Make-Out with Violence - DVD Review (Factory 25)

Make-Out with Violence is the first full-length film by the Nashville director-duo the Deagol Brothers (aka Andy Duensing and Chris Doyle). The film is a low-fi ‘coming of age’ story that follows two twin brothers, Carol and Patrick Darling, and their young brother Beetle during the twins’ summer after high school graduation. The story starts at a memorial service for Patrick and Carol’s missing classmate Wendy Hearst and, shortly thereafter, the three brothers finding Wendy’s re-animated corpse. The off-beat storyline is both tragic and charming and comes across like a John Hughes film filtered through lens of Sofia Coppola's “The Virgin Suicides”.

The film premiered at SXSW and a number of other film festivals in 2009. In an interview with ReviewsFromtheCouch, the Deagol Brothers described the backdrop for the film as:

DB: We all went to high school together and have always been interested in making films, music, painting and art in general. We started to conceive of the film in the early 2000s. We wanted to make a film about our shared experiences in high school and we thought that making a high school movie also made sense from the stand point of working on a small budget with our high school and college aged friends as our talent. It was not originally conceived of as a horror film but we saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and wanted to try the horror genre. We are not huge horror fans but we liked the idea of exploring the genre from a very sincere John Hughes angle. The idea of the teenage boy consumed by unrequited love also made sense to us in the context of a girl who is very physically present but may not be who or what you think she is.



The brothers decide to take Wendy’s re-animated corpse to their friend Rody’s house, which they are house-sitting for the summer, as they hope to restore her back to health. The movie focuses on the brothers’ attempts which are complicated by many crossed-threads of unrequited love. Most importantly, Patrick’s love for Wendy grows as he takes care of her living corpse and this out-of-control crush-turned-obsession prevents him from noticing that Wendy’s friend Anne Harran is interested in him. Adding to the drama, Carol pines for Wendy’s best friend Addy who is interested in Wendy’s boyfriend Brian. All of this sounds complicated but so was high school.

The brothers tie Wendy in Rody’s bathtub as her re-animated corpse moves around with a slow, purposeful, spasmodic creepiness. One of the brothers’ initial concerns is making sure Wendy has something to eat but the food they try to feed her dribbles out of her mouth as she lays still in the tub. The brothers realize that Wendy, now a zombie, may need live food and I had to look away as Wendy bit the head off a live rat that the brothers purchased for her.

Over the next few months, Wendy’s corpse continues to decompose which seems to increase Patrick’s urgency for a relationship of any kind. He bathes and clips her nails and, as the obsession/madness takes complete hold, dresses her up for her birthday and even gets her a cake. If this were a true story, one would wonder if necrophilia isn’t going on outside of the camera’s lens. Patrick’s relationship isn’t the only one that changes over the summer – the love triangles continue to evolve and there is even some sibling rivalry thrown in on the side (with gruesome consequences).

There is an element of sadness and melancholy throughout the film and all parties are changed by the end of the Summer, regardless of whether they were able to let go out of their past. I’ll stop here as going further would turn this review into a spoiler.

The soundtrack has been getting some recognition and is available separately on CD and limited edition LP. The Eno-influenced, keyboard-driven pop songs were predominately written by the The Non-Commissioned Officers (aka Jordan (Rody) and Eric Lehning (Patrick)) and Nashville artists The Glib, Tristen, Leah High, Vicki Mead, The Ostrich Boys, and Amanda Crawford.

DVD Extras:

- Deleted and extended scenes,

- Deleted score (from the band How I Became the Bomb),

- Cast & crew commentary,

- “The Fugitive Brain” - behind the scenes 30+ minute featurette of the formation of Limerent Pictures including screen tests and auditions,

- “Saturday is Now Ruined “- a look at the process of designing the film’s poster by graphic designer Ed O'Brien

- Eric Lehning's radio spots advertising the film and raising money for its completion,

- Interview and videos by The Non-Commissioned Officers,

- Essays by filmmaker Craig Zobel & journalist James Rocchi

Links:
Make-Out With Violence

"Wah Do Dem" - DVD Review (Factory 25)

According to Roots-Archieve.com, this film's Patois title translates as "What's Wrong With Them". The title seems to be very fitting as the movie is filmed with a mumblecore esthetic and focuses on Brooklyn slacker Max (played by musician Sean Bones) as he haphazardly attempts to connect those in the world around him.

"In WAH DO DEM, young Brooklyn musician Max (Sean Bones) decides to go on a Caribbean cruise alone when his girlfriend Willow (Norah Jones) dumps him cold two days before the trip. Once in Jamaica, Max quickly escapes the tourist zone for more "authentic" surroundings and in the process is robbed of his possessions and is stranded, and literally misses the boat. As Max sets out for the American Embassy in Kingston on foot, Jamaica is waiting to meet him with unexpected and extraordinary encounters, including a full-moon celebration with the legendary reggae group The Congos, and a dreamy stay with a Rasta prophet (Carl Bradshaw, THE HARDER THEY COME)."

The movie starts with Max getting dumped by girlfriend Norah Jones (who makes a briefer appearance than Burt Reynolds did in Smokey & the Bandit 3) on the eve of their cruise to Jamaica. After attempting to commiserate with friends and finding that none of them liked Jones, he then finds that none of them will join him on the cruise. Bones sleepwalks through his solo experiences on the cruise, failing to connect with the senior citizens or the other single male passenger (who makes an aggresive pass at Bones).

When the cruise ship docks in Jamaica, Max attempts to have an "authentic" Jamaican experience by wandering off to a remote beach with a Jamaican local and his girlfriend. Max enjoys the time by sharing his new friends' weed and attempting to learn phases in Patois but he "loses" all of his possessions (passport, wallet, shoes, shirt, etc.) when he leaves his bag with his new friends while going for a swim. His "friends" leave him on the beach and Max makes his way back to the cruise terminal just in time to see his ship already setting sail. Max is then told by the security guard on the dock that his only recourse is to head to the American Embassy in Kingston (which is hours away).

The road movie portion of the movie kicks in as Max (with no money, no shirt and no shoes) attempts to make his way to Kingston. His "sob story" elicits $10 from American tourists and he uses this to get a bus to Kingston. Like all good road movies, the bus breaks-down midway through the trip. Bones wanders off to play soccer with the locals and the bus, once fixed, leaves without him. Bones makes his way through the beautifully filmed landscape of Jamaica on his way to Kingston. He has a brief encounter with the local shaman (Carl Bradshaw), the Jamaican equivalent of Obi Won/Mr. Miyagi, who tries centering Max and getting him attune with the world around him. The final scene involves Max bonding with a young man who attempted to rob him on the road to Kingston and the implication is that Max, now stripped of his hipster pretensions, has finally found his place in the world.



Links:
Wah Do Dem

NY Export: Opus Jazz DVD Review (Factory 25)

NY Export: Opus Jazz originally premiered in June of 1958 at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and Robbins' Ballets: USA company performed on the Ed Sullivan Show a year later. This "ballet in sneakers" was an abstraction of Robbins' West Side Story (which debuted the previous year) and the dances depicted youth gangs moving within and against the rhythms of the City. The score blended ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing with Latin, African and American rhythms to create a powerfully expressive, sexy and contemporary style.

NY Export: Opus Jazz made its NYC Ballet debut in 2005 at Lincoln Center after which soloists Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi conceived of this new film adoption. Bar said “[w]e thought the ballet seemed a bit dated in its 1950’s trappings, but the themes that came out in the dancing — the energy and raw emotion of urban youth — were just as relevant today as they were then.” The five movements of the ballet were shot in different locations around NYC - High Line, McCarren Pool, Coney Island, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens - with each location adding a different mood and texture to the energy of that particular movement.

The film contains no narrative so it is the dances intertwined with the cinematography and between-movement vignettes that draw the viewer into the characters' lives. The most moving is "Passage for Two" which was filmed at the pre-renovation Highline where Rachel Rutherford and Craig Hall break away from their group of friends to play out their love story on the abandoned railroad tracks at sunset.

I've too often found DVD "extras" to be fairly pointless but the two fifteen minute documentaries that are the "extras" on this disc add volumes to the overall story. Even prior to watching the main feature, the viewer may wish to start with Jerome Robbins' Ballets: USA featurette, which is a well-preserved B&W film that documents Robbins' original production of Opus Jazz and the company's performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The second featurette, A Ballet in Sneakers: Jerome Robbins and Opus Jazz, is a straight-forward "behind the scenes" documentary containing interviews with Ellen Bar and Sean Suozzi who discuss their inspiration for the film, Sondra Lee (who was part of the original Opus cast), and other friends and devotees of Robbins.

The film premiered at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival, where it won the Emerging Visions Audience Award and was broadcast as part of PBS' Great Performances series.

Links:
Opus Jazz

Rio Breaks: DVD Review (Factory 25)

If Rio Breaks was a fictional story, it would likely be a coming of age story about self-discovery and redemption. Instead, this documentary is the bittersweet story of two young boys from one the favelas (ghettos) of Rio who, despite big dreams, are unable to rise above their circumstances and the hand that fate dealt them.



Rio Breaks tells the story of two friends, 13-year-old Fabio and 12-year-old Naamã who live in Rio de Janeiro’s Favela do Pavão but seem to spend every waking hour surfing at Arpoador Beach. These just aren't surf-crazed teenagers but, as the pair lives in an area of town controlled by one of the city’s most dangerous drug gangs, they dream of becoming a professional surfers and escaping the world of the gangs. The water and the beaches also hold the attraction in that this is where the people from the Hills (the poor) and the Concrete (the rich) come together as equals.

Both boys have suffered the loss of immediate family members due to the drug trade and it is heartbreaking to hear Naamã talk about the death of his brother at the hands of the police and the general violence all around them in the same tone of voice that an American teenager may use to discuss lunch plans. It is obvious that this violence is simply accepted as a fact of life. Fabio, on the other hand, is taking the death of his father (who was killed by his own gang for wanting out) hard and he is in the midst of a downward spiral.

The film follows the boys over a number of months and lets them narrate the story of their inward and outward struggles. Fabio is in the midst of a downward spiral as his mother has abandoned him so he is being raised by illiterate grandparents. He cannot read or write, he has dropped out of school and he frequently does not have enough to eat. Given his increasing level of anger and acting out, Naamã worries that Fabio will join the local drug gang.

The positive influence in the Hills is the Favela Surf Club, who provide free surf lessons and loaner boards to residents of the Hills. Fabio and Naamã dream of winning a surf contest and the resultant sponsorships (as some past members of the Favela Surf Club have) to escape their immediate surroundings. One of the sub-plots of the film is the slow build-up to one of these surf contests.

Unfortunately, real life isn't a John Hughes film and the surf contest passes quickly with no redemption for either of the film's two "heroes". Fabio makes a significantly late start (apparently on purpose) in his competitive heat and doesn't place and the film narrator mentions that Naamã dropped out of a later competition and has returned to bodyboarding. The film ends with the narrator telling the listener that Fabio has stopped surfing and has been seen on the street with a strange group of youth (the implication is that he has joined the Red Command drug gang).

There is a positive afterstory though -- Earlier this year, Luciano Huck, host of one of Brazil's most popular TV shows, watched the film, fell in love with it and decided to put all of his clout, resources and plain hard production cash (his programme has institutional status and draws about 12 million viewers every week) to help the film's characters. In the program, which aired on March 6, Luciano meets Naama, who in the film says that his dream is to go surfing in Hawaii. Luciano surprises Naama when he stops by his house in the favela, TV cameras in tow. At the end of the visit, he says he'll not only take Naama to Hawaii, but also introduce him to Kelly Slater, the world's best surfer. In exchange, Naama has to promise he'll never join the drug gang, keep going to school and agree to learn English. (here is a link to the videos from the show)

Naama's meeting with Slater is likely to go down as one of the most tear-inducing moments on television. It could have looked exploitative but it didn't. Naama is sincere and fearless - a fearlessness hewn from the hardship of real life, from growing up without a fridge (as he says in the show) to seeing his brother killed by the police. So when he breaks down upon meeting Slater, you know that moment matters. You know it's real. On their return, Luciano buys the family an apartment in Copacabana, moving Naama and his family out of the favela.

Links:
Rio Breaks

"Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same" DVD Out on June 29th (film by Jody Lee Lipes)

DOWNLOAD: Brock Enright - "Maybe" (from Torben)

Director Jody Lee Lipes’ critically acclaimed film Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same is set for its DVD release via Factory 25 on June 29. The film earned critical acclaim at its SXSW premiere leading Paste Magazine to proclaim it, “A provocation and an enigma…a remarkably assured debut.” Earning a Special Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival, the film screened at the prestigious Hot Docs film festival and had its New York City premiere at BAMcinemaFEST.

The DVD and Blu-Ray package of Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same includes Blackgoat, a 69-minute film by Brock Enright, video loops used in his art installation, a conversation between Robert Longo & Brock Enright and an essay by artist Carroll Dunham. The limited edition package also includes a vinyl LP of music by Brock Enright and Kirsten Deirup titled Torben, a film poster and original artwork hand drawn on each record by Brock.

Lipes’ vérité film follows controversial emerging artist Brock Enright and his girlfriend, painter Kirsten Deirup, as Enright prepares a career-breaking exhibition for New York City’s prominent Perry Rubinstein Gallery. Having appeared on “The View,” “Good Morning America,” and in countless print publications after Rolling Stone profiled his company, Videogames Adventure Services (VAS), which provided “designer kidnapping services,” Enright began focusing exclusively on his artwork and was selected to participate in numerous acclaimed group exhibitions including PS1/MoMA’s Greater New York show. Shortly thereafter, Enright was approached by distinguished New York gallerist Perry Rubinstein to create a career-defining exhibition. Lipes’ film picks up here, presenting an intensely intimate look at Enright and his preparation. Lipes’ lens bypasses the art itself, locking into the struggle Enright and his girlfriend face as his graphic process and professional aspirations conflict with their relationship and financial well-being. Enright is forced to confront his own identity when his art tests the limits of family, collaborators and even the artist himself.

The DVD release of Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same arrives on the heels of Lipes’ SXSW Audience Award-winning scripted adaptation of Jerome Robbins’ NY Export: Opus Jazz currently airing on PBS. Lipes has also been acclaimed for his work as director of photography for Lena Dunham’s 2010’s SXSW Jury Prize winner for Best Narritive Tiny Furniture and Antonio Campos’ Afterschool (Cannes 2008).

Directed and shot by Lipes, Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same is produced by Lipes and Kyle Martin, and executive produced by Louis E. Della Penna and Andrew F. Renzi. All original music is by Brock Enright, and the film’s editor is Lance Edmands.

Links:
Brock Enright Film