Our objective at TV Casualties is actually pretty simple – it’s our duty to uncover the gems, what the British would call the “best bits.” This becomes especially crucial when dealing with TV series or movies that have been overlooked. The following movies will throttle you. Hard. (We actually suggest you sit as you watch them.) And not one of them has more than 2000 votes on IMDB. So give these films the love they deserve – buy them, sign up for a free trial at Blockbuster and rent them, etc. Find a way.
1. “Shotgun Stories” (2008) 1,284 votes on IMDB – Michael Shannon earned an Oscar nom last year for his role in “Revolutionary Road.” He also starred in the much lesser known “Shotgun Stories,” which was my favorite movie of 2008. A blood feud erupts between two families in a rural Arkansas town, and it’s not long before both sides go too far. The movie has funny parts but is dark and very subtle, with a needlessly tragic streak that doesn’t feel at all manipulative or contrived. It’s the best I’ve watched in a long time.
2. “Chop Shop” (2008) 1,240 votes on IMDB – Ramin Bahrani wrote and directed “Chop Shop,” a movie about a street kid scavenging in the slums of New York. Alejandro works in a chop shop and the owner lets him live in a cluttered room above it. Eventually he takes in his sister, whom looks headed toward prostitution, and the two of them save up to try to buy an ice cream truck to start a food truck business. The story somehow balances the naivete of a child with the grit and grim of urban life in an honest, believable way. Roger Ebert declared Bahrani the “new great American director” a few months ago.
3. “Diggers” (2007) 1,090 votes on IMDB – Written by our Emmy pick for Outstanding Performance in a Comeday, Ken Marino, “Diggers” tells the story of clam diggers in a depressed New England town in the 70′s. Hunt (Paul Rudd) deals with the loss of his father while a corporation threatens to put him, and all other local diggers, out of business. Rudd plays the reserved main character well, but Marino steals the laughs as a frantic father of many. While subtle, this is probably the funniest movie on the list. You can own it for under $10.
4. “Look Both Ways” (2005) 1,865 votes on IMDB – “Look Both Ways” is the first full length feature from writer/director/animator Sarah Watt. Set in New Zealand, the movie follows Meryl, an artist who illustrates sympathy cards for a living, and whose father recently died. After witnessing a deadly train crash, Meryl meets Nick, a photojournalist who is sent to cover the crash and has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Sounds uplifting, no? It actually works out to be subtly optomistic by the end, I promise. Animated scenes of Meryl’s obsessively morbid thoughts mix with the live action, which is where the movie really shines.
5. “Ten Tiny Love Stories” (2001) 232 votes on IMDB – If I were a teacher, Rodrigo García would be teacher’s pet. On top of having written and directed three movies we like a lot (“Nine Lives” and “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her” are the other two), he’s directed a number of the best episodes of our favorite shows (“Carnivale” and “Six Feet Under“). That led to him landing his own HBO series, “In Treatment,” which is also excellent. As a cherry on top of all of that, he’s also the spawn of author Gabriel García Márquez (another personal fave). “Ten Tiny Love Stories” is ten women sharing one intimate story from their past in almost-mockumentary fashion. Some of the stories are sad, some are funny, and almost all of them are so well crafted that you’ll feel a slight voyeuristic discomfort, as if you’ve come across someone’s secret video diary and can’t help but keep watching.
Not a big week for new movies. Here they are, though, ranked in order of how much I’d like to see them (from most to least):
Moon
A thriller in space starring Sam Rockwell. The basic premise, a guy stationed alone in space for 3 years, reminded me a ton of the George R.R. Martin scifi short story “The Second Kind of Loneliness,” which is one of my favorite pieces of short fiction in any genre. “Moon” currently sits at 100% fresh on rotten tomatoes (out of 13 reviews), but it’s a limited release, and I doubt it will be anywhere around here.
Food, Inc.
A documentary about the reality of food as an industry and how far it is from the images used to market food to us. This might be like the opposite of watching food porn like “Top Chef,” but I’m still curious.
Street Dreams
Rob Dyrdek (of MTV’s “Rob & Big“) wrote a movie. There’s about a 110% chance that it won’t be very good.
Blast!
A documentary about astrophysicists living fast and not dying young. I’d be shocked if this came around here. I’ll give pretty much any doc a chance, though, so I may find it on DVD down the road.
Tetro (opens June 11)
Francis Ford Copolla’s new movie. Will it be his first good movie in 30 years? Doubtful. At least with Vincent Gallo as the lead, it’s guaranteed to be moderately annoying.
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Synopsis: John Travolta takes a bunch of hostages and many cars flip over. This is the third feature film adaptation of the novel by John Godey.
Imagine That
Eddie Murphy kids movie that reminds me of Jim Carrey’s “Liar Liar.”
Add yet another movie to the long list of recent feature films inexplicably reduced to straight to DVD affairs. J.T. Petty’s “The Burrowers” really saw no theatrical release outside of playing at a handful of film festivals last fall.
Shotgun stories.
The movie combines an old West adventure with horror, drawing pretty equally from both genres. The opening scene features a family being attacked by some unseen entity. When Fergus Coffey (Karl Geary) arrives on the scene to find his fiancée among those missing, he quickly launches a search party. Just like that, the movie takes to the road on horseback – cowboys riding through the prairie in search of missing folks and mysterious monsters.
TV Casualties Rating:
out of 5
Run Time: 96 minutes
Directed by: J.T. Petty
Written by: J.T. Petty
Starring: Clancy Brown, Karl Geary, William Mapother
Theatrical Release: N/A
DVD Release: 04/21/09
Production Budget: $7 million
Domestic Gross: $0
Metacritic Score: N/A
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 67%
The lush green atmosphere and Western sensibility really separate this from your average teen horror fare straight away. Your run-of-the-mall horror movie rarely even pretends to care about its characters, and horror teens, in particular, are always disposable. Often annoying already, their deaths are so meaningless that they may as well be bags of meat for a maniac to hack away at with an ax. In this semi-proper Western universe populated more by adults than teens, though, the characters are treated with a little more reverence. Consequently, the deaths still pack some surprise, still carry some weight with the audience. Like “The Descent,” (though not quite as good) this is horror made for adults.
Fans of ABC’s “Lost” will recognize several faces here: actors William Mapother, Doug Hutchison and Clancy Brown (our famously despised pick for Sandor Clegane) all play major roles in “The Burrowers” and had significant parts on the island as well. (Fun fact: Hutchison, AKA Horace the Dharma leader on “Lost,” got one of his big acting breaks as the super creepy Eugene Victor Tooms on “The X-Files.”) The entire cast does a nice job pulling off the critical juxtaposition of the old West - stuffy, formal, almost Victorian aspects of speech and mannerisms mixing with the rough and grimey demeanor of hardened men that work ranches all day. As always, this combo is good for several laughs.
The movie does have its flaws, though – from the opening scene on, the audience stays one step (or more) ahead of the characters. That certainly doesn’t help build suspense or an aura of mystery. I also thought a fight scene toward the end went on way too long. Even if we do sort of feel like we know what’s ultimately coming, though, some of the particulars of the details still make the end satisfying, and there are a few twists along the way as well.
Perhaps its biggest strength – “The Burrowers” shows some restraint in not letting us see the actual creatures too much, which I think usually works better than the alternative. (This isn’t Freddy or Chuckie making wise cracks as they kill. What might lurk in the shadows is always scariest.) All told, it’s an effective and entertaining movie, especially considering its modest budget. Just 900 and some odd votes on IMDB? Horror fans should seek this out on DVD.
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I think we need a president that can wrestle this nation's problems to the ground and chop their hair off.06:34:09 PM May 15, 2012from HootSuite
Everyone knows that an Obama-Romney debate is going to be a ratings disaster. My solution: bring in a drunk Joe Biden as a wild card.11:10:23 PM May 10, 2012from HootSuite
Before facebook, there really wasn't an efficient way to say Happy Birthday to a bunch of strangers. Thanks, Mark Zuckerberg!02:28:51 PM May 06, 2012from HootSuite
This doctor on the View claims to have found the G-Spot? Dude, Brian McKnight found that shit weeks ago.03:39:03 PM April 30, 2012from HootSuite
The movie does have its flaws, though – from the opening scene on, the audience stays one step (or more) ahead of the characters. That certainly doesn’t help build suspense or an aura of mystery. I also thought a fight scene toward the end went on way too long. Even if we do sort of feel like we know what’s ultimately coming, though, some of the particulars of the details still make the end satisfying, and there are a few twists along the way as well.