ParkingWithoutTheA

This movie was the pet project of the now defunct Ironwood Studios, a recording house in Seattle. I chatted with the makers of the film and they told me that there was never any commercial intent in making the film, it was just a fun side project and everybody had a great time making it. I somehow stumbled across a vanity-pressed VHS of it at a record shop, and for an entirely amateur, shot-on-video movie it's actually really polished and watchable. The plot concerns a two sound engineers (employees playing themselves) who go on a camping trip in the mountains to record wildlife sounds in the night. They unwittingly pick up strange noises from an alien life form, and their sensitive data gets the attention of government brass, setting off a chase across the greater Seattle area. Let's keep supporting these amateur productions, they make life better for fans of homegrown films!

This is the first film I've seen that sounds exactly like a terrible action zombie movie written by a 10- or 11-year-old boy. The plot is ludicrous with a capital "WHAT", the characters' existence is an insult to cardboard, everybody is acting with a severe case of that enraged sneer disease that was caught by every 90's action cartoon hero, and not only is the dialogue purely functional and ripped-off, the writer decided to add at least one curse word to each sentence, just like a pre-pubescent boy who's seen his first R-rated movie thinks adults talk like. Attempting to create hoardes of zombie super-soldiers on a garage sale budget, this is a must-see just for how hilarious it is. Highly recommended for bad movie fans.

Tramp at the Door is the story of a stranger (Ed McNamara, perfect in this role) who charlatans his way into a family in 1930's Manitoba by claiming to be a long-unseen cousin of the father (August Schellenberg). He tells a great wealth of stories of the father's relatives which may or may not be phooey, but enrapture the family despite their suspicions he's nothing more than a hobo. The enormous charm and wealth of spirit in the stranger, calling himself Gustav, helps him to practically become a member of the family, and inspires the daughter, future Francophone writer Gabrielle Roy, towards storytelling. Very well acted and beautifully shot, this is one of the best TV-movies I've ever seen, and should be on your watch list of you're a fan of period dramas like Days of Heaven.