheduled for next month.
During a break for announcements...
All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2006 by Nolan B. Canova.
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