Indie Picks: At The Movies This Weekend
True Legend (Alamo South Lamar)
Yuen Woo Ping hasn't directed a film since 1996, but his groundbreaking fight choreography has been featured in movies like The Matrix, Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This film was picked up by newcomers Indomina Releasing after Fantastic Fest last year, and this weekend it becomes their first theatrical release.
It's rare to get to see this kind of film on the big screen these days, and True Legend delivers for kung fun fans. Even those weary of subtitles shouldn't fear because there are multiple extended fight scenes with little to no dialogue. In fact, the movie sets up the basic story in the opening credits and then leaps right in to its first action sequence without delay.
Leads Vincent Zhao and Andy On clearly have a lot of fun with their over-the-top fight scenes, and there are even guest appearances by Michelle Yeoh and the late David Carradine. Some of the shots are a little gimmicky because the movie was released with 3D sequences in China, but this movie is a lot of ridiculous fun and recommended for genre fans.
Also playing:
Hesher (Alamo South Lamar)
Spencer Susser's Hesher played the festival circuit for quite some time (its stops included Sundance 2010 and SXSW 2011), and even with a cast that includes Joseph Gordon Levitt, Natalie Portman and Rainn Wilson, it struggled to find a theatrical distributor.
This weekend it finally goes into release, and it comes with high praise from the Alamo Drafthouse's Tim League, who says "We rarely get to see movies as fresh and interesting as HESHER in cinemas today. The film is both wildly out-of-control hysterical while at the same time being a very powerful essay on coping with loss. Spencer Susser is a fabulous new talent, and I encourage all of you to hop on that train and check out HESHER."
Everything Must Go (Regal Arbor, Violet Crown Cinema)
Comedian Will Ferrell has tried over the years to balance out his blockbuster films with more personal work. He proved his acting chops in Stranger Than Fiction and Woody Allen's Melinda & Melinda. Now, he's back with an indie film based on a short story by Raymond Carver (whose work was also the basis of Robert Altman's magnificent Short Cuts).
Forks Over Knives (Regal Arbor)
This documentary about going vegan “examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the so-called ‘diseases of affluence’ that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods” according to the film's website.
A Serbian Film (Alamo South Lamar)
One of the most notorious releases in recent memory, A Serbian Film arrives in theaters in a version that has been slightly edited from its original festival screenings and still carries an NC-17 rating. Harry Knowles over at AICN put the movie on his Top 10 of 2010 list and has defended it as a movie that deserves to be seen.
While we haven't yet had a chance to catch it, we've followed the controversy enough to know that it's not for the squeamish. In fact, part of the reason that the film's theatrical release has been altered is because a film festival director in Spain was brought up on child pornography charges after the movie was screened in Barcelona last fall.
For now, the movie is only playing once each night, with 10 or 10:35 p.m. screenings at South Lamar. It probably goes without saying that no one under 18 will be admitted.
