I like Crackerhead, but this latest experimental experience from filmmaker Mike Klassen is making me sweat – it’s a tough movie to review if you can’t crack through Klassen’s poker face. The film’s flippant facade has anarchy written all over it, but the drive behind Klassen’s directorial decisions and stylistic storytelling suggests a deeper, poignant project.
Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast War of the Worlds was so convincing, some listeners were persuaded into thinking a martian invasion really was at large. Brave New Jersey, a quirky small-scale comedy from budding director Jody Lambert, sets a funny fictitious story in this historical footnote, resulting in a sweet and refreshing flick that stays faithful to its period.
Reintegrating kidnappees into society is familiar territory, but Dave McCary’s Brigsby Bear adds a charming, unique twist to the narrative. With a cast and crew populated by Saturday Night Live staff (including director Dave McCary, co-writer and star Kyle Mooney, and producer and co-star Andy Samberg), Brigsby Bear lacks the cynicism typically associated with themes of nostalgia; instead, Brigsby is rather heartwarming in its absurdity.
The documentary form of filmmaking has been around since the very beginning of the moving image. In well over a century, it has been transformed in a variety of ways, leading to some of the most innovative cinema. This is exactly why it is always so frustrating when someone takes an interesting individual or event and makes a documentary that takes nothing from this history, instead opting to utilize the same old cookie-cutter style of…