Craig Oliver | Jaclyn Saraceno | Scott Marks | Holly Jones

Fat City
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Leonard Gardner, what was supposed to be John Huston’s comeback film after his success much earlier with The African Queen and The Misfits, among others, Fat City was pretty much a commercial flop when it came out, despite its success at the Cannes Film Festival, and was largely forgotten until a few years ago. Stacy Keach plays a washed up and past-his-prime boxer looking to get back in the ring and make one last go of things, and a young Jeff Bridges, about the same time as his great turn in The Last Picture Show, plays an upstart who turns to Keach for some help as they each face their own struggles of growing old and growing up, respectively. One of my favorite endings ever—the two of them in a diner, after not having seen each other in a while, simply sitting and drinking coffee, as Keach looks around at everyone else curiously, the patrons playing games, perfectly freeze-framed, right before the credits roll over their tired faces and “All My Friends are Dead and Gone” begins playing. Simple and brilliant.

Microcosmos
Before their great Winged Migration captured the attention of filmgoers, French documentarians Claude Nuridsany and Marie Pérennou turned their attention to the world of insects, providing a rare and engaging intimate look into the lives of the smallest creatures on Earth. At times the view is so tight and the creatures seem to be so full of personality that the film almost appears to be faked, but such is its success. Hell, you even get to see snails “mate.”

Au Hasard Balthazar
Legendary filmmaker Robert Bresson’s deceptively simple film about a girl and her donkey, who suffer abuse from the simpletons in their small French community.  Beautiful and spare, this Christ allegory depicts the inhumanity of the world, especially in the face of what can be seen as “good” and “pure.”  Heartbreaking stuff.

Kontroll
Hungarian director Nimrod Antal’s first feature has more than its fair share of dark fun in the confines of Budapest’s subway system and the cops—many of them completely sleep-deprived, drug-addled, and amoral--who work the beat down there.  Strange murders are taking place and the main cop’s search for answers leads him to an underground community looking for complete escape from the society above ground.  Both darkly comic and thrilling, the film is one of the best debuts from the past few years, and Hollywood took notice, bringing Antal over to our side of the ocean to make an hour-and-a-half of trashy fun in Vacancy.

Branded to Kill
For my money, one of Seijun Suzuki’s two best films, right alongside Tokyo Drifter. Suzuki was hired on at the last minute to rewrite and direct what the studios expected to be a straightforward crime story, but instead he ran with his ideas—many of which he came up with the night before shooting—that took a satirical look at the yakuza and pulled in the pop sensibilities of his French New Wave counterparts.  It has since been hailed as an “absurdist masterpiece” and stands as a great influence on  some of the most notable crime filmmakers of the modern age, among them John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.  The film is enjoyable and unpredictable through and through and is unlike most anything else to come out of Japan during that time, when Kurosawa and Ozu were considered the “true artists” in the international community because they were so deathly serious.  Suzuki was fired after the production for making movies “that made no sense and no money,” and he turned around and sued the film company and won.

King of Kong
Step into the world of competitive gaming.  Follow along as a recently unemployed dad tries to do something meaningful with his life by challenging a man his age who has held the record for high score in Donkey Kong since he was 17.  He REALLY does not want to hand over  his title.

Drakmar
I could watch this film over and over.  The main subject of this documentary is a poetic and sage-like twelve year old with the soul of a thousand year old man who is fixated on the medieval ages and truly lives in his own little world.  Made by local film makers Flagpop

Productions.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Made off of one of my favorite books of all time, it is completely different than my imagination but I still loved it.  I think it was fantastically adapted and extremely well cast.  Mos Defs towel wielding is a real tickle.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot
Finally released on dvd after decades of circulation in small circles on vhs, this mini documentary definitely stands the test of time. Extra added bonuses include update interviews with some of the metal heads featured in the film now that they are all grown up and Harry Potter Sidewalk, which I think Drakkmar might be seen in the background in one of the shots.

Confessions of a Superhero
This documentary gives you a piece of the lives of the most interesting folks who dress up as superheros for money on Hollywood Boulevard.  They completely open up their lives for all to see. I watched all of the extras after and three hours later I was still wishing there was much more.

Leo McCarey's DUCK SOUP
Groucho admitted that the only director The Marx Brothers ever worked with was Leo McCarey which is probably why "Duck Soup" stands as the the brother's head and shoulders above their other 12 collaborations. Groucho plays the ruler of a bankrupt country with Chico and Harpo as his even more bankrupt comic foils. At a mere 68 minutes, and with no piano or harp solos to slow things down, this is not only the Marx Bros. funniest, it could be the funniest movie ever made.

Mike Mill's THUMSUCKER
Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci) is an androgynous seventeen-year-old unable to kick the habit: he’s got a thumb on his back. His sucking further distances his father (Vincent D’Onofrio) who insists on being called by his first name as he goes kicking and screaming into parenthood. Mom (an intentionally made-down Tilda Swinton, who also produced) is off in her own world trying to win a date with soap opera star Benjamin Bratt. Prescription medication to combat ADHD produces a speedy clarity that propels Justin to debate team stardom as well as possibly the only student ever to finish “Moby Dick” while still in high school. “Thumbsucker” joins the ranks of “Donnie Darko” and “Igby Goes Down” as an honest, credible exploration of a modern teen’s journey through high school hell. Pucci’s transition from thumb to pharmaceuticals to bong shows the makings of a future star.

Katsuhiro Otomo's STEAMBOY
Ray is a teenager that comes from a long line of tinkerers. With dad off in Alaska, Ray receives a parcel containing a supreme source of power known as the “steam ball.” No sooner is it unwrapped than two dark figures come a-calling. The boy escapes, and in spite of assistance from a mysterious stranger, Ray is eventually caught. By truck, locomotive and Zeppelin the chase continues, pitting son against father against father on an exploration of trust, authority and imagination. "Steamboy" examines the subject of technology and the modern world through a paucity of plot and an overabundance of vision. And steam — so much steam that the press notes actually include a brief history of condensation. The film’s message is clearly (and somewhat overly) stated: Technology should be used for the betterment of mankind, not its obliteration. Otomo employs this (with any luck) ingrained truism as a springboard. It frees up plot constraints, focusing instead on the various levels of discovery for both director and character.

David Cronenberg 's EASTERN PROMISES
Is there a director alive that’s made a smoother, more compromise-free transition from low budget maverick to multiplex megastar than David Cronenberg? For his second commercial hit, Cronenberg explores the inner-workings of a family of Russian Goodfellas living in London. Not unlike "Black Book," "Eastern Promises" also uses a personal diary as a plot motivator. Only a director who truly understands the delicate inner-workings of good and evil can take a vile, racist character and make him the translator. While Cronenberg may have set aside some of his more clinical obsessions, but the film is no less gripping for it. And the much talked about steam room scene is the best of its kind since Anthony Mann’s "T-Men."

Phil Morrison 's JUNEBUG
"Junebug" starts on stock footage of North Carolinians yelling in the mountains. Screaming is the ideal forward to a film that examines both the abyss between North and South and the inner-workings of an uncommunicative family that reunites for one week. Estranged son and brother George (Allessandro Nivola) is persuaded by Madeleine (the wonderful Embeth Davidtz), his older, British-born wife of six months, to make a side trip so that she may meet her in-laws. They'll be in the Carolinas anyway while Madeleine courts backwoods painter David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor). She believes Wark's "outsider" art will lure wealthy collectors to her Chicago gallery. Their arrival finds a sulking mother (Celia Weston), reticent father (Scott Wilson) and Johnny (Ben McKenzie), George's brooding, underachieving younger brother. Their floating-on-eggshells reserve prompts cauterized silence during several early scenes. Not since Ingmar Bergman in the sixties has a movie theater been so quiet. Between Madeleine's professional conundrum and a familial snub she must reconcile dwells still another timeworn plot gap in a film that refuses to simply document or, even worse, shrug off cliches. "Junebug" confronts and dissects them head on. Sometimes there's an art to redirecting theobvious.

Spike Lee's SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT
Who can tell what prompts studios to do what they do.... but finally MGM and Twentieth Century Fox have released Spike Lee's first feature length film. She's Gotta Have It is the story of Nora Darling (played byTracy Camila Johns) and the three men she keeps on a leash just as long as she damn well likes it. Strong direction, great cinematography, and a taste of the flavor-flav that you find in some of Spike Lee's bests.

Jane Campion's SWEETIE
I always include a "not for the faint of heart warning" with my recommendation of this movie... another "first of" but this time by director Jane Campion. Another 80's movie not released until recently, this time by Criterion Collection. It's difficult to pin down exactly into what genre to place Sweetie. It comes off as a sort of twisted family biopic consisting of a strained relationship between Kay and her horror of a sister Sweetie played by Genevieve Lemon. Kay comes home to find her sister has literally broken into her house one evening. Beyond the genre description, I can only tell you that this movie has one of the most original story openings I have seen (for those writers into the power of the first paragraph the first 10 minutes of this movie is a must), the strong eye of DP Sally Bongers, and much more family dysfunction than you'd ever find in any feel-good indie movie of late. The Criterion release also includes some Campion shorts that show you that this girl just never messed around.

Michael WInterbottom's IN THIS WORLD
This one is tucked away in our Great Britain collection and is by the same director who brought us 24 Hour Party People. About the only thing the two movies have in common is the blurring of the fact and fiction boundry. This time the story centers around two Afghan boys that are making the "underground" journey from their homes to London. Heartbreaking and real, In This World touches me because I feel it recounts the type of escape that is going on all the time just a few miles down 5 South. But WInterbottom treats the material in such a refreshing way, without a didactic hand. He just lets the story unfold and leaves you to feel what you will from it.

John Sayles's MATEWAN
If No Country and There Will Be Blood have gotten you in the mood for all things West, you may enjoy the set location of this early work by a truely independent director, John Sayles. An explosion of the story about the conflict between the owners of a tyrannical coal company and the lives of the men and women trying to better their circumstances through unionization. Based on the story of a real town called Matewan.

The Coen Brothers' BLOOD SIMPLE
Compare the Oscar winning No Country to this early neo film noir by the brothers.