Change Your Image
jerrywhitejr
Reviews
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers (2021)
Fabulous Frickin' Film!!
TOTALLY RECOMMENDED!! I saw this at a packed-house screening in Los Angeles and enjoyed it so much that I bought it here and watched it again with a group of friends. I literally laughed AND cried throughout the movie. This works as a movie to put on at a party as well as a perfect date-night flick.
It's a fantastic film about family-for adults, though teenagers will definitely dig it as well. Amazed that it's the director's first feature (as director). It's a mix of original vibes with some Scorsese, Jarmusch, Guy Ritchie, and even some early Farrelly Brothers flavors thrown in the mix. And while there's a focus on the titular brothers, the film gives the female characters their due-they are well-rounded and ultimately I feel there's a feminist/humanist heart beating right beneath the surface.
A seasoned and charismatic ensemble cast that's able to balance absurdist with grounded humor, along with sincere romance and flawed characters you can't help but love. Also, quotable af.
Man in Camo (2018)
Ethan Minsker, Ethan Minsker!
It's hard to write a spoiler-free review of this film because as soon as you say "Ethan Minsker," you've given away a huge part of the story. Ethan has been at this for a long time-since he was a kid in many ways. At what? Filmmaking, rebel-rousing, DIYing, punk rocking, zinstering, and making, making, making. He's made a lot of movies over the years and finally made one about himself; he's earned it.
I'm a fan highly-specific stories that reveals the universality of our experience. Man in Camo is part biography, part manifesto, part self-exploration. I firmly believe everyone has a story to tell, but not everyone has the means (or gumption) to tell their own. There's a cautionary tale in here somewhere too, written and read between the lines. You don't have to be from New York to get something out of this-you don't have to be a writer or director, and you don't have to be Ethan Minsker.
We did a special screening of this film at our fest (Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival 2018, Hamtramck, Michigan). Ethan came out and led a robust Q&A after the film and the audience, strangers to Ethan's work, stuck around well past the alloted time and were fully-engaged throughout.
Frenetic editing, visually rich with about three dozen different animation techniques employed to liven up interviews and interstitials, Man in Camo is Minsker using everything he's learned in his life to tell the story of his life-celebrating his passions in the medium(s) of his passions.