Change Your Image
adamdanielmezei
Reviews
Isthmus (2021)
You're sure to get a visceral reaction from what's depicted in this film!
It's a downright pity this film's bold marketing and distribution run was interrupted by the suddenness of the global pandemic...themes and subject material this film transacts in are so incredibly vital for a theater-going audience -- in fact, the subject matter crosses cultural boundaries -- and more of an audience around the world deserves to see this film. That COVID swooped in and interrupted ISTHMUS' flow is truly a shame, but ISTHMUS is seeming to enjoy something of a second life with the advent of 2024.
At screening events throughout the New Year in which the director has been in attendance, crowd uptake is always so vigorous and audience questions are trenchant and rarely "softball."
If you're a fan of truly great performances, the way Reece Presley portrays the madcap possessive controlling energy of protagonist ETHAN is going to penetrate deep into your soul. There are stellar cast dynamics on this picture.
If there's a chance for you to catch this film anywhere, do so. It's going to remain with you long after your first viewing.
Last Statement (2013)
A seamless whole from a collaborative effort...
I was one of the fortunate handful to have had a chance to catch this provocative yet engaging film very shortly after its final cut about a year ago -- as of this writing -- and I can safely say the visceral body-shuddering fly-on-the-wall experience of listening to the last repentant (some unrepentant) ponderous reflections of various inmates on Death Row still remains with me to this day...
The quorum of directors who assisted on this unique cross-continental collaborative mash- up did a truly standout job with their particular segments, but the real mastery of this film comes from the conceptual head of the pyramid, Orla Wolf, who assembled the disparate ingredients in this provocative goulash into a cohesive narrative and an even more in-your- face artistic statement.
That's right: in-your-face!
LAST STATEMENT is art expressly designed to cause you to squirm in your plush padded chair. This is art which will prod you into questioning your very freedom and those cherished vaunted values about our individual liberties which we all hold dear.
Do *you*, friend, laud the freedom you currently possess?
Do you seize it mightily in order to serve yours -- and society's -- best interests?
Or is it an unbridled over-exuberant me-first all-me-and-only-me liberty run amok, destroying you and others in its path. Wreaking havoc on our order, our system, our square...
These are some of the question you will ask yourself as you finish your view, because those were just some of things that occurred to me.
If LAST STATEMENT is the future of guerrilla indie filmmaking -- where artist-director- conceptualists from -- literally -- around the planet band together as sisters and brothers in the making of a narrative one-piece, then count me in!
With the disintegrative forces so very potentially high on a project of this internationalist collaborative nature -- when the "pull apart" looms so threateningly stronger over the "join together" on something of this magnitude -- and to then pull it off and kick butt at the end...that deserves more than a plain vanilla kudo.
Very well done, gang. Marvellously well done.
Bomb It 2 (2010)
Six years later, Jon Reiss is back with a stellar sequel...
Indie marketing strategist, international lecturer, and, more importantly, documentary filmmaker Jon Reiss -- yes, that same Jon Reiss who brought us the first instalment of the Bomb It series -- boldly returns with the long-awaited followup to his whirlwind global tour of graffiti-around-the-world.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Reiss is back with a vengeance, more jet-lagged than ever.
Spanning another four-pack of continents and a grab bag of nations both developed, developing, and Third World alike, we, loyalists and aficionados of the swelling Reiss oeuvre, feast once again on the delectable offerings in this engaging work of social commentary.
It's a doc which attempts to explain -- in interview format as is the traditional Reiss custom -- the reasons why the men and women who love to "detonate bombs" simply do the things they do. If you've ever wondered why, now's your chance to find out once and for all.
The world's revolved another six years and the indie film distribution landscape has turned over on itself like a piñata on the juice -- where it stops nobody really knows (and anyone who tells you they do is a rotten egg).
The production values on this new film -- from the graphics, to the tunes, to the title cards delectably done by animator Joaquin Baldwin, plus the sundry Bonus Features (believe me, there are many!) -- are what will likely catapult Bomb It 2 to even greater renown than the first.
Reiss has scooped up a few tricks in the intervening half-dozen years and stacking the films up side-by-side, Bomb It-s 1 and 2, you can't help but notice.
WHY YOU WANT TO WATCH THIS FILM:
You don't want to catch a glimpse of Bomb It 2 because I respect the sort of work Jon Reiss and Co. set their minds to. I also don't want you to run to view this film because I said so.
You want to watch this film because:
** it's a very good piece of filmmaking entertainment, and you could use the break from screen-tapping and status updating ** the visuals are stunning -- regardless of how you feel about the creative commons -- the hours invested by these various creative professionals into their work boggles the mind and will floor you ** Reiss has worked very hard, logged a lot of air time, and been far away from his family to bring this piece of documentary artistry our way ** the artists all have something unique to tell us and you will learn something new from all of them, as I did. Just when you think you all there was to know about graffiti and the creative commons, along comes Bomb It 2, and ** because this is the way documentaries are going to be shot in the new lean non- traditional distribution era, and if you're an indie filmmaker looking to sink your chops in a serious campaign of audience engagement, you'll want to sit back and watch how Jon Reiss separates the men from the boys with this project.
And in the meantime...SPRAY ON!