Director Zack Parker has a knack for marrying unnerving incident to shifty, hard-to-pin-down characters. His latest film, the psychological thriller Proxy, could sort of be described as a sociopathic lesbian love triangle… and yet it’s more than that, even. I recently had a chance to speak to Parker one-on-one, about what sort of storytelling excites and drives him, making films in his native Indiana and being a stay-at-home dad, and the unlikely inspiration of the California Raisins. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.
Daily Archives: April 18, 2014
Proxy
To fully analyze the unnerving nature of the smart, dark, pleasantly warped Proxy, which further confirms Zack Parker as a filmmaker to watch, is to ruin some of its surprises. Suffice it to say, though, that while a lot of Hollywood movies (and certainly no small number of even independent productions) conflate narrative ambition with only special effects and the grand expression of visual style, Proxy is a film powered by a bold idea — and the sort of movie that reveals in slow, peeled-onion fashion the true nature of its narrative aims, the actual story at its core. For most of its running time, however, it’s absorbing because one doesn’t know quite what the hell it wants from its viewers. For the full, original review, from Paste, click here. (IFC Midnight/Along the Tracks, R, 107 minutes)
Frankie & Alice
Sometimes, through no particular creative fault of their own, and for reasons attached more to dubious financiers, labyrinthine contracts and the bizarre grudges of people in suits whose names you’ll never know, movies sit on the shelf long after completion, gathering dust and the reputation of being a stinker. Such is the case with Halle Berry‘s Frankie & Alice, admittedly a generously apportioned slice of awards-bait pie, but a well-rendered and engaging psychological drama nonetheless.
After a premiere at Cannes in 2010, the film received a head-feint awards push in December of that year; it opened in exactly one theater, and in advance of what was supposed to be a nationwide release in February 2011, screeners were mailed to various critics’ organizations. It even netted Berry a Golden Globe nomination. Then… nothing. The reasons for the film’s distributor-assisted suicide depend on whom you believe, but now, almost three-and-a-half years later, it’s seeing the light of day in a theatrical re-release. And the truth is that it’s not that bad. For the full, original review, from Paste, click here. (Lionsgate, R, 102 minutes)
Andy Garcia Talks At Middleton, Next Directorial Effort
Most films have a fairly prescribed audience, or certainly unfold in a manner that makes their intentions clear. At Middleton is not most films. Co-written by Glenn German and director Adam Rodgers, the movie puts a pleasantly bewildering spin on existential life crisis, tossing lighthearted adult romance, slightly goofy pre-college ensemble comedy and something a bit more barbed and bittersweet into a blender, and hitting puree. While their respective headstrong kids (Spencer Lofranco and Taissa Farmiga) take a school visit and disengage from their parents, two strangers with different personalities, George (Andy Garcia) and Edith (Vera Farmiga), disengage from the official campus tour and tumble into an afternoon that leaves its mark on each of them. I had a chance to chat with Garcia recently, about the film, the various inspirations for his character, his penchant for song, and his long-gestating next project behind the camera as a director. The conversation is excerpted over at Paste, so click here for the read.
Perfect Sisters
If, as in the phrase popularized by Mark Twain, there are three kinds of lies — lies, damned lies and statistics — then there are also at least three different kinds of true stories, which, when adapted for the big screen, are most assuredly not wielded with equal strokes of grace and credibility. Rich evidence of this exists in the form of Perfect Sisters, a surprisingly tension-free drama starring Abigail Breslin and Georgie Henley as siblings who start to entertain thoughts of matricide.
Neither touching the rich, charged atmosphere of Heavenly Creatures, nor aiming for something more darkly comedic or rooted in social commentary, director Stan Brooks’ film instead exists in a soupy, unpersuasive middle ground. Simply being based on a true-crime case from around a dozen years ago is inherently interesting enough to sustain an entire narrative framework, its filmmakers seem to think. That instinct proves wrong. For the full, original review, from Paste, click here. (Gravitas Ventures, unrated, 101 minutes)