Everyone keeps secrets from each other. Some big, some small. Director/co-writer Ariel Vroman’s  new film “The Iceman” is based on the true story of Richard “Richie” Kuklinski. He has a big secret—he’s a hired mob hitman. He manages to keep secret from his wife and daughters the fact that he is a contract killer or hitman, if you prefer, for a local mobster. For almost twenty years and close to a hundred hits his secret remains safe until he is finally caught.

“The Iceman” starts at the end with a grizzled, bearded Kuklinski (Shannon doing a great impression of Tom Hanks from “Cast Away”) in a darkened room. The look on his face is a combination of pained and distant. His mournful regrets lead the film back to the beginning, think of this as the Iceman’s origin story like all of the in-vogue comic book movies. Richie is on an awkward date with his soon-to-be wife Deborah (a good-yet-understated performance by Winona Ryder who is now old enough to play a mother with teens!) in the early 60′s. Very early in the movie it becomes clear that Richie is not one to tell the truth about his job.

Richie goes from dubbing foreign porn films to executing hits for Roy Demeo (Ray Liotta, natch) the local mobster. His initiation is to whack a bum in broad daylight which Richie does calmly causing Roy to remark that he has ice in his veins. This is not why he’s called the Iceman, that comes later with freezing bodies but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The hitman business picks up allowing Richie to move his family to better digs. He tells them his new job is as a currency trader which serves as a great cover story for him. Business picks up as Richie whacks all kinds of people, gaining quite a reputation. Then Rosenthal (David “Ross” Schwimmer), Ray’s childhood buddy, gets their gang in trouble by robbing and whacking rival criminals so everyone has to go into hiding until the heat cools down.

Unemployed hitmen have a hard time finding similar work, but luckily Richie meets Mr. Freezy (nearly unrecognizable Chris Evans, Captain America himself). Mr. Freezy is not your typical hitman, he also doubles as an ice cream man complete with truck. The two of them strike up an uneasy partnership and start whacking bad guys as a team. Now we are well into the 70′s and we have been treated to all kinds of great face jewelry by Richie and all of the characters. Schwimmer’s character rocks a pornstache & ponytail for a long time too. Richie eventually runs into trouble when Roy learns about his side-work. Now Richie has a hit on himself which is threatening to turn into a war. This puts Richie’s family in danger, something he’s tried to avoid. Like all good things, the hitman business finally ends, Richie survives the war just long enough to get pinched. The one thing he ever cared about in the whole world was his family but once he is arrested he never sees them again.

“The Iceman” is a morality tale in an immoral world. The back-story of Richie is downplayed except for a brief scene with his incarcerated brother and a few flashbacks revealing the punishment his father doled out to him. Shannon’s performance is top-notch, striking the perfect balance of icy, cold killer with an emotionally stunted man trying his best to provide for his family. As the movie progresses one gets glimpses of Richie going completely off the rails yet aside from a hit-n-run chase with his family in the car, Richie never goes full-on crazy. It’s a shame because very few actors today have Shannon’s unnerving screen presence to be able to pull it off, anyone who has seen him in “Bug” or “My Son, My Son What Have Ye Done” will know what he can pull off.

In the end, Kuklinski’s story is just not interesting enough to hold your attention for the whole movie. The rest of the cast does not get enough screen time to have any of their characters develop much at all, which is a shame as the cast is very good. It was great to see longtime character actor Robert Davi get a decent role as Leonard Marks, a rival mobster. Other good moments are seeing Shannon in a polyester shirt dance briefly to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and for anyone who hated Ross from “Friends” they will be in for a treat. Oh, and if you’ve seen the trailer James Franco gets killed, which many will like too.

The post THE ICEMAN appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

This post will make a lot more sense if you read the first part here.

So this is the answer column. Think of it as a a DVD extra. You know, 90%previously released material and just a few new bells and whistles. Here we go

Coconut types “why do girls…”

Google completes with

a) get period

b) cheat

c) like jerks

d) cut

Answer: Trick question! They are all the legit answers, suckers! What I like is the twisted story the progression of answers reveals. It’s literally like a young boy aging into adulthood. First he doesn’t understand periods. (I’ll be honest with you, son, neither do I.) Soon there after he dates a girl who dumps him for the popular boy. That popular boy is, of course, a jerk. She finds out too late and ends up cutting herself. Quite sad, actually.

Coconut types “men that…”

Google responds with

a) cheat

b) use women for money

c) stare at goats

d) hit women

Answer: Another trick question! You guys are too easy! Here, we see what has to be the progression of a female searching the Google for answers. First, men cheat. And they also like to use women for money. Yes, I thought it would work the other way, but I guess there is a sugar momma syndrome as well. While most of you would have picked stare at goats as the false answer, that is understandable, but still legit. And finally, men hit women. One wonders if Rihanna uses Google to screen her dates. If so, she obviously sucks at it.

Coconut realizes his glass of Mexican Moonshine is going down quite easy and types “girls look better…”

Google comes back with

a) childish gambino

b) with long hair

c) with glasses

d) with clothes on

Answer: (wait for it…) Did you say they are all legit answers? Man, you guys are finally catching on. ‘Bout time. Again, I envision how these answers roll out. First off, I don’t know who or what is a childish gambino, so scratch that one. Secondly, we come on long hair (just like the movies). As a respected writer, I can tell you unequivocally the answer is a resounding yes. Next, the glasses debate. Who is asking Google this? Why aren’t there answers like “girls look better naked” or “Girls look better in lingerie” or “girls look better in hooker boots?” I don’t get the glasses fetish, other than I would think ugly guys have a better chance if they take a girls’ glasses off.

Coconut refills and enters “I think I have an STD because…”

Dr. Google looks at me sternly and says

a) where do I go

b) but I’m a virgin

c) what should I do

d) I slept with Ivvy Goldberg

Answer: Easy one here. While Ivyy Goldberg is the obvious fake answer here, let us not overlook the three legit answers. Where do I go? Apparently Google for some sort of direction. Then we have “But I’m a virgin.” What is this, the immaculate infection? Finally, much like the steps of acceptance, “what should I do?” Which is kind of close to the first answer. So, one can surmise you are blazingly stupid, and it’s no wonder you have an STD.

Coconut breathes a sigh of relief and says “so last night I…”

Google wipes the tequila from my mouth and tells me

a) was reading the book of numbers

b) sleep is so last night

c) I was so drunk last night I ate a tube of toothpaste

500. actually laughed while watching the Tonight Show

Breaking down from the top, I have no clue what The Book of Numbers is, but maybe that explains what the blue hell a ‘childish gambino’ is. The second result is “sleep is so last night. OK, don’t quite get that one either, I can only surmise it’s searched by some poor energy drink riddled teenager. You keep up those grades, Tommy. The third result gives us the most interesting answer; I ate a tube of toothpaste. What? Did I miss something here? I understand being loaded and doing questionable things, but how does one eat a tube of toothpaste? Is this some sort of follow up to the Cinnamon Challenge? Or is this some sort of lazy man follow up to puking and not wanting to brush your teeth? Obviously, the fake answer here is the Tonight Show: no one under the age of 32 has laughed at Leno in 20 freaking years.

Coconut is digging referring to himself in the third person and wonders “Satan is…”

Google testifies

a) real

b) my motor

c)the good guy

d) the god of this world

The first thing Google tells me is Satan is real. That leaves me no other recourse but to think Satan runs Google. I mean think about it, why does Google make it so easy to find porn and steal music? Makes sense, right? The second result says Satan is my motor. And here I thought Jesus built hotrods. The third result only reinforces my belief that Satan is running Google. Just like the saying goes, the devil’s best trick is convincing people he doesn’t exist. I’m onto you Beelzebub. Because the last, true result is Satan is the god of this world. All these are the legit answers. Well played, Satan, well played.

Coconut lightens up, feels secure in his manhood and asks “how can I get my husband…”

Google doesn’t even ask me why and just says

a) to stop snoring

b) to lose weight

c)to leave the house

Typical feminine whining here. All these broads that searched this on Google show just how shallow the are. I’m not even gonna stretch this out, all these are the legit results. This reads like a virtual checklist of the typical house wife. First, she’s sick of his snoring. Secondly, she thinks he’s fat. By the time we get to answer three, she is clearly fed up with his shit and just wants him out. Now I’m willing to bet none of these huasfraus have taken a look in the damn mirror. I am willing to bet they also snore and/or fart in bed nightly. I am also willing to bet they are pushing out a muffintop like it just came from the bakery. And since their shit is so hot, then surely it must be hubs getting out of the house.

Coconut wonders “ugly girls…”

Google says

a) names

b) dating

c)be quiet

d)need love to

Answer: another dirty trick question! They are all the legit answers. First of all, who knew ugly girls had names? Or dated? I am all about the uggos being quiet. I understand they need love, and I suspect my male readers will settle for them at some point.

After GISing Bustice, Coconut gets back to work by entering “how do I get my girl…”

Google immediately responds

a) back

b) girlfriend pregnant

c)girlfriend in the mood

d)girlfriend to break up with me

The big takeaway here is the story these results reveal. So let’s take the position that this is just one guy, entering this question as his rekindled relationship resumes. First, he is so heartbroken, he has no recourse but to Google his way back into his girl’s pants. He gets her back. In a drunken celebration, he goes in bareback. Now, she might be pregnant? He’s too chickenshit to ask her, he probably emails me. He’s acting all weird, so she never gets in the mood. By this time, he’s REALLY sick of her moody shit and wants to break up with her moody ass.

Again, trick question, blah, blah, blah.

Finally Coconut wraps up his night by doing what everyone does; Googles “Coconut Roman…”

Google comes back with

a) nothing

You heartless bastards.

The post The Pen Is Mightier: The Google Game Answers Edition appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

Ramin Bahrani’s fourth feature At Any Price sees the former indie wunderkind grappling with a Hollywood movie starring Dennis Quaid and everyone’s favorite brooding James-Dean-In-Training Zac Efron. The movie looks into the world of big-stakes Iowa corporate farming and the GMO seed corporations who force farmers to dance to their tune or lose out on their proprietary high-yield corn. At its heart though the film is a father-son relationship story, sort of a glossy attempt at a PTA movie. Sort of.

Henry Whipple (Quaid) has two sons, Dean (Efron) and Grant, as the opening scene gives a quick photo-montage back-story. Henry’s wife (the always dutiful Kim Dickens, Treme, The Wire) serves as the invisible-yet-there mother. We learn quickly that Henry wants Grant to takeover the family farming and seed distribution business since Dean is dead set on becoming a race car driver. In short order we learn that Henry is not much of a stand-up guy as he drags Dean to a funeral to partake in the farming equivalent of ambulance chasing. Henry’s tone-deaf pitch to buy a grieving son’s 200-acre family farm shows him callously leaving a tenant-farmer in the lurch who can’t match the asking price on a farm he’s rented and worked for ten years. Dean, along for this shady transaction, shows contempt for his go-getter old man and only dreams of moving off the dirt tracks to the glory of NASCAR soon.

We next see Henry getting it on with Roller Girl (Heather Graham) in the seed elevator office. We know this is not his wife yet we never do fully figure out who she is other than a desultory liaison for Henry. Dean’s girlfriend Cadence (Maika Monroe in the film’s best acting performance, hands down) helps keep him grounded as his dirt-track successes pile up. He wins his last figure-8 dirt race over his rival Brad Johnson who is the son of his father’s seed-sales rival Tom Johnson (Clancy Brown, sadly underutilized here). This youthful rivalry will take a dramatic turn later in the film so one must extrapolate more from the few scenes they have in the movie.

This is one of the biggest problems with At Any Price–its script manages to plop revealing plot points and convenient conflict which the onscreen action doesn’t quite live up to. It picks up threads of conflict – like Henry’s wife calling him out for cheating on her then acting like nothing happened for the whole rest of the film. It’s especially apparent in the father-son’s dynamic as Dean’s brooding and whinging turns into a full-on indictment of Henry as a father and as a man towards the end. Call it Touch-Screenwriting—just click on this app to add some conflict here, click this backstory app here. Another example of the curious script is the importance placed on the missing brother Grant. We are led to believe very early in the film he’s coming home, the folks literally get out a red carpet for him to walk into the farm and the 200-acre farm Henry bought will be for him to get started on. Funny thing is Grant is in Argentina getting ready to climb a mountain. We only hear from him via several postcards that appear at specific plot points along the script. This odd, apostolic tale never manages to stitch together the scenes of Dean’s anger towards his father, instead we are left to assume his absence speaks volumes.

Dean gets his big-shot at that asphalt tracks only to choke in a tense moment of racing. As he leaves the track, a beat-down man before he’s even 20, he casts off his girlfriend while telling off his father too. He spares his silent mother any acrimony since she gave him $15,000 of her own money to enter the race. This spurning from Dean stings Henry but not as much as the seed-cleaning trouble he finds himself in. The GMO seeds that Henry sells are to be replaced every single year, it is contractually illegal to reuse the seeds since they are patented property of the seed corps. Dean’s has been ratted out and an investigation into his seed sales practices ensues.

The film takes a dark turn into corn noir which has the only real result of bringing Dean back into the family farm business. Once again an example of the film’s Touch-Screenwriting as nothing at any point in the film would hint at this turn to violence. Dean hits rocks bottom by sleeping with Roller Girl in a corn silo—he never does find out that she was also sleeping with his old man— which is witnessed by his soon to be ex-girlfriend. He then wrecks his racecar and decides to cash in his chips to help his dad with the investigation. He opts for the safety of continuing the family farm for a fourth generation. The film comes to its close with a few threads left dangling and a slightly sinister ending.

The film is considerably better at showing small-town, rural American life as opposed to the pandering, smug Promised Land.  It’s haphazard script lets the movie down. Quaid’s performance is decent yet not terribly nuanced enough to hang the whole film on. Efron has now done several adult drama with the only real defining trait being his glassy-eyed teen pout. He shows a few glimpses in the racing scenes yet exudes a Tom Cruise-like awkwardness with all of the females in the film. Kim Dickens and Heather Graham’s characters are terribly one-dimensional and flat which is a shame as neither of the actresses manage to bring anything to their roles outside of being mere appendages to the male roles. The girlfriend is the best character in the film yet sadly she get’s ditched in the middle only to escape the oppressive small-town life for the west coast. Henry’s dad has a few scenes in the film but his character is utterly wasted, which is a shame since the actor was fantastic in Bahrani’s last film Goodbye Solo.

The film does manage some great visuals of massive cornfields and high-tech farm equipment—there’s several scenes of Henry sitting in the cab of a GPS-controlled tractor. The future is here! It does not come close to David Lynch’s visual valentine to Iowan cornfields in the supremely underrated Straight Story. Also, anyone from Iowa would be able to nitpick at several of the film’s geographical errors like counties in the wrong place. The worst sin the film commits is to make Henry a third-generation farmer who acts like he doesn’t really know some of the other farmers, which would never happen in real, small-town Iowa. Everyone knows almost everyone. The fact that the film does draw attention to GMO-seeds and the big corporations behind them is commendable yet the movie withholds any serious critique on it.

The post AT ANY PRICE: The Tale of GMO Seed appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

As if getting back into the world of dating isn’t hard enough, Gringo (Eli Roth), a divorced dad with no game, heads down to Chile to hang out with his buddy Ariel (Ariel Levy) far out of his comfort zone. Luckily Ariel’s rich and super-connected buddy Pollo (Nicolas Martinez) offers up his services to show them a good time. Pollo is a Chilean version of MTV’s Party-to-Go. Like most Americans, Gringo can’t speak a lick of Spanish so he has to do his best just to hang with Pollo’s and his crazy antics. Between Gringo’s lack of game and Ariel’s obsessive texting to his ex, Pollo worries that they’ve set themselves up for disappointment until they run into two step-sisters Kylie (Lorenza Izzo) and Monica (Andreas Osvart) out on the town and anxious for a reason to stop arguing with each other. Gringo lucks out after striking out all night by stumbling into Irina (Natasha Yarovenko), a gorgeous divorced mother—things are starting to look up.

Then the earthquake hits.

Quickly the story shifts from hooking up to trying to stay alive. Not only is crap falling from the sky due to the massive damage from the earthquakes but there’s roving packs of psychotic criminals loose on the streets of Santiago. Just like that the indie movie similar to director Nicolas Lopez previous works morphs quickly into an Eli Roth horror film. Love is a battlefield, as Pat Benatar once sang. Similar to the equally dark and creepy Kill List by Ben Wheatley, Aftershock is a film that sheds its romantic comedy skin quickly, seamlessly morphing into a disaster horror movie. It’s one helluva rope-a-dope move, Muhammad Ali would be proud.

After more aftershocks send our heroes in a desperate and wild search for safety, trouble begins to lurk in every corner. To make matters worse, they hear that the local prison has busted open sending hundreds of harden criminals into the melee. Nice. Now in addition to trying to survive falling chunks of buildings and freed criminals, they also need to hide from a pack of roving gang members with rape and pillage on their minds. Oh and if that’s still not enough? There’s tsunami warnings going off all over the city too. It just keeps getting better and better in Santiago. You go out for a night on the town and the whole damn world collapses all around you.

Aftershock offers a fresh take on some of the conventions of modern horror movies. The movie is both funny and frightening, which is no easy feat while it manages to ratchet up the tension as each of them must deal with the chaos and mayhem all around them. The movie sucks you in, forcing you to ask yourself  ‘What in the hell would I do in this situation?’ Try to stay alive. If you can. This is the Great Recession horror movie you’ve been waiting for, full of existential dread around every single corner.

Roth and Lopez want Aftershock to serve as a calling card for Chilewood—making low-budget movies under the radar in Chile where there’s not a lot of red-tape and regulations to slow down filming. Roth waxed enthusiastically about the experience of filming in Chile after the Colorado premiere of the film at the Stanley Film Festival. He said he’s already filmed another movie down there (The Green Inferno) using most of the same cast as Aftershock. He plans to film more movies down there while hopefully luring more filmmakers to join him.

They couldn’t have picked a better calling card for Chilewood than Aftershock.

The post AFTERSHOCK Brings Laughs and Terror to Chile appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

We of the Ladies Who Drink Book Club will read almost anything. Truly, we will dig deep into the depths of pop culture for a good book, as long as it promises to have an engaging storyline, draw us into the world of the novel, and keep us there. This month we read YA (“young adult” for those of you too old or stodgy to know) novel Delirium, hoping it would keep us turning pages—and have enough pretty language to satisfy the highbrows in us. Part of a trilogy, the last title of which was just released in February, Delirium might be a good book to pick up if you have a break or vacation coming up.

Delirium is narrated by a teenager named Lena, who (per Goodreads.com) “looks forward to receiving the government-mandated cure that prevents the delirium of love and leads to a safe, predictable, and happy life.” But a few months before her eighteenth birthday, when she would receive the cure, she falls head over heels. Soon she has to decide if she’s willing to give that up, or if she’s brave enough to defy the government.

A lot of people five-starred Delirium on Goodreads and Amazon (now, sadly, one and the same). And the Ladies nearly unanimously loved Before I Fall, an early pick by the same author. However, we didn’t feel the same way about Lauren Oliver’s second novel. As Coco said, “It was hard to believe it was her second novel, after she’d already written Before I Fall.” What we praised in her first effort was the characterization, emotional resonance, and carefully placed lyricism.

Delirium had two great characters in Hana and Alex, but unfortunately, Lena, the main character, didn’t seem real. It could be that the author wanted her to be an unlikely heroine, or maybe she just hadn’t fully figured Lena out (hopefully Lena gets fleshed out in books two and three). Also, Lauren Oliver has a talent for writing descriptively and poetically, but in this case, we think she overdid it. The drawn-out descriptions pulled us out of the story, and sometimes they were a tad corny or just didn’t work.

The Ladies were also a little disappointed in the storytelling itself. The novel sounds so exciting—but it doesn’t end up being as thrilling as it promises to be.

One last little note, Delirium might have been pitched in a way that made it lose its complexity. It sounds like it’s a novel about a world that bans passionate love. But really it’s a world that forbids all kinds of love, even between a parent and a child. While the first concept may be more intriguing initially, the second is actually more interesting, partially because it’s the kind of thing a government would do if it were trying to control its citizens. On that note, if the world itself had been a little more fleshed out, the threat might have seemed more pressing.

For libations, we chose Delirium, a beer from the Huyghe Brewery of Belgium, for obvious reasons—but also because beer is youthful, no? If you were to pour it into a red plastic cup (and horrify beer aficionados), you could pretend you were at one of the rebels’ wild parties.

The post Ladies Who Drink: Delirium appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

While we’re not ones to revel in the downward spiral that is Lindsey Lohan’s life, we are quite glad she at least appears not to remember she couldn’t sing in the first place.

Despite initial reports to the contrary, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are not getting a divorce. Sharon claims it was all just a misunderstanding. “I haven’t understood a word of Ozzy’s in over 5 years,” she said. “He even mumbles when he texts.”

Justin Vernon from Bon Iver has formed a new group called The Shouting Matches. As an embarrassing aside, is this reporter the only one to pronounce Bon Iver like it was Bon Jovi? That’s not just me, right? I wasn’t the only one, right? Oh, not you, you said it correctly the whole time? Fucking hipster douchebag. Speaking of hipsters…

Current favorite hipster band promo photo is here. Zooey Deschannel seen feverishly reaching for her phone.

Drug paraphernalia was recently found on Justin Bieber’s tour bus. Which is ironic because I thought all of his fans had to be on the pipe to find his music enjoyable.

Reader feedback time: Much like your conception, dear readers, the title for this column was a quick exchange in a dive bar. Bottom line, I am not in love with it. Got a better idea for the title? If so, drop me a line at CoconutRomanCoke@gmail.com. You will have the estimable honor of the column being named after your idea, while I take all the credit.

Speaking of Denver area dive bars, I was recently slumming with the commoners when someone played this old lost M Doughty gem on one of them Internet jukeboxes. Well played.

Attention all award show producers; there are good rock bands other than the Foo Fighters you can get to play your shows. Let’s give it a break and develop some new bands, eh?

A recent study revealed the Lumineers as this years winner of the prestigious Bands Loved This Year and Forgotten Next Year. A tour with the Decemberists is planned in the fall.

Mel B (of the 90s band Spice Girls) was named a judge on America’s Got Talent, leaving us to ask what the hell does this have to do with America or talent?

Saturday Night Live recently announced Kanye West will close out the season on May 18^th. As if we needed another reason not to watch SNL.

Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ is the most streamed song on Spotify. Apparently, people wanted to hear the same thing over and over ..one more time.

Contractors were recently called on an emergency basis to the Chris Martin/Gweneth Paltrow house. After hilariously being named the most gorgeous woman in the world by People magazine, contractors were taxed with the task of rebuilding the house to fit their two inflated heads.

And that is your Occasional Music News. From Donnybrook Manor, I am Coconut Roman Coke. Be sharp.

The post Occasional Music News appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

When choosing asparagus, I grab the smallest, most tender stalks I can find. The sweet peppers compliment the asparagus–which can have a slightly bitter flavor according to some–and when mixed inside a creamy risotto…I’m salivating! I want to make this dish again right now!

Spring Risotto With Asparagus & Sweet Peppers
–2 tsp olive oil, divided
–1 small shallot, diced
–1 cup arborio rice
–1 cup wine
–1 cup chicken broth
–1 oz. goat cheese
–1 bunch fresh asparagus, ends removed and stalks snapped into 2-inch long pieces
–4–5 small sweet peppers, roughly chopped
–black pepper

Heat a medium-sized saucepan on medium-high heat. Add 1 tsp of the olive oil and the shallot and sauté for a few minutes, until the shallot begins to get translucent. Add the dry arborio rice and stir for 1 minute before adding 1/2 cup of the wine. Stir regularly and as the rice absorbs the wine, add the other 1/2 cup of wine. Once the rice has absorbed the wine begin adding the chicken broth in 1/4 cup increments, stirring regularly and allowing the rice to absorb the broth before adding more.

While the risotto cooks, heat a small frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tsp of olive oil and the asparagus and peppers to the pan. Crack a healthy dose of black pepper over the veggies and sauté until tender, tossing regularly for even cooking.

When the veggies are done add them to the rice pot, stirring well to combine. Add the goat cheese and again stir well to melt the goat cheese and mix the creamy deliciousness into the risotto. Serve and top with more black pepper if desired!

The post Asparagus & Sweet Peppers: Delightful Match! appeared first on The Donnybrook Writing Academy.

Mud is a first-rate slice of Southern noir nestled along the muddy banks of the Mississippi. It is a fresh, 21st century slant on Huck Finn set in the recession days of ObamAmerica. The film examines the role of declining masculinity and how that impacts deteriorating relationship dynamics. This is writer/director Jeff Nichols’s third feature after Shotgun Stories (2007) and Take Shelter (2011). It continues his swift ascent to the ranks of the best working directors in the country right now.

The movie centers on two teenage kids–Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Brian Rolfland) who live down by the Mississippi River in rural small-town Arkansas. They discover a boat stuck up in a tree in a small island in the river. They are thinking up a plan to get the boat down when they discover someone has been living in the boat, using it like a hideout. That someone turns out to be Mud (Matthew McConaughey). Mud is hiding out on the island from some trouble and he quickly endears Ellis to help bring him some food. While Neckbone is skeptical of the whole thing at first, he gets swept up in the action with the allure of illicit fun being mighty tempting to a young teenage boy.

Things start to slowly spiral out of trouble as the boys learn that Mud is hiding out because he killed someone. Not just anyone, he killed a man who allegedly was beating up his special lady friend Juniper (Reese Witherspoon). When Juniper arrives in town so does the brother of the deceased along with a gaggle of redneck hitmen. The boys get caught up as they pass notes between Mud and Juniper while trying not to get caught again, as Ellis takes a solid punch to the face by the avenging brother, one of many fists being thrown around by the “men” in the movie.

At the core of the film are several strained male-female relationships. Ellis’s parents, Ellis Senior (Ray McKinnon) and Mary Lee (Sarah Paulson), are getting ready to split up and in a key argument Mary Lee delivers a withering comment that Senior never worked hard to provide for the family. Ouch. You have Mud and Juniper’s amor fou—they have been co-dependently attached since they were the same as age as the two boys—a common refrain heard from almost all of the adults towards the boys. Repeated so often by the adults that it serves as an elegiac lament on their own lost youths. You have the discussed relationship of the old loner Tom Blankenship (Sam Shepard) who lives just across the river from Ellis though he’s never talked to the old shut-in. Tom lost his wife a long time ago and he never recovered. He’s also rumored to be a “government assassin”, according to Mud, which is catnip to Ellis and Neckbone. Then there’s young Ellis’s stab at wooing an older blonde girl. It starts out wonderful then quickly disintegrates under peer pressure to give young Ellis his first taste of heartbreak—something his father warned him about.

The two boys work nearly round-the-clock to help Mud repair the boat so he can escape with Juniper. With all of the crumbled relationship around Ellis, he desperately wants to help Mud and Juniper escape so he can retain hope in love. He is also going to lose his house on the river in the divorce, as its his mother’s from her father and she’s spent her whole life there. She wants to move in town and get away from the river life, which is all she has known. Once she decides to move, the river house will be torn down in accordance with a government mandate to get the old shack houses free from the river. Watch out for the long tentacles of the government! Is it Obama? Or else the state government?  Either way it’s yet another indictment of the evil government coming to ruin your life. Ol’ Ronnie Raygun would be so proud of the shelf-life of his hateful meme he started.

The film moves towards its inevitable showdown as things heat up when the father of the deceased shows up, played by no other than Southern movie heavy Joe Don Baker. A nice tip of the cap from the Arkansas-born Nichols. It’s always a treat to see older actors who seem to have dropped off the planet like Baker since his heyday of walking tall and carrying a big stick. It’s almost a shame his part wasn’t bigger. The same could be said for Shannon—he was the lead in Nichols’ first two movies while here he plays a smaller role as Galen. That doesn’t mean you wouldn’t want to see more of him as his easy-going parenting style mixes well with his guitar playing and homemade aqua-lung excursions. Galen would be a great character to spin off into his own tv show.

Similar to Nichols’ other two films, Mud makes the most of every scene, excising flabby backstory and useless subplots. His script leaves no stone unturned by the end either, like the tagline for The Wire “All of the pieces matter.” Everything from an anecdote about a snake bite to the magical shirt Mud wears, it all matters. Solid acting by the adult characters add nicely to great performances that two teens give in the film. Brian Rolfland as Neckbone shows impeccable comedic timing in his role as Ellis’s BFF and conscience. Sheridan himself does a phenomenal job himself never straying into that Hollywood convention of the preternaturally smart kid who speaks in Zen koans with the wisdom of Confucius in all matters. He acts, talks and thinks like a young teen who is learning everything the hard way yet fighting very hard to keep up his hope that love is not dead.

This is a first-rate film, a must-see, gripping drama that draws you in slowly and won’t let you go.

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There’s just so little life in Horror cinema these days. The blood spurts long but lamely, beheadings ever-thoughtless, every new torture porn flick another cold cut from a half-dead genre that’s limped oh-so-far since it first thumped out of Dr. Caligari’s closet.  One of our staff members at Donnybrook reviewed the recent re-make of cult classic Evil Dead and noted there was actually laughter in the theatre, and at what I suspect was meant to be truly terrifying gore. I really think today most people go for the boobs.

On May 2^nd, however, a new bastion will be established in the fight for fright: cloaked in white, brooding in the mountains, and full of everything that’s not today’s craven horror monstrosities: The Stanley Film Festival, your new Colorado home for independent horror cinema.

As you might suspect, the name of the festival is also its location: The Stanley Hotel, and a more fitting location doesn’t exist. The 155-room complex has been a landmark of Estes Park since opening in 1909, but specifically a landmark of horror culture as the hotel that inspired Stephen King’s sinister Overlook Hotel in The Shining. Also, word has it the place is haunted (of course).

Over the festival’s four-day stretch, every corner of horror will be investigated with titles from all over the world, panels, student competitions, awards, and Q&As and appearances from filmmakers like Eli Roth and James DeMonaco. If pageantry doesn’t do it for you, take some time to go see some screenings anyway. First, because film festivals are an excuse to let out your inner movie nerd and drink in the middle of the afternoon. But second, because independent horror can be some of the most interesting, engaging, and fun film to watch. Horror by its nature is trying to catch you off-guard: surprise you, bend your mind, mess with your boundaries, and when the multi-million dollar budgets are removed, filmmakers automatically have to get creative to make that happen. The result, more often than not, is something like a good Manhattan: dark, definitely powerful, but with just a little bit of cherry sweetness at the bottom.

If you have the time, take a trip up to Estes next weekend. If you don’t have time, make some time and then go anyway. The Stanley Film festival might be brand new this year, but there’s no denying that it’s poised to become a frighteningly good fixture of the Colorado film scene.

The Stanley Film Festival runs from May 2–5, at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. Visit www.StanleyFilmFest.com for tickets, schedules, and more information.

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The new Tom Cruise sci-fi movie Oblivion recycles some sci-fi tropes and creates a villain that looks like the love-child of the HAL9000 & the alien sphere-thingy from Sphere. But like I said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes there does seem to be some serious pattern exhaustion in a lot of the sci-fi movies that Hollywood cranks out these days. It seems to be endemic of most of pop culture from fashion to music as well, with  remakes, sequels and reboots permeating everywhere. Oblivion manages to work within these confines to come up with a few nice twists and variations upon these to stay somewhat fresh. The film is another entrant into the dystopian cannon of Destroyed Earth Cinema (Blade Runner, I Am Legend, etc).

Oblivion’s back story is handled through the usual route of credit narration sequence. We learn that the Scavengers (Scavs) destroyed the Moon and almost destroyed the Earth too. We won the war but lost Earth. This was all roughly 60 years ago as the film is set in 2077. The humans had to flee Earth setting up shop on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Left on Earth are huge floating machines that are extracting water and resources the humans need on their new home. The humans have sent down small skeleton crews to watch over the extractors to keep them from being destroyed by the Scavs, who have been starting to increase their attacks.

Enter Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) as Tech 49, a drone repairman who lives in a base in the sky with his communications officer & romantic partner Victoria (Andrea Riseborough). Jack’s mission is to fix and repair all of the battle drones guarding the extractors from the remaining hordes of Scavs left on Earth. Their commander Sally (Melissa Leo) keeps in constant contact with them from a nearby space station making sure that the two of them remain an “effective couple” in their last two weeks before they head to Titan. Both Jack and Victoria have had their memories wiped, which we are led to believe so they can focus on their tasks guarding the resource extractors. The trouble is Jack keeps having a dream about a stunning brunette (Olga Kurylenko) whom he meets on top of the Empire State Building. These dreams haunt Jack but his wiped memory keeps him from piecing it all together.

One day Jack is out fixing a downed drone when he sees a small spaceship crash. When he goes over to investigate the crash he sees a handful of pods with humans in deep sleep. He stops dead in his tracks at the last pod—it contains the woman from his dreams, Julia. Jack manages to save her from being killed by the drones which are supposed to kill only Scavs yet it laid waste to the other 4 human survivors. When Julia comes to she knows Jack yet also she understands something is off about him. Now Victoria is upset that Jack is jeopardizing the last few days of the mission by bringing back Julia to their skypad. Needless to say, going much farther into the story would be wandering into Spoilersville. Let it be known that Morgan Freeman is in this picture, he’s right there on the one-sheet but one cannot dive to deep into his role without spoilers, so we shall stop right here.

Director Joseph Kosinski (TRON:Legacy) wrote the original graphic novel that the film is based from with Arvid Nelson. Kosinski did a good job of creating the world of Oblivion. The insect-like pod plane that Jack flies around is very cool with it’s 360 degree revolving cockpit. The sleek, modernist skypad even has a deluxe swimming pool to go with all of its minimal, modern furniture. (Side note—when seeing these shining sci-fi surfaces, one has to wonder what technologies were invented to keep them so clean.) Filming with a 4K camera setup and showing on IMAX really gives the film a startlingly level of detail and immediacy. It does tend to slowly wander through its narrative, a usual problem with a film, yet Oblivion doesn’t suffer from it. In fact as several of the film twists are revealed, the languorous pace allows one to ponder how the film is very drone-centered. Living in 2013 America one cannot escape the fact that the country is currently deploying drones all over the world in our quixotic Global War on A Feeling Called Terror.

Tom Cruise remains one of those movie stars who manages to make the audience forget all about his eccentricities and love of Scientology. You can say what you want about him but at least Cruise usually picks somewhat decent scripts and interesting directors. You don’t often find him in the aggressively brain-dead films like Transformers or GI:Joe. He is starting to give off the Casey Kasem vibe too as he mostly appears to be the same age as he was in Risky Business. Maybe those e-meters and Thetans are onto something. Go into the film to enjoy it for what it is, and ponder the usage of the drones.

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