The reason why I love independent movies and prefer them over any big-budget event movie is simply for that reason: independent movies are movies, and not events, thus they do not become gimmicks. Independent movies have the advantage of having a low budget because a low budget helps separate the men from the boys. With an independent movie you learn whether the writers and directors shouldn’t even be in Hollywood or have created a work of art. Like someone once said, “just because you can work a film camera, doesn’t mean you should be behind one”, and that’s exactly it. With Indies you either have a pretentious work of crap, a work of schlock, or a work of art; low budget productions help cut through the bullshit and expose real actors, real filmmaking and real writing. Our story “The Station Agent” is all of the above: a real work of art, real filmmaking, real writing, all with real acting.
Tag Archives: Drama
Garden State (2004) (DVD)
I like Zach Braff a lot, so when “Garden State” came around, I took a chance and made a blind buy (buying without having seen the film) on the DVD, and, not surprisingly, I wasn’t disappointed, as a matter of fact I was shocked at how utterly accomplished Braff has become. “Garden State” is further proof to why “Scrubs” is such an underrated mistreated property. Directed by, written by, and starring Braff, he plays twenty – something out of work actor Andrew Largeman, a young man whose sleepwalking his way through a heavily medicated life of hazy dreams and meaningless benign events of monotony and routine and basically doesn’t know where it all is ending or beginning for him through his work as a pretend Asian man. And his medicine cabinet stacked through the brim with anti-depressants.
You Got Served (2004)
Well, it’s safe to say, that at no point in this review will you see the word “good” describing this movie, unless you see the sentence “Good god, what a piece of crap”, or “Good god, why?!” “You Got Served” tries to capitalize off of break dancing and free styling, while attempting to create its own moneymaking properties and crazes, case in point, the phrase “You Got Served.” What this film’s main problem is that everything about it is feels so artificial. It feels like an hour and forty minute infomercial for two really crappy music bands whose fifteen minutes ended years ago. Not even the mindless marketing tools MTV could fuel a film that had nothing to go by except a lot of flash and dash and no brains. It seems like casting agents just took a lot of the actors from the WB network and dropped them into the film and made it feel like it’s trying to get across that these characters are really from the ghetto.
Walking Tall (2004)
Chris Vaughn is an ex military veteran who has just returned to his home town. Back after eight years, he suddenly gets a crash course in learning the fact that you can never go home again, and now he walks tall and carries a big stick. Dwayne Johnson jumps into the seat of action hero yet again this time around, first with the crappy “Scorpion King”, the next with the wicked “The Rundown” and now with this very good action ride known as “Walking Tall”. A remake of the cult classic “Walking Tall”, and based on the true story of the utterly heroic feats of sheriff Buford Pusser, a man who was elected to sheriff after promising to clean up crime, and did so, taking down big time crime syndicates and corruption in his hometown of Tennessee with his giant wooden club.
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)
It was a known fact that Peter Sellers thought very little of his own self. He had a love-hate relationship with his own persona as a man who both hated and thought very highly of himself and such is shown in the new and first biographical picture of Peter Sellers, the genius behind films like “Dr. Strangelove” and the “Pink Panther” films, a man who was revered as a comedy genius during life and after his death. What is suggested here is that he was such a miserable man and such a mama’s boy, that he could never find true happiness with a woman in his life, regardless of who it was and what happiness they offered him as is shown by his countless wives including his first Anne (Good performance from Emily Watson), to his unsuccessful romancing of Sophia Loren (The gorgeous Sonia Aquino).
Love Actually (2003)
Love. It’s a beautiful feeling. And it’s the worst pain one can experience. But “Love Actually” is a celebration of both sides of love. Longing, happy marriages, and crushes, and oh so much more. Deep down it’s a dedication to the people of 9/11, as the introduction declares, and it’s plenty resonant in the all-star tribute with a humongous cast of talented actors from Liam Neeson to Colin Firth right down to Martin Freeman, Elisha Cuthbert, and Billy Bob Thorton. In this episodic Capra-esque fairytale, we meet a large group of people experiencing life and love in all ends of the terminology. There are really too many sub-plots to mention, but I’ll try.
My Life Without Me (2003)
This is a beautiful portrait and character study of life and death, and is pleasantly heavy with symbolism. It also observes one persons attempt at achieving personal goals she never could do, or have the guts to do in their life. The lovely Sarah Polley plays Ann, a workaday woman who is a janitor for a school and goes home to her trailer with her husband and two daughters living a mostly simple life with her overbearing mom and life she’s pretty comfortable with. One day during work she starts getting sick and goes to the hospital where her doctor tells her she has an inoperable tumor and is slowly dying. Somehow Ann seems prepared to face death and the concept of death here, and it doesn’t take much time for her to accept her death and that her daughters may grow up without a mother, thus she begins to really live life while she begins dying.