"If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul." - Drew Barrymore. Ever since the second grade when he first saw her in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Brian Herzlinger has had a crush on ... See full summary »
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Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the ... See full summary »
Young filmmakers document their colleague's budding online friendship with a young woman and her family which leads to an unexpected series of discoveries.
Directors:
Henry Joost,
Ariel Schulman
Stars:
Yaniv Schulman,
Ariel Schulman,
Henry Joost
Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renowned dolphin trainer Ric O'Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.
Director:
Louie Psihoyos
Stars:
Richard O'Barry,
Louie Psihoyos,
Hardy Jones
Two documentary filmmakers chronicle their time in Sonagchi, Calcutta and the relationships they developed with children of prostitutes who work the city's notorious red light district.
Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.
Director:
Jonathan Caouette
Stars:
Renee Leblanc,
Jonathan Caouette,
Adolph Davis
"If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul." - Drew Barrymore. Ever since the second grade when he first saw her in E.T. The Extraterrestrial, Brian Herzlinger has had a crush on Drew Barrymore. Now, 20 years later he's decided to try to fulfill his lifelong dream by asking her for a date. There's one small problem: She's Drew Barrymore and he's, well, Brian Herzlinger, a broke 27-year-old aspiring filmmaker from New Jersey. But that doesn't stop Brian and his film school pals from doing everything they can think of to convince Barrymore to go out with him - and documenting their quest along the way. Equipped with a video camera they have to return to Circuit City in 30 days and the $1,100 Brian won on a game show (where the winning answer was, prophetically, "Drew Barrymore"), they've got one month to accomplish their mission. To succeed, they'll need to negotiate an army of publicists, agents, producers and assistants who surround the star so Brian can pop the question. My ... Written by
Andrew Hindes
The film was shot in a month because 'Brian Herlzinger' wanted to return the video camera to Circuit City under their 30-Day Return Policy to save the cost of renting a camera. As a result of the widely publicized move, Circuit City introduced a 'restocking fee' to be deducted from any future customer refunds. See more »
Quotes
Brian Herzlinger:
[to complete stranger in car, after getting off cell phone with Nancy, Drew's partner]
I just got a date with Drew Barrymore.
See more »
Even casting aside memories of the infamous summer of 2005, (during which the Internet Movie Database's Film General message board was overrun for months by the director's friends relentlessly hawking this documentary - and getting extremely unpleasant when challenged about their behaviour, trolling the board - in a monumentally misguided attempt at viral marketing that ensured everyone who encountered them waited for it to arrive on television rather than pay to see it) this film is impossible to like.
Much of that stems from the unlikable Brian Herzlinger, a man with no personality to speak of. He's a poor enough actor to betray the fact that at times he's clearly reading scripted material or improvising imaginary see-I-got-you-back phone conversations with an ex girlfriend who cheated on him. And that's not even his most pathetic moment.
Every attempt is made to enliven the concept but because it simply doesn't lend itself to a feature length film these attempts are doomed to failure, even if they weren't so hopelessly amateurish and inappropriate. They frequently employ six degrees of separation graphics as if they expect the audience to care that some guy's friend is a friend of some other guy's agent who knows someone who once worked with Barrymore. This kind of information is often presented in dramatic freeze frames as if to underline how important it is.
Presumably resulting from a dearth of imagination and creativity we're left with seemingly never-ending footage of Herzlinger approaching teenage girls outside malls and telling them what the film's about. "Oh, cool" they respond unenthusiastically - and this footage made the final cut! Next we see him unsuccessfully stopping people in the street and asking them to take part in "A survey about Drew Barrymore." It continues like this until the final scene, which I won't spoil. Things get mildly interesting (and decidedly awkward) for a few minutes and then - thankfully - it's over.
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Even casting aside memories of the infamous summer of 2005, (during which the Internet Movie Database's Film General message board was overrun for months by the director's friends relentlessly hawking this documentary - and getting extremely unpleasant when challenged about their behaviour, trolling the board - in a monumentally misguided attempt at viral marketing that ensured everyone who encountered them waited for it to arrive on television rather than pay to see it) this film is impossible to like.
Much of that stems from the unlikable Brian Herzlinger, a man with no personality to speak of. He's a poor enough actor to betray the fact that at times he's clearly reading scripted material or improvising imaginary see-I-got-you-back phone conversations with an ex girlfriend who cheated on him. And that's not even his most pathetic moment.
Every attempt is made to enliven the concept but because it simply doesn't lend itself to a feature length film these attempts are doomed to failure, even if they weren't so hopelessly amateurish and inappropriate. They frequently employ six degrees of separation graphics as if they expect the audience to care that some guy's friend is a friend of some other guy's agent who knows someone who once worked with Barrymore. This kind of information is often presented in dramatic freeze frames as if to underline how important it is.
Presumably resulting from a dearth of imagination and creativity we're left with seemingly never-ending footage of Herzlinger approaching teenage girls outside malls and telling them what the film's about. "Oh, cool" they respond unenthusiastically - and this footage made the final cut! Next we see him unsuccessfully stopping people in the street and asking them to take part in "A survey about Drew Barrymore." It continues like this until the final scene, which I won't spoil. Things get mildly interesting (and decidedly awkward) for a few minutes and then - thankfully - it's over.