Pablum would be a step up for Suing the Devil, an inane, moralizing Australian production from writer-director Timothy Chey that centers around a lawsuit against Satan filed by a down-on-his-luck law school student. Aiming for some theoretical sweet spot between comedy, courtroom drama and Up-with-Jesus! sermonizing, this poorly sketched and dreadfully acted movie can’t even be saved via an attempted personality transfusion from a ranting, raving Malcolm McDowell, in the title role.
Scripture is trotted out on both sides, naturally, but Chey’s stooping efforts to try to shoehorn in comedy (wherein Satan claims responsibility for leaf blowers and automated customer service, and constantly derides everyone as losers and nitwits) is about 10 percent as clever as he thinks it is. “Trial of the century,” huh? Only in movie hell. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. For more information on the film, click here to visit its Facebook page
Daily Archives: May 5, 2012
Mark Duplass Talks Darling Companion, Three Summer Films
Along with his older brother, Jay, Mark Duplass has carved out a varied career largely on his own terms, parlaying the indie success of The Puffy Chair and Baghead into Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home, two higher-profile yet still idiosyncratic comedies. This year les frères Duplass will be out in force, showcasing the full array of their talents as writers, directors and, in Mark’s case, as an actor. His latest film is Lawrence Kasdan’s Darling Companion, in which he plays a buttoned-up doctor named Bryan who, while helping his family search for a missing dog, develops a crush for an exotic, quirky housesitter, Carmen (Ayelet Zurer). Recently, on the eve of he and his wife, Katie Aselton, having their second child, I had the chance to speak to the younger Duplass one-on-one, about Darling Companion, sibling relationships, his packed summer schedule, and his thoughts on that famous “mumblecore” tag. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here.
Asylum Blackout
Part thriller of containment, part horror movie, Asylum Blackout is a skillfully cobbled together little calling card of a film, suffused with a certain woozy dread. If in the end it’s a bit short on convincing payoff, its atmospheric spell should generally satisfy genre fans and also augur good things for all those involved.
Formerly known as The Incident, but re-titled in more forthright fashion, director Alexandrer Courtes’ movie centers on a group of friends and aspirant musicians who, between small gigs, work as kitchen cooks in a high security mental asylum in Washington State. When a big storm fries the wiring for the security system one dark and rainy evening, however, things take a turn for the worse.
Director Brad Anderson cut his teeth on stuff like this, moody sleights of hand in which small character ensembles grapple with unraveling sanity in grave and otherwise diminishing situations. Sound design and style matter enormously in such cinematic undertakings. So Asylum Blackout helmer Alexandre Courtes and cinematographer Laurent Tangy imprint a strong and frequently compelling visual scheme on the proceedings; in this respect, their film recalls Pontypool, another low-budget thriller that made unnervingly excellent use of its dingy, confined setting.
The movie’s big twist or revelation doesn’t completely come together in a coherent fashion. That said, its strong performances, effective production design and value, and technical polish make Asylum Blackout a moody treat for genre fans inclined to take a flyer on a movie with lesser known talent. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. NOTE: In addition to its theatrical engagements, Asylum Blackout is available nationwide on IFC Midnight Cable VOD, and a wide variety of other digital outlets, including iTunes, SundanceNOW, Xbox Zune and Amazon Streaming. (IFC Midnight, unrated, 85 minute)
Director Anne Renton Talks The Perfect Family
It’s been said that virtually everyone has wanted to switch families at some point in their lives, but if everybody’s dirty laundry and closeted skeletons were dragged out into the light of day and put in the middle of a room, how quickly most of us would snatch back our own little bundle of dysfunction. That maxim is on display in The Perfect Family, a comedy about a mother forced to choose between her engrained religious beliefs and her family. Director Anne Renton’s film stars Kathleen Turner as a devoutly Catholic suburban mother, Eileen Cleary, who — when running for the “Catholic Woman of the Year” title at her local parish, an award she’s coveted for years — is forced to cope with an unhappily married son, a gay daughter’s impending nuptials, and the strains of her own marriage. I recently had a chance to speak one-on-one to the Australian-born Renton, about religion, Turner and the state and struggles of independent filmmaking. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.