SXSW07–Cherry Valley/The Lather Effect/The King Of Kong/Fido

CHERRY VALLEY

A year or so ago, three film students took their gear to Cherry Valley, NY to investigate a house that they heard was haunted. Six months later, their footage was found.

Ok. Maybe not. These kids are still alive and well, but MAN did they try to remake Blair Witch.

Patrick Steward and his crew heard the claims of one of their professors at NYU that the house he lived in in Cherry Valley was haunted. They showed up, set up shop, stayed the night and….got nothing. No images. No bumps in the night. Not a sausage.

So they started asking around. No one had heard anything about this house. But THEIR houses were haunted. All of them. Every house in town seemed to have a ghost in it. They dug deeper and found out that, in the early 1800′s, the entire town was slaughtered by Indians. Could this be the source of the hauntings?

Well, we never really find out. The guys set up shop in a few different buildings around town, hang out on a haunted trail and ask a lot of people. But no real information is given to us about anything. It seems like most of the people they ask are college kids who are more for getting high than talking about slaughters. They ask a few older locals, but they have just about as much information.

Finally, on their third visit, they talk to the town historian. She has more information than anyone, but they don’t put a lot of her footage in. So we get about half the story. Then, when they “investigate” a house, they go there, set up, sit, hear something and run to another room where the noise DIDN’T come from. No night vision. No shots of where the noise was supposed to be coming from. Just shots of their scared faces (occasionally), shots of darkness and noises that could have been made in post. Awesome.

And it doesn’t help that most of the footage was reused for well over half the movie. I got sick of seeing the same paranormal expert say the same line over and over again.

There’s an awesome story here somewhere, but these guys didn’t find it. And, if they did, they certainly didn’t share it with us. But they did have some cool animatics that were a little bit creepy. Too bad they didn’t seem to do anything for the documentary.

THE LATHER EFFECT

Do you ever have the feeling that your whole life has already passed you by? That the best days are over and the rest is just the downhill slide?

That’s what Valinda (Connie Britton) felt, too. So she threw a kegger like she did back in high school. It was a complete blow out and everybody got wasted in so many different ways dressed just like they did in the 80s. The next morning it was time to face the consequences.

Of course, those consequences include cleaning up, fighting hangovers, talking about possible infidelities and, of course, more partying. It’s a much smaller crew today, but it’s still a party.

I don’t think we need a sequel to The Breakfast Club anymore. Sarah Kelly (Full Tilt Boogie) has successfully caught us up with characters that are almost as well drawn as those characters were. In fact, they may be MORE well drawn because they’re not quite as stereotyped. (Come on. I LOVE The Breakfast Club as much as the next guy, but who actually fit into those types that easily? I didn’t know anyone like any of those characters. There were people who could have been wedged in there and it was fine for a movie, but they weren’t all that realistic.)

The acting was great across the board. Britton, William Mapother, Ione Skye, Tate Donovan, Peter Facinelli, Eric Stoltz, David Herman (fuckin’ Michael Bolton from Office Space!!), Sarah Clarke and Caitlin Keats were all awesome and it’s hard to imagine anyone else taking their roles. (It’s pretty awesome that Kelly was able to get all of those 80s near-icons, too. And William is SO much better than his better known cousin…watch for all the references to him, too.)

I loved this movie, actually. It was a lot of fun and hit just the right chords of nostalgia and looking to the future. And it has a great 80s soundtrack, so that’s always good.

Go see it when it comes out. Support it. Let Sarah Kelly make something else.

By the way, this was inspired by something that Sarah actually did. It sounds awesome. Maybe when I get back from my trip…

THE KING OF KONG

When I first saw this title, I thought, “Awesome! A documentary about Marion C. Cooper! I can’t wait!!” Then I found out that it was about video games. Meh. Who cares? Not so into them, so why do I want to hang out for 90 minutes with people who live, eat and breath them?

Then a buddy of mine said that it was the best movie he had seen in a long time and that I had to see it.

Ok. Fine. Whatever. I’ll see the damn thing.

I don’t know about best movie ever, but it was pretty damn good.

It’s the story of Steve Wiebe, a shy guy who shut himself in his garage with a Donkey Kong machine so that he could break the world record score, held by classic video game guru, Billy Mitchell. Steve is the ultimate nice guy. He holds no ill-will towards anyone and he might even be a bit autistic. He’s amazingly good at finding patterns and figuring out how to get around wild fireballs even if he doesn’t have a hammer.

(I didn’t know this, but Donkey Kong is considered the hardest video game ever created. It has something like 60 different screens, each one harder than the ones before it. And only a couple of people have made it to the “kill screen” in public.)

Billy Mitchell is just really good at video games. Like, all of ‘em. He holds about ten world records on different machines and doesn’t want to let any of them go. He got most of them in 1982 and they have held since then. When he finds out about Steve he is almost supportive…almost. (He’s one of the few to make it to the kill screen in public…of course.)

We don’t really find out that Billy is the “bad guy” for about half an hour. Up until then, he’s just the flashy guy with all the records who helps out Twin Galaxies, the top top video game referee/record steward company in the world. (They’re so well known that Guinness has decided that they are the ones to keep track of their video game section.)

It’s a great doc about the struggles of the common man against an empire. (And, yes, the filmmakers made a Star Wars reference in their Q&A. There’s going to be a scripted version of the story and Steve wants Mark Hammill to play him. The studio wants Johnny Depp to play Billy.) It’s also about trying to be good at something for once in your life. Steve was shut out of everything he ever tried, and now it’s his turn to be good at something. And, even if he doesn’t get the record (which I won’t tell you if he does or doesn’t), he’s succeeded.

Good for you, Steve.

FIDO

I saw the preview for this a month or so ago and knew that I had to see it. Not necessarily because it looked amazing, but because it had Billy Connolly playing a zombie. Of course, I wouldn’t get to hear him say, “Fooking brilliant!!” but I’ll survive.)

It’s about a world where zombies are controlled by a company called Zomcom. They put collars on them that keep their hunger for human flesh under control and allow them to be good servants for us humans.

Oh yeah, and it takes place in the early 60s, so everything is prim, proper and poodle skirts.

When little Timmy (K’Sun Ray) and his family (Dylan Baker and Carrie-Anne Moss) get their new zombie (Connolly), they’re a little bit afraid of him at first. But Timmy and his mom warm up to him pretty quickly. His dad, though, is not so easily converted. He’s more excited that a Zomcom agent (Henry Czerny) has moved in next door. All the better to keep the neighborhood safe, right?

I guess that depends on your definition of the word “safe.”

Fido is not your typical zombie movie. It has more heart than a lot of them. (Pun sort of intended.) We’re supposed to care about Fido and his family and, for the most part, we do. It’s not a perfect movie by any means and it’s not nearly as laugh out loud funny as I had hoped. But it’s a sweet little fun movie that deserves an audience.

And director Andrew Currie is trying to make sure that it gets one. They’re going for a PG-13 rating on this one.

Besides all of the acting being just about pitch perfect (everyone’s a bit stilted just like a good 60s sitcom family should be), but it’s a beautifully shot movie. It’s extremely bright and colorful and the darker scenes are awesome.

Before you run off and take the family to this, keep in mind that it is a zombie movie. There is violence and gore, just not as much as most zombie flicks. And did I mention that Tim Blake Nelson has a zombie girlfriend? Yeah. There’s a really sick sense of humor working on this one. And I love it.