John Waters calls George and Mike Kuchar his first inspiration, and that’s as good a place as any to start. Testimony to the lasting influence of the filmmaking Kuchar twins, makers of such movies as “Hold Me While I’m Naked,” is the warm power of Jennifer Kloot’s documentary, “It Came From Kuchar,” winner of best film at the 2009 Chicago Underground Film Festival. An unlikely but articulate raft of interviewees offer testimony to inspiration drawn from these “8mm Mozarts” of the 1960s; the independent and underground filmmakers onscreen include Waters, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Cory McAbee, Gerard Malanga, Buck Henry, Wayne Wang and scholar B. Ruby Rich. For the uninitiated, the clips are tingly eyeball kicks. It’s a bonfire’s worth of anecdotage about filmmakers not yet in their dotage. 96m. HD video. (Ray Pride)
Ray Pride is Newcity’s Senior Editor and Film Critic. He is a contributing editor of Filmmaker magazine.
Ray’s history of Chicago Ghost Signs is planned for publication next year. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram. More photography on Instagram.
Seeing The Elephant: A Review Of Babylon The boisterous, brawling yet melancholy "Babylon," is a variation on film history, but more drawing for drama. It's gaudy and mean, celebratory and sorrowful.
Heart: A Review of Soul The real world is soulful, too, in Pixar's bountiful life of the mind.
A Drag Getting Old: A Review Of Indiana Jones 5 In the protracted opening couple of reels, a very young, computer-crafted Harrison Ford plays a younger cultural marauder who first encounters the dull MacGuffin of the title.
Spawn Sacrifice: A Review Of The Creator "The Creator" is richly detailed, punchy, pulpy, punkish entertainment that still has highly serious subjects in mind, without growing didactic and with substantial heart.
RECOMMENDED
