"My Blind Brother" Review (***½)

Jenny Slate, Adam Scott and Nick Kroll in "My Blind Brother."

Adam Scott, Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate star in this brutally honest comedy about disability. "My Blind Brother" dives head first into the subject and puts a fresh spin on the ‘slacker comedy.'

Adam Scott plays Robbie. He’s a star athlete and a local icon whose blindness only pushes him to do better. His brother Bill, on the other hand, is not quite as motivated. We get everything we need to know from our two leads in the opening scene, where we see Robbie—rocking sun glasses and a tracksuit—running along side his sweat-drenched little brother, Bill. The two are strapped together as Bill guides Robbie to the finish line. The surrounding crowd goes wild as they celebrate Robbie and completely ignore Bill as he collapses in an effort to catch his breath.

Complete lineup of the 2014 Atlanta Film Festival

Less than two weeks away, the 38th edition of the Atlanta Film Festival is surely the most exciting yet. The lineup is striking—composed of previous festival hits and world premieres, international narratives and documentaries on a myriad of subjects. Cannes, Sundance, SXSW and Toronto all send their greatest hits of the past few months, but plenty of new local fare and standout docs from the Savannah Film Festival and Macon Film Festival ("Mayan Blue" [Savannah], "Brothers Hypnotic" [Savannah & Macon], "A Fragile Trust" [Macon]) dot the lineup as well.

Local feature titles include narratives "A is for Alex" and "The Unwanted" as well as documentaries "Limo Ride" and "Mayan Blue." Georgia-connected filmmakers share films like "Beside Still Waters" and "Bayou Maharajah" and a host of Georgia set, shot and connected short films feature in several different blocks.

The Atlanta Film Festival has worked very hard in recent years to clarify its voice and put on an organized, polished presentation. It has continued to grow and mature, leading up its 40th birthday in 2016, a feat that few festivals can boast—many likely never reaching that far.

You can bet that Reel Georgia will feature plenty of coverage of this very promising edition of the Grande Dame of Georgia's festival circuit. Look forward to a massive 'What to see,' Georgia film spotlights, red carpet interviews and reviews in the coming weeks. For now, check out the complete lineup!

OPENING NIGHT PRESENTATION

Joe
directed by David Gordon Green USA, 2014, English, 114 minutes
A gripping mix of friendship, violence and redemption erupts in the contemporary South in "Joe," directed by David Gordon Green. "Joe" brings Academy Award® winner Nicolas Cage back to his indie roots in the title role as the hard-living, hot-tempered, ex-con Joe Ransom, who is just trying to dodge his instincts for trouble—until he meets a hard-luck kid played by Tye Sheridan (“Mud,” “The Tree of Life”), who awakens in him a fierce and tender-hearted protector. With a screenplay by Gary Hawkins, “Joe” is based on the novel by the late Larry Brown (“Big Bad Love,” “Facing the Moon”), the former Mississippi firefighter renowned for his powerful, gothic storytelling and universal themes of honor, desperation and moral rectitude.

CLOSING NIGHT PRESENTATION

The Double
directed by Richard Ayoade UK, 2013, English, 93 minutes
Simon James is a ghost. Friends, family, and coworkers meet his every action with complete indifference. He grimly goes through the motions, hoping for recognition that never comes. All of this changes when James Simon arrives. Physically, James and Simon are dead ringers. Yet in temperament, James is everything Simon is not: personable, spontaneous, assertive and desirable. When James begins to take over Simon’s life, he is forced to act. Jesse Eisenberg’s fantastic double performance is bolstered by a cast of seasoned character actors who bring Simon James’s gloomy retro world to life. Directed with a deftly comic hand and assured visual technique by Richard Ayoade, "The Double" is a stylish black comedy with acerbic wit to spare.

2014 Georgia Independent Film Survey Results

Editor's Note: Credit for this exceptional piece must go to our partner Charles Judson at CinemATL. If anyone has their finger on the pulse of Georgia's independent film scene, it's this guy. We look forward to continuing and further developing our partnership with CinemATL in the future. -CM

The results of CinemATL and Reel Georgia's first survey of the Georgia Film Scene are in. All submitted survey responses can be found at the end of this post.

We asked 9 questions:

• How do you define an Independent Film?
• What are the benefits when a film is identified being an indie/independent?
• What are the negatives when a film is identified as being an indie/independent film?
• How seriously--how much respect--does the community/industry at large treat the indie films on your resume?
• How confident are you about the future of Georgia's Independent Film Scene?
• Of the independent films you've worked on in Georgia, how you would rate your experience?
• How aware is the rest of the country of Atlanta and Georgia's Independent Film Scene?
• If you had to grade Georgia's presence at the major festivals in the United States (Sundance, SXSW, etc.), what would you give it?
• How would you grade Georgia's Independent Film Scene?

There will be those who will agree with the picture the answers create of independent film in Georgia. With Georgia's film boom well into it's 6th year, some will vehemently disagree. Whatever side you may fall on, this should be a catalyst to discussion. We'll be following up with a more detailed reactions from our own contributors and from the community in a week or so.

A few things to note as we dive in.

There are 48 total responses. We posted, tweeted and emailed as often as we could to get the word out.

Our biggest push were two boosted Facebook posts we created. Through keywords and audience, we aimed those posts specifically at the film community, targeting Atlanta up to a radius of 50 miles. That's 7,800 square miles that stretches just shy of Athens.

Why target Atlanta and not the entire state? Research shows the concentration of online activity by the film community is in this area. Going further out would just dilute our reach. 

As a result, our first boosted post reached 11,288 potential respondents. The second reached 5,360. Including email and our additional social media channels, we hit about 30,000 people total (how much overlap we don't know). 

We're including this information to highlight that we wanted to give as many as possible a chance to answer. 

Review: "Medora" (****)

         
Medora, Indiana isn’t small-town America. It’s what’s left of it. Home to fewer than 500 people, Medora is so far under the radar that a Google search for its name yields a wealth of knowledge about Medora, North Dakota. Rather, it did until Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart came along. "Medora," the duo’s debut as co-directors, follows the Medora High School Hornets’ 2010-2011 basketball season.  The result is an often painful, always poignant glimpse at the struggle for victory in a community that’s forgotten what victory feels like.

Review: "Short Term 12" (****½)

Editor's Note: Today marks a special occasion for me. I first put a bug in the ear of Lucy Doughty about writing for Reel Georgia many moons ago, and today we publish her first piece with us. "Short Term 12" is a remarkable film that won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Prize at SXSW earlier this year. I saw it at Sidewalk, where I was moved and impressed enough to have awarded it the full five star rating. Lucy's review is written as beautifully as the film plays out, and I look forward to reading everything she'll write for us in the future. Even though her reviews will make mine look as though I've compiled them using Alphabet soup, I'm thrilled to have such a gifted wordsmith on board. -CM

John Gallagher, Jr., Brie Larson, and Rami Malek star in "Short Term 12"

"Short Term 12" premiered in its first form as first-time writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton’s Master’s thesis project at Sundance in 2009. A friend told Cretton he’d be a fool to attend Sundance without a feature length script prepared for the then twenty-minute short. “So I wrote one,” he said. The short won the Jury Prize, and Cretton began crafting his feature debut, which released after his second movie, "I Am Not A Hipster," did in 2012. The result captures a season in the lives of the young staff and residents of a teen foster care facility. Rooted in Cretton’s own experience on a group home staff, "Short Term 12" offers a gripping and often raw look at the transformative power of trust and vulnerability.

Sidewalk review: "Coldwater" (****)

P.J. Boudousqué stars in "Coldwater"

Since its SXSW premiere, Vincent Grashaw's "Coldwater" has embarked on a successful festival run, leading up to where I caught it in Birmingham at the Sidewalk Film Festival. Following a wayward teen's abduction and forced placement into a privately-run juvenile behavior reform camp, "Coldwater" is a brutal, visceral take at the real and often hushed world of privatized rehabilitation. With facilities operating without local or federal regulation, these programs have free range to 'reform' their clients (or, rather, inmates). Grashaw's lens is not afraid to show what most filmmaker's cameras would turn away from.

Atlanta review: "euphonia" (****)

Maria Decotis stars in "euphonia"

Perhaps the best example of experimental film out of the 2013 Atlanta Film Festival is "euphonia." The film struggles to sit still under the 'experimental' label, however, as it possesses relatable central characters, an even tone and an easily mappable and insular plot. This is perhaps the best-looking feature to ever be made for only $700, and most definitely the best-sounding. An ode to sound tech, "euphonia" is a beacon of Georgia independent film and exactly what experimental film should look and sound like.

A Conversation with James Ponsoldt, director of "The Spectacular Now"

James Ponsoldt walks the red carpet at the
Atlanta Film Festival for his film,
"The Spectacular Now"

In the past two years, James Ponsoldt has not only seen two of his films show at Sundance, but both have competed for the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. The Athens native now lives in Los Angeles, but when it came time for his latest feature, Georgia beckoned him back.

Proclaiming himself as a writer first and foremost, "The Spectacular Now" marks the first of Ponsoldt's six films (three shorts and three features) where he doesn't have a writing credit. Michael H. Weber and Scott Neustadter, the screenwriters behind hipster mega-hit "(500) Days of Summer," adapted Tim Tharpe's award-winning novel. Upon reading the script, Ponsoldt approached the two with both enthusiasm and his own plans in mind.

"'I want to set it in Athens, Georgia and I want to film it on anamorphic 35mm.' And they said, 'alright.'" Tharpe's novel takes place in Oklahoma, a setting that the first version of the screenplay kept. Luckily, the story's ties to the Sooner state are loose enough. But what else made Ponsoldt want to film in his hometown?

Georgia indie "euphonia" to premiere at SXSW

There is a lot of intrigue surrounding the new Georgia indie film "euphonia." A purposefully lowercase title... a tagline of "listen." that also serves as an official synopsis... a mysterious and quick-cut trailer full of wild sounds... a 55-minute runtime that sits just inside the line of 'feature' classification. I have only now heard anything about the film– and I still don't know much– but it is premiering as part of the Visions program at Austin's SXSW Film Festival in March.

Written and directed by Danny Madden and starring Madden's younger brother Will along with a few other friends, "euphonia" was made on an astounding $700 budget. Shot it in and around Peachtree City and Atlanta, I have a hunch this will pop up at the Atlanta Film Festival as well (but we'll know for sure soon enough).

Check out the very exciting trailer after the jump.