It's official (and has been for a while) but if you are at SXSW and interested in learning about finding a TV partner in a digital world, come to my panel:
In the digital era of Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and many other OTT portals, how valuable is a broadcaster for your doc? Come find out at this panel moderated by Elizabeth Sheldon, SVP Kino Lorber, along with Jill Burkhart of EPIX Documentary Programming, Lois Vossen from ITVS, Vinnie Malhotra from CNN, and Jennie Morris from Participant Media. Discover how broadcasters continue to reach traditional audiences while supporting theatrical releases and digital streaming to reach the widest audience possible for independent documentaries. Learn about the different strategies and requirements of the four premier documentary broadcasters, who co-exist with the digital platforms, and how they work with indie filmmakers to expand traditional audiences for documentaries.
Web Junkie
DVD Review by Kam Williams
How long do you think you could you survive without access to a cell phone or computer? A few hours? A day? A week? How about three months? That’s the degree of deprivation awaiting adolescents diagnosed as addicted to the internet over in China, the first country to officially recognize the burgeoning malady as a clinical disorder.
The Rx for the afflicted is 90 days of rehab at one of 400 paramilitary boot camps where one must adhere to a Spartan daily regimen sans any electronic stimuli. Going cold turkey is not an easy thing to adjust to for kids used to playing video games for hours on end.
But that is precisely the goal of the shrinks in Web Junkie, a cautionary tale making one wonder whether America might not be far behind. The documentary was this critic’s pick as the #1 foreign film of 2014. It was directed by Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia who were afforded extraordinary access to the intervention and treatment of a trio of teenage boys whose exasperated parents sought help from a facility in Beijing.
The film traces the transformation of Hope, Hacker and Nicky from insufferable, anti-social jerks who barely communicate with their families, teachers and classmates into sensitive souls truly changed by therapy and the period offline. It’s nothing short of miraculous to see the same kid who couldn’t be bothered to talk to his father eventually melt into a touchy-feely hugger who upon reuniting tearfully says, “I love you, Dad.”
Overall, the movie makes a convincing case that cell phone use ought to be limited during a child’s formative years when the social part of the brain is still developing. For, the subjects of this telling expose certainly seem to suffer from stunted development due to too much time spent playing computer games and surfing the ‘net.
A tough love remedy from the Orient designed for impressionable young minds which prefer virtual reality to relating in the flesh.
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Mandarin with subtitles
Running time: 75 minutes
Distributor: Kino Lorber
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes; and podcast interviews with directors Shosh Shlam and Hilla Medalia.
McFarland, USA
Film Review by Kam Williams
In the fall of 1987, Jim White (Kevin Costner) was fired as head football coach of a high school team in Boise, Idaho when he lost his temper and hit one of his players in the face and drew blood. With a wife (Maria Bello) and two young daughters (Morgan Saylor and Elsie Fisher) to support, the hot-headed perfectionist found himself in urgent need of another job.
So, he accepted a demotion to assistant football coach at the public high school in the predominantly-Latino, working-class town of McFarland, California. However, once it became clear on the gridiron that being second-in-command wasn’t working out, the versatile veteran came up with the idea of fielding a cross-country track team instead.
Though initially skeptical, Principal Camillo (Valente Rodriguez) grudgingly agreed, and White immediately started scouting around campus for fleet-footed prospects. As it turned out, many of McFarland High’s Chicano students were already in shape, being accustomed to darting the long distance from the field to the classroom, after picking fruit and vegetables alongside their parents from the crack of dawn.
Upon settling on seven promising protégés, the dilemma yet confronting Coach White was whether or not their cash-strapped clans could afford the luxury of letting them run track in lieu of laboring as farm workers in the wee hours of the morning? If so, the boys might also be afforded an opportunity to expand their horizons, since a standout’s landing an athletic college scholarship was definitely a distinct possibility.
Directed by New Zealand’s Niki Caro (Whale Rider), McFarland, USA is much more than your typical, overcoming-the-odds sports saga, in spite of the fact that it might sound fairly formulaic at first blush. Yes, it’s a classic case of a disgraced coach making the most of a shot at redemption with the help of a motley crew of underestimated underdogs. Nevertheless, this true tale of overcoming-the-odds proves oh so touching because it simultaneously sheds light on the plight on of an invisible sector of society, namely, the masses of mostly Mexican immigrants who harvest our produce in obscurity for a mere pittance.
Kevin Costner has never been more endearing than in this outing as a devoted mentor and family man. And he’s surrounded in that endeavor by a talented supporting cast convincing enough to make it easy to forget you’re watching actors, at least until the closing credits roll. That’s when we’re treated to photos of the real-life people just portrayed, plus positive updates about their present lives which serve to validate all the sacrifices made.
Heartwarming!
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG for violence, mild epithets and mature themes
In English and Spanish with subtitles
Running time: 129 minutes
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
To see a trailer for McFarland, USA, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-VAOlHGE6Q
The Bridge
DVD Review by Kam Williams
If you wanted to end it all, where would you want to do it? For some reason, more people choose the Golden Gate Bridge than any other locale.
And after watching The Bridge one can easily understand the allure of that irresistible icon as a launching pad into San Francisco Bay.
Directed by Eric Steel, this fascinating film transfixes you from start to finish, focusing on 24 individuals who chose to end their lives there in 2004. Remarkably, Kevin Hines somehow survived the plunge, after being saved by a seal that kept him afloat, and ferried him towards shore till help arrived. The others weren’t so lucky, but that doesn’t make their back stories any less compelling.
What these unfortunate souls seem to have in common is a bottoming-out whether due to depression, unemployment, relationship woes, or all of the above. Shifting back and forth between shots of the majestic, rust-colored structure and wistful reminiscences by friends and family who invariably had hints as to what was coming, director Steel cleverly creates an eerie, kinetic experience for the viewer by capturing plenty of pedestrians on camera, whether they’re strolling across the expansion, leaning over the catwalk, or peering into the void from the fog-ensconced bridge.
You never know which one’s about to leap to his or her death, so you have to keep your eyes glued to the screen, guessing who’s next. Two dozen souls, linked by suicide as a seductive and very visible alternative to unrelenting torment and suffering.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for profanity and for disturbing footage of actual suicides.
Running time: 94 minutes
Distributor: Kino Lorber / Alive Mind Cinema
DVD Extras: “Making of” documentary; and the theatrical trailer.
To see a trailer of The Bridge, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWJ-GWuews
To order The Bridge on DVD, visit:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00RWKN9W2/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20
Focus
Film Review by Kam Williams
Jess Barrett (Margot Robbie) is an aspiring con artist who picked the worst guy to steal a wallet from when she settled on Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith). She had no reason to suspect that he was a third generation flimflam man descended from a grandfather who ran a crooked poker game in Harlem back in the day.
Nicky was more curious than infatuated when he accepted the seductive stranger’s invite up to her hotel room after sharing drinks at a bar in midtown Manhattan. So, he was ready when an accomplice (Griff Furst) posing as her berserk husband burst in brandishing a fake gun.
Rather than hand over his wallet, Nicky calmly laughs and schools the two in the flaws of their little shakedown, such as not waiting until he was naked to try to rob him. Jess is so impressed that she not only confesses, but begs him to take her on as a protégé, giving him a hard luck story about having been a dyslexic foster kid.
Nicky agrees to show her the ropes, and even invites her to join his team of hustlers about to descend on New Orleans where they plan to pickpocket plenty of unsuspecting tourists. They’re also set to hatch an elaborate plan to fleece a wealthy compulsive gambler (BD Wong) of over a million dollars.
Though Jess proves to be a fast learner and the plot is executed without a hitch, Nicky is reluctant to include her in his next operation after they become romantically involved. Instead, he moves on alone to Argentina, where he hopes to bilk a racing car mogul (Rodrigo Santoro) of a small fortune.
The plot thickens when Jess is already draped on the arm of the playboy billionaire by the time Nicky arrives in Buenos Aires. Is she in love with the handsome Garriga or simply staging her own swindle? Will she expose Nicky as a fraud or might she be willing to join forces with her former mentor?
Co-directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), Focus is an overplotted, cat-and-mouse caper which ostensibly takes its clues from the cleverly-concealed classic House of Games (1987). But where that multi-layered mystery was perfectly plausible, this frustrating homage unnecessarily ventures from the sublime to the ridiculous, thereby sabotaging any chance that its promising premise might be played out in serious fashion.
Nevertheless, co-stars Will Smith and Margot Robbie generate enough chemistry to steam up the screen and make the farfetched romantic romp just worth the watch, provided eye candy alone can do for you in lieu of credulity.
Good (2 stars)
Rated R for profanity, sexuality and brief violence
Running time: 104 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers Pictures
To see a trailer for Focus, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vY9UPiI4eQ