Search Results for: fff 2015

FFF 2015 Movie Review: ‘The Desk’

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So what is “The Desk?” Apparently submitted to the festival as a narrative feature despite clearly being a documentary (a meta-documentary, but a documentary nonetheless), “The Desk” is part biography and part exposé, while also getting into the role of social media in journalism and in our culture as a whole, which brings with it a bit of an indictment on many peoples’ need to be outraged about…well, about anything. Combining footage from a failed short film about a failed television late night talk show with interviews, recreations from actors, cell phone footage and some audio from previous celebrity interviews, this movie is a hell of a ride as it documents a man’s fall from grace, a time during which just about everything goes wrong for the apparently very well-intentioned guy.Continue Reading …

Netflix pick for 5/23/16 – ‘Welcome to Leith’

WelcomeToLeith_PosterAs heard in episode 176 of Cinema Crespodiso.

“Welcome to Leith” is a documentary about an asshole who tried to buy up enough land in a tiny North Dakota town in order to turn it into a white supremacist safe haven, with himself positioned as their leader. And here’s the M. Night Shyamalan like twist – this isn’t an old untold story from the 1800’s about some old ex-slave owner or something like that, this whole thing happened in 2012, just a few scant years ago.

And now here in this foul year of our Lord 2016, thanks to a certain political and cultural climate in the air we have a whole bevy of openly hateful racists and bigots who have become emboldened to share their retrograde, backwater and completely destructive worldviews with anyone who will care to listen, making documentaries like this all that more important because we, as an evolving species, have ignored these kinds of people and allowed them to wallow in their ignorance for long enough, and we need something like to at least open peoples’ eyes and show them that “post-racial America” is just as bad if not worse than the America that has come before it. Continue Reading …

Review: ‘Hunt For The Wilderpeople’

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“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is the latest from Kiwi artist Taika Waititi, and it is a simultaneously irreverent and sincere movie about a lost foster child and an adrift widower coming together and helping each other out in ways that they didn’t even realize they needed helping. Hysterical and heartfelt, this is a great movie that shows how Waititi continues to grow as a filmmaker and shows so much promise for his future as a storyteller.

Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a young teen making the rounds in New Zealand’s foster care system, and the movie opens with him getting his last shot at a home when he is introduced to the very nice Bella (Rima Te Wiata), who wants very much to take this kid in and make a nice home for him. Much less happy to see him is Bella’s rough and rugged husband Hec (Sam Neill), but he puts up with Ricky because he makes Bella happy.

Of course when things appear to be clicking and this seems to be a great situation for everyone involved, Bella dies because this is a movie and we need drama. The state wants to take Ricky back, which causes him to pack up and try running away in an attempt to just hide out in The Bush, and when Nec goes looking for him, he ends up injured and unable to walk for weeks at a time, forcing them to camp out in the thick forest until he can heal. This causes a problem when child services shows up to Nec’s farm and sees they are gone. Suspecting that he kidnapped the boy, a national manhunt begins and both Nec and Ricky find themselves on the run, neither of them wanting to have a run in with the government for their own reasons.

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Netflix pick for 4/11/16 – ‘Uncle John’

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As heard in episode 170 of Cinema Crespodiso.

Do you believe in coincidences? How about fate? Because just as we here at Cinema Crespodiso are busy covering the 25th annual Florida Film Festival, a past FFF selection has randomly popped up as this week’s Netflix pick, and that is a little indie drama called “Uncle John.” Featuring that guy who is NOT Judge Reinhold from the first two “Beverly Hills Cop” movies, this is the kind of indie movie that appears to be two different stories smashed together, and fortunately they do come together in the end, making for a well made crime drama thriller featuring some really strong performances.

First there is the titular Uncle John, played by John Ashton, and it is really cool seeing Ashton get a chance to be the lead in a movie, and he does well here as the small town carpenter that everyone likes and no one suspects. You see, very early on in the story, Uncle John has a dispute with a local guy that no one likes, and he kills him, and then he disposes of the body. The rest of the movie he tries to make sure no one suspects him, which is easy enough save for one person, the only person who did happen to like the murdered fella, and that’s the deceased’s brother (Ronnie Gene Blevins). Meanwhile, John’s nephew lives in the city and likes a girl at his job, and they strike up a friendship, which he tries to get to the next level. His attempts to break out of the friend zone end up sending the two of them to the country to make an unannounced visit to his Uncle John, which is obviously bad timing for John, but he makes due as best as he can.

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