Summer is here, and it’s freaking hot. Honestly, I spent the last couple of days sleeping in drippy sweat.
But the fact that I know something wonderful is going to be in New York soon keeps me all cold and wonderful inside.
The New York Asian Film Festival is back in town! That’s right. Crazy Asian movies are invading the city.
Fuck yes. Expect more coverage when the date gets closer.
Daryl Wein’s first narrative feature film, Breaking Upwards, is a romantic comedy that follows the mishaps of two young New Yorkers.After being together for four years, their relationship is at a turning point. The couple struggles together throughout the film to either make the relationship work,
or subconsciously strategize their own break-up. The film, loosely based on the filmmakers’ real relationship, takes place in a world of twenty-somethings that
is reminiscent of the mumblecore films coming out of Brooklyn in the last decade or so. However, Wein makes it his case to stand apart from the almost predictable “mumblecorps”.
The two leads, Daryl and Zoe, basically play themselves, as the film’s story is based on their real life relationship. This kind of thing tends to make me nervous a bit– like how Woody Allen always casts himself to basically play himself. It can easily turn self-indulgent. Thankfully, Breaking Upwards is different. There is something very likable about Daryl and Zoe. They are attractive, they are funny, self-deprecating, if not somewhat emotionally stunted, but they are charming! This is a big deal and helped make the film work. Everybody else in the film is also really good.Olivia Thirlby makes a small, cute, but forgettable appearance. But I have to give kudos to both Andrea Martin and Julie White who play the leads’ respective mothers, they easily have the funniest lines in the film. Throughout the film, you kind of have the feeling that the cast gets along with each other or they are friends that hang out together all the time or something. Read more…
A couple of days ago, I got the chance to talk to Daryl Wein (Breaking Upwards, Sex Positive). We chatted about his first feature narrative, working with a girlfriend, mumblecore and a bunch of other stuff. Daryl was obviously tired from a busy day, but he was nice enough to be barraged with more questions.
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Alex Thebez: Where do you see yourself in relation to the current generation of Brooklyn filmmakers today? Do you associate yourself with the mumblecore genre?
Daryl Wein: No, I don’t consider myself to be part of the mumblecore movement at all. I would consider myself to be part of the “D.I.Y.”, Do It Yourself film movement, but I’m trying to do something much different from the mumblecore movement where the characters are more thoughtful and more interesting and more complex and there’s more production value and story than in the mumblecore movies.
AT: Totally. One of the reasons why I brought that up is that I saw the movie with a couple of my friends and they mentioned [mumblecores]. But I think there is a fundamental difference that is very evident in your movies but at the same time there are similarities because Breaking Upwards is about young people.
DW: The difference is also that [the film] has such a strong inter-generational storyline with the parents that no other mumblecore film really has, which is yet another departure from the mumblecore movement. Like what you are saying, we do share the similarities that the story focuses on twenty-somethings, but I think the parents definitely set it apart. Read more…
I know the guys at Twitch love the Edgertons brothers and their collective, Blue Tongue Films (They also have another movie called Animal Kingdom, another crime movie that is getting rave reviews). But to be honest, the only thing that I have ever seen out of the famed Australian duo is a little violent and poignant film called Spider.
The Edgerton brothers first real feature film feels familiar but fresh at the same time.The Square is essentially a neo-noir, following all the troupes and conventions of a noir film but with a contemporary setting. The film follows Raymond Yale (David Roberts), an ordinary contractor who supervises the construction of a honeymoon hotel. Aside from his affair with a neighbor, Carla (Claire van der Boom), his life is pretty ordinary. Everything inevitably changes when Carla and Ray stumble on a bag of cash that offer the promise of a new life. The couple plots to get away with the money, but then everything starts to spiral out of control rather quickly.
I have to say that romantic comedy is a tricky genre to nail. At least for me personally, it’s more often a miss than a hit. Often the ‘romance’ feels rather forced, or the ‘comedy’ would just fall kind of flat and secondary. Although I do watch bad Hollywood ones for giggles, out of boredom.
I actually bumped on the trailer on Apple’s trailer section before our own Jenny Francois told me to check it out.
Local filmmaker, Daryl Wein’s debut feature screeened at SXSW not too long ago and it’s about to premiere here in New York this weekend at the IFC theater.
Breaking Upwards is a little indie film that follows a young, real-life New York couple in a fictional narrative loosely inspired by their open relationship. After four years together, the two have grown stifled. Desperate to escape their ennui, but fearful of life apart, they decide to intricately strategize their own break up.
Sita Sings the Blues is a film that went through a lot, before it finally saw a way to reach an audience. The film has made quite a buzz when it first started appearing in various festivals quite some time ago. Unfortunately, out of nowhere, legal troubles concerning the film’s soundtrack emerged and stopped it from obtaining proper distribution.
The film itself is quite unique. Sita is an animated feature that re-tells a well-known Hindi fable, the Ramayana. The twist? The film’s narrative is accompanied by the 1920’s jazzy vocal stylings of Annette Hanshaw. Jazz and a Hindi folklore story make an interesting and fresh combination. The film’s soundtrack, what made Sita so different and gave the film a lot of buzz, is also what delayed it from being seen by an excited audience.
Filmmaker, Nina Paley, was shocked to find that Annette Hanshaw’s recordings which were supposedly became part of the public domain, was protected by copyright. The last time I heard about the movie, Paley was attempting to gather funds to pay for royalty so she could properly distribute her passion project.
Recently, I checked back on the status of the film and I was pleasantly surprised. Paley has decided to distribute the film for free! Any form of payment that she might receive because of the film, are counted as donation. She also sells pretty merchandise for the film too!
Ok, so the title may be kind of hoakey. But this is a really good documentary, giving us a look at the culture behind the music. What it was, what it has become, and why Hip Hop has gotten to the state that we know it know.
