Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2009 > October > 28
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
‘Zombie Girl’ to air on TV
Austin-made doc “Zombie Girl: The Movie” — a heartening and hilarious and damn cool chronicle of 12-year-old Austinite Emily Hagins’ successful attempt to shoot her own feature-length horror film — will make its boob-tube debut on Dish TV’s Documentary Channel on Friday.
Full details and air dates HERE.
Read our interview with the makers of “Zombie Girl” HERE.
Emily Hagins, the ‘zombie girl’
Speaking of Central Texas-made horror flix, Carolyn Banks’ Bastrop-shot “Invicta,” a genre mash-up crackling with romance, comedy and killer fire ants, will be available on DVD in time for Xmas.
Go to the “Invicta” meme HERE, where you will also be able to snatch up the DVD in the next few weeks.
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Capsule review: ‘The Messenger’
One does not need to witness battles on the screen to understand the horrors of war, as evidenced by screenwriter Oren Moverman’s (“I’m Not There”) incredible directorial debut, “The Messenger.”
Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) has returned from the war in Iraq a decorated hero, but with multiple injuries, he must serve out the final three months of his tour. Relegated to the bleak and thankless work of casualty notification, Montgomery must visit families who have lost a loved one in the theater. His robotic commanding officer, Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson), explains to the disciplined soldier that his new job is about “character” and one that must be done “before you can understand it.”
Reeling from the loss of his girlfriend he left behind to go serve his country, and haunted by the vivid images of war, Montgomery’s sole companion is a pager that goes off at all hours to alert him to his latest assignment. Throughout the movie, its piercing beep acts as a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, an audible device that leaves the audience on the same edge as the soldier.
As Montgomery and Stone enter each residence to notify families of their tragic loss, the camera enters behind them, offering the soldiers’ perspective on this horrible journey of endurance and duty, as they gut-wrenchingly deliver news that will forever change the lives of the people they visit.
Montgomery battles to reconcile his humanity with the emotional detachment required of the job, a function that Stone has assimilated so deeply that he seems to have no connection with his fellow man. As the cold relationship between commanding officer and his charge softens, Stone begins to reevaluate his understanding of war, people and himself.
Montgomery finds a kindred spirit in the form of Olivia Pitterson (Samantha Morton), a grieving military widow and mother of one, who is trying to come to terms with the death of her husband, a man whose soul she felt had already been lost to the brutality of life at war.
The script, co-written by Alessandro Camon, offers a loose framework for a movie that features some amazing improvisational work by the actors. The movie unfolds slowly and organically, with lengthy scenes that allow the open wounds of its characters to breathe, as they attempt to repair themselves organically.
Harrelson and Foster are outstanding in roles that should garner both of them Academy Award nominations. The relationship between these two men both dealing with their service and sacrifice in different ways, shifts seamlessly from adversarial to fraternal. While its subject manner is dark and discomfiting at times, the movie has a warmth, robust humor, and eventually, a hopefulness that left me moved unlike any movie I have seen in years.
Moverman and his cast and crew have created a stirring masterpiece that allows the viewer to inhabit a world we almost never see, and reveals the endurance of the human spirit and our need to find solace, love and fellowship in our fellow man even when we feel most isolated.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin Film Festival 2009
Capsule review: ‘The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia’
Inspired by director Jacob Young’s cult documentary, “Dancing Outlaw,” a movie that featured the eccentric tap dancing Appalachian phenom, Jesco White, “Jackass” producers Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine and director Julien Nitzberg decided to follow the entire White clan for a year.
Notorious for their drinking, drugging, violence and illegal behavior, the White family of Boone, West Virginia is a petri dish of dysfunction and amoral behavior.
The documentary, “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia,” opens on a shot of a muddy puddle behind a chain-link fence, an apt metaphor for a family rolling around in slop, trapped by its history and genetics.
Using an animated family tree, the audience is introduced to one bad seed after another. The cameras follow various family members on an apparently typical year in the life in which they battle the law, their addictions and each other.
I’m always a little leery of a documentary that appears to exploit its naïve and foolish characters, but the Whites are more than willing participants in this quasi-sociological excavation of their sins. And the filmmakers don’t exactly seem to be overtly judging their subjects, for whom it seems they have a bit of an affinity. Whether that makes it OK to laugh and guffaw, I am not certain.
At times the movie almost feels like a snuff film, but instead of watching someone get killed, the audience must endure the shock, perverse humor and brutality of a family that is slowly killing itself.
A few glimmers of hopefulness appear in the bond and commitment the family members have to one another and the act of one White mother to try and get clean in order to save herself and her baby. But generally it is a darkly comic and unsettling look into a family set to self-destruct.
In the midst of the madness, Jesco White attempts to philosophize about the fate of this family that is a product of its geography and history. His massive back tattoo, one that features the visages of both Elvis and Charles Manson, may best encapsulate their burden — For as evil as they seem to be, there is a certain charisma to this band of country outlaws.
As the credits roll, the audience can shake its collective head in awe and disgust at the display of grotesque humanity in this unrated version of “The Jerry Springer Show” and then move on with their safe, comfortable lives, but, sadly, for the Whites, there seems nothing left to do but ponder the losing battle they half-heartedly wage against their demons.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin Film Festival 2009
