MikeEverleth Blog

Nasty little piece of work.

MikeEverleth — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:50:11 GMT

No Through Road is an extremely tense little thriller-slash-horror movie that's at turns scary, suspenseful and pretty gory and disturbing. It's kind of like a low-budget Australian update of Straw Dogs.

However, this time the nerdy guy who needs to find his inner barbarian is a mousy, reclusive amateur photographer who needs to protect a strange girl hiding in his bedroom closet. She claims she's just been raped, but the three thugs outside who want to have a "chat" with her claim she's involved in a drug plot. Of course, the outside creeps eventually find their way inside for a cat-and-mouse game that involves several sharp objects.

The film has a nice script that slowly builds the tension and deftly explains away all of the nagging implausibilities, such as giving the hero a good, solid reason to not automatically call the cops when he finds the girl. But the film really shines with giving us terrific characters to care about, especially in developing the villains who are grounded and realistic and not just cartoonish ruffians.

Read my full review at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film.

Modern Neorealism in Kashmir

MikeEverleth — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:57:23 GMT

This is a bold and accomplished first feature film by Tariq Tapa, an American of Kashmiri descent.

The film is set entirely in Srinagar, Kashmir and follows the story of a teenage pickpocket, Dilawar, who dreams of someday escaping the slum he's grown up in. His dreams of escape become more real when he befriends a pretty shipping clerk, Bani, who also has plans to leave her abusive, overbearing family.

Shot in a neorealist style, Tapa doesn't romanticize life in the slums of war-torn Kashmir. The film is shot in an intimate, documentary style and the drama unfolds at a nice realistic, uncontrived page. Featuring a cast of non-professional actors and almost all crew work performed by Tapa himself, Zero Bridge is a remarkable debut.

Read my full review at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film.

Low-key and charming

MikeEverleth — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:09:37 GMT

I guess this is a hard-to-see film since it was never released on DVD, which is a real shame because it's a fun, quirky little documentary.

Director John O'Hagan does a nice job spotlighting the eccentric characters living in America's first suburb, Levittown, NY, without poking fun at them. The residents proudly discuss their quirky hobbies and obsessions while O'Hagan mixes in nice archival footage of the suburb's ambitious beginnings. We also get to meet a few of Levittown's more famous former residents, like musician Eddie Money and Bill Griffith, the creator of Zippy the Pinhead.

It's a real shame more people can't get to see this as this is a very charming documentary.

Low-key but hilarious

MikeEverleth — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:12:50 GMT

Melodie Sisk stars as a nurse who is bored by life so she becomes ... a bored dominatrix. However, the film is anything but boring. While the action gets off to a slow start, Zach Clark sets the outrageous sexual situations on a slow simmer that gradually flares up into a hot boil.

While Sisk is wonderfully impassive as the passionless dominatrix -- you can really feel her wounded soul -- the film kicks into high gear when Maggie Ross enters the picture as Sisk's loopy roommate. Sisk's ennui is counterbalanced by Ross' unhinged optimism in face of one of the most degrading jobs on the planet.

Read my full review at Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film.

Road Trip

MikeEverleth — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:25:40 GMT

Ryan Harper's debut feature is a nice twist on the desert thriller genre. A young Mexican woman is helped by a crusty, but kind, stranger as she escapes from her abusive ex-husband. While it may look like she's still in the same desert community where she grew up, she eventually realizes she's trapped in a nighmarish mirror world.

Her journey is kind of like Dorothy's in The Wizard of Oz, except the Munchkins here are normal-sized and like to vomit bile on and eat people; and instead of a dancing scarecrow, she's accompanied by a cranky bald guy in a rundown truck.

Read my full review on Bad Lit.

How not to be a rock star

MikeEverleth — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:58:26 GMT

The Atlas Moth chronicles struggling heavy metal band Dark Horse and their desperate attempt to become rock stars. But these aren't some wide-eyed kids, they're middle-aged guys with families and plenty of other hobbies that keep from making music.

The members of Dark Horse -- including Dan Cleveland, Sean Cassidy and Jon Mortenson -- are all extremely interesting guys and they're completely candid and uninhibited in front of director Rolf Belgum's camera. So, in that regard, this makes for fascinating viewing, but it's up to the viewer to figure out what Belgum's trying to say by telling their story.

Read my full review at Bad Lit.

No payoff

MikeEverleth — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:37:31 GMT

The mood and character set-up are pretty good here and there are certainly some nice scary parts. However, what I think totally sinks the film is that director Bertino never sets up a good sense of space. About halfway through the film I realized I had no idea where the characters were in relation to the house from one scene to the next. They seemed like they were in this very big house, but we only get to see like two or three rooms in it. Then, a barn is introduced halfway into the film that it's not clear how far it is from the house. I lost track of where Tyler and Speedman were in each scene and thus lost interest in their predicament. But, still didn't totally dislike it. More like a missed opportunity.

A punk rockin' good time!

MikeEverleth — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:01:59 GMT

This was, hands-down, my favorite movie of 2008. It was the liveliest, most energetic and just plain ol' good time fun film I saw all year. Plus, it has an incredible rockin' original soundtrack and a star-making performance by Daniel Louis Rivas as Richard Havoc, a punk rock phenomenon whose fame gives him delusions of grandeur. With a small band of misfits, Havoc plans on a nuclear armaggedon after which the youth will take over the world.

The rest of the cast, including Frankie Shaw, Teddy Eck, Matthew Humphreys and Raphael Nash Thompson, are excellent, too. And director Joshua von Brown actually shot the film in a real decommissioned nuclear missile silo that gives the production an authentic air.

Read my full review at Bad Lit.

Nice profile of an underground legend

MikeEverleth — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:51:19 GMT

This was a pretty thorough profile of underground filmmaker and performance artist Jack Smith. Although most well-known for the groundbreaking film Flaming Creatures, his experience with the film's distribution led him to never complete another film ever again. Instead, he devoted his life to putting on avant-garde plays in his studio loft to bewildered art crowds.

Smith spent his life fighting his fame and drove most people who knew him away. So, he's probably the most mysterious of the underground film crowd who came to prominence in the '60s. This documentary finally sheds some light on his life and career. Featuring great archival footage, we get to see Smith's humble small-town beginnings, the successful photography career he abandoned, clips from his never-completed films and some performace video. There's also interviews with Smith's contemporaries and admirers, so it's a good all-around profile.

You can read my full review at Bad Lit.

Atrocious, Yet...

MikeEverleth — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:40:59 GMT

This movie has about five minutes of pure awesomeness in the form of a go-go party and a make-out session, but the rest of it is completely incoherent and virtually unwatchable. Although, actually I watched the whole thing just to see how this ludicrous mess ended up. So, there's something kind of fascinating about how mind-bogglingly inept this entire production is.

However, I am absolutely convinced that the "Dr. Logan" in this film is the same "Logan" from George Romero's Day of the Dead, complete with the same philosophy about trying to train a monster.

Also, the non-sequiter car stalling scene is kind of priceless.