June 16, 2014 By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Jen (Jo Mei) and Kyle (Andrew Pang) are two predictably combative siblings, forced to be together after the death of their mother (Jodi Long, seen in flashbacks). They must clean out their old childhood home in rural Pennsylvania, essentially throwing…
Posts published in “Arts and Entertainment”
June 6, 2014 By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor If a hypothetical Noah Baumbach joined Woody Allen on a train to Berlin, Germany, then met up with Jim Jarmusch to form a small gang, sip espresso and smoke cigarettes at the nearest cafe, the intellectual brainchild of the gathering…
By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Livia De Paolis co-wrote, directed, produced and acted in her feature film debut “Emoticon,” which first premiered at the Gen Art Film Festival in 2013, and currently has a limited theatrical release at Cinema Village in New York City. The film tells the…
June 9, 2014 By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor We’ve seen filmmakers from Quentin Tarantino to Sergio Leone build upon ideas from others. Asia is a gold mine for stories, like the classic Ronin or samurai flick, to be reshaped and stylized into something original. Wes Anderson, for example,…
By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Livia De Paulis abides by the DIY ethic. She not only stars in her debut feature, “Emoticon,” but she directed it, co-wrote it and produced it, too. This approach can have several results — the film can feel thin, since the creative core…
By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Let’s face it: the time travel film genre has been exhausted. From indie flicks like the super-low budget “Primer” to good ole “Back to the Future” to the neo-noir “Looper” it seems like viewers have seen every variation imaginable. What could impress them?…
By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Ellie Klug (Toni Collette) is a music critic who can’t seem to critique and correct her own life. Even though she’s in her forties, she indulges in bad-boy musicians, and seems to live off the instant gratification of her sexual encounters, all of…
By Pete Barell Arts and Entertainment Editor Alexander Berman’s short film “APP” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 18th. The film, about a geeky man who creates a sentient phone application that helps the user pick up woman, was presented in the Handle with…
By Michael Themistocleous Staff Writer “Fading Gigolo,” released on April 18th, is John Turturro’s (“Barton Fink”) fifth effort as a writer/director. In a Woody Allen-ish way, Turturro tells the story of Fioravante (played by Turturro) who decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to…
By Andrew Barell Premiering on April 19th at the TriBeca Film Festival, “Zombeavers” has been unsurprisingly receiving a lot of attention. The buzz for the film, directed by Jordan Rubin (“Crank Yankers”) has reached the elite film festival audience, a feat rare for a horror film … with zombie beavers.…