Hey folks, Harry here with a look at some of the titles that were showing this weekend up at the USA FILM FESTIVAL in Dallas, Texas. I can't wait to get my hands on BIG CITY DICK... um, I mean... I really want drool all over ... Um... Anyway, how about that TREKKIES 2, eh? Personally, I liked HELL'S HIGHWAY quite a bit, but the early cut of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE made me cringe in agony, but it was quite well received at both Sundance and SXSW... And here at USA FILM FEST - it continues to have nothing but good vibes. Here ya go, check it out...
Hey Harry,
The Angelika Film Center in Dallas has been hosting the 34th USA Film Festival this weekend. I’ve managed to catch a few films over the weekend: Napoleon Dynamite, Trekkies 2, Big City Dick, and Hell’s Highway.
My favorite so far has been Napoleon Dynamite. Napoleon Dynamite is a hilarious character driven story set in rural Idaho. The main character, Napoleon is like the loser you knew in high school, only magnified 100 times. Played by Jon Herder, Napoleon is one of the most nerdy and pathetic characters every to be on the big screen. He’s a skinny, red-headed nerd that can’t seem to say one sentence without sounding like he’s going run out of breath.
When Napoleon’s Grandmother gets hurt during a four-wheeler accent, his Uncle Rico comes to take care of Napoleon and his equally pathetic brother Kip. Uncle Rico is still reminiscing on his glory days of being a high school quarterback in ’82. Now a door-to-door plastic-ware salesmen, Rico convinces Kip to join the business when he’s not busy chatting to his Internet girlfriend. Meanwhile, Napoleon makes a new friend the only way he can, buy meeting a new student that’s barely fluent in English, Pedro. Napoleon and Pedro team up as Pedro tries to live out his American dream of becoming School President.
But the bulk of the story really centers on Napoleon and his nerdy antics. In fact, he’s such a spaz, you don’t ever feel sorry for him, rather, you just sit back and watch this guy make a complete idiot of himself…and it’s great! Even if you felt sorry for that guy in high school that got beat up everyday, you can’t help but laugh at Napoleon and his loser ways.
Shot entirely in Preston, Idaho and away from sets, an extreme sense of realism is achieved. The high school feel is comparable to that in Election. It’s not a fake, feel good teen comedy, yet it’s not a harsh, real world eye opener. It’s somewhere in between, and it works. The extras were all real students and not paid actors. Some of smaller roles in the film are also just residents from Preston.
With a budget of just $400,000, first time director Jared Hess has completed a successful comedy. Full of awkward pauses and hilarious dialogue, I have a feeling people are going to be quoting this movie for years. It definitely has cult status written all over it. I paid $8 to see it at the USA Film Festival, and I’ll gladly pay another $8 when it gets released in June.
Trekkies 2 was also shown. Trekkies 2 takes the same idea of Trekkies and expands it to a Global platform. Interviewing Trekkies, or Trekkers...whatever..., from Germany to Australia to Balkans, a wider picture is painted of the Star Trek franchise and how it affects its fans.
Obvious extra care was taken with Trekkies 2. It’s not only full of the extreme obsessed fans as seen in the first one. Instead, a broader array of the Star Trek fan base is addressed. The average fan has more of a voice in this film and they even get to comment on what is deemed excessive for the other Star Trek fans.
But even though a view of the average fan is seen, the bizarre fans are still the main course of the film. Fittingly so, the most outrageous Trekkies get the majority of the screen time. However, on a side note, we also get to experience a subculture within this subculture through the exploration of the Trekkies art form. Fan film clubs, Trekkie bands, and FILKs (fantasy folk music) are explored to the point where it’s deemed that these activities are beneficial to the obsessed fans for their social aspect.
This time around, the social importance of being a fan is also looked at. The Trekkies explain why they are so fascinated with Star Trek and its world. Answers range from the story lines to escapism to the code of ethics apparent in most of the show. Most of the Trekkies simply believe that the world would be a better place if everyone followed the Prime Directives in Star Trek. Some fans even admit watching the show pulls them through rough times in their life.
Also, some of the Trekkies from the first film are brought back to update their situation and comment on how being in the first Trekkies impacted their life. Gabriel Koerner, a then 14 year old fan trying to make a Star Trek movie using 3D computer modeling, is now 21 and working as a 3D modeler for the TV series Battlestar Galactica. He’s now married to his high school sweetheart and he sets things straight about his mistakenly gay sexual preference. Another memorable character brought back was Barbara Adams, who is best known for wearing her commander’s uniform during her jury duty for the Whitewater scandal. She still defends her right to express her admiration for Star Trek in any circumstance.
Trekkies 2 is basically the same idea as the first Trekkies, but it has a more streamlined and less abrasive tone. This will probably turn off most of the people who took the first film as a circus freak show, but Trekkies 2 corrects everything that may have seem wronged in the first film. There are still plenty of bizarre and laughable situations in Trekkies 2, but it makes it clear that it’s laughing with the fans and not at them.
Big City Dick was a happy surprise. The film explores the eccentric life of Richard Peterson. Richard is different. He’s a borderline savant/mentally retarded person. He definitely has amazing talents when it comes to music. He can play the piano and trumpet at the same time and not miss a beat. And not just play the two at the same time, but sound amazing. When he’s not collecting balls or drawing precise images of skyscrapers from memory, he’s chasing down musician Johnny Mathis or memorizing musical cues from the 60s TV show Sea Hunt. He composes his own songs and has 4 albums to his credit.
Living in Seattle, Richard is a well-known icon of the city. Often mistaken for a homeless man, he plays his trumpet on the streets to make a living…but that’s only between his few gigs. He’s made appearances on local TV and Radio shows and he loves meeting with “personalities” as he calls them. He’ll often show up at the stations unannounced just to say “hi” and give a warm hug to his personality friends. One of his friends is Jeff Bridges, or “Son of Sea Hunt” as Richard calls him (Lloyd Bridges, Jeff’s father, was the main star of Sea Hunt). Aside from what appears to be Jeff “hamming it up” for the camera, he seems to have quite a special bond with Richard as they remember musical cues from Sea Hunt.
Richard is an excellent documentary subject. He’s funny, smart, misunderstood, and interesting. The great thing about Big City Dick is you never feel that Richard is being exploited. It manages to depict Richard as completely autonomous, but at the same time it creates this feeling that he should be carefully watched. The construction of the film is interesting in itself. We are introduced to Richard almost as this comic fool, then we realize just want an amazing person he really is. Our feelings for him run from laughter, to amazement, to annoyance, and then to sorrow. I hate to sound cliché, but this will make you laugh and cry.
The only negative thing I can say about his film is that it runs a bit long. 2 hours of Richard gets to be exhausting, but it’s almost a disservice to give Richard anything less. He’s lead an amazing life and he’s done amazing things. I can see how it would be easy to do multiple films over the same man.
It’s really hard to wrap up this documentary in a nice synopsis without explaining every bit of the film. There is so much detail about Richard’s life, it hard to know where to begin. 11 years in the making, the 3 directors Scott Milam, Ken Harder, and Todd Pottinger did a great job at giving a full view into Richard’s talents, troubles, and successes.
Hell’s Highway was a bit of disappointment for me. I think I created this feeling it was going to be an Errol Morris-ese documentary in my head. Instead it’s a very straight forward documentary about the company Highway Safety Films that created all those gruesome traffic safety films in the 60s.
I honestly don’t know what really to say about it other than it outlines the history of the Highway Safety Films. It has some gruesome footage from car wrecks and has plenty of excerpts from the old safety films. As an added bones….or shall I say added boner…there is even some hidden camera gay man bathroom sex. Apparently, at one point the Highway Safety Films branched out and did other things. During this time, they helped the police department crack down on bathroom molesting by secretly filming suspects from behind a two-way mirror. As a result, they captured hours of men having gay sex in the public restroom. I bet plenty of people won’t be expecting that.
All in all, it’s a very nicely done and informative documentary. I wish it wasn’t so straight forward though. It almost comes off as something you’d see on the History Channel….almost.
CommanderGoat
