Five Movies We Love Introducing to People

We're always running across movies we wish more of our friends have seen. (Hell, we're always running into movies we can't believe our friends haven't told us to see already!) Sometimes these movies fly under the radar because of studios lack of marketing skills, sometimes the wrong critics reviewed them, sometimes the films were marketed to the wrong audiences. But whatever the reason, we're always championing something, so here are five movies we're always suggesting people watch.


Housebound

This is one of those movies that starts in one genre and ends in another (see also Botched and Bone Tomahawk), and that makes it hard to recommend without giving stuff away. But over all, this is a comedy that ventures into coming of age, haunting, and horror. If you like movies like Shaun of the Dead, The Frighteners give this one a shot, likely you won’t be disappointed.




Attack the Block

We were lucky enough to catch a sneak preview for this one and we waited very excitedly for it to be released so we could take all our friends to see it! Unfortunately, it was only in one theater here for one week. So we waited way too long for it to come out for home viewing. It’s MADDENING that this flick didn’t get the audience it truly deserved. It's so much fun! It's reminiscent of the Goonies, but it's kids in a south London neighborhood saving their high-rise from an alien invasion. The casting is sublime considering the main stars are so young, plus it’s also John Boyega’s first feature flick!


The Guest

This is Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard’s latest film and it's sort of a modern take on The Hand That Rocks the Cradle mixed with the classic stalker/slasher films. Tension is drawn out over a pretty atmosphere and great character development making the action payoffs all the more intense. Or as another friend so succinctly put it, “it's fucking sexy”.

Detention

This was a film we almost turned off because we were hating it so much. But about half way through it clicked and we wanted to watch it all over again! As much meta mockery as it is embracing the things it's being cheeky about, it's another one of those “weird with heart” movies we keep loving. You'll catch nods to just about every teen movie under the sun in this horror/coming of age/high school love/time travel/body swapping movie, but they manage to keep a plot going through all the chaos and slick visuals.

Dredd

We showed this to a room full of people who had been burned by the Judge Dredd movie from the 90s, but it didn't take long into watching this one for those wounds to heal! Somehow this movie is intensely pretty and very gritty at once. Dredd is also similarly as all-action as the Raid, even taking place in a high-rise, though neither were aware of the other until their releases. And unlike other double-idea releases (Deep Impact and Armageddon for instance) these two hold their own as unique films likely because they just happened to have similar ideas at the same time, rather than having heard there was something in production and trying to rip it off.

Six Documentaries We Like

We love a good documentary. Unfortunately there are many documentaries out there that cover incredibly interesting subjects but fail spectacularly when it comes to narrative focus. Here are a few that we feel deliver on content as well as presentation!

American Movie:

This might be the quintessential 90s documentary. The filmmakers follow Wisconsin native Mark Borchardt on his futile quest to make a feature film called Northwestern. He's not a filmmaking novice, having made short films from an early age with a group of his closest friends, and he has endless support of friends and family, but he just can't seem to pull it together. The documentary covers three years of Mark's life and efforts, but even after the film is done this gem keeps on giving. The special features of the DVD include a commentary track featuring the two filmmakers Chris Smith and Sarah Price, as well as the two main stars Mark and Mike. It gives you an idea of what was going on from each side of the filming, and it's almost as good as the movie itself. Another choice special feature is the inclusion of the short film Coven that Mark manages to finish over the course of American Movie, despite himself.


Not Quite Hollywood:

Ozploitation filmmakers are some of the most gonzo people to walk the earth, but this isn't just a look into the world of guerrilla filmmaking of 1970s Australia, this also a surprisingly well structured documentary. Directors admit to things like firing live rounds at actors when effects budgets ran thin, a liquor soaked Dennis Hopper is declared dead, you meet Grant Page who's such an amazing stunt guy that Brian Trenchard-Smith made a movie solely to highlight his astounding feats. Seriously, if you love geeking out on movie stuff, watch this movie right now.

The King of Kong:

Some of the most enjoyable documentaries have clear cut villains and heroes, and King of Kong is no exception. The wild characters that inhabit the world of stand up-arcade record holders will blow your mind, but the best of the best is Billy Mitchell. He's likely not as bad as the filmmakers edit him to be, but there's no doubt that he's not as nice as he thinks he is. If you want to see a well made documentary featuring the live action Snidely Whiplash and Dudley Do-right battling each other for the high score in Donkey Kong, this is your jam.


Black Fish:

I do love a good soul crushing documentary, and this one is pretty much soul crushing from all angles. Not only an animal rights doc, it's also a pretty great peak into the ways the corporations brainwash their employees to believe whatever nonsense they want disseminated to the public. Though, unlike most corporation doublespeak, these people are putting their own lives in danger every time they don't question their bosses. It's mind boggling, it's soul crushing, it's the kind of documentary that leaves you questioning every aspect of your life for months, and that's a good thing.

Dark Days:

Now, despite the name, this is one of the most uplifting documentaries we've ever seen. It follows a community of homeless New Yorkers that build a temporary housing project from scrap and castoffs in an abandon subway. It will make you rethink your view homeless men and women, community building, community outreach, use of abandoned space, ownership, and documentary filmmaking in general (as the subjects of this film are also the principle crew). If you only watch one film on this list, make it this one. (And then all the rest...)

Jodorowsky's Dune:

We've seen this movie almost as many times as we've seen American Movie, and the stories have some strong parallels. Namely, each film is about a man on a quest to make a film, and each man grandly fails. But where Mark Borchardt works towards a selfish goal and is his own undoing, Alejandro Jodorowsky inspires everyone around him to produce their best work, making their collective failure a particularly crushing one. Though, through the failure of Jodorowsky's Dune many wonderful and influential films were born so it's hard to reasonably assess what would have been better for the cinematic world. If Jodorowsky's Dune was made and turned out to be a box office failure, would there be a Star Wars or Alien? Likely not in the forms we know them today.

Bonus movies!

Casting By:

A nice little documentary we found on Netflix one night that blew our minds. Some of the most influential and iconic American films were all casted by the same two people. But for many years, casting was looked at as an inconsequential element in filmmaking and casting agents weren't even given credits. It's the kind of movie you should watch if you want to be amazed (the same woman did the casting for Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, The Lost Boys, Batman, Full Metal Jacket and Lethal Weapon) and angry (when filmmakers banded together to get the Academy to give Marion Dougherty an honorary Oscar, she did not receive one). 

Also, watch any Errol Morris documentary. We like Thin Blue Line, Mr Death, and Tabloid, but we can't imagine there are bad ones...

Second Clue: February's Screening

Clue #2: The stars of this movie became last min stunt coordinators while filming a scene involving a man on fire.
Tape Freaks Presents: February 3rd Mystery Movie! at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, Feb 3rd at 7:00pm, only $5! Purchase advance ticket here.

Our top three Marvel Cinematic Universe releases.

We're fans of the Marvel Universe, it's not a secret. And since there's so much in that universe now, we've got our top three favs and they all overlap.

The 2 & 3 slot:
Iron Man 3 & Captain America: Winter Solder

Both of these films feature heroes digging deeper into their humanity. Both are filled with great characters and action. It's really hard for us to decide which of these is our favorite. Cap' has the A-FREAKING-MAZING elevator fight scene, Iron Man has Robert Downey Jr spouting Shane Black dialogue in the best possible ways. Winter Solder has the best use of both Black Widow and Nick Fury thus far, Iron Man makes use of female characters in an action setting in some pretty important ways.Winter Solder has the best car chase scene ever, Iron Man has an epic battle using all the suits in Tony's arsenal. Winter Solder introduces Falcon, Iron Man gives War Machine Iron Patriot the screen time he deserves. It's hard to put one ahead of the other. But today when you ask us, Tim likes Winter Solder more and I'm all about Iron Man 3...

Our number one:
Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones has so many of our favorite things in one thing, it's impossible for it not to be our top pick. None of the characters are clear cut good or bad. They actually take the time process the inexplicable things that happen to them, or if they don't they suffer for it. There's a good amount of balance in each character, even the clear cut villain. The story is fresh, the motivations are believable, the acting is fantastic. We really only came away with one complaint: it's not shot as well as Daredevil. But that's sort of it. It's not perfect, but the flaws don't stand out from one moment to the next (with the one exception). Every character brings something fantastic to the plot, each episode moves the story along, each episode is more intense than the last. It's basically a modern hard boiled detective noir story. Netflix had a pretty solid start with Daredevil (also great) and Jessica Jones blew that straight out of the water, hopefully that carries through to Luke Cage.

Five Movies We Like That Came Out This Year.

We are really bad at seeing movies in the theater, this year in particular because we saw Mad Max in the theater eight times... But we still managed to see a few great flicks as they came out, here's five we liked in no particular order.

Mad Max: Fury Road:

We saw Mad Max so many times not only because it's an exceptionally great action movie to see in the theater, but also because the story is almost seamless. There are leaps you have to make as a viewer (as there are with any film) but every time we watched it something else we'd wondered was answered plainly in the film. By the time we had seen it the fourth time I was discovering things I never wondered in the first place. (For instance, Furiosa bodice is made from same material as the clothes of the women she's saving, making it likely their back stories are similar.) And, unlike most action movies (or movies in general), every word of dialogue is important in some way, you'll never see another action movie where so little dialogue holds so much importance. Nor will you see so many hand built cars smashed in so many glorious ways on camera! So much

Bone Tomahawk:

We rented this one knowing very little about it and boy were we glad we took a chance! Bone Tomahawk starts as one kind of film and shifts gears towards the end (like Botched or Housebound) making it a pretty great slow burn western with an unflinching horror movie payoff. Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins give amazing performances with some of the best dialogue and chemistry we've seen in a horror movie since Cabin in the Woods. This is one of those movies that we're going to be making sure our movie-fan friends have seen for some time to come.

Ex Machina:

We missed this one in theaters because we were too busy seeing Mad Max, and I regret nothing! Ahem. While very good, it was not necessary to see in a theater setting (to be fair, we have a projector in our living room so we did see it “up on a big screen”). Not to say this film wasn't pretty great, because it totally was. Beautifully shot, blocked, scored and acted, it was certainly one of those films that offered a different perspective on not only on the genre, but how scifi movies are presented as well. Artificial intelligence films usually take place in densely urban futuristic settings, not in lush secluded locations with a cast of four. It's the same simplicity that Primer calls to the time travel genre, but much prettier.

Turbo Kid:

Turbo kid is one of those weird-with-heart movies (Kung Fury, Rubber or any Quentin Dupieux movie) and we liked it! It's fun but very dark, and certainly not a kid's movie. Filled with nods to 80s pop culture, both through the scavenging efforts of the characters and plot development. It's like watching a movie from the future about a past that could have been, if the filmmakers were only drawing from 80s cult movies. The plot is simple and heart warming, the setting is dystopian, and the ending will leave you feeling the same as the end of Pretty in Pink. (Totally not a spoiler, just watch it!)

Finders Keepers:

We love documentaries like American Movie or King of Kong, and Finders Keepers fits into that category nicely. Basically about a man who lost his leg in a plan crash, and then lost the mummified leg in a storage locker auction. Actually though, it's about the trajectories of two men's lives and how something so strange winds up changing them for better and worse. It's as insanely fascinating to watch their lives change, as much as it is fascinating to watch two dudes fight over a gross leg!







Bonus movies we liked: Deathgasim & Final Girls

Deathgasim is a fun little movie about death metal, conjuring the devil and friendship with fresh takes on all counts. It was also pretty satisfying to watch because it delivers on all the fronts we wished Troma films would.

Final Girls takes meta horror and turns it straight on it's ear. They “flip the script” on several tropes making it a pleasing watch for any horror fan. Both movies are fun, both have flaws, but both are worth looking into if they sound like your bag! (Though Final Girls might be the only one of the two of them that will get more than one viewing from us.)

First Clue: February's Screening

Clue #1: The theme for February's screening is, Welcome to Tape Freaks!

We're using this months theme as an excuse to write about movies we like mostly because the movie we've chosen doesn't easily fit into a theme, but also because why not! We'll be making list posts all month leading up to our Feb 3rd screening so stay tuned!

Tape Freaks Presents: February 3rd Mystery Movie! at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, Feb 3rd at 7:00pm, only $5! Purchase advance ticket here.

Change can be good!

With our move to the Trylon there are changes afoot! The biggest two: screenings are now on the first Wednesdays of each month, and we will no longer be able to give away posters.

We loved handing out posters at each of our screenings but the money for that came from the Mall of America so, with the move, we lost our poster budget. But never fear! We've devised a plan to keep posters (and more) in the mix!

First option: You can purchase perks at the screenings! We'll be selling whatever perk Tim designs and produces for each screening at the theater. He's got plans for posters, teeshirts, hats, a grab bag and much more... You'll also be able to purchase past posters and perks through Tim's brand new Storenvy shop!

Second option: You can join our newly minted Membership Club! You'll get an exclusive variant* of each perk offered at the first six screenings at a discounted rate! Plus, you'll receive a bonus mystery perk at the July screening, a rad membership card, and an exclusive discount on all posters in Tim's Storenvy shop. Memberships will be available through Tim's Storenvy shop from now until our first screening on Feb 3rd.

Not so horrible, right? New night, new fun stuff, Memberships to exclusive clubs... it's like a fairy tale come true!


*with the exception of the first screening's perk