IFP/PHX Cinema lounge: some new faces to the AZ indie scene

IFP/PHX Cinema Lounge had its last film festival of the summer on Friday, July 30, 2010. Five films were screened by local filmmakers, as well as newcomers to the Phoenix indie film scene.

Unusual Scum – Eric Zaklukiewicz
Not quite sure what’s really going on here. Zaklukiewicz describes his film as a story about people that “somebody might look at and go ‘this guy needs a shower and needs to get a job.’ It tells the story about why he doesn’t take showers and get a job.” A down and out alcoholic has a bug zapper-bulb moment and decides not only to get a job, but to get a career. He trades all of his belongings for a suit at a pawnshop before embarking on his quest for gainful employment. Zaklukiewicz may be trying to offer a sympathetic view of people experiencing adversity, but he presents the characters in such a disdainful, cynical light, its hard to feel anything, as the characters pinball between Aurthur Miller melancholy and Farrelley Brothers boorishness. Acting is excellent.
Final Take – Unusually scummy

The Objective – Lee Ann Cone (Previously reviewed)

Real Fantasy – Adam Esposito
A graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Arizona newcomer Esposito has found himself a welcome addition to the gun totin,’ head explodin,’ kin killin’ cadre of Arizona indie filmmakers. He begins his film by presenting James (Aaron Houle), a babbling, psychotic college student whose brain is squirmin’ like a toad. Props are pshawed when sitting on the Navy Seal Slaughter Sound FX Suite, so just fingers in the pow-pow position suffice for a bloody, one man, fantasy shoot-em-up. Four and a half minutes later, James is interrupted by caring friend Kevin (Jeff Metcalfe), who invites the schizophrenic-but-loveable nut job over to his place for his own surprise birthday party.

Deciding to skip the party instead, James meanders through the cold, dark streets of Rochester, New York. As James contemplates his life on his birthday, he finds himself facing several flesh and blood manifestations of his fantasies, and wrestling with his reactions to them. Esposito struggles with the same creative dichotomy befalling many indie filmmakers; the desire to create a film inspired by emotion and experience, vs. cranking out a film based on the gore FX one has mastered. As two separate films, the character of deranged, closeted James and introverted, social outcast James could have held their own. Esposito deftly establishes this by presenting his cast with competent, detailed production throughout his thesis project. The steaming, genetic fusion we are left with in Pod #3, however, views more like “Ordinary People” meets “The Bourne Supremacy.” See "Real Fantasy" here.
Final Take – Fantasizing with your fingers is called something else.

The Ruffians – Travis Mills
Deep beneath Phoenix, beyond the glass and steel, life exists. Organic, orgasmic under-dwellers scurrying beneath the city, escaping the confines of their mundane existence and finding new life amongst the dirt and shadows. Mills powerfully portrays the descension of a disaffected attorney (Gordon Clark), who is inexplicably drawn to the dark, gaping yaw of a tunnel near his office. He finds himself embraced by the filthy urchins who live within the tunnel, and slowly assimilates into their dark, dirty world. Mills brilliantly minimizes dialogue, blurring most of it out with static and distortion, and instead, focuses on the visual, as we are drawn deeper into the cavern, and further from reality. Mills has mastered the most elusive technique to plague filmmakers since the invention of film, as a hand-held electric lantern warmly and mysteriously illuminates the journey through the tunnel. Deep opal blue succinctly blends with pure virgin-white light in a grainless, gainless, flawess spectrum of light and color.

“The Ruffians” combines an excellent cast and talented crew to present a tale of non-conformity and defiance in the face of oppression. Over-the-top(less) indie siren Dani Danger is perfect as the earthy, subterranean seductress, while Dean Veglia provides a convincing performance as the psuedo-sympathetic boss/antagonist. Mills and the crew of Guerrillastar Productions have delivered a finely crafted offering to the Arizona indie scene. With several future projects in pre-production, such as “The Big Something,” there is no telling what new and diverse directions these versatile young filmmakers will take us.
Final Take – From the cavernous heart borne mysterious art.

Masters of Daring – Nathan Blackwell (Previously reviewed)