Sunday, June 03, 2007

Hole In The Head 2007 - Day 5 (Preview)

SFIndieFest's 2007 [Another] Hole In The Head continues at the Roxie in San Francisco. I've been fortunate enough this year to have access to previews of nearly the entire festival (since I'm in Atlanta, now), and I'll be posting 'previews' two days in advance of each day's screenings. Woo hoo!

Well, things have hit a lull in my 'festival schedule'. It seems that the majority of the weeknight screenings are 'encores'. There are a few exceptions, however screeners were unavailable. In an attempt to be thorough, here is the schedule for Tuesday, June 5th, aka Day 5, along with links to the capsule reviews from over the weekend:

BLOOD CAR, screening at 5:15 pm. I would go AGAIN, if I had the chance!!

EL MUERTO, screening at 7:15 pm. If you missed it, give it a go, though I can sense it will have commercial distribution at some point.

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD (dir. Directed by: Simon Rumley, UK, 2006, 83 mins.) Though unavailable for preview down here in Atlanta, it does seem to be getting good press. It screens at 9:30 pm.

Maxxxxx says
re "Blood Car": "Wanna come out!"

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look one comment. Yet more proof that most bloggers are idiots. Here's one who is barely able to write let alone qualified to review movies.

In an effort to find out more about the movies I saw at this festival, I came across this posting (I'm sure I'm the first).

You are so off the mark with most of the reviews that either you didn't see the movies or you watched them from a closet.

Now go ahead, erase my comment. Protect your crummy writing and close yourself off to criticism.

Jay, aka The Angry Little Man said...

Apparently, this is a response to my blurb on "Zombie Farm" as your search term was "luciano barsuglia", the director of "Zombie Farm".

Just as I was less than enthusiastic about "Zombie Farm", you have the right to be less than enthusiastic about my unflattering blurb about it.

IF you are connected to the film, take the comments about pacing to be constructive, at least.

Fast paced gore ROCKS!!

Oh, and you are NOT the first to come across this posting, as my site is numbering in the modest tens of thousands of hits. (I wish it were in the hundreds of thousands!)

Anonymous said...

I always find it fascinating that these types write anonymously because they are primarily the directors or actors in the films you review. Jay...I am humbly brilliant and quite studied in Dramatic criticism. However, you surpassed me in this area years ago and you alone are the reviews I read. YOu are witty... entertaining and on the mark, thought evoking as well. I avoided Pan's Labrynith for ages because my female friends hated it. Your review stayed on my mind and I finally succumbed to watching it just two weeks ago and loved it.

Dont know who that was..clearly someone googling reviews on their own pics and then trying to down you because you didn't like their film. Power to you and the power of writing be with you. Keep up the mighty pen for the sake of artistic discretion.

JimmyD said...

I just love the cowardly comments that are posted by Anonymous.

Dude, grow a pair and sign a name... and maybe be constructive. I've been reading Jay's reviews for years. Sometimes I don't see eye-to-eye ('Eye's Wide Shut' SUCKED... he LOVED it... we discussed it and agreed to disagree) but I always respect his RIGHT TO HIS OWN OPINION.
Do you have a blog? Do you post YOUR OPINION THAT YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPRESS? If not, why not? Show us how it's done. That's not a silly challenge, it's a suggestion. If you have a constructive view on film (or whatever) you have the right to share that with the world.

And if you're the director or a friend of someone involved with 'Zombie Farm,' this really is not a productive way to promote the film.

ALSO: Jay does not delete posts where someone does not agree with him. He values the comments left. Even the ones written by assholes like yourself, Mr Anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Are any of you any less anonymous? Does having the name JimmyD make you any more credibile?

And no, no affiliation, except as a movie watcher.

I take back my "idiots" comments as that was equally idiotic.

And I couldn't agree more with the previous writer -- a "constructive" view rather than a vague, liked - didn't like it.

I was looking into some of the movies and came to this. I watched three of the movies on Saturday and wanted to learn more about them.

With these small unreleased movies, it's tough to find anything out side of blogs and message boards, so I appreciate detail.

Taking them for what they were worth, I really liked Zombie Farm, Automoton Transfusion and Driller.

If I had read your reviews first, I probably wouldn't have gone. And, if you're screening from Atlanta on DVDs then you really missed the energy of the festival, as the Saturday screenings from 7PM to 2AM had fun crowds and good times at the Roxie.

At least give a little insight into a movie instead of "as it feels unfair to beat it when it's down." Well, why? Driller was a fun cheese-fest. If you like sci-fi, horror gore, with over-the-top acting, then people would like this. You just don't.

And how can you dislike Zombie Farm so much but cut the director a "Peter Jackson" break?

And you appear not to like Automoton Transfusion, yet you say you had some great laughs -- that sounds like a recommendation to me. Elaborate.

And, yes, I respect his opinion. I just want to know more about that opinion. From the various things I read, it's more difficult to write a valid bad review than it is to right a good review.

Anonymous said...

pardon me ... write ... not right. It's late. I'm tired. Good luck with your blog!

Anonymous said...

Okay so wow, I like anonymous now. I think he's a movie fan like the rest of us. And I loved his input on the films he disagreed with the review on. Good for him, and I hope he keeps on writing. It keeps us on our toes and gives a diverse side of things. Welcome JimmyD anonymous. Valuable input.

Jay, aka The Angry Little Man said...

In response to anonymous:

Oh, I used to write SCATHING reviews, thus Larsen Associates (a S.F. p.r. firm) labeled me, "Jay, the Angry Little Man" and I was starting to lose interest from other sources. So, now I am trying to put more detail in the positives and just brush off the negatives, and not name too many names of the guilty, as that seemed just as alienating, and frankly, mean spirited, especially for the indie flicks.

The 'Peter Jackson' reference is how the SFIndie Fest referred to "Driller", which I found to be a stretch and I probably didn't express it as sarcastically as I'd hoped.

As far as the energy of the crowd, I will admit that 'home screeners' (I am screening on a 96" projector screen and NOT a laptop, by the way) are not comparable to the 'festival experience.' However, I have done so many of those, that I can safely say I'm fairly immune to the 'fan base' that attends these screenings. In fact, I've been known to be put off even more if a screening has attracted or invited the film's cast, crew and fans as a way to paper the house.

Anyway, as far as "Zombie Farm", "Driller" and "Automaton Transfusion" (which I will admit I SHOULD have elaborated upon why it did give me some guffaws! And I may go back and revise that post), we will have to agree to disagree.

I am currently in the midst of no less than 30 screeners for the SF LGBT Film Festival and don't really have time to do TOO much of a revision for the other two flicks. Plus, in the midst of all of these postings, sometimes I can see why "Ebert and Roper" use the 'thumbs up/thumbs down' recaps! ;)

Thanks for checking in, though! If YOU have a link, drop it in!

JimmyD said...

This whole thing seems to have leveled out but I wrote this earlier and am posting it anyway:

I have two things to say.

First: "Are any of you any less anonymous? Does having the name JimmyD make you any more credible?"

If you click on my name you can visit my sad, unread blog, which makes me a not-so anonymous. It will give you a small look into things I like. I'm the first to admit it's a crappy blog... but it is mine. Once in a blue moon a complete stranger will post a comment. As for credibility? I'm not looking for credibility.
Jay's blog is credible. He has festival people sending him hundreds of films to watch and comment on. He's not paid for this.

Second: Had your second post been your first none of this would have happened. Your first post was unproductive and rude. I'm sure, if you continue to read Jay's blog, you and he may actually enjoy some dialogue regarding movies. He and I have agreed and disagreed over movies for years.
I don't call him names or insult him (not over movies anyway.) You might even become friends.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, yeah. You're right about my first post. Hopefully, that second post was less scornful and I apologize for the "idiots" comments.

I have no links. I just like watching low budget indie flicks.

Maybe I'll take the time one of these days to enter a profile.

Oddly enough, I now enjoy reading this blog. I even favorited it today.

So it goes.