Indie Picks: At The Movies This Weekend
Hobo With A Shotgun (Alamo Ritz)
Director Jason Eisener won a Grindhouse trailer contest at SXSW in 2007 with his clip for Hobo With A Shotgun. Like Machete before it, Hobo now leaps to the big screen as an outrageously violent full-length feature. Rutger Hauer takes on the role of the title character with a perfectly weathered face and expressive ice blue eyes.
In the spirit of classic exploitation films, this Canadian production pulls out all the stops for genre fans. The RED digital camera system allows the film to fill the screen with candy-colored hues even in its most bleak moments. This festival favorite is undeniably brutal and blood-soaked, but if you're sold by the title, we sincerely doubt that you'll be disappointed.
Meek's Cutoff (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema)
When you look at the reviews of Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff online, you'll see that it's been almost unanimously praised. We're unsure if all of these critics saw the same outrageously boring and glacially-paced movie that we did at Austin Film Festival last fall.
This is basically the old "Oregon Trail" video game come to life. Michelle Williams, who was wonderful in Reichardt's Wendy & Lucy, leads a cast of fine actors who aren't given much more to do than look dusty and thirsty for 100+ tedious minutes.
The cinematography, shot in the old 4X3 Academy ratio of 1.33:1, is one of the film's genuine highlights. If the first 30 minutes goes by and you aren't entranced by what is happening on the screen, cut your losses. Nothing that happens as the film goes on is going to change your mind or make the experience more enjoyable.
The Beaver (Regal Arbor)
After its World Premiere at SXSW was met with mixed reviews, Jodie Foster's latest film started to look like even more of a gamble for Summit Entertainment. It's not that long ago when a film with Foster and Mel Gibson as the leads would have been box office gold, but this one is going to take a bit more finesse to reach a wider audience.
While The Hollywood Reporter said that the film is "a risky bet that pays off solidly," Roger Ebert argued that the film "is almost successful, despite the premise of its screenplay, which I was simply unable to accept." We were unable to catch the film during SXSW and, despite our love of Jodie Foster, aren't really sure that we're rushing to check it out anytime soon. The distributor is opening The Beaver on just 22 screens across the country this weekend, so only time will tell if this has the potential to be Gibson's comeback or not.
