On Demand Weekly

Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies and shows on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s reviews: Girls (HBO), produced by Judd Apatow.

GIRLS
Young Women on the Verge of Life

By Jean Tait

Being in your twenties can be difficult. You’re supposed to be all grown up, but you are still making childish mistakes. You’ve made your first, tentative steps into the real worlds of employment and relationships, but it certainly doesn’t feel safe or comfortable. This is the world of “Girls.” And it’s a pretty realistic world as opposed to the usual TV world in which women can afford Manolo Blahniks, even on a cop’s salary.

Don’t get me wrong, these “Girls” are young women of privilege. They’ve gone to excellent schools and they’ve been supported by parents who, while not in the top 1%, are hardly poverty-stricken. Lena Dunham, the creator/writer/director/star of the show is annoyingly funny as her character’s parents (the always wonderful Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari) tell her that after two full years out of college, they are cutting her off financially. You will want to slap Hannah (Dunham) and cheer for her mother. Then when Hannah goes to a job interview that starts off really well, but you see the exact moment she blows it, you will want to rescue her, and slap the dope interviewing her.

Side rant: When will someone give Becky Ann Baker her own sitcom??? It was great to see her play a mom who is not as sappy as the mom she was stuck playing on “Smash,” but seriously, all you folks in tv land, she’s capable of shouldering something more than just a three-line mother role! End of rant.

Lena Dunham / GIRLS (HBO)

The extraordinarily talented Dunham has created a cast full of such richly realistic characters, full of contradictions and awkwardness. And finally: sex on screen that is embarrassing and real. No perfect moments of airbrushed loveliness and perfectly-timed climaxes, sans cellulite and that always extra elbow, just real people not knowing the right thing to say or the exact right place to put their hands, but yearning for connection. How refreshing is that?

There has been a lot of fuss that this show is only about white girls.

Tribeca Film announced that it will release THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN, DEATH OF A SUPERHERO, and SLEEPLESS NIGHT nationwide via video-on-demand during the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs April 18–29. The films are each an official selection of the Festival and feature notable actors such as Jenna Fischer, Topher Grace, Malin Akerman, Tomer Sisley, Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster.

SLEEPLESS NIGHT (Tribeca Film)

From April 17 through June 19, THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN, DEATH OF A SUPERHERO and SLEEPLESS NIGHT will be available in more than 40 million homes via cable, telco and satellite systems. BOOKER’S PLACE will begin its VOD run on April 26. Additionally, these films will be available online via digital VOD services such as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, Vudu and Samsung Media Hub, a new distribution partner of Tribeca Film. Tribeca Film will also begin to roll out these films theatrically, starting with BOOKER’S PLACE on April 25 and THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN on April 27.

Jenna Fischer / THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN (Tribeca Film)

“Tribeca Film was founded as a distribution platform to help filmmakers find audiences and, equally important, audiences find films utilizing new connections and strategies,” said Geoff Gilmore. “To that end, we are pleased to support these four features. They embody the exceptional artistry and personal resonance that filmmaking at its finest can provide, and we are proud to be able to share these films with audiences across the country.”

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: SLEEPLESS NIGHT (Tribeca Film) .

SLEEPLESS NIGHT

By Chris Claro

Frederic Jardin’s SLEEPLESS NIGHT tells a simple story: A dirty cop steals the mob’s dope and the mob steals the cop’s son. What follow is a jangly, nerve-racking, totally entertaining thriller moves at light speed.

SLEEPLESS NIGHT (Tribeca Film)

Set primarily in a packed Paris dance club, SLEEPLESS NIGHT plays almost as a bedroom farce, with a Paris dance club as the nexus of its action. Home base for the local mob boss, Le Tarmac is the in place, it seems, for both partiers and police, and Vincent leads both the cops and the crooks through the joint as he searches for both his son and the drugs.

Jardin stages his action sequences with efficiency, particularly one in which Vincent takes on a fellow cop and makes a holy mess of the club’s kitchen. Utilizing everything from salad bowls to drawers full of utensils, the fight is a clever back-and-forth that has the wit and invention of a Road Runner cartoon.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand and from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN (Tribeca Film) .

THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN

By Chris Claro

A tissue-thin romance that sags under the weight of its own whimsy, THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN is a time-filler that looks as if it were assembled by spreadsheet rather than by a filmmaker passionate to tell story – The Giant Mechanical Film.

Lee Kirk’s debut feature as writer/director checks off all the boxes: a TV-star-with-indie-cred lead (Jenna Fisher, who is married to Kirk), a soulful male lead with proven chops (Chris Messina, VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA), a couple of up-and-comers in support (Malin Akerman, WANDERLUST; Rich Sommer, MAD MEN), and a star in a quirky character part (Topher Grace, SPIDER-MAN 3). Throw in a South-by-Southwest-ready “post-rock” soundtrack featuring such performers as El Ten Eleven and shoot in a filmmaker-friendly tax-credit location – Michigan, which is neck-and-neck with Louisiana in the race to see how many of its cities can stand in for Anytown, USA – and boom! You got yourself a little flick.

Jenna Fischer / THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN (Tribeca Film)

Not that there’s anything wrong with little. Slight stories about sad people can be finely wrought, as evidenced in the last year by both ROADIE and MAN ON THE TRAIN, each of which delicately depicted the ravages of loneliness. The issue with THE GIANT MECHANICAL MAN lies in its pallid, listless script which breathes no new life into its subject.

After Fischer’s Janice is axed by her temp agency employer, she is forced to move in with her insufferable sister and brother-in-law, played by Akerman and Sommer. At the same time, Messina’s Tim is dumped by his girlfriend, who’s fed up with his forsaking real work in favor of slathering himself in silver makeup and strapping on stilts to pose in local plazas as the Giant Mechanical Man.

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. Today’s review: THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (IFC Films).

THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD
2 Teenagers Caught in an Ancient Blood Feud…
By Cynthia Kane

In THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD, we find ourselves in rural Albania, post Bosnian War/Kosovo conflict, in other words: now. Nik (Tristan Halilaj) is a teenager, the oldest son, popular and in love with a beautiful classmate. His sister, Rudina (Sindi Lacej) is the eldest daughter, a girl who loves school and learning, and dreams of a life outside the village. Their father, Mark (Refet Abazi) works hard, delivering by horse and wagon bread and whatever else he can provide the neighboring cluster of villages.

Then one day when he and Rudina are making the late afternoon rounds, he’s blocked from the through-road by an unruly neighbor from another clan. This man (Veton Osmani) who not only possesses lands Mark’s family once owned but humiliates him in front of Rudina – in a country where gender is still very much divided, this is unforgivable. When Mark and his brother, their uncle go back to confront the offending neighbor, violence breaks out and that man is killed. Rudina and Nik’s uncle is arrested and their father must go into hiding.

Worse still, the entire family must be sequestered as the old adage, “an eye for an eye” is utterly real in their world. Nik’s father, grandfather and other male members of the family know retribution is a fact. It’s an ancient law of blood feud. It’s derived from the Kanun, a traditional set of Albanian laws, conservative and ancient, still in effect, based on four pillars: honor, hospitality, conduct and clan loyalty.

It’s when you realize this is a film by an American filmmaker,

Joshua Marston, that you actually find yourself astonished.

His last film that hit big was MARIA FULL OF GRACE, some year back, which did incredibly well in festival circuits, was released theatrically via Fine Line and aired on HBO. He had a couple tries within the Hollywood scene that didn’t turn out and has directed a lot of good tv. And now, Marston takes us to another far away place: Albania.

How courageous and unique is this guy? Where does he get this chutzpah? I love that he can tell gripping stories from countries and cultures far from his own, and make them ring absolutely true. As a filmmaker he’s not only a talent, but a shapeshifter.