All The Light In The Sky

No Budge, Kentucker Audley's website dedicated to giving smaller, independent films an opportunity to gain an internet signal boost that they might not otherwise gain by just self releasing on YouTube or Vimeo, recently hosted a "secret" (and limited time) screening of Joe Swanberg's new feature All The Light In The Sky. I had a chance to see the film, and I have to say, I truly feel like it is Swanberg's most accomplished film yet. I am putting it on my list of favorites of his, alongside Hannah Takes The Stairs and Nights and Weekends. 

The film stars Jane Adams as Marie, an aging actress, who is visited by her niece, Faye, played by Sophia Takal. During their visit, Marie see's the spark of youth she is missing, while Faye revels in the spoils of war that only someone who has been around long enough to achieve these things might have. Kent Osborne makes an appearance as a friend of a friend of Faye's, who ends up getting involved with Marie. Larry Fessenden also pops up in a great performance as Rusty, Marie's neighbor and surfing partner.

Moments are the key to most Swanberg films. You're not looking to get the typical Hollywood formula out of these films, and, if you are, you'll be leaving frustrated. Moments like Marie's conversation with her agent, in which she slowly gives into the idea of an extremely low budgeted film in order to just be doing something, or Faye's fear of being caught by Marie if she shows some skin to her boyfriend over Skype. There's an amazing moment with Marie and Dan (Osborne), where they're trying to figure out whether it feels right to kiss. All of these moments, and some pretty gorgeous cinematography, add up to another great piece by Swanberg. Adams perfectly encompasses that late thirties/early forties malaise of actors who have given up a traditional family structure to further their career, and the emptiness and loneliness that can breed when that career slows (which is natural for almost any working actor short of the 1% superstars).

I wish we would have had more time with Faye. It felt like her character could have been explored more and  issues could have been addressed from the perspective of a younger character, but, ultimately, this is Marie's film, and Adams commands the screen in a way that, as a viewer, you don't question that.

DVD - The Roost

Ti West is someone who I became interested in after having seen House of the Devil. That film was extremely well done, and felt like a return to what made old school horror films so great, valuing suspense and dread, over gore and shock. I recently watched his debut feature, The Roost, and, while the film about a group of young adults on their way to a wedding getting sidetracked to a farm with some malevolent evil waiting for them was not quite up to par with his later film, or his most recent film, The Innkeepers, once it got going, it got a lot better. Its major handicap was its molasses pace in the beginning. You can see that West is trying to establish that dread and suspense, but in this film, it just ends up being a little much, and you end up looking at the clock after a while. Overall, it was a decent first feature, and if you haven't seen any of his other films*, I can vouch that House and Innkeepers are considerably better.

*I haven't seen Cabin Fever 2 or Trigger Man.

DVD - The Last Winter

The Last Winter is one of those films that you have high hopes for, and they don't exactly get dashed, but they definitely aren't met in the way you were hoping for. Actor Larry Fessenden directs this eco-horror tale about a group of oil rig workers trying to set up an ice road to bring in equipment to set up in the just opened Alaska Wildlife Refuge. Some force, however, whether natural or super natural, is killing them, one by one.

The film has an interesting and poignant enough story - it's a cautionary tale about using the last of our resources in an area we don't fully understand. It's also an attempt to show how little we know about nature and its defenses. Ultimately, though, I feel like the one-sided, and almost cliche characters kind of ruin the film. I mean, it just seems like everyone is a carbon copy of another character in a different film (John Carpenter's The Thing, seems to be the  most obvious comparison). You got the guy who just wants to get the job done at any cost. You've got the one girl who will hop in bed with whoever's available. You've got the mildly spiritual guy. There's always a young buck, and a mechanic with a sarcastic sense of humor. 

The Last Winter I think COULD have been a much cooler film if Fessenden had gone against horror conventions, and really gave these characters more interesting identity's, and not steered the plot so far into the familiar. It wasn't a bad film, I just think it could have been a lot better. The fact that the ending was so vague also really upset me. You'll understand if you watch it, and, if your horror fan, I would say watch it. It's only about an hour and a half. You may love it. If your not big on horror, you probably won't like it that much.