Melodrama has somewhat become a relic of cinema’s past. To be sure, we get melodramatic movies still being released, but true melodrama has largely gone away. The new movie To the Stars seeks to bring melodramas back, and up until the tail end of the third act, it succeeds. Some solid cinematography, a really strong turn from Liana Liberato, and even a small sense of mystery buoys it for a good long while. Then, as it comes in for a landing, the wheels fall off and it crashes in a big way. It’s a shame, too, as it prevents the flick from earning a recommendation that it had in the bag, moments before. The film is a drama, set in 1960’s Oklahoma, and specifically a very small town. It’s the sort of town where everyone is under scrutiny, the folks consider themselves god fearing, and judgment comes quick.
- 4/25/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
A-line skirts, jukebox tunes, and diner milkshakes. The 1960s, especially the 1960s Oklahoma of the film “To the Stars,” were simpler times. But beneath the face powder lay unrest, and a hunger for an alternative. But so do John Hughes, and Peter Bogdanovich’s Larry McMurtry adaptation “The Last Picture Show.”
Iris Deerborne (Kara Hayward of “Moonrise Kingdom”) is the lonely kid in high school, usually picked on for her dark glasses and the apparently well-known fact that she struggles, or struggled, with incontinence. Her father, played by Shea Whigham, is a mild soul, the kind of dad who flips through the pages of the newspaper while in the La-z-Boy, the TV playing fuzzy cable in the background, can of beer in the armrest.
More from IndieWire'To the Stars' Trailer: 'Moonrise Kingdom' Favorite Kara Hayward in Sundance Hit'Elephant' Review: Meghan Markle Narrates Another Emotional, Educational Disneynature Doc
Her...
Iris Deerborne (Kara Hayward of “Moonrise Kingdom”) is the lonely kid in high school, usually picked on for her dark glasses and the apparently well-known fact that she struggles, or struggled, with incontinence. Her father, played by Shea Whigham, is a mild soul, the kind of dad who flips through the pages of the newspaper while in the La-z-Boy, the TV playing fuzzy cable in the background, can of beer in the armrest.
More from IndieWire'To the Stars' Trailer: 'Moonrise Kingdom' Favorite Kara Hayward in Sundance Hit'Elephant' Review: Meghan Markle Narrates Another Emotional, Educational Disneynature Doc
Her...
- 4/24/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
If today’s political landscape is any indication, much of the world is living in a conservative past, seething with disgust for another perspective they fail to empathize with, and emboldened by leadership that encourages such viewpoints. In her striking new drama To the Stars, Martha Stephens takes a character-focused look at such a small-town community full of repression, but rather than setting it in the present day, we’re placed in 1960s Oklahoma, a decision that speaks volumes for the ways we have and haven’t evolved as a country.
The timid Iris (Kaya Hayward) hides behind her glasses, enduring the bullying of jocks and exclusion from the circle of popular girls. When the mysterious, charming Maggie (Liana Liberato) moves to the town of Wakita, this perception begins to shift as their friendship blossoms. “I’ve got a mouth like a gutter. I’m from the city,” Maggie gleefully exclaims upon her arrival.
The timid Iris (Kaya Hayward) hides behind her glasses, enduring the bullying of jocks and exclusion from the circle of popular girls. When the mysterious, charming Maggie (Liana Liberato) moves to the town of Wakita, this perception begins to shift as their friendship blossoms. “I’ve got a mouth like a gutter. I’m from the city,” Maggie gleefully exclaims upon her arrival.
- 1/27/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
2018 was an unexpectedly fine year for B&W features, “Roma,” “Cold War” and the underseen “1985” being obvious examples. But hopes that the trend might continue into the new year aren’t encouraged by “To the Stars,” a liftoff-resistant period drama that starts like a slightly cartoonish teenage version of lesbian date-night favorite “Desert Hearts,” then gradually plods toward an excess of retro-potboiler melodrama.
Blogger/journalist Shannon-Bradley Colleary’s first produced screenplay hits so many obvious marks so heavily that you can imagine this tale originating from a vintage drugstore paperback with the sell-line “Prejudice and Passions Explode in a Town Without Pity!” It all might have worked nonetheless if handled as a sort of semi-tongue-in-cheek empowerment fairy tale, and there are moments when director Martha Stephens (who previously co-helmed “Land Ho!” with Aaron Katz) seems to be aiming thataway. But only moments. Too often, “To the Stars” is earnest in that...
Blogger/journalist Shannon-Bradley Colleary’s first produced screenplay hits so many obvious marks so heavily that you can imagine this tale originating from a vintage drugstore paperback with the sell-line “Prejudice and Passions Explode in a Town Without Pity!” It all might have worked nonetheless if handled as a sort of semi-tongue-in-cheek empowerment fairy tale, and there are moments when director Martha Stephens (who previously co-helmed “Land Ho!” with Aaron Katz) seems to be aiming thataway. But only moments. Too often, “To the Stars” is earnest in that...
- 1/27/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Endless (Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson)
To resolve is to settle, finding the determination to do something rather than simply wait for something to happen to you. A resolution isn’t therefore a firm ending. On the contrary, it serves to provide beginnings. That decision has the potential to set you onto a path towards freedom either from the danger of outside forces or the complacency rendering you immobile within.
The Endless (Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson)
To resolve is to settle, finding the determination to do something rather than simply wait for something to happen to you. A resolution isn’t therefore a firm ending. On the contrary, it serves to provide beginnings. That decision has the potential to set you onto a path towards freedom either from the danger of outside forces or the complacency rendering you immobile within.
- 6/29/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The idea that Los Angeles is a city of angels run by devils – that this is where people go to make their dreams come true and where dreams go to die – is, by this point, a completely overplayed cliché. (One based in truth, some might argue, but still.) But the notion that Hollywood, as both a place and a concept, remains a great place to stage a murder mystery? There's still fertile ground to be tilled on the corner of Fountain and Fairfax. Exhibit A: Gemini, a chilled exercise in...
- 3/31/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Once a staple of Hollywood cinema, the film noir has seemingly become almost solely the realm of independent fare. Studio honchos just don’t fawn over them like they used to. You can argue about whether that’s a bad thing or not, but that’s just the way it is currently. The likes of Brick, for example, showcase that small scale versions are still perfectly done. This week, a new indie noir comes out that deserves to find an audience. It’s Gemini, a modern noir that occasionally subverts the genre in pretty interesting ways. In some ways, it’s exactly what you’d expect. In others, it really goes in a different direction. The movie is a Hollywood set noir, though one that’s definitely on the unique side. Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke) is an assistant to actress Heather Anderson (Zoë Kravitz), and the two clearly share a friendship as well.
- 3/27/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
After his comedic-tinged drama Cold Weather and the hilarious, touching Iceland-set adventure Land Ho!, we’ve been waiting some time for writer-director Aaron Katz’s next feature. Gemini finally debuted at SXSW earlier this year and while we’ll have to wait until next spring for the theatrical release, Neon has now debuted the first trailer. Sporting impressive style and distinct atmosphere, the La set neo-noir follows a mystery that a personal assistant uncovers.
We said in our review from BAMcinemaFest this summer, “Gemini is a fantastic neo-noir set in the Thief-inspired Los Angeles of Drive, an upside-down city, as captured in the surrealistic opening credits by cinematographer Andrew Reed, where morals have all but vanished, leaving behind only a group of ghostly beings trapped in the limbo of their crushed dreams and dissatisfaction.”
Starring Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, Nelson Franklin, Greta Lee, James Ransone, and John Cho, check out the trailer below.
We said in our review from BAMcinemaFest this summer, “Gemini is a fantastic neo-noir set in the Thief-inspired Los Angeles of Drive, an upside-down city, as captured in the surrealistic opening credits by cinematographer Andrew Reed, where morals have all but vanished, leaving behind only a group of ghostly beings trapped in the limbo of their crushed dreams and dissatisfaction.”
Starring Lola Kirke, Zoë Kravitz, Nelson Franklin, Greta Lee, James Ransone, and John Cho, check out the trailer below.
- 8/16/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There is a moment in Aaron Katz’s Gemini when Jill LeBeau (Lola Kirke), who has become the prime suspect in a murder, needs to hide from the police and find a disguise. Out of every possible option, she goes for a blonde wig with bangs, something that makes her look like Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. She looks perhaps even more conspicuous in her costume than in her daily look, but she manages to slink from law enforcement time and again because Gemini is the kind of film that exists in “movie universe,” a self-referential place where characters, unbeknownst to them, move according to the whims of their creators.
Gemini is also a fantastic neo-noir set in the Thief-inspired Los Angeles of Drive, an upside-down city, as captured in the surrealistic opening credits by cinematographer Andrew Reed, where morals have all but vanished, leaving behind only a group of...
Gemini is also a fantastic neo-noir set in the Thief-inspired Los Angeles of Drive, an upside-down city, as captured in the surrealistic opening credits by cinematographer Andrew Reed, where morals have all but vanished, leaving behind only a group of...
- 6/14/2017
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Faith-based cinema is as diverse a genre as there is, from the extreme, often violent portraits of devotion from established directors like Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson, to the attacks on logic in the God’s Not Dead and Left Behind pictures. Angus MacLachlan, a great storyteller of the not-too-deep south, offers a nuanced example of what this genre can bring, returning with the moving Abundant Acreage Available. The title may signal a light-hearted film, and given MacLachlan’s previous feature (the charming sex comedy Goodbye To All That) and writing credits (which include Phil Morrison’s masterpiece Junebug), you might be forgiven for having that expectation. However, MacLachlan’s latest is a departure from his previous work: a quiet, powerful portrait of two families at a crossroads, featuring the middle-aged Ledbetters — including the reformed alcoholic Jesse (Terry Kinney) and his adopted sister Tracy (Amy Ryan) — and three aging brothers (Max Gail,...
- 4/27/2017
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
If “Abundant Acreage Available” didn’t have closeups or outdoor scenes, it could have been filmed theater. Writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s second feature focuses on grown siblings Tracy (Amy Ryan) and Jesse (Terry Kinney) in the immediate aftermath of their father’s death. Stuck with his expansive farmland, they’re unsure what to do next, until the arrival of three older men who knew the deceased stake a claim to it. Set in a single location with a cast of five, the movie offers a lesson in minimalist drama, unfolding as a sharply acted mood piece that never crescendos, but hums along with wise observations and first-rate performances.
A intergenerational family drama that wouldn’t look out of place in the oeuvres of Tennessee Miller or Arthur Miller, “Abundant Acreage Available” is a noticeably more somber work for MacLachlan, whose directorial debut “Goodbye to All That” was a vulgar black comedy about overcoming divorce.
A intergenerational family drama that wouldn’t look out of place in the oeuvres of Tennessee Miller or Arthur Miller, “Abundant Acreage Available” is a noticeably more somber work for MacLachlan, whose directorial debut “Goodbye to All That” was a vulgar black comedy about overcoming divorce.
- 4/21/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
A satisfying mystery usually involves more engagement from various puzzle pieces than the way they fit together, and Aaron Katz’s playful L.A. neo-noir “Gemini” falls right into that tradition. It pits the elements of a scrappy whodunit against the backdrop of film industry satire, keeps us guessing the whole way through, and arrives at a solution that’s beside the point. Revisiting the genre innovations of his 2010 feature “Cold Weather,” Katz delivers another minimalist addition to the canon of shaggy dog detective stories stretching back to “The Long Goodbye,” filtered through his own indelible poetic gaze.
At first glance, Katz’s movies are slight character studies with little to offer beyond endearing situational humor and a complimentary atmosphere. His first two features, “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City,” were delicate mood pieces in which plot took a backseat to a handful of emotionally-charged exchanges. With “Cold Weather,” Katz...
At first glance, Katz’s movies are slight character studies with little to offer beyond endearing situational humor and a complimentary atmosphere. His first two features, “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City,” were delicate mood pieces in which plot took a backseat to a handful of emotionally-charged exchanges. With “Cold Weather,” Katz...
- 3/13/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Chicago – There might not be a more unusual movie this year than “Land Ho!” The film follows two “golden boys,” sixtysomethings Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul Eenhoorn), as they take an Odd Couple-type trip to Iceland. Writer/director Aaron Katz (“Dance Party, USA”) breaks that ice between the two men.
Katz had both a co-director and co-writer on the film, Martha Stephens, and the one-of-a-kind line readings from lead actor Earl Lynn Nelson (“That’s me, baby!”). Nelson is a retired surgeon, as he is in the film, and he steals the show as a profane, pot-smoking senior who is looking for adventure, and takes Paul Eenhoorn’s Colin along for the ride. What is unique about this situation, beyond Nelson, is the vast and awe-inducing setting of Iceland, and the very human story of two disparate gentleman trying to figure out one of the more confusing times of life.
Katz had both a co-director and co-writer on the film, Martha Stephens, and the one-of-a-kind line readings from lead actor Earl Lynn Nelson (“That’s me, baby!”). Nelson is a retired surgeon, as he is in the film, and he steals the show as a profane, pot-smoking senior who is looking for adventure, and takes Paul Eenhoorn’s Colin along for the ride. What is unique about this situation, beyond Nelson, is the vast and awe-inducing setting of Iceland, and the very human story of two disparate gentleman trying to figure out one of the more confusing times of life.
- 8/20/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Sundance coverage continues with Glenn musing on the career of Aaron Katz and his latest, Land Ho!
"Mumblecore", the term given to the influx of super low-budget independent films with a rotating core of creatives, cops a lot of grief these days. I assume it's mostly from people sick of Lena Dunham’s ubiquity (she wrote/directed/starred in the incredible Tiny Furniture) or people just getting sick from the home-spun, handheld aesthetic that beset many of the movement’s features. Personally, I love that we now have the likes of Greta Gerwig, Lynn Shelton (who’s at Sundance again this year with Laggies) and Joe Swanberg amongst others. The brightest star to my eyes, however, is Aaron Katz, the 32-year-old American director who directed the woozy, boozy, teenage coming-of-age drama Dance Party USA and the deliciously cheeky Sherlock riff Cold Weather. He returns with Land Ho!, co-directing alongside Martha Stephens...
"Mumblecore", the term given to the influx of super low-budget independent films with a rotating core of creatives, cops a lot of grief these days. I assume it's mostly from people sick of Lena Dunham’s ubiquity (she wrote/directed/starred in the incredible Tiny Furniture) or people just getting sick from the home-spun, handheld aesthetic that beset many of the movement’s features. Personally, I love that we now have the likes of Greta Gerwig, Lynn Shelton (who’s at Sundance again this year with Laggies) and Joe Swanberg amongst others. The brightest star to my eyes, however, is Aaron Katz, the 32-year-old American director who directed the woozy, boozy, teenage coming-of-age drama Dance Party USA and the deliciously cheeky Sherlock riff Cold Weather. He returns with Land Ho!, co-directing alongside Martha Stephens...
- 1/23/2014
- by Glenn Dunks
- FilmExperience
Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "A Picture of You" Tweetable Logline: A serious movie about life that collides head-on into a funny movie about death. Elevator Pitch: Kyle and Jen, estranged siblings, travel from New York City to rural Pennsylvania to pack up the home of their recently deceased mother. While there, they inadvertently make a shocking discovery that turns their world upside-down. Production Team: Writer/director: J.P. Chan Story by: J.P. Chan and Jo Mei Producers: Yasmine Gomez, Robert M. Chang ("Half-Life"), J.P. Chan Executive Producer: Duane Andersen ("Surrogate Valentine") Director of Photography: Andrew Reed ("Cold Weather") ...
- 10/23/2012
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress; at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. "A Picture of You" Tweetable Logline: A serious movie about life that collides head-on into a funny movie about death. Elevator Pitch: Kyle and Jen, estranged siblings, travel from New York City to rural Pennsylvania to pack up the home of their recently deceased mother. While there, they inadvertently make a shocking discovery that turns their world upside-down. Production Team: Writer/director: J.P. Chan Story by: J.P. Chan and Jo Mei Producers: Yasmine Gomez, Robert M. Chang ("Half-Life"), J.P. Chan Executive Producer: Duane Andersen ("Surrogate Valentine") Director of Photography: Andrew Reed ("Cold Weather") ...
- 10/23/2012
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Chicago – Some films never get a fair shot with audiences. They open in a handful of art house theaters scattered throughout the country before inconspicuously landing on DVD. Passionate movie lovers are left with the task of championing these unjustly obscure titles and helping them to acquire the audience they deserve.
Before I reveal my picks for the top ten Best Overlooked Films of 2011, here are the ten runners-up:
“Autoerotic”
Autoerotic
While Steve McQueen’s magnificent art film, “Shame,” plunges into the dark depths of sexual addiction, Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s “Autoerotic” takes a decidedly more playful approach to similar material. Though Swanberg has made a series of uncommonly intimate films about the sex lives of twentysomething Chicagoans, he’s never attempted a film as overtly comic as this one, and Wingard proves to be an ideal collaborator. “Autoerotic” is easily Swanberg’s most accessible film to date,...
Before I reveal my picks for the top ten Best Overlooked Films of 2011, here are the ten runners-up:
“Autoerotic”
Autoerotic
While Steve McQueen’s magnificent art film, “Shame,” plunges into the dark depths of sexual addiction, Joe Swanberg and Adam Wingard’s “Autoerotic” takes a decidedly more playful approach to similar material. Though Swanberg has made a series of uncommonly intimate films about the sex lives of twentysomething Chicagoans, he’s never attempted a film as overtly comic as this one, and Wingard proves to be an ideal collaborator. “Autoerotic” is easily Swanberg’s most accessible film to date,...
- 12/28/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
The mumblecore movement has always lent itself well to low-stakes cinema, comedies and dramas in which character and player are key, and incident rarely spills out into more than a few rooms. Cold Weather, the third film from SXSW darling Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City), while still evidently constrained by budget and circumstance, challenges this method, supplanting the expected with a compelling, if somewhat uneasy, neo-noir plot, borrowing lovingly from Sherlock Holmes lore with just a splash of 80s-era David Lynch.
Cold Weather will in style and tone be compared almost instantly to Rian Johnson’s sensational 2005 indie noir Brick, and though the two films share a certain sensibility, Katz’s work carves out its own unique identity, even if it is at the cost of some dramatic weight. A lengthy half-hour opening introduces us to Doug (Cris Lankenau), a forensic science student who...
The mumblecore movement has always lent itself well to low-stakes cinema, comedies and dramas in which character and player are key, and incident rarely spills out into more than a few rooms. Cold Weather, the third film from SXSW darling Aaron Katz (Dance Party USA, Quiet City), while still evidently constrained by budget and circumstance, challenges this method, supplanting the expected with a compelling, if somewhat uneasy, neo-noir plot, borrowing lovingly from Sherlock Holmes lore with just a splash of 80s-era David Lynch.
Cold Weather will in style and tone be compared almost instantly to Rian Johnson’s sensational 2005 indie noir Brick, and though the two films share a certain sensibility, Katz’s work carves out its own unique identity, even if it is at the cost of some dramatic weight. A lengthy half-hour opening introduces us to Doug (Cris Lankenau), a forensic science student who...
- 4/16/2011
- by Shaun Munro
- Obsessed with Film
- Actress Trieste Kelly Dunn interviews her Cold Weather director Aaron Katz -
Director Aaron Katz's third film Cold Weather focuses on Doug and Gail, a brother and sister duo leading ordinary lives in Portland. Then, Doug's ex-girlfriend goes missing, and mystery ensues. Doug is played by Cris Lankenau and Gail is played by Trieste Kelly Dunn...who happens to be me. I had the chance to catch up online with Aaron to talk about the film, directing actors, and craft service.
By Trieste Kelly Dunn
Aaron. How's living in Pittsburgh?
Great. I really love the city. How's everything in Los Angeles?
It's sunshine and roses every day. Are you excited about the premiere of Cold Weather? A film people are calling "the best film of 2011."
I'm excited. I'm really looking forward to a lot of friends, family, and hopefully strangers coming out to see it.
Yeah, me too.
- 2/10/2011
- by maint
- Film Independent
"There's no palm trees in Portland." It was this simple observation that changed the course of Aaron Katz's third feature from being a family drama into a thriller and may well change the course of his career. Not that any change is necessary on Katz's part, but "Cold Weather" represents the film that could push the conversation about the writer/director beyond the cineastes who bring up his name to impress in conversation like a well-kept secret, knowing full well that loaning the DVD double feature of his first two films "Dance Party USA" and "Quiet City" is akin to turning a friend onto some really good drugs. Whereas the director's last films indeed felt like trips - beautifully composed and immaculately realized dramas that captured the exuberance of youth - his latest, which sees Doug and Gail, a brother and sister (Cris Lankenau and Trieste Kelly Dunn) try...
- 2/5/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Chicago – Nothing inspires moviegoers to huddle around the warm glow of their television sets quite like a record-breaking snowstorm. And few films were more tailor-made for a slow-moving snow day than “Cold Weather,” the entrancing new picture from indie filmmaker Aaron Katz, best known for his breakout projects “Dance Party, USA” and “Quiet City.”
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is the sort of film that Video On Demand was made for. It doesn’t require a big screen or surround sound to fully envelop the audience into its story. Katz’s longtime collaborators, cinematographer Andrew Reed and composer Keegan DeWitt, impeccably set the mood and tone for an overcast Oregon-set noir from the very first frame. The best way to approach this small yet potent gem is to go in cold.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Cold Weather” in our reviews section.
The effortlessly natural Cris Lankenau (star of “Quiet City”) plays Doug,...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is the sort of film that Video On Demand was made for. It doesn’t require a big screen or surround sound to fully envelop the audience into its story. Katz’s longtime collaborators, cinematographer Andrew Reed and composer Keegan DeWitt, impeccably set the mood and tone for an overcast Oregon-set noir from the very first frame. The best way to approach this small yet potent gem is to go in cold.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Cold Weather” in our reviews section.
The effortlessly natural Cris Lankenau (star of “Quiet City”) plays Doug,...
- 2/4/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Mumblecore goes mainstream, or somewhat so, in Cold Weather, writer/director/editor Aaron Katz‘s second feature film. His first, Quiet City, helped spark what’s now cautiously viewed as a micro-budget film movement, usually involving a lot of improvisation and shaky-cam cinematography.
Cold Weather is some of that and a whole lot more. Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to Portland a college drop-out in need of a job. He studied forensic science in school. So, naturally, he finds work at an ice factory, moves in with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn), makes a new friend in a co-worker named Carlos (Raúl Castillo) and meets up with his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon), who’s back in town for a few days. Then, all of a sudden, Rachel’s nowhere to be found.
Conflict! Let the mystery begin. Doug, at first apprehensive, is brought out of his latent-forensic shell via Carlos,...
Cold Weather is some of that and a whole lot more. Doug (Cris Lankenau) returns home to Portland a college drop-out in need of a job. He studied forensic science in school. So, naturally, he finds work at an ice factory, moves in with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn), makes a new friend in a co-worker named Carlos (Raúl Castillo) and meets up with his ex-girlfriend Rachel (Robyn Rikoon), who’s back in town for a few days. Then, all of a sudden, Rachel’s nowhere to be found.
Conflict! Let the mystery begin. Doug, at first apprehensive, is brought out of his latent-forensic shell via Carlos,...
- 2/3/2011
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Placing Sherlock Holmes right where you would least expect him (modern day Portland, Oregon), filmmaker Aaron Katz‘s Cold Weather finds the mystery in the mundane. His Sherlock, a man named Doug (Cris Lankenau), works at an ice factory when he’s not trying to solve the case of the missing ex-girlfriend (Robyn Rikoon). He’s even got a crack team of slackers helping him out, in the form of his co-worker Carlos (Raul Castillo) and his sister Gail (Trieste Kelly Dunn).
Tfs talked to Katz about moving Mumblecore into a genre plot setting, who makes the Kleenexes in the world and, of course, which Sherlock Holmes is best.
Tfs: Your films operate a lot on what is not said. Being the writer, director and editor of your films, how hard is it to check yourself during the process?
Aaron Katz: The good thing for me is that my producers,...
Tfs talked to Katz about moving Mumblecore into a genre plot setting, who makes the Kleenexes in the world and, of course, which Sherlock Holmes is best.
Tfs: Your films operate a lot on what is not said. Being the writer, director and editor of your films, how hard is it to check yourself during the process?
Aaron Katz: The good thing for me is that my producers,...
- 2/1/2011
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Meredith Brody is covering the San Francisco Film Fest: Head still buzzing from Walter Murch’s allusive, inspiring State of Cinema address, I slipped into Cold Weather, from a young indie filmmaker named Aaron Katz, whose first two films, as the catalogue states, are among those that “defined a movement of American ultra-low-budget filmmaking popularly termed ‘mumblecore.'” I arrived rather late to the mumblecore party, and am not fully convinced of its pleasures. But I decide to see Cold Weather for two typically random film festival reasons: I met the director and his cinematographer, Andrew Reed, earlier today, as they were chatting with head programmer Rachel Rosen. They were fresh from a visit to Bi-Rite Creamery and eagerly reciting the multiple flavors of ice cream they’d each ...
- 5/1/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Cold Weather manages to take two underlying story ideas and combine them into a conceptually intriguing film, one that is partially successful and partially missing its full potential. Aaron Katz (Dance Party, USA) wrote and directed Cold Weather, beginning with a story about an estranged brother and sister and wraps it up loosely with a film noir jacket, vaguely reminiscent of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
Doug (Cris Lankenau) is an intelligent young man having studied criminal justice and forensic science, but who has taken time from school to find work and save some money. His passion lies with becoming a detective, romanticized by the literary notion of Sherlock Holmes as his ideal role model. Initially mocked by others for his source of inspiration, Doug is quick to dispel their misguided notions of Holmes as depicted in early films as a caricature of the true literary figure.
Doug gets...
Doug (Cris Lankenau) is an intelligent young man having studied criminal justice and forensic science, but who has taken time from school to find work and save some money. His passion lies with becoming a detective, romanticized by the literary notion of Sherlock Holmes as his ideal role model. Initially mocked by others for his source of inspiration, Doug is quick to dispel their misguided notions of Holmes as depicted in early films as a caricature of the true literary figure.
Doug gets...
- 3/19/2010
- by Travis
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Well, I checked out writer-director Aaron Katz's third film Cold Weather to see what the fuss was all about. No question Katz and his team know how to make a sharp, funny, visually stunning movie on a shoestring. But while shot in naturalistic light with talking heads, this film is more complex than Katz's prior efforts (both are available on Amazon). Shot in 18 days on 25 locations, Cold Weather deployed Katz's usual tiny crew, who all stayed in one house in Portland, Oregon, and now share shorthand. Much of the conversation at the Q & A was about gifted cinematographer Andrew Reed shooting with "very fast" Red cameras and two days of filming with costly lenses that produced some arresting shots, particularly one fancy zoom ...
- 3/17/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
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