Movies for everyone.

Get in the know with unique pairings of new DVD releases and influential predecessors to which they owe their roots.

Diary of the Dead & The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project was an absolute phenomenon in 1999 and has become the most successful independent film to date, earning $248 million worldwide.
The film, which ingeniously posed as a real documentary, follows three film students lost in supposedly haunted woods without a trace (except for camera equipment and footage, of course). The shaky camera work—half-intentional, half due to the cameraman’s inexperience—added to the realism of the movie.
Borrowing from this format and incorporating footage from cell phones and YouTube, director George A. Romero infused Diary of the Dead with scathing humor and cultural relevance as he also follows a group of amateur filmmakers encountering the paranormal.
Pairing the two is a worthwhile double feature that is sure to make you terrified, nauseous…or both.

Youth Without Youth & Cocoon
The fantasy of a fountain of youth is an ancient one that dates back long before the age of exploration when Ponce de León went looking for it in what is now Florida.
In 1985, Ron Howard’s Cocoon granted eternal life to a group of senior citizens by way of a swimming pool enchanted by benevolent aliens. In 2007, Francis Ford Coppola gave eternal youth to actor Tim Roth via a bolt of lightning in one of the strangest movies of the year.
Youth Without Youth is Coppola’s first feature in over a decade and, unlike Cocoon, which was widely popular, received a limited release and mixed reviews. A film about eternal life by an aging director, it is a nice contrast to its sentimental pop predecessor.

Navajo Joe & Kill Bill: Vol. 2
While Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 2 borrows most heavily from Japanese cult classics, the movie references a myriad of other genre films, most obviously the spaghetti westerns of the ’60s and ’70s.
Not only does Kill Bill share a nearly identical storyline (lone vigilante avenging the death of a spouse) with Sergio Corbucci’s classic, Navajo Joe, but it also utilizes much of the film’s legendary soundtrack by Academy Award Lifetime Achievement recipient Ennio Morricone.
Watch the newly released DVD of Navajo Joe starring a young Burt Reynolds as a vengeful American Indian, and follow it with by revisiting Tarantino’s classic ode to all things kick-ass.

Watch the trailer for this week’s must-see film and read our review.

Sangre de Mi Sangre
Christopher Zalla’s freshman effort is a whirlwind of emotions, dreams, deceptions and hopes.
Winner of the Best Film award at Sundance, this provocative thriller follows two Mexican illegal immigrants from their homes in Puebla to the mean streets of East Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Along the way, neat plot twists add to an insightful reimagining of the classic narrative of mistaken identity.
Although it is not a perfect film, its tense wrestling with issues of identity lends it a startling humanity that is not to be missed.

Sangre de Mi Sangre
A case of mistaken identity reveals a hidden world filled with humanity.

Sangre de Mi Sangre, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, is the first feature by Columbia University film school grad Christopher Zalla. It is a gritty and compelling existential drama that focuses on the struggles of illegal immigrants in New York City.
It is clearly a post-film school effort with its intentionally shaky camera work, heavy-handed production design and neat and tidy plot twists. Despite this obvious immaturity, the film succeeds at tackling some difficult moral territory, employing strong, nuanced performances and thoughtful, slow-building suspense.
Zalla utilized a well-worn plot structure—a tragically mistaken identity—that is reminiscent of films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and its predecessor Plain Solei.
Sparing few punches, the film opens with two young Mexicans meeting for the first time as they are shipped like cattle in a barely ventilated cargo truck from the slums of Puebla all the way to Brooklyn. One of the men, Juan (Armando Hernandez of Fast Food Nation), is essentially pushed into the situation, jumping on board to escape a group of knife-wielding thugs. It is unclear exactly how much trouble the young man is in.
Unprepared and without food or water, Juan receives the aid of the man seated next to him, Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola, last seen in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada), who generously shares his food and drink with the stranger.
The two exchange stories, and Pedro naively reveals all of the minute details of his plan to locate his estranged father, showing Juan all of his clues: a letter from his mother that his illiteracy prevents him from reading, his father’s address and a locket with photographs of mama and papa.
When the two arrive in New York City, Pedro has passed out from illness and Juan has seized his opportunity to exploit his new friend, disappearing with the letter and the address.
Juan becomes Pedro, and seeks out the father (played brilliantly by seasoned Mexican actor Jesus Ochoa) and attempts to convince the skeptical, embittered laborer that he is his long-lost offspring.
Meanwhile, a desperate, penniless and friendless Pedro wanders through the streets of Brooklyn in search of any possible help. Of course he finds nothing but the opposite, as he gets mugged, attacked and sexually exploited by the pitiless and equally desperate locals.
It’s here that the film leans towards the obvious. While Pedro’s struggles are in many ways realistic, it’s a bit of a stretch to believe that not a single helping hand exists, save a manipulative, drug-addicted prostitute, especially in South Williamsburg with its large Mexican population mostly hailing from Puebla.
Luckily, the film’s pacing is rescued by the dynamic relationship between the imposter and the thick-skinned old man as a mutual trust and camaraderie develops between them.
What makes Sangre de Mi Sangre so interesting is its philosophical contradictions. As Juan, the lazy thief, worms his way into the life of Pedro’s father, it becomes less and less important whether or not he actually is the man’s son. Each man seems to benefit so greatly from each other’s company that Juan almost becomes a human sacrifice.

Lines separating good and evil grow increasingly obscured and overshadowed by each of the characters’ surprising humanity. As Pedro’s naiveté is stripped away by the traumas of an urban reality, he grows stronger and more respectable, while Juan’s despicable nature slowly catches up to him.
Often predictable and amateurish, Zalla’s freshman effort is nonetheless commendable, both for its raw ambition and its unsparing take on the moral dilemmas inflicted by immigrant desperation and poverty.
The first Spanish-language film to earn the grand-jury prize, Sangre de Mi Sangre is an energetic voyage through a largely invisible world, a world well worth the visit.

Watch the trailer for this week’s film that is under the radar, and an interview with one of the actresses, Greta Gerwig. Also, read our interview with one of the filmmakers, Mark Duplass, about his process and inspirations.

Baghead
Mark and Jay Duplass are independent filmmakers who work together in almost every capacity to write, produce and shoot their micro-budget comedies.
Their extremely naturalistic style, use of improvisation and attention to character dynamics and dialogue have lead to them being lumped in with the so-called “mumblecore” movement.
Greta Gerwig—perhaps best known for her role in Hannah Takes the Stairs—plays one of four aspiring actors who retreat to a cabin to write a screenplay together.
It is a playful experiment in genre bending.

Behind Baghead
We spoke with Mark Duplass about defying genres.

Rachel Fernandes: In a special feature on The Puffy Chair DVD, you mention dropping out of film school like Richard Rodriguez only to “make terrible films for years.” How did your approach to filmmaking change?
Mark Duplass: When we were making our slew of shitty films, I think we were caught up in a particular way of thinking that comes from film school...like, if you have all of your ducks in a row, hire the right crew, keep proper and formal set protocol, make sure the shots are gorgeous and in focus, then you’ll have a great movie, right? That ethic led us to make what we call the well-polished turd.

Eventually, we stripped down everything to just me and [my brother] Jay and a camera, and when we did that, we got back to making movies the way we did as kids, and everything got better.
RF: Your micro-mini budget short This is John changed your lives in a way, landing you representation with William Morris. Can you briefly talk about the short and its impact?
MD: We thought it would change everything (professionally speaking), but it really didn’t; not until we made The Puffy Chair in 2003 did the wind start to whirl. But, it changed everything in terms of aesthetic and our approach to making art.
We learned that if we just focus on story and acting and let all the procedural bullshit go, we have a chance of making something funny and genuine that actually feels real.
RF: Why did you guys finally decide to settle in L.A.? And why, after moving there, do you continue to shoot in Austin and New Orleans?
MD: We can actually make a living making movies now, and moving to L.A. was a BIG part of that. But, it’s hard to shoot there: you need permits and it’s expensive because everyone thinks a “movie” is loaded with money.
Austin is totally supportive of indie films, and New Orleans is even better because we can stay at out parents’ house for free.
RF: In Baghead, three out of the four main actors are friends or people you’ve worked with in the past, while Elise Muller, who plays Catherine, was cast separately and is a sort of low-budget movie veteran. Was it a challenge incorporating her into the group or did she fit right in?
MD: Muller rules. She fit right in. On day one she was nailing the improvs, and it didn’t hurt that she had a wealth of experience to bring to the film as a seasoned B-movie actress: she’s done like 3 shark movies.
RF: I loved Baghead for its particularly organic brand of humor, but also for the fact that, despite its comedic elements, you manage to make the film quite scary in parts. What inspired you to mix genres in this way?
MD: We were really scared that the mix wouldn’t work.
We didn’t intentionally set out to mix the genres, I guess we just always tend to gravitate toward humor and humanity, even though the form of Baghead does borrow from horror. If we were making an action film, I think we’d still try to find a way for someone to get his or her feelings hurt in the midst of it. It’s just what we like to see.
RF: In Peter Debruge’s review of Baghead for Variety, he said the film is as “if John Cassavetes made a horror film.” Meanwhile, Amy Taubin, writing about the mumblecore movement you’ve been lumped in with, mentions Linklater and Kevin Smith as forerunners. Who actually influenced you and who inspires you today?
MD: We do like the Cassavetes approach a lot: a cast and crew of friends, lots of improv, long takes, etc. But, we are genre whores as well, and we like stories that move fast and barrel towards a climax, and so in that way we are a bit different than the mumblecore definition.
I don’t know what has influenced us, really. In some ways, our style has evolved out of function. We like to shoot fast, we like to improvise and we don’t like to limit our actors with blocking.
I’d love you to believe that our hand-held camera style is intentional, but sometimes it’s hard to find focus when you don’t know where the actors are.
RF: Any plans to split from each other and direct separately?
MD: Hell no. It’s hard enough making a good movie with two brothers.

Watch the trailer for this week’s guilty pleasure.

What Happens in Vegas
This predictable film is a big dumb romantic comedy that is nonetheless a totally entertaining experience.
The plot is standard rom-com fare (guy meets girl, drunkenly marries girl, is forced to try to work it out) and a few old jokes are recycled, including several involving a toilet seat and a gross apartment. But there’s also a baguette fight, a good obnoxious best friend on either side of the romantic pair and Queen Latifah as a marriage counselor.
Vegas is movie junk food. Upon further inspection it doesn’t hold up, but like the theater nachos, you don’t want to look any closer at the nutritional content. Just go and enjoy the sap.

Watch an episode from our pick of the best online films, the Web series “Young American Bodies,” and watch an exclusive introduction to the film by the filmmaker, Joe Swanberg.

Young American Bodies
Now into its third season, this series of short webisodes about the sex lives of young adults living in Chicago is directed by Joe Swanberg.
After the small successes of his first two films—Kissing on the Mouth and LOL—Swanberg gained attention with Hannah Takes the Stairs. It gained popularity alongside a growing number of similarly low-budgeted, talk-heavy films such as the Duplass Brothers’ The Puffy Chair, and Andrew Bujalski’s Mutual Appreciation. Many have dubbed this community of works as “mumblecore.”
Swanberg’s latest effort is further evidence of audiences’ growing desire to see realistic characters.