THE LAST AIRBENDER REVIEW
By Jarren Ware

After watching his latest film The Last Airbender, I wanted to label M. Night Shyamalan a 1 trick pony but that's not entirely true. Besides The 6th Sense, Unbreakable was pretty good & Signs was ok too. So M. Night Shyamalan is a 2 ½ trick pony. I’m not sure if The Last Airbender was as bad as his last several films (the names of which I refuse to mention for fear that some poor fool will watch it out of curiosity) but it sure comes close.

For those of you out of touch with all things dope, Avatar: The Last Airbender was arguably the last good cartoon on television & no doubt the last original program to air on Nickelodeon worth watching. Long story short, the world is split into 4 nations: Air, Earth, Water & Fire & there are people who can manipulate the elements of their respective nation (Waterbenders, earthbenders etc.) The Fire Nation sucks & is taking over & everyone is waiting on the Avatar, the single person possessing the ability to control all 4 elements, to bring balance & save the world. The Avatar is a 10 year old boy named Aang who cryogenically freezes himself by accident and shows up to the party a century late. That's a really bare bones synopsis and I know it’s a cartoon but trust me, but it's pretty sick... Get familiar... With the original animated version that is... Not the movie.

With the Twilight franchise as the sole exception, filmmakers making adaptations of other works will never be able to completely satisfy fans of the original. Even when I put my personal Avatar fandom aside, and ignored differences between the series and the film and then reminded myself that it wasn't necessarily a film for a 22 year old college student, this movie still sucked.  I thought going in that it’d be tolerable because all M. Night Shyamalan (who will be referred to simply as Night for the rest of this review) had to do, at the very least, was get the DVD box set of the show & add decent actors & some super cool special effects. 20 minutes into the movie I knew that this was apparently too much to ask .The films biggest shortcoming is that despite the fact that the ending is clearly a set up for a sequel; it tries to cram too much story into a small window of time. I understand that this is a pretty big challenge with film adaptations but I've seen it done rather well before. Night however, apparently believes that advancing the plot is more important than character development. Because of this people familiar with the television series are left disappointed as they’re never allowed to “feel” the characters they know, and those who are being introduced to it don't care when things go good or bad because the only detailed information they have on the character is their first name.  

This film stirred up a little controversy because Night casts White actors to portray characters who were originally Asian. My problem with the casting is that Night cast crappy actors to portray characters who were originally good, mark my words: there are some potential Razzie winners in this one. All of the actors (except maybe for Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire) gave vapid and emotionless performances, delivering their lines as if reading from a teleprompter (the unprompted laughter & groans I heard from my fellow moviegoers throughout the film assured me I wasn't being an over analytical douche about this). Where the film falls it falls hard, as it not rushes sloppily through the story. The ellipses between time periods and transitions into flashbacks lack any form of originality or imagination settling for boring fades and inconsistent voice over narrations (I probably am being an over analytical douche about that).  

If anything saves The Last Airbender it might be the fight scenes.  Though the special effects are not necessarily mindboggling the scenes are able to keep one's attention despite the fact that the film is clearly holding back to earn a PG rating. The fights also do a good job of incorporating the different styles of martial arts with the different types of bending, but only a nerd like me would recognize & appreciate that so, they've got slow motion in 'em... slow motion is always cool.

So unfortunately The Last Airbender is yet another big budget flop, and yet another reason for us to hate M. Night Shyamalan who is creeping toward Michael Bay status in my book.  I think that we'd spare ourselves a lot of disappointment if we'd lower our standards and just accept the fact that sometimes lightning only strikes 2 ½  times.

Recommendations:

If you're a fan of the original of the series, stay away! Even if you download a pirated copy of this movie you'll feel like you deserve some money back.

If you’re not a fan of the series but thought you might check it out, Paramount has already compiled all the cool parts together for you to enjoy at your leisure, take advantage!

If you have a kid who really wants to see it and you love that child dearly and will do whatever it takes to see him smile, take him and enjoy the fact that he enjoyed it so much.

If you have a kid who really wants to see it and you can't wait till he turns 18 so you can kick him out without any legal repercussions, tell him you're not taking him to see it and you're not going to say it again... Then be glad that you saved a couple dollars and be proud of your authoritarian parenting skills.

 

Jaren Ware is an Atlanta Film Festival 365 intern

Le Cercle Rouge Review
By Samuel Colen

Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) opens silently with a prisoner escaping from a train. We do not learn until later that he is a murderer, but no matter. Such details are not important. In Melville's world, there is little difference between criminal and cop. They are two faces of the same coin, each as ruthless and cunning as the other.

            They are drawn together by fate, unknowingly destined to meet - as the title card forewarns.  This is the point of the film. Who can keep track of the seemingly infinite connections that bind humanity together? Even the most clear and best laid plans can be undone by the very forces that brought it into being. Fate, which brought men together in one instant, can in the next tear them apart.

            This existential logic is intriguing enough, but the true brilliance of the film lies in the fact that it is at heart a simple heist film - superbly executed. The players are stock, and the setup is simple. A recently released conman, Corey (Alain Delon), has learned how to rob a jewelry store. Incapable of doing so on his own, he recruits the help of Vogel (Gian Maria Velonte), an escaped murderer. True to form, they meet by chance when Vogel hides in the trunk of Corey's car to escape police. This leads to a brilliant scene between the two after Corey has driven to an open field. It is an exercise in superior exterior photography and sparse dialogue. Vogel emerges from the trunk, holding Corey at gunpoint. He asks, "Aren't you afraid?" "Of what?" "Of me, for one. And of getting caught by the police." To this, Corey silently tosses a pack of cigarettes to Vogel, and their companionship is sealed.

            To help them, they recruit Jansen (Yves Montard),  an alcoholic ex-cop and sharpshooter. Corey rescues him from a den of booze and monstrous visions. Standing in their way is the cat-loving Captain Mattei (Andre Bourvil), the man who escorted Vogel when he escaped. With his job on the line, he is willing to strike crooked deals with members of the underworld and is just as morally compromised as the men he is pursuing. Indeed, they are all motivated by the same object: survival.

            Melville's characters are stoic. They are grim, and they talk little. They have work to do. Their lives are not glamorous, nor do they expect them to be. They are driven neither by delusions of grandeur nor psychological disorders. In fact, Melville never reveals their motivations. It is understood.

            The filmmaking echoes the characters. The editing is deliberate, neither fast nor slow. Determined. Melville will tell his story, but on his own time. You, the audience, will wait and allow the characters to reveal themselves in pieces. It is a welcome reprieve from the ‘flash bang', rapid-cut, action-oriented thrillers of today. Not that Le Cercle Rouge lacks excitement. No. The shootouts and chases are superb, made sublime by the deliberate editing which allows true fear and doubt to build in the minds of the audience. ‘Good things come to those who wait.' Today, it is a forgotten lesson, but one which Melville well understood.

            It is a shame Melville's films are not better known in America today. A forerunner of the French New Wave, he was a member of the Resistance during the war and a devout admirer of American culture and cinema (his last name is an homage to Herman Melville). The influences of each are readily apparent in his work. Much of the approach to character in Le Cercel Rouge can in fact be explained by the post-war cynicism which took hold of France after the Second World War. The coloring (Melville used beautiful blue hues throughout) can be seen as patriotic. Though the basic structure of the film is reminiscent of the old pre-war Warner Brothers gangster films, this film is French. Like Kurosawa in Japan, who took Western literature and made it Japanese, Melville does the same with the American gangster flick. In so doing, he took a genre defined by low budgets and high entertainment value and elevated it to the realm of art. He made it beautiful.

 Samuel Colen is an Atlanta Film Festival 365 intern and current student at USC

Coming to Atlanta July 15-18 is the 9th edition of ARGFest, a conference and gaming festival that’s all about Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) and Transmedia Storytelling. If you think you haven’t heard of, or participated in an ARG, who’d be wrong if you followed on any level of The Dark Knight's Why So Serious, Halo 2’s I Love Bees, The Blair Witch Project’s pioneering experience or the dozens of ARG’s that have been developed over the last ten years.

With the rise of social media, more dynamic and interactive websites, and mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad, ARGs and Transmedia Storytelling have become one of the hottest topics of discussion over the last two years.

We sat down with 2010 ARGFest Chairperson Brooke Thompson to talk* about this year’s fest and the past, present and future of Transmedia Storytelling and Alternate Reality Gaming.

Show notes below:

ARGFest 2010

 Transmedia Storytelling: In Transmedia storytelling, content becomes invasive and permeates fully the audience’s lifestyle. A transmedia project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media in order to have different “entry points” in the story; entry-points with a unique and independent lifespan but with a definite role in the big narrative scheme. - From Wikipedia

Alternate Reality Game: From An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions. - From Wikipedia

giantmice.com

Perplex City

Unfiction

*Sorry about the background noise. With the festival so close to the recording date, we didn’t have time to setup a better place to do the podcast.

Leave it to movie marketers and mixtapes to fill a void left by today's inexplicably lackluster movie soundtracks.

It’s baffling that the last movie soundtrack to dig deep into the ear canals of listeners and to root itself firmly like the worm from WRATH OF KHAN is Zach Braff’s GARDEN STATE, a movie released in 2004.

Using music to push movies and movies to push music goes way back. In the 1930s, some of the earliest musicals were simply just a string of popular standards that had been out for years intermittently interrupted by dialogue and possibly a plot. In the 1950s, when the musical was in full force, songs from movies routinely topped the charts. In the 1970s, Blaxplotation movies may have had questionable acting, writing and directing; however one thing they generally didn’t have a lack of was incredible music. Of course, there’s the 1980s, a decade in which soundtracks and their movies are so intertwined one can legitimately ask was it the movies that made the music iconic, or was it the music that made the movies so.

So what’s happened? Why have movie soundtracks, one of the best marketing tools a film can utilize to motivate and interest audiences in a film months before a release, become weak sauce?  Outside of attaching songs to shows and commercials, why have record companies* seemingly abandoned a potent way to reach customers?

One of the more exciting developments over the last few years is folks using mixtapes to market their films, to use them as an extended aural teaser for their movies.

An example comes from the film JUST WRIGHT, featuring Common and Queen Latifah. Volume two of their JUST WRIGHT mixtape, at 83 plus minutes, features everyone from Patrice Rushen to SWV to even Barbra Streisand. What better way to get you in the mood for a romantic comedy than back-to-back classics about love and romance? For audiences that are a few years, or more like decades removed from being 18 to 25, this should hit their sweet spot. Listen Here

Another comes from Atlanta Screenwriters Group (which meets here at our offices every 1^st and 3^rd Thursday) Co-President, writer/producer and man of hip-hop Martin Kelly** and his crew Reign of Terror and DJ Dainja. The mixtape is for the in post-production film BATTLE. A film about creating beats and a college student striving to be recognized as a king among beatmakers, this throwback to mixtapes of yesteryear is all about exciting a demo, that would be Hip Hop heads, that can sniff out inauthentic product. Download the Mixtape Here

Hopefully, the movie soundtrack will make a resurgence. Until then, I’ll happily download any and all mixtapes that have me lip syncing, my head nodding, and my butt chair dancing like it’s 1986 again.

* Maybe if some of them would lower their licensing fees, that would encourage more filmmakers and studios to reachout and use their product.

**Also he was my editor when I wrote for CinemATL, which he will be again when I start writing for the site again.

In collaboration with Creative Loafing’s Screen Grab and the Atlanta Film Festival, Edward Adams (Online Manager/Writer for Creative Loafing) asked 5 questions with the directors and producers behind 2010 ATL Film Fest films NONAMES, THE BATTLE FOR BUNKER HILL and THE THINGS WE CARRY. Get a glimpse into the creative forces behind these critically acclaimed films.

2010 ATL Film Fest: 5 Questions with NONAMES
Writer, Director, Producer Kate Lindboe and Producer Robin Van Ert

2010 ATL Film Fest: 5 Questions with THE BATTLE FOR BUNKER HILL
Writer, Director, Producer Kevin Willmott

2010 ATL Film Fest: 5 Questions with THE THINGS WE CARRY
Producer Athena Lobit and Writer, Director Alyssa Lobit

The Atlanta Film Festival is proud to announce this year's Jury Awards. Congratulations to the winning filmmakers and thanks to the jury for all their hard work.

Shorts Jury Award Winners:

Narrative:
FIRSTBORN (EERSGEBORENE) – Director: Etienne Kallos

Honorable Mention:
ANA’S PLAYGROUND – Director: Eric D. Howell

Documentary:
BORN SWEET – Director: Cynthia Wade 

Honorable Mention:
WOMAN REBEL – Director Kiran Deol

 

Animated:
THE MACHINE – Director: Rob Shaw

Honorable Mention:
PRAYERS FOR PEACE – Director: Dustin Grella            

Pink Peach Jury Award Winners: 

Feature:
8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION – Director: Reed Cowan 

Short:
CURIOUS THING – Director: Alain Hain 

 

Documentary Feature Jury Award Winner:

FAMILY AFFAIR – Director: Chico Colvard

Narrative Feature Jury Award Winner: 

PUTTY HILL – Director: Matt Porterfield

 A daily phone call across several times zones between Angela and her lesbian
daughter living with HIV/AIDS reveals some disheartening news.

TO COMFORT YOU

Marc Saltarelli - Director

Become a Facebook Fan: TO COMFORT YOU

Purchase Tickets:

Monday, April 19, 2010 - (Plays in Lesbian Shorts) Purchase Tickets

Thursday, April 22, 2010 - (Plays in Lesbian Shorts) Purchase Tickets

 

If you could describe your film using only 3 words, what would they be?

Complicated family relationship.

What's the one thing about your film you're most proud of?

My great fortune to work with Susan Blakely and Pauley Perrette who embodied the mother/daughter roles and made them authentic.  It helped that they already had a long-time close relationship with each other.

What do you want audiences to take away from your film?

I think audiences relate their own personal experiences to our film.  The intricate dynamic between the mother and daughter can be complicated, but ultimately the underlying love cannot be denied or separated.  We can all relate to these familial connections.  The mother/child relationship is one we all have for life.

Who is the unsung hero of your film and why?

Without a doubt, the unsung hero is our executive producer Park Walkup who has been not only our financial support, but also creative and emotional ally in the past three projects.  We owe our filmmaking adventure to him.

Where do you see your film in 5 years?

I see the short film becoming a feature film.

Someone has to go to the bathroom during your film, and they have to miss part of your film. Do they miss the beginning, the middle or the end?

Since it's only 15 minutes, please try to hold on for the duration.  Thank you!  You won't want to miss a minute of it.

How do you properly refer to Atlanta?

A) The ATL 
B) Hotlanta 
C) The A 
D) The Dirty South 
E) Anything but B, no one in Atlanta who knows better still uses it. 
F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce as corny and outdated. 
G) Huh? What does this have to do with filmmaking? (But, the answer is E)

F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce it as corny and outdated. 

 

“My beef is just like industrial commodity beef except it’s healthier, safer,
better for the environment, and it tastes better. Other then that it’s exactly the same,” says Georgia cattleman Will Harris. Harris raises grass-fed beef cattle on a small family farm that has been in his family since the 1840s. Ten years ago he turned his back on the excesses of the modern beef production system and converted his farm into the first certified organic cattle farm in Georgia.

Filmmakers in Attendance: Director: Joe York, Subject: Will Harris

CUD

Joe York - Director

Watch the Trailer: http://vimeo.com/9889758

Purchase Tickets:

Wednesday. April  21 , 2010: (Plays with DIVE!)  Purchase Tickets

Thursday, April 22, 2010: (Plays with DIVE!) Purchase Tickets

 

If you could describe your film using only 3 words, what would they be?

Honest, Funny, Beefy

Is there a character or subject in your film you most identify with? Would you switch places with them just for a day?

I identify with cow #31 from the cud chewing montage. If I had to be a cow, I'd want to be that cow.

What's the one thing about your film you're most proud of?

I'm most proud of the fact that this film is really a megaphone for the voice of Will Harris. He's an incredible man doing incredible work and if this film can help his voice be heard by more and more folks, then I'm proud of that.

When you first screened your film, was there a moment, scene or character the audience reacted to, that surprised you?

I'm never surprised by how folks react to Will Harris. He's a funny, smart, passionate, no crap kind of guy and people really fall in love with him. I can't tell you how many women have come up to me after screenings to ask if he's single. Sorry, ladies, he's happily married.

What do you want audiences to take away from your film?

Will Harris makes a statement in the film that goes like this, "You know, you are what you eat, and I think that probably you are what you eat eats." I hope folks will see CUD and think a bit more about what they eat and what what they eat eats.

Who are the directors, filmmakers and artists that most influenced your film or yourself? 

I really like Errol Morris' series "First Person". I keep trying to do a portrait of an individual that's half as good as any one of the profiles in that series. I doubt I'll ever do it, but it's a heck of great benchmark to shoot for. 

Where do you see your film in 5 years? 

I'll see it the same place anyone else can, at southernfoodways.org. That was shameless, I know.

Someone has to go to the bathroom during your film, and they have to miss part of your film. Do they miss the beginning, the middle or the end?

Our film is like the small southern town where it was shot. If you blink, you'll miss it. But if you pay close attention for the short time it takes to go through it, you'll come out better for having done it on the other side.

How do you properly refer to Atlanta?

A) The ATL 
B) Hotlanta 
C) The A 
D) The Dirty South 
E) Anything but B, no one in Atlanta who knows better still uses it. 
F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce as corny and outdated. 
G) Huh? What does this have to do with filmmaking? (But, the answer is E)

F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce it as corny and outdated. 

Extra Credit: Use our 2010 festival words EXPERIENCE, THINK, LAUGH, CONNECT, FEEL and Do in a sentence describing your film.

If you like experiencing, thinking, laughing, connecting and feeling, then you'll absolutely love watching CUD! If you you don't like those things, you should DO it anyway! 

 Yulia suddenly vanishes out of her kitchen. She finds herself in a closed room
with five levers fixed to the wall. By setting them in motion, she starts off a
series of absurd events that will lead her to finding a soul mate.

YULIA 
Antoine Arditti - Director  
Purchase Tickets:

Monday, April 19, 2010 - (Plays in Lesbian Shorts) Purchase Tickets 

Thursday, April 22, 2010 - (Plays in Lesbian Shorts) Purchase Tickets

 

If you could describe your film using only 3 words, what would they be?

choice, surprises, faith

What's the one thing about your film you're most proud of?

Being screened in the Atlanta Film Festival of course!

What do you want audiences to take away from your film?

That life is full of surprises. What you see is not always what you get, ain't that cool?

Someone has to go to the bathroom during your film, and they have to miss part of your film. Do they miss the beginning, the middle or the end?

They should definatley hold themselves. The film is 6 minutes! 

How do you properly refer to Atlanta?

A) The ATL 
B) Hotlanta 
C) The A 
D) The Dirty South 
E) Anything but B, no one in Atlanta who knows better still uses it. 
F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce as corny and outdated. 
G) Huh? What does this have to do with filmmaking? (But, the answer is E)

G) Huh? What does this have to do with filmmaking? (But, the answer is E) 

Extra Credit: Use our 2010 festival words EXPERIENCE, THINK, LAUGH, CONNECT, FEEL and Do in a sentence describing your film.

You think you've seen it all? Please, don't make me laugh!

Do as I say!

Experience the extraordinary journey of YULIA.

You will feel for yourself how two soulmates can truely connect.

Something is wrong as everyday Americans fight to protect their blood, water, and air from chemical pollution. Toxic Soup connects the current spikes in childhood cancer, autism, and other serious illnesses with the business practices of Fortune 500 companies: DuPont, Bayer, Ashland Oil and Massey Energy.

Filmmakers in Attendance: Director:Rory Owen Delaney; Producer:Wade Smith; Producer:PG Banker; Narrator:Byron Warner; Cast:Kevin Thompson; Executive producer:Kyle Crace; Associate producer: Lisa Bragg

TOXIC SOUP

Rory Owen Delaney - Director

Become a Facebook Fan: TOXIC SOUP

Watch the Trailer:

Purchase Tickets:

Sunday, April 18.2010: Purchase Tickets

Thursday, April 22, 2010: Purchase Tickets

 

If you could describe your film using only 3 words, what would they be?

inspirational, subversive, gutsy

Is there a character or subject in your film you most identify with? Would you switch places with them just for a day? 

I identify most with radiation safety officer Wade Smith. Wade is a young guy doing his best to represent and protect communities in eastern Kentucky, where he was raised. Not only does he work to defend the environment, Wade flies planes, drives a killer pick-up truck, listens to a TON of Johnny Cash and is a man of few words. I would most definitely switch places with him for a day.

What's the one thing about your film you're most proud of?

I'm most proud of the fact that TOXIC SOUP has given regular everyday Americans a voice. Often the problems of folks in smaller states get overlooked by the national press in their zeal to publicize happenings in America's larger, more "important" cities.

What do you want audiences to take away from your film?

I want people to reexamine their community and its relationship to local industries. Folks need to realize that though their elected politicians often purport to be looking after their better interests, this is not always the case. To survive our democracy requires us, the people, to not only ask questions, but to demand answers.

Who are the directors, filmmakers and artists that most influenced your film or yourself? 

TOXIC SOUP was most influenced by directors Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and Nick Broomfield. I admire the way they tackle subjects and put themselves personally on the line for their beliefs. Our world needs more artists to stand up and be heard. 

Who is the unsung hero of your film and why?

Attorney Kevin Thompson is the unsung hero of TOXIC SOUP. Kevin is juggling multiple cases in the Kentucky and West Virginia area with zero compensation up front. For months on end Thompson lives away from his New Orleans family and stays in a primitive h 

How do you properly refer to Atlanta?

A) The ATL 
B) Hotlanta 
C) The A 
D) The Dirty South 
E) Anything but B, no one in Atlanta who knows better still uses it. 
F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce as corny and outdated. 
G) Huh? What does this have to do with filmmaking? (But, the answer is E) 

F) I'm embarrased to say I still use Hotlanta and I now a vow to never use it again except to denounce it as corny and outdated. 

Extra Credit: Use our 2010 festival words EXPERIENCE, THINK, LAUGH, CONNECT, FEEL and Do in a sentence describing your film.

Connect with communities hidden from the world by the mainstream media, feel their struggles and victories, laugh at life's absurdities, think about your own backyard and do what you can to promote increased environmental responsibility across the United States and the world.