Celluloid Sunday!

I almost skipped out on Celluloid Sunday today. Been feeling fairly craptacular this week and today certainly hasn't been any better (physically). Though it was a good day for many other reasons, including the discovery of the beautiful brand new Bulk Barn currently under construction over by the Confed Walmart Supercenter! I cannot wait for opening day, sweet bulky goodness; how I've missed you! Then the man-thing and I went all in and made our own gnocchi for dinner. . . completely by hand. . . from the potato up! We kind of ended up with mixed results there, but it was more than edible, and definitely something we'll be revisiting in the future. In the end I decided it would be fairly defeatist of me to allow my second posting of my only 'recurrent' feature to flail and die before it had even begun. So while this post might be slightly lackluster, I find it totally in keeping with this week's offering; The Puffy Chair.

Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass shot this film back in 2005, with a budget somewhere around 15K, (it's probably safe to assume they had to beg, borrow, and steal every penny of it just to get the movie made) and it definitely looks it too. I'd liken it to a very high quality home movie stock, but that never prevents me from viewing a film, and sometimes even lends itself to a higher degree of realism. The premise here is an atypical road trip movie focused on the main character Josh's relationships with his long term girlfriend Emily, and brother Rhett.



This film suffers from a very slow start, and never fully recovers; making it a bit of a hard sell to those who aren't comfortable with the nuances of indie films. The Puffy Chair has the distinction of being one of the first films branded under the then newly coined terminology 'mumblecore' that I referred to last week. Even though some of the scenes feel a little stilted and the acting occasionally leaves something to be desired. . . Mark Duplass' writing is what propelled the film to win an Audience Award at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival. It was a fresh look at topics that have become the mainstay of mumblecore in the intervening years.

Duplass's own relationship with co-star Katie Aselton served as the catalyst here, giving their character exchanges that necessary sense of authenticity which carried the film. Without giving anything away here, again you get the abrupt ending with far less of a sense of closure than even The Vicious Kind affords the viewer. It's almost as if you've finally arrived at the central conflict of the plot, only to be told the ending was never written. Nevertheless The Puffy Chair leaves you wanting more from Duplass; which he subsequently delivers with films like The Intervention, Baghead, and most recently; Cyrus (a film I'm dying to see) .

Celluloid Sunday!

I've decided what this blog needs is a recurrent feature. . . or two. Therefore this post is the first in what will become a *hopefully* recurring series aptly named Celluloid Sunday! So let's start with the best film of 2009 that you've never , no really. . . you've NEVER seen. Heck, you may never have even heard of it, unless you really dig Brittany Snow, or indie films. Not being much of a Brittany Snow fan myself, (sorry Brittany I'm just not that familiar with your work) that leaves me firmly in the indie film fan category.

Brittany Snow is shocked & mildly disgusted by ninjarobotsthoughts blatant disregard for her career.

Thusly, I give you my deep and abiding passion for The Vicious Kind. This awesome little film has won several indie film awards and was nominated for many more but will just never find a large commercial market. It sits on the edge of what trendy movie people call "mumblecore" blending offbeat humour with dark dramatic passages of character growth and inferred plot expositions. These are the kind of films that are either deeply personally satisfying to you, or lull you into a semi-comatose state of WTF is happening here? and why did I agree to watch this? A feeling which is immediately compounded by the increasingly popular abrupt endings most of these films espouse.

Hollywood's big budget movie making machine has taught it's viewers to expect all plot lines to be wrapped up into neat little packages with pretty bows by the end of every film. All character issues are resolved to the extent where viewers can walk away satisfied that they know how the story ends. We know how it all works out for the characters. Their lives are better, their problems are solved; and Hollywood has your money, and you have a false sense of serenity. Big time movie directors sell you on the 'happy ending' every time. . . and on the odd occasion they don't the critics write it off as being "artsy". . . or "making a statement".

Indie film makers regularly employ the abrupt ending because that's precisely how life is really lived. We all come into this world somewhere in the middle of the story and leave it much the same way. We are all works in progress. Nothing is ever truly resolved. The best we can hope for on any given day is growth, and that's what these films showcase. The characters persevere, they endure; and with any luck we get to follow along on their journey and watch them grow. Sometimes by only the smallest of margins, but small changes often foster profound results.

If you can abide by that . . give The Vicious Kind a shot. It's worth it.