On Demand Weekly

THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN Is A Great Fix On DemandMarch 28, 2011

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: THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN (FilmBuff).

THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN Is A Great Fix On Demand

By Adam Schartoff

A hybrid of concert film and narrative film, Bruce McDonald’s THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN does suffer a bit from that bifurcation but ultimately succeeds through sheer youthful enthusiasm.

The band Broken Social Scene (aka BSS), a Toronto-native musician collective, is the perfect choice for a concert film. Like their Montreal neighbors, Arcade Fire, BSS’s music is big and lush with somewhere between 15 and 20 band members.

That there are so many instruments being played at once can obscure the underlying simple melodies, something that makes the music ultimately accessible. While you may not necessarily remember all of the hooks, you’ll leave wanting to see them in a setting as inviting as Toronto’s Harbourfront Amphitheater.

The film’s narrative strain involves a handsome young man named Bruno (Greg Calderone) who, when the film begins, has finally consummated his long lasting crush on Caroline (Georgina Reilly). After a night of lovemaking on his rooftop, Bruno realizes that he is in love with Caroline. Caroline is steely determined to see through her plans to leave for Paris the following day despite Bruno’s earnest appeal for her heart.

That leaves them roughly 24 hours of time together. When the two venture out for breakfast, they run into Bruno’s pal Blake who mentions that BSS has a concert that very evening. After some bragging goes wrong, Bruno and Blake must now come up with back stage passes. A plan is set in motion to go the concert that night after the guys get off from work.

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THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER - Now On DemandJuly 27, 2011

IFC Films

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

THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER - Now On Demand
By Amy Slotnick

Director David Mitchell’s debut feature film explores the familiar landscape of a summer spent in suburbia, when community pools, bike riding and sleepovers dominate the life of the American teen. In THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER, Mitchell’s characters exist in a non-descript time period, in which cell phones, texting and online anything is avoided. This helps to make the lazy, long days of the non-working teen, waiting for high school to start, seem almost mythic.

Films such as AMERICAN GRAFFITI and DAZED AND CONFUSED are clear influences, but unlike those films, Mitchell avoids any strong plot devices to drive the narrative. Instead the film recalls familiar feelings and a mood to which many can relate.

Four main storylines play out simultaneously on one long, hot day at the end of summer in a generic, mid-western suburb. Adults are absent and it seems like every kid in the town is heading to a sleepover party. But the characters each have their own motives for the night, none of which involve sleeping.

Maggie (Claire Sloma) likes the lifeguard at the town pool, but also wants the burn out kid to like her. She and her sidekick friend ditch the sleepover and head on their bikes to a party by the lake, to find the boys, drink beer and go for a late night swim.