I've lived in the Winston-Salem area for almost seven years and every one of those years I've vowed to go to at least one showing at the RiverRun Film Festival and every year I've managed to not do it. Well, this is the year I'm going to do it and after scanning some of the films on the slate this year I'm hoping to go on several occassions.
Looks like Lawren and crew over at a/perture are making a nice splash in the Triad. They won "Runner Up" in the "Best Blog" and "Best Facebooker" categories in Yes! Weekly's Best of 2010 survey. Oh, and probably a little more important to them, they were "Noteworthy" in the "Best Cinema" category.
I'm still trying to get down there for beer and a movie. Maybe next week I'll finally get the chance.
A couple of days ago I had a chance to take a sneak peak at a flick titled Terribly Happy that's currently playing at a/perture. The best way I can describe it is it's kind of like a Danish version of Fargo, without the wood chipper. It might not be as gruesome as Fargo, but the bog outside the tiny town where the film is set sees its share of bodies.
The premise isn't too revolutionary: big city cop goes a little cuckoo, gets shrinked and then gets sent to a small town to get his head straight while on the job. Small towns being what they are, the locals are more than a little weird and the cop gets himself tangled up in their weirdness in short order. I guess you could compare it to Deliverance, but the locals all have their teeth and there's not a banjo to be found anywhere.
If you like movies that are a little off-beat, have some tension and don't mind a little violence I think you'll like Terribly Happy. Personally I love films with strange characters and a little edge to them so I really liked this one.
As with North Face (which I reviewed here) this is more proof that a/perture is bringing in foreign films (yes, with subtitles) that just about any local moviegoer will find entertaining. Sure there's a place in this world for art films, but I like the fact that a/perture is bringing in films that have a mainstream-ish plot and just happen to have dialogue in a non-English tongue.
a/perture
311 W. Fourth St. (Across from
Mellow Mushroom)
Winston-Salem, NC
Phone: 336-722-8148
Website:
www.aperturecinema.com
Terribly Happy runs at a/perture through April 8
Last night I got a sneak preview of North Face and I can tell you without reservation that if you're in town this weekend you really should head over to a/perture and see it. Since I'm not a professional reviewer I won't even try to sway you with descriptions of the cinematography (okay, it was awesome) or go into great detail about the acting (okay, it was superb). What I will tell you is that:
The film is set in 1936 and is based on a true story. Here's the setup:
Add a love interest to this mix and you've got a nice plot. Add the aforementioned cinematography and acting and you've got a really good movie. Since I have two thumbs I'm going to point them both up for this one.
Here's the skinny on showtimes at a/perture. Really, you should go (they serve beer and wine!)
a/perture
311 W. Fourth St. (Across from Mellow Mushroom)
Winston-Salem, NC
Phone: 336-722-8148
Website: www.aperturecinema.com
Showtimes:
Fri-Sat: 2:40, 7:20
Sun: 12:00, 5:20
Mon-Wed: 5:40
Spike Lee made an appearance at Wake Forest University last week and among his comments was the following:
Quite often, young people allow themselves to be influenced too heavily by their parents, and wind up having life choices made for them, Lee said.
“Parents kill more dreams than anybody,” he said.
One of my oldest and closest friends has for years been called the "funsucker" by his wife and kids. Personally I just see him as a proponent of reality-based parenting, but of course I've been accused of being a funsucker too so what do I know?
Now I can add "dream killer" to my resume.
From a Yes! Weekly article about the new North Carolina movie incentives:
Rushtons Crimson Wolf Production released the
multimillion-dollar, sci-fi action thriller Eyeborgs in 2008. Eyeborgs tells
the story of a near future where robotic surveillance cameras keep constant
watch for possible criminal activity, and was shot entirely in Winston-Salem
using local crew.Crimson Wolf, based in Lewisville, was started in the Triad
because we live here, says Rushton, the we referring to his partner in the
company, Richard Clabaugh.And because there's lots of great cast and crew
people and there's just no reason for Crimson Wolf to move anywhere else. Plus
the new incentives have fired up filmmakers we know to finally get projects
going they've been putting off, which is only going to grow the filmmaking
community already here.Eyeborgs stars Adrian Paul, known as The Highlander in the
TV series and recent feature films, and Danny Trejo who played Machete in
Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse. Its CGI, or computer generated graphics, were
described in a review on the film website the Quiet Earth on April 30, 2009 as
being more realistic and effective than mega-budget Hollywood spectaculars like
Transformers.
Have a thing for documentaries? Then check out this link to all the free documentaries available on Google Video…all 3,713 of them.
Found via Boing Boing.
It’s been a while since I’ve paid homage to the first blog I ever heard of, Fark.com. Here are my favorites of today’s Fark headlines:
Befuddled 