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Marilyn

Writer/director Martin Rodríguez Redondo’s feature film debut Marilyn tells the story of a young man struggling with his sexual identity in a society that refuses to understand or accept. It’s based on the true story of Marcelo Bernasconi, now Marilyn Bernasconi, a transgender woman whose crime became a media sensation over a decade ago. To reveal that crime is to spoil the ending of the film so implore you, if you don’t know the story do not Google before you watch the film.

Set in rural Argentina, Marilyn stars Walter Rodriguez as Marcos, the son of a lower class family who runs a farm on land they rented from a wealthy landowner. When his father dies suddenly, Marcos, his mother and his brother are left in charge and struggle to keep the farm going. Marcos steals women’s clothes and jewelry and on the night of the carnival transforms himself into Marilyn. This is where he is truly free to be himself. He has the support of his best friend Laura (Josefina Paredes), but others, including the son of a landowner, Facundo (Rodolfo Garcia Werner), who rapes him after Carnival, and his mother tries to deny him his freedom of expression and his sexuality. Marcos is facing immense pressure to live life according to gender norms. What will it take for Marcos to be free to be Marilyn?

Marilyn is a raw, spare and harrowing film. It lingers, allowing the viewer to really appreciate Marcos/Marilyn’s struggle. Rodriguez brings a sensitivity to the role that makes it feel genuine. Redondo shows great promise as a feature film director. The film ends abruptly at the aforementioned crime and it was Redondo’s intention not to make this a true crime film and he says “there’s no rational way to understand a crime, it was necessary to respect that mystery…”

Ultimately the we understand what led Marcos/Marilyn to the point of no return. However, the film holds the viewer at arm’s length. We’re with Marcos/Marilyn the whole time but we don’t really get to know this character all too well. 

Overall the film felt unique in that it wasn’t a coming-of-age story, a coming out story or a story about transition. It focused solely on the struggle. We know after the movie fades to black that there lies a much bigger story to tell on the horizon.

Marilyn opens in L.A. at Laemmle Music Hall today. It will be available through Breaking Glass Pictures on DVD/VOD on April 30th.

Posted Film Reviews

Scraps

Erin (Jo Scott) has high hopes for her dinner party but as the expression goes, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans. Unfortunately for Erin her husband Isaiah (Michael Brunlieb) isn’t much help and when her sister Tanya (Emma Pope) and Tanya’s fiancee Matt (Damian Anaya) arrive, things get awkward fast. First there’s Matt and Tanya’s new found religious beliefs which perplex and annoy Erin and Isaiah who are self-proclaimed atheists. Erin has hidden all the alcohol from her newly sober sister and has banished all phones from the dinner table. Bored Isaiah needles the guests for his own amusement. While the conversation becomes increasingly hostile, Erin’s neglected pie bursts into flames. As the painful, passive aggressive interactions between these four individuals comes to a climax, one of them will have a near death experience that will forever change the lives of each person and their relationships with each other. This dinner-party-turned-existential-crisis opens up new possibilities for the characters and for the viewer as well.

“Death is this inevitable thing that we don’t have any control over.”

Scraps is directed by Daniel Shar and made on an incredibly low budget of just under $2k. With its theatrical run in Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles, that number bumped up but stayed under $6k. Filmed in Chicago and set in one apartment, the film stars a small cast of well-known local sketch and improv comedians. This dark comedy has moments of both absurdity and deep reflection. There are some philosophical discussions about relationships, faith, and the meaning of life and death. The low budget enables the filmmakers to really focus on the meat of the story, stripping away all the excess that a bigger budget would allow for but would perhaps distract from the real message.

Scraps is an interesting study in gender dynamics, romantic relationships and individuality all delivered by means of surreal humor. These characters are frustrating. They are truly awful, especially the men. However it’s incredibly satisfying to watch how they face some harsh realities about their lives and relationships. It’ll be cathartic for viewers who are feeling stuck in their current situations.

This film may not be for everyone. I get a sense that an appreciative viewer is one who is in the right headspace for it. I felt nitpicky about a few things like the undressed salad on the dinner table (for continuity?) and the medical reasoning behind the near death experience (I can’t tell you any more without spoiling the plot). Also, as someone who is formerly religious I felt that the arguments about faith were fairly weak. There’s a secondary story with a pizza delivery guy that is fairly strained but has a sweet conclusion. Even with my reservations about certain aspects of the film, I felt quite moved by the story and by the end I started to have my very own existential awakening.

Scraps is available to watch on Amazon Prime. Visit the official site for more information.

Instant Dreams Poster
Posted Documentaries

Instant Dreams

“The digital dark ages took over our lives…”

Edwin H. Land in The Long Walk

In 1947, Edwin H. Land introduced his invention to the world. The Polaroid camera would revolutionize photography. Inspired by his young daughter, who just couldn’t wait to see a photo that was just taken, Land decided he would develop the technology that would shorten the time gap between the shutter click and the final product. With Polaroid technology it would reduce the time to just one minute.

Fast forward to 1970, when Land was filmed for the short documentary The Long Walk in which he narrates a helicopter tour of several Polaroid facilities in Massachusetts and discusses at length the company’s new technological advancements and his predictions for the future. Land envisioned a day when we would have a portable camera, the size of a wallet, that would be used as regularly as the telephone.

In 2008, the bankrupt Polaroid announced it was no longer producing its trademark film stock. Although Polaroid still exists today, in a new iteration after the brand had been sold, and re-sold, it’s a shadow of its former self. What was once revolutionary is now obsolete in the rapidly changing landscape of the digital age. Have we lost the magic of Polaroid forever?

“It felt like I was confronted with the death of a friend.”

Photographer Stefanie Schneider
Scientists at work on developing Polaroid technology for the Impossible Project

Directed by Willem Baptist, Instant Dreams is a moody and atmospheric eulogy to a lost technology. It’s a quirky documentary that explores the importance of Polaroid as both art and science. The subjects in the film feel the profound loss of Polaroid. Scientist Stephen Herchen can be seen in the film trying to reinvent the lost formula of Polaroid for the Impossible Project. Other subjects include photographer Stefanie Schneider who uses the last of her Polaroid stock to capture her unique aesthetic and Christopher Bonanos, a Polaroid historian.

Instant Dreams captures the essence of Polaroid through its poetic approach in storytelling and visual artistry. If you’re looking for a more traditional documentary on the history of Polaroid, this isn’t it. It does require some patience from the viewer and it won’t be to everyone’s taste. 

“Instant Dreams is my cinematic ode to that longing for magic, mystery and a celebration of the dreams of the future that are interwoven with this medium.”

director Willem Baptist

Instant Dreams opens in NYC and L.A. and 10 other North American cities today. Visit the official website for more information.

Posted Film Festivals

Maniac Landscapes

Maniac Landscapes is a hypnotic dream. One could even call it a beautiful nightmare. Windows serve as portals through which ethereal sources of light and energy feed the flowering pants below. These life forms snake toward the light, their buds opening dramatically. Streams and drops of liquid fall from an unseen source. Shades of red, pink, blue and purple are set against an infinite black landscape. In the background we hear ghostly sounds that are indistinguishable and haunting. The scene shifts when a skeleton appears, reconciling life with the concept of death. 

Maniac Landscapes is a 7-1/2 minute short film written, directed, edited and animated by Matthew Wade with sound design by Jacob Kinch. It is co-produced by Wade and Sara Lynch. Their short Eyes at the Specter Glass recently premiered at Slamdance (check out my review here). Wade describes the film with the following synopsis:

“As disembodied cries move through the rooms of a house, their emotional intensity provokes a reanimation of the dead, cosmic shifts, and the manipulations of time and place.”

Inspiration came to Wade from a series of dreams which he then interpreted into this this film. He gives it “a kind of dream logic in its final presentation.” It’s quite a surreal experience, as was Eyes at the Specter Glass and I’m looking forward to more from this innovative filmmaker.

If the events in the film were from my own dream, I’d interpret them as representations of the creative forces within us. The light, the liquid and the sounds are all sources of inspiration and the plants would symbolize the growth of ideas and the formation of our creative endeavors into their final artistic form. The skeleton’s presence would be thematic of how we take from past creations and breathe new life into them.

Maniac Landscapes premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival as part of their Best Animated Short competition line-up. It’s also part of the upcoming Alchemy Film and Arts Festival that takes place in Scotland next month.

The Browsing Effect
Posted 1 Comment on The Browsing Effect Film Reviews

The Browsing Effect

“I can’t date another introverted pessimist with intimacy issues.”

Written and directed by Michael K. Feinstein, The Browsing Effect follows a group of L.A. friends as they navigate dating and relationships. The title is a reference to the plethora of dating apps that not only guide singles to find their perfect match but also overwhelm them with possibilities. Improv actress/Uber driver Melissa (Megan Guinan) and her boyfriend, soon-to-be fiancee, James (Drew Fonteiro) have just moved in together but soon realize that they’re not ready for a lifelong commitment. Ben (Josh Margolin) and Rachel (Nikki SooHoo) recently had a nasty break-up and move on in very different ways. They all find themselves on dating apps searching for their next match or someone to fill the void.

There are quite a number of indie films about the L.A. dating scene. So what makes The Browsing Effect one stand out? It re-imagines the awkwardness of dating by acting out the scenarios in a unique way. For example, Ben begins messaging a potential date on Tinder. The woman appears in his room seductively on his dresser, reading out her responses to him. In another scene, Melissa’s blind date opens a closet door to reveal his ex-girlfriend who then explains to Melissa what went wrong in their relationship. A less effective scene includes Rachel in bed with her latest fling and their younger selves appear to ask questions.

There were some enjoyable scenes but overall The Browsing Effect was a mixed bag. I didn’t care about any of the characters. The biggest exception was Ben who has a sweet yet complicated love story he has with Gabriela (Gabriela Lopez). I wanted to know more about Lawrence (Larry Powell), the only gay character in the story, who avoids dating apps and stalks his love interest in real life instead. There were plot gaps and several attempts at comedy that fell flat. The dating app used in the film is branded “Timber” yet all the actors say “Tinder”. Even the Spanish spoken at Gabriela’s birthday party was bad. If you’re like me and don’t care for improv, the scenes with the improv groups Diva Cup and Pizza Hat will be a total wash.

The Browsing Effect began as a Kickstarter project in 2017 and releases today on VOD from Gravitas Ventures.

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