Hey folks, Harry here - If you don't like lewd description, just skip to "The Beat" and skip this first paragraph as Psychedelic let his... libido flop about a bit, but I don't censor, I just warn. HOWEVER, there's some damn good material here to pour over, so check it out!
Hello, hello, AICNers
The Acid kicked in while I was fucking this girl last night. The lips of her pussy grew up my shaft and enveloped my nut sack. The squishy sucking blew my mind to new levels. My sore groin throbbed as my eyeballs floated up to the screen at the 2003 Cinevegas film festival.
Maybe I’ve been doing too much. Nah.
The Beat
I can’t help but react to such vibrant and alive language. The story, about a young rapper distraught over his brother’s murder and the hard street back to the stage, is by the numbers. Sub-plot about him being a police officer felt forced. However, director Brandon Sonnier captures naturalistic and uncoerced performances. Then there’s the rap. The intelligent, playful, emotional, about-real-things rap—primarily by star Rahman Jamaal—puts mainstream Eminem-let-me-show-you-how-big-my-juvenile-dick-is rap to shame. It’s the difference between do-wop groups and Bob Dylan.
The Dance
Full disclosure: I unavoidably missed about the first 20 min., but liked it enough to mention. Moving documentary about Billy Roth, a man who every Sunday goes into a Louisiana prison to coach boxing to inmates. It follows four of Billy’s success stories, including one who fought Tyson. Beautiful cinematography has maybe a few too many slow motion shots. The four stories are a little redundant, but that only emphasizes the difference and hope Billy Roth has brought to their lives. So touching is director John Darling Haynes’ work that Hollywood is interested in making it into a feature.
Animal Charm: Wet and Wreckless
This is not a movie in a traditional sense. Animal Charm are Richard Bott and Jim Fetterly. Hailing from Los Angeles, they bend, twist, and warp corporate videos, video art, wacky home movies, and any other obscure material they can grab. They might go to Mars for some of it. Then in a live performance they mix the videos with just as freaky music/sounds. This is quite original, unique, and cool. I saw both performances. The first was very funny. The second started funny, then became hypnotic and trance-like. They are well worth checking out in L.A. All I can say is: wow-wow-wow-wow (inside joke).
Shorts
I saw many shorts here. These are excellent to good ones listed with director names. The bottom four are okay. Three of them, though shown separately, are counted as one.
Nosferatu L.A. ’02—Greg Brooker
Promise Land—Gili Dolev
Gas Up & Save—Anne Paas
Firepussy—Laurel Almerinda
Float—Heide Solbrig
N Judah 5:30—Sam Green
Touched—Mike Clark
Homeless—Dennis Hopper
Terminal Bar—Stefan Nadelman
Trick Pony Trilogy: One Trick Pony; 3D Trick Pony; Trick or Treat Pony—Ben Coonley
Cheap Ludes—John Doornik, Jeroen Mol
The King and Dick—Scott Calonico
Jar of Grasshoppers—Chris McInroy
Strange & Charmed—Shari Frilot
Out of Our Hands—Cheryl Slean
Kid Bang—Kiran Ramchandran
Daddy Cool
Brady Lewis’ first feature length film is a stylistic combination of Terrence Malick, Kubrick, Jim Jarmusch, and David Lynch.
I resist using such prominent names for fear I’ll build expectation levels too high. But what else can you do when you see a film by an almost unheard of mature talent?
It’s one of those flicks you follow intuitively through your brain neurons with your guts guiding (e.g. Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, Waking Life). Not everyone will get it, but those who do will have a wonderful gem. Each shot is like a stone polished with care. Affection for movies is ever-present. An offbeat smoldering sense of humor prevails with an honest view of the human condition.
A woman and her therapist develop a unique relationship. She can read thoughts and make creatures and people do things with her special “television” which regularly shows old broadcasts of her eccentric father. The therapist has his own secret life that involves the supernatural. There’s a lot more, trust me.
Quoting the Cinevegas program guide, “Brady Lewis has made more than a dozen short 16mm films…He teaches film production at Pittsburgh Filmmakers where he is the director of a large film school.”
Daddy Cool is a singular and special film.
Klepto
This movie is smokin’, jammin’, rockin’. I was giddy with excitement watching. It is P.T. Anderson bravura, Wes Anderson hip, and maybe even Tarantino cool. I know I’m using big names again, but I feel justified. A foxy shoplifter (Meredith Bishop) attracts the attention of a security chief at a department store who has money problems (Jsu Garcia). They get entangled in crime and sizzling impulses as the cinematic sparks fly. Narrative tensions and releases are pitch perfect. Shot compositions make eyes pop across the screen. I was completely jazzed at the end.
Wake up! Director Thomas Trail is here.
I saw 26 features, 31 shorts, and 2 live music/video performances in 9 days. My reports are highlights.
Hunter S. Thompson gave me a nod at the final screening as I downed my last hit. Everything shimmers. Tomorrow I go into the desert to commune with Jim Morrison.
-Psychedelic
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