Welcome to “Playback,” a Variety / iHeartRadio podcast bringing you exclusive conversations with the talents behind many of today’s hottest films.
Filmmaker Aaron Katz has been making movies for 10 years in the independent space. He lived in New York for most of that time, cranking out projects like “Quiet City” and “Cold Weather” before the award-winning “Land Ho!” opened even more doors. His latest film is “Gemini,” a stylish, Hollywood-set neo-noir that, for Katz, was partly a way of wrangling with a love-hate relationship with the City of Angels.
Listen to this week’s episode of “Playback” below. New episodes air every Thursday.
Click here for more episodes of “Playback.”
“One of the reasons to make this movie is to confront my conflicted feelings about it and sort of live in the tradition of movies and books that both celebrate and have a lot of trepidation about Hollywood,” he says.
Filmmaker Aaron Katz has been making movies for 10 years in the independent space. He lived in New York for most of that time, cranking out projects like “Quiet City” and “Cold Weather” before the award-winning “Land Ho!” opened even more doors. His latest film is “Gemini,” a stylish, Hollywood-set neo-noir that, for Katz, was partly a way of wrangling with a love-hate relationship with the City of Angels.
Listen to this week’s episode of “Playback” below. New episodes air every Thursday.
Click here for more episodes of “Playback.”
“One of the reasons to make this movie is to confront my conflicted feelings about it and sort of live in the tradition of movies and books that both celebrate and have a lot of trepidation about Hollywood,” he says.
- 4/19/2018
- by Kristopher Tapley
- Variety Film + TV
The idea that Los Angeles is a city of angels run by devils – that this is where people go to make their dreams come true and where dreams go to die – is, by this point, a completely overplayed cliché. (One based in truth, some might argue, but still.) But the notion that Hollywood, as both a place and a concept, remains a great place to stage a murder mystery? There's still fertile ground to be tilled on the corner of Fountain and Fairfax. Exhibit A: Gemini, a chilled exercise in...
- 3/31/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Last fall, Barry Jenkins was a little-known filmmaker with one feature under his belt, 2008’s “Medicine for Melancholy.” Then he premiered future best picture winner “Moonlight” at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival and everything changed. At the 2017 edition, he returned the favor, not only introducing a series of short film programs at the festival as he has for years, but also by presenting another rising filmmaker to the world.
Read More:‘Lady Bird’ Trailer: Saoirse Ronan Delivers Her Greatest Work in Greta Gerwig’s Brilliant Directorial Debut
Just a few hours after receiving a standing ovation for one of his short film programs, Jenkins took the stage at the Chuck Jones Cinema for the world premiere of “Lady Bird,” the coming-of-age comedy that marks the solo directorial debut of veteran actress Greta Gerwig. There was a practical connection between “Lady Bird” and “Moonlight,” in that both movies share A24 as a distributor.
Read More:‘Lady Bird’ Trailer: Saoirse Ronan Delivers Her Greatest Work in Greta Gerwig’s Brilliant Directorial Debut
Just a few hours after receiving a standing ovation for one of his short film programs, Jenkins took the stage at the Chuck Jones Cinema for the world premiere of “Lady Bird,” the coming-of-age comedy that marks the solo directorial debut of veteran actress Greta Gerwig. There was a practical connection between “Lady Bird” and “Moonlight,” in that both movies share A24 as a distributor.
- 9/5/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
A satisfying mystery usually involves more engagement from various puzzle pieces than the way they fit together, and Aaron Katz’s playful L.A. neo-noir “Gemini” falls right into that tradition. It pits the elements of a scrappy whodunit against the backdrop of film industry satire, keeps us guessing the whole way through, and arrives at a solution that’s beside the point. Revisiting the genre innovations of his 2010 feature “Cold Weather,” Katz delivers another minimalist addition to the canon of shaggy dog detective stories stretching back to “The Long Goodbye,” filtered through his own indelible poetic gaze.
At first glance, Katz’s movies are slight character studies with little to offer beyond endearing situational humor and a complimentary atmosphere. His first two features, “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City,” were delicate mood pieces in which plot took a backseat to a handful of emotionally-charged exchanges. With “Cold Weather,” Katz...
At first glance, Katz’s movies are slight character studies with little to offer beyond endearing situational humor and a complimentary atmosphere. His first two features, “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City,” were delicate mood pieces in which plot took a backseat to a handful of emotionally-charged exchanges. With “Cold Weather,” Katz...
- 3/13/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Over the past decade, South By Southwest has become 10 days of hand-to-hand combat between media and technology. Nestled within that war zone is a film festival — this year, 125 features screen at the SXSW Film Festival, including 51 from first-timers. Most come to town without distribution, and they may never see a bigger audience than this one.
The film festival is a solid platform for discovering new filmmakers; if you want to explore the connective tissue of contemporary American cinema, few other places offer such a fertile arena. Unlike industry heavyhitter Sundance, it’s not a fast-paced marketplace — but the SXSW conference is still one of the biggest windows into the future of the movies because so much of it has nothing to do with the movies at all.
This year, SXSW Film’s marquee titles duke it out with the TV shows in the Episodics section. (Among its premieres are two...
The film festival is a solid platform for discovering new filmmakers; if you want to explore the connective tissue of contemporary American cinema, few other places offer such a fertile arena. Unlike industry heavyhitter Sundance, it’s not a fast-paced marketplace — but the SXSW conference is still one of the biggest windows into the future of the movies because so much of it has nothing to do with the movies at all.
This year, SXSW Film’s marquee titles duke it out with the TV shows in the Episodics section. (Among its premieres are two...
- 3/10/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Earl Lynn Nelson: The audience wonder why our heads are down in the water - we kept our heads down in the water because we were freezing our rear ends off. Odd couple comedy Land Ho! marks the first collaboration between Quiet City director Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens (Pilgrim Song). It's an offbeat charmer that stars Stephens regular Earl Lynn Nelson and Aussie actor Paul Eenhoorn as two old friends who go on an adventure to Iceland. Nelson's good ol' boy Mitch has a foul-mouthed Kentucky wit that bounces off the drier humour offered up by Eenhoorn's character Colin. The film is less about big revelations than the finer points of friendship and it celebrates the liberation that can come with growing old. Nelson, who is a plastic surgeon by trade, has a long-standing relationship with Stephens - her mum is his first cousin - and in the...
- 10/12/2014
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Filmmakers Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens, who have teamed up for Land Ho!, have individually premiered all of their previous features at SXSW Film Festival. They're each known for films where characters are deep in exploration -- about themselves but also perhaps, a mystery (Cold Weather, Passenger Pigeons) or even a landscape (Brooklyn in Quiet City, Kentucky in Pilgrim Song). In Land Ho! (which premiered at Sundance this year), the same type of exploration takes place -- this time in Iceland -- with two primary characters who are gentlemen in their retirement years. It's a change for Katz, whose characters are usually in their late teens/early twenties.
No matter what the age of the characters, however, Stephens and Katz sustain the audience's interest in the type of story that sounds terribly slow and dull when explained in print, but is very rewarding as it unfolds onscreen. Two retired brothers-in-law,...
No matter what the age of the characters, however, Stephens and Katz sustain the audience's interest in the type of story that sounds terribly slow and dull when explained in print, but is very rewarding as it unfolds onscreen. Two retired brothers-in-law,...
- 9/14/2014
- by Jette Kernion
- Slackerwood
The wonderfully freewheeling, peripatetic road movie Land Ho!, spanning the vast, rich Icelandic landscape, marks the first collaboration between two talented independent filmmakers: Martha Stephens (Passenger Pigeons, Pilgrim Song) and Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City, Cold Weather). Together, they have created a beautiful and quietly charming film, one not afraid of being small, in the sense of letting the naturalistic performances and atmosphere impress themselves on the audience, and not shoehorning in false melodrama or forced comedy. And although the buddy comedy road trip movie is a genre that is thoroughly well-worn at this point, Land Ho! is blissfully free of cliché and hackneyed retreads. Set to be released this summer, the film will serve as perfect counter-programming to whatever superhero movie is...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 7/10/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Land Ho!, co-written and co-directed by Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens, is an odd-couple two-hander like Katz’s previous Cold Weather and Quiet City, and a progressively rural odyssey like Stephens’ Pilgrim Song, accented by the hues of regional color familiar from both directors’ palettes. But given the film’s Icelandic setting, perhaps another frame of reference is also called for. In interviews, the filmmakers frequently discuss the remoteness of the Icelandic landscape, its incongruity with the day-to-day lives of their characters, and, above all, its mysterious and “otherworldly” beauty. In Iceland, where I currently live, this view is not necessarily reflective […]...
- 7/10/2014
- by Mark Asch
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Land Ho!, co-written and co-directed by Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens, is an odd-couple two-hander like Katz’s previous Cold Weather and Quiet City, and a progressively rural odyssey like Stephens’ Pilgrim Song, accented by the hues of regional color familiar from both directors’ palettes. But given the film’s Icelandic setting, perhaps another frame of reference is also called for. In interviews, the filmmakers frequently discuss the remoteness of the Icelandic landscape, its incongruity with the day-to-day lives of their characters, and, above all, its mysterious and “otherworldly” beauty. In Iceland, where I currently live, this view is not necessarily reflective […]...
- 7/10/2014
- by Mark Asch
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
The wonderfully freewheeling, peripatetic road movie Land Ho!, spanning the vast, rich Icelandic landscape, marks the first collaboration between two talented independent filmmakers: Martha Stephens (Passenger Pigeons, Pilgrim Song) and Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City, Cold Weather). Together, they have created a beautiful and quietly charming film, one not afraid of being small, in the sense of letting the naturalistic performances and atmosphere impress themselves on the audience, and not shoehorning in false melodrama or forced comedy. And although the buddy comedy road trip movie is a genre that is thoroughly well-worn at this point, Land Ho! is blissfully free of cliché and hackneyed retreads. Set to be released this summer, the film will serve as perfect counter-programming to whatever superhero movie is coming...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/25/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Aaron Katz, who co-wrote and co-directed the road trip comedy Land Ho! with Martha Stephens that premiered at Sundance this year, has inked with CAA. Sony Pictures Classics picked up the pic, which follows a pair of retirees who set off to Iceland in an attempt to reclaim their youth through Reykjavik nightclubs, trendy spas, and rugged campsites. A release this year is planned. Katz, formerly with UTA, made his feature debut with Dance Party USA, which premiered at the 2006 SXSW. His sophomore feature, Quiet City, earned a Spirit Award nomination in 2007, and IFC Films released his third film 2010′s Cold Weather.
- 3/1/2014
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Here's the latest Austin and Texas film news.
Austin-based indie electronica band The Octopus Project won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score at this year's Sundance Film Festival for their work on fellow Austinites David and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Debbie's review). This true-to-life drama follows a lonely Japanese woman who travels to America in search of the treasure mentioned in the movie Fargo.The Zellner Brothers discussed their inspiration for Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, which debuted at Sundance, with The Wall Street Journal. Austinite Todd Rohal's Rat Pack Rat (Debbie's dispatch), about a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator who's hired to visit a Rat Pack fan, won Sundance's Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision. Austin filmmaker Clay Liford (Wuss) produced. In more Sundance Film Festival news, Austin-based filmmaker David Gordon Green continues to express his appreciation for Iceland (Prince Avalanche...
Austin-based indie electronica band The Octopus Project won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Musical Score at this year's Sundance Film Festival for their work on fellow Austinites David and Nathan Zellner's Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Debbie's review). This true-to-life drama follows a lonely Japanese woman who travels to America in search of the treasure mentioned in the movie Fargo.The Zellner Brothers discussed their inspiration for Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, which debuted at Sundance, with The Wall Street Journal. Austinite Todd Rohal's Rat Pack Rat (Debbie's dispatch), about a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator who's hired to visit a Rat Pack fan, won Sundance's Short Film Special Jury Award for Unique Vision. Austin filmmaker Clay Liford (Wuss) produced. In more Sundance Film Festival news, Austin-based filmmaker David Gordon Green continues to express his appreciation for Iceland (Prince Avalanche...
- 1/27/2014
- by Jordan Gass-Poore'
- Slackerwood
Indie road trip comedies are perhaps the worst cliché of low budget American filmmaking, but "Land Ho!," the story of two aging men on a meandering vacation in Iceland, provides a notable exception. This unassuming, elegantly shot collaboration by directors Aaron Katz ("Cold Weather," "Quiet City") and Martha Stephens ("Pilgrim Song," "Passenger Pigeons") actively avoids any melodramatic confrontations or cheesy subplots. A gentle meditation on growing old and bored, "Land Ho!" never rises to the level of narrative engagement found in the filmmakers' previous efforts, but it doesn't take much to make it sufficiently insightful, carried along by a pair of actors so inherently likable from the outset that "Land Ho!" hardly requires a lot of story to set their adventure in motion. Essentially a two-hander from start to finish, "Land Ho!" opens with the soft spoken Colin (Paul Eenhoorn, star of last year's sleeper hit "This Is Martin Bonner...
- 1/19/2014
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Two ex-brothers-in-law (This Is Martin Bonner’s Paul Eenhoorn and Eastbound & Down’s Earl Lynn Nelson) set off on an Iceland vacation to reclaim their youth; dipping their toes in the Reykjavik nightclub scene, visiting trendy spas, dining at daring restaurants and communing at rugged campsites. What starts as a raucous adventure becomes a journey of self-discovery. Land Ho! is the latest producing project from lyrical indie-film favorite David Gordon Green, directed by Martha Stephens (Pilgrim Song, Passenger Pigeons) and Aaron Katz (Cold Weather, Quiet City). The endearing tale is part 1980s raucous road comedy, part sensitive and charming portrait of aging à la an edgier Strangers in Good Company for men. Interestingly enough, Nelson, who...
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- 1/13/2014
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
For his micro-budget debut feature Redlegs, which resides comfortably alongside work by Aaron Katz (Quiet City) or Bradley Rust Gray (The Exploding Girl) both tonally and dramatically, Filmmaker magazine contributing editor Brandon Harris (with whom I share this column) returned to his hometown of Cincinnati with three actors and a tiny crew hoping to dramatize the moment when childhood camaraderie dissolves in the face of adult realities and overdue reckonings. Very loosely modeled after John Cassavetes’ Husbands, the film trails three young men — brooding ex-actor Marco (Nathan Ramos), sensitive Willie (Evan Louison), and aggressively obnoxious parking-lot owner Aaron (Andrew Katz) — over the course of a long, aimless weekend as they bitch, argue, get high, and wander through town. Having been reunited after the murder of Ricky, a close friend whose absence overshadows their low-key collegial misadventures, the argumentative trio cope by revisiting some of their old stomping grounds and try,...
- 5/23/2012
- by Damon Smith
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Chicago – Some films never get a fair shot with audiences. They open in a handful of art house theaters scattered throughout the country before inconspicuously landing on DVD. Passionate movie lovers are left with the task of championing these unjustly obscure titles and helping them to acquire the audience they deserve.
Before I reveal my picks for the top ten Best Overlooked Films of 2011, here are the ten runners-up:
“Autoerotic”
Autoerotic
While Steve McQueen’s magnificent art film, “Shame,” plunges into the dark depths of sexual addiction, Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s “Autoerotic” takes a decidedly more playful approach to similar material. Though Swanberg has made a series of uncommonly intimate films about the sex lives of twentysomething Chicagoans, he’s never attempted a film as overtly comic as this one, and Wingard proves to be an ideal collaborator. “Autoerotic” is easily Swanberg’s most accessible film to date,...
Before I reveal my picks for the top ten Best Overlooked Films of 2011, here are the ten runners-up:
“Autoerotic”
Autoerotic
While Steve McQueen’s magnificent art film, “Shame,” plunges into the dark depths of sexual addiction, Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s “Autoerotic” takes a decidedly more playful approach to similar material. Though Swanberg has made a series of uncommonly intimate films about the sex lives of twentysomething Chicagoans, he’s never attempted a film as overtly comic as this one, and Wingard proves to be an ideal collaborator. “Autoerotic” is easily Swanberg’s most accessible film to date,...
- 12/28/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Countdown to Top Ten 2K11 is a column with one simple goal: to help you decide what films you need to see before making your end of the year top ten list. Each installment features my thoughts on a critically acclaimed 2011 movie, a sampling of other critics' reactions, the odds of the film making my own list, and the reasons why it might make yours.
This time we're covering "Cold Weather," which has been suggested by more readers for inclusion in this column than any other film released in 2011. Are my readers brilliant cinephiles or nutjobs who have no idea what they're talking about? Let's find out.
Movie: "Cold Weather"
Director: Aaron Katz
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%
Plot Synopsis: A college dropout and Sherlock Holmes fan finds himself at the center of a mystery in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
What the Critics Said: "Gorgeous, lyrical, leisurely," Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies...
This time we're covering "Cold Weather," which has been suggested by more readers for inclusion in this column than any other film released in 2011. Are my readers brilliant cinephiles or nutjobs who have no idea what they're talking about? Let's find out.
Movie: "Cold Weather"
Director: Aaron Katz
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%
Plot Synopsis: A college dropout and Sherlock Holmes fan finds himself at the center of a mystery in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
What the Critics Said: "Gorgeous, lyrical, leisurely," Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies...
- 11/14/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
The mumblecore movement has always lent itself well to low-stakes cinema, comedies and dramas in which character and player are key, and incident rarely spills out into more than a few rooms. Cold Weather, the third film from SXSW darling Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City), while still evidently constrained by budget and circumstance, challenges this method, supplanting the expected with a compelling, if somewhat uneasy, neo-noir plot, borrowing lovingly from Sherlock Holmes lore with just a splash of 80s-era David Lynch.
Cold Weather will in style and tone be compared almost instantly to Rian Johnson’s sensational 2005 indie noir Brick, and though the two films share a certain sensibility, Katz’s work carves out its own unique identity, even if it is at the cost of some dramatic weight. A lengthy half-hour opening introduces us to Doug (Cris Lankenau), a forensic science student who...
The mumblecore movement has always lent itself well to low-stakes cinema, comedies and dramas in which character and player are key, and incident rarely spills out into more than a few rooms. Cold Weather, the third film from SXSW darling Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City), while still evidently constrained by budget and circumstance, challenges this method, supplanting the expected with a compelling, if somewhat uneasy, neo-noir plot, borrowing lovingly from Sherlock Holmes lore with just a splash of 80s-era David Lynch.
Cold Weather will in style and tone be compared almost instantly to Rian Johnson’s sensational 2005 indie noir Brick, and though the two films share a certain sensibility, Katz’s work carves out its own unique identity, even if it is at the cost of some dramatic weight. A lengthy half-hour opening introduces us to Doug (Cris Lankenau), a forensic science student who...
- 4/16/2011
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
The world premiere of Andrew Haigh's Weekend made for a somewhat intimate Friday evening, and appropriately so. While another premiere, Source Code's, drew the bulk of the SXSW crowds, Haigh's second feature as a director (his years serving as assistant editor for the likes of Black Hawk Down, Shanghai Knights and Mona Lisa Smile — but also Mister Lonely — are behind him) played like a gay British Quiet City before an audience of, oh, maybe 20 or 25 people, some of whom, like me, were there on little more than a hunch. The gamble paid off. Weekend is one of the best films to screen at this year's festival so far.
- 3/14/2011
- MUBI
Welcome to the first edition of my new weekly column, where I'll try to shed some light on some lesser-known alternatives to the big movies that are opening in theaters today. Each Friday I'll pick three movies that are available in a variety of outlets that should offer options for movie lovers working under any budget.
I love a trip to the multiplex just as much as the next person, but let's face it, there are plenty of weekends throughout the year when the only new options are (for example) The Roommate and Sanctum -- especially if you've already seen all the Oscar contenders and a Cedar Rapids isn't playing in your area yet. So here are my picks for this weekend:
Cold Weather I first saw Cold Weather in October, where it was my favorite of the dozen or so films I saw at the Chicago International Film Festival.
I love a trip to the multiplex just as much as the next person, but let's face it, there are plenty of weekends throughout the year when the only new options are (for example) The Roommate and Sanctum -- especially if you've already seen all the Oscar contenders and a Cedar Rapids isn't playing in your area yet. So here are my picks for this weekend:
Cold Weather I first saw Cold Weather in October, where it was my favorite of the dozen or so films I saw at the Chicago International Film Festival.
- 2/11/2011
- by Kevin Blumeyer
- Rope of Silicon
- Actress Trieste Kelly Dunn interviews her Cold Weather director Aaron Katz -
Director Aaron Katz's third film Cold Weather focuses on Doug and Gail, a brother and sister duo leading ordinary lives in Portland. Then, Doug's ex-girlfriend goes missing, and mystery ensues. Doug is played by Cris Lankenau and Gail is played by Trieste Kelly Dunn...who happens to be me. I had the chance to catch up online with Aaron to talk about the film, directing actors, and craft service.
By Trieste Kelly Dunn
Aaron. How's living in Pittsburgh?
Great. I really love the city. How's everything in Los Angeles?
It's sunshine and roses every day. Are you excited about the premiere of Cold Weather? A film people are calling "the best film of 2011."
I'm excited. I'm really looking forward to a lot of friends, family, and hopefully strangers coming out to see it.
Yeah, me too.
- 2/10/2011
- by maint
- Film Independent
Weekend Box Office: February 4th through the 6th IFC released Cold Weather in one NYC location but saw a promising $14,513 return this Super Bowl weekend. “Weather” is a pickup from last year’s SXSW Film Festival and centers around a former forensic scientist who returns home to Portland to find an ex-girlfriend missing. Writer/director Aaron Katz is no stranger to Independent filmmaking and was nominated at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards for his film “Quiet City.” The only other debut of note was another IFC release, The Other Woman. “Woman” stars Natalie Portman as a stepmother struggling to connect with her stepson. The film was released a month ago on VOD and has seen some success due to Portman’s recent award season buzz. It failed, however, this weekend to take hold in its theatrical debut with a $3,112 average in two locations. U.S Indie:In its fourth week, “Barney’s...
- 2/8/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
"There's no palm trees in Portland." It was this simple observation that changed the course of Aaron Katz's third feature from being a family drama into a thriller and may well change the course of his career. Not that any change is necessary on Katz's part, but "Cold Weather" represents the film that could push the conversation about the writer/director beyond the cineastes who bring up his name to impress in conversation like a well-kept secret, knowing full well that loaning the DVD double feature of his first two films "Dance Party USA" and "Quiet City" is akin to turning a friend onto some really good drugs. Whereas the director's last films indeed felt like trips - beautifully composed and immaculately realized dramas that captured the exuberance of youth - his latest, which sees Doug and Gail, a brother and sister (Cris Lankenau and Trieste Kelly Dunn) try...
- 2/5/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? También la lluvia (Even The Rain) Trailer Director, and native Spaniard, Icíar Bollaín certainly has picked someone unique to talk about the Bolivian Cochabamba water...
- 2/5/2011
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
Director Aaron Katz takes us behind-the-scenes of this upcoming Portland-based mystery featuring Cris Lankenau and Trieste Kelly Dunn
After dropping out of college in Chicago, Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to rainy Portland, Oregon to live with his more stable and responsible sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). Unsure of what to do next, Doug spends his days sleeping until noon and rereading old detective novels, while Gail goes about the daily routines of her quiet life. Eventually Doug manages to find a job working the night shift at an ice factory. There he meets Carlos (Raúl Castillo), a longtime employee who moonlights as a DJ. Carlos is initially skeptical of Doug. He's seen all kinds of people pass through the job. But the two become friends after Doug lends him a copy of his favorite book, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Doug has not quite settled into his new...
After dropping out of college in Chicago, Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to rainy Portland, Oregon to live with his more stable and responsible sister, Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). Unsure of what to do next, Doug spends his days sleeping until noon and rereading old detective novels, while Gail goes about the daily routines of her quiet life. Eventually Doug manages to find a job working the night shift at an ice factory. There he meets Carlos (Raúl Castillo), a longtime employee who moonlights as a DJ. Carlos is initially skeptical of Doug. He's seen all kinds of people pass through the job. But the two become friends after Doug lends him a copy of his favorite book, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Doug has not quite settled into his new...
- 2/4/2011
- by MovieWeb
- MovieWeb
Chicago – Nothing inspires moviegoers to huddle around the warm glow of their television sets quite like a record-breaking snowstorm. And few films were more tailor-made for a slow-moving snow day than “Cold Weather,” the entrancing new picture from indie filmmaker Aaron Katz, best known for his breakout projects “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City.”
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is the sort of film that Video On Demand was made for. It doesn’t require a big screen or surround sound to fully envelop the audience into its story. Katz’s longtime collaborators, cinematographer Andrew Reed and composer Keegan DeWitt, impeccably set the mood and tone for an overcast Oregon-set noir from the very first frame. The best way to approach this small yet potent gem is to go in cold.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Cold Weather” in our reviews section.
The effortlessly natural Cris Lankenau (star of “Quiet City”) plays Doug,...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is the sort of film that Video On Demand was made for. It doesn’t require a big screen or surround sound to fully envelop the audience into its story. Katz’s longtime collaborators, cinematographer Andrew Reed and composer Keegan DeWitt, impeccably set the mood and tone for an overcast Oregon-set noir from the very first frame. The best way to approach this small yet potent gem is to go in cold.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Cold Weather” in our reviews section.
The effortlessly natural Cris Lankenau (star of “Quiet City”) plays Doug,...
- 2/4/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Here's a fun trailer for an interesting looking indie comedy mystery called Cold Weather. The film was written and directed by Aaron Katz, and starring Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn and Robyn Rikoon. It's being distributed by Sundance Selects. The movie is described as a "simultaneously a rich detective story and an affecting tale of siblings uniting after years apart." I'll be looking forward to watching this one.
Here's the full Synopsis for the film:
After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, a self-styled Sherlock Holmes, Doug (Cris Lankenau), returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but soon finds an opportunity to use his passion and skill in detective work when his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) goes missing. Enlisting a team of ramshackle slacker-sleuths, Doug leads his team down a...
Here's the full Synopsis for the film:
After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, a self-styled Sherlock Holmes, Doug (Cris Lankenau), returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but soon finds an opportunity to use his passion and skill in detective work when his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) goes missing. Enlisting a team of ramshackle slacker-sleuths, Doug leads his team down a...
- 2/3/2011
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Mumblecore goes mainstream, or somewhat so, in Cold Weather, writer/director/editor Aaron Katz‘s second feature film. His first, Quiet City, helped spark what’s now cautiously viewed as a micro-budget film movement, usually involving a lot of improvisation and shaky-cam cinematography.
Cold Weather is some of that and a whole lot more. Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to Portland a college drop-out in need of a job. He studied forensic science in school. So, naturally, he finds work at an ice factory, moves in with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn), makes a new friend in a co-worker named Carlos (Raúl Castillo) and meets up with his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon), who’s back in town for a few days. Then, all of a sudden, Rachel’s nowhere to be found.
Conflict! Let the mystery begin. Doug, at first apprehensive, is brought out of his latent-forensic shell via Carlos,...
Cold Weather is some of that and a whole lot more. Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to Portland a college drop-out in need of a job. He studied forensic science in school. So, naturally, he finds work at an ice factory, moves in with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn), makes a new friend in a co-worker named Carlos (Raúl Castillo) and meets up with his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon), who’s back in town for a few days. Then, all of a sudden, Rachel’s nowhere to be found.
Conflict! Let the mystery begin. Doug, at first apprehensive, is brought out of his latent-forensic shell via Carlos,...
- 2/3/2011
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Reviewed by Bob Hill
(February 2011)
Directed/Written by: Aaron Katz
Starring: Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn and Raúl Castillo
“Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Sorry if that seems a bit abrasive. But the reality is, in a case like this, it’d be a disservice to our readership to spend the bulk of this review pussyfooting around the obvious. At least this way, you know this critique is on the level, and — if nothing else — the next several paragraphs can be spent defending that position.
And that position (for any of you who might’ve missed it the first time around) is this: “Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Let’s start with the big-picture stuff: The entire film feels like it’s suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia. It wants to be taken seriously, despite the utter absurdity of several major plot points. It wants to be funny,...
(February 2011)
Directed/Written by: Aaron Katz
Starring: Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn and Raúl Castillo
“Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Sorry if that seems a bit abrasive. But the reality is, in a case like this, it’d be a disservice to our readership to spend the bulk of this review pussyfooting around the obvious. At least this way, you know this critique is on the level, and — if nothing else — the next several paragraphs can be spent defending that position.
And that position (for any of you who might’ve missed it the first time around) is this: “Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Let’s start with the big-picture stuff: The entire film feels like it’s suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia. It wants to be taken seriously, despite the utter absurdity of several major plot points. It wants to be funny,...
- 2/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Reviewed by Bob Hill
(February 2011)
Directed/Written by: Aaron Katz
Starring: Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn and Raúl Castillo
“Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Sorry if that seems a bit abrasive. But the reality is, in a case like this, it’d be a disservice to our readership to spend the bulk of this review pussyfooting around the obvious. At least this way, you know this critique is on the level, and — if nothing else — the next several paragraphs can be spent defending that position.
And that position (for any of you who might’ve missed it the first time around) is this: “Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Let’s start with the big-picture stuff: The entire film feels like it’s suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia. It wants to be taken seriously, despite the utter absurdity of several major plot points. It wants to be funny,...
(February 2011)
Directed/Written by: Aaron Katz
Starring: Cris Lankenau, Trieste Kelly Dunn and Raúl Castillo
“Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Sorry if that seems a bit abrasive. But the reality is, in a case like this, it’d be a disservice to our readership to spend the bulk of this review pussyfooting around the obvious. At least this way, you know this critique is on the level, and — if nothing else — the next several paragraphs can be spent defending that position.
And that position (for any of you who might’ve missed it the first time around) is this: “Cold Weather” is not a good movie.
Let’s start with the big-picture stuff: The entire film feels like it’s suffering from a severe case of schizophrenia. It wants to be taken seriously, despite the utter absurdity of several major plot points. It wants to be funny,...
- 2/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
If you pore over writings on the loose grouping of “mumblecore” or “New Talkies” films from the past few years, writer-director Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City) is the young American indie filmmaker most often singled out for unqualified praise, regardless of the commentator’s assessment of this so-called movement as an artistic whole (or whether it constitutes a movement at all). And with good reason. A filmmaker attuned as much to the gestural nuances of his characters as he is to the expressive beauty of cityscapes and natural settings, Katz has a rigorous eye for the tiniest of details, bringing a sense of poetic concentration to his framing, lighting, and overall compositional sensibility. Moments of silence and stillness, rather than streams of maundering, ill-at-ease dialogue, are yet another point of departure for Katz, creating the dominant rhythm of his thoughtfully composed low-budget efforts, which look increasingly like the work of a confident,...
- 2/2/2011
- by Damon Smith
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Honestly, what the hell is up with genre these days? It’s a tricky thing to get a handle on, but we all have an idea of what’s happening in the independent film world: as production financing has dried up in a world where cinema is, simply put, not generating as much revenue as it used to, independent filmmakers who might be more at home making “art” flicks have decided to mix their interests with more familiar genre narratives. Catfish, which generated more intellectual-thought-content-per-minute than any other 2010 release, was sold as (and contained elements of) a Blair Witch-esque thriller, set in internet-ville. Tiny Furniture and Breaking Upwards, the two other tiny indie sensations of the year that proved dreams still can come true, thrived in a territory staked out halfway between perceptive, quiet character study and Hollywood rom-com.
Now, as we enter 2011, we get what is perhaps the most...
Now, as we enter 2011, we get what is perhaps the most...
- 2/2/2011
- by Zachary Wigon
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Plot: A slow-building detective story that focuses more on relationships than on the case at hand. Three amateur sleuths try to figure why a friend has disappeared and who has taken her suitcase. Review: Aaron Katz.s follow-up to the indie charmer Quiet City, Cold Weather stars Cris Lankenau, Trieste Dunn, and Raul Castillo, as a crew of friends that find themselves in a peculiar mystery. Although the film starts out in a similar manner to Katz.s previous works - quiet and scenic; it...
- 2/2/2011
- by Alex Keen
- JoBlo.com
Check out the movie trailer video for Sundance Selects’ indie mystery film Cold Weather.
Opening in theaters in New York City on February 4th, 2011 and Los Angeles on February 11th 2011, the film follows Doug (Cris Lankenau), a layabout ice factory worker, as he teams up with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn) on an impromptu investigation as to the whereabouts of missing ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon).
Synopsis: A self-styled Sherlock Holmes leads an unlikely team of irregulars in this charming comic mystery from indie auteur Aaron Katz. After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, aimless Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly). He easily lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but his latent passion for detective work is stoked when his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) goes missing. Armed with a handful of arcane clues and a...
Opening in theaters in New York City on February 4th, 2011 and Los Angeles on February 11th 2011, the film follows Doug (Cris Lankenau), a layabout ice factory worker, as he teams up with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn) on an impromptu investigation as to the whereabouts of missing ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon).
Synopsis: A self-styled Sherlock Holmes leads an unlikely team of irregulars in this charming comic mystery from indie auteur Aaron Katz. After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, aimless Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly). He easily lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but his latent passion for detective work is stoked when his ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) goes missing. Armed with a handful of arcane clues and a...
- 2/2/2011
- by Allan Ford
- Filmofilia
Placing Sherlock Holmes right where you would least expect him (modern day Portland, Oregon), filmmaker Aaron Katz‘s Cold Weather finds the mystery in the mundane. His Sherlock, a man named Doug (Cris Lankenau), works at an ice factory when he’s not trying to solve the case of the missing ex-girlfriend (Robyn Rikoon). He’s even got a crack team of slackers helping him out, in the form of his co-worker Carlos (Raul Castillo) and his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn).
Tfs talked to Katz about moving Mumblecore into a genre plot setting, who makes the Kleenexes in the world and, of course, which Sherlock Holmes is best.
Tfs: Your films operate a lot on what is not said. Being the writer, director and editor of your films, how hard is it to check yourself during the process?
Aaron Katz: The good thing for me is that my producers,...
Tfs talked to Katz about moving Mumblecore into a genre plot setting, who makes the Kleenexes in the world and, of course, which Sherlock Holmes is best.
Tfs: Your films operate a lot on what is not said. Being the writer, director and editor of your films, how hard is it to check yourself during the process?
Aaron Katz: The good thing for me is that my producers,...
- 2/1/2011
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Jumping around the indie scene (frequently labeled as a leader in the mumble-core movement), writer/director Aaron Katz is prepping his latest feature for a small theatrical release. I checked out a screener of his low-key noir Cold Weather last night and it is a quite remarkable. The cinematography is gorgeous and the natural performances in this mystery are refreshing. Apple has premiered the trailer and I encourage you to check out the film when it opens this weekend. Starring Chris Lankenau, Raul Castillo, Trieste Kelly Dunn, and Barry Seltzer, you can see it below.
Synopsis: After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, a self-styled Sherlock Holmes, Doug (Cris Lankenau), returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but soon finds an opportunity to use his passion and skill in detective work when his ex-girlfriend,...
Synopsis: After abandoning a promising academic career in forensic science, a self-styled Sherlock Holmes, Doug (Cris Lankenau), returns to Portland to live with his more responsible big sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn). He lands a dead-end job working in an ice factory, but soon finds an opportunity to use his passion and skill in detective work when his ex-girlfriend,...
- 1/31/2011
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
by Steve Dollar
Indie writer-director Aaron Katz (Quiet City, Dance Party USA) steps up his game with his third feature, Cold Weather. Bringing it all back home to Portland, Or., where he grew up, the 29-year-old filmmaker plays with expectations, adding visual polish and a surprise-laden plot to his always nuanced observations of human chemistry. Doug (Quiet City's Cris Lankenau) returns to the Pacific Northwest to recalibrate his life after giving up his forensics studies, reuniting with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and taking a job at an ice factory. Doug's not enthusiastic for much except the English detective book he's reading, but when his ex-girlfriend visits from Chicago, only to suddenly vanish, he turns sleuth, and pulls his older sibling along for the strange ride.
Katz, now based in Pittsburgh, shot Cold Weather quickly during the winter and spring of 2009, camping out with cast and crew in...
Indie writer-director Aaron Katz (Quiet City, Dance Party USA) steps up his game with his third feature, Cold Weather. Bringing it all back home to Portland, Or., where he grew up, the 29-year-old filmmaker plays with expectations, adding visual polish and a surprise-laden plot to his always nuanced observations of human chemistry. Doug (Quiet City's Cris Lankenau) returns to the Pacific Northwest to recalibrate his life after giving up his forensics studies, reuniting with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and taking a job at an ice factory. Doug's not enthusiastic for much except the English detective book he's reading, but when his ex-girlfriend visits from Chicago, only to suddenly vanish, he turns sleuth, and pulls his older sibling along for the strange ride.
Katz, now based in Pittsburgh, shot Cold Weather quickly during the winter and spring of 2009, camping out with cast and crew in...
- 1/28/2011
- GreenCine Daily
Michael Tully began his career with a flurry, getting selected for Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2006 on the back of his debut feature Cocaine Angel, and then following it up the next year with Silver Jew, a documentary about Silver Jews frontman David Berman. In the years since, Tully has stayed active, shooting Mary Bronstein’s Yeast, acting in a handful of movies by fellow Generation Diy peers, including Aaron Katz’s Quiet City and Ry Russo-Young’s You Won’t Miss Me, and editing the indie film website Hammer to Nail. But, in terms of new films, he has kept his head below the parapet.
Now, however, he’s back with his second narrative feature, Septien, a fantastically idiosyncratic tale in which he plays the lead role of Cornelius Rawlings, an athletically-gifted prodigal son who after an unexplained 18 year absence returns to the family farm where his two brothers,...
Now, however, he’s back with his second narrative feature, Septien, a fantastically idiosyncratic tale in which he plays the lead role of Cornelius Rawlings, an athletically-gifted prodigal son who after an unexplained 18 year absence returns to the family farm where his two brothers,...
- 1/22/2011
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Year: 2010
Director: Aaron Katz
Writer: Aaron Katz
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 7 out of 10
Portland director Aaron Katz’s work has been flying under the radar for a few years but Quiet City suggested that the director was working himself up to the big bang, the film that would put his name on the lips of critics and mark him as one to watch in the new breed of American indie filmmakers. Well, look out world. Aaron Katz has arrived.
Cold Weather opens with a dinner. Four people sitting around a table talking as if they’re friends who haven’t seen each other for a while. We’re introduced to Doug and Gail and our first thought is that the two are dating (we don’t learn the truth about their relationship until later). Unemployed Doug is mooching, a carefree 20 something with no job and...
Director: Aaron Katz
Writer: Aaron Katz
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: Marina Antunes
Rating: 7 out of 10
Portland director Aaron Katz’s work has been flying under the radar for a few years but Quiet City suggested that the director was working himself up to the big bang, the film that would put his name on the lips of critics and mark him as one to watch in the new breed of American indie filmmakers. Well, look out world. Aaron Katz has arrived.
Cold Weather opens with a dinner. Four people sitting around a table talking as if they’re friends who haven’t seen each other for a while. We’re introduced to Doug and Gail and our first thought is that the two are dating (we don’t learn the truth about their relationship until later). Unemployed Doug is mooching, a carefree 20 something with no job and...
- 10/13/2010
- QuietEarth.us
Atmospheric. Haunting. Subversive. They're words that could be applied to virtually anything in the Adam Wingard canon and they are no less true here with his latest feature, A Horrible Way To Die. But what Wingard has now that has, perhaps, lacked from his earlier work is a story that's truly a story rather than an experiment. If micro budget sensation Pop Skull was Wingard with a mood then A Horrible Way To Die is Wingard with a point. Don't let the trademark atmospherics and languid delivery fool you, this is Wingard with a focus as tight and sharp as any blade wielded by Garrick Turrell (Aj Bowen) as he leaves his trail of corpses scattered across the country.
Sarah (Amy Seimetz) is trying to start a new life. New town. New job. New lifestyle, hopefully, thanks to the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. And she's making progress, or she seems to be,...
Sarah (Amy Seimetz) is trying to start a new life. New town. New job. New lifestyle, hopefully, thanks to the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. And she's making progress, or she seems to be,...
- 9/11/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Laff Days 4 and 5: Of Love And Other Demons, Cold Weather, Lebanon, and Waiting For Superman Reviews
The Los Angeles Film Festival continues in downtown L.A. through out the week and so do the various screenings, interviews, and retrospectives taking place there. After the jump you can read my thoughts on Of Love and Other Demons, the excellent Cold Weather, Venice Film Festival winner Lebanon, and the latest documentary from Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) Waiting For Superman. My write up after the jump:
Of Love and Other Demons
Based on the novel by Gabríel García Marquez, Of Love and Other Demons tells the story of a young woman who is sent to a convent where she is kept as a prisoner after she is thought to be possessed when she is bitten by a rabid dog. While she is there a young priest, who is also the local bishop’s protégé, is sent to take care of her and almost immediately begins...
Of Love and Other Demons
Based on the novel by Gabríel García Marquez, Of Love and Other Demons tells the story of a young woman who is sent to a convent where she is kept as a prisoner after she is thought to be possessed when she is bitten by a rabid dog. While she is there a young priest, who is also the local bishop’s protégé, is sent to take care of her and almost immediately begins...
- 6/23/2010
- by Ramses Flores
- Collider.com
Cannes 2010 Coverage
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Trigger Happy Punks
The Forgotten: Mood Swings
The Forgotten: Seduced and Abandoned
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Guns"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Tentacles"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Tropical Malady"
Movie Poster of the Week: "La religieuse"
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day. Records of Material Objects in the Cinema #1
R.I.P. William Lubtchansky
Images of the Day. Ideal Couples
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Days 1 & 2
Cannes 2010. An Actor-Director and His Women: "Tournée" (Mathieu Amalric, France)
Cannes 2010. 3-Wall Realism: "Tuesday, After Christmas" (Radu Muntean, Romania)
Cannes 2010: Sincere Love: "The Strange Case of Angelica" (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Day 3
Cannes 2010: A Devil without the Details: "Aurora" (Cristi Puiu, Romania)
Cannes 2010. Love-Hate Relationships: "Au petite bonheur" (Marcel L’Herbier, France, 1946)
Cannes 2010. Playful Protest: "Hands Up" (Romain Goupil, France)
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Day 4
Cannes 2010. Today's Quiet City: "I Wish I Knew" (Jia Zhangke,...
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Trigger Happy Punks
The Forgotten: Mood Swings
The Forgotten: Seduced and Abandoned
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Guns"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Tentacles"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Tropical Malady"
Movie Poster of the Week: "La religieuse"
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day. Records of Material Objects in the Cinema #1
R.I.P. William Lubtchansky
Images of the Day. Ideal Couples
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Days 1 & 2
Cannes 2010. An Actor-Director and His Women: "Tournée" (Mathieu Amalric, France)
Cannes 2010. 3-Wall Realism: "Tuesday, After Christmas" (Radu Muntean, Romania)
Cannes 2010: Sincere Love: "The Strange Case of Angelica" (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Day 3
Cannes 2010: A Devil without the Details: "Aurora" (Cristi Puiu, Romania)
Cannes 2010. Love-Hate Relationships: "Au petite bonheur" (Marcel L’Herbier, France, 1946)
Cannes 2010. Playful Protest: "Hands Up" (Romain Goupil, France)
Cannes 2010. Favorite Moments: Day 4
Cannes 2010. Today's Quiet City: "I Wish I Knew" (Jia Zhangke,...
- 6/2/2010
- MUBI
IFC has picked SXSW fave Cold Weather for North America and select foreign territories. Written, edited and directed by Aaron Katz, Cold Weather stars Cris Lankenau (Katz’s Quiet City), Trieste Kelly Dunn (United 93) and Raul Castillo (Don't Let Me Drown). "It's great fun to see [Katz] play with the detective/mystery genre," states IFC President Jonathan Sehring. "This is one of the most original American independent films of the year." The film will be released through the IFC in Theatres platform, which offers on-demand viewing starting the same day as their theatrical premieres. Cold Weather, a Holmes-esque mystery about friendship and family camaraderie, follows Doug, who is just returned to his hometown of Portland, Oregon to live with his sister and kick-start their adulthood. The return ...
- 5/7/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
SXSW Review
Cold Weather
Director: Aaron Katz
World Premiere
Spotlight Premieres
90 minutes
Complete Coverage of SXSW 2010
Synopsis
After making a mess of his life in Chicago, Doug, a former forensic science major and avid reader of detective fiction, returns to his hometown of Portland, Oregon where he, his sister Gail and new friend Carlos become embroiled in a mystery.
Director Bio
Aaron Katz was born in Portland, Or and studied film at the North Carolina School of the Arts. After graduating, he and two friends drove a ‘63 Chevy Nova to Portland to make his first feature, Dance Party, USA. His second feature, Quiet City, premiered at SXSW 2007 and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Currently Aaron lives in Pittsburgh.
Who’S It For? I haven’t seen any other Katz’s other films, so I can’t compare. Are you looking for an ordinary joe who becomes an detective?...
Cold Weather
Director: Aaron Katz
World Premiere
Spotlight Premieres
90 minutes
Complete Coverage of SXSW 2010
Synopsis
After making a mess of his life in Chicago, Doug, a former forensic science major and avid reader of detective fiction, returns to his hometown of Portland, Oregon where he, his sister Gail and new friend Carlos become embroiled in a mystery.
Director Bio
Aaron Katz was born in Portland, Or and studied film at the North Carolina School of the Arts. After graduating, he and two friends drove a ‘63 Chevy Nova to Portland to make his first feature, Dance Party, USA. His second feature, Quiet City, premiered at SXSW 2007 and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards. Currently Aaron lives in Pittsburgh.
Who’S It For? I haven’t seen any other Katz’s other films, so I can’t compare. Are you looking for an ordinary joe who becomes an detective?...
- 3/31/2010
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
Portland, Oregon during the gray and rainy season is an ideal place to set a mystery story, adding a touch of monochromatic noir to the landscape. But the mystery in Cold Weather shares screen time with an exploration of different types of relationships, as writer/director Aaron Katz has done in his previous features, Quiet City and Dance Party USA. The combination results in a charming low-key film spiked with a touch of suspense.
Doug (Cris Lankenau) has just moved back to Portland after leaving college, where he had studied forensic science. He's not interested in a career at the moment, and ends up with a job at the local ice factory. In his spare time, he hangs out with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and reads old detective stories. His ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) shows up in town for a short trip, but doesn't show up for a...
Doug (Cris Lankenau) has just moved back to Portland after leaving college, where he had studied forensic science. He's not interested in a career at the moment, and ends up with a job at the local ice factory. In his spare time, he hangs out with his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and reads old detective stories. His ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon) shows up in town for a short trip, but doesn't show up for a...
- 3/25/2010
- by Jette Kernion
- Cinematical
Cold Weather manages to take two underlying story ideas and combine them into a conceptually intriguing film, one that is partially successful and partially missing its full potential. Aaron Katz (Dance Party, USA) wrote and directed Cold Weather, beginning with a story about an estranged brother and sister and wraps it up loosely with a film noir jacket, vaguely reminiscent of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
Doug (Cris Lankenau) is an intelligent young man having studied criminal justice and forensic science, but who has taken time from school to find work and save some money. His passion lies with becoming a detective, romanticized by the literary notion of Sherlock Holmes as his ideal role model. Initially mocked by others for his source of inspiration, Doug is quick to dispel their misguided notions of Holmes as depicted in early films as a caricature of the true literary figure.
Doug gets...
Doug (Cris Lankenau) is an intelligent young man having studied criminal justice and forensic science, but who has taken time from school to find work and save some money. His passion lies with becoming a detective, romanticized by the literary notion of Sherlock Holmes as his ideal role model. Initially mocked by others for his source of inspiration, Doug is quick to dispel their misguided notions of Holmes as depicted in early films as a caricature of the true literary figure.
Doug gets...
- 3/19/2010
- by Travis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
By Sharon Waxman
No deal quite yet, but heads up that there's a lot of heat around a little thriller that debuted at SXSW, "Cold Weather. "
Apparently two screenings were sold out at the festival, and the producers are screening the film for a long list of distributors, including the Weinstein Company.
Aaron Katz is the director of a detective story about twenty-somethings knocking around Portland. It's his third feature, and apparently a departure from his previous efforts, 'Dance Party USA' and 'Quiet City.'
The film's description goes:
After making a mess of his...
No deal quite yet, but heads up that there's a lot of heat around a little thriller that debuted at SXSW, "Cold Weather. "
Apparently two screenings were sold out at the festival, and the producers are screening the film for a long list of distributors, including the Weinstein Company.
Aaron Katz is the director of a detective story about twenty-somethings knocking around Portland. It's his third feature, and apparently a departure from his previous efforts, 'Dance Party USA' and 'Quiet City.'
The film's description goes:
After making a mess of his...
- 3/17/2010
- by Sharon Waxman
- The Wrap
The sunny weather and clear skies persist here in Austin, where audiences are reveling in epic genres, small indies, auteur favorites, and more in the fest's seventeenth year. Three days into SXSW and our own Anne Thompson has called it: "First Hit is Cold Weather" reads the headline. La Times' Mark Olsen sees big things for the film and bigger things for Katz. "Where his previous features, 'Quiet City' (2007) and ...
- 3/15/2010
- Indiewire
Some directors experiment with various moods before discovering their sweet spots, but Aaron Katz pulls of the impressive trick of experimenting within the boundaries of his sweet spot. In his first two movies, "Dance Party, USA" and "Quiet City," Katz displayed a unique ability to mix visual lyricism with unquestionably authentic portraits of lost young souls. His latest work, "Cold Weather," fits that description as well, while taking the precise formula ...
- 3/14/2010
- Indiewire
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