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From Beyond
Transformations From the creeping dread of the opening sequence to the unsettling ending that sees Katherine, lapsed into insanity by her experience, laughing wildly, madly in the night, From Beyond is faithful to Lovecraft’s assertion that knowledge changes us, that in peeking into the unknown we can never go back to the way we were before.
Review by Jordan Holtane on 21 May, 2:54 PMNo comments
Under African Skies
IFFB Under African Skies marks the 25th anniversary of Paul Simon’s seemingly immortal album, and it records for the first time the stories and voices of the South African musicians who worked on it. Graceland remains an oddly singular recording, out of step with the fads and waves of rock history, enormously popular yet often very personal to each of its millions of fans. Though the documentary is cinematically standard, its messy and surprisingly untold story is worthwhile.
Review by Katherine Follett on 21 May, 9:45 AMNo comments
Rhinoceros
Transformations As powerful and relevant as Ionesco’s play might be, even today, the 1974 film adaptation starring Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel is not. Yes, it’s a promising little film, and at times it seems determined to retain much of Ionesco’s purpose. But certain changes to the play, not to mention the casting itself, render the film version an ineffective, messy, and almost counterproductive interpretation, if that’s even the right word for what it is.
Review by Adam Balz on 18 May, 2:48 PM1 Comments
Girl Model
IFFB Americans love the dark side of modeling. Stories about enforced anorexia, sexual exploitation, and cocaine-fueled binges go viral every week. It’s a familiar story of the grime behind the glamour, the insistence that no one can look so perfect without something horrible under the surface. The truth that comes out in Girl Model, the second documentary at the 2012 IFFB from filmmaking couple David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, is more mundane, yet in many ways more horrifying.
Review by Katherine Follett on 18 May, 11:35 AMNo comments
Now, Voyager
Transformations Though it was no doubt made for unhappily married middle-aged housewives (as all Hollywood melodramas allegedly were), Now, Voyager is not about them, at least not in the way that Stella Dallas or Mildred Pierce or Magnificent Obsession or Imitation of Life or All That Heaven Allows are about them. Unlike these movies, Now, Voyager is not a fantasy fulfillment of a thirty- or forty-ish woman’s need for a second act after marriage and children have somehow failed to satisfy. Instead it is a fantasy about what can happen in one’s thirties when the first act never materializes.
Review by Briallen Hopper on 17 May, 1:10 PMNo comments
Detropia
IFFB This year, the Independent Film Festival of Boston presented two documentaries about the decline of Detroit. Burn focused on the city’s firefighters as they battle an onslaught of arson, neglect, and budget shortfalls while Detroit’s population flees. Detropia filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady choose to view the city through a wide-angle lens, following a range of people who create a haunting collage of an entire American landscape in decline.
Review by Katherine Follett on 17 May, 10:57 AMNo comments
Screening Log
Aglow
IFFB 2012 – “The myth about the muse visiting you is just that – a myth,” artist Paul Chojnowski says in Aglow, a short documentary about his work. Indeed, while I’ve seen a number of films about visual artists throughout the years …
by Victoria Large on 15 May, 4:38 PMNo Comments
The Love Competition
IFFB 2012 – The subject matter of director Brent Hoff’s entertaining short documentary The Love Competition is in itself intriguing: researchers at Stanford ask their human subjects to “love” as much as they can while in an MRI machine. The researchers …
by Victoria Large on 15 May, 4:17 PMNo Comments
Behind the Eyes are the Ears
BALAGAN – Screening at the Brattle Theatre as part of this month’s Balagan film series, Nancy Andrews’ experimental short Behind the Eyes are the Ears offers a dreamlike mix of images, blending found footage with animation and live action, with each …
by Victoria Large on 04 May, 6:38 PMNo Comments
It’s Such a Beautiful Day
IFFB 2012 – The most high-profile of the animated shorts playing at this year’s IFFB, It’s Such a Beautiful Day is the third and final film in the trilogy that animator Don Hertzfeldt began with 2006’s Everything Will Be …
by Victoria Large on 04 May, 12:51 PMNo Comments
Once It Started It Could Not End Otherwise
IFFB 2012 – Kelly Sears’ animated short, composed entirely of images from 1970s yearbooks, tells the eerie story of a horrific event unfolding at typical high school. It’s an admirably creative effort that unfolds with a wry, satiric sting.
by Victoria Large on 04 May, 12:36 PMNo Comments
The Maker
IFFB 2012 – Christopher Kezelos’ wordless, splendid-looking stop motion short about an odd creature (who looks something like a rabbit in a Halloween mask) on a mission is enigmatic yet engaging, like a tiny dispatch from another world. To say much more about it would risk …
by Victoria Large on 04 May, 12:25 PMNo Comments
