A look at what's new on DVD today:
"Calvin Marshall" (2010)
Directed by Gary Lundgren
Released by Passion River
Steve Zahn exemplifies the adage those who can't do teach as a college baseball coach who never was quite good enough to make the majors who sees something of himself in an enthusiastic but unskilled player (Alex Frost) that he keeps on the team in writer/director Gary Lundgren's feature debut.
"Chelsea on the Rocks" (2009)
Directed by Abel Ferrara
Released by Hannover House
"Bad Lieutenant" director Ferrara compiles a biography of the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York through archival footage, reenactments and interviews with the many artists who have stayed there throughout the years from Milos Forman and R. Crumb to Ethan Hawke and Gaby Hoffman.
"Claang the Game" (2009)
Directed by Stefano Milla
Released by Triumphant Entertainment
A game of "Claang," a strategy-heavy match of wits, leads to a discussion...
"Calvin Marshall" (2010)
Directed by Gary Lundgren
Released by Passion River
Steve Zahn exemplifies the adage those who can't do teach as a college baseball coach who never was quite good enough to make the majors who sees something of himself in an enthusiastic but unskilled player (Alex Frost) that he keeps on the team in writer/director Gary Lundgren's feature debut.
"Chelsea on the Rocks" (2009)
Directed by Abel Ferrara
Released by Hannover House
"Bad Lieutenant" director Ferrara compiles a biography of the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York through archival footage, reenactments and interviews with the many artists who have stayed there throughout the years from Milos Forman and R. Crumb to Ethan Hawke and Gaby Hoffman.
"Claang the Game" (2009)
Directed by Stefano Milla
Released by Triumphant Entertainment
A game of "Claang," a strategy-heavy match of wits, leads to a discussion...
- 9/21/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall at a hot chick sleepover. Well, okay, I'm lying; I'd much rather be home playing Xbox, but in any event sometimes things can get a little deadlier than just your expected pillow fight. In fact the goings on could very well result in horror's latest trend -- the accidental death/revenge film!
Starring Scout Taylor-Compton and directed by Pascal Franchot, the new film Triple Dog follows a group of teenage girls on the night of a sleepover as they venture out, led by the ringleader Chapin, in a competitive game of challenging dares. As the antics escalate and the dares become more extreme, the girls unravel the truth behind a former student's rumored suicide.
Check out the tailer below.
Triple Dog Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral
- Uncle Creepy
Check Out Dread Central’S New Poster Store!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
Starring Scout Taylor-Compton and directed by Pascal Franchot, the new film Triple Dog follows a group of teenage girls on the night of a sleepover as they venture out, led by the ringleader Chapin, in a competitive game of challenging dares. As the antics escalate and the dares become more extreme, the girls unravel the truth behind a former student's rumored suicide.
Check out the tailer below.
Triple Dog Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral
- Uncle Creepy
Check Out Dread Central’S New Poster Store!
Got news? Click here to submit it!
- 3/4/2009
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Last week we brought you the first teaser for Pascal Franchot's teen thriller Triple Dog. At only 30 seconds it didn't really give us any sense of how it would look, how edgy it would be willing to go or the character dynamics but now, thanks to patience (and an anonymous tipster), we've got the full thing for you.
Triple Dog takes place in a small suburban town, where six high school girls play a game of dare that careens out of control, altering their lives forever…
As I said in our previous post, it feels like Triple Dog is squarely aimed at the family channel set - a very young tween demo - so, considering this, it does in fact push the envelope. Maybe not as far as we're used to here at Qe, but it still looks pretty good.
Triple Dog takes place in a small suburban town, where six high school girls play a game of dare that careens out of control, altering their lives forever…
As I said in our previous post, it feels like Triple Dog is squarely aimed at the family channel set - a very young tween demo - so, considering this, it does in fact push the envelope. Maybe not as far as we're used to here at Qe, but it still looks pretty good.
- 2/22/2009
- QuietEarth.us
In indie film, we have new images in for the Damian Harris helmed and written drama "Gardens of the Night." In this strong cast are Gillian Jacobs, John Malkovich, Ryan Simpkins, Tom Arnold, Kevin Zegers, Harold Perineau and Jeremy Sisto. Harris' last attempt at the wheel was for the 2000 release "Mercy" starring Ellen Barkin, Wendy Crewson, Peta Wilson, Karen Young and Julian Sands. City Lights Entertainment distributes the Shoot Productions, Station 3 and Fastback Pictures film. Jacobs was last in Fox Searchlight Pictures' "Choke" with Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston. See the gallery now! What's this about? Leslie (Gillian Jacobs), struggles with a hand to mouth existence on the streets of San Diego with only her childhood friend Donnie (Evan Ross) to look after her, both of them trying to cope with the trauma of having been abducted and held captive by two men nine years earlier. As an eight-year-old girl,...
- 10/9/2008
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Gardens of the Night
Competition
BERLIN -- Films about social issues usually exude the deadly aura of good intention and earnest edification, but Damian Harris zones in on his characters in Gardens of the Night. The film gives vivid reality to those photos of disappeared children on milk cartons by letting us peek into the lives of two abducted children subjected to sexual abuse and then prostitution.
The writer-director shuns sensationalism but does sentimentalize the friendship between the two youngsters, seen as children and then as thoroughly messed-up teens. The strength of the film lies in acting performances that make everyone human, even the monsters.
More festival exposure is assured, but only a brave distributor will take on such a tricky subject. The film might be better suited to home entertainment markets.
Reportedly, Harris spent years researching and writing his script, and it shows. The small details feel right, leaving us to accept the utter horror of the larger details. In quiet, subtle ways, his story shows how such things happen and why children gradually lose the will and ability to call out for help. While a screaming child and Movie of the Week fiends might have made a slicker, safer product, Harris takes pains to keep it real. The truly sick thing here is how nice the villain is to the children.
Alex (Tom Arnold in a performance of considerable nuance) and his much rougher partner Frank (Kevin Zegers) clearly spent time laying a trap for their young victim. Leslie Ryan Simpkins), a lovely, blond 8-year-old, is too bright to simply get into a stranger's car. A level of trust and seeming familiarity are carefully built before the two kidnappers can spirit her away from her East Coast home.
Leslie finds herself sharing space with a black youth her age, Donnie Jermaine Scooter Smith), who believes his institutionalized mother sold him to Alex. Leslie, who can read while Donnie can't, uses children's storybooks and her own imagination to create a fairy-tale world into which the two youngsters can retreat, a "jungle" where they feel safe from an adult world that has grown frightening.
The two cling to each other, forging an indissoluble bond. This has become their greatest resource when the film leaps ahead nearly a decade to San Diego, Calif. Now veteran street hustlers, the two live on the streets while selling their bodies or scamming potential clients.
Leslie (Gillian Jacobs) is the rock of Donnie's (Evan Ross) shattered existence, the one sustaining force in his life and only source of affection. Those who would further exploit the two see a need to drive a wedge between them: Leslie, now a beautiful young woman who can project a tarnished innocence, is a valuable commodity. She also could help recruit younger girls to the trade, putting her in the exact same position as Uncle Alex. Donnie, meanwhile, is viewed as a "loser."
By the time Leslie comes to her senses, Donnie has vanished. Then a wise counselor (John Malkovich in an unflashy cameo) at a shelter for runaways and homeless kids goes to the trouble to investigate Leslie's story. She honestly believes her parents are dead, but he locates them.
Can Leslie really go home again? And how many abducted kids ever get that chance? Harris raises such questions within this tragedy without ever mounting a pulpit. He lets connections get made and themes to emerge through the interaction of the two youngsters and how they perceive a hostile world. The only thing he slightly sugarcoats is that interaction, but his actors give level-headed, sincere portraits of youngsters whose value systems have been turned on their head: Vice is virtue and love perverse. They are still, in some ways, children, susceptible to the blandishments of adults and gullible about the facts of their lives. Even if they do survive, how will they ever free themselves from these distortions?
GARDENS OF THE NIGHT
Sobini Films and La Nuit Americaine present a Fastback Pictures Films, Station 3 and Shoot Prods. production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Damian Harris
Producers: Pascal Franchot, R.D. Robb
Executive producers: Mark Amin, Todd Olsson
Director of photography: Paula Huidobro
Production designer: Bradd Fillman
Music: Craig Richey
Costume designer: Rhona Meyers
Editor: Michael Shemesh
Cast:
Leslie: Gillian Jacobs
Donnie: Evan Ross
Alex: Tom Arnold
Michael: John Malkovich
Young Leslie: Ryan Simpkins
Young Donnie: Jermaine Scooter Smith
Frank: Kevin Zegers
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BERLIN -- Films about social issues usually exude the deadly aura of good intention and earnest edification, but Damian Harris zones in on his characters in Gardens of the Night. The film gives vivid reality to those photos of disappeared children on milk cartons by letting us peek into the lives of two abducted children subjected to sexual abuse and then prostitution.
The writer-director shuns sensationalism but does sentimentalize the friendship between the two youngsters, seen as children and then as thoroughly messed-up teens. The strength of the film lies in acting performances that make everyone human, even the monsters.
More festival exposure is assured, but only a brave distributor will take on such a tricky subject. The film might be better suited to home entertainment markets.
Reportedly, Harris spent years researching and writing his script, and it shows. The small details feel right, leaving us to accept the utter horror of the larger details. In quiet, subtle ways, his story shows how such things happen and why children gradually lose the will and ability to call out for help. While a screaming child and Movie of the Week fiends might have made a slicker, safer product, Harris takes pains to keep it real. The truly sick thing here is how nice the villain is to the children.
Alex (Tom Arnold in a performance of considerable nuance) and his much rougher partner Frank (Kevin Zegers) clearly spent time laying a trap for their young victim. Leslie Ryan Simpkins), a lovely, blond 8-year-old, is too bright to simply get into a stranger's car. A level of trust and seeming familiarity are carefully built before the two kidnappers can spirit her away from her East Coast home.
Leslie finds herself sharing space with a black youth her age, Donnie Jermaine Scooter Smith), who believes his institutionalized mother sold him to Alex. Leslie, who can read while Donnie can't, uses children's storybooks and her own imagination to create a fairy-tale world into which the two youngsters can retreat, a "jungle" where they feel safe from an adult world that has grown frightening.
The two cling to each other, forging an indissoluble bond. This has become their greatest resource when the film leaps ahead nearly a decade to San Diego, Calif. Now veteran street hustlers, the two live on the streets while selling their bodies or scamming potential clients.
Leslie (Gillian Jacobs) is the rock of Donnie's (Evan Ross) shattered existence, the one sustaining force in his life and only source of affection. Those who would further exploit the two see a need to drive a wedge between them: Leslie, now a beautiful young woman who can project a tarnished innocence, is a valuable commodity. She also could help recruit younger girls to the trade, putting her in the exact same position as Uncle Alex. Donnie, meanwhile, is viewed as a "loser."
By the time Leslie comes to her senses, Donnie has vanished. Then a wise counselor (John Malkovich in an unflashy cameo) at a shelter for runaways and homeless kids goes to the trouble to investigate Leslie's story. She honestly believes her parents are dead, but he locates them.
Can Leslie really go home again? And how many abducted kids ever get that chance? Harris raises such questions within this tragedy without ever mounting a pulpit. He lets connections get made and themes to emerge through the interaction of the two youngsters and how they perceive a hostile world. The only thing he slightly sugarcoats is that interaction, but his actors give level-headed, sincere portraits of youngsters whose value systems have been turned on their head: Vice is virtue and love perverse. They are still, in some ways, children, susceptible to the blandishments of adults and gullible about the facts of their lives. Even if they do survive, how will they ever free themselves from these distortions?
GARDENS OF THE NIGHT
Sobini Films and La Nuit Americaine present a Fastback Pictures Films, Station 3 and Shoot Prods. production
Credits:
Screenwriter-director: Damian Harris
Producers: Pascal Franchot, R.D. Robb
Executive producers: Mark Amin, Todd Olsson
Director of photography: Paula Huidobro
Production designer: Bradd Fillman
Music: Craig Richey
Costume designer: Rhona Meyers
Editor: Michael Shemesh
Cast:
Leslie: Gillian Jacobs
Donnie: Evan Ross
Alex: Tom Arnold
Michael: John Malkovich
Young Leslie: Ryan Simpkins
Young Donnie: Jermaine Scooter Smith
Frank: Kevin Zegers
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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