Bruce Faulk rewrote a scene from Game of Thrones where a Colorized version of Tywin and Jaime Lannister work to resurrect Khal because he was the only non-white major character.  (By Colorized we mean Black and Asian folks playing the Lannisters.)  It’s a spoof of this Game of Thrones scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47MazYDnmaU

Memorable Minorities has launched!  Check out the first episode, “No” to Yesterday, in which our hosts in a futuristic society give us a tour of racial archetypes in movies from the past.

“No” To Yesterday is written by Melody Cooper and stars Melody Cooper and Benton Greene (yes, our star from The Battle Below!). Directed by Bruce Faulk and produced by Bruce Faulk and Caroline Ceniza-Levine. Steve Gladstone is DP, and Joel Sterns on Sound.

I had read a good review of Breathe In, so was excited to see it come up on the NY Film Society calendar. Oh well. The acting is good, even if the plot unfolds like a story my 12-year old would make up. Cue the excitable, tween voice: …and then an exchange student comes for the summer and she’s gorgeous…and then the dad has an affair with her…and then his daughter sees them together…and then the daughter gets into a car accident… The movie is as ridiculous as it sounds. Of course, the mom/ wife in all of this has no character development except snippy put-downs of her husband (to justify the affair no doubt). If I wanted to see yet another movie where the negligent wife ends up looking even worse than the philandering husband who actually sets in motion the disastrous turn of events, I’d pick Blue Jasmine just because the acting is more fun. I love Guy Pearce, but even he couldn’t save this movie.

Veronica Mars, on the other hand, (also courtesy of the NY Film Society) was loads of fun. I hadn’t seen the TV series, but this movie made me want to see it. And isn’t that the point? Cross-selling is good for all businesses. I was a bit distracted by how much the romantic lead, played by Jason Dohring, reminded me of Dana Carvey. But if you can get past that, it’s a fun movie to watch.

On my Netflix viewing schedule were three films on death:

Leave with Bryan Cranston and Ron Livingston is good marketing and good editing. It’s a thriller about a guy with recurring nightmares who meets a drifter who may be his presumed-dead brother. I can’t really say more than that without spoiling it.

I say good editing because it is a tight, under 90-minute film. I say good marketing because it is not a Bryan Cranston and Ron Livingston film. Cranston has a tiny cameo in the beginning, and Livingston appears intermittently for minutes at a time. Clearly, the people behind this film knew that browsers like me wouldn’t stop for an unknown film with unknown actors. But I saw Cranston and Livingston and decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did because while the film stars its writers, Rick Gomez and Frank John Hughes, they carry it well. It’s a good dark film and worth a space on your Netflix queue.

A Late Quartet is an example of a film that I am surprised gets made. I loved it – don’t get me wrong. But I’m a musician trained at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, so a film about a longtime string quartet whose team lead gets a career-ending diagnosis of Parkinson’s is going to resonate with me. One could argue that the string quartet piece is just a vehicle for the various themes the movie covers – death, close friendships, parenting, love. But still, it’s a pretty specific vehicle, and the musician’s life is a looming character in this movie.

That said, if you love drama and good acting, this movie features Christopher Walken, Catherine Kenner, and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in a beautiful, understated performance. If you want to celebrate Hoffman’s good acting, this is a good film to watch. Rest In Peace: Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The Dinosaur Project is lots of fun. It’s Jurassic Park light – shorter (I’m loving these 90-minute running times!), with unknown actors, and no real storyline, just dinosaur after dinosaur after dinosaur. I loved every minute of it.

Why am I listing it with Leave and A Late Quartet? I assume everyone dies in this one – you don’t see the fates of every last character, but when you’re stuck in a time warp with dinosaurs, I’m just playing the percentages to assume death all-around. This is an action adventure take on death starring dinosaurs (as it should be).

On my watchlist this week were two very different live events: comedy, documentary and The Battle Below screens at The Anthology Film Archives.

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain wasn’t the laugh-out-loud set I expect from Hart, one of my favorite comics. I appreciated  his opening, as he took viewers around the world to see the different stops on his 2012 comedy tour – I didn’t realize he had such global appeal. I also appreciated how he opened up about his divorce (why are all the successful comics divorced? I’m praying for Jim Gaffigan.) but in a tasteful, respectful way.

Still the laughs were few and far between for me on this set, and for that I would say this one can be skipped. HOWEVER, there is a bit at the end, after the show is over, when Hart thanks his audience at Madison Square Garden and talks about how it’s a dream come true for him to play the Garden. He tears up and gets emotional and it’s a beautiful thing to watch. For that alone, I would add this to your Netflix queue.

The Battle Below showed at the latest NY WIFT screening series on March 18. The Anthology Film Archives has a beautiful theatre, and I was so grateful to see our little short play on a big screen.

Paired up with our film was a documentary by Primavera Ruiz, Ana and I, a fascinating look at a big, mixed family with a very colorful matriarch. This film features a world champion equestrian vaulting team (I didn’t even know gymnastics on horseback was a sport but there it is!), a touching family reunion in Equatorial Guinea, and a serial entrepreneur for a mom, so it has something for everyone. It’s a touching film, and I was happy to have been paired with it.

In the theater, courtesy of the NY Film Society, I checked out Enemy and Non-Stop:

Enemy with Jake Gyllenhaal is about a nondescript professor whose life irrevocably changes when he sees his exact lookalike in a bit part in a film and tracks him down to confront him. I am a creature feature fan, and I suppose this film has some of that with a spider playing a symbolic role throughout the film. I’ll leave it at that so as not to spoil too much. The movie kept me curious while it unfolded, and that was the best part. That said, I can’t tell you more about the spider because I didn’t get it.

I did not get this movie so even while it kept me interested – why do they look exactly alike down to a birthmark? Why are the doubles so unhappy about this rather than celebrating a cosmic connection? Why does Jake Gyllenhaal always seem to meet a doomed end? – I was ultimately unsatisfied because I felt none of my questions were answered. This film is a reteaming of director Denis Villeneuve and actor Gyllenhaal since Prisoners, another dark, moody movie with an all-too understandable plot. I’d love to see these two team up more but with something in the middle – not too formulaic like Prisoners, and not too inaccessible like Enemy.

Non-Stop is a good popcorn flick for the modern era. When texting plays a central character in a film, you know our lives are undeniably digital.

You really can’t go wrong with Liam Neeson playing a troubled tough guy with a good heart and Julianne Moore playing an everywoman who happens to be gorgeous and therefore a potential love interest. The film meets its requisite diversity quota with Lupita Nyong’o playing a flight attendant without much to do, and another black actor playing the computer geek (of course, because Transformers did that too).

This is a movie that probably should just be a SyFy movie of the week, except at $50,000,000 (as estimated on IMDB) it’s too rich for TV. But that’s ultimately what it feels like – an adventure TV movie of the week. Perhaps, they could have put Samuel L. Jackson in the title role and revealed that the perpetrator was actually a snake, and then we could have a nice mash-up, double feature.

We’re excited that The Battle Below will be screening as part of the NY Women In Film and Television Screening Series on March 18, 7p ET. For full information and tickets, visit this link: http://www.nywift.org/article.aspx?ID=4963#EventInformation

Both Bruce and I will be on hand for Q&A after the screening. The screening will take place at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave at 2nd Street.

Please let us now if you’ll be there so we can look for you before or after the screening!

After cramming in so many live screenings at theaters in the run up to the SAG Awards, it’s refreshing to curl up on the couch and tackle my Netflix queue. In keeping with the FBC Films target genres, I watched a creature feature, horror film and a thriller recently.

Blackfish is absolutely a creature feature, though it’s a documentary on a serious issue – the treatment of killer whales at water shows, particularly Seaworld. Details of how killer whales are captured and treated are heartbreaking. Footage of the attacks on trainers and details from eyewitness, medical reports and victims’ family and friends capture the tragedy and horror, without being too graphic or sensationalist. Being a fan of the creature feature, I was anxious to see Blackfish given the buzz. I was not disappointed and totally sucked in, though it’s definitely heavy on the side of blaming Seaworld. Seaworld responds on its own site and has an interesting rebuttal from one of the trainers featured in Blackfish who feels he was quoted incorrectly.

Devil is a tight 90-minute horror film about 5 people stranded on an elevator, one of whom is the devil. The story is by M. Night Shyamalan, but I had’nt heard of this 2010 film till it popped up on my Netflix – oh well. I was glad I watched it. I am an easy audience and love satanic horror movies in general. It was fun watching how Chris Messina is a dead ringer for Dylan McDermott and thinking about who else could have played what part if the movie had a bigger budget – I’m thinking Ving Rhames, Estelle Harris, Rachel McAdams, Jeremy Renner, and Michael Nouri would be my 5 in the elevator.

Side Effects is another movie with a name (lots of names, in fact, including Steve Soderbergh, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum, and Rooney Mara) where I hadn’t heard of it except via Netflix. Maybe I’m just inundated with other news, but what does a film have to do to get some marketing behind it? Maybe that’s why it just barely covered its production budget. This is a fun movie. I was expecting a morality play on society’s overreliance on pharmaceuticals and instead got an extended episode of Law & Order (in a good way, as I like Law & Order).

In short, a hearty Yes to all 3, in terms of fun factor. If you want more than just a popcorn flick, watch Blackfish (without kids in the room).

I was lucky enough to get a free ticket to an advance screening of the documentary, If You Build It (thanks NY WIFT!). If You Build It is directed by Patrick Creadon and tells the story of Studio H, an alternative education program launched by two designers, Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller, in a woefully under-resourced area of North Carolina. As a business person and a creative, I was swept up in the elegant brilliance of the idea: high school students design and build a structure that is actually erected in the community. The back stories of the students are engaging, without being syrupy. The frustrating bureaucracy is palpable, but the film doesn’t stay there too long. This is an enjoyable film that is also important and inspiring.

It’s not the typical science fiction or horror fare covered at FBC Films, BUT it still fits:

• Diversity in film is not just about race (though Pilloton is half-Asian) but also diversity of thought, ideas, and socio-economic status which If You Build It has in spades;
• This isn’t a horror film but the treatment of these brilliant educators is horrible, horrifying and horror-inducing;
• This isn’t science fiction but there’s a good dollop of science in the lessons they learn around building sound structures.

If You Build It finished its limited run in NYC and is now heading for LA. Please support this excellent movie. Facebook link is https://www.facebook.com/IfYouBuildItFilm and Studio H, which had to leave NC for lack of funding and is now in Berkeley, takes donations: http://www.projecthdesign.org/donate/