The worst movie of 2013 (Go see it immediately so I know I'm not completely off my rocker)

Last night I had the opportunity to see a feature film that will probably never see the light of distribution to the masses. This was held at mount super fabulous as part of the honors society monthly screening series. Which is a major privilege to be able to see movies that are done by your peers so of course everyone is emotionally attached to the movie and have difficulty seeing it for what it is or IMHO thee worst movie I've seen all year.

                                                   Here is the teaser trailer:

Even the teaser trailer to me is a major clue that this might not be the most awesome of movies because of it's 'artistic' take. I also want to mention for the sake of my peers that for a movie on this level for those of just starting out the best shorts or movies I've seen from my own peer group are genre specific movies being either Comedy, Horror, and even Science-Fiction.

At this level it really seems that most of my peers want to do those dramatic, message, artsy fartsy movies, and these elements are this movie's religion and I am so not a fan of religion.

Of course, everyone seemed to love it and that's always been my issue here in the land with the big fancy sign is that everyone is so emotionally connected to the filmmaking process, with the filmmakers in attendance that everyone is blind to the fact that they have just seen rubbish.

But before I get to my review here is a more favorable review after I posted this as my status update on the bookface immediately after I spend 90 minutes watching something that felt like 3 hours:

Wednesday, December 4, 9:30 p.m.

at the risk of sounding uncool 
(with the exception of 1 stellar moment) 
that may have been thee worst movie ive seen all year 
maybe the a and que will make it just a tad better 
but totally doubtful, 
blah :P
 blahness blah :P

— feeling like i need another viewing of captain phillips in my life.

In the sake of fairness here is a favorable review:

"there were no explosions, gunshots, car chase scenes, aliens, cowboys, or typical hollywood movie plots. in my humble opinion, its one of the best non-studio movies (and even better than a lot of those) that Ive screened. I think it will be a contender at any of the major film festivals."

Here is my unedited rant and reply from last night while it was still fresh in my mind:

i was really wishing the screenplay would have had some sort of growth and enlightenment for our hero and there was just no arc for the main character in this, very flat, the characters were not very likeable and ended up in their situation due to their own choices and without learning or growth they're doomed to just repeat this cycle so by the time we got to the end the character was basically in the same place mentally she was at in the beginning.

Perhaps that's why there was just crying for the end credits??? Maybe she was releasing all that past horribleness which is great or maybe she's just feeling sorry for herself which is not so great, or she's crying for the sake of the horribleness of 'rape culture' which is good.

They also went into this very long romance angle which is a VERY typical movie plot and that boy meets girl and a day later they're a thang which i can't stand and for the main character who was not mentally capable of being in a relationship with this sort of 'you complete me' philosophy of being in a relationship and i really needed some sort of breakthrough moment and in this movie it's just not there. And I was peeved at the lead actor who was not intelligent enough to know that this is a girl that the last thing she needs is a guy to complete her and she needs to free herself of her own pain and suffering like Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta.

Maybe I fell asleep when she figured out what happened to her at the party cause I still can't figure out how she figured it out, although this lead to a phenomenal scene that ended way too soon??? If there was a moment to go really graphic and into really dark territory that was it. A major wasted opportunity there.

And the fact that they never really explored her mental motivations or got to her core being of who she was. I just couldn't make any sort of emotional connection to her at all.

I never thought I would type this but it was too graphic for no emotional pay off for the audience so it felt exploitive and was just too much. Which is saying something for someone who absolutely loved Truth or Dare but with that it actually had a message that addressed the graphic-ness and was the point of the whole movie in that it actually had a strong message about the culture we live in.

Yes rape is evil but through the evilness a light can shine through and with this no light is going to be shining through for many many many years with that character without major therapy and doomed to repeat a cycle with every guy she will ever meet.

But at least she didn't find the republican jesus, perhaps in another 20 years she will go that road and ignore the foundational causes completely which would be inline with that character.

Also, for a movie that really wants to shed a light on 'rape culture' they'll never be able to release this movie to the public without clearing the music and the products so it was surprising that they used popular music in it and showed brand named items if they hope to get a distribution deal.

For the lead actress to give so much of herself to the role the least they could have done was to make sure that they would have a movie to put out without copyright issues.

And as a filmmaker I found that to be highly offensive.

Ode to Roger Rodus

Anytime a celebrity is unexpectedly

taken from us there is always

someone somewhere in the social

media universe who will say

something about why we never pay

attention to those that are not

celebrities? As if this somehow

makes us  less caring and that our

priorities are skewed and need to be

evaluated ?

The disturbing thing for me is not so much this take on celebrity, and finding it difficult to find anything on Google on who the other person was, but my point here is something else and something a bit more psychological in our psyche and how we view celebrity.

I may be naive in my thinking with this but as a collective human race I don't believe that we don't care to a degree that suggests we don't care for those who have passed on because they weren't celebrities.

People who's profile is elevated to celebrity status in this day and age are gonna get reported on and death is a fact of life. The fact that when a celebrity gets taken from us and all of social media blows up about it is because those that have entertained us while making us escape from all the bullshit going on in our lives has on some level effected us on an emotional level. Especially when it's so unexpected.

Yes, we feel something when someone has entertained us and Mr. Walker entertained A LOT of people. It doesn't mean that we care any less for the soldiers who gave their lives for this country or the countless people who die every day who go too young, or unjustly, but people identify with a celebrity and how they felt when that celebrity can take them on a ride and entertain them. Especially in this case and a Filmography that goes back almost 20 years. 

It's like the screening I was at for 'Lone Survivor' the other night and the director was there for the Q and A and being asked if he intentionally avoided having those cliche movie moments in his movie and his response was he intentionally put some in there.

It may be cliche for the viewing audience but it certainly wasn't for the family of that fallen soldier who for a moment of cinematic screen time got to say goodbye to their loved one.

I'm sure that Mr. Rodus did not want to have his legacy be that he was 'the driver' and probably wouldn't want the entire world knowing that his life would be defined in a lapse of judgement. But so it is.

Celebrity is a strange fish and is an incredibly powerful medium and every time this happens it reminds me that I'm in a business that can really effect people on a mass scale. I have no intention of being famous but I certainly don't feel I have chosen to work within an industry that is a waste of a life.

Art Holmes' Hollywood Entrepreneur's Promoting and Networking Collective

I started a Facebook Group:

The Hollywood Entrepreneur's 

Promoting and Networking Collective

This is actually my second Facebook Group. I started one about four years ago called:

Mormon Black Sheeps
https://www.facebook.com/groups/67926006868/permalink/10150652283516869/

March 9th, 2009 3:00 a.m. insomnia 

but I was so black sheep that no one could relate to it. I think I managed to get up to like 10 people at one time but as I looked back on the other day I was the only member on it.

And for the most part anyone who ever left a comment deleted me or deleted their profile as I had made a point to friend request other 'black sheeps.'

It's interesting re-reading the description of the group that I can feel a lot of anger from it and my plight in the world at that time. And yet that anger seems to be very justified.

But enough of the past and let's focus on the glorious present.

This week has been a week of much learning and coming to the realization that there are two head spaces that you will find people are coming from in the land with the big fancy sign.

One coming from ego and that what can you do for me mentality and the other coming more from making other people look good makes you look good. My philosophy very much comes from this other perspective and I feel to be much more spiritually rewarding. I'll be writing about these two headspaces in greater detail in a future blog post.

I don't want to make this a closed group to just feature people that work in the industry here as there is a very good filmmaking scene in other places and people to know in those lands.

As for my motivation in creating this group is to really have a promotional and networking platform for not only us starting out here but for those consummate professionals who value finding people with similiar headspaces to their own.

I've heard many a times from my insructors at Mount Super Fabulous that most people in the industry will work with someone who doesn't know anything but has the right attitude and professionalism to learn and have the humility to do whatever it takes to get there than someone who 'knows it all' but is a pain in the ass to work with.

But more on this in another post, for now here is

the link to my new Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/theartholmescollective/

If you feel like this a group you

can identify with, and would like to

be a part of, please feel free to send a

request to join.

Betrayed: Production Begins (Art Holmes first co-writer Credit)

This past weekend I found myself Pee A-ing on Sandra Matrecitos short film Betrayed - A Short Film. Sandra is someone that I have known since I started at the Los Angeles Recording School way way back in August of 2011. Having wanted to be in the film program and ending up in Recording cause I'm poor so I found myself gravitating toward the film side of audio.



Also, being a vet has given me more mileage than I would

have had at this point and with Sandra being a vet as well

and both us doing work study in the vets department we

tend to bump into each other A LOT.

Now with the nature of the business being what it is and living in the future with blogs and facebook and youtube and all this new media at our disposal she had really enjoyed my writing style on the blog and pegged me to take a go of an idea she had since Film School and if I would be interested in writing a screenplay for it.

Said sure, even though I've never written a screenplay before and was able to come up with something in a more linear tangible form of her original idea. She had mentioned that she really couldn't figure out how to take her idea and turn into a screenplay form. So once my draft of it was complete she was able to take that structure and revise it to make her fit her vision.

So this weekend I was able to be on set and witness her idea coming to life. The most surreal experience being yesterday and shooting the bar sequence and hearing dialogue that you had actually written being said by actors and feeling pretty amazed by the whole process and how efficiently Sandra has been able to put this all together in the last few months.

Look for Betrayed to be making the festival circuit next year . . .

Jessica Cameron's Truth or Dare: Uncomprimising Filmmaking at it's best

This is a continuation of the previous post in that I was fortunate enough to go to the Los Angeles premiere of Jessica Cameron's directorial debut Truth or Dare. This was hosted by the RIP Horror Film Festival at Cal State Long Beach and was featured as their premiere feature film for Saturday Night. And I must say that it goes down as one of my all time favorite screenings I've ever been to.

There are certain factors that make a screening memorable. And for me a big one is having the filmmakers actually watch the movie with you. At mount super fabulous this does not happen much but it's the second time that I've found myself viewing a movie with Jessica Cameron and crew. The first being Silent Night which I covered in the previous post. Or with Tarantino's True Romance in 35mm or even just this past friday and Spike  Lee showing up for the 'Old Boy' screening but I'm saving that for a later post cause it was freakin' awesome.

Where was I?

Oh yeah,

TRUTH OR DARE!!!

First off, I can't imagine how difficult this movie must

have been to shoot cause it's bloody as hell, like damn,

and seriously twisted.

The film follows a group of friends who find themselves

to be internet sensations after posting a viral video while

playing the game Truth or Dare. They then make a

series of follow up videos thus creating a fan base and

thus also creating fan fanatics.

These first two scenes set up what will be the remainder

of the film in which a crazed fan played

amazingly by Ryan Kiser puts the group through

his own twisted game of Truth or Dare.

I don't want to give out any spoilers about what transpires here but one does have to wonder what twisted mind even came up with this stuff?? A very simple premise taken to extreme levels of uncompromising filmmaking to a degree that I really wish my peers would take with their own projects.

There are A LOT of other movies that came up for me while watching this but the main three were:

1. TROMA!!! for sure, and you can see A LOT of uncompromising elements in this and to a degree that it goes beyond just being exploitive and violence for violence sake which certainly is a theme here but that it actually makes a statement on our current culture and it's obsession with celebrity and sex and what people will do to achieve fame.

I couldn't help but be reminded of Toxie IV and 

what an amazing artistic statement the diaper mafia really is. 

Here is one of thee best making of documentaries ever:

2. Our protagonist really reminds me of Chop Top from Texas Chainsaw II in that there is a real comedic element to that character. At the screening it was awesome to hear the audience reaction to this and feeling very much like I did in that Silent Night screening. 

3. Natural Born Killers

 

This of course being in my top 3 movies of all time and being ahead of it's time and where the masses were heading in their viewing habits. I shall let the great Dennis Leary paint the picture from a scene that did not even make it into the directors cut.

 

 Jessica Cameron has managed to make a movie that for those of you lucky enough to get a viewing will not soon forget and for me sets the bar of what can be accomplished when you have the heart and passion to accomplish it.