M. Scot's Movie Talk
Going back underground to find a gem
Opinion by M. Scot Skinner
skinner@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.05.2009
Do you people have any idea what I go through for you?
I watched every minute of "The Vampire and the Rabbi" because it was made by a Tucson couple and because this column tries to keep it local.
After all, you don't need me to tell you about "Disney's A Christmas Carol." But who else is going to fill you in about a screening of Howard Allen's "Se Habla Español," a short tone poem about helping others and being nice at Christmas time? I figured you'd want to know if a Tucsonan made a good movie. Details about this one are included below anyway.
And because I try to focus on film events happening here, I settled in on Sunday night with a few movies from the Arizona Underground Film Festival, which continues through Saturday at the Screening Room, the Crossroads and the Loft Cinema.
Sure, I could have cut and pasted the plot descriptions, typed "according to the festival's Web site" and called it good.
But I could hardly write that "Someone's Knocking at the Door" is a "genre-defying grind-house throwback," according to the festival's Web site, without adding that it's also an incoherent, annoying mess that gives underground moviemaking a bad name.
It's not the depraved behavior or unattractive nakedness or the blood or the body count that bothered me. No, the biggest grossout was the acting, directing and writing. It screens at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Crossroads Cinema.
Removing the foul thing from my DVD player, my thoughts turned to David Pike, the director of the second annual Underground Festival. If this film was deemed worthy of a spot in the festival, beating out most of the 300 films submitted this year, can you imagine the tedium he must have endured in recent weeks and months?
Strangely encouraged to press on, I popped in the next one, a grimy exploitation flick with a title exactly like "Run, Lola, Run!" except for the Lola part. It screens at 9:30 tonight at the Screening Room.
But unlike that breathless German treasure from 1998, this "Run" walks the line between dull and duller. It's an unintelligible hodgepodge of images that never threatens to mean anything.
After enduring these two examples of underground cinema so that you don't have to, the multiplex has never looked so inviting. Surely "The Men Who Stare at Goats" would be more worthwhile than what was up next at my house: A documentary about the men and women who star in porn.
But "9 to 5 Days in Porn" turns out to be a first-rate documentary that's full of absurd human drama. Expertly constructed to reveal virtually every aspect of the unsavory adult entertainment industry, it's surprisingly insightful and hard-edged (and explicit).
Directed by Jens Hoffman, it screens at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Screening Room.
The festival's schedule also includes a screening of Rob Zombie's 2005 thriller "The Devil's Rejects" on Saturday at the Loft. Cult star William Forsythe will sign autographs and answer questions following the 8 p.m. screening. Tickets are $8.
Admission is $6 for the other films in the festival.
For a complete schedule and more information about the fest, go to www.azundergroundfilmfest.com
More on Howard Allen's film
The short film "Se Habla Español," written and directed by Howard Allen, will be shown at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Crossroads Cinema, 4811 E. Grant Road.
The filmmakers, cast and crew are expected. Tickets are $8.
Contact M. Scot Skinner at 573-4119 or skinner@azstarnet.com
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