deadCenter Review: ‘Holy Rollers’
“Holy Rollers”
Directed by Kevin Asch
For a film about Hasidic Jews acting as ecstasy drug mules, “Holy Rollers” manages to be pretty monotonous. The premise, which is based on real events that happened in 1998, screams comedy, but director Kevin Asch goes the serious route, opting for a lightly-baked drama that comes off more insubstantial than deft.
Fortunately, the film has Jesse Eisenberg doing solid work as Sam Gold, a young Hasidic Jew who is being pressured to become a rabbi and marry a woman he barely knows. But the marriage falls through thanks to Sam’s perceived inadequacy, and he really isn’t sure if he wants to go down the ministry route.
When a next-door neighbor (Justin Bartha) offers Sam a chance to make some extra money moving medicine from Amsterdam to Brooklyn, he cautiously treads into the world of ecstasy smuggling — a world he’s soon entrenched in.
The film does a nice job with its progression of Sam, who starts out timidly, almost involuntarily, engaging in the process, then throws himself into it for the benefit of his family (the money enables him to buy his mom a new stove to replace her constantly faltering old one) and eventually just gets sucked into it for the pleasure of the lifestyle.
He gets in good with the boss, Jackie (Danny Abeckaser), and flirts with Jackie’s girl Rachel (Ari Graynor), but Sam’s quick transition from structure and devotion to lawbreaking and partying begins to take a toll on him.
“Holy Rollers” mostly stays on the surface level, and though the unfocused and lilting photography do well to communicate the haze Sam finds himself in, the film fails to be very visually or emotionally striking most of the time. There’s really only one way for this story to end, and the inevitability of the conclusion makes it seem a lot more mundane than it actually is.
Grade: 2 out of 4 Stars
-Dusty
deadCenter Review: ‘Metropolis’
“Metropolis” 2010 Restoration
Directed by Fritz Lang
Easily the premier film of this year’s deadCenter Film Festival, “Metropolis” is the kind of film that just has to be seen on the big screen. Now, with 25 minutes of previously lost footage found, restored and added to the film, it takes on an even more epic quality, and finally feels like a film fully realized.
A 16mm dupe negative of this uncut version was discovered in film archives in Buenos Aires in 2008. Extensive restoration was needed for the inferior elements, but they stand up fairly well against the rest of the film despite their still quite-scratched condition. Due to these scenes existing only on the smaller 16mm format, they remain smaller to preserve the aspect ratio.
Lang’s tale of class struggle and technological disillusionment is one of the great cinematic dystopias, with a towering Modernist city brought to life using a whole host of innovative special effects, including the insanely intricate Schüfftan process. Both the operation of the city and mankind itself works like a machine in the film — lower-class workers move stiffly and rhythmically like moving parts of an assembly line, while large masses of people (the film employed nearly 40,000 extras) move in unison like some overwhelming collective mind.
Some of the restored scenes simply insert shots here and there that serve to flesh out small details, like in the bourgeoisie’s lavish eternal gardens, while others heighten the tension considerably, like an extended sequence near the end where a large group of children must be saved from rising flood waters.
Despite a saccharine ending that’s both sickly sweet and utterly naive, “Metropolis” is one of the masterpieces of cinema, and that status should only be reaffirmed by this landmark new restoration.
Grade: 4 out of 4 Stars
-Dusty
deadCenter: Oklahoma filmmaker profiles
This article ran in the Friday Weekend LOOK section of The Oklahoman. It was written by Nathan Poppe and Dusty Somers.
Bright lights and movie stars are closer than you think.
Now in its 10th year, the deadCenter Film Festival, continuing today through Sunday in downtown Oklahoma City, is playing host to some big films this year, including a new restoration of Fritz Lang’s silent classic “Metropolis,” but local filmmakers are getting a spot in the limelight as well.
Oklahoma-based films “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher” and “1 in 3” are two of the feature-length efforts from local directors that will have Oklahoma City premieres at the festival this weekend.
‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams’
Reality might be stranger than the wildest dreams of filmmakers Justin Monroe and Jack Roberts.
The duo spent roughly two years weaving together “The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher,” a rock opus filmed in Tulsa that combines the story of karaoke stars and the songs of local musicians such as Sherree Chamberlain, Mason Remel and Colourmusic. The film screens at 7 p.m. Saturday in Kerr Auditorium, 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave.
“It’s been a journey,” Monroe said. “It’s dear to our heart. … We’ve connected with Oklahoma in the making of it.”
And some of those Oklahoma connections go way back. Roberts said his father was a bailiff at the downtown Tulsa courthouse and Monroe’s father practiced law there.
And a little further back. Not only did the filmmakers’ grandfathers play Western swing music at Cain’s Ballroom, they used to gamble at Tulsa horse race tracks together.
“We thought it was a natural fit to start gambling in (making) movies,” Roberts said. “We talked about making a movie in Oklahoma. (We) just needed the right script.”
It took Roberts three years to finish the “Duncan” script. After Roberts left West Hollywood for Tulsa, he pleaded with Monroe to join him.
Monroe said he knew immediately he wanted to direct the film. “I went, ‘Oh crap, my whole entire life is about to change,’” Monroe said. “We jumped into (the film) full force.”
Filming began in 2008 and wrapped in February.
’1 in 3′
For many aspiring filmmakers, the day job is purely a means of funding bigger dreams, but Lagueria Davis found a way to make them work together.
Davis works for the Women’s Resource Center in Norman, and her experiences there provided the inspiration for “1 in 3,” her first feature-length film, which screens at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library, 300 Park Ave.
The title refers to the number of women affected by domestic violence — an unfortunately common experience most would rather ignore, Davis said.
“People don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “It’s kind of a taboo thing — what’s going on behind closed doors.”
The film is meant to make the subject a little less taboo by putting it out in the open and showing how many lives are directly and indirectly affected, Davis said. At the heart of the film is a shelter worker who finds herself closely related to the women she cares for — a character that’s loosely autobiographical for Davis.
“1 in 3” was shot in 10 days in Norman, Oklahoma City and Edmond. Davis, who’s written and directed several short films before, found it relatively easy to write a longer feature script, but bringing all the elements of production together presented some difficulties, she said.
Davis was able to build a cast and crew of more than 80 people, mostly through word of mouth, and she was surprised by their willingness and enthusiasm, especially considering the stigma of the subject matter, she said. That helpfulness is part of an Oklahoma filmmaking community that Davis sees as growing into something exciting.
deadCenter Review: ’8: The Mormon Proposition’
Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones were married in California before the passage of Proposition 8. Still provided.
“8: The Mormon Proposition”
Directed by Reed Cowan and Steven Greenstreet
After Barack Obama’s historic election had been confirmed, California’s Proposition 8 became the focus of the country for many on election night 2008. The ballot proposition eventually passed, effectively banning gay marriage in California and bringing a conclusion to a campaign that brought in more money than any other except the presidential election that year, with around $40 million dollars pouring in from each side.
Narrated by Dustin Lance Black, Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Milk,” “8: The Mormon Proposition” posits that Prop. 8 passed in no small part because of the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which mobilized its congregation to oppose the measure, raising millions of dollars and effectively becoming a political action committee in the process.
As an expose of the Mormon church’s shadowy involvement in gay marriage cases throughout history, the film builds a solid and fairly thorough case. Internal memos reveal church plans to covertly influence ballot initiatives — prominently, one in Hawaii — by using front organizations and having church members give individual donations. The film parades lots of internal documents through, pulling out superimposed excerpts of key phrases like it’s a “20/20″ marathon.
The source of these documents is never clearly stated, although there’s no immediate reason to doubt their authenticity, as audio recordings of Mormon leaders send a similar message about Prop. 8 in California. A letter was drafted by head Mormon officials that was to be read at all Mormon churches in California, urging members to give to the campaign. Some sources claim that “code language” in the letter communicated to Mormons that they were in danger of losing their membership if they didn’t give.
“Mormon Proposition” maintains a pretty even keel throughout, even if its loyalties are abundantly obvious, but phrases like “a decades-long holy war” and Big Brother-inspired distorted talking heads of Mormon officials push the film into conspiracy territory perhaps a bit much. The LDS Church’s opinion on gays is no secret, but the film’s implications that at least some Mormon leaders want all gay people to be dead sounds kind of like a counterpart to the absurd “gay agenda” fear-mongering that asserts that the American way of life is somehow under attack by gay people.
The film also loses focus in its final portion by attempting to delve into deaths caused by hate, whether by suicide or very disturbing shock therapy methods. These stories are heartbreaking and important, but seem tacked onto the film to get it to the feature-length mark, and consequently most of these stories are denied the time they really deserve.
“8: The Mormon Proposition” is interesting and frustrating often, and its main goal is certainly to provoke that frustration in like-minded people. Rather than turning an emotionally charged issue into a potential dialogue, the film simply revels in how ignorant the other side is. It’s not hate that’s the enemy; it’s the Mormons. (Of course hate is condemned, but for the film, there’s no separating the LDS Church and hatred.)
The film’s rallying cry to strip tax-exempt status from the LDS Church gives viewers a cause to latch onto, but those outside the choir aren’t going to be hearing any preaching from this film.
Grade: 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
“8: The Mormon Proposition” will screen again at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 13 at the IAO Gallery (811 N. Broadway Ave.)
-Dusty
deadCenter review: “Biker Fox”
“Biker Fox”
Directed by Jeremy Lamberton
As a native Tulsan, I was intrigued to see a documentary about one of my hometown’s most public figures, one I’ve nearly run over with my own car once or twice.
Biker Fox is the story of Frank DeLarzelere III, billed as “Tulsa’s misunderstood motivational bicyclist”. The 52-year-old has long been a target of public ridicule and even hatred for his flamboyant and excessive cycling around the city. It appears that Biker Fox is his attempt to express his side of the story, with much of the footage shot by DeLarzelere himself and ultimately edited by director Jeremy Lamberton. This explains the multitude of jump cuts and home movie-quality cinema, though Lamberton does an admirable job sorting through all the film to pull it all together into an interesting and hilarious testimonial.
Biker Fox’s message and demeanor are both clear out of the gate, as the opening shot of the film is a series of jump cuts of him grilling hamburgers and hot dogs before he starts shouting about the need for exercise and a healthy diet. In mere moments he exhibits a strong conviction about his message, wrapped in clumsy, impulsive behavior that ultimately seems to translate to the rest of his life, which is spent hawking car parts over the phone, befriending animals and performing tricks in front of cars with a camera strapped to his helmet.
It’s pretty tempting to just write the guy off as another nut, but, well, he kind-of is. We see footage of him feeding and kissing raccoons, grotesquely flexing a wound to his bicep, rocking out to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” while on the phone with a customer and rambling and rambling and rambling as he attempts to extol his gospel of inspiring other people to happier lives by exercise and communing with nature.
The problem is that for all he talks about this, we never actually see anybody benefitted by Biker Fox’s message. The footage is mostly of him harassing cars, ignoring traffic laws and heavily cursing as he deals with customers of his car parts business and the Tulsa police. Rushing to his defense, Biker Fox’s lawyer and former Tulsa mayor Bill LaFortune rather convincingly argues that the police have unfairly harassed the cyclist, though he hardly seems innocent in these affairs as he constantly seems to ignore the law and general rules of public decency. The film plays out as a cry for attention and less as a self-help testimonial.
Also interesting is the way Biker Fox refers to himself throughout the film. He talks about quitting his job to become “Biker Fox full-time”, and how his mother “never liked Biker Fox”. This is the film’s greatest failure, that it doesn’t truly dig into his past or procure anything truly insightful from DeLarzelere himself.
It’s all a very interesting look into his life, which itself appears to be one large cry for attention, spiced up with hilariously bizarre animations and Biker Fox’s constant rambling. It does include a few shots we could most certainly do without (there’s nudity, but thankfully–THANKFULLY–no genitalia) and some genuinely terrifying excessive behavior (including one shot of him staring, wild-eyed into the camera while shouting about coming into your room at night and kicking your ass, backed by trippy flashing light) as well as plenty more close-up shots of his spandex-covered butt than necessary.
All told, Biker Fox is of value to almost nobody who isn’t curious about the guy, which limits the audience pretty severely (the Kerr Auditorium showing held maybe 50 people during its showing last night), but for those who grew up witnessing the cyclist’s constant hot-dogging around the streets of Tulsa, it’s a funny, insightful look into the life of Tom DeLaz-eh, Biker Fox, Tulsa’s strangest and possibly most deluded resident.
Grade: 2 stars out of 4
–Carney
deadCenter: Thursday Recap
Filmmakers Reilly Smith (left) and Ryan Bellgardt discuss cameras on the roof of the Oklahoma City Museum of Arts during the deadCenter opening night party. Photo by Nathan Poppe
This article ran in the Friday, June 11 edition of The Oklahoman.
She couldn’t sit through more than a couple minutes of the movie.
Oklahoma City resident Anna Welte quietly exited the IAO Art Gallery screening room during “Down in Number 5,” a short film about the difficulties of raising children with disabilities.
It opened the 10th annual deadCenter Film Festival on Thursday.
The movie hit too close to home. Welte’s sister has Down syndrome.
“The subject matter … isn’t talked about much,” Welte said. “And it’s not unless you deal with it on a daily basis that you have an idea or a clue how much of a struggle it is.”
deadCenter publicist Rob Crissinger said he was excited to have a film festival highlighting unique stories with a purpose. He said even the comical documentary “Biker Fox,” which premiered Thursday, follows a Tulsa bike enthusiast who cares deeply about wildlife conservation.
“It gives people a chance to talk about things,” Crissinger said. “And if you don’t like schmoozing you’ve got a great film to see.”
deadCenter Review: “Ondine”
“Ondine”
Directed by Neil Jordan
At the core of Neil Jordan’s play on Irish mythology Ondine is the classic question of fantasy: ‘Do you believe it’?
Such tales work best when examining childlike faith and this film is no exception. Nine(ish)-year-old Annie (Alison Barry) absolutely glows as a purposeful, precocious fisherman’s daughter suffering renal failure, and when her two-years-sober father Syracuse (Colin Farrell) hoists a lovely young woman (Alicja Bachleda) out of the water in his fishing net, young Annie scamps off to the library to read about Irish mermaids, called ‘selkies’.
Syracuse himself is hard-pressed to explain the woman’s appearance as any way other than supernatural. He resuscitates the curvy Ondine (it’s pronounced ‘Ondeen’), as she later names herself, and gives her a safe place to stay at his mother’s house, hidden in the Scottish hills along the lake (or ‘lach’, as the characters’ thick brogue pronounce it). Annie, often humorously in her plaintive charm, continues to point out the alignment of Ondine’s behavior with that of selkie lore as her father flirts with the woman of mysterious origin.
Ondine sings a strange song that brings Syracuse luck in his fishing and she shows Annie how to swim in the film’s most tender scene, freeing her from the strictures of her wheelchair. Reality looms over the trio’s little fairy tale however as people in town begin to talk and a sinister-looking man (Emil Hostina) follows them around. A car crash and funeral (for Annie’s alcoholic step-father) later, Syracuse falls off the wagon and decides to leave Ondine where he found her, ultimately leading to the film’s final and climactic realization.
Farrell gives an admirable (if predictable) performance, appearing much more comfortable along his native Irish coast and Bachleda works as the beautiful woman from God-knows-where, though the films’ best scenes are the depicted affection between them and Annie. Barry’s character weaves humor into bleak scenes in a dialysis truck or along the sparse backdrops.
The film’s misstep is its obviousness. The blunt depiction of evil characters and Syracuse and Ondine’s relationship distracts from the film’s most important storyline, which would’ve been better told from Annie’s point of view, rather than Syracuse’s.
Nonetheless Ondine proves a powerful fairy tale-turned reality story shot in a corner of the world where the mysterious seems possible.
Grade: 3 out of 4 stars
–Carney
deadCenter Review: ‘The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9!’
Screened as part of Comedy Shorts
“The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9!”
Directed by Jake Armstrong
Beautifully and originally animated, this tale of the futility of man’s violence plops a spaceman down on a distant planet. He’s there to kill an enormous five-eyed beast, but the creature turns out to be more cuddly than ferocious.
That little fact doesn’t get in the spaceman’s way though, and he persists in his mission, resulting in a sad and poignant conclusion that reaches pretty deep into the psyche of humanity for an animated short.
Grade: 3 1/2 out of 4 Stars
-Dusty
deadCenter Review: ‘Sunny Day’
Screened as part of Comedy Shorts
“Sunny Day”
Directed by Jason Klaus
A disillusioned real estate agent has hit the big time, but remains dissatisfied with his life. He knows he should probably change, but who wants to undertake that kind of effort?
Klaus develops a pretty interesting character simply for the fact that he actually understands his own issues, but the film has trouble escaping a monotone tenor. Fantasy sequences where the character indulges in violent outbursts don’t come alive quite like they ought to. Still, as a comedy of nihilism, it’s a fairly effective piece of work.
Grade: 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
-Dusty
-Dusty
deadCenter Review: ‘The Bedazzler’
Screened as part of Comedy Shorts
“The Bedazzler”
Directed by Mark Potts
A guy receives a bedazzler from his roommate on his 21st birthday, but the gift turns out to be more than just a disappointing use of plastic when everything in their apartment starts turning up covered in beads. Who could be bedazzling everything?
Effective as both a horror film and a comedy, “The Bedazzler” is the kind of stuff that can haunt your dreams for months, or at least a daydream here and there.
Grade: 3 out of 4 Stars
-Dusty
