“Dog Years” DVD (director: Warren Sroka and Brent Willis)

Smart and emotive indie

This little indie film comes across with little fanfare or notice, but damned if it doesn’t deliver with an entertaining and complex storyline that I fell into right away. Featuring both directors (who are also the writers, commendably) in the lead acting roles, “Dog Years” is the tale of a pair of estranged American brothers who find themselves together in Tokyo (both for different reasons), and working to resolve their family issues in very different ways.

The pair don’t get along, being of completely different temperaments and attitudes. Elliiot’s dismissive attitude towards his brother Ben’s overbearing positivity is gradually eroded, until he starts to see a light at the tunnel during his business trip to Japan. Ben’s relationship with the culture also becomes strained, but the brothers come to terms with their predicaments in different ways. This is a story of human interaction and maturation, and it works pretty well.

Billed as a sort of comedy-drama, even on the packaging, I found “Dog Years” to be a bit more serious than that. It’s not perfect, but there’s solid acting and a great story here that make for a really enlightening and engrossing watch. No spoilers here, but suffice to say, this is a completely worthy little indie film with much to offer. Nice work, guys.

MVD Visual

“3 Holes And A Smoking Gun” DVD (director: Hilarion Banks)

Slow and convoluted indie thriller

A complicated drama about a university student’s world class screenplay that inspires his once-successful instructor (a Hollywood screen writer himself) to go to extreme ends to attach himself to. Dark secrets are exposed in this smart but convoluted film. First time acting lead Zuher Khan does an admirable job as the student, while James Wilder is menacingly sly in his role as teacher-liar-extortionist. Aside from that, there’s little here to report or notice.

Pacing here is slow and dialogue-driven, but there remains something else missing here. The characters here inspire little empathy, and this micro budget indie, though not entirely unwatchable, is best left in the bins.

MVD Visual

“Morris County” DVD (director: Matthew Garrett)

Powerful and intelligent indie drama/horror

Man, this indie trilogy really hits hard. Director Garrett here weaves a series of three distantly-related tales that could almost function as “lost” “Tales From The Crypt” stories, but with more emotional resonance and less gratuitous gore and sex. “Morris County” could be broadly considered horror, but it’s not so in conventional sense. I give great credit to the smart storytelling or Garrett, who takes these “everyday” lives into unseen and often horrifying sides, without evoking any supernatural or serial killer stereotyping.

The first story, “Ellie”, presents a rather unfortunate day in the life of teenaged Ellie, who withstands a series of poor judgement calls. Without putting out any spoilers, let’s just say it’s a riveting and painful journey to experience. Ellie is played exceptionally by Darcy Miller, conveying an unspoken air of trauma and confusion. "The Family Rubin” is a story of an upstanding Jewish family with plenty of ghosts in their closet. Startlingly similar in spirit to “American Beauty”, this is the lower point of the film, if only due to its similarity to that better-known film. The final story, “Elmer and Iris”, is a sad story of a seemingly happy elderly woman who, upon being cut from her office job of many years, finds herself painfully alone when her husband dies. Suffice to say, it gets weird, but remains very human and absolutely memorable.

As mentioned earlier, “Morris County” isn’t horror, but a well-scripted and well-acted trilogy of dramas that reflect a breakdown in traditional life in the suburbs. All the tales here are harrowing and edgy, but realistic. The portrayals are believable, as are the stories themselves. This is the ultimate strength of the film. Kudos to everyone involved, as this is a powerful movie that lingers in the psyche long after the disc has stopped.

As well, it should be noted that there is a plethora of bonus materials, including a creepy short film by Garrett called “Beating Hearts”. And the subtle electronic score by David Kristian is masterful, too.

Unearthed Films

"Hong Kong Confidential (aka "Amaya")" DVD (director: Maris Martinsons)

Charming but flawed indie film

This oddly charming little indie film centers around a lonely and unhappy Hong Kong housewife named Amaya (played by the impeccable Kaori Momoi), who meets a charming English expat named Paul (played with a subtle woodenness by Lithuanian musician Andrius Mamontovas). Well, before you think "romance", it doesn't really go there. It's really a sort of subtle character study, where Amaya discovers herself in the context of her own culture, through Paul's outsider influence.

The cinematography here is quite nice, as the scenes around Hong Kong are both colorful and memorable. I would've liked a little more emotion though, especially as this is a sort of comedy/romance/drama hybrid. Overall, "Hong Kong Confidential" is a decent indie film that doesn't prove stunning, but certainly has something to offer.

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"The Phantom Father" DVD (director: Lucian Georgescu)

Superb and intelligent Romanian indie film

This Romanian indie (thankfully, in English) has a lot going for it, namely a sparklingly warm performance by lead actor Marcel Iures. His portrayal of a an American professor who's given it all up to research his bloodline in rural Romania is quite enjoyable. "The Phantom Father" is a well-done film with charm and heart.

Iures' character, Robert Traum, meets Romanian archivist/librarian Tanya, who assists him along his journey. She becomes his sort of foil, and the two find common interests along the way. The cinematography is beautiful, acting natural and instantly believable, and the story is interesting and perfectly plausible. Superb work, and easily recommendable.

MVD Visual

"One Last Game" DVD (director: Ayassi)

This German (but scripted in English) drama deals with a protagonist (played by Ken Duken), a motley assemblage of poker players, and the politics behind his "final game". Secrets are bared, crimes are admitted, and infidelities revealed, during this "last game".

It's all filmed against an abstracted black backdrop, which gives "One Last Game" an odd, otherworldly, and dream-like vibe. Duken is fine as the confident but troubled Gellert, and his co-star, Scandinavian pop-singer Regina Lund, is oddly icy and mysterious. Nonetheless, I had a tough time getting into the storyline, as the whole film takes place on the same "set", and the character development & dialogue seems, well, slow-paced. 

Not a world-class film, but certainly one with style and subtlety. 

MVD Visual

"Electric Button (Moon & Cherry)" DVD (director: Yuki Tanada)

This small-time Japanese indie from first-time director Tanada doesn't succeed with glitz nor glamor, but gets by with (I hate to say it, but it's true...) charm and heart. It's a tale of a virginal young man (Tadokoro) who joins an erotic writers club, only to find that the club's most successful writer is a young woman. Taking him under her wing, the young woman (named Mayama), proceeds to school the young man in the art of sex, putting him through all sorts of trials, presumably as fodder for her own literary work.

Without giving away too many spoilers, Todokoro finds himself at a crossroads well into his sexual education, and things take a turn for the worse. With a small amount of humor, a realistic script, and a tantalizing amount of sex, "Electric Button" is a charming adult drama that deserves a bigger audience.

Tidepoint Pictures/MVD Visual

"Joint Body" DVD (director: Brian Jun)

This well-done crime drama stars Mark Pellegrino (best-known as Jacob from "Lost") as an ex-convict who, upon release, is abandoned by his ex-wife and estranged from his daughter. In trying to find his feet in the real world, he meets troubled stripper Michelle (played well by the lovely Alicia Witt), and together they get mixed up in another, umm, legal debacle. 

Director and writer Jun does well leading us to empathize for both Nick and Michelle, who are both strong and likable characters, despite their histories. With a minimum of violence and sex, "Join Body" remains gritty and realistic, and subsequently, an exceptional indie film with heart and spirit. I enjoyed this one all the way through! (40 West/Level 33 Entertainment)

"Daylight" DVD (director: David Barker)

Ah, finally -- a micro-indie film with intelligence and subtlety. "Daylight" is a dark drama (not horror, as the packaging would have you believe) that features a young European couple who, on their way to a wedding somewhere in the rural states, fall prey to a team of kidnappers.

The pregnant wife Irene (played with a subtle eroticism by Alexandra Meierhans) gets to know the kidnappers as she is held hostage in an old farmhouse. Her relationships with her captors is subtle, and we're not always sure who is playing who. The kidnappers also have some depth, being quite polite to Irene, but with an underlying sense of unhinged menace. As the kidnappers' schemes gradually go astray, Irene uses her wits to avoid being injured or abused, all the while watching her naive (but murderous) kidnappers fall apart. 

"Daylight" is an engrossing, well-shot, well-directed, and all around well-done film that deserves to be seen. Do yourself a favor and find this one. (Cinema Purgatorio)