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Dear Pillow (2004)
An excellent film about a difficult subject matter
***Not sure if anything in here really qualifies as a spoiler, but I do deal with some of the major plot points so just giving you a warning.***
Dear Pillow centers on awkward teenager Wes (Rusty Kelly). He's about to turn 18 and still hasn't had sex. Wes is so concerned about being a virgin that he's even contemplating letting Dusty (Gary W. Chason), the creepy guy in his building who's always inviting him up for a beer, rape him just to have it done with. Of course Wes would much rather have sex with his hot landlady Lorna (Viviane Vives), but that seems unlikely.
Wes also has issues with his father (Cory Criswell). Wes has found his dad's stash of porn and is weirded out because so much of it involves bondage. That, and the fact that some of the women remind him of his mother. When Wes discovers that Dusty writes for a company that publishes some of the mags in his dad's stash, he finally pays Dusty a visit. At first Wes goes on a tirade against Dusty for being a pervert. But instead of getting upset, Dusty talks to Wes about why he feels the way he does. Before long Dusty has taken Wes under his wing and is mentoring him in the art of writing dirty stories.
Obviously making a film with themes involving sex, porn, and teens requires some deft handling to avoid becoming mere exploitation. Fortunately writer/director Bryan Poyser is more than up to the challenge. In particular Poyser handles the sexual tension between Wes and Dusty well. It would have been easy to just make Dusty a creepy old pedophile, but the relationship between him and Wes is much more complex that.
Poyser says that he wanted to take a serious look at pornography and how it affects different people's lives that neither vilified nor romanticized the smut business. I would say not only did he succeed at that, but he made a first rate character driven drama as well. Poyser is helped considerably by a strong cast, all of whom do first rate jobs. Although there is nothing explicit in the movie, clearly the subject matter is not for everyone. For those who like movies that deal frankly with sexuality, however, I highly recommend Dear Pillow.
Able Edwards (2004)
Destined for cult status
Like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow or Sin City, Able Edwards was shot entirely with actors performing against a green screen, with the sets and backgrounds added in digitally later. This was the first film to use that technique, and although the budget is far less than Sky Captain or Sin City, the results are nearly as impressive.
More importantly, though, Able Edwards has a great story to tell. That story is set in a future where mankind has had to abandon the earth to live in an orbiting space station. On board the station,the Edwards Corporation has long ago abandoned their roots in the entertainment business for manufacturing androids, but their profits are stagnating. The company decides to clone the titular character, a Walt Disney like figure who founded the company decades ago and who, upon his death, was cryogenically frozen. The way the story unfolds is similar to Citizen Kane, as various people who knew the Edwards clone are questioned at a hearing, and occasional fake newsreel footage is also used.
This is an incredibly ambitious film by any standards, but director Graham Robertson pulls it off well. It presents a convincing vision of the future that feels natural rather than drawing attention to itself. Instead of trying to overwhelm the audience with action and special effects, The film is more interested in exploring ideas. Helping Robertson succeed is a great cast of relative unknowns, in particular Scott Kelly Galbreath as the Edwards and his clone, and Keri Bruno as the Edwards clone's wife. My rating is 8 out of 10.
Starbucking (2006)
An odd but entertaining documentary
This is an odd but entertaining little documentary about a guy named Winter (just Winter; that's his legal name) whose hobby is trying to visit every Starbucks Coffee Shop in the world. He's been doing this now for over 10 years. Winter realizes this is sort of a pointless pursuit in and of itself, but he simply wanted to do something different. And I'd say he's succeeded, having as of this writing visited about 95% of the Starbucks stores in the U.S. as well as several stores in other countries.
As goofy as all this might seem, there's even some actual philosophy behind what Winter is doing. He says that we have enough resources in the world today that people shouldn't have to work as much as they do. Instead, they should be able to devote more time to various creative or just plain fun projects and pursuits. He's aware this isn't necessarily practical, especially for people living in third world countries and so on. It's simply his vision of an ideal world.
Winter is definitely a character. I'm not sure if I'd want to spend too much time hanging out with him in real life (or anyone who has as much caffeine coursing through their veins as this guy does), but spending an hour and a half watching him in this movie was fun. I give Starbucking a 7 ½ out of 10.
Planetfall (2005)
Good, cheap sci-fi fun
'Planetfall' is kind of a mix of spaghetti westerns with the post apocalyptic sci-fi genre. It's ambitious stuff for a low budget, shot on video feature, but director Gianni Mezzanotte manages to pull it off fairly well. There are some rough spots, notably the very obvious CGI effects. However, the cast is more capable than what one usually expects from a movie this cheap, and they manage to invest their characters with enough sincerity and believability to pull at least this viewer into the story.
By no means is this any kind of sci-fi classic, but it has more heart and soul than any slick Sci Fi Channel original. The screenplay is fairly well written and coherent, and you can tell that everyone involved in making 'Planetfall' cared about telling the story and did the best they could. There's nothing deep going on here, no art film pretensions or serious message. It's just a cheap, fun movie made for the love of film-making and telling a story.