Movie Review: Sony Pictures Classics' Dark Horse

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DARK HORSE
Directed by: Louise Osmond
Release Date: 5/20 @ Sundance Cinemas Houston
MPAA Rating: PG
Runtime: 85 mins

Set in a former mining village in Wales, DARK HORSE is the inspirational true story of a group of friends from a working men's club who decide to take on the elite 'sport of kings' and breed themselves a racehorse. Raised on a slagheap allotment, their foal grows into an unlikely champion, beating the finest thoroughbreds in the land, before suffering a near fatal accident. Nursed back to health by the love of his owners - for whom he's become a source of inspiration and hope - he makes a remarkable recovery, returning to the track for a heart-stopping comeback.

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I didn’t know that Dark Horse was a documentary.  It’s my fault.  I should read my materials closer.  Not that it matters.  It’s just that documentaries are few and far between for me.  I was drawn to the picture of a horse on the movie poster.  I'm glad the movie poster got my attention. Dark Horse was a great documentary.  It is the kind of movie that makes me love screening movies.  I have to see a lot of stones to find the gems.  Dark Horse is definitely one of the rare gems that I was glad I stumbled upon. 

Dark Horse documents the story of a bunch of underdogs.  The subjects of the story, the Vokes and the Davies, are an entirely charming group of people that, for every indication, did not belong in the regal sport of horse racing.  I loved the unassuming, self-deprecating nature of the dialogue.  Sometimes, the talk was funny.  At one point Mr. Vokes made reference to the fact that his teeth were in a jar, instead of his mouth.  Sometimes, the talk was frank and a bit painful.  Mrs. Vokes made mention of the unpleasant looks she received from professional horse breeders and racers.  Whether it was light or heavy, the dialogue was real.  I appreciated that the subjects of the film wore the their perceived position in the community as a badge of honor.

The film felt like it started a bit slow.  In the moment, I remember I wanted to see the horse run.  By the end, I appreciated the pace of the film.  It has the same build-up that I imagine the sport of horse racing to have.  Most of horse racing seems like background.  It takes a long time for the horses to prepare to run a few laps around a track.  I only learned that from watching the movie.  The subjects of the film worked for years and faced obstacles in the hopes that they would achieve their dream.

The race footage looked great on the big screen.  These are not horse races that I would have known anything about before the film, so I was engaged in the outcome of each. I would have appreciated even more race footage, but Dark Horse isn’t only about horses or races, it’s about people and events.  It is in the people and the events that the audience finds the film’s relatability.  It is also what raised this movie from just good to genuinely enjoyable.

I enjoyed the positive message of the film.  It’s never a bad thing to see people willing to tackle adversity in order to achieve a dream.  The bigger the dream, the harder the work.  That’s the very nature of dreams.  I think the message is great for families.  There isn’t a single four letter word or off-color comment in the whole ninety minutes.  Sports families will especially enjoy the “never quit” message.  I brought my own children to the screening, and they loved it.  You will have to seek it out, if you want to catch it in theaters.  Dark Horse is in limited release now.  It opens nationally on May 20.

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Movie Review: The Orchard's Finders Keepers

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Finders Keepers

SYNOPSIS: When his amputated leg is discovered in a grill sold at a North Carolina auction, John Wood finds himself at the center of a worldwide media frenzy. Believing the new-found attention to be his chance at doing some great things in an otherwise disappointing, wayward life, he's quickly swept up in the hysteria as the leg's enterprising buyer, Shannon Whisnant, then sues to regain its custody. But the stranger-than-fiction chain of events, fueling John’s drug addiction and compounded by generations of his familial dysfunction,soon sets John on the streets and heading to his certain demise. Just in time, however, another twist in these fantastical occurrences gives John a final shot at becoming whole for the first time in his life.

Directed by BRYAN CARBERRY CLAY TWEEL
Distributor: The Orchard
Release Date: September 25, 2015 in NY & LA; October 2, 2015 theatrical expansion and VOD
Directed by: Bryan Carberry, Clay Tweel Documentary Featuring: Shannon Whisnant, John Wood
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Twitter: www.twitter.com/LegInGrill
Facebook: www.facebook.com/finderskeepersdocumentary
FINDERS KEEPERS opens this Friday, October 2nd at Alamo Drafthouse Vintage Park

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When I sat down to watch this week’s Finders Keepers, I didn’t know anything about it. I hadn’t seen a trailer nor read any synopsis. That almost never happens. I sat down to watch it without any preconceived notions.

The first few minutes seemed interesting. It’s filmed documentary style. The back story seemed hilarious. A man has a leg amputated and he decides to keep the amputated leg as a memorial. But the memorial goes awry when the leg is sold at auction, inside of an outdoor grill.

Right after the back story was set-up, I realized Finders Keepers isn’t actually about an amputated leg. I’m not in for hilarity and hijinks's involving a leg. It’s a statement movie. It’s actually about the lengths that people will go to for fame. It’s really about self-destruction and addiction. It’s about strained family dynamics. And, in the end, Finders Keepers is about redemption, so I almost had to recommend that everyone rush out to see it. Almost.

I had more than a couple of issues with this film. If you decide to see it in a theater or on VOD, do so at your own risk. It would be best if you wait for this to pop-up on one of your subscription services, like Netflix, so that you’re not out anything for having watched it.

It bored me. After the first few minutes, the film shows a series of interviews. I listened to the same interview three times, from three different people. First, you hear someone say they have a drug issue. Then, someone else says that first person has a drug issue. Then, yet another person says the first person has a drug issue. The same thing happened with the leg as memorial segment. Two or three interviews all repeated the same story, using the same words.

And it depressed me. The greatest achievement of one of the players is to be the “foot man.” That’s it. And because being the foot man is his greatest accomplishment/claim to fame, he will go to great lengths to preserve his status as the foot man. Sad. Everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame, and some, like the foot man, can’t cope if they don’t get theirs.

I didn’t like the camera work. Finders Keepers looks out-dated. Felt like someone set-up the camera and walked away. It looked more like an old episode of a television news magazine than modern cinema art.

That said, it wasn’t all bad. If you can wade through all of my issues, the messages are very thought-provoking. I enjoyed the story of redemption; the feel that anyone can turn their life around at any point is great. It just took too much effort to get there. Don’t take my word on it. Make your own mind up about this one. Finders Keepers has a theatrical release on October 2nd and will soon be available in VOD.

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Movie Review: A24's AMY

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AMY

Directed By: Asif Kapadia
Produced By: James Gay-Rees
Release Date: July 3, 2015 (NY & LA), July 10, 2015 (Nationwide)
Running Time: 128 minutes
Rating: R for language and drug material

Official Sites: Web | Facebook

From BAFTA Award-winning director Asif Kapadia (SENNA), AMY tells the incredible story of six-time Grammy-winner Amy Winehouse – in her own words. Featuring extensive unseen archival footage and previously unheard tracks, this strikingly modern, moving and vital film shines a light on the world we live in, in a way that very few can.

A once-in-a-generation talent, Amy Winehouse was a musician that captured the world’s attention. A pure jazz artist in the most authentic sense – she wrote and sung from the heart using her musical gifts to analyze her own problems. The combination of her raw honesty and virtuosity resulted in some of the most unique and adored songs of the modern era.

But her massive success resulted in relentless and invasive media attention, which coupled with Amy’s troubled relationships and precarious lifestyle, saw her life tragically begin to unravel, resulting in her untimely death in July 2011 at the age of 27.

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Amy a documentary based on the talented and tragic life of Amy Winehouse, a British music icon who died too young. This is a true documentary. As far as I could tell, none of the film was scripted. There are no actors. The film follows her rise to stardom and her brief life.

The film starts on a grainy piece of footage from Amy's youth. She is singing to the camera, and, basically being a teenager. It should be noted that when I write about a celebrity, I refer to them by their last name. I will say "Paccino" or "Witherspoon", or something of the like. I mean to imply respect. I don't know any of them. Amy Winehouse, I'm going to call Amy because after the film, I almost feel like I know her. And that is what is so moving about Amy. It will draw you in, introduce you to Amy (and her demons), and it will take her away. So, I'm calling her Amy.

As I was saying, the film starts with grainy camcorder footage from Amy's youth. There will be some grainy footage throughout the film. Don't let that bother you. It adds to the rawness of it. Amy wasn't being filmed for a documentary about her life, it just happens to be the digital age. There are cameras everywhere. Her life was captured by cell phone video, camcorder, backstage cameras or paparazzi lenses. All of it made the film, in varying degrees.

After a few snippets of Amy's youth, the film does the necessary job of introducing all of characters in Amy's life. You will meet her friends, her father, her ex-husband and celebrities who worked with Amy. Like a traditional fictional film, there are heroes and villains. You can decide where each of the characters fit.

Through the different characters, and through Amy's words, the film shows the many wrong turns she took. It seemed that every time she could have saved herself, she ran in the opposite direction. When she was alive, I didn't follow Amy much. It seemed like the only stories that made the news and the only images shown of her involved some self-destruction. I didn't want to see that. The film opened my mind as to the causes of her behavior.

It was very sad. Amy wasn't just a drug addict and an alcoholic, she was a wounded soul. And you will be able see it all, right up to her death, on the big screen.

I appreciated the intimacy. I appreciated that there was little narrative. I appreciated that no one told me who the heroes and who the villains were, so I could choose.

The music sounded wonderful in the theater. I had forgotten her wonderful sound. Largely, I had forgotten Amy. This film does a tasteful and respectable job of bring her back. I highly recommend it. If you ever loved her music, or if you used to tune her out as I did, you will still appreciate this compressing look at Amy. Don't take my word for it, rediscover Amy for yourself when it opens on July 10.

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