When a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound? Could that sound be the cheering of protestors or the crackling of fires? If a Tree Falls directed by Marshall Curry is a documentary that investigates the activities and history of the Environmental Liberation Front (E.L.F.) with Daniel McGowan as the medium. This thought provoking film makes us all gasp as our views on the environmental protection shifts from side to side in the rocky waters of truth. For me at least, this film not only highlights the E.L.F.’s troubles, but also echos the same frustrations many activists have felt in their own fields.

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So you are the lead male sex performer in a brothel who just beat up two cops. What are you going to do? Do sexual favors to get yourself to the Mexican border of course! That is the basic plot line of Sweet SweetBack’s Baadasssss Song by Melvin Van Peebles. The movie has sex, a man on the run, shootings, cop fights, explosions, cars on fire, motorcycles, more sex, corrupt politics and an African American that wins against the law. For myself, I just saw this as an exercise to pack in every vice and violent act into a single movie, so, in my opinion, if you want more of a message you need to find a different movie.

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Boys don’t Cry directed by Kimberly Peirce is properly rated R because of the many disturbing scenes in the story line – scenes which I found myself skipping over since they were too uncomfortable to sit through. Surprisingly, I found myself returning later to those scenes to try and understand the story. If you can handle the violence and the sometimes difficult subject matter, there is a great deal to find here. This film is not just about the R rating or even the violent people the main character has to face. Instead, it is about the one thing we all can relate too, the on going endeavor to be true to one’s minority.
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"What would you rather die for the sex or love?"

What would you do if you found out you were HIV positive? Take time to fulfill your last wishes, maybe see those you loved every chance you got? How about instead you run around America without a care getting high on drugs, having sex and raising havoc through acts of  vandalism? Well that is the adventure Luke, a crazy suicidal outcast, takes John, an emotional movie reviewer, on in The Living End. This is a movie that is both reflective of the age old question “What would you do if you knew you were going to die?” and critical of it.

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After opening last year with In Bruges, a film packed with star power and scheduled to open in theaters the following weekend, Sundance has chosen this year to open edgy and unpredictable.  It is not just that Mary and Max is an independent claymation flick from Australia, with a darkly comic theme about a lonely and misunderstood 8-year-old girl who strikes up an unlikely and disturbing correspondence and friendship with a 48-year-old overweight depressive male diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.  What was truly unexpected was the moving power of its simple message, achieved without resorting to sentimentalism or cliché.   (more…)

Although Martin Scorsese is better known for his versatility as a mainstream cinema filmmaker, he began his career creating several independent films. Mean Streets, one of his earlier films, provides the viewer with an insight into the creativity of this brilliant Italian-American filmmaker and sets the benchmark for his future crime/gang related films such as Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and The Departed. Even though Mean Streets carries many concepts and emotions that are displayed in these future films of Scorsese, the film has its own unique look and feel. I had heard of Mean Streets before but wasn’t prepared for the experience that Kevin Thomas labels as “an unqualified triumph.”

The story is set in Little Italy - New York - where Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a young Italian-American who is getting ready to go legit and take over a restaurant, thanks to his mob boss uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), and has everything one could ask for. His closest friend is Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) who owes money all over town and eventually brings about Charlie’s downfall. Charlie stands up for Johnny and vouches for him because of something that Johnny did for him in the past. Charlie often goes to church and believes that “you don’t make up for your sins in church, you do it on the streets.” Unknown to Johnny and the others, Charlie is secretly dating Johnny’s epileptic cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson), who wants him to take their relationship public and move in with her. Johnny eventually runs into trouble with a local loan shark Michael (Richard Romanus) and it is then when things slowly begin to get out of hand, making Charlie choose between his future and his friendship/love, leading to a fitting climax.

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