If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter.com, you should know it’s the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, including film, art and technology. Any person can pledge any amount towards a project they feel should be developed and in return they receive unique gifts selected by the project creators. Indie helmers Allison Anders and Kurt Voss are using Kickstarter to finance the costs of their feature film Strutter -- the closing chapter in the trilogy that began with Border Radio and was last left off with Sugar Town. The two studied at UCLA together after meeting as production assistants on Wim Wender’s Paris, Texas and since then, they together or separately written and directed over 20 films and a number of television episodes and music videos. We guess this means that, Anders will work on this project in the first portion of 2011 before heading into Smile Now,...
- 11/18/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Music has always been a major element of Allison Anders' films. "Border Radio," "Grace of My Heart" and "Sugar Town" are actually about musicians. "Sugar Town" is named after a Nancy Sinatra song and features John Taylor of Duran Duran, Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet and John Doe of X in major roles. The lead character of "Things Behind the Sun" (named after a Nick Drake song) is about a music journalist who tracks down a childhood friend turned rising rock star.
"Things Behind the Sun" came out in 2001, and Anders hasn't done a film since, directed instead episodes of "The L Word" and "What About Brian" and founding the Don't Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival. But she has a new project with longtime collaborator Kurt Voss up on Kickstarter:
"Strutter" tells the story of 22 year old Brett (Flannery Lunsford), a singer for a Los Angeles rock...
"Things Behind the Sun" came out in 2001, and Anders hasn't done a film since, directed instead episodes of "The L Word" and "What About Brian" and founding the Don't Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival. But she has a new project with longtime collaborator Kurt Voss up on Kickstarter:
"Strutter" tells the story of 22 year old Brett (Flannery Lunsford), a singer for a Los Angeles rock...
- 11/17/2010
- by Alison Willmore
- ifc.com
Down & Out With the Dolls
Indican Pictures
"Down & Out With the Dolls" is a meritless and exasperating film experience, lacking any insight, drama or humor regarding its subject, the underground music scene. The formation and disintegration of a four-piece all-female band in Portland, Ore., unfolds in scenes so chaotically directed and poorly acted that it's a wonder the movie found its way into cinemas. Looking more like a failed student film than a professional work, the film's release should be brief.
Writer-director Kurt Voss certainly knows the territory, having based much of his film career on the world of rock music. (He co-wrote and co-directed "Sugar Town" and "Border Radio" with his film schoolmate Allison Anders.) What went wrong here is anybody's guess. The acting is either flat or over the top, while scenes meander without firmly establishing character or action.
A local legend -- in her own mind, at least -- Fauna (Zoe Poledouris, who also contributed the movie's so-so score) gets thrown out of her current band when she breaks up with the band's leader. Seizing an opportunity for a quick comeback, she joins the Paper Dolls as lead singer.
The group's other members -- guitarist Kali (Nicole Barrett), bassist Lavender (Melody Moore) and drummer Reggie (Kinnie Starr) -- initially see Fauna as their ticket to acquiring a record deal. But conflicts develop, which cause the Doll House to fall apart quickly. Everything comes to a head in a two-day rave that degenerates into a drunken debauch.
Cameos by real-life rockers flesh out the movie for insiders. But nothing gives the film dramatic spark. Voss favors claustrophobic close-ups of his actors, who appear to improvise much of the film. At least, one hopes no one actually thought this dialogue was worth writing down for actors to memorize. Technical credits are subpar.
"Down & Out With the Dolls" is a meritless and exasperating film experience, lacking any insight, drama or humor regarding its subject, the underground music scene. The formation and disintegration of a four-piece all-female band in Portland, Ore., unfolds in scenes so chaotically directed and poorly acted that it's a wonder the movie found its way into cinemas. Looking more like a failed student film than a professional work, the film's release should be brief.
Writer-director Kurt Voss certainly knows the territory, having based much of his film career on the world of rock music. (He co-wrote and co-directed "Sugar Town" and "Border Radio" with his film schoolmate Allison Anders.) What went wrong here is anybody's guess. The acting is either flat or over the top, while scenes meander without firmly establishing character or action.
A local legend -- in her own mind, at least -- Fauna (Zoe Poledouris, who also contributed the movie's so-so score) gets thrown out of her current band when she breaks up with the band's leader. Seizing an opportunity for a quick comeback, she joins the Paper Dolls as lead singer.
The group's other members -- guitarist Kali (Nicole Barrett), bassist Lavender (Melody Moore) and drummer Reggie (Kinnie Starr) -- initially see Fauna as their ticket to acquiring a record deal. But conflicts develop, which cause the Doll House to fall apart quickly. Everything comes to a head in a two-day rave that degenerates into a drunken debauch.
Cameos by real-life rockers flesh out the movie for insiders. But nothing gives the film dramatic spark. Voss favors claustrophobic close-ups of his actors, who appear to improvise much of the film. At least, one hopes no one actually thought this dialogue was worth writing down for actors to memorize. Technical credits are subpar.
- 3/21/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film review: 'Sugar Town'
PARK CITY, Utah -- The second time around for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll is not necessarily better for the aging musicians in "Sugar Town", a satiric riff on the L.A. music business that played to a packed, appreciative house at the Sundance Film Festival. Droll and observant, "Sugar Town" is modern-day, 45 rpm "Nashville"-ish entertainment. With plenty of keen character and situational chords from filmmakers Allison Anders and Kurt Voss, "Sugar" should spin upbeat viewer reaction and do nicely on the boxoffice charts.
On windy roads high above Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, the B-side lives of former '80s rock stars play out in personal discord: Former Brit rocker Clive (John Taylor) is experiencing rejection right and left, including his new group's latest demo, and his actress wife Eva (Rosanna Arquette) finds that time is not on her side either -- she's being offered mommy roles, Christina Ricci's old lady, no less. It's not better down the road, where neighbor Liz (Ally Sheedy) is suffering the dating blues while trying to get her life "opened." She's cleaning out her psyche and digs, primarily through the assistance of aspiring singer-maid Gwen Jade Gordon), who truly tends to clean up on her naive employer. In short, everyone's out of groove and spinning unsurely into a personal and professional rut.
Most fun about "Sugar Town" are the detail, backstage sensibilities and insights that screenwriters-directors Anders and Voss bring to the story. Instead of grinding out another searing, cliched indictment of the music biz's seamy side, they layer their portrait with the everyday frustrations and inanities of such a business and the often-childish people who need to be on center stage. There are no showboating riffs; the characters are tightly drawn, and Anders and Voss lay down their story line with sparkling, acidic detachment. It's a dry, delirious satire, told with affection but also with hard-drawn perspective and moral maturity.
From rhythm to lead, the ensemble cast lay down their character notes perfectly. As a frustrated, fortysomething former rock star, Taylor's performance is a fitting combination of childishness and child-like energy. Arquette's turn as an actress who tries to delude herself but is no longer an ingenue is funny and touching. Sheedy brings all the right tics and nerve ends to her part as a woman who can no longer figure out the rhythm of her life. Gordon exudes the allure and viciousness of a user, and Beverly D'Angelo is marvelous as a blunt-speaking former hooker who sizes up the biz immediately based on life experience.
Technical contributions are more than a great supporting act. Alyssa Coppleman's production design is hilarious, showing the incongruities and vanities of this glitzy world, and composer Larry Klein's score further clues us to the B-side of stardom with its wiggy bursts and sly salvos.
SUGAR TOWN
Film Four
in association with the Sundance Institute
Producer: Dan Hassid
Screenwriters-directors: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss
Co-producer: Nancy Griffin
Director of photography: Kristian Bernier
Editor: Chris Figler
Production designer: Alyssa Coppleman
Music: Larry Klein
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gwen: Jade Gordon
Liz: Ally Sheedy
Clive: John Taylor
Eva: Rosanna Arquette
Investor: Beverly D'Angelo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
On windy roads high above Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard, the B-side lives of former '80s rock stars play out in personal discord: Former Brit rocker Clive (John Taylor) is experiencing rejection right and left, including his new group's latest demo, and his actress wife Eva (Rosanna Arquette) finds that time is not on her side either -- she's being offered mommy roles, Christina Ricci's old lady, no less. It's not better down the road, where neighbor Liz (Ally Sheedy) is suffering the dating blues while trying to get her life "opened." She's cleaning out her psyche and digs, primarily through the assistance of aspiring singer-maid Gwen Jade Gordon), who truly tends to clean up on her naive employer. In short, everyone's out of groove and spinning unsurely into a personal and professional rut.
Most fun about "Sugar Town" are the detail, backstage sensibilities and insights that screenwriters-directors Anders and Voss bring to the story. Instead of grinding out another searing, cliched indictment of the music biz's seamy side, they layer their portrait with the everyday frustrations and inanities of such a business and the often-childish people who need to be on center stage. There are no showboating riffs; the characters are tightly drawn, and Anders and Voss lay down their story line with sparkling, acidic detachment. It's a dry, delirious satire, told with affection but also with hard-drawn perspective and moral maturity.
From rhythm to lead, the ensemble cast lay down their character notes perfectly. As a frustrated, fortysomething former rock star, Taylor's performance is a fitting combination of childishness and child-like energy. Arquette's turn as an actress who tries to delude herself but is no longer an ingenue is funny and touching. Sheedy brings all the right tics and nerve ends to her part as a woman who can no longer figure out the rhythm of her life. Gordon exudes the allure and viciousness of a user, and Beverly D'Angelo is marvelous as a blunt-speaking former hooker who sizes up the biz immediately based on life experience.
Technical contributions are more than a great supporting act. Alyssa Coppleman's production design is hilarious, showing the incongruities and vanities of this glitzy world, and composer Larry Klein's score further clues us to the B-side of stardom with its wiggy bursts and sly salvos.
SUGAR TOWN
Film Four
in association with the Sundance Institute
Producer: Dan Hassid
Screenwriters-directors: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss
Co-producer: Nancy Griffin
Director of photography: Kristian Bernier
Editor: Chris Figler
Production designer: Alyssa Coppleman
Music: Larry Klein
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gwen: Jade Gordon
Liz: Ally Sheedy
Clive: John Taylor
Eva: Rosanna Arquette
Investor: Beverly D'Angelo
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/28/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.