Category Archives: indie

Travolta in “The Forger”

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forge

John Travolta is a fine actor. His repertoire includes musicals, drama, comedy, Broadway and even television.  He is a wonderful human being, who has help hundreds of people all over the world with successful and workable solutions.  His latest DVD/Blu-Ray release is The Forger. Travolta surrounds himself with a stellar cast, crew and storyline.

Directed modestly by Philip Martin and filmed in Boston, he sketches a heartfelt movie, unlike the usual tough-guy action smash hit.  Sure. The story has bad guys, who are gritty and creepy, but the three main characters face something even more vital. The real story is about relationships and family.  They come face to face, resolving issues that are hard to confront.  It is almost agonizing because they have their own grit and ugliness to conquer.

Travolta’s tour de force performance is like a rare painting that captures you, like watching the layers of colors come to life. He plays a father named Raymond Cutter. His son, played honestly by Tye Sheridan, faces an unsolvable situation that carries the story to the end.  The ever so talented Christopher Plummer plays Will’s grandfather.

Like a tight spring, all three gradually come to terms as their relationships come undone and are redefined. They face the issue and decide the next best option is a museum heist because it is an adventure where everybody wins. Sure. There are bad guys and cops, but if they pull it off, what a great prize. Not just because they might get caught. It’s because they want to be a team, a unit, a family.

Watching Plummer play the comic relief cannot go unwatched. His scenes alone are good reasons to see the movie.  Such talent as Plummer opens a bottle of beer, dupes a security guard, tricks a gangster and then dances on an exotic island.

Martin’s action scenes are so simple and unpretentious. What a joy to see a story unfold without a lot of violence and expletive words.  The most violent scene is when Travolta’s character uses a baseball bat and backlashes at three thugs. Martin filmed the entire scene as a master shot, from start to finish, without inserts or harsh cutaways.  It is hilarious. Did I mention there is comedy in this drama?

I don’t want to give away too much of the storyline. The ending is a little empty, but it is truthful. I don’t think I could have come up with a better way to end a story about a family with an unsolvable problem.

Hathaway Film “Song One”

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SongOne

Here’s an Anne Hathaway film you haven’t seen. The story begins with Henry (Ben Rosenfield), a street singer in New York City, getting disastrously hit by a car. Franny (Oscar-winning Hathaway), Henry’s sister, is in Morocco working on her anthropology project. She receives the news and immediately returns home.  Her brother is now in a coma, with their mother (Mary Steenburgen) coping as best she can.  

As a family, I sense they were once very close, but Henry left college to pursue a singing career. Franny disapproved and wedged the family apart. Being the responsible one, while her mother and brother are more informal and unconventional artists, Franny struggles with the life her brother follows, wants to understand his choice, wake him up from his coma and apologize.

Franny discovers Henry’s journal that depicts his life as a street singer.  She hopes to find meaning in his world and draw him out of his coma. She learns about his favorite haunts and notes his idol, James Forester (Johnny Flynn), a street singing celebrity.

Franny follows her brother’s footsteps as documented in his journal entries. Franny meets James, and they become friends and romantically involved. Together, they help each other solve their problems through companionship. Franny is trying to draw Henry out of his coma with the familiarity of sounds and smells in hopes of rekindling their relationship.  James hasn’t written a new song in over five years, and his tour is coming to an end. He needs new material for his recording session scheduled in Germany.

Written and directed by Kate Barker-Froyland (her feature debut), Song One strolls along on endearing moments and poignant music, but I kept waiting for the inevitable in the Franny and James relationship; it never happened. Sure. The acting is brilliant, but the story’s overall meaning never comes full circle for Franny and James, mother and daughter, or brother and sister. Barker-Froyland leaves us void at the end, wondering what the point of the story was.  Sure.  I sense that both Franny and James’ problems were solved, yet they had started a relationship with no end. Song One may seem like a romantic story, but it is more about cultural or lifestyle differences, not an excuse to divide relationships.

Seeing both ends of being a street singer, James success and Henry’s struggle to find his voice, the movie explores the life of New York City street performers. With great music and talent, an eerie presence under my skin, I feel compelled, like Franny, to understand the culture so new to me.

“Liars Fires and Bears” Storyline and Trailer

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liars fires bears

If you are into movies like I am, you know that original movies are hard to come by. The cookie-cutter process film studios stick to a ridiculous degree. I understand why they keep to the same formula because it makes money. If the original Die Hard had not been a multi-million dollar hit, another film genre would have been overproduced today. Enough said, because on rare occasions, we come across an original film, thanks to film festivals, that is genuinely original. I am talking about Liars Fires and Bears.

Brinkvision sent me this gem about a month ago. Due to a shifty move by a former website hosting company, I am finally able to tell you about this movie.  Liars Fires and Bears is a story worth watching.

liars jeremy_cloe

University of Nevada graduate and AFI alumnus Jeremy Cloe directed the unpretentious indie, which is his first feature film. He tells a simple story of two people alike in their own ways, but with hard luck. The actors create characters that are imperfect yet real in a refreshingly authentic way.

The story grabbed my attention right away. It held me throughout the movie with stellar acting, talented cinematography by Brett Austin Walters and Cloe’s directing and editing.

Eve and Dave meet up and go on a journey together that is not only thought-provoking but curiously pleasing. Megli Micek plays Eve brilliantly and dominates the screen while Lundon Boyd, who also co-wrote the script, plays Dave and clearly has met his match.

Cloe draws us into their story. We understand them and become part of their unfortunate and desperate situations. Emotions run high because Eve is a young girl and a constant mystery of how she can truly survive so far down on her luck. I have to repeat it. The movie is refreshing and a solid reason to attend and support film festivals.