Blast Beat (2018)
“Blast Beat” doesn’t have much of a premise; it’s merely a slice of life for a black metal band. When a guitarist (Alexandre Dostie) auditions for a black metal band, he has a hard time convincing the lead singer that he can play with and for the band. When she (Corinne Cardinal) decides to try out his vocal abilities, he doesn’t quite seem to be up for the task. “Blast Beat” does have a few funny beats in its four minute run time, including the unusual ability of singers to be able to switch from beautiful opera to loud booming howls for their audience. Pascal Plante’s short is a fascinating and comical look at a skill many underestimate.
Tag Archives: Comedy
Slamdance Narrative Shorts Block 2 [Slamdance Film Festival 2019]
Akeda (The Binding) (2018)
Dan Bronfeld’s drama is a disturbing but fascinating bit of meta-fiction that examines the real life brutality of war and loss of innocence. Bronfeld stages the film initially like an actual confrontation between American soldiers and an Israeli family. When the surviving son of the family emerges from his spot we learn he’s actually making a film. But is he? As we learn more and more about the filmmakers and their inherent tribalism, what we think we’re seeing doesn’t quite seem as absolute anymore. We’re left to wonder if he’s making a movie, or if he’s merely lying to himself to shield from the horrors of the war and violence that’s unfolding all around him. “Akeda” makes a strong statement about the brutality and sensationalism of war, and it’s a gem of a drama.
Slamdance Narrative Shorts Block 1 [Slamdance Film Festival 2019]
Autumn Waltz (2018)
Ognjen Petkovic’s short thriller is a tense look at a couple trying to escape a war zone and make it out of enemy lines without becoming one of the many victims of the ensuing battles. Set in the 1990’s amidst a landscape of rubble, and torn down deluxe flats, a man and woman attempt to make it outside of Yugoslavia. When they’re faced with a barricade of ruthless armed soldiers, they make up a story that allows them free passage. But as the soldiers interrogate them their reasons for leaving their home land begin to fall apart. At the last minute they’re saved by the most unlikely source and it’s a testament to how the past can affect the present, and vice versa. It’s a well shot and tense short with some fine photography and I quite liked it.
The Bootleg Files: So This is Africa
BOOTLEG FILES 670: “So This is Africa” (1933 comedy starring Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey).
LAST SEEN: On YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No perceived commercial value.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not likely at this time.
It is a common misconception that the Pre-Code Hollywood era was a period when almost anything was possible on the screen. And while the implementation of the 1934 establishment of the Production Code Administration brought a heavy-handed degree of censorship to film production, there was plenty of censorship going on at both a national, state and city level.
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Double Dragon (1994): 2 Disc Special Edition [Blu-Ray/DVD]
Director James Yukich’s “Double Dragon” is a nineties anomaly that’s right up there with “Super Mario Bros: The Movie,” and “Street Fighter: The Movie.” It’s so deliriously awful and willingly misses the point of the source material it adapts, and yet it’s delightfully entertaining. As an artifact of the decade, it’s a fun tribute to everything 1990’s (Mark Dacascos and Scott Wolf!), as a video game movie it’s a fascinating example of what not to do, and as an action movie it’s a serviceable amalgam of martial arts, comedy, science fiction, post apocalyptic fantasy, and chop socky schlock. If you can divorce yourself from the video game, “Double Dragon” works as a fascinating but entertaining botched cash in on a video game series that was so much better.
The Andy Clyde Columbia Comedies
Andy Clyde starred in the second-longest series of shorts at Columbia Pictures (after the Three Stooges), with nearly 80 productions from 1934 to 1956. On this episode of “The Online Movie Show,” film historian James L. Neibaur, author “The Andy Clyde Columbia Comedies,” discusses the funnyman’s celebrated output.
Anna and the Apocalypse (2018)
One of the best movies of 2018, “Anna and the Apocalypse” is a movie that’s destined to catch on with midnight audiences, as it begs for sing alongs from an enthusiastic audience. John McPhail’s zombie horror musical is a pastiche of the best from the genres it puts on the big screen, delivering what is one of the pleasing and creepiest zombie movies of the years. “Anna and the Apocalypse” manages to be both life affirming and a spectacularly vicious zombie movie at the same time, with some of the more entertaining musical numbers and sequences filmed in a long time.