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Two we caught recently –
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Surprising, thought-provoking documentary about anabolic steroids and other performance enhancers, in and out of pro sports, from a medical, ethical, and personal perspective — director/narrator/co-writer Chris Bell is himself a former professional wrestler, but his instincts for engaging storytelling and incisive interviewing both seem sharp. (His structural approach and […]

. . .in time to contribute at least a little something:
Do It Again: One Man’s Quest to Reunite the Kinks.
Sounds like a very interesting project — hope it gets finished, is accepted into some festivals, lands a distribution deal and plays somewhere I can catch it, and ultimately gets a DVD release I can get my hands […]

With the screening of Welcome to Academia at the Brattle we got a survey from the film-makers full of stock intro-course questions, like “Which character did you find easiest to relate to? Why?”*
It was so hard to be constructive.
Kirk Davis and Elzbieta Szoka seem to have concocted their dark comedy** of sexual and power dynamics […]

Two more from the Fall 2009 Eye-Opener at The Brattle (. . . and my wonderful fiancée already ably covered American Casino, our most recent screening.)
I didn’t hate Summerhood, Jacob Medjuck’s distillation of summer camp experiences, and I didn’t think it was terrible, but so many aspects of it were seriously flawed that it’s difficult […]

Good golly, it’s been a while.
My wonderful girlfriend and I are attending the current Eye-Opener series at The Brattle. We’ve been to 2 screenings so far.
I appreciate Voy a explotar (I’m Going to Explode) a little more after thinking about it post-screening, which is not to say I enjoyed it, or that I thought […]

Stingray Sam is the new space-western/musical from Cory McAbee of The American Astronaut fame. It compromises 6 10-minute episodes. Each mixes John Borruso’s surreal and colorful collages and expository narration by David Hyde Pierce with live-action black & white footage of Stingray Sam (McAbee), his partner The Quasar Kid (Crugie) and their friends and enemies. […]

The Higher Force (Stóra planið) is certainly not your typical gangster movie. David (Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon) is a singularly feckless hoodlum in a gang ineptly led by Magnus (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson). David would really rather be a poet, and he’s haunted by an old secret. His new landlord Harald (Eggert Þorleifsson) claims to be a […]

Best Worst Movie is instantly on my shortlist for year’s best movie. It’s the story of a low budget horror flick (Troll 2) that became a cult phenomenon, and how the cast and crew react to this after nearly 20 years. Lead man George Hardy is tremendously engaging. He radiates an almost supernatural level […]