'Ingrid Goes West' is a #nofilter Look at Superficiality in the Digital Age
We've all done it (well, most of us).
Late-night social media stalking of it-girls and pseudo-celebrities that keep us up way past our bedtime, dreaming of what life would be like if we could live a day in their shoes. In a time where studies have proven that an unhealthy attachment to social media can lead to depression and a false sense of reality, the award-winning Sundance film Ingrid Goes West is a #nofilter look at modern-day superficiality in the digital age, perpetuated by one of social media's most popular apps: Instagram.
For our red carpet interview with Aubrey Plaza and director Matt Spicer, click here
Directed by L.A. transplant Matt Spicer, this dark comedy is centered around a mentally unstable twenty-something, Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza), a social media stalker who confuses "likes" for authentic relationships. Reaching out to a Venice Beach-dwelling "influencer", Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), after she responded to one of Ingrid's comments, Ingrid sets her sights on becoming Taylor's best friend IRL (in real life). Ingrid moves to California and, after having tracked Taylor's every move, fashion choice, and food preference, she finally meets her idol- determined to become her new BFF.
Because of “coincidental” shared interests and hobbies, Taylor quickly invites Ingrid into her world with trips to Joshua Tree as well as tripping on acid, and to her inner circle as she meets Taylor's hippy boyfriend Ezra (Wyatt Russell) and her eccentric brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen). This quickly solidifies the relationship between the two girls, however, like all things fake and phony, both of their true colors start to seep through their heavily filtered exteriors, proving that no one is as perfect or flawless as they claim to be on Instagram.
However, like all things fake and phony, both of their true colors start to shine through their heavily filtered exterior, proving that no one is as perfect, or accurate, as they claim to be on Instagram.
Ingrid goes crazy in Ingrid Goes West and Aubrey Plaza's performance is a delicately tactile force to be reckoned with. Best known for her lack of empathy and deadpan emotion in films such as The Little Hours and the TV hit Parks & Rec, here, Plaza leaves the emo at the door and fully checks into the looney bin. She balances Ingrid's mental illness with both sympathy and vulnerability so as not to come across as cartoonish or unrelatable, and we can't get enough.
The rest of the cast successfully adds to the film’s humor and appeal. Ingrid's neighbor/Batman-obsessed boyfriend Dan (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) is the dependable comedic relief in every scene, due in large part to the fact that he is the only one seemingly grounded in reality.
Elizabeth Olsen transforms into the wellness advocate and avocado toast-eating enthusiast you love to hate. Every Los Angeles stereotype you can think of, the good, the bad, and the ugly, are on satirical display and we laugh at them until we realize we either A) know someone just like them, or B) recognize some of their qualities in ourselves. And that is the genius of Ingrid Goes West.
Director Matt Spicer definitely has something special here- together with screenwriter David Branson Smith, they have created what may be the most relevant film for millennials in 2017. While the actual events may be contemporary and generational, the message behind Ingrid Goes West could very well stand as timeless folklore for future generations.
"Ingrid Goes West" is rated R for language throughout, drug use, some sexual content, and disturbing behavior. 97 minutes. Opening this Friday at ArcLight Hollywood.
'Sami Blood' Review: A Swedish Cinderella Story – Minus the Fairytale Ending
Racism and suppression are examined through the eyes of an adolescent girl in the breakout Swedish drama, Sami Blood.
The film is director Amanda Kernall's debut feature and powerfully displays a woman who knows how to walk the fine line between childhood innocence and female empowerment. Sami Blood has screened at many prestigious film festivals including Sundance, TIFF, Venice, and more, and is now playing at Laemmle's Monica Film Center.
Sami Blood opens with an elderly woman attending the funeral of her sister in a small, Swedish farm town. Dressed differently than the other attendees and keeping her distance while they socialize, it appears that Elle Marja (Maj-Doris Rimpi) is cut from a different cloth than the other salt of the earth land laborers.
We come to understand Elle Marja's life story and her pivotal transformative moment through a flashback as the elderly Elle Marja stares out at the reindeer herders and then cuts to a 14-year-old Elle Marja. We jump to the 1930's, a time when segregation was acceptable and being of Sami heritage was looked down on by higher society. Elle Marja struggles with the grittiness of her family's lifestyle as reindeer herders and sees a way out by attending a boarding school with her sister in the quaint rolling hills of Sweden.
Though the circumstance may be different for those watching, the universal theme of struggling for acceptance is felt by all, and "Sami Blood" is a terrific example of this feeling portrayed onscreen.
By attending boarding school, Elle Marja is forced to leave her Sami heritage behind for "proper" and a more socially acceptable Swedish lifestyle. Abandoning her previous life doesn't come easy and Marja endures humiliation and bullying from her peers who are aware of her true identity. When she meets a boy, Niklas (Julius Fleischanderl), she instantly falls for him. Using a fake name and backstory, Elle Marja realizes that she can never truly escape her identity and is forced to decide whether or not to tell him the truth and risk destroying the potential of a future relationship.
Sami Blood has some of the same qualities that make Disney's Cinderella such a compelling movie. Masking one's true identity and falling in love under a guise that you are someone else, is a confusing moment in any person's life, and Elle Marja’s naivete about the situation is heartbreaking. Newcomer Lene Cecilia Sparrok, who plays a young Elle Marja, is a tempered yet powerful force on screen. Her face is so expressive and it is the subtlety of her movements that make Elle Marja so relatable in this coming of age film. Although the film’s impact may be different for each viewer, the universal theme of struggling for acceptance is felt by all, and Sami Blood is a terrific example of this feeling portrayed onscreen.
"Sami Blood" is not rated. 110 minutes. Now playing at Laemmle's Monica Film Center and the Landmark Sunshine Theater in New York.
'Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press' Review: Hulk Hogan Takes on the Press
New on Netflix is a documentary that sent shockwaves through Park City when it premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.
Screening the film for a crowd made up of mostly journalists and other media/ industry folk, the now infamous Gawker Media case flipped the script on the way that controversial and boundary-pushing journalism was held accountable. When Gawker made an enemy out of Terry Bollea (aka Hulk Hogan) by publishing a clip of his sex tape, they inadvertently dug their own grave. In an eye-opening look at the power and consequences of wealth and free speech, director Brian Knappenberger’s documentary Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press is a terrifying exposé at how the media can be controlled by the right (rich) people and the true cost of preserving one’s integrity, for better or for worse.
There is no doubt that Hulk Hogan is regarded as one of the most popular wrestlers of all time. From action figures to having his own reality TV show on MTV, Hogan’s public persona has saturated pop culture for decades. It’s no surprise then, that when the online gossip tabloid Gawker posted a grainy black and white clip of an allegedly leaked sex tape in 2012, the public was devastated. This man who was seen as an American icon had now been caught not only sleeping with his best friend’s wife but spouting off racial insults. This revelation went against everything that made Hogan so likable, but the man who appears in the tape in Gawker’s possession wasn’t Hulk Hogan– at least, that was the response that came from his camp of powerful attorneys.
Hulk Hogan and Terry Bollea are not the same person. One is a flamboyant caricature of a man while the other is a private and sensitive individual. This difference is at the pinnacle of what ignited a fierce debate throughout the media, raising the question of where does one draw the line between privacy rights and the First Amendment?
It set a frightening precedent for journalists everywhere, can the First Amendment be thwarted if there is enough money involved?
What makes this case even stranger is what happened next. Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel had been anonymously funding the legal fees for Bollea and had a very pointed agenda aimed at Gawker– to bankrupt them and shut the site down for good. Thiel had a longtime feud with Gawker and saw Bollea’s case as the perfect time to strike. Years earlier, Thiel had been outed by Gawker as being gay, and despite it being true, he considered the exploitation similar to an act of terrorism. It turns out that Gawker was no match for the power of a very vengeful and rich Peter Thiel, and in true David vs Goliath fashion, was forced to shut down. In this case, money was all it took to shut down independent journalism and set a frightening precedent for journalists everywhere, can the First Amendment be thwarted if there is enough money involved?
Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press uses Bollea’s case as the prime example of the exploitation of the First Amendment, but his is not the only case examined. The secretive purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal by the politically divisive billionaire Sheldon Adelson is told firsthand by the journalists who stood up for what they believed in, which ended up costing them their jobs because they did not want to play by Adelson’s rules. And there is no shortage of footage showing President Trump undermining and disrespecting journalists with every opportunity. Aside from ridiculous and repetitive claims of the media being “fake news,” his treatment of this American right and freedom is a very real threat to democracy and a terrible message to send to the American people.
'Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press' is not rated. 95 minutes. Now streaming on Netflix.
'Ingrid Goes West' Red Carpet with Aubrey Plaza and Director Matt Spicer [WATCH]
Last Thursday, the dark comedy that charmed critics at Sundance had the honor of being the closing night film at the LA Film Festival. It's fitting that Ingrid Goes West was selected as the bookend to another successful festival put on by Film Independent. The indie film, which has been acquired by NEON for an August 11th release date, is a hilarious parody of Los Angeles and the way social media drives an unrealistic need for superficial "perfection."
I had the opportunity to chat with Aubrey Plaza, who plays the titular character, Ingrid Thorburn, and director Matt Spicer on the red carpet minutes before the screening took place. Since this is a film centered around the impact of social media, I asked Aubrey what her personal favorite emoji is and had Matt settle the debate on whether or not dogs should have Instagrams.
Suki Waterhouse and Ana Lily Amirpour of 'The Bad Batch' Talk Venice Beach and 'My Breast'
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When I meet Suki Waterhouse and Ana Lily Amirpour at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, they greeted me as if I was a long-lost friend.
Instantly, we vibed and for the duration of our 15-minute interview, I was living out my fantasy of being a part of their badass girl tribe. After our interview wrapped and I had to slowly come down from cloud 9, the most amazing thing happened. Suki and Ana both said our interview was the best one they've had. Was it because we shared crazy Venice Beach stories? Read on to see...
What was your first job? Did that in any way impact your passion for filmmaking/acting?
Ana Lily Amirpour: I worked at a coffee shop as a barista in Santa Barbara. I made cappuccinos and stuff.
Suki Waterhouse: I had a couple of jobs where I dressed up as Powerpuff Girls...
ALA: What's a Powerpuff Girl?
SW: A Powerpuff Girl is a cartoon! I really didn't want to go to school, I just wanted to dress up. I was about 8 years old. I told my mom I wanted to dress up so we would find websites where you can hire people to come out [in costume]. My first proper job was working on a phone line, answering calls for people who wanted breast implants. The place was called My Breast. So I'd be like, "Hello, this is My Breast."
Laughter
ALA: Aww, my answer was like, "I work in a coffee shop."
They're like, "How weird you are inspires us." I'm just like, "Woah, you're saying that to me?" -Ana
I kept picturing Arlen as a badass Dorthy Gale from "The Wizard of OZ"...
SW: Oh my God, I was Dorthy in the "Wizard of Oz!"
No way! I must've picked up on that. Arlen's on her own trying to find her way back home and runs into a cast of characters that help her, in a way, get home. Who are the people in your life that you feel most comfortable around, or the people that inspire your creativity?
SW: I'm not really in one place ever, so sometimes I write down in my phone people's name so I remember [who to reach out to]. I like people who are similar, not ever in one place. They have lots of stories to tell me.
ALA: For me, I feel led my the film and story I'm telling into really intimate, meaningful connections with people. It's like a density of intimacy for a duration, and then life changes and you go into the next thing.
SW: It's so hard not to fall in love with everyone when you're making a movie because you get to see everyone's humanity. You're hanging out with everyone all the time, how can you not fall in love with them?
ALA: One thing that's happened to me lately, now that I'm putting out this movie and the stage of where I'm at with things, I've developed a few friendships with other filmmakers that have been really helpful for me as a filmmaker. I'm just so grateful that they are there. They're like, "How weird you are inspires us." I'm just like, "Woah, you're saying that to me?" Everybody needs someone to tell them to just keep going.
We got into this conversation and he said, "I'm trying not to be such a loser, I want to be a finder. A finder finds things, a loser loses things." -Ana
What was on your mood board when you were thinking of "The Bad Batch" world?
ALA: My whole office was covered in images of the desert, women porn, lots of books about American Desert Badlands that had fallen to crust.
SW: Hugh Hefner.
ALA: Hugh Hefner! Burning Man, the boombox obviously. The Dark Side album really inspired me. Francis Harris, Jim Phillips skateboard graphics from the 70's and 80's, Skid Row, Venice Beach...
SW: Ana took me to Venice Beach for the first time.
ALA: I had been hanging out in Venice a lot and was thinking about Comfort. One day I started talking to these very young, hippie street kids and this guy came up to me– he was very spaced out, tripping on something. We got into this conversation and he said, "I'm trying not to be such a loser, I want to be a finder. A finder finds things, a loser loses things."
SW: No!
Woah...
ALA: That's why The Screamer (Giovanni Ribisi) says that in the film. Yeah, Venice is weird, you're in the "city" but so disconnected from everything in the city.
SW: I went down there recently and saw people cleaning up a guy who had died. It's hardcore down there.
ALA: Hardcore as shit.
"It's melted cauliflower with loads of cheese that you put bread crumbs on and bake. It's incredible." -Suki
Ana, did you feel any pressure coming off of your last film, "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night?"
ALA: I wrote "Bad Batch" when I was editing "Girl," and I didn't know how, when, if "Girl" would come out, so [no]. I never wait for external circumstances to put me in a position to tell a story. The most terrifying thing for me is the well drying up and not knowing what you want to make. I've already started writing a third one. As long as I have a place to disappear to with my imaginary friends, I feel like I'm ok. The pressure I can handle.
Ok, weird question. Say you were stuck in the desert a lá "The Bad Batch." What food would you not mind eating every day for the rest of your life?
ALA: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
SW: Oh yes! That's the shit. I'd say cauliflower cheese.
Laughter
ALA: What the fuck is that?!
SW: It's melted cauliflower with loads of cheese that you put bread crumbs on and bake. It's incredible.
Oh yeah, that sounds good.
ALA: But you would eat that for the rest of your desert days?
SW: Yeah. I mean, I'd like to share some of your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
'The Bad Batch' Review: A Bizarro Burning Man Take on the Border Crisis
Bringing "Bad" back to the big screen for her highly anticipated sophomore film is Ana Lily Amirpour, the visionary who made black and white Vampire Spaghetti Westerns a thing.
Amirpour trades the streets of Bad City for the barren desert of Texas in The Bad Batch, a meditative and highly audacious cannibal film that makes Burning Man look like your grandmother's tea party. Check back tomorrow for our exclusive interview with Amirpour and actress Suki Waterhouse.
Our heroine is Arlen (Suki Waterhouse), a young woman who has been dumped in the desert after spending an undisclosed amount of time in a detention facility. Disoriented and penniless, her stamina is no match for unrelenting sun as she decides to let her guard down for a quick nap in a conveniently abandoned car. It's not long until a group of ragtag cannibal misfits find Arlen and take her to their base camp. Her desperation to escape literally costs Arlen an arm and a leg as she quickly learns that it's every man, or in this case, woman, for herself in the Bad Batch.
Elements of what made Amirpour's first film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, so successful are replicated here– strong female protagonist, gritty skate culture and trendy soundtrack, including songs from Die Antwoord and Culture Club, and all-around cool vibes. Perhaps too cool at times, but how can it not be coming from distributors like Vice, NEON, and Annapurna?
Ana Lily Amirpour's moody, high-style horror flick is an unconventional watch, but for as tough and tireless as the premise is, the cinematic style of the film itself is quite idyllic.
Arlen encounters many characters as she wanders through the barren landscape, including the big and burly Miami Man (Jason Momoa), his quiet yet independent daughter, Honey (Jayda Fink) and The Dream (Keanu Reeves), the idolized patriarch of the desert camp called Comfort. The subsidiary cast of kooks like Hermit (Jim Carrey) and The Screamer (Giovanni Ribisi) are unexpected but welcomed additions that further round out Arlen's reality. Like a badass Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz, Arlen just wants to go home and uses these characters she meets along the way to help her get there.
The audience isn't given the luxury of knowing Arlen's backstory, or how she wound up in the Bad Batch in the first place, but character development clearly wasn't the focus here. We are dropped into a dystopian desert without knowing how we got there or where we're going, but we blindly buckle up for the ride. By default, we root for Arlen's success because the odds are against her, plus she is fighting to survive with a missing left arm and leg, I'd venture to guess, however, that a backstory would have made the audience further emotionally invested.
Ana Lily Amirpour's moody, high-style horror flick is an unconventional watch, but for as tough and tireless as the premise is, the cinematic style of the film itself is quite idyllic. Minimal dialogue and long, sweeping shots of the vast wasteland makes for a meditative watch despite the blood, guts, and gore. Lingering shots of barren desert-living mixed with the effortlessly cool and all-around badass Suki Waterhouse makes The Bad Batch an artistic vision, or dare I say... dream?
'The Bad Batch' is rated R for violence, language, some drug content, and brief nudity. 118 minutes. Opening this Friday at ArcLight Hollywood and On Demand, Amazon and iTunes.
'Out of State' Review: Hula Heals Convicted Criminals
Competing for the title of Best Documentary at the festival this year is "Out of State," a story about personal change and second chances.
Director Ciara Lacy follows two inmates as they learn about their rich cultural heritage while locked up behind bars, and the transition from a life of controlled routine to total freedom back on the beautiful island of Hawaii. Exposing the wisdom and hardships they gained throughout their turbulent journey, "Out of State" is a film worth rooting for.
Since the mid-1990s, Hawaii has sent most of their male prisoners to for-profit prisons in the United States, due to overcrowding. The men profiled, David and Hale, had been locked up at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, a unit specifically built for men who committed crimes in Hawaii. Being held thousands of miles away from home, the men grow to see their incarcerated peers as brothers. They learn ancient Hawaiian traditions behind bars, including dance routines, chants, and other rituals that they had previously disregarded for a life of crime and substance abuse.
They learn ancient Hawaiian traditions behind bars, including dance routines, chants, and other rituals that they had previously disregarded for a life of crime and substance abuse.
Only about the first quarter of the film is dedicated to the prison system (personally, I would have loved to explore that a bit more), but the true test lies in how the men act once released. David's release seems promising, turning towards spirituality and keeping the traditions he learned close. He is wise when talking about his "second chance" and his appreciation for the friends and family that love him unconditionally.
Ciara Lacy is a native Hawaiian and her approach in humanizing and sympathizing with convicted criminals is a testament to her directorial skills. The film itself is a straightforward character-driven documentary, but what makes it special is the common thread of personal growth and the universal desire to better oneself.
“Out of State” premiered at the 2017 LA Film Festival on June 18.
'Funeral Parade of Roses' Review: New 4K Restoration is Still Erotically Charged
Cinelicious Pics and The Cinefamily have breathed new life into the 1969 black and white experimental film, Funeral Parade of Roses.
The new wave Japanese film, from director Toshio Matsumoto, had been banned from American theaters for years, but since its recent 4K restoration, this work will now celebrate its re-release with a special screening at The Cinefamily beginning this Friday.
Drawing inspiration from the subversive world of underground drag queen bars and the mischief that surrounds them, Funeral Parade of Roses is an intoxicating watch from start to finish. The protagonist, Eddie (Pîtâ), a young, doe-eyed hostess at Bar Genet, becomes entangled in a violent love triangle with club owner Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya) and the reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara). Amongst the sex and violence, Eddie worries for her safety but that doesn't stop her from participating in both drugs, booze, and naked dance parties that are overtly present in the Tokyo night scene. The further the film develops, the wilder the ride becomes, including an inadvertent "Oedipus Rex" moment that is so shocking it may be tempting to cover (or try to poke out) your eyes.
Influenced by many, but still the reigning champion of boundary-pushing movies.
Funeral Parade of Roses has become a legendary film in its own right- influencing Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and portraying the tone of the counterculture trans scene of Tokyo in the 60s. Chaotic edits that blend documentary interviews– questioning characters about their decision to "become gay"– with avant-garde performance art, and film-within-a-film moments, "Funeral Parade of Roses" is most definitely not a straightforward watch.
This queer, art-house cinematic masterpiece was ahead of its time in 1969, and the argument could be made that it remains that way, even today. While the normalization and societal acceptance of trans people are becoming more mainstream, the technique and way in which Matsumoto created this buzzy, gritty, and subversive world have still gone unmatched in modern cinema. Influenced by many, but still the reigning champion of boundary-pushing movies, Funeral Parade of Roses includes a line of dialogue towards the end that provides the most accurate summary - "Such a unique film with cruelty and laughter."
"Funeral Parade of Roses" is not rated. 107 minutes. Opening this Friday at The Cinefamily with additional cities to follow.