Friday, February 13, 2015

Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 7

Another night, another shorts program, and another feature. Here's last Wednesday at Indiefest.

Shorts 5: An Animated World. Yay cartoons!
BETWEEN TIMES: A life of a pleasant little village, and an exploration of the subjective nature of time, as seen from the view of a clock on the wall.
THE BROTHERS BRIMM: Two little demons, Waffles and Syrup, have stolen the devil's car and are on a mission from God.
COOPED: The hellish life of a dog who can't go outside and goes a little crazy waiting for his human.
FOOTPRINTS: Yay! A new Plymptoon! And it's kind of a mindbender, as a man follows footsteps to find the creature who broke his window. But instead, he ends up finding himself. Kind of.
FOREST LIGHTS: The big black blob in a dead forest. Well, a nearly dead forest.
FORMING: A teeny tiny speck of the beginning of the universe. Very, very short.
HIGHWAY OF HELL: Clam Cove, Long Island, and the punk kids, violent mooks, and aggressive women who live there. Quite a little adventure.
LOAD: From Israel, a man in a rubber raft loaded down with TVs. A metaphor for memories that weigh one down and threaten to drown you.
PART OF THE CYCLE: The water cycle, that is. A water color (I see what they did there) primer on the water cycle and the work of our diligent water treatment plants and workers.
PIFUSKIN: Ever get an itch? Ever get one you can't stop scratching? Until you scratch off all your skin? And you head?
POINT: From Matt Abbiss, the director of FORMING, another ultra-short, minimalist exploration of a point in space.
RE:BELIEF: A 3-d printed, colorful exploration of cycles of life.
STEADFAST STANLEY: A zombie apocalypse and the most loyal, adorable dog ever.

And then the feature, THE YANK. Tom Murphy is a walking Irish American stereotype from Cleveland--idolizing U2, celebrating a half-way to St. Patrick's party, and generally celebrating everything Irish. So when his best mate gets engaged to a nice Irish girl--and the wedding will be in her hometown in Ireland--he's very excited to say the least. Until he finds out that the maid of honor is the woman who threw him out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. While in Ireland, of course he'll try to find a good Irish girl of his own, but maybe that woman will also get in his way. And maybe it turns out she's the woman for him. I'm only speculating, since I fell asleep, but I've been assured by friends that A) everything I assumed would happen did, and B) I was better off for having taken a nap. Fred Willard as the father character does an admirable job trying to wring any comedy possible out of the material he's given...which is not much. And he doesn't make the trip to Ireland so he's gone after about 30 minutes. I was gone after about 60.

Total Running Time: 172 minutes
My Total Minutes: 382,921

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