Photo courtesy of Charlotte Film Festival Facebook page.
Over the past week, I’ve been lucky enough to have been graciously given press access to the local Charlotte Film Festival for coverage. Since Sept. 25, I have been able to see eight films, ranging from documentaries, to comedies, to horror and everything in-between. Many of the movies seen this week are available or soon to be available in limited release theatrical runs and/or video on-demand releases for you to enjoy at home. The festival took place between both the Ayrsley Grand 14 and Carolina Cinemas 12, both independently owned multiplexes in Charlotte, happy to house the festival for its audiences. More than 30 films showed at the festival, in this article, you will be able to see my thoughts on the eight films I saw. Check out their website to find out what else played this year and how to get involved next year.
“Finders Keepers”
dir. Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel
John Wood. Photo courtesy of The Orchard.
From first glance, “Finders Keepers” sounds like a gross concept for a documentary, yet, from opening night, “Finders Keepers” was the most uproarously effective film of the festival. Focusing on two men from Maiden, NC, “Finders Keepers” told the story of John Wood, a man who tragically lost his leg in an airplane crash, as well as Shannon Whisnant, the man who found Wood’s severed leg in a grill he bought from an auction. With Whisnant being an attention seeker, it was clear that Wood would not get his leg back without a fight, a fight that would include worldwide media coverage, because of course.
“Finders Keepers” is a film too outrageously eccentric to be true and yet, it was. From this outrageous story though, came quite a bit of heart, especially from Wood, a recovering drug addict who has turned his life around in the process of this documentary for the sake of his family. It’s clear that Wood was a good man who only wanted his lost foot back, trapped in a bad situation with a fame-whore hell bent on making Wood’s life as hard and as public as possible, shown even more genuinely so with Wood’s in-person Q&A after the film. “Finders Keepers” set the bar insanely high for the festival, a bar in which I don’t think was ever topped.
5/5
“Finders Keepers” is now in select theaters and on-demand.
“Manson Family Vacation”
dir. J. Davis
Photo courtesy of The Orchard
Continuing with the trend of eclectic independent cinema, we make the jump from documentaries to narrative features. Winner of Best Narrative Feature at the festival, “Manson Family Vacation” is far less morbid than it sounds. The film focuses on Nick (Jay Duplass), a successful lawyer that is forced to take his eclectic older brother, Conrad (Linas Phillips), around Los Angeles to various memorable sites where Charles Manson-related incidents occurred. This leads them on an insane road trip that could even lead them to Manson himself. Sound weird? Because it is. Produced by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, the film has the low-budget eccentricity that makes their films so memorable, with no difference here.
My biggest issue with the film came with the fact that despite having a pretty insane storyline, the actual plot to the film was pretty thin. The characters of Nick and Conrad could’ve been fleshed out a bit more, especially Conrad, that could’ve extended it past its already meager 84 minute runtime. Yet, I found myself able to discount this to a point, when a certain plot element to the film jetpacks it to insanity and makes the film unlike anything else you’ve seen this year. Perfect? No. Interesting? Yes.
3.5/5
“Manson Family Vacation” will be available in select theaters and on-demand Oct 6.
“BrocKINGton”
dir. Mason Sklut, Maggie Sloane, Sergio Ignato
Photo courtesy of Huffington Post
A locally made film, “BrocKINGton” is a short film shot by three Elon students about Blake Brockington, a famous transgender teenager from Charlotte, NC that made history by being the first transgender boy to be elected homecoming king in his high school. The documentary focused on Brockington’s life and his relationships being transgender in NC. A touching film made even more touching by acknowledging his tragic suicide earlier this year.
“The Guy with the Knife”
dir. Allison Armstrong
Photo courtesy of Guy with the Knife Productions
Going into a movie about a famous hate crime, focusing on a murdered gay man, sounds like a really dismal time at the movies and it is, yet “The Guy with the Knife” is an interesting character study about the justice system in the United States. In 1991, a group of affluent teenagers in Houston, TX stabbed a gay man to death in the streets. Once media attention swooped in on this “hate crime,” with gay activists basically putting the last nail in the coffin for perpetrator John Buice, sentencing him to 45 years. “The Guy with the Knife” follows the story 20 years later, with the same gay activist who put Buice away years ago, advocating for his release, when evidence surfaced that this might not have been a hate crime after all.
Director Allison Armstrong captures the heart of this story by following many different aspects of the story with many different corroborators involved with the crime, cutting back to the extensive interviews she had with Buice himself. Going into a film about a hate crime, much like “The Laramie Project,” I thought I would leave infuriated, enraged that someone could be so hateful. Yet, I found myself in the exact opposite state, leaving with a feeling that justice has not been served on Buice’s part. Buice, in all aspects, was just a normal teenage kid who let drunken rage get the best of him in a street fight that turned fatal. The fact that the victim happened to have been gay was only a coincidence on the prosecution’s part, putting Buice away for much longer than he deserved. Doing this, going so far against what you expect from a film such as this, was nicely refreshing.
3.5/5
“The Perfect Husband”
dir. Lucas Pavetto
Photo courtesy of Explorer Entertainment
I suppose there was going to be a clunker or two at the festival, but nothing clunked so hard as “The Perfect Husband,” a film so tragically awful, even the filmmakers behind “Fantastic Four” would’ve been cringing. The film revolves around a couple, Nicola (Bret Roberts) and Viola (Gabriella Wright), who retreat for a weekend to a remote cabin to help Viola cope with her recent stillbirth. While up there, Viola begins to sense a change in her husband’s behavior, spiking into a violent and psychotic rage against her in the woods later in the night.
I tried to give “The Perfect Husband,” the benefit of the doubt, but the film takes itself far too seriously to truly enjoy. The acting is stiff as dried concrete, the direction is directionless, the screenplay was obviously written by a non-English speaker and the film is simply is ugly to look at. I tried to find some sort of B-movie redeeming quality in “The Perfect Husband,” attempting to have fun with it, yet it’s too horrible, gross and vile to really put any real merit against it. “The Perfect Husband” was the confusing black sheep of the festival, one that still confounds and shocks me to this day.
0/5
“Good Ol’ Boy”
dir. Frank Lotito
Photo courtesy of Brittany House Pictures
Easily the most lighthearted film of the festival, “Good Ol’ Boy” was a hilarious good time about cultural differences and how we view them in American society. Centering on a young Indian-American boy in 1979, “Good Ol’ Boy” asks many questions about the assimilation of immigrant families into American culture. What “Good Ol’ Boy” does really well is tell a story of real heart through exaggeration. Sure, it seems a bit much to have our main character, Smith (Roni Akurati) dress up like John Travolta from “Saturday Night Fever” to impress the girl across the street, but what this says about Smith and his eccentric family is done far better than most blockbuster films do.
The true star of “Good Ol’ Boy” is the production design, rarely does a film capture the 70’s in such a realistic fashion. I found that by not making a complete mockery of the time period, I was much more invested in the story and the period piece it is. Of course some things are just naturally ridiculous, because even in reality, the 1970’s are occasionally insane, which “Good Ol’ Boy” captures very well too. Failing to make a mockery of the Indian family involved as well was completely refreshing and really interesting to see something authentic in an immigrant family detailed on film. “Good Ol’ Boy” had me smiling through the entire film.
4/5
“Wildlike”
dir. Frank Hall Green
Photo courtesy of Killer Films
The most genuinely heartfelt film of the festival, from name to content, “Wildlike” drew a lot of similarities to last year’s “Wild,” which is in no way a bad thing. “Wildlike” was an absolutely gorgeous film that kept me emotionally and physically engaged from start to finish. The film follows a young girl named Mackenzie (Ella Purnell), who finds herself on the run in Alaska from her abusive uncle. During this time, she comes across Rene Bartlett, called Bart (Bruce Greenwood), a widower seeking to hike in the Alaskan wilderness alone, only to be inconveniently joined by Mackenzie to avoid civilization. Despite initial reservations and differences, Bart and Mackenzie begin to bond over their hardships in life and develop a deep connection with each other that helps them greatly in the end.
Purnell and Greenwood carry this film with such an ease, that it’s hard to believe that they are not father and daughter from all of the chemistry they had together. Mixing this with the incredibly lush cinematography from Hillary Spela, “Wildlike” was a film that raised my spirits and treated my eyes to a gorgeously entertaining and deeply touching film about the will to live a good and genuine life, in a sea of hatred.
4.5/5
“Wildlike” is now available on-demand.
“Tales of Halloween”
dir. Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Andrew Kasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp, Paul Solet
Photo courtesy of Epic Pictures Group
After “Wildlike,” it only seemed right to take that heartfelt feeling I left with and assault it with schlock horror. “Tales of Halloween” is an anthology film focusing on a single suburban neighborhood on Halloween night. With witches, ghosts, goblins, demons and the devil himself, no Halloween legend is safe from this outrageously schlocky and incredibly fun horror film. 10 different stories filled the 93 minute runtime, with most being completely and utterly insane, a few stories didn’t quite live up to the craziness of the other films surrounding them, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have fun and laugh at each and every one of them.
Seeing many actors and directors that I recognize, including Neil Marshall, director of the horror masterpiece “The Descent,” it was really fun to see their imaginations run wild in this incredibly ridiculous piece of B-cinema. Not a single second of “Tales of Halloween” should be taken seriously and the usage of cheesy voiceovers, low-budget effects and cheeky humor made “Tales of Halloween” the film equivalent of walking through a Party City store, which I couldn’t have asked for more from.
4/5
“Tales of Halloween” is in select theaters and on-demand Oct 16.
“Bone Tomahawk”
dir. S. Craig Zahler
Photo courtesy of RLJ Entertainment
With “Finders Keepers,” “Bone Tomahawk” was the only other film that I knew of going into the festival, yet I still refused to watch a trailer for it. Starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins, “Bone Tomahawk” is a great step towards the return of the good western film, not that “The Lone Ranger” crap. “Bone Tomahawk” refuses to hold anything back in its execution though, following four frontiersman on a mission to save three kidnapped citizens from a group of cave-dwelling cannibals. From the start, it’s apparent that “Bone Tomahawk” has great production value, throwing in that it’s an indie film makes this feat even more impressive.
I never thought I would ever say this and I probably will never say anything like this again, but of the cast, I found Fox to have given the best performance within the sea of good performances that “Bone Tomahawk” has. Jenkins also puts forth great work as the backup deputy to Russell’s sheriff. Jenkins is incredibly sweet and likable, making him the character that you hope the best for in the horrible situation they get caught in. While “Bone Tomahawk” is a western, the film is incredibly brutal, with a kill scene that puts everything Eli Roth did in “The Green Inferno” to shame. “Bone Tomahawk” cares little about the comfort level of the audience, favoring to tell an authentic story, however gruesome it might be. It works in the long run, “Bone Tomahawk” has yet to leave my thoughts.
4/5
“Bone Tomahawk” will be available in select theaters and on-demand Oct 23.
As the Charlotte Film Festival came to a close on Oct. 3, I felt a strange feeling of sadness and exhaustion. On one hand, I was glad that my schedule was opening up to have more time to myself after spending so much time at the festival. Yet, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to spend my time this past week, surrounded by people who share a love for film just as much as I do. To share the experience of film with others who don’t simply identify as casual moviegoers, that isn’t limited to a single press row at a studio screening, that was a priceless experience. One that I’ll be back time and again for, as you should, too.