Tag: Larry Fessenden

RIVER OF GRASS (1994)

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Written & Directed By: Kelly Reichardt
Story By: Jesse Hartman 
Cinematography: Jim Denault 
Editor: Larry Fessenden 

Cast: Lisa Bowman, Larry Fessenden, Dick Russell, Stan Kaplan, Michael Buscemi 

Cozy, a dissatisfied housewife, meets Lee at a bar. A drink turns into a home break-in, and a gunshot sends them on the run together, thinking they’ve committed murder.

This film is about a wanna Bonnie & Clyde. A makeshift couple on the run that is never romantic or lustful. 

The film starts off well and feels inventive and tells the story fast and vividly. Introducing us to the characters and their motivations. as even the small details help set up the main Characters and offer spontaneity in their day-to-day supposedly mundane lives. 

As it feels random at first. But the film catches up with that. As the story goes along we see how everything becomes connected and in this small town in Florida. They are literally passing by each other and not realizing they are the ones they are seeking.

A bored housewife seeks adventure in a loser would be a drifter and go on a crime spree of no regard though they think it is. As they go On the run. Not realizing no one is really looking. For them except for her. As her family wants to know why she has run away. Not to mention their crimes aren’t prosperous nor exciting. If anything they are more embarrassing but not in a broadly comedic way. They come off more as pathetic. As we watch the others their lives intersect with good ones.

Writer/Director Kelly Reichart films are very detail-oriented and more at the moment while we watch life and the characters move at a more day to day moment to moment pace. Her films are almost still Life may. They aren’t made with a broad canvas but are affecting if you are willing to watch and can take the slower pace and usually no frills.

This isn’t the first film Of her’s I have seen. Though this is one of her earlier ones and from the ones I have seen this is one of her quicker-paced and more conventional films.

This film shows an interest in a crime story. Where there is practically no crime. This was made before she went full-fledged into cinematic studies of life and characters At the moment.

NIGHT MOVES comes the closest of her later films where there seems to be some sort of action and offers more conventional entertainment.

In the end, this comes off as pathetic but a little soulful In its Eclecticness. So that it feels alive and free whenever offbeat 

GRADE: B-

THE BATTERY (2012)

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Written & Directed By: Jeremy Gardenr 

Cinematography By: Christian Stella 

Editor: Michael Katzman & Alicia Stella 

Cast: Jeremy Gardner, Adam Cronheim, Niels Bolle, Alana O’Brein, Larry Fessenden

Two former baseball players, Ben and Mickey, cut an aimless path across a desolate New England. They stick to the back roads and forests to steer clear of the shambling corpses that patrol the once bustling cities and towns. In order to survive, they must overcome the stark differences in each other’s personalities. Ben embraces an increasingly feral, lawless, and nomadic lifestyle while Mickey is unable to accept the harsh realities of the new world and longs for the creature comforts he once took for granted. A bed, a girl, and a safe place to live. When the men intercept a radio transmission from a seemingly thriving, protected community, Mickey will stop at nothing to find it, even though it is made perfectly clear that he is not welcome.

More of an odd couple in a zombie landscape. Watching how the two characters survive, the situations they find themselves in while trying to find food and safe shelter along the way. Not real direction to a location.

The film also shows the forming of the relationship of friendship between the lead characters whose personalities constantly clash.

The film is darkly humorous at times and stark. It casts a spell on you with charm and depending on how you feel about the characters. Is probably how you will feel about the film.

The film feels like THE WALKING DEAD only focusing on two characters and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. More like a character study mixed in a zombie apocalypse film. Even though the zombie market is over-saturated on all kinds of the media market. It’s nice To see other views and stories to tell. It’s up to you to decide if they are worth watching and pursuing.

Its limited budget makes the lesser amenities on display give the film a realistic pallor and impresses with what is achieved with so little funding. Creating a vision and world. Director Jeremy Gardner raised the $6,000 budget for this movie by asking ten different friends for six hundred dollars each.

I really enjoyed this film. Even with it’s more modest kind of hipster touches that dips into Mumblecore a bit, but quickly redeems itself with its own identity and creating a cult character worth rooting for.

There are really only two characters though there are lots of scenes that have no dialogue though provide a catchy fun soundtrack of score that sets the scenes and mood.

Composer Ryan Winford used such unconventional instruments as a toaster and a beer bottle for the score.

What the film does effectively creates a world that you want to see more of, but cleverly does it on such a small scale it keeps you off guard to the rules and boundaries of it.

The film keeps managing to surprise as it’s tone turns from light comical to surprisingly dark with unexpected problems and resolutions. That feels more realistic than fantasy. Since it leaves you slightly off base.

Is it is only a coincidence that the four main characters are unintentionally named after famous mice. Ben (from Willard), Mickey, Jerry (from Tom & Jerry), Annie (from the Annie Mouse books)?

The film also leaves you with questions and ends with a kind of mystery that leaves it open for more or with a quaint ending that leaves more to explore and a knowledge that people still Inhabit it.

It leaves room for either a sequel or to further explore the world it is set in.

Grade: B-