If you’re one of the kids who grew up during the golden age of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they were all that any kid in their right talked about, then this form of nostalgiasploitation is one you’ll have a damn good time with. For anyone hoping to re-live their youth while also looking in to what the current incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are up to, the best form of marketing for all the audiences of this franchise comes in the form of “Turtles Forever,” a reality bending, genre twisting mini-movie that works as a satire on the eighties series, a tribute to the current incarnation and a respectful nod to the classic Turtles.
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
In the past three years there has been a boom in versus films. And that’s primarily attributed to the boom of the direct to DVD industry that relies solely on gimmicks and plagiarism to fuel its economy and one of the primary cash cows of the market is the versus gimmick. We’ve seen every monster fight every warrior this side of folklore and what we see with “Battle Los Angeles” is pretty much soldiers versus aliens. In fact with less money and star power, Jonathan Liebesman’s film could very well have been titled “Aliens vs. Soldiers,” a roughneck balls to the wall action science fiction film that just doesn’t try too hard to bring us in close to its characters.
Talking with Lloyd Kaufman: Tromadance, Toxie, and Tits
His name is Lloyd Kaufman. For fans of cult cinema and indie filmmaking, the name rings like a doorbell to some of the unusual most twisted films ever conceived by the human mind. To us, the man has been a proponent of what we advocate here on Cinema Crazed: Independent Filmmaking to the very core. Sick and tired of the bloated and corrupt submission guidelines and festival scene that is the Sundance Film Festival, every year for twelve years, Lloyd Kaufman and Tromaniacs throw the the TromaDance film festival.
There’s no entry fee. There’s no ticket price. The only catch is to bring your best film and be ready for some fun. This year we were honored to grab an opportunity to interview Mr. Lloyd Kaufman during his press junket for Tromadance storms New Jersey, and we’re honored to speak to the man who has pushed the very ideals of independent filmmaking for decades and, unlike other filmmakers of his ilk, has actually stuck to his guns even his age where he’s become a bona fide icon among the masses of cult fans, indie filmmaking fans, and horror buffs across the world.
Lensing with Love: Interview with Documentarians Stephanie Silber & Victor Zimet, Part Two
How has the reaction been toward your documentary “Random Lunacy”?
Stephanie: That’s a good question, and one we’re constantly asked. People tend to be polarized by the extreme life that Poppa lived with his family; they seem either to get it or not. There is often a very angry reaction from people, while others are completely enamored, blown away by the notion of such absolute freedom, which of course comes with its own price.
I do think there is a middle ground – we cannot all live completely outside of the conventions of society as the Neutrinos so successfully did, but we can adapt some of the philosophies to our own lives, and be the better persons for it.
Lensing with Love: Interview with Documentarians Stephanie Silber & Victor Zimet
I was introduced to directors Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber in 2007 when I reviewed their film “Songs and Stories.” Though I didn’t give it such a glowing review, the professionals I now consider close friends didn’t waver in their persistence on winning me over in their talents and unique subjects for focusing their documentaries on and sent me “Random Lunacy” in 2007. Suffice it to say after watching that film I was won over by the filmmaking duo whose entire filmography has been strictly documentaries.
And after chronicling the legendary Poppa Neutrino and his life as a family man journeying across the world with his band of sons, daughters, and enduring wife, I had to keep seeing what the pair would put out there, and I had to pick their brains. The devoted and fiercely loyal married couple are known Victor Zimet and Stephanie Silber, a twosome of talented and humble filmmakers who love what they do, and they do it with a devotion that is admirable and true to the indie spirit. Also, it helps they’re both loyal classic rock buffs like I am. The two took the time out of their busy schedule to let us pick their brain and here’s what resulted out of random lunacy, the roads less traveled that they traveled for a reason, and some genuine good humor.
Scalene (2011)
Margo Martindale is amazing. That was my first reaction upon viewing her portrayal as the mentally anguished mother Janice Trimble in Zack Parker’s brutally demented and compelling revenge drama “Scalene,” a movie about points of view and how sometimes our own is all we need to get us through the night. Martindale commands an ingenious movie about the end of a tragedy and the beginning of lunacy where mom Janice Trimble is forced to confront many issues in the run time of the film. One of which is the possibility that her mentally disabled son brutally raped a college girl.
Drive Angry (2011)
Who knows why a movie about the lone ranger from hell flopped in 2011? No one will ever know. I attribute it to the lack of big name draw and exhaustion with Nic Cage from general movie audiences, but nevertheless, “Drive Angry” is an ambitious and admirably raucous grindhouse throwback that takes the battle of heaven and hell and brings it to planet Earth where a dad comes back from hell to keep his daughter from going to the stomping grounds of Satan. “Drive Angry” is a movie that… well, it’s a movie. It’s a movie that is there and it has no idea who the hell it’s supposed to be marketed to.