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Alta Vista
USA 2020
produced by Paul Beckman, Joe Clarke, John Rex Potts IV (executive), Alexander Harstrick (executive), Rob Van Dam (executive), Ray Chao (executive) for Backrow Studios
directed by Joe Clarke
starring Joe Clarke, Stacey Scowley, Paul Beckman, Tanika 'Tea' Vickers, Tyler Thirnbeck, Elwie Apor Harris, Dave Coyne, Jimmy Gagarin, Derek Severson, Heidi Li, Neel Ghosh, Bill Adams, Nick Harstrick, Adalgiza Chermont, Kyle Sing, Nancy Youngblut, Phyouture, Ray Chao, Meriette Saglie, Patrick Bottaro, Karl White, Kevin Delijani, JG Tunis, Pamela Marie Hobby, Ben Palmer, Jamie Newell, Ben Komar
written by Joe Clarke, music by Alex Kachingwe
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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Sam (Joe Clarke) has only recently lost his father, and it's hitting
him harder than he had expected. But he has decided to follow his dreams
and go to LA to become a screenweriter - against the express advice of the
person closest to him, his sister Sara (Stacey Scowley), who just knows
how unstable he is. Now Hollywood doesn't exactly welcome him with open
arms, and he has a bunch of less-than-perfect experiences, from being
cheated into renting a rathole apartment to being stalked by a nosey
neighbour (Dave Coyne), from having to duke it out with the mailman (Jimmy
Gagarin) to almost being tricked into doing porn - something that also
blows his chance to meet Steven Spielberg. But shit really hits the fan
when his production partner Jake (Paul Beckman) first gets their
production financed, but then takes off with all the money, and the
financers come after Sam to get back their investment, if need be by
force. And that's where Sam falls down a rabbithole, starting to believe
he's a character in his own screenplay guided by some puppeteer (Nancy
Youngblut) who has actually made herself known to him once - and at the
same time he also believes that his dad is still alive (despite having
witnessed him slwoly wilt away from cancer two years back) and held in a
room in Russia. And he also believes the answer to everything can be found
down in the sewers - and none of this of course helps with any of his
ever-more-pressing problems ... A very unusual film that at
first feels a bit like your typical country bumkin comes to Hollywood-style
story, but soon dumps all genre clichés for a narrative approach that
doesn't necessarily follow a linear storyline and is rather associative in
nature, to the point where things go absurd and/or surreal - and this
approach actually works surprisingly well, as a tight directorial effort
keeps things from just trailing off while a strong ensemble cast keeps
things grounded even in the more over-the-top moments, and despite its
non-orthodox nature, the story seems stringent while at the same time full
of surprises. And all of this makes not your everyday movie, but cool,
intelligent entertainment.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Thanks for watching !!!
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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