THE EGG AND THE HATCHET, a new short film by Christopher J Skotchdopole, starring Jeremy Gardner (THE BATTERY, THE MIND’S EYE, SPRING) and newcomer Taylor Zaudke and produced by Glass Eye Pix will have its world premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival this week.

James Siewert’s visionary hand-crafted short THE PAST INSIDE THE PRESENT
continues its roll out to festivals:

Selected for the 2016 Grand Jury Prize Winners Short Form category at Film Invasion L.A.

Officially added to the Fantastic Fest short programming!

Heads south of the border to Oaxaca Film Fest!

This just in: The 2016 Woodstock Film Festival has announced this year’s lineup and STRAY BULLETS will be holding its North American Premiere on October 14 at the Festival.

For news on the rest of the lineup check out the Official Festival Press Release

From the Pre-Festival catalogue:

“There’s not a single wrong note in “Liberty Kid,” Ilya Chaiken’s poignant drama.
Tender, wise and deceptively low-key… everything about this film feels effortless. ‘Critic’s Pick’”
—New York Times

“THERE is no shortage of films about the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but there is a lack of good ones.
The low-budget indie “Liberty Kid,” produced by downtown auteur Larry Fessenden,
is one of those that succeeds… a poignant look at what might be called 9/11′s collateral damage.”
—New York Post

We invite you to watch Ilya Chaiken’s indie gem, one of Glass Eye Pix’s finest hours, produced with long-time compadres Mike Ryan, Roger Kass and Brent Kunkle at a link that seems defunct but still functioning, like our nation… Check it!

Liberty Kid on amazon

Hollywood Reporter (print version) has the scoop: 

Jack Fessenden’s debut feature STRAY BULLETS will have it’s world premiere at the Oldenburg Film Festival. Also unspooling at the fest is GEP pal Ti West’s forthcoming Ethan Hawke and John Travolta starrer IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE (featuring father Fessenden as the villain “Roy”.)

STRAY BULLETS features James Le Gros, John Speredakos and Kevin Corrigan, along with Larry Fessenden, Jack Fessenden and newcomer Asa Spurlock.

Visit the STRAY BULLETS website here

Bloody Disgusting has been snooping around the Glass Eye Pix website and uncovered the
Stay Bullets project page, still under construction.

Stay tuned for news of STRAY BULLETS screenings this Fall.

Dread Central has the scoop on Until Dawn: Rush of Blood from Supermassive Games and penned by Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden. Check out the teaser if you dare…

‘The Comedy’ Dares You to Laugh

If irony is the song of a bird who has grown to love its cage, then Tim Heidecker’s Swanson is luxuriating inside his aviary… with a cold can of Pabst.

Swanson, the anti-hero of Rick Alverson’s 2012 critically divisive indie The Comedy (no one in this film could possibly be mistaken for a redeemable hero), spends his days drinking with his equally odious and detached Brooklyn buddies, mocking his dying father’s male nurse, championing gentrification in the faces of black bar patrons, harassing foreign taxi drivers, and drifting through meaningless, irony-laced interactions with everyone in his life as blithely as he floats on his sailboat in the East River.

Alverson’s unsettling portrait of how certain people use privilege and irony to shield themselves from connection and intimacy is a tough watch, no doubt. But that’s precisely what makes it such a rewarding experience. The Comedy operates on two parallel tracks: as we engage with an unsympathetic character pushing the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior, Alverson challenges our expectation for cinematic payoff.

This is a confrontation as much as it is a comedy. Alverson allows minutes to pass by with no dialogue, the awkward silences punctuated by his lingering camera. Scenes and conversations play out longer than we expect, creating an uneasy tension as we wait for traditional comedic beats that never come.

Take, for example, the scene where Swanson and his pal Bobby (Greg Turkington) drink bloody marys at an outdoor café. They sit in silence half the time, sipping their booze and barely making eye contact, shifting in their seats in the summer heat. That silence slowly dissipates into pointless conversations about leasing apartments, homeless men and the crooked Wall Street bankers who perform fellatio on them. The two buddies try to one-up each other with dick jokes and graphic descriptions of oral sex, until they’ve had enough and retreat back into silence. The scene ends and seamlessly blends into the next. We never see Bobby again. It’s the operative anti-dick joke.

There’s a jarring beauty in this style of visual storytelling. Alverson appears uninterested in narrative logic or conventional structure. We are given no backstory of why Swanson’s dad is sick. We aren’t told or shown how these characters wound up so detached and broken, and we certainly aren’t witness to any growth or resolution.

Things are the way that they are. It’s up to us to decide if we care to live in these characters’ world. Either nothing matters or everything matters. In this specific way, Alverson has created his own theater of the absurd. Much like Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” The Comedy presents a world bereft of reason but full of people skittering around, desperate for meaning but looking for it in all the wrong ways.

Comedy can be, and should be, challenging. The true irony of The Comedy isn’t that it isn’t a “proper comedy” after all, but rather how little ironic detachment Alverson employs to fully immerse you in Swanson’s bubble. His camerawork is intimate and extreme, leaving little distance between the viewers and the characters they’re undoubtedly judging.

The Comedy’s barbed, confrontational humor, go-f*ck-yourself pacing, and anti-resolution push viewers’ limits. But it’s an investment (or risk) that is highly recommended. With artistry and an understated lyricism, Alverson, with the help of a ferociously melancholic performance from Heidecker, shows us how irony and ennui keep us from forming emotional or spiritual connection with others.

The film works on not just a psychological level but also a physiological one: you’ll contort your face, you’ll squirm in your seat, and you’ll feel uncomfortable. But, hey—at least you’re feeling something.

Article by Erik Abriss

Watch The Comedy on Tribeca Shortlist.

While this title has released over a year ago, console gamers are encouraged to play this award winning game (“Best Story,” BAFTA). Voiced by actors such as: Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek, Noah Fleiss and Nichole Bloom, the game draws you into an unsettling horror universe. Writers Larry Fessenden (Wendigo, 2001) Graham Reznick and others have penned a truly remarkable story, which can be enjoyed in a number of different ways. Until Dawn is full of action, conflict and harrowing situations. Your choices have consequences, known as the Butterfly Effect. And, Until Dawn is memorable for its tale of revenge and on how you decide to unbox its underling moral play; it is not to be missed.

FULL REVIEW