It is a very rare, almost non-existent trait these days in directors who are capable of knowing their limits. Even in indie directors, it’s almost impossible to find a director who knows their limits and can properly test theirs without going over board or not fully realizing their personal boundaries. Director Mike Flanagan’s slow boil and utterly unnerving horror film “Absentia” is a consistent test of limits. Director Flanagan is a man who almost seems aware of what he is capable of doing and what he simply can not do on-screen and it shows in what is a very artistically self-aware indie gem that works as an enduring yet complex character study and a truly harrowing horror film. “Absentia” provides so many layers of subtle characterization, gentle exposition, and gripping back story that affords just enough depth for our protagonists to earn our sympathy without seeming as if we’re being manipulated in to caring for them.
Wizard Magazine: A Bittersweet Goodbye
“These envious wanna-be writers provide coverage for executives who don’t read much. And get this, they’re proud of not reading. One TV guy I met, full of hyperactive disdain, he sniped at me, “I don’t read comic books. I read scripts.” You’re lost pal. They don’t read comic books, they read Wizard Magazine! Or at least the publishers think they do. Either way the result is the same. For all the disgust you’ll hear about Wizard and its shoddy practices when you talk to publishers and marketing folks—and I have yet to hear a single good word from anybody about this thing that ought to come on a roll—for all of that, the publishers kow-tow.
Even though this tree killer here regularly cheapens and poisons our field. Aesthetically and ethically, they grovel. Even though this monthly vulgarity reinforces all the prejudice people hold about comics they cry to all the world that we’re as cheap and stupid and trashy as they think we are, we sponsor this assault. We pay for the @#%$ privilege. But really, when will we finally get around to flushing this thing, this load of crap, once and for all.” – Frank Miller on Wizard Magazine
Two-Faced Woman (1941)
Following up “Ninotchka” is something of a task, especially since Ernest Lubitch’s cinematic masterpiece went on to immortality. For Melvyn Douglas and Greta Garbo, “The Two Faced Woman” is a disappointing follow-up but I’m shocked it was so poorly received by literally everyone during its initial release. “The Two-Faced Woman” is reportedly the film that ended Greta Garbo’s career when she quit show business after the poor reviews during the film’s run destroyed her enthusiasm for acting. As for George Cukor’s film itself, “The Two Faced Woman” is not the disaster I expected, but it’s certainly no masterpiece.
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
Like it or not, “Paranormal Activity” was the indie success story of the decade. After the big take off of “The Blair Witch Project,” director Oren Peli proved a valuable successor to the end of the twentieth century sensation by providing a horror film for the digital age where the chronicling of a couple at the mercy of a demon was filmed through HD camcorders and the advent of the then seasoned instrument of the worldwide web. “Paranormal Activity 2” commits what is almost an impossible task. It completely compliments the storyline of the original film while also adding to it.
The Puzzle (2008)
For what it intends to pull off, director Davide Melini’s short thriller is entertaining and bold in that it can tell a story in under five minutes and still feel complete and spooky. There isn’t a lot of explanation toward the puzzle or why the puzzle is so prophetic, but then I doubt the puzzle is supposed to be taken as a literal plot device. Instead it’s supposed to be more a metaphor for what the woman in this tale realized much too late. Besides, if we saw our fates, could we do anything about it? In our attempts to change fate would we instead just walk right in to it unwillingly?
Official Psycho Parody (2011)
Porn parodies are everywhere. Right now with the industry looking for customers porn parodies are what’s in and surely enough they’re big money makers and headline grabbers. It’s just shocking that somewhere down the road someone thought “Psycho” would make a good porn parody. I mean who would have thought a movie about a cross dressing psychopath with an obsessive Oedipus complex and possible incestuous relationship with his mother who mutilated hapless female travelers would make for something of an entertaining and arousing porn flick. Factoring in the thought that “Psycho” was already a fairly sexual film with thick overtones and a sexually repressed man who could only react to an attraction to a woman with aggressive homicidal behavior, and you’re already headed for a dead end. “The Official Psycho Parody” is up for the challenge though as a movie that seems to try very hard to mimic the style and atmosphere of Hitchcock’s masterpiece, while also presenting it’s obvious purpose for being a hardcore porno first and foremost.
Fight the Foot (2011)
Now this is what I call a fan film. Not only does it make good use of its resources, but it manages to re-invent the lore it pays tribute to all the while pleasing the fan base behind it. “Fight the Foot” is a proposed prologue to the new universe of the Ninja Turtles, a film made by the Reserve that is supposed to be a gritty re-working of the Turtle lore while also being respectful to the legacy.