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PFF & Cinefest09 – Day 9 Continued
After Plague Town, I was all too glad to be heading to a comedy, Cuttin’ Da Mustard (USA). This is one of the films from the “Fade to Black” series of the festival. It was good to see the attendees were mixed, although the attendance was light. Director / Screenwriter: Reed R. McCants gives us a little taste of what it was like to be a young, aspiring actor in New York. The twist being, this young actor is a functional illiterate. The character, Rolo (Brandon T. Jackson) based on McCants, is presented with the realization that actors need to read. The humor comes into play when he joins a…
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PFF & Cinefest(09) – Day 8- The Burning Plain
The Burning Plain (USA) is Oscar contending, incredibly crafted – good! I’m in awe that this a debut for Director and Screenwriter, Guillermo Ariaga. It’s difficult to give commentary on this film without creating a mine field of spoiler alerts. Not because the film is categorized as mystery or suspense, but it would be wrong to reveal the incredibly beautiful and meaningful relationships of the characters and separate story lines. It takes a lot of pluck to create a film where the audience must trust the filmmaker is leading them somewhere, the only way to do it successfully is to a) be a well-known director (Scorsese, Eastwood) or b) make…
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PFF & Cinefest09- Day 7
As per PFF & Cinefest09- Day 2 Post, learning Visual Basic is ruining my life! Normally during the festival I like to average at least two films a day, but with my semester drawing to a close, I unfortunately have to balance my movie viewing and reviewing with coding and pulling out of hair! So my one movie pick for Day 7 was I Sell the Dead (USA), highly recommended by Danger After Dark festival curator, Lewis Tice. This story of 18th Century grave robbers features Dominic Monahan (Lost, Lord of the Rings) always a perfect choice for anything otherworldly. I’ve always imagined grave robbing had to do with stealing…
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Coverage of: The 17th Annual Philadelphia Film Festival
“As a film fest for international films we strive, beyond sanity, to seek out the very best in films representing the complete human condition. When we see films, while not blind to race, we certainly have no idea of the color of those behind the camera", responded Scott Johnston, PFF Regional Film Curator...
