famousmonster00

I saw Temptation at the New York Musical Festival and it was like nothing I've ever seen before. It tells the familiar tale of "Faust", a story of making a deal with the devil. This may seem like many other films, but Temptation retells it in a very unique way. First of all it's a "Rock Musical" with the vast majority of the dialogue and story being conveyed through song. With the recent success of "Chicago" and "Moulin Rouge!", Temptation is the next logical step in the progression of the modern musical. In my opinion the biggest flaw in the musical genre is pacing. Sometime films get lost in the songs and the plot is put on hold for five minutes while the characters sing and dance. That doesn't happen here, everything is well paced and the story continually progresses.

The most unique aspect of Temptation is its stunning visuals. It combines real people with animation and surreal sets/backgrounds to create a world never seen before. The colors are vibrant and I was in awe throughout the screening. I really don't know how to describe it other than amazing and even if I could I wouldn't want to ruin it for other viewers.

The performances were also all great. Zoe Saldana (Drumline, Pirates of the Caribbean) did a wonderful job as "Annie" the lead of the film. She looked and sounded great. There were also stellar performances from Adam Pascal, Michael Cerveris, Alice Ripley and my personal favorite Orfeh.

The biggest flaw with the film is its lack of camera movement. There was some wonderful movement within the film, but overall I don't think it was quite enough. I'm not sure if there were too many limits because of the backgrounds and visuals, but I think probably more could have been done. Overall though this is a minor detail and would most likely be overlooked by the audience.

This is a great film and I highly recommend it. Director Mark Tarlov came up with a wonderfully original concept and executed it perfectly.

"Always Late" is a six minute short film made for the 48 hour film project. Only having 48 hours to fully write, shoot and edit a film imposes quite a few limitations on a project, however it's not evident here. This film is far more polished than many shorts I have seen that often can take months or even years to finish. The acting was wonderful and Megan Pillar really shines. It's obvious why she was cast in the Showtime movie "Speak" and will get many more roles in the future. George Caleodis is also wonderful and Jason Morris, although not as polished as some of the other actors shows that he has tremendous talent. My main complaint about the film is that it is too similar to a previous Sonnyboo flick "License Exam". Having already seen that, I felt this film lost some of the originality. Overall though, director Peter John Ross and producer Linda Byrket did a wonderful job. This is definitely worth the six minutes to view it.

"On the Fringe" is a movie that doesn't try to be something that its not. It's a story about people dealing with real life problems, without cheesy gun fights or sex scenes for no reason. Jeff Palmer does a good job with the writing and directing, however the acting did seem a little stiff and felt like the actors were reading lines instead of truly "being" the characters at times. Overall the music was very good and fit the story well, especially during the opening title sequence. I also loved seeing New England in the fall. It fit the characters and story well, sort of like they were dying but still beautiful to look at. It's worth checking out if you get a chance. This is what independent films should strive to be, a movie that has real emotion and doesn't just try to do the same thing Hollywood films also do.