Friday, September 30, 2011

The Big Screen 70mm Film Festival


Opening tonight at Seattle's very own Seattle Cinerama is The Big Screen 70mm Film Festival, three weeks of the best in classic film, shown as they were meant to be...on a BIG SCREEN.  

Seattle Cinerama is one of only three remaining Cinerama venues in the world, the other two being in Los Angles, California and Bedford, England, and the only one still capable of showing Super Cinerama.  No longer managed by AMC Theaters, Seattle Cinerama's new management, Greg Wood, owner and operator of Portland’s Roseway Theater, has transformed the theater into a true community invested venue.  Through an active Twitter and Facebook presence, Seattle Cinerama often asks its patrons what they would like to see next, as well as hosting various local film festivals throughout the year.  In a word, Seattle Cinerama is what the film going experience is meant to be.

But you may ask what is the Filmfreak Mafia going to be will be seeing at The Big Screen 70mm Film Festival, well here's our anticipated attendance list, a small fraction of the total offerings:

This Is Cinerama - wonderful documentary on the evolution of the technical aspects of film and one of only two films in the festival to be utilizing Cinerama's three panel projection technology

Sound of Music - since the hills were always meant to be seen on a BIG SCREEN

West Side Story - how can you truly appreciate the Sharks and the Jets unless you see them the size of Godzilla attacking Tokyo

TRON - seeing TRON Legacy at Seattle Cinerama was amazing so seeing the story of how it all began there too, just seems right

See you all at the movies...

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Selling


For anyone who has ever bought or sold a house, you know how harrowing an experience it can be.  But imagine you are a good natured realtor who always puts his client's financial welfare above your own commission, trying to flip a house to pay for your ailing mother's treatment, only to find out it's haunted?  Worse yet, the house is fighting you every step of the way to find a buyer, even a buyer who wants the house because it's haunted?  The closing night feature for this year's Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) The Selling is the the story of Richard Scarry (not the children's book author), a man living this exact nightmare.

Richard and his co-worker and friend Dave are tricked into buying the house from another agent in their office, Mary Best.  While starting to prepare the house for viewing, Richard is confronted by one of accused killer Oliver Crandell's victims in the house's attic, and so begins a series of classic horror film hyjinx, including bleeding walls, a closet that is portal to the spirit world and  of course cabinets opening on their own.

What sets The Selling apart from other horror comedy films is that is balances the horror with comedy without putting on a false sense of intellectual superiority like the Scream series or making fun of and insulting the viewer like the Scary Movie series.  With a combination of witty, subtle one liners like "Don't be a Cameron Frye" to Richard's mother being inhabited by the house's evil spirit in the hospital, The Selling is a film where you laugh and jump in your seat in what can only be described as an emotional ballet that leaves you feeling that the good guy doesn't always have to finish last.  

The Selling was filmed in only 14 days and yet the look and feel of a feature film having taken much longer.  This level of quality filmmaking is hard to find in today's flood cinematic landscape.  It is this kind of filmmaking that Filmfreak Mafia is dedicated to seeking out and sharing with you.  Thank you Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) for bringing this colorful and entertaining film to Seattle and to the attention of the Filmfreak Mafia.


Saturday, September 24, 2011

Absentia


Everyday the news is filled with stories of people who have gone missing and as the immediate sensationalism has passed, their fates may never be known.  For those left behind, life becomes a waiting game on multiple levels, most importantly legally and financially.  Absentia, one of the five featured films at this year's Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) tells one such story.  


Tricia's husband disappeared from their home seven years ago.  As her sister Callie reappears in her life, Tricia is preparing to have her husband declared dead in absentia.  Shortly after her husband is legally declared dead, Tricia begins to see her husband Daniel.  At first she believes it is guilt driven hallucinations for having him declared dead in order to access his life insurance to help pay her mounting debt and for being pregnant with another man's child.  But when Daniel returns home in a state of shock, unable to explain where he has been for the past seven years, a supernatural conspiracy involving the tunnel near their home and a series of missing persons spanning back over a hundred years, begins to unravel.


After Daniel goes missing for a second time, Tricia reaches a breaking point.  She disappears shortly after Daniel, leaving her sister Callie is left to answer questions of the police and of her self.  Callie begins to try to put the pieces together of the puzzle involving the tunnel and ends up joining the lost.


Absentia is an amazingly crafted story, made on a very small budget, which provides at its conclusion explanations for all the supernatural disappearances that are equally plausible.  The explanations are all supported by events previously disclosed and presented as alternate theory, not as a replacement of the main story.  This unique story telling tool is why Absentia is beloved by Filmfreak Mafia.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Melancholy Fantastic


What would have happened if Norman Bates' mother had killed herself after Norman's father had died, instead of taking up with a series of grifters?  Would Norman have become Melanie Crow? The Filmfreak Mafia's interpretation of The Melancholy Fantastic would say yes.  


Written and directed by A.D. CalvoThe Melancholy Fantastic shows Melanie's journey as she grieves for her mother who committed suicide right before Christmas.  Melanie's grief finds solace in a doll with a mannequin head and shoulders, and sewn together arms, legs and torso, making the doll look like a cross between an anorexic model and a muppet.  Melanie keeps the doll with her every where she goes for company.  At first Melanie speaks for the doll, just so she can hear another voice in the silence of the house, but over time the she hears her mother's voice coming from the doll.


Unlike Norman Bates, Melanie's affinity for making dolls has caught the eye of her former high school classmate Dukken (Danish for doll) which inspires Melanie to make a doll for Dukken.  Melanie runs into another high school classmate, Kenny, who works at the local convince store and becomes her supplier of Hostess Sno Balls.


Eventually with the help of Dukken, Melanie weans herself off of the mother doll by burning her in a field, and of Dukken as well, by stabbing him in the kitchen with a knife (much like the one Norman Bates used to kill Marion Crane).  Melanie's final release of the pain washes away in the shower as Dukken's blood washes off of her (in a scene reminiscent of the shower scene in Psycho).  But the final twist that makes this a true successor to psycho, seeing a tattered doll in clothes like Dukken's in the kitchen where he had fallen.


In its final scenes, several questions about perceptions of the grieving mind come to light.  Was Melanie really hearing her mother's voice from the doll?  Was Dukken simply Melanie's memory of Kenny from high school she had projected onto the other doll?  Would Norman Bates have turned out very differently has he been interested doll making and not taxidermy?  


The Melancholy Fantastic is a film that provides its audience with not only a homage to Psycho, but a cinematic journey in which the story grips you and does not let go until the final moments and fades to black.  Thank you Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) for bringing this film to the 2011 festival.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Boy Wonder


Boy Wonder is the story of a high school senior dealing with the emotional and psychological scars of watching his mother being murdered in front of his eyes during an assumed car jacking gone wrong, on his 10th birthday.  Unlike the most famous boy wonder, Sean Donovan (for true film geeks, this was also the name of Mike Donovan's son, the leader of the resistance in the original V) does not have a wealthy guardian providing him the best education and super hero crime fighter training money can buy.  Instead, he has spent the past 8 years since his mother's murder with his formally abusive father, spending every day after school since his mothers death looking at mug shots at the local NYPD to see if his mother's murder was picked, reading everything he can find, and doing his own very intense work out routine at a local dive gym.

As we watch the layers of Sean's search for justice unravel, we see him engage in targeted vigilante justice against men who abuse women and children while getting away with murder, dangerous steroid use in conjunction with his street fighter training at the gym,  and severe hallucinations fueled by his escalating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  But the worse is yet to come.  Upon learning his father's former nickname, Sean's grip on reality begins to crumble, and his ultimate plan to get justice for his mother is executed, leaving in its wake a police cover up and the murder of two men, one of whom may have been innocent.

At the end of the day, Sean Donovan is a combination of several stock characters, crafted into a new and unique flavor.  Like Batman, Sean patrols the streets to help the helpless, but his inexperience and instability causes him to leave clues as to his true identity.  However, unlike Death Wish's Paul Kersey, who metes out his vigilante justice in person upon those who have killed his loved ones, Sean uses a more indirect approach in his final revenge against his mother's murder.  This careful planning and execution that leads to Sean achieving his goals while remaining free of legal ramifications, give him a shade of Hannibal Lecter.

As with any film featured at Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF), Boy Wonder is a film that offers a complex story that leaves you questioning what is right and wrong.  Whether you believe justice has been achieved by the ends justifying the means, or that and eye for an eye is never the way, Boy Wonder does not offer any easy answer and forces each individual to decide for themselves, and this is why it is worthy of a Filmfreak Mafia recommendation to see.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Juan con miedo (Fearful John)


Juan con miedo was the short preceding the opening night feature of the 2011 Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF).  A simple story of two children who are running away from one of their abusive parents, only to wind up facing a previously perceived urban legend, in this case an evil scarecrow.  


[TO BE COMPLETED]



Midnight Son


This year's opening night feature for the 2011 Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) was Midnight Son, a unique re-telling of the traditional vampire legend.  This is the story of a young man named Jacob who suffers from a rare allergy to the sun (most likely a severe form of polymorphous light exposure) and discovers the only cure for his seemingly escalating anemia is drinking blood.  The film follows Jacob on his transformation from a shy, loner into a blood addicted, junkie.


Jacob first tries to drink animal blood from the butcher, but like with any addiction, his need for stronger and more frequent doses leads him to seek out human blood.  With the help of an unscrupulous hospital nurse named Marcus, Jacob's  addiction becomes worse, and he begins to drink at first previously extracted human blood, but in the final transformation into a full fledged vampire, must have warm blood from living humans.  This need leads him to commit murders he cannot remember and to the realization that his attacks can lead to his victims becoming infected with his condition, including his girlfriend Mary and his blood-dealer Marcus.


Midnight Son's interpretation of the vampire legend is very 21st century as being the cause of genetic origin and not a magical one.  Dark Shadows, the classic cult soap opera from the late 1960's also had a storyline in which the love struck Dr. Julia Hoffman attempts to use medical science to cure Barnabas Collins of his vampiric curse placed upon him by his wife Angelique, a witch.  In a modern world in which belief in things that can only be proven scientifically, Midnight Son offers an explanation that vampires may suffer from a genetic predisposition to certain addictions, perhaps similarly to alcoholics?


This point is most poignantly portrayed when Jacob is waiting in the back of the hospital waiting for Marcus along with a traditional drug addict.  If the scene were to be taken completely out of context, there is no difference between Jacob's desperation and physical symptoms of withdrawal and that of the drug addict also waiting for Marcus.  This simple imagery is what makes Midnight Son a worthy inclusion into films loves by the Filmfreak Mafia.  


Midnight Son is a finely crafted film that does not rely upon excessive computer special effects to tell its simple story that addiction and the acts of desperation that come with it, are universal to humans and the living dead alike.  While not originally a pick for this year's Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF), it has become one not to miss.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

MIFFF 2011


Our good friends the Maelstrom International Fantastic Film Festival (MIFFF) have announced their 2011 festival line-up.  MIFFF is a three day international showcase of genre films often overlooked by other film festivals.  This year the festival runs from September 16th ti 18th at SIFF Cinema at McCaw Hall in Seattle Washington...

...and the Filmfreak Mafia's recommendations are:

FEATURE FILMS
Absentia
A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.

Boy Wonder
A young Brooklyn boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and grows up obsessed with finding her killer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night.

The Selling
A too-honest-for-his-own-good real estate agent has to sell a haunted house before its ghostly inhabitants ruin his life.


SHORT FILMS
A Penny Earned
Young honeymooners learn a hard lesson while investigating a 'haunted' inn. Some ghosts don't like having their story told.

Alone
Director: Ethan Seneker, USA 8 minutes
Home is the safest place, unless, you're alone.

Antedon
Stop-Motion animated Sci Fi short film inspired by the myth of the Sphinx as told in Oedipus Rex.

Call of Nature
Just another typical day for an Elder God whose current day job is hanging out on a fireplace mantle looking ominous...

Cosas Feas (Nasty Stuff)
Director: Isaac Ezban, Mexico 30 minutes
The story of the sexual discovery of Kriko Krakinsky, an 11-year-old boy living in a strange and bizarre family of immigrants that share mysterious and surprising behaviors around sexual issues.

Fitness Class Zombie
How to lose weight the UNDEAD way!

Pharos
An astronaut stranded on a now dead Earth struggles with his sanity and a botched mission to initiate a mechanism that will cleanse the atmosphere.

Pinball
A teenager dabbles in witchcraft, which doesn't work out, he escapes to the cemetery and meets Death in an dark and little frequented arcade. Amidst metaphysical dialogs and pinball records, he tries to cheat Death and get another chance in the game.

R.O.A.C.H.
District of New Minsk: the democratic Government is crumbling under the pressure of the economic Guilds. While the population assists the coup d'etat of Prime Minister Deckard via cable, three stories intertwine in a race against time.

Sleeping Madien (La Doncella Dormida)
Inés sees herself in a 19th century painting called "Sleeping maiden" but her boyfriend Simón plays the issue down. Inés’s nightmare starts when she finds out there are some more parallelisms between their lives apart from the physical resemblance.

Status
In the near future social networking has moved out of the virtual world and into the physical. A confronting portrait of a world we may soon know too well. Welcome to the evolution.

Toy House
A young boy is inspecting an abandoned carnival one night when it is suddenly lured through the gates by an entrancing pixie.

Vicneta
When Alfredo dies not revealing his wife the hiding place of the fabulous fortune that they both won in the lottery, Vicenta will look for everywhere up to assume that the only way to find it, is asking to her deceased husband.

Check out the official 2011 MIFFF trailer and photos stills for even more.

For all the latest developments visit MIFFF on Facebook & Twitter.