BNFF10 REVIEW: Contractor’s Routine [2011]

“Change is the currency of the universe” When planning out the films I was going to try and see at the 2010 Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, I noticed one on the first Saturday called Contractor’s Routine. The image on the poster was intriguing and its categorization as a psychological thriller put in firmly in my wheelhouse. I checked out the website and was met by a somewhat jumbled mess of text and images, giving me the impression that perhaps the finished film would show it’s independent budget on its sleeve.…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: The Teacher [2010]

“Maybe a scotch would be better” Conquering your fears—I think that is as good a description as any of what Lisa Ford, (and her son Zack Ford, who co-directed), was looking to express with in her short film The Teacher. Screening at the Buffalo Niagara Film festival, the piece is an interesting mix of reality and fantasy, showing many of the activities for which Hermes is the patron God of. A stand-in for orators and literature, (the teacher), as well as thieves, liars, athletics and sports, (the student); this God…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Bravo Sierra [2010]

“The Maple Leaf will prevail” Sometimes a film can be successful as nothing more than a good time; a point driven home by the local Buffalo production Bravo Sierra. It’s a satire of the war in Iraq that is so over-the-top you can’t help but become part of the joke. While the first few minutes are funny, the performance of jack-of-all-trades Jason Aupperle, (writer, director, producer, editor, and star), seems too grating to look beyond. The film quality isn’t the greatest, the one-shot cutting abrupt as you wonder why two…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Badfish [2009]

“The Michael Jordan of competitive fish eating” Not to belittle the comparison of Badfish to the films of Christopher Guest that the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival’s program contains, but that is some lofty thinking. The movie being a faux documentary is an accurate similarity, yet what makes the works of Guest successful is that they are send-ups of real life events. Amateur theatre troupes perform, dog shows exist, and folk bands actually have concerts. So, the premise of the film revolving around a goldfish eating competition is just too outlandish…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Cadillac [2009]

“All I can do is drive” The eight-minute short film Cadillac, by Nathan Lewinski, is a sentimental portrait of the memory of a man who has left this earth. Beginning without dialogue, an older gentlemen turning on his Caddy while still in the garage, I thought that maybe my cynical mind was playing tricks on me. The first reaction I had to the scene was that this man was committing suicide, especially as the sequence blurs out into black for the next act to begin. Only when I read the…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: St. Gertrude [2009]

“A bitch named Leroy Brown” By far one of the highlights during my first day at the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival, Emily Johnson’s senior film project for the Savannah College of Art and Design, St. Gertrude, is a gorgeous little film. Right from the beginning, during a sequence that sees a family in mourning, as the grandmother lies dying in bed, you can notice the strong sense of composition and quality of visual aesthetic. The credits then run above a static shot of young Gertrude on the floor of her…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Hens & Chicks [2010]

“Did you have pygmy zygotes?” I really didn’t know what to expect when Becky Lane’s short film Hens & Chicks began. It opens up to show young Hanna and Marco on their way home from school. You assume the two have whatever kind of crush one can at the age on each other, and see it confirmed somewhat when the two race. The finish is somewhat anticlimactic as Marco trips and falls—as he is wont to do—relaying the fact his carrying her books hindered his ability to go full speed.…

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BNFF10 REVIEW: Laundry Day [2010]

“I just don’t know how they got so orange” It’s tough to create a film that’s only four and a half minutes long that can resonate the same way a feature can with all its character development and plot progression. One way around the time frame is to just make it a fun little bit to entertain for the short span it lasts on screen. Dominick Saraceno’s Laundry Day attempts to do just that in its simple orchestration. Taking place at an empty Laundromat, a guy (Clint Byrne) and a…

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Salman Rushdie risks his life once more for Just Buffalo’s Babel

And that is why you leave to get in line for an autograph when Mike Kelleher says “final question” with a guy like Salman Rushdie doing the signing. The guy is a rockstar that not only brought the biggest crowd yet for a Just Buffalo Literary Center Babel event, but also attracted the most ever taking advantage of the signature session. It all began with Rushdie relaying how we can all thank Charles Dickens for making authors feel like they were allowed to do ‘the strange thing’ and speak in…

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REVIEW: Death at a Funeral [2010]

“Always thought he had a little sugar in his tank” It does not take long to show just how exact a remake Neil LaBute’s Death at a Funeral is compared to Frank Oz’s original. Right from the opening credits, an animated journey of the hearse bringing the deceased to his home for final goodbyes, altered mainly by being more literal than its abstract cousin, everything is just as it was. Once the cartoon fades away to leave reality beneath, however, we get to see just where the differences lie. I…

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REVIEW: The Hire [2001-2002]

“BMW recommends that you always wear your seatbelt” After watching the Parallel Lines series, my desire to revisit BMW’s The Hire was too much to contain. This thing was a cultural phenomenon, doing what no one had ever done, with a medium still untested at the time. Back in 2001, households across America were still learning about the internet; installing their dial-up connections to surf for mostly news articles and sites without too many images for quick access. Looking to tap into a market that could target its demographic of…

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