Weekend Viewing

I don’t care much for summer blockbusters, but there are some amazing indie flicks rolling out across the country right now that are worth supporting.

Personally, I’m a little disappointed that I will not have hit 100 movies viewed for the year by the end of June. That makes it pretty unlikely that I will see 200 flicks for the year, since we’re at the halfway point and all. Even unemployed, I’ve not been keeping up with film the way I would like. I made up for that a little bit this weekend:

89. Winter’s Bone [35mm, Regal Arbor]
I really struggled with Debra Granik’s first feature “Down To The Bone”, but here she’s crafted one of the finest independent films of the last decade. The movie is led by a star-making performance from 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence, whose work here as a young woman named Ree who is forced to venture deep into the Ozarks to find her meth cooking, bail skipping father should earn her armfuls of accolades during awards season.

“Winter’s Bone” takes us to a place rarely shown in film and succeeds because the performances are so raw and genuine that it almost feels like we’re watching a documentary. It’s a bleak tale of perseverance against all odds and you’ll be rooting for Ree every step of the way

90. Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work [35mm, Regal Arbor]
For a younger generation who only knows her as a plastic surgery queen on the red carpet, Joan Rivers may seem an odd choice for a documentary. When the scope of her career is laid out in front of you, it’s amazing to see how she paved the way for female comedians and why she is truly a comedy icon.

This doc follows her around during the year of her 75th birthday. It exposes her insecurities and furious work ethic (she won’t turn anything down for money). Over the year she releases 2 books, attempts to launch a one-woman stage show, and succeeds on the reality show “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

Joan has experienced plenty of tragedy over the years, but it’s all informed her comedy and made her fearless when she’s on stage. Off stage, it’s another story entirely.

91. Cyrus [digital projection, Alamo Drafthouse S Lamar]
The Duplass brothers take mumblecore into the mainstream and the results are far more successful than I anticipated. The underlying emotional undercurrents here would be pretty disturbing if presented in a straightforward drama. Instead, they’re played for laughs by a talented cast that hit all the right notes.

The movie is shot completely handheld & digital and the whole thing is largely improvised. The success of the film is that it doesn’t feel that way and I particularly liked some of the New Wave-esque editing choices.

It will be interesting to see if audiences around the country will respond to this film in the way that Fox Searchlight clearly hopes they will. Their marketing campaign does a great disservice to the actual movie, but it will probably trick people who don’t normally go to the art house for entertainment.