Big Screen Boston is mainly comprised of two sections: one with the 80 movies getting "full entries," and another ("Brief Visits, Day Trips & the Rest") in which each movie gets a capsule review. There were a lot of borderline movies that might have landed in either section, and the determining factor wasn't always the quality of the movie. For instance, James Toback's Harvard Man is a horrible movie, but it's so outrageously horrible (Toback had tried to get it made for 25 years, it's set during college basketball season yet everyone is wearing summer clothes, it has no internal logic at all) that it merited the bigger space so its bizarreness could be fully covered. Another reason some good "little" movies didn't get the full treatment was that there were only so many instances when I could write "here's a little overachiever" in the full entries without the thought losing all credibility, since movies such as Ruby, Urban Relics and The Blinking Madonna and Other Miracles already were being billed as such. Below are the capsule reviews of some enjoyable homegrown movies that didn't make it into the front section. They're an important part of the book.
All Kindsa Girls (2003)
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan’s evocative documentary about Boston garage-rockers The Real Kids, named for one of their quintessential 1970s Boston rock songs, isn’t just a portrait of John Felice’s on-again, off-again band. It also delves into what might be called “Boston band syndrome” (great band that should’ve become big, but doesn’t) and, to give the music context, dips into Boston rock history and the city’s preference for guitar-driven garage rock, with both Barry Tashian of The Remains and Jonathan Richman (who started the Modern Lovers with Natick neighbor Felice when the latter was 15) appearing. Of course, there’s onstage footage of The Real Kids, too, filmed at the Middle East, the Abbey and Avalon.
Dirt Boy (2001)
A New Yorker with a dark past (Jacob Lee Hedman) comes to fictional Atwater Commons to take a forensic criminology course, and discovers there’s more truth to a local author’s grisly bestselling novel than the townies want to admit. Jay Franco’s nifty no-budget thriller, set and filmed on Cape Cod, weaves a little spell and, thanks to its stripped-down production—no Anthony Hopkins or Christopher Plummer chewing scenery as the imposing author—avoids many a cliché along the way.
A Pound of Flesh (1994)
Catherine Burns, later producer of such homegrown indies as All the Rage and Starving Artists, directed this flimsy but funny comedy in which a black market human liver is the center of everyone’s attention. Its best parts are definitely those with Sandi Carroll and Ian Lithgow (son of John) as an irreverent couple looking for unconventional good times. This movie not only led to Starving Artists (its director, Allan Piper, is the assistant director here), but also to Brad Anderson’s The Darien Gap (he’s sound recordist and assistant camera); charismatic Carroll co-stars in both subsequent movies.
The Same Side of Rejection Street (2000)
Clunky moments aside, S.G. Collins’ hi-def feature has one of the more ambitious scripts of any homegrown indie film. Set over one action-packed day, it’s about the uneasy friendship that develops between a philosophical homeless man (Micheal Henderson) and an unemployed woman (Karen Ball). As the two walk from Downtown Crossing and the Financial District to South Boston and Dorchester, the movie mixes in heartache, laughs, the obstacle of racism and even gospel music. It’s an all-encompassing mix that usually works.
Starving Artists (1997)
The absurdity in Allan Piper’s Harvard Square comedy is hit or miss. Its funniest action involves his playwright character’s uncomfortable courtship of neighbor Mildred (Bess Wohl), whom he almost always manages to unwittingly insult. The production came up with a fun way to raise part of its $50,000 budget: everyone who donated at least $1 got his or her name in the movie, whether it was as graffiti, in a newspaper headline or on a note on someone’s wall.
All Kindsa Girls (2003)
Cheryl Eagan-Donovan’s evocative documentary about Boston garage-rockers The Real Kids, named for one of their quintessential 1970s Boston rock songs, isn’t just a portrait of John Felice’s on-again, off-again band. It also delves into what might be called “Boston band syndrome” (great band that should’ve become big, but doesn’t) and, to give the music context, dips into Boston rock history and the city’s preference for guitar-driven garage rock, with both Barry Tashian of The Remains and Jonathan Richman (who started the Modern Lovers with Natick neighbor Felice when the latter was 15) appearing. Of course, there’s onstage footage of The Real Kids, too, filmed at the Middle East, the Abbey and Avalon.
Dirt Boy (2001)
A New Yorker with a dark past (Jacob Lee Hedman) comes to fictional Atwater Commons to take a forensic criminology course, and discovers there’s more truth to a local author’s grisly bestselling novel than the townies want to admit. Jay Franco’s nifty no-budget thriller, set and filmed on Cape Cod, weaves a little spell and, thanks to its stripped-down production—no Anthony Hopkins or Christopher Plummer chewing scenery as the imposing author—avoids many a cliché along the way.
A Pound of Flesh (1994)
Catherine Burns, later producer of such homegrown indies as All the Rage and Starving Artists, directed this flimsy but funny comedy in which a black market human liver is the center of everyone’s attention. Its best parts are definitely those with Sandi Carroll and Ian Lithgow (son of John) as an irreverent couple looking for unconventional good times. This movie not only led to Starving Artists (its director, Allan Piper, is the assistant director here), but also to Brad Anderson’s The Darien Gap (he’s sound recordist and assistant camera); charismatic Carroll co-stars in both subsequent movies.
The Same Side of Rejection Street (2000)
Clunky moments aside, S.G. Collins’ hi-def feature has one of the more ambitious scripts of any homegrown indie film. Set over one action-packed day, it’s about the uneasy friendship that develops between a philosophical homeless man (Micheal Henderson) and an unemployed woman (Karen Ball). As the two walk from Downtown Crossing and the Financial District to South Boston and Dorchester, the movie mixes in heartache, laughs, the obstacle of racism and even gospel music. It’s an all-encompassing mix that usually works.
Starving Artists (1997)
The absurdity in Allan Piper’s Harvard Square comedy is hit or miss. Its funniest action involves his playwright character’s uncomfortable courtship of neighbor Mildred (Bess Wohl), whom he almost always manages to unwittingly insult. The production came up with a fun way to raise part of its $50,000 budget: everyone who donated at least $1 got his or her name in the movie, whether it was as graffiti, in a newspaper headline or on a note on someone’s wall.
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