Change Your Image
ivisitjman
Reviews
Monster Camp (2007)
Reality or fiction?
Another home run for the crew that brought you Freedom State.
This movie is edited beautifully to take you on a constant ride where you question what is "acceptable" behavior for adults and what is not. I would say that the average person comes into this movie with an initial impression of "they spend their time doing what?"
However, the film is crafted to make you question why there must be a solid line between reality in fiction and if NERO, while strange, is really something that adults "shouldn't do because it isn't 'healthy'." The film stays true to it's documentary form.
I watched this film with a NERO player "outlier" in the sense that he has what most players do not ( a steady job, lots of education, is married with a daughter, and yet was still very involved in the game )
I think his words speak louder than mine when he said that this film actively portrays the entire gamut of most NERO players, regardless of location.
The film makes you reconsider the Toys-R-US catch phrase, "I don't want to grow up" and eventually made me come to the conclusion that maybe a good balance of reality and fantasy is not only healthy, but can be quite fun too.
Freedom State (2006)
An aimless and winding tale that somehow leads you back home
I had a chance to be one of the first people in the outside world to see this film and I feel quite privileged for that honor.
Freedom state isn't about a million dollar budget, flashy graphics, loud action scenes, annoying actors, or a rehashing of an old idea. It is what every movie should be: a perfectly woven, unpredictable, refreshingly touching, and very well told story. The camera, the music, the actors, the director, producer, etc. They all facilitate the story and never overshadow, control, or distract from its direction.
Freedom State creates characters that you can relate to, that move you, that you could see yourself being if you had taken one wrong turn and then takes you along their path. A path that is almost so aimless you sometimes feel lost in the world of their short bus. However, not so lost that the movie doesn't tie all of the strings back together and make you realize that two paths diverged can lead back to the same wood. It leaves you with an emotional feeling of rediscovery and the truth/impression that actual "craziness" most often arises from the social machine and not the outcasts that it produces.
This is a movie I will own on DVD and watch again by myself in order to extract its deeply personal, yet seemingly universal, message of hope for all of those who often feel as if they have strayed too far from society's expectations.
The Racist Brick (2005)
Unexpected, yes. Funny, without a doubt
This film goes to show that it doesn't take millions of dollars to execute a good idea. In fact, of the 7 short-funny-film series at Cinequest this was, by far, the best and probably had the smallest budget. The writers and directors took one good idea and a pretty good actor (with a few character flaws) and just executed it quite well. Unlike many other short-films this one was really about bringing to life a simple concept and capturing it on film with the appropriate shots. I think that if more shorts could be like this we really could enjoy them just as much, if not more, than two hour long movies that have so much CGI that you forget what the characters are saying and concentrate on the flashing lights instead. Hats off to the director, the actors, the musician (I couldn't have asked for a better "score"), and all those involved with this film. I look forward to seeing other works of yours.