Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa

I have a hard time writing about Charlie Kaufman's work. His directorial debut, Synecdoche, NY, is a movie that bulldozes me every time I see it. I've been wanting to write about it for the past seven years, and always just end up staring at a blank screen. Part of me is afraid that instead of writing about the movie proper, I'll spend too much time discussing the number of scenes that I could apply to my own life. There's an unflinching cynicism to Kaufman's screenplays, so much so that many are turned off and repelled by them. Look deeper and you'll find buried beneath an honesty that is so raw and true that it's painful to admit how much it resembles staring at yourself in a mirror. As evident as the pain is in Kaufman's world, there is also plenty of rich humor based on the misunderstandings and stubbornness we possess by being human. His insight into what makes us tick is explored in ways that are startlingly fresh.

Kaufman's latest, Anomalisa, which he co-directed with Duke Johnson, features a cast made up completely of puppets created using a 3D printer. This approach has allowed Kaufman to take this material (based on a play he wrote) and explore it with an extraordinary amount of freedom. The result is exhilarating and devastating in equal measure, as Kaufman breaths new life into the power of animation and is able to, in the way only he can, create complex and sympathetic characters despite their strange and somewhat unsettling look. Even with puppets, Kaufman is able to pull off numerous scenes in the movie that are almost unbearably heartbreaking.

I am hesitant to get into the details of Anomalisa. Like all of Kaufman's work, it is best to go in with a limited amount of information and be caught off guard by the endlessly creative ways he is able to develop his characters and their feelings. Watching the movie, there are many cases where a scene could easily dissolve into cheap melodrama and in lesser hands, it probably would. But Kaufman is always one step ahead of us, ready to pull back another layer to reveal something that is as surprising as it is familiar. The method in which he gives his characters their voices is as brilliant as anything he has ever done in terms of how it affects the bigger picture.

Anomalisa is a true work of art, challenging, funny, hopelessly relatable, and sad as only the best works of art can be. The weight of Kaufman's world becomes ours, and while it certainly isn't an easy burden to share, the rewards of doing so are rich and unforgettable. No one else makes movies like this, or really ever has. Nor has anyone else had the guts to try. What I'm saying is that Kaufman is a treasure and we're lucky to have him. Here's hoping that all the positive buzz Anomalisa has generated will keep us from waiting seven more years before his next movie. I don't think I could bear it.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: John Crowley's Brooklyn

Visually similar to the work of Joe Wright and invoking the same tone in its early scenes as a Weinstein Company release, John Crowley's Brooklyn avoids the trappings of the latter because it is written, directed, and performed with a genuine sincerity and likability rarely seen in these awards season period pieces. It lacks forced sentiment, in other words, instead earning its dramatic moments thanks to an excellent cast and a relaxed pace. If the screenplay by Nick Hornby is missing a crucial element, it's that the story never has any deep conflicts. There is internal struggle, to be sure, but it's never difficult to figure out what the outcome will be.

Eilis (a remarkable Saoirse Ronan) is an ambitious young woman in 1950s Ireland who gets on the boat to Brooklyn searching for a brighter future. Set up with a room in a boarding house and a job at a department store, Eilis barely has time to transition into her new life, which proves to be intimidating at first and leads to undeniable homesickness. This doesn't last long thanks to night school and the introduction of Tony (Emory Cohen), an Italian American who spots Eilis at a dance. Tony is kind and hardworking and before long, he and Eilis have fallen in love. Life is blossoming in ways Eilis could only have dreamed of, but this progress is put on hold when she is forced to return to Ireland due to an emergency. A quick trip continues to get stretched, partially by the family that misses her and also by her own desire to reconnect with the homeland.

As mentioned, even when faced with these tough choices, it is always clear which path Eilis will take. Ronan makes the character so relatable and passionate that I found it near impossible to take issue with the predictable turns of the story. We are constantly engaged by her, and it's a tribute to Ronan as an actor that she is able to make us forget the familiarity of the material. Most of the time, movies like this spoon feed the audience so blatantly that I immediately tune out. I wasn't profoundly moved in this case either, but I did admire that Crowley keeps things intimate and gives the characters room to breathe. Instead of everyone on screen getting overshadowed by the need to make the movie a monster sized epic, this is a case where we actually get to experience the characters getting to know each other and soon realize that we kinda like them. Brooklyn is certain to be a crowd pleaser, and while this is a status many movies attain but don't necessarily deserve, here is a welcome exception to the rule.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Onur Tukel's Applesauce

I found Onur Tukel's Summer of Blood pretty funny, but it didn't prepare me for how blown away I'd be by his latest, Applesauce. Tukel has a gift for making the most uncomfortable situations hilarious, especially when they have no right to be. He will build on a dramatic scene, causing us to squirm and cringe and wait for the shit to hit the fan and then...a joke is thrown in that catches us completely off guard. This type of comedy is attempted often, yet rarely works because the filmmaker is not able to find the right tone. Between this movie and Summer of Blood, Tukel is proving to be a master and one of the freshest voices in comedic (and suspenseful) cinema in many a moon.

The set up is deceptively simple. Ron (Tukel) calls into a radio talk show to confess the worst thing he's ever done (and apparently never told anyone). The opportunity, though, is cut off by his wife (Trieste Kelly Dunn), so when they get out to dinner with best friends Les (Max Casella) and Kate (Jennifer Prediger), Ron finally spills the beans. While confessing might have seemed like the right call, Ron's life becomes a Hellish whirlwind once he starts to receive disturbing packages in the mail. To reveal any more than that would take away the surprise and delight of watching Applesauce. There was never a moment I could anticipate where this deeply twisted movie was going.

Tukel taps into the lowest depths of human nature. His characters are selfish and manipulative people who do horrible things to each other, mainly just to see if they can inflict worse damage than was done to them. It's amazing how even the smallest of misunderstandings can spiral multiple lives out of control and bring out inner demons a person never even knew they had. Applesauce finds original and almost always uproarious methods of exploring this scene after scene. The movie loses a little steam as it draws towards the finish because there are so many disastrous situations packed into the narrative. Even still, Tukel manages to maintain control, leading to a final moment that is as pathetically funny as it is deliciously wicked. Applesauce is one of my favorite movies of 2015.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Brian Pera's Only Child

Ryan Parker is the Roger Deakins of Memphis, and his lovely and haunting images are what should carry us through Only Child. They do to a degree, but the movie, written and directed by Brian Pera, also favors heightened drama expressed through dialogue that, for me, comes off as a bit ridiculous and overcooked. David Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie shows up in a very Lynchian role, complete with weird ticks and bizarre outbursts, playing less a character than the embodiment of one. She's Delores, eccentric mother searching for her daughter, Lana (Lindsey Roberts, excellent). Lana is lost not just from her mother but from herself, exiting her job as a hotel housekeeper under mysterious circumstances to go live with bored housewife, Loretta (Amy Lavere).

Loretta's relationship with Lana is a strange one. She treats and dresses her like a child (or a doll), never allowing Lana a chance to speak for herself, which might be why she doesn't speak at all. The movie flirts with ideas about gender roles and obsession, mostly conveyed through the strange relationship between Loretta and her husband, and by her collection of perfumes that are kept closed away like a dirty secret. Everyone has secrets in Only Child, the deepest belonging to Lana, who gives us hints that are effectively conveyed through the visual fabric that Pera and Parker bring to life. The movie screeches to a halt every time there is a conversation. This applies mostly to the scenes set at the hotel where Lana worked and the confrontations Delores has with the staff where she is staying. I mentioned Lynch earlier, and these scenes feel very much like they want to exist in the same nightmarish universe. These characters, however, lack a similar sense of purpose and frankly, they're just not as interesting or compelling.

Only Child has an appealing artistic quality to it. I am not familiar with Pera's background, but from watching this movie, it feels like he has worked in experimental theater. I like the idea of marrying that with film, and Pera certainly has the ingenuity to pull it off. If Only Child had been a silent movie, it would have been incredible. This is not an insult; if nothing else, it only further proves what a brilliant visual story teller Pera has the potential to be. He and Parker have created a chilling and vulnerable atmosphere. Now let's see it applied to a narrative with characters who compliment instead of distract from the richly beautiful world they inhabit.


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(c) Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Sara Kaye Larson and Joann Self Selvidge's The Keepers

I can't imagine how difficult it must be to make a documentary. You've captured hours and hours of footage, many of which are probably interviews, over the course of several years, and now you're forced to shape it into something that will interest and captivate an audience. Yikes. Given the amount of time put in and the passion for the subject at hand, I always feel bad when a documentary does not work for me. Such is the case with The Keepers, a well intentioned but ultimately bland movie about the daily lives of the zookeepers at the Memphis Zoo. We hear them talk about what drew them to the job (many of them fell into it), which animals they like to spend their days with, and the hardships they face (mostly due to being criminally underpaid). Most absorbing to me were the series of interviews with the retired keepers as they discuss the changes they saw over the years and the pain of losing an animal they've been caring for since birth.

The focus of the movie feels scattershot. In between interviews, we learn about a giraffe that is stuck in isolation and needs to be transported to another location, the eggs of a Komodo Dragon, and the life expectancy of penguins. All well and good, except that it all looks like it was randomly stitched together, so we're thrown from one subject to the next and are confused as to what we're supposed to be concentrating on. I'm sure the filmmakers wanted to include as much footage as they could, although I think, to echo my comments on Barge, The Keepers would have worked much more efficiently as a short film.

Maybe I was hoping to see a more in depth documentary about the zoo, with interviews woven into the narrative. That certainly would have provided a richer tapestry and made the movie appear less repetitive (after a while, the interviews start to blend together). I can appreciate what directors Sara Kaye Larson and Joann Self Selvidge were trying to do with The Keepers; the voices of those who care for the animals are rarely heard. But having that as the sole focus of the movie makes for a sadly thin experience, unless you're going to explore the history of keepers at the zoo and how conditions have changed since it opened, for better or worse. When the movie was over, I hadn't gained anything that I couldn't have acquired from a trip to the zoo. I was hungry for more.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Jeremy Coon and Tim Skousen's Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made

I wish I'd held onto all the movies I (re)made as a child. Armed with a VHS camcorder and more time than I knew what to do with, I would craft my own versions of my favorite movies, usually starring myself, stuffed animals, action figures, and in one instance, nutcrackers. Part of the fun was the drive to be creative and use whatever was lying around, no matter how ridiculous it might look onscreen. To me, it was magic...I had made a movie! That spirit is present during every moment of Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (hereafter Raiders!), an often eye popping documentary about a group of friends who remade, shot for shot, Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. It took them a whopping seven summers to make the movie, with one particularly difficult scene being left out because the resources were not there.

Spielberg's film became an obsession for Chris Strompolos and Eric Zala, who took on remaking it as a way to cope with personal issues in their lives. Astonishingly, the whole movie was storyboarded from memory, and then friends were recruited for cast and crew (with people taking on multiple roles on both sides of the camera). The best moments of Raiders! involve the behind-the-scenes footage, such as seeing how these guys recreated the famous truck chase. The most amazing feat of this production is that no one died. Or got grounded.

Making a movie is a laborious process, something Chris and Eric learned over the course of their seven years tackling Raiders of the Lost Ark. By the time they hit that last summer, tension was high and it was time to call it quits. But if they thought trying to shoot a movie using around-the-house items was tough, nothing could prepare them for what would happen when they reunited, over twenty years later, to shoot the missing scene. It's fascinating and painful to watch the lengths these former best friends were willing to go, financially and psychologically, to finish what they started. There's a certain amount of exhilaration in seeing grown men living out a childhood fantasy.

In addition to witnessing the production side of the movie, Raiders! also focuses on the phenomenon surrounding it once word got out (thanks to director Eli Roth). It was an immediate sensation to say the least, a chance for audiences to share and embrace the passion these kids had for movies and the art of making them. Raiders! is one of the most inspiring and downright entertaining movies I have seen in a long time, a crucial reminder in the power of ambition and the belief that dreams can come true...even if it takes a while to find it within yourself.

Find out more about the adaptation of Raiders of the Lost Ark at: http://www.raidersguys.com


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Sean Mewshaw's Tumbledown

Tumbledown is too cute for its own good. The movie is a collaboration between director Sean Mewshaw and his wife, writer Desiree Van Til, who both obviously care a lot about the material. But instead of giving us a human drama about a relationship of mutual admiration, we instead get a sugar coated indie that, to my surprise, didn't premiere at Sundance. Not to say that I think it's a bad movie necessarily; I just didn't find much of interest or substance in it. It just kind of coasts along on the shoulders of its charming leads, letting them do what they do best and never challenging them to go outside of their comfort zones.

Hannah (Rebecca Hall) lives in a small town in Maine and is still mourning the death of her husband, a Bon Iver-esque musician who died mysteriously two years before. She is, naturally, a bit of a spitfire, so it comes as no surprise that she is less than thrilled about the arrival of big city professor Andrew (Jason Sudeikis), who has come to town to write a book about her late husband. Hannah and Andrew share a lot of sarcastic, obviously written banter, and once Hannah agrees to let Andrew write the book, they share some more. What they don't share, sadly, is any real chemistry because the movie is trying too hard to make them at odds with each other.

Since this is a quirky indie comedy, there are multiple dog reaction shots and Hannah's colorfully eccentric parents, played by Blythe Danner and Richard Masur (good to see him again). The movie does have some laughs, mostly due to Sudeikis and a few bizarre bits involving Joe Manganiello as a local desperately trying to court Hannah. A lot of the jokes fell flat for me, mainly because all the town's people seem to be competing to see who can be the zaniest. My attention was held until the movie pulls a few third act surprises that exist only to move the plot forward and supply an audience friendly ending. I felt cheated by every one of them, leading me to feel that, in the end, Tumbledown is a more than appropriate name for this movie.

Side Note: Director Sean Mewshaw was in attendance and did a Q&A after the screening. He seems like a very funny and likable guy, and he and his wife traveled a long road to get this movie made. I know he has a good comedy in him, so I look forward to his next project.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Ben Powell's Barge

Life on a towboat is the subject of the visually striking documentary, Barge, and in addition to seeing the day-to-day grind of life on the river, the movie also spends time acquainting us with the men who work there. Most of them want to build careers on the boat, which is possible since promotions are more or less guaranteed as long as you show initiative. The biggest perk, aside from being paid well, is that you get to enjoy the solitude of the open water for months at a time. The movie vividly shows how the captain gets to see the sunrise and sunset daily, the only sound coming from the roar of the boat as it plows through the water. We can sense hints of loneliness in some of the workers, something they are willing to endure in hopes of making enough money to buy a house or a nice car. There is camaraderie among these men, living in the confines of the boat, and yet it seems subtle, as if they only communicate when necessary.

The job responsibilities of a towboat worker are not especially compelling to watch, but director Ben Powell is able to maintain interest due to the often stunning cinematography (he even manages to give visual weight to an old tethered rope). The real highlight of the picture, though, are the stories the workers tell. Not all of them are there under the same circumstances; it ranges from following in family footsteps to an ex-convict looking for a second chance. You get the impression watching them work and listening to them share insights that this is more than just a job...it's who they are, and without it, there wouldn't be much else.

While Barge does run a feature length 71 minutes, I think it would be even stronger as a short. After about 45 minutes, seeing the work routine grows repetitive, as do the stories being shared. Powell does such a thorough job packing in lots of informative footage up front that in the end, less would be more. Even despite this, Barge is an intimate snapshot into a world we often view from afar ("dry land" as it's called in the movie). Our questions are finally given some concrete answers.


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(c)Hell and Beyond, 2015

Indie Memphis Film Festival '15: Sean Baker's Tangerine

Much of the hype surrounding Sean Baker's Tangerine has involved how it was shot (with 3 iPhone 5s smartphones), and while that is unquestionably impressive, what stands out most to me about the picture are the performances by the two leads, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, neither of which had any acting experience. But sometimes portraying the hardships of real life doesn't require the ability to act, and the fact the camera is so small you can barely see it can make it easy to forget it's even there. Tangerine is also unique in that it's one of the first movies I can recall that revolves specifically around the lives of transgender characters, making them into complex, believable people instead of goofy supporting characters. The movie sends them dangerously close to ridiculous comedy on a few occasions, but Baker's intentions are always empathetic. He wants us to truly understand the day-to-day struggle a transgender person has to face.

Sin-Dee (Rodriguez) is fresh out of prison and learns via her best friend Alexandra (Taylor) that her boyfriend/pimp has been cheating on her. This information thrusts Sin-Dee on a quest through the seedy streets of Los Angeles to track down the perpetrator who moved in on her man. A parallel story involves Armenian cab driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian), supporting a family by constantly driving around a bunch of idiotic Americans while secretly embracing his desire to spend private time with the transgender prostitutes on his route. Inner cutting the two stories together proves to be a fascinating device, as we are able to view two unique, yet startling similar forms of oppression due to a larger population's lack of understanding.

Both sides are not without their issues. Once Sin-Dee finds the woman her boyfriend was messing with, she proceeds to literally drag her around the city so they can confront him. This is amusing for a few minutes, but loses steam real quick. We get a glimpse of a series of Razmik's fares, each of which is some sort of caricature to drive home the ignorance of the people he is forced to deal with. The movie does have some big laughs, to be sure, but they come through the performances and not the pressure of the plot. Rodriguez and Taylor are both fantastic, with the latter having what I felt was the more difficult and challenging role. A scene late in the movie where Alexandra performs to a near empty bar could be Taylor's breakout moment.

The movie looks great. The lush sky of Los Angeles is ever present, always threatening to swallow the inhabitants of the city whole. Baker shoots with an urgency that perfectly matches the constant and chaotic lives of his characters. Though not his first feature, Tangerine feels like a true calling card, proof of a talent with the potential to create something amazing. He needs a bit more control over his material and could use some tighter editing, but even that aside, Tangerine is a movie worth experiencing, if anything for taking us into the lives of a series of outrageously memorable individuals.


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(c) Hell and Beyond, 2015.