Director Mike Barnett’s chronicling of real life superheroes wants to ultimately have it both ways. It’s at times very exploitative and mocks its subjects relentlessly with tricky editing and bloopers that depict the subjects as lunatics in costumes, and by the second half Barnett tries to depict his clan of costumed lunatics in to something of a do gooder bunch with well meaning intentions that will undoubtedly get them killed one day. You can do nothing but feel pity for these people who have taken to creating ridiculous costumes and using Power Rangers as their inspiration for patrolling streets and risking being murdered rather than take up admirable trades like EMT services, law, and so much more that they can contribute society.
Tag Archives: Documentary
More Brains! A Return to the Living Dead (2011) (DVD)
One of the most enduring films of the 1980’s, “Return of the Living Dead” is such a relic of its decade and time that it’d be impossible to remake it. Which is why it’s become such a beloved film among horror aficionados and film buffs alike. For its time, “Return of the Living Dead” was a fresh bold take on the zombie sub-genre and to this day continues to be a template upon which most horror comedies and zombie films are created. Dan O’Bannon’s zombie was an intelligent, unstoppable, lightning fast force of nature and it shockingly only worked for “Return of the Living Dead.” All other efforts were null and void.
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011)
During one point in the half concert film half documentary “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop,” the interviewer asks Conan if it’s possible for him to have fun without an audience. And if you watch the movie you’ll see why he looks on in response baffled and without speech. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop has never been such a literal title as it describes the essence of Conan O’Brien who is a man that is desperate to perform. It’s an all consuming urge within Conan to perform and be on the stage so much to where he puts his family life at jeopardy.
Just About Famous (2010)
I really hope Blue Collar Films manages to re-visit “Just About Famous” someday, because there is at least ninety minutes of entertaining material to be tapped from the lives of celebrity impersonators and their confrontations with people who are convinced they’re the iconic celebrities they resemble. However as a fourteen minute feature, “Just About Famous” is a hysterical and absolutely entertaining documentary about the lives of a small group of celebrity impersonators who resemble some of the most famous people in America, for better or for worse.
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.
Jackass 3D (2010)
“That’s the story of Jackass there! Pissing in the wind!”
Sure, “Jack Ass” May have stumbled with the first film which was just so many layers of pure awful.
Knoxville (pictured) getting mauled. For fun!
But with the sequel, Johnny Knoxville and the guys sort of learned their lesson in spite of its success and turned their antics in to performance art of a sorts. They’ve taken the art of acting like morons and turned it in to a form or pre-orchestrated and carefully planned nihilism that is both very funny and always has something of a point to make.
Take for example the sheer ludicrousness of Knoxville dressed as an old man making out with his under aged (an obviously aged actress pretending to be a teen) grand daughter and no one at all reacting to the display of the two kissing and nearly dropping down to the floor humping. It’s insane how by now Knoxville has figured out that he’s never going to be anything but the man behind “Jackass” so he’s taken that and made it in to a form of art where it’s often a new kind of silent film.
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