Hey Folks, Harry here... I've recently been surviving the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL, and that hasn't been a necessarily easy task... Until last night, I had gone almost 54 hours with a total of about 3 hours of sleep, but... having just completed 11 hours of rest... I feel semi-human again. I'm currently digesting all the competition and 35mm films that aren't the special screenings... to decide which to present for AICN PRESENTS BEST OF THE FEST on Monday here in Austin at the Paramount. And folks... I tell ya, having to go through them... WHILE ALSO ATTENDING THE FESTIVAL IS A NIGHTMARE!!! No time for rest Dr Jones... Sheeshus... But luckily a fella like Mouth comes along to help from time to time... so take a look at CICADAS below...
Mouth Speaks about the Austin Film Festival : Kat Candler's Cicadas
Hey there, my film watching friends, Major Jerk Alert, its Mouth, back to do a serious amount of gum-flapping. I have received a lot of mail and questions throughout the past few months wondering what happened to the regular Mouth Speaks article, if I was going to be coming back, did I die in a horrible spelunking accident, did I finally see all the rich stuff I could possibly see, but most importantly, will I write again to help out independent filmmakers. Well, the answer to the final most important question is, yes. I may have gone on a sabbatical, but when it comes down to it, I do love a great independent film, and being the incredible loudmouth I am, when I see something that captures me and my emotions in the way that Cicadas did, I have to yell about it. (I'm Mouth, that what I do, duh.)
I got a message from a friend of mine, who will go by "trunkman," about yesterday's showing of Cicadas. I really didn't know what to expect, but trunkman assured me it was up my alley. Also seeing as the film was one of the first films of the Austin Film Festival, I figured, sure, I'll go see anything, I'm crazy. Harry even talked me into going to see the Cell with him (reference Harry's Cell review for what I thought of that P.O.S) but anyway, the point being is that I had no idea at all what to expect when I walked in the theatre. And in my opinion, that's possibly the best way to go see a movie. No preconceptions, no hype, no ideas of what it's going to be.
I went into that theatre at the Arbor 7, and walked out an hour and a half later, completely blown away .
Cicadas made me feel...emote...relate to characters that reminded me of stages of my life that I had forgotten about, either because they were too painful or because my life was going so well I felt better not thinking about those worse-off times in my life. That having been said, this is possibly the best teen misfit romance drama I've seen since the mid-eighties. Remember the pain of your first crush? The pain of dealing with your home life? The sweetness of finding release in whatever you did to get away from those pangs of unrequited emotion? This film has it all.
Cicadas was written, directed, and edited by Kat Candler, who I had the extremely special opportunity of meeting after I saw Cicadas. She is the first to admit that she has had a lot of help on this project, from her producers, Scott Bate and Shawn Higgins, to her cast and crew and the Austin Film Society, who assisted with $5,000 of production money. But talking to her, I really get the idea that this story has been a driving force and passion of hers for a very long time. She’s proud of it, but in a very modest sort of way. We stood around afterwards, talking about how I felt about the film, letting her know what I'm telling you now, how it really made me feel and that I really would like to have more people go see it. What's funny about this, some people tend to be over-confident or braggarts about their art, but Kat actually blushed several times through the conversation in a quiet, unassuming sort of way. She seemed almost overwhelmed that so many people have come out of the theatre, absolutely loving her film.
Why is this important to this review? Well, that's the kind of attitude this film has. It's quiet and unassuming, but extremely potent with passion. It's subtle yet stirring. Most of all, it is able to help you remember a point in your life or relate to a character in a very intimate way without being manipulative or knocking you over the head with a point (which is one of my all-time pet peeves. I'm not a fricking monkey, I got the point the first time.) Anyone can drop a gallon of paint on a canvas and call it art. A true artist realizes that the art is in what they do NOT include.
If this sounds at all like your kind of film, you live in or around Austin, TX, and aren't living under a rock, STOP READING RIGHT NOW.
That's right, stop reading this review, because I want to give you the kind of experience I had last night. I want you to go see Cicadas, this Thursday, October 19, and I want YOU to be blown away. It is showing at the Arbor 7 (at the Arboretum, behind Barnes & Noble) at 7:20 PM. If you don't have an Austin Film Festival pass, that's ok, you only have to pay $7 at the door, which is a comparable price to that crappy studio film you were going to see this weekend anyway. Do yourself a favor. Go see Cicadas, an independent film that is written, directed, and shot so well and so true, you can feel the scraped knees and hands of the people that bled to make this film happen.
Ok, so if you're still reading, you probably don't think you'll be able to see Cicadas this next week. That's OK, I'm still not giving anything big away, because I have a feeling that this film and these filmmakers are going big places. I'm not saying anything else, because I don't want to Jinx anything. But for now, here's a little more info.
Cicadas is, at it’s core, a story of a 16-year old girl named Anna Roberts (played by Lindsay Broockman) and her family. She’s the middle child of the family, the only girl, who has to end up taking care of her brothers on a regular basis because her parents are always working out of town. A lot of the film, Anna is regularly having to take the role of both mother and sister, needing to accomplish a lot of goals around the house but not commanding the motherly respect needed to get her brothers to help out.
Anna’s escape, at the beginning of the film, is school. It’s not a joyous pursuit by any means, but she seems to be one of the brightest in her class, possibly because she has nothing else to focus on but her home life...where she ends up being more single mother than anything. She spends a lot of time looking after her younger brother, Simon (The Patriot’s Bryan Chafin) whose main passions are camping, smearing himself with mud, climbing up trees to record and collect bugs. Simon seems to have even more problems dealing with his lack of parenting, because he wears his scout shirt to school every day, and is continually harassed by the local bullies. His only friends tend to be bugs.
Then there’s Anna’s older brother, Jacob (played by Paul Conrad, who was in Some Place New, which I reviewed several months ago.) I loved Paul in Some Place New and I love him in Cicadas as well. His Jacob spends most of his time drawing, listening to really loud music, playing video games, and drinking beer illegally with his friends. Not that there’s anything altogether wrong with this, in my opinion, mind you, but he tends to deal with the familial situation by completely ignoring it. He won’t help out around the house, and even brings friends over who tend to make a larger mess (not to mention attempt to molest his sister behind his back.) Jacob isn’t a bad guy...his heart is in the right place, as you can see often throughout the film, but he tends to be a bit more self-centered than Anna, which just makes the daily goings-on that much worse.
Enter James Fisher, the new kid at school, played by Brandon Howe. I had the opportunity to see a short film with Brandon in it before Cicadas started, entitled (I think) Daydreams. I mention this because Brandon has a really serious range. In Daydreams, he’s quite a bit older, approximately a college student, who is going to ask his current girlfriend to marry him. But in Cicadas, he is supposed to be about the same age as Anna, 16...and I completely believed it. In fact, every scene between Anna and James was one that I could feel the first stirrings of love and jealousy, of the fumbledy-mouth early years of dating and relationships. But I digress.
James has come from another school, and It’s obvious from the start that he’s quite a bit different than anyone Anna’s known before. He’s different, an independent thinker, someone whose not about to let others tell him what to do or to feel. And initially Anna is repulsed by him, but then attracted to him as she realizes that in their own ways, they really are cut from the same cloth. And that’s where the romance comes in. It’s very subtle, compared to modern romance standards, but it’s there in a very realistic, almost heartbreakingly true fashion. It’s not hard to get drawn in by this, especially if you’re (sigh) a romantic at heart like me. (Never will I ever admit that again, so enjoy it while you can.)
And that’s how it starts, and I don’t want to go much further than that, suffice it to say, we have a major amount of character development with Anna, her brothers and James. When things happen to them and problems curve their way, you care, because Kat is able to paint a picture with these characters that make you look at yourself in that context.
It helps you see that in some time in your life, you were Anna’s brother Simon, running away from the bullies and the loneliness of life by withdrawing and climbing into whatever trees were there to support you. You will see yourself as Jacob, surrounding yourself with friends and drinking or playing games to avoid your problems without tackling them head on. Especially if you’re someone like me, who was a geek in school, and had a hard time understanding relationships, you will see yourself as Anna. Also, if you’ve ever done struck out in response to the pain and anger in your life, only to realize what you wanted to fight was not what you were fighting, you will understand that in some time in your life, you were James.
If you have a chance, go see Cicadas. If you don’t have a chance, make a chance. If you have a distribution company and some money, pick Cicadas up and distribute it. (Hey, it always helps to ask right out...)
Needless to say, I have found a film that I have grown very attached to very quickly, and I have a really good idea this one will stand the test of time. So thank you, Kat Candler, for making this film. Thank you, to all the cast and crew, for bleeding together, with limited budget and resources, to create a piece of art that I will always in some way consider a treasure. Thanks for putting out the rich stuff.
That’s it for the Mouth this time, kiddies. I promise to be around on a more regular basis. Hopefully, I’ll discover some more jewels to report on. In the meantime, remember:
“I had a dream once. This one right here. This was my dream, my wish. And it didn’t come true.
I’m taking them back. I’m taking them all back.”
-MOUTH
Kat Candler and Mutiny Productions can be reached at: kcandler@hotmail.com
Remember! Next Cicadas screening at the Austin, TX Arbor 7, Thursday, October 19, 7:20 PM. GO SEE IT!
