August 18th - August 24th

I Bury the Living - Basically this Albert Band film plays like a slightly longer Twilight Zone episode. But we get a pretty lame ending here rather than what might be expected. Some commenters on other sites suggest that the original ending was changed by the “studio” and that’s why we get the lame ending. Or maybe the filmmakers just miscalculated. Still it has a pre-technology J-Horror feel to it that I kind of like. It plays on larger themes of playing God and the clash between reality and the supernatural. But, really, it just needs more zombies. Like the cowbell, the walking dead make just about everything better.

Rainbow Around the Sun - Well, finally we got around to seeing this one. We missed it at deadCENTER, but luckily it was playing as part of the OKC Museum of Art’s Bumper Crop series this past weekend. The concept of a rock opera can come off as bit gimmicky. My god, you think you can sing and strum a guitar!? Now you think you can do all that in front of a camera for 80 minutes!?

I had to see it, of course, because it is quintessential OKC film. It’s the deadCENTER film festival–perhaps the best long weekend of my year–encapsulated in a narrative film. The footprints of OKC and deadCENTER are all over this movie. But to be honest, a lot of the time when you see a “local” film, it’s just not really all that good. You might admire the filmmakers’ passion, or at the least you might just hope that everybody had a lot of fun making it. Hell, I’m impressed that people actually put stuff on film or DV that never makes its way out of the recesses of my own head.

So that’s where I was going into this one. I was skeptical. Unfortunately, one of the touchstones I have in my head for a locally made film is the horribly awful Sam & Janet (possibly the only movie I’ve ever walked out on…at deadCENTER or elsewhere). Anyway, it took me a while to warm up to it. I thought it was going to be more of the same. As it got going, I fell in love with the music (I have to buy the album now), but wasn’t convinced that it translated well to the screen. But gradually I warmed to it and ended up really liking it.

For one, there was actual talent behind the camera. Directors Beau Leland and Kevin Ely gave us some actual style for once. And Matt Brown is just fine behind a guitar and mic or in front of a camera. Also, the filmmakers used the city (Oklahoma City) in a way that was recognizable to me. It’s the city I know. Is that Sidecar? I think that may be Saturn Grill. Is that the bathroom at The Conservatory? There were none of the stupid establishing shots that so often pop up in local projects. We don’t have to linger on outdoor signage to know that the next scene takes place in a bar. Finally, I appreciate so much that the movie was ultimately about a guy and his dad. Normally filmmakers move past the dad (even if he’s central) and rush right over to the blonde to make it a movie about a guy and his girl. A guy chasing his dad to get him back is almost always more compelling than a guy chasing the girl.

There were a couple of dialogue scenes that ran a bit too long (the phone conversation and the cupcake scene) and could have been edited down just a little bit to keep them from seeming so akward. But, aside from that, I was really impressed with Leland and Ely at the helm and Brown everywhere else.

Monster Ark- What do we do now? Well, if you unleash a Biblical monster that is hell-bent on starting Armageddon, then you better bring out the big guns. I just don’t know if you should give those big guns to Tiny Lister, who uses his blind right eye to line up the sights. No wonder he couldn’t ever take down the creature. Luckily Tim Dekay (Jonesy, from the short lived HBO series Carnivàle) was able to regain his faith (ugh) in order to disable the monster. This Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie was the equivalent of a classic tomb raider, unapologetically stealing  treasures from Indiana Jones and The Da Vinci Code. For shame…

The Tracey Fragments- This film, starring Ellen Page, literally unfolds in fragments. The screen isn’t just split in two, it is fragmented into numerous pieces depicting different scenes, different angles, and different perspectives. This, too, can come off as a bit gimmicky. But as this film progresses, this technique becomes more and more effective. At times it can be a little heavy handed–ooh, her life is falling apart, and so is the screen. But ultimately it works. Memories, especially those of youth and those formed out of traumatic experiences, are very fragile and malleable. We alter those memories so much that they look little like the actual experiences. We create lies–in a way, semi-autobiographical biopics–of ourselves which become the new truth. In a way, this film is a sort of “What If?” What if Juno made a different sort of mistake and didn’t have parents who really loved her?

The Candidate - For the political junkie I am, I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve seen this one. Although it was made in 1972, this one rings so true in today’s political climate. Idealism can only take you so far. You still have to answer to the pimp that is the political process. No matter how much hope you have, you’re still his whore. And the last line–What do we do now?–is just classic.