Boston natives Caspian (in Portland) and Some Films...Lots of Catching up to Do
Friday night, I got to see a great instrumental, metal-melodic band from Boston, MA play in Portland. They're music sounds so good on record that I was sure they would sound even better live. They did not disappoint. Most of their songs are quiet and build to loud crescendos and they can be quite lengthy, but the pay-off is worth it. It's been great music to put on and relax or read to, on in the background. They had a couple of opening bands as well, O'Brother and Defeater, both of which sounded great live as well.
Caspian setlist:
Caspian setlist:
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- Encore:
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O'Brother's setlist:
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"Hellions"
starring: Chloe Rose, Robert Patrick, Rossif Sutherland, Rachel Wilson, Peter DeCunha, Luke Bilyk
directed by: Bruce MacDonald
written by: Pascal Trottier
This is a low-budget horror film set on Halloween in a small town, and the director is dead set on presenting the story with a lot of surrealism and fantasy. Unfortunately, he fails miserably! It came off, to me, as a poor man's version of "Donnie Darko" like something an art/film-school kid would do to impress females or something.
High schooler Dora (Chloe Rose) is the standard image of the rebellious teen: skipping class with her boyfriend, smoking, drinking, and planning to spend Halloween night partying hard. But a quick follow-up with her doctor (Rossif Sutherland) early in the day brings her some shocking news: she’s four weeks pregnant. Not knowing what to do, and learning it’s only a matter of time before the doctor has to legally inform her mother (Rachel Wilson), Dora decides to stay home for the evening while her mom and little brother go out for some trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, Dora’s planned night of moping around to some bad horror movies gets thrown out of whack when some kids wearing creepy masks begin showing up at her door. The kids’ actions quickly become more aggressive, until one of them decapitates Dora’s boyfriend and demands she give over her unborn baby. Much to Dora’s surprise, her day actually could get worse.
High schooler Dora (Chloe Rose) is the standard image of the rebellious teen: skipping class with her boyfriend, smoking, drinking, and planning to spend Halloween night partying hard. But a quick follow-up with her doctor (Rossif Sutherland) early in the day brings her some shocking news: she’s four weeks pregnant. Not knowing what to do, and learning it’s only a matter of time before the doctor has to legally inform her mother (Rachel Wilson), Dora decides to stay home for the evening while her mom and little brother go out for some trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, Dora’s planned night of moping around to some bad horror movies gets thrown out of whack when some kids wearing creepy masks begin showing up at her door. The kids’ actions quickly become more aggressive, until one of them decapitates Dora’s boyfriend and demands she give over her unborn baby. Much to Dora’s surprise, her day actually could get worse.
At this point, Hellions goes full-blown surreal and never comes back. Once the army of demon children show up at Dora’s door trying to break in, everything gets transported to some sort of parallel universe where the skies turn red, and Dora’s pregnancy starts accelerating at a rapid pace. An explanation for all the insanity eventually comes in the form of an exposition-spouting local cop (Robert Patrick), who explains that it’s all part of some demonic ritual to sacrifice a baby on Halloween.
Chloe Rose does her best impression of a scream queen and is rather convincing with her performance, but the writing is just to clunky and filled with a bunch of dead weight. And the style of filmmaking here is too experimental especially coming from an experienced director. The way MacDonald presents the film just makes it feel forced. It lost my interest early, but I kept with it until the end to see what would happen, unfortunately, nothing much happens.
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"The Veil"
starring: Jessica Alba, Lily Rabe, Thomas Jane, Aleksa Palladino, Shannon Woodward, Reid Scott, Lenny Jacobson, Meegan Warner, Jack De Sena, David Sullivan, Amber Friendly
directed by: Phil Joanou
written by: Robert Ben Garant
Jessica Alba decides to make her comeback with a bizarre and all around terrible film about a documentary film crew on the search for the truth behind a religious cult family that committed mass suicide decades earlier at the instance of their charismatic leader. Alba plays Maggie Price, the documentary filmmaker. She, along with her film crew, enlist the help of Sarah (played by Lily Rabe, American Horror Story alum) to return to the compound where it all happened.
It's pretty clear there are bigger things awaiting them at the compound, in the form of haunting spirits and unfortunately not much time is spent on the supernatural aspect of the film, only the last act of the film, which makes it all seemed rushed. The is far too much build up and character investigations, which I did not think was that important to the story. It's all a lot of wasted time.
It's pretty clear there are bigger things awaiting them at the compound, in the form of haunting spirits and unfortunately not much time is spent on the supernatural aspect of the film, only the last act of the film, which makes it all seemed rushed. The is far too much build up and character investigations, which I did not think was that important to the story. It's all a lot of wasted time.
"The Veil" was apparently, originally, a short film and I think it would have been better had it stayed that way.
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"The Happy House"
starring: Khan Baykal, Aya Cash, Marceline Hugot, Kathleen McNeeny, Oliver Henzler, Mike Houston, Charles Borland, Stivi Paskoski, Curtis Shumaker
written and directed by: D.W. Young
This is the kind of horror/thriller film that is enjoyable. It presents the characters and story at the beginning, with a hint of mystery and makes you wonder who will survive, it also throws in some good red herrings, and the suspense builds up, making sure it tells a complete story. It also has just enough humor in it, when it needs to.
This is a horror-comedy that's authentically misleading until a pivotal moment that firmly establishes the film as a thriller in which a requisite motley cast of characters are bumped off one by one, somewhat in the tradition of Ten Little Indians, in a requisite remote location. Up until that point, though, Young has run the tonal gamut from a Jarmuschian portrait of youthful stasis to a comedy of remarriage to a fish-out-of-water sitcom to a (mild) satire of contemporary America as an increasingly remote and indecisive country of gun nuts and limousine liberals.
This is a horror-comedy that's authentically misleading until a pivotal moment that firmly establishes the film as a thriller in which a requisite motley cast of characters are bumped off one by one, somewhat in the tradition of Ten Little Indians, in a requisite remote location. Up until that point, though, Young has run the tonal gamut from a Jarmuschian portrait of youthful stasis to a comedy of remarriage to a fish-out-of-water sitcom to a (mild) satire of contemporary America as an increasingly remote and indecisive country of gun nuts and limousine liberals.
If the film has any flaws, it's that the director/writer likes his characters too much to really put them through anything remotely stressful. It has plenty of great moments, but nothing to make it exceptional. It's a worthy endeavor for a debut film, and shows that writer/director Young has potential.
You sort of forget about the potential danger the newlywed couple have put themselves in by coming to the B & B, because Hildie (Hugot) is just so damn charming as the owner with a mysterious background.
You sort of forget about the potential danger the newlywed couple have put themselves in by coming to the B & B, because Hildie (Hugot) is just so damn charming as the owner with a mysterious background.
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"Mr. Jones"
starring: Jon Foster, Sarah Jones, Mark Steger, Faran Tahir, Stanley B. Herman
written and directed by: Karl Mueller
This was definitely a head-scratcher type of film, perhaps because I have not seen the film that is apparently being paid homage to- "The Tree of Life" and its director Terrence Malick- and that's why it left me a bit befuddled and confused. It's a quasi- found footage/faux documentary type of film in which Scott and his girlfriend Penny (Jon Foster and Sarah Jones, respectively) are out in the woods and mountains in search of a recluse of a man named Mr. Jones. There's almost too much packed into the film that really gets shoved down our throats which leaves us with the feeling of choking on it all without being able to enjoy it for what it is.
It almost presents itself as a story similar to that of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about the elusive street artist, Banksy- given the mysterious Mr. Jones as Banksy. There's also a bit of similarity with the Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz (who wrote a song aptly titled "Mr. Jones" in the 1990s).
The film gets lost within itself when it turns into something else, like a real documentary, presenting fake characters giving interviews about Mr. Jones and his art. This just leaves you confused.
The story revolves mostly around Scott and Penny and their woods' discovery, though:
Upon discovering a series of creepy wooden scarecrows near their cabin, Scott and Penny come to believe that they're being tormented, or gifted, by a legend in the art world, whose work can fetch upward of seven figures if it can be authenticated. Naturally, Scott ditches his pretentious nature doc for a pretentious look at the appeal of Mr. Jones's terrible stick figures to a clusterfuck of dismally acted art curators, dealers, and authors.
It almost presents itself as a story similar to that of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about the elusive street artist, Banksy- given the mysterious Mr. Jones as Banksy. There's also a bit of similarity with the Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz (who wrote a song aptly titled "Mr. Jones" in the 1990s).
The film gets lost within itself when it turns into something else, like a real documentary, presenting fake characters giving interviews about Mr. Jones and his art. This just leaves you confused.
The story revolves mostly around Scott and Penny and their woods' discovery, though:
Upon discovering a series of creepy wooden scarecrows near their cabin, Scott and Penny come to believe that they're being tormented, or gifted, by a legend in the art world, whose work can fetch upward of seven figures if it can be authenticated. Naturally, Scott ditches his pretentious nature doc for a pretentious look at the appeal of Mr. Jones's terrible stick figures to a clusterfuck of dismally acted art curators, dealers, and authors.
By film's end, it implies through easy montage barfs of Scott's unedited doc footage that the story's boogeyman isn't so much scaring Scott and Penny as the couple is scaring themselves by trying to unravel the mystery of his identity.
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