Craigslist Joe

Setting out to explore whether America still has a sense of community where people help each other through hard times, 29-year-old Joseph Garner spends a month depending on the goodness of Craigslist posters for his survival.

Matt
Rating: 6 out of 10

It’s a great concept for a documentary. But with any documentary that focuses on the filmmaker pulling a stunt — like the infamous “Supersize Me” — it seems to take away from authenticity of the film.

However, that doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining and “Craigslist Joe” certainly is. It’s not going to blow the doors off your house, but it will keep you thoroughly entertained for for an hour and a half.

It’s definitely interesting to see some of the positions he’s in, the types of people he meets and the places he stumbles to. He’s very much going with the flow. He sleeps whereever he can find a place, gets a meal whenever he can, and a ride to wherever someone is willing to take him. But he also makes some real connections with people who help him along the way, and it’s the glue that holds this film together. It is a stunt, just like the guy who ate nothing but disgusting McDonald’s for a month. He could stop whenever he wants, but that just doesn’t make for good TV. I did walk away, though, satisfied. It was a fun road trip to watch unfold, and there were some heartfelt moments where people genuinely helped out a person who is — kind of — in need.

heckler

Matt
Rating: 8 out of 10

Do I have the right to review a film or have a movie blog? Yes I do, and the answer is simple: because I exist.

My only rub with this film is Jamie Kennedy complains that movie bloggers and posters of the interwebs trash him. He gets offended and wonders why a nobody can tear him and his films apart. But just as he has the right to take the stage as a comic or star in a film, we have the right to hate on his work.

That said — it’s really my only complaint about this film. Kennedy went to great lengths to interview a host of comedians, actors and performers who shared some really great stories and insights on heckling. I’m sure hecklers have existed since the Romans battled gladiators, and this film sheds some great light on an awkward social faux  pas. We’ve all experienced it, whether it’s at a movie or at a comedy club, that jerk yelling remarks from the back. It’s hard enough to make people laugh, but it’s just painful when a heckler verbally assaults a comic. There are some really great interview with comedians in “Heckler,” from David Cross and Louie Anderson to Bill Maher, and it’s really fun to hear their stories. It’s also interesting to see how hard it can be on them. More than I anticipated.

It was also funny to watch Kennedy interview a really awkward blogger who absolutely vomitted all over his work. However, as annoying as that guy is, he deserves a voice. It’s just not as annoying as the guy shouting from the back of the theater. And Kennedy interviews that guy, too. This is an often hilarious and insightful documentary that’s definitely worth a watch.

Kumaré

Filmmaker Vikram Gandhi puts an unexpected twist on this sobering documentary about spirituality and the power of suggestion when he poses as a prophet named Kumaré and develops a sizable following in the American Southwest.

Matt
Rating: 7 out of 10

On the surface, it seems like Vikram Gandhi is just duping some hapless people when he poses as a guru from India and persuades them to follow him.

But what Gandhi did was teach them about “illusions” of spiritual leaders, and that they don’t need them and that all strength comes from within. He manages to get a group of 15 faithful followers — a medical student and death row defense attorney among them — who are firm believers in the teachings of Kumaré, Gandhi’s guru alter-ego.

I just love how Gandhi challenges the audience, making us uncomfortable as he teaches a lot of made up nonsense, talking in a fake accent (he’s from New Jersey), as he dons authentic garb of India with a grown-out beard and long hair. He gets people to do some pretty silly things and open up to him with deep, personal problems. If you have faith, it challenges your ideals. If you have none (like the filmmaker), then it reaffirms your belief. And Gandhi did his homework — interviewing other so-called gurus and guides. At the end, there is a reveal, and while I won’t give anything away, it’s a very satisfying closure. This film is available on Netflix streaming, and it’s definitely worth a watch. Such a great concept for a film.

The Ten Greatest Movies Ever Made

Today marks our one year anniversary. It’s hard to believe it’s gone by so quickly, and it’s even harder to fathom how quickly our site has grown. We never thought when we started that we’d be getting tens of thousands of readers and listeners. We humbly thank you all for reading.

Surprisingly, there is only one film on our list that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. All of them, with the exception of Paths of Glory, were nominated for best picture. We scanned all genres, decades, and nations to pull together a list we’re very happy with. It wasn’t easy, but it sure was fun. We’re not ranking them. Instead, we’re simply naming these The Ten Greatest Movies Ever Made:

Paths of Glory: This is an anti-war film that looks at the true inhumanity we don’t often speak of in war, and that is how we treat our own soldiers. Paths of Glory has a script that is wise without ever wagging a finger in our faces and has some of the best war cinematography ever seen. It gives a sense of gloom and a foreboding destiny for the soldiers. Kirk Douglas was fantastic.

The Wrestler: This is simply a phenomenal film. We’ve heard people say it was nothing but violence and a “dumb guy movie.” They missed the point. This is a father/daughter story. It’s about a man who makes every wrong decision, but always tries to make it right. He has a great heart, but can’t get out of his own way. It’s a heartbreaking story with a performance by Mickey Rourke that is rarely seen. He is the only man that could have been Randy “The Ram.”

Forrest Gump: Is one of those rare films that touch on every aspect of our lives: love, loss, hope, fear, humor, confusion, growth and being lost before you find your way. This film was brilliantly directed and acted and had incredible waves of emotion, from complete hilarity to disbelief, heartbreak and fear. It’s a masterpiece.

Dr. Strangelove: It’s hard to believe that someone could make the Cold War funny, but that’s exactly what Stanley Kubrick did in this dark, smart comedy he co-wrote and directed. He took something that gripped two nations with fear and had the intelligence to make a script with absolute levity. We couldn’t be happier to have this film on the list.

Raging Bull: Which film won best picture at the Oscars the year Raging Bull was nominated? Anyone? Anyone? Exactly. It was “Ordinary People,” a good but forgettable film. Raging Bull will always stand the test of time. It’s unforgettable. As the great Roger Ebert said: “(Raging Bull) is a movie about brute force, anger, and grief. It is also, like several of Scorsese’s other movies, about a man’s inability to understand a woman except in terms of the only two roles he knows how to assign her: virgin or whore.”

Jaws: The perfect action thriller.  Amazing acting, tight and suspenseful directing, and an antagonist that lived up to the hype.  Each time we watch it, we think it’s even more than the last.  It put Steven Spielberg on the map and ushered in the first summer blockbuster.

The Shawshank Redemption: It takes an amazing story to grip you for three hours with little or no action.  Stop and think about it.  What was Shawshank’s big action scene? There wasn’t one.  Even the jail break at the end was told in flashback. And yet, we cannot remember a film that gripped us more than this one did.  The dialogue is thought provoking and honest and the acting of the entire collaborative cast gets you hooked right from the beginning.  This is the kind of movie that people can relate to and understand 100 years from now.  A gem.

Seven Samurai: Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece is a triumph of the human spirit.  It shows what can happen when a group of people decide to rise up against all odds and defend the life and people they love.  We are introduced to a foreign land in a foreign time spoken in a foreign tongue and yet there’s not a person on earth that can’t relate.  That’s a testament to not only Kurosawa the filmmaker but also Kurosawa the writer.  A true artist and genius.

The Exorcist: The most unnerving and frightening film ever made.  Why did it end up on this list?  Because it’s about more than pea soup vomit and curses thrown at holy men from a foul demon.  It’s about good winning over evil when it feels like all hope is lost.  It’s also about a faith challenged man, who despite his questioning of God, still finds his heart when he needs it most.  William Friedkin’s work here is stupendous and timeless.

Pulp Fiction: The greatest and most important independent film ever made.  It not only made Quentin Tarantino a household name, it also put Miramax on the map and opened doors for so many indepedent filmmakers.  Not only is the movie historically important but it is also amazing entertainment wrapped in possibly the greatest script ever written for the silver screen.  The dialogue is spot on perfect, the casting is perfect, the progression is perfect, and his direction is flawless.  You see where I’m going with this?  Perfect.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Documentarians Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg provide an uncompromising glimpse into the personal and professional life of comedian and red-carpet mainstay Joan Rivers, a woman clinging stubbornly and steadfastly to the pop-culture bandwagon. Stern and Sundberg — whose previous film, The Devil Came on Horseback, covered the Darfur genocide — take a no-less-intensive approach to their subject here, taking a hard look at fame’s bitter toll.

Lauren
Rating: 7 out of 10

Wow. “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” opens with a close up of a makeup-less, 75-year-old Joan Rivers and gets more revealing from there.

This documentary was filmed during what Rivers calls a slow year. She does stand up, puts on a play about her life, and stars on “The Celebrity Apprentice.” There are funny moments, well, funny lines. She is funny after all. And there are a lot of clips from her career and pictures of her life, which were awesome to see. But mostly this is a sad, sad look at an insecure old woman who has had a lot of tough times.

She’s candid about everything from beauty, sex, plastic surgery, her daughter, and her husband’s suicide. “A Piece of Work” is a really well made documentary and you have to give Joan credit for being so open about her life.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Filmmaker Thierry Guetta had been casually documenting the underground world of street art for years, but when he encounters Banksy, an elusive British stencil artist, his project takes a fascinating twist. Unimpressed with Guetta’s footage, Banksy takes over filmmaking duties and Guetta reinvents himself as a street artist named Mr. Brainwash — and, much to Banksy’s surprise, immediately becomes a darling of the Los Angeles art scene.

Lauren
Rating: 9 out of 10

After waiting for “Exit Through the Gift Shop” to finally get to Las Vegas and about five failed attempts to see it with some friends, I snuck off on Saturday afternoon and caught the film in a small, crowded theater.

When reading the description of the movie, which started out as a “filmmaker’s” attempt to get the famous and elusive street artist Banksy on film but ended up with Banksy turning the camera on the “filmmaker,” I was confused. But, it doesn’t matter what the description is or why the movie was made. It is amazing from beginning to end. Even if I didn’t completely know what was happening until close to the end. I loved the art and laughed the entire time.

I can’t explain what happens without giving away the humor and twist of the story. All I can say is I loved it and can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t. If you love art, if you think art can be joke, if you think street art is beautiful or if you think it was cool but now it’s not because everyone says it is, if you don’t even care about art, I still can’t imagine you wouldn’t be interested in this movie.

Catfish

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman document the strange series of events that unfolds when a gifted 8-year-old artist named Abby contacts Nev, a 24-year-old photographer (and Schulman’s brother), through Facebook. After Abby sends Nev a remarkable painting based on one of his photos, Nev begins corresponding with her family — including her seductive 19-year-old sister. Realizing that something’s not quite right, Nev sets out to uncover the truth.

Brian
Rating: 5 out of 10

If Catfish is real, it’s a 7. If it’s not, it’s a 3. So, I’m basically giving it a 5 because I’m not sure. Either way, it’s a well told documentary/mocumentary that had me very interested in its outcome. The lead up was boring as shit. Guy starts getting paintings that are supposedly from a young girl named Abby. He then starts corresponding with several members of her family and develops an online romance with one of them. It keeps escalating and escalating until the guy starts to notice things don’t add up and starts to investigate while his brother documents the whole thing. As in other reviews, I will not tell you what happened except to say that the ending is done in a satisfying way. There are no weird killings or bullshit like that. It’s just a story about how people communicate and hook up in the digital age and how things are not always what they seem.

By the way, I looked into this film to see if it’s real and the two brothers that made it swear up and down that it is. I have no evidence to state otherwise but I have my suspicions that it isn’t.

Crumb

Director Terry Zwigoff spent six years compiling this portrait of underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, an animation cult hero whose characters Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural became counterculture icons. Candid interviews with Crumb’s friends, family and the artist himself render a compelling profile of a tormented man who transcended a harrowing upbringing. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

Brian
Rating: 10 out of 10

Terry Zwigoff’s “Crumb” is a tribute to the artistic process and proof that brilliant art doesn’t need structure. It only needs imagination and experience to fuel it.

There’s a brief scene in the film where Robert Crumb explains that great art has come from very oppressive governments, unhappy homes, and ideals and moralities that differ from what we could call normal. This isn’t a bad thing. Openness to art is part of the process of accepting what its message or intent may mean to us. Robert Crumb’s artwork to this day is seen as misogynistic, racist, and demeaning. But when you see this film and take in where the artist comes from, you start to see a much bigger picture and why the world feels so ugly and simplistic at times to him. There’s one great scene where Robert Crumb sits on a park bench and just watches the world go by on a city street and draws as he sees it. Some would call him mentally ill for the way he views the people walking by. His drawings of the people he sees makes them look almost zombie-like and self-centered without any motivation at all. His own family may explain his pessimism. His brother, Charlie, a great artist in his own right, lives with his mother and never leaves his bedroom. His entire life is spent reading and drawing far away from the world. His other brother Max, another great artist, suffers from mental illness and constant seizures.

Where am I going with all of this? Art is an extension of the inner feelings of the artist. Great art is not always pretty, but it’s ALWAYS honest. I’m proud to say I’ve rarely seen a film as honest as Crumb.

Rating: 10 out of 10

 

 

Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb is a tribute to the artistic process and proof that brilliant art doesn’t need structure.  It only needs imagination and experience to fuel it.  There’s a brief scene in the film where Robert Crumb explains that great art has come from very oppressive governments, unhappy homes, and ideals and moralities that differ from what we could call normal.  This isn’t a bad thing.  Openness to art is part of the process of accepting what its message or intent may mean to us.  Robert Crumb’s artwork to this day is seen as misogynistic, racist, and demeaning.  But, when you see this film and take in where the artist comes from you start to see a much bigger picture and why the world feels so ugly and simplistic at times to him.  There’s one great scene where Robert Crumb sits on a park bench and just watches the world go by on a city street and draws as he sees it.  Some would call him mentally ill for the way he views the people walking by.  His drawings of the people he sees makes them look almost zombie-like and self centered without any motivation at all.  His own family may explain his pessimism.  His brother Charlie, a great artist in his own right, lives with his mother and never leaves his bedroom.  His entire life is spent reading and drawing far away from the world.  His other brother Max, another great artist, suffers from mental illness and constant seizures.

 

Where am I going with all of this?  Art is an extension of the inner feelings of the artist.  Great art is not always pretty, but it’s ALWAYS honest.  I’m proud to say I’ve rarely seen a film as honest as Crumb.

Jackass 3D

Johnny Knoxville — the original Jackass himself — returns after a long hiatus and subjects himself to all-new stunts involving wild animals, dangerous heights and other perils guaranteed to do him bodily harm. “Jackass” regulars Bam Margera and Steve-O also endure their share of punishment in this collection of stomach-churning, don’t-ever-try-these-at-home acrobatics that time and again blur the line between hilarious and tasteless.

Brian
Rating: 6 out of 10

It’s really hard to judge Jackass as a film because it has no story.  If any of you are not familiar with the Jackass series on MTV, it’s really just a collection of dumb stunts that several lifelong friends do that will make you question their sanity.  In this particular installment, we get everything from a port-a-potty getting launched into the air with 2 bungee cords and nothing but a human being and feces inside to create a shit cocktail, a pig eating an apple out of a fat man’s ass, and two of the “stunt men” going into a ram’s cage and playing horn instruments to aggravate it until it attacks.  Some of these stunts are drop dead hilarious and well worth your time.  Others are disgusting, such as when they’re drinking sweat or launching shit directly out of their ass.  Some people may love gross humor.  If any of the disgusting stunts I mentioned don’t bother you, you’ll enjoy the film even more.  Personally, it makes me want to puke.  But there’s enough stunts that didn’t involve bodily waste that I still enjoyed it.  Either way, proceed with caution. 

Note:  I saw the film in 2D because 3D sucks and I’m standing up to the film studios that are making me pay extra for something I don’t want.  So, I obviously can’t comment on the 3D portions.

The Aristocrats

More than 100 funny people (including big stars and lesser-known talents) tell the same raunchy vaudeville joke — with about 100 different results — in director-comedian Paul Provenza’s outrageously potty-mouthed documentary. Nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the unabashedly uncensored film catches a wide swath of comedians, writers and intellectuals at their casually comic best.

Matt
Rating: 9 out of 10

I rarely laugh this hard at anything, but I couldn’t help myself with “The Aristocrats.”

It’s a simple joke: A guy goes into a talent agency and says, “Have I got an act for you!” Fill in the rest with anything disgusting and crass, then end with the agent saying, “That’s horrible! What do you call it?” To which the guy says, “The Aristocrats.”

This is an inside baseball kind of documentary that gives us a glimpse into a joke told by generations of comedians who have tried to one-up each other by improvising some of the most disgusting jokes you’ve ever heard. This is not a documentary for the faint of heart, but it’s definitely brillitant in its simplicity. It’s got some great moments from some of comedy’s best, such as Robin Williams, Lewis Black, Sarah Silverman and the late and amazing George Carlin. This is a flick for people who like stand-up comedy and don’t mind filthy humor. Perhaps the filthiest you’ll ever hear.