Friday, January 6, 2006

Get in the loop

Indie films series begins Thursday in Ketchum and Hailey


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

Bad Santa

With the start of the Outside the Loop indie films series beginning Thursday, Jan. 11, movies and not just ones with huge gorillas or cute Christian-lore stand-ins will be screened at two Wood River valley locales.

The two directors who'll be in our midst are indie flick success stories, to some degree. They have made names for themselves in a world where it seems anyone with a camera can claim he's a filmmaker. In fact, one of the movies to be shown during the series—"American Movie"—is about a guy who does just that. But Terry Zwigoff and John O'Brien are more than fledgling artiste-wannabes. Their unique movies have been shown at numerous film festivals around the country and been honored with awards. The two directors, though wildly different in style, are respected craftsmen and renowned for their writing as well as lensing.

The following are the films that will be playing over the course of the weekend:

"Louie Blue" (1986) directed by Terry Zwigoff, this debut film is about a little known group of jazz musicians, led by one Howard Armstrong. The documentary follows Armstrong around as he plays music with long-time musical partner Ted Bogan, and others. It also accompanies him on a visit to his Tennessee childhood home, while philosophizing on music, love and life. In keeping with Zwigoff's love of the odd, the film peruses Armstrong's semi-pornographic journals that are filled with the lurid, the bawdy and his observations of life.

"Crumb" (1994) directed by Terry Zwigoff, details the cartoonist Robert Crumb's gothic world, including his iconic images of Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, Zap Comics, Keep on Truckin', and cover art for Big Brother and the Holding Company's "Cheap Thrills" album. Zwigoff is an old friend and fellow member of the Cheap Suit Serenaders, the group Crumb formed in the 1970s to play his beloved old music. The movie was the winner of the grand jury prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. "Crumb" is a sometimes creepy but incredibly fascinating tale.

"Man With A Plan" (1996) was O'Brien's first film in what became known as the "Tunbridge Trilogy" after his hometown in Vermont where the films were shot. The late Fred Tuttle, a retired dairy farmer, plays a fictionalized version of himself, aging, can't pay his taxes, on medical care and may loose his farm. His 96-year-old father thinks Fred should go into politics. After all, he says, it's the only job in America that requires no previous experience or education and pays $129,500 per year. In an American moment of life imitating art, Tuttle did run for the U.S. Senate, using a mere $251 to do so. Of course, he lost to incumbent Sen. Patrick Leahy, for whom he confessed he had voted.

"American Movie" (1999) was the sophomore effort by director Chris Smith. At a film festival in Canada, Smith happened to meet a quirky Wisconsin grassroots filmmaker named Mark Borchardt, who needed money to complete his movie. Smith thought, "Great subject!"

With the help of his mother, uncle, and a local cast of Wisconsin characters, Borchardt proceeds to make his horror film "Coven." Meanwhile, "American Movie" about this quest won the 1999 Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, where Sony Pictures Classics acquired the film for just shy of one million dollars.

"Ghost World" (2001) was loosely adapted from a novel-length comic book by Daniel Clowes about teenage eccentricity. Zwigoff and Clowes collaborated on the screenplay. It stars young ingenue actresses Thora Birch and Scarlett Johannson as the bored teens who rebel against the conformity that rules their lives. Their primary function is to hang out in coffee shops and record stores while mocking everyone and everything.

If you think you can get this just by watching your own teens, you'd be wrong. This is a biting satire. Indie god Steve Buscemi, playing a reclusive record collector, is befriended by Birch's character.

"City of Ghosts" (2002) is about a small time con artist named Jimmy played by Matt Dillon, who also wrote and directed the film. He sets out to collect his take on his latest scheme. Meanwhile, New York cops are poking around in search of Marvin played by James Caan, who reputedly masterminded the operation. He goes on the lam thinking that hiding out in Bangkok, while searching for Marvin himself, might work. His search takes him to Cambodia, where the boss is said to be in hiding.

This movie, which has a great score, was the first filmed in Cambodia since the 1960s. For visuals alone, the film proves evocative in a Graham Greene manner. It took Dillon seven years to make this film.

"Nosey Parker" (2003) is the third in O'Brien's "Tunbridge Trilogy." A smug older husband shrink and his second (read: trophy) wife move up to Vermont from the faster paced Tri-state—New Jersey, New York, Connecticut—area. They build a grand house on a gorgeous piece of land and settle down.

He's smug and insensitive. She's vulnerable (after all she married her shrink) and lonely. When a trio of local Tax Assessors arrive, she invites one of them, a craggy old fellow, George Lyford to return.

A retired dairy farmer, Lyford was in his 80s when the movie was made and sadly died soon after. He becomes the companion and friend the lonely wife needs, while introducing her to his life and the Vermont that lays beyond her manicured lawn. "Nosey Parker" is lovingly shot amidst brilliant fall foliage,

Originally conceived by Joel and Ethan Coen, "Bad Santa" (2004) is the most recently released of Zwigoff's films and his most mainstream, though only so far as money, stars and Hollywood are concerned. He is still fascinated with the near grotesque. Billy Bob Thornton plays the title character, a despicable petty criminal hiding in a red suit and never giving an inch to win sympathy from the audience, even when a goofy kid gloms onto him and refuses to let go.

Manohla Dargis, then with the Los Angles Times wrote, "This is a superb stink bomb of an entertainment, generously larded with jokes about alcoholics, short people, dim children and the kind of sexual congress that until recently was illegal in nine states." And she liked it. Not a film for kids, rather "Bad Santa" is a holiday movie for the most cynical of adults, albeit those who make an attempt to go for the gold at the end.

Admission for all the films is $7.50.

Schedule for films

When: Thursday, Jan 12, 7 p.m.
What: Documentaries: "Louie Bluie," (not rated) and Crumb" (rated R)
Post-film discussion with director Terry Zwigoff.
Where: Magic Lantern, Ketchum.

When: Friday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m.
What: "Man with a Plan" (rated PG).
Post-film discussion with director John O'Brien.
Where: The Mint, Hailey.

When: Saturday, Jan 14
What: Noon, "American Movie," introduction by John O'Brien. 2:30 p.m., "City of Ghosts," introduction by Terry Zwigoff. Both films are rated R.
Where: Magic Lantern.

When: Saturday, Jan 14
What: 7 p.m., "Bad Santa" (rated R) introduction by Terry Zwigoff.
Where: The Mint.

When: Sunday, Jan 15.
What: "Ghost World," Noon, introduction by Terry Zwigoff (rated R).
"Nosey Parker" 2 p.m., introduction by John O'Brien (rated PG).
Where: Magic Lantern.




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