Title: Us Director: Sam Hancock Starring: Alanna Ubach, Michael Navarra, Patrick Russell, Rolf Saxon, Barbara Niven A recent world premiere at the 16th annual Dances With Films, the Los Angeles-set “Us” offers up an unusual yet sympathetically pitched examination of mental illness through the rubric of a weird love triangle. Anchored by a superlative lead turn from Alanna Ubach, this micro-budgeted, worthwhile indie feature could, given a wide enough audience, serve as an important pivot-point for the actress, leading her into more dramatic terrain. At first glance, Margaret (Ubach) seems like just a garden variety alcoholic — another thirtysomething wounded bird who drowns her unhappiness in booze and unfulfilling sexual  [ Read More ]

Title: Europa Report Magnet Director: Sebastián Cordero Screenwriter: Philip Gelatt Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Embeth Davidtz, Daniel Wu, Anamaria Marinca Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 6/12/13 Opens: August 2, 2013, on demand June 27, 2013 They say that traveling is broadening, yet most people in the world may have never left their villages, let alone their countries . Do you remember how you felt the first time you went a couple of hundred miles outside your neighborhood? If you’re urban, you recall the first time you saw cows in a huge, empty field. If you’re from a small town, you’re amazed at the sights and sounds of New York. If you’ve  [ Read More ]

Title: Man of Steel Directed By: Zack Snyder Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, Russell Crowe, Michael Kelly, Harry Lennix, Richard Schiff “Man of Steel” is like Superman taking a punch from a human; you feel nothing. The film kicks off just as Krypton’s unstable core is about to decimate the planet. In an effort to ensure his race carries on, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) pops his newborn baby boy into a pod and ships him off to Earth. The pod lands in Kansas, right in the Kent’s backyard, and while Jonathan and Martha (Kevin Costner and Diane  [ Read More ]

Title: Steve Chong Finds Out That Suicide Is a Bad Idea Director: Charlie LaVoy Starring: Stanley Wong, Joseph Sökmen, Owen Hornstein III, Tyler Russell, Jenn Foreman, Jennie Freeman A recent world premiere at the 16th annual Dances With Films, the evocatively titled micro-budget indie film “Steve Chong Finds Out That Suicide Is a Bad Idea” tries to put a bearded, decidedly fraternal spin on the whole “Return of the Secaucus 7″ sub-genre, wherein young adults grapple with changes in life and their relationships. If there’s a certain easygoing charm to the movie, there’s also a lack of forward-leaning momentum or insight to make these characters stick to the psyche. Mopey,  [ Read More ]

Title: This Is the End Director: Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen Starring: Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, and a host of obvious cameos if you know this crew Celebrity actors parodying themselves in an R-rated stoner-comedy that unfolds using the backdrop of the biblical apocalypse…it just might work. This Is the End sees Seth Rogen take his visiting best bud, Jay Baruchel, who can’t stand the Los Angeles atmosphere, to a monster party at James Franco’s house. A reluctant Baruchel agrees, but has reservations about Rogen’s Hollywood friends (Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Danny McBride, Michael Cera, etc.). Once he  [ Read More ]

Title: The Dick Van Dyke Show: 3rd Season Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, Larry Mathews, Carl Reiner Running time: 13 hours, 20 minutes (3 discs/32 episodes), Not rated Special Features: Commentary by Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner; Full-length Danny Thomas Show Episode with Morey Asterdam; Mary Tyler Moore appearance on The Danny Kaye Show; TV Academy Tribute to Carl Reiner featuring George Clooney; Interviews with Cast and Producers; Emmy Award clip with wins by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore; Mary Tyler Moore appearance on 1975 variety series Van Dyke & Company; rehearsal footage; Nick at Nite promo spots; Photo Galleries. If  [ Read More ]

Title: Tumor: It’s In the System Directors: Valerie McCaffrey and Cindy Pruitt A recent Los Angeles premiere at the 16th annual Dances With Films, “Tumor: It’s in the System” joins a considerable slate of contemporary documentaries — inclusive of Peter Nicks’ raw, verité-style “The Waiting Room” — offering up a damning assessment of different elements of the American health care system. Here it’s a look at how potential alternative treatments and even cures for cancer have been suppressed since the early 1900s — the implication being that some combination of the bureaucratic regulatory system and the rapacious self-interest of capitalism have combined to incentivize managed treatment of symptoms over the  [ Read More ]

Title: Picture Day Directed by: Kate Miles Melville Starring: Tatiana Maslany, Spencer Van Wyck, Steven McCarthy Running time: 93 minutes, Rated R Special Features: Rolling With Picture Day Featurette; Commentary with Writer/Director Kate Melville and Editor Dev Singh; Commentary with Cast; Trailer Claire is forced to repeat her senior year of high school after failing Math and Phys. Ed. During the day she rolls through her classes, called names by a few underclassmen who are privy to an event in her past that made her sort of legendary. She doesn’t seem to have any school friends until she runs into Henry, a freshman whom Claire used to babysit. Claire respects  [ Read More ]

Title: The Bling Ring Director: Sofia Coppola Starring: Emma Watson, Taissa Farmiga, Leslie Mann, Israel Broussard, Katie Chang, Georgia Rock. Sofia Coppola’s latest crime drama goes “Bling-Bling.” The Vanity Fair article by Nancy Jo Sales, ‘The Suspects Wore Louboutins,’ inspired the movie that opened the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes 2013. Rebecca is the ringleader of a group of fame-obsessed teenagers, who use the Internet to track celebrities’ whereabouts in order to rob their homes. Marc, Nicki, Sam and Chloe, and Rebecca form the so called “Bling Ring” as they rob the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Rachel Bilson, Audrina Patridge, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr. ‘The  [ Read More ]

Title: Kumpania Director: Katina Dunn Hardcore fans of “Dancing With the Stars” may find ancillary enjoyment and reward in the nonfiction offering “Kumpania,” which just enjoyed a Los Angeles premiere at the 16th annual Dances With Films. A concise documentary look at flamenco dancing and music, director Katina Dunn’s movie is a subcultural curio invested with much depth of feeling. Those with a predetermined investment in its rhythms will want to get up and dance along. Intercut with performances, various musicians and dancers sit as interview subjects in “Kumpania,” telling their stories of how they came to flamenco music and/or dance. Buoyed by evocative overlays and slow-motion footage, Dunn’s film  [ Read More ]

Haunting Melissa is an episodic ghost story app from the Producer of Mulholland Drive and The Ring Neal Edelstein. It’s written by best-selling author Andrew Klavan and unfolds the events surrounding the disappearance of a girl named Melissa and the mysterious room her mother died in. The app’s most interesting feature its innovative approach to releasing content.  It takes the episodic video concept and takes it a step further with some unique features. Just as stories change in new ways when they are told again, downloaded videos may play back differently when watched another time. If you revisit past chapters you may notice subtle changes, added details, or new paths  [ Read More ]

Title: Maniac IFC Midnight Director: Franck Khalfoun Screenwriter: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur from William Lustig’s 1980 movie Cast: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivo, Liane Balaban, Sammi Rotibi Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/13/13 Opens: June 21, 2013 Good news for Ariel Castro, accused of kidnapping a trio of young women and locking them up for a decade. Contrary to what his daughter has said, he is not the most demonic person we’ve come across in at least two years. There’s this guy named Frank who kills and scalps loads of women to dress up his mannequins while Castro killed just one fetus. But, oops! “Maniac,” which describes Frank’s hobby,  [ Read More ]

Title: Emoticon ;) Director: Livia De Paolis Starring: Michael Cristofer, Livia De Paolis, Miles Chandler, Diane Guerrero, Allie Gallerani, Carol Kane, Sonia Braga The directorial debut of multi-hyphenate Livia De Paolis and a mid-week world premiere at the Dances with Films Festival, “Emoticon ;)” (yep, smiley face included, technically) delves into early-onset mid-life uncertainty by way of a career-minded woman’s unexpected pregnancy, and the unlikely friendships she develops with the two teenage kids of her much older lover. Professionally mounted and attractively photographed, this independent production is a fresh, off-the-beaten-path conceit that gets mileage from its willingness to examine notions of non-nuclear family and changing identity. The story centers around  [ Read More ]

Title: Free China: The Courage to Believe Director: Michael Perlman It’s safe to say that Michael Perlman, the director of the new documentary “Free China: The Courage to Believe,” won’t be receiving the red carpet treatment any time soon in the glorious People’s Republic of China. (Hell, even simply attaching my name to anything other than a vicious attack review may bring about a mysterious denial-of-service incident on this site.) A damning nonfiction look at the human rights abuses of the world’s most populous country as filtered specifically through two enormously sympathetic, steel-spined subjects, Perlman’s film makes a case for indomitability of the human spirit and the eventual futility of unreasonable  [ Read More ]

Title: When Comedy Went to School International Film Circuit Director: Mevlut Akkaya, Ron Frank Screenwriter: Lawrence Richards Cast: Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Robert Klein, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, Jerry Stiller, Larry King Screened at: Vimeo, NYC, 6/8/13 Opens: July 31, 2013 You’re intimidated by Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Bentham, Russell, and Nietzsche. You think their writings and dialogues are too difficult to understand or even irrelevant to our times. But you want to know the answer to the most basic philosophic question, which is “how should I live my life?” So what do you do? Simply memorize this: “We’re all going to die, so we might as well laugh until we  [ Read More ]