Little Miss Sunshine

I recently decided to watch the independent movie Little Miss Sunshine. Believe it or not I missed the craze that this Sundance sweeper, and academy award winner brewed up about a year and a half ago. In case you are like me and have missed this smart, genius, comedy, Little miss sunshine tells the story of a very dysfunctional family as they try to make it to California so little Olive can compete in the beauty contest to become little miss sunshine. The script was written by first time writer Michael Arndt, and directed by husband-wife duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The film has some pretty big name stars. Such as, Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, and Toni Collette, and was made for $10 million. After The film was screened at Sundance in 2006, fox Searchlight pictures bought the distribution rights for $10.5 million plus ten percent of the gross profit, one of the biggest deals in Sundance history. I personally thought the different characters really brought great differences to the film and kept me enthralled to keep watching. Sheryl Hoover is the mother of two kids and married to Richard Hoover. Richard is trying to support the family as a motivational speaker and has a theory to success called “The Nine Steps” the he is trying to get off the ground. Sheryl’s brother Frank is a homosexual professor that is living at home temporarily because he tried to commit suicide. Dwane, the son is a mute who refuses to talk until he can become a fighter pilot. Edwin, the grandpa is living with the family because he was recently evicted from his retirement home for snorting heroin. Olive is the daughter and the movie circles around the family trying to get to California so that Olive can compete in the little miss sunshine competition. The tensions between the family members play throughout the movie. The family travels in an old beat down yellow VW van from the 70’s, which needs to be pushed up to about to 20mph before it can be put into gear and started. Along the way the horn in the van stays on all the time, the grandpa dies in an overdose and they smuggle the body illegally to California because they don’t have time to burry it, Dwayne finds out he is color blind so he can’t fly and goes in to a turrets break down to end the muteness, but somehow the family makes it to the competition in time. Olive gets to the talent portion and performs a provocative dance that “her grandpa taught her” to Rick James’ Superfreak. Overall, the movie was very funny and entertaining. I recommend that everyone go and check this one out.

~David Michels

The Boondock Saints

For my first lived experience blog I decided to write about the film, The Boondock Saints (which came out in 1999). The film was directed by Troy Duffy and the tow main stars are Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, who play Irish-American twins (Connor and Murphy McManus). I first saw this movie last semester and it instantly became one of my favorite movies that I have ever seen. The plot of Boondock Saints revolves around the McManus twins getting into a bar fight with 2 Russian mobsters and then the mobsters come to their “apartment” for revenge and the twins end up killing the Russians. Since the killings dealt with the mafia, Paul Smecker (William Dafoe, the guy who played the green goblin in spider-man), and FBI agent has been assigned to find the guilty party. While Smecker is solving the crime, the McManus’ decide to rid Boston of all evil (the rest of the Russian mafia along with some of the Italian mafia, including Ron Jeremy). The McManus’ friend Rocco (David Della Rocco) who is in the Italian mafia has decided to join the McManus’ quest. Smecker eventually finds out that the twins killed the mobsters in self defense and decides to help them out by giving misleading information. Whenever the McManus’ kill someone, they always place pennies on the eyes of the dead and say a prayer because of the catholic beliefs. Eventually, the Italian mafia boss, Papa Joe, strikes a deal to let Il Duce (Billy Connolly) out of jail, and kill Rocco and the McManus twins. The ending scene is when Rocco, Smecker and the McManus twins go to Papa Joe’s house and are captured by Papa Joe’s men. I won’t spoil the ending but the director, Troy Duffy, definielty sets up the movie for a sequel.
The plot was really well developed in The Boondock Saints and I also feel that the characters were also very well developed.
I feel that The Boondock Saints is an excellent movie and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes the shooting and violent movie.

Mike Norgord

This Girl's Life

For my very first lived experience entry, I decided to watch “this girls life”. I mainly chose this movie because it was the most random, crazy, not normal movie I could find on my Netflix view it now list. The movie’s main actors include James Woods, Juliette Marquis, Kip Pardue, Tomas Arana, Michael Rapaport, and Rosario Dawson. “This Girls Life” is about a porn star that is not just your average porn star. She lives quiet the crazy life but yet she has almost all of her priorities in line. Her name, Moon, played by the one, the only, Juliette Marquis. Early in the movie you find out that Moon’s mom committed suicide a little after she was caught with another man in their house. It was said that no one ever said anything about it ever but the mom’s guilt drove her to suicide. Moon’s father is not all alone and suffering from a bad case of Parkinson’s disease. The movie progresses as moon is set up on a blind date by her friend and she surprisingly enough makes a descent connection. During her father’s birthday party her best friend proposes a deal with moon; to seduce her fiancé to see if he would remain faithful. This sparks moons imagination and gets her to later start up her own business. The Sex Investigator as she calls herself puts an ad into the newspaper and is soon swamped with phone calls. Juggling her porn career, sickly father, her sex investigating business, and her on off boyfriend, things start to fall apart. This go from bad to worse in this twisted drama directed by ASH aka Johnny Hawaiian.
There are hardly any negative influences in this movie. Everyone gets along the conflict in “This Girls Life” is really minimal. I think there was a lack in character development. There really wasn’t any great introduction to anyone else other than Moon and this made it hard to relate to anyone else in the movie. The plot really didn’t move along very fast until after Moon’s first Sexual Investigation. After that the movie started to pick up pace. Not going to lie, it was kind of boring until then. After that bad people started showing up and things got a little darker. The movie was alright but had some obvious independent features. No extremely famous actors paired with a very different plot and sup par acting really made this film a different experience compared to a movie you’d go see in the theaters that carry Hollywood films. “This girls life” wasn’t terrible and I would suggest it if you have 2 hours to spare.
Anthony T Radloff

The Squid and the Whale

The Squid and the Whale is a coming of age story about the Berkman’s and their divorce. Both Hollywood and Independent films have delt with this story line in the past, however, this family dynamic and the characters’ way of dealing with the divorce is very unique. First of all, I highly recommend this film, because it’s quirky hilarious, and touching. This film was written and directed by Noah Baumbach. Supposedly this film was based on childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach. The film takes place in Brooklyn, NY in 1986. The father Bernard Berkman, played by Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber), is a snobbish literately professor who once was a successful writer. The mother, Joan Berkman, played by Laura Linney (You can Count on Me, Kinsey), has many affairs and in the course of the film becomes a successful published author. The eldest son, Walt Berkman, played by Jesse Eisenberg, takes the side of his father during the divorce. The youngest son, Frank Berkman, played by Owen Kline (Kevin Kline’s son), takes the side of his mother during the divorce. After the parents announce to their sons of the divorce, everyone begins to gradually exhibit bizarre behavior, especially the children. Frank Berkman, my favorite character, begins to drink alcohol and most disturbingly masturbates and spreads his semen throughout the school. Frank also develops a very crude vocabulary. Walt Berkman decides to play the song Hey You, by Pink Floyd, for a talent competition and takes credit for writing it himself. He also decides to break up with his girlfriend; for fear that he could do better. He also becomes very much like his father throughout the film, until the very end. He basically disowned his mother, until the end when he realizes her importance to him when he was younger. This film, even though it has a famous cast, is still very independent. Not just because of the characters that appear in the film, or how open the parents are with their children when dealing with sex, and other issues, but also to what is chosen to be filmed. Things like Laura Linney picking skin of her lip are normally filmed in major Hollywood movies, because it really has nothing to do with the story as a whole. Also, the film doesn’t end with a big conclusion like a Hollywood film does. Some issues are resolved in the film, but it’s done in a more symbolic way, rather than it being spelled out for you, like it would be in a Hollywood film. The film ends with Walt going to see an exhibit in a museum that he could never see as a child (the Squid and the Whale), because he was too scared. All in all this movie is worth seeing.

La Vie En Rose

A few weeks ago my fiancé rented a few movies. Usually we watch comedies, action movies, The Sopranos, and of course I like my occasional Romance. But this time he comes back with an independent film entitled La Vie En Rose, the story of Edith Piaf. I was not to thrilled because the film was completely in French. But after the first two minutes of the film I was completely hooked.
Edith Piaf was a French cabaret singer and is known to be the voice of France. She had a very difficult life as she was growing up. She was abandoned by her mother and later her father. She was a party girl who spent many days and nights drunk and high. She was later discovered by a nightclub owner and after that point her career skyrocketed. I was especially drawn to the music in this movie. All of the songs except for four were original recordings of Edith Piaf. The way that they edited her music throughout the film really drew you into the story.
The film is best known for the leading actress who played Piaf, Marion Cotillard, who won an Oscar for Best actress and a Golden Globe. In my opinion she had one of the best performances that I have ever seen. She had to play different stages in Piaf’s life. When she was old it was believable. She also did an amazing job at lip-syncing which many professionals are not good at. (a.k.a Ashlee Simpson). This film also won many awards for make-up. One of the most impressive transformations in the film occurred when they had to transform Cotillard into an old woman. I watched the special features for the film and learned that it took hours for them to put on every wrinkle and age spot. The transformation really enhanced great acting proved to be amazing.
This film was written and directed by Olivier Dahan, who is “ one of the most visually exciting and emotionally adept French film makers working in the cinema today” This film was a powerful and emotion filled film. Dahan made really great transitions. It had the invisible feel like many Hollywood films have. Also the editing and adding songs performed by Piaf.
I would recommend this movie to everyone especially if you enjoy cabaret music. The French and subtitles were a little hard to get used to but after you become involved with story you forget that they are speaking a different language. I would also recommend searching you-tube for segments of Edith Piaf “the voice of France”.

~Antonina Centinario

The Beast of Bray Road and The Asylum

Released in 2005, The Beast of Bray Road is a shining example of an indie horror film. Based around the “True Story” of a mysterious wolf-man-cryptid reportedly seen around Elkhorn, WI, The Beast is a near masterpiece of budget cinema. Director Leigh Scott (born in Milwaukee!) manages to take his history of low-to-no budget filmmaking and expand upon it with the slightly larger budget provided by the company he was working for, The Asylum. Producers of such films as AVH: Alien vs. Hunter, 100 Million BC and Invasion of the Pod People, The Asylum has, since roughly 2005, specialized in making films that are near direct rip-offs(at least in title, if not in story) of Hollywood releases. AVH? Title based off of AVP: Alien vs. Predator. The stories are surprisingly similar for these two, but with other’s it’s merely a visual similarity on the cover and the title that tend to trick unwary viewers.

Valid business tactic? Legally, it is. There is no infringement, technically, but there is often a stellar lack of creativity. Of course, for any company it’s all about the bottom line, so if you make a film called Transmorphers, release it a week before Transformers and some shmuck goes into Blockbuster and rents it, thinking they’re getting the big-budget Michael Bay movie, well, too bad for them and hurray for the company. Streamlining the process has allowed The Asylum to shoot and release several movies a year for incredibly low budgets. Reusing directors, editors and actors has basically given them a corral of “talent” and experience that they can use to pump out feature length films every couple months.

As one of these rapidly made films, The Beast of Bray Road showcases the formulaic nature The Asylum uses to create films. Clearly made for a low budget, no really recognizable actors, a laughable script and locations that are clearly not in rural Wisconsin, Beast takes all of this and whips it into what is actually a semi-respectable B-movie. The visual effects are…interesting. Slightly lower quality than most Sci-Fi channel movies, the makeup and creature effects are certainly better than most college level horror films. Acting is mediocre at best, with line delivery often stilted and awkward. The cinematography is surprisingly well done, however. The cameras and lenses are clearly of mid to high quality, the lighting is generally even and well sourced and the image quality remains constant. The only low points are during many of the supposed night time scenes, when the day-for-night is poorly done, seeming to be a post manipulation of the image rather than a during shoot compensation or filtering.

Far from being the great horror breakout of 2005, The Beast of Bray Road is instead a fine example of low-budget, mass produced B Horror. The Asylum company may not be looking to make the finest films, but they have certainly committed themselves to being one of the top B movie companies. They’ve found their niche and they have dedicated themselves to running with it as long as they can. So, if you and some friends are in the mood for a night of cheap horror, grab a few of the fine films pumped out by The Asylum and get ready to enjoy a humorous evening.

Gone Baby Gone by Connor Murray

For my first lived experience blog, I have chosen to talk about Gone Baby Gone. The main reason I have chosen this movie is because Amy Ryan was nominated for actress in a supporting role and I felt that she should have won. First off I would recommend anyone to see this movie, it is about a 4-year-old girl who goes missing in Dorchester, MA a rough suburb of Boston. Private Investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro (Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan) reluctantly decide to take the case and Amy Ryan plays the drug-addicted mother of the missing girl. This is a truly gritty thriller that will not allow you relax for a second, and the ending has quite a twist. I was very impressed with Ben Affleck considering this is his directorial debut and he also co-wrote it. But I feel as though his brother may be the more talented actor after having seen this movie. Also on a smaller note, I felt the cinematography gave it somewhat of an independent feel because of the real shots of Dorchester and how rough the city really is, despite many of the big name actors. Also it was produced my Miramax which has produced many great "Indie's" that went on to make a fair amount of money.
But the main reason why I chose this movie is because of the stellar performance given by Amy Ryan. She was up against some tough competition such as, Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There), Ruby Dee (American Gangster), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) and the winner Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton). I have seen all of these movies except I'm Not There and I truly believe that Amy Ryan should have won for Actress in a Supporting Role. Ryan threw herself into this character, from her attitude towards the cops and P.I.'s to her voice and body language, I could honestly believe that she was a drug-addict if I did not know who she was. Ryan's performance in this movie is what really stayed with me after having seen it and the is saying something considering all of the other great performances (Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan).