Movie review: ‘They Came to Play’

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com
By Kenn McCracken

Review at a glance: One of the most inspiring documentaries in Sidewalk history, “They Came to Play” puts on a virtuoso show of amateur pianists battling and bewitching at the Van Cliburn competition.

Birmingham ophthalmologist Drew Mays practices his
piano pieces at home in a scene from “They Came to Play.”

Not every gifted player makes more than a hobby of their playing.

You meet such amateur artists in “They Came to Play,” a documentary about participants in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. An inspirational film that showcases amazing talent and a variety of characters, it does an excellent job of showing that not every classical pianist is the same.

The movie screens Sunday at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

What makes this so spectacular is director Alex Rotaru’s framing of the competition and construction of the narrative. Ninety minutes pass quickly, and the competitors he focuses on are introduced in a natural progression. Among them is Drew Mays, an ophthalmologist at Birmingham’s Veterans Administration Medical Center and the director of the UAB School of Medicine residency program.

The film shows more than just the performance and practice sides of its subjects, but never strays so far that you feel it has lost focus. The competitors are so varied — in age, playing background, professional lives and especially personalities — that it’s hard even as a music fan to decide which is more entertaining, the pieces or the people.

The components are equally strong: gorgeous cinematography, seamless editing, and an absolutely astonishing sound mix, perhaps the most important part of a music documentary. The pianos, whether onstage or at home, sound clear and enveloping.

As a musician and a sometime filmmaker, I find “They Came to Play” is a documentary I’ve been waiting to see without realizing it. While many music documentaries focus on one band or genre, this one is about music, performance and the passion that runs underneath it all.

Musicians, fans and arts patrons would be remiss in not seeing one of the best, most inspiring and uplifting documentaries in the 11-year history of Sidewalk.

Kenn McCracken (@insomniactive) is a director and an award-winning screenwriter (2005 Sidewalk Sidewrite grand prize, “Muckfuppet”).

He’s also a writer (Birmingham Weekly, Spin.com, mental_floss), a bassist for the Exhibit(s), an eight-time cat juggling champion for Malta and an ongoing experiment in sleep deprivation. He occasionally steals your best ideas to claim at his blog, Dairy of a Madman.

“They Came to Play” will screen at 6:45 p.m. Sunday at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Video: Defining “amateur” vs. “professional”

Also:

• Official site
• Sidewalk summary
• Features from Birmingham News | UAB Reporter

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

Wake up, world. Don’t you
know there’s injustice and sin?
(Like there’s always been.)

• • •

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‘Interplanetary’ making North American debut Sunday

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com

Ten reasons to see “Interplanetary” at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival on Sunday …

10. “‘Interplanetary’ is what all B-movies should want to be: audacious, intelligent and start-to-finish entertaining, a slice of genius standing in bold defiance of the budget.” So says reviewer David Cornelius of efilmcritic.com.

9. Someone you know is probably in it. The credited cast:

Cary Borders, Alison Britt, David Brown, James H. Brown, Melissa Bush, Damon Carter, Nick Crawford, Willie DeVold, Jacquese Evans, David Forbes, Mia Frost, Jen Graham, Sanford Hardy, Chris Hartsell, Chuck Hartsell, Joshua Hester, Kyle Holman, Tim Houchens, Erik Jambor, Sylvester Little Jr., Lisa Mason, Eric McGinty, Kyle McKinnon, Gabrielle Metz, Amanda Myers, Jonathan Norris, Shelley Phelps, Rod Robinson, Scott Ross, William Michael Schuelly, Michael Shelton, Shane Traffanstedt, Taylor Traffanstedt and Kevin S. Van Hyning.

Mostly Birmingham actors, plus the obligatory Wade cameo …

[Full disclosure: Crewless Productions, maker of “Interplanetary,” is my client.]

8. It’s about a base on Mars under attack from a mysterious slasher. But what will kill our beloved office drones first: serial killer or paperwork? Director Chance Shirley (“Hide and Creep”) will help sort it out on Fox 6’s noon news Tuesday, so tune your Earth-based receivers to that station.

7. “Interplanetary” won the Audience Choice award at the WT International Film Festival in Norway. Norway! If there’s one thing the Norwegians know, it’s cinema, specifically sci-fi-horror-comedy.

6. Director Andrew Bellware calls it “beyond brilliant. … Yeah, it was like a religious experience. Yeah.”

5. Someone you know probably worked on it. The credited crew:

Steve Ashlee, Peyton Fanning, Sam Frazier Jr., Sanford Hardy, Chuck Hartsell, Chris Hilleke, Kyle Holman, Alex Justinger, Kenn McCracken, Eric McGinty, Jim Roberson, Carl Ross, Stacey Sessions, Linda Shirley, George Smyly, Arik Sokol, Ted Speaker, Jonathan Thornton, Ramona Thornton, Shane Traffanstedt, Joseph Walker and John White.

4. This snazzy trailer …

Look at that trailer again. Can you believe this movie was shot in Birmingham? That’s right, Birmingham. (Well, OK, except the desert part. That was shot on Mars.)

3. It wants you as a Facebook fan. Just you. (And be sure to RSVP for Sunday’s screening on Facebook and Sidewalk.)

2. It also has a blog, Everybody on Mars Is Dead, a great detailed look by Chance at the making of “Interplanetary” over the last 2 years.

1. “The movie has the right blend of sex, blood, greed and aliens to make for a classic. Watch out for this one.” So says Melanie Addington of Oxford Film Freak.

“Interplanetary” will screen at 4:15 p.m. Sunday at the Carver Theatre.

Also:

• Official site
• Sidewalk summary
• Fangoria shout out

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

Movie review: ‘The Vicious Kind’

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com
By Jennifer West

Review at a glance: “The Vicious Kind” serves up a standard indie love triangle, but what a soundtrack.

Brittany Snow stars in “The Vicious Kind.”

Are you in need of a real indie film fix? “The Vicious Kind” will almost satisfy, filled with sweet and somber moments, strange people and awkward situations.

The film screens Sunday at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

Familiar faces abound onscreen, including stars Adam Scott (“Party Down”), Brittany Snow (“Hairspray”), Alex Frost and J.K. Simmons (“The Closer”).

After a terrible breakup, Caleb Sinclaire (Scott) falls for his younger brother’s emotionally mature girlfriend. “The Vicious Kind” follows them plus Caleb’s father through the twists and turns of strange normalcy.

The story is predictable, the characters a little contrived. But director Lee Toland Krieger still creates an emotionally rewarding film with an amazing soundtrack and great performance. It probably won’t be your favorite film at the festival, but one still worth seeing.

Jennifer West (@juniperlou) won the Sidewalk Audience Choice award for her romantic comedy “Piece of Cake” in 2006, which she wrote and directed. She’s working on a feature-length screenplay and blogging about it on JuniperLou.

“The Vicious Kind” will screen at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Alabama Theatre.

Video: Caleb and Emma’s argument ends with a surprise.

Also:

• Sidewalk summary
• Reviews from EI Insiders | New York Magazine | Variety

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

Where is the coffee?
Why is the alarm blaring?
Morning comes too soon.

• • •

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Movie review: ‘The Dungeon Masters’

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com
By Kenn McCracken

Review at a glance: “The Dungeon Masters” has no agenda as a documentary, other than to show three role-playing gamers and their hobby up close.

A scene from “The Dungeon Masters.”

When I watched “The Dungeon Masters,” I wondered if it would present a fair portrayal of people commonly regarded as socially inept geeks. The documentary follows three participants in role-playing games, especially Dungeons and Dragons (the title refers to the person who organizes and runs the games).

The film screens Saturday at the  Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

I was pleasantly surprised. While most documentaries that receive attention seem to have an overt message, “The Dungeon Masters” does a commendable job in presenting a likely prejudged topic in a very “without-comment” manner.

The film, directed by Keven McAlester, was too long by 30 minutes, delving into areas that seem completely tangential to the focus. While the storyline follows the three subjects, too many scenes come across as either minutiae or unrelated to their hobby.

As a people watcher and a (cough) former D&D player in elementary school, I would’ve also liked to know more about why they became interested in gaming, how it influences their everyday lives, what they think about being stereotyped. The three touch upon these points briefly, but I wanted more substance.

The film is beautifully shot, as cinematographer Lee Daniel seems to have a natural for presenting a mostly unbiased view while still delivering some extraordinary scenes.

Make no mistake: “The Dungeon Masters” is not going to change your mind. If you’re a gamer, you’ll recognize your friends or yourself.

If you’re the guy who beat up my high school friends, you’ll still be a small-minded jock destined to die alone and miserable, secretly wishing you’d had a good hobby, too. (Kidding. Mostly. Sort of. OK, not really.)

The film will, however, demonstrate a well-made and well-considered documentary.

Kenn McCracken (@insomniactive) is a director and an award-winning screenwriter (2005 Sidewalk Sidewrite grand prize, “Muckfuppet”).

He’s also a writer (Birmingham Weekly, Spin.com, mental_floss), a bassist for the Exhibit(s), an eight-time cat juggling champion for Malta and an ongoing experiment in sleep deprivation. He occasionally steals your best ideas to claim at his blog, Dairy of a Madman.

“The Dungeon Masters” will screen at 6:15 p.m. Saturday at Alabama Power.

Video: Interview with “The Dungeon Masters”
director, Keven McAlester

Also:

• Official site
• Sidewalk summary
• Reviews from Austin Chronicle | Games Information Blog | The Independent Critic | Movie Moxie | SpoutBlog

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

Get gussied up, preen
for the cameras, hear them pick
other, cry inside.

• • •

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Movie review: ‘Courting Condi’

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com
By Jennifer West

Review at a glance: A “love story” in the guise of a documentary, “Courting Condi” would’ve better been served by ditching the faux-mance and focusing on its true object of desire, Condoleezza Rice.

A scene from the documentary “Courting Condi.”

It’s a love story, about a simple nobody and the Secretary of State originally from Birmingham. The quirky documentary “Courting Condi”  traces the journey of a man in his 20s to meet the woman of his dreams, Condoleezza Rice.

Or so the trailer would have you believe.

The film screens Sept. 26 at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

Viewers will quickly figure out this film is actually about Rice herself, a k a Condi. Our lovestruck hero turns out to be completely fictional, a framing device to move the documentary forward.

But it doesn’t work, serving to distract from the film’s true message. And the musical interludes? Really bad and frustrating to sit through.

[Editor’s note: Perhaps this column is the basis for the original idea.]

The movie takes us through the life of a controversial political figure from birth through the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to 2009. And it reminds us of Rice’s role in the George W. Bush administration, throwing in some lesser-known nuggets of intel.

This one is a hard call. If director Sebastian Doggart had cut a few of the silly bits woven throughout the “real” documentary, “Courting Condi” might have been a really great movie.

Jennifer West (@juniperlou) won the Sidewalk Audience Choice award for her romantic comedy “Piece of Cake” in 2006, which she wrote and directed. She’s working on a feature-length screenplay and blogging about it on JuniperLou.

“Courting Condi” will screen at 12:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Trailer: “Courting Condi”

How to woo a Secretary of State

Also:

• Official site
• Sidewalk summary
• Reviews from Cinema Signals | Documentary Films.net | ReelTalk | Screen Junkies | Socially Superlative

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

The clouds formed the new
sky, a torrential dome of
unending downpour.

• • •

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Movie review: ‘Forgetting Dad’

sidewalk.wadeonbirmingham.com
By Kenn McCracken

Review at a glance: “Forgetting Dad” provides a chance to explore questions of identity and memory in a doc about a dad who loses his memory and moves on to another family.

“Old Richard” and Rick Minnich on graduation day
in 1990, in a still from “Forgetting Dad.”

“If your father no longer remembers you, does he stop being your father?”

The answer, of course, depends on who you ask. Director Rick Minnich asks the question in his documentary, “Forgetting Dad.” More interesting are the questions that such an exploration can — and in this case, does — uncover.

The film screens Sept. 26 at the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival.

In 1990, a car accident caused Minnich’s father to lose his memory, or so it seems, since no physical damage was ever uncovered. The amnesia gradually caused the family to fall apart, creating a divide between what he terms as “Old Richard” and “New Richard.” Minnich spent years documenting his exploration of his own memories and connections to New Richard.

Trailer: “Forgetting Dad”

The narrative seems to move a bit slowly at times. But it is put together so new questions — wrinkles in the fabric of the story — introduce themselves gradually and naturally, creating a layered, thought-provoking examination of family, identity, memory and self that should be of interest to anyone.

Also, Minnich manages to avoid what I feared: playing the personal connection for cheap emotional reaction. Not to say that the family members are without emotion, but rather that the simple honesty and rawness in the presentation doesn’t feel manipulative.

Mom wonders if Richard’s amnesia could be fake
in this clip from “Forgetting Dad.”

From a production standpoint, the film itself is nothing terribly unique. The cinematography is mostly quite passable, current interview footage interspersed with old 8mm family films. The audio mix seems a bit uneven, making it difficult to focus on the interviewees at times.

Also, momentary blackouts of the picture occurred (the audio was clear throughout), hopefully a glitch limited to my screener copy. Those were very jarring, especially well into the film.

It’s certainly not the strongest documentary you’ll have the chance to see over the weekend, but those interested in the workings of the human brain and mind, or the dynamics of family memory, will find a provocative story.

Kenn McCracken (@insomniactive) is a director and an award-winning screenwriter (2005 Sidewalk Sidewrite grand prize, “Muckfuppet”).

He’s also a writer (Birmingham Weekly, Spin.com, mental_floss), a bassist for the Exhibit(s), an eight-time cat juggling champion for Malta and an ongoing experiment in sleep deprivation. He occasionally steals your best ideas to claim at his blog, Dairy of a Madman.

“Forgetting Dad” will screen at 4:30 p.m. Sept. 26 at Branch Life Church.

Also:

• Official site
• Sidewalk summary
• Reviews from 1More Film Blog | Exclaim.ca | CityNews

• • •

Action! Complete Sidewalk Festival coverage.

A parting of the
ways, man the lifeboats, let one
man put asunder.

• • •

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The glass bubbles in
anticipation. Lips to
devour the drops.

• • •

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Look back, and see all
who treated you with kindness
when you weren’t looking.

• • •

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A mysterious
note appears: “Meet me in the
bedroom, without pants.”

• • •

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What Walmart offers
(besides low prices): show of
human misery.

• • •

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