Flame-throwers, explosions, and a car that serves whiskey

By Josh Perrault

Rolling Stone called it “halucinatory.” MSN called it “a weird mix of John Hughes and Mad Max.”Hammer To Nail called it “an explosive, outrageous, and dynamic first film.” Bellflower is a film following two friends as they venture out into the world to begin their adult lives. All their free time is spent building flame-throwers and weapons of mass destruction in hopes that a global apocalypse will occur and clear the runway for their imaginary gang, “Mother Medusa.” A film about betrayal, love, hate, infidelity and extreme violence, Bellflower is the perfect example of indie filmmaking that breaks through conventional style and sets the bar for the future of filmmaking.

The first feature film of writer/director/actor, Evan Glodell, Bellflower premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was immediately thrown into the festival buzz due to the film’s distinctive look. With a one-of-a-kind camera designed by Glodell, combining vintage camera parts, and Russian lenses around a Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini digital camera, with cinematographer Joel Hodge’s shooting style gave Bellflower an extremely rare and distinct look. Bellflower is the first feature production from Glodell’s ‘Coatwolf Productions,’ a production company he created in his early 20s after moving to California with a group of close friends to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker. For Glodell, Bellflower was an personal story that included many real life events. In order to create Bellflower, Glodell had to nearly sacrifice almost everything, including his personal belongings and living in the abandoned wing of an office building in order to fund the film. It is truly a work of labor for Glodell and should be a good enough entrance into becoming a known filmmaker.

The film was picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories shortly after its premier at the Sundance Film Festival, as it continued to hit the festival stops and was shown at this year’s South By Southwest Festival. The film hit theaters on August 5th, 2011 and has been recently added to the 2011 Ellensburg Film Festival lineup. The film will be shown Saturday October, 8th so make sure to get your tickets, this is a film you wont want to miss.

Netflix Pick of the Week: ‘Amreeka’

Amreeka (2009)
Director: Cherian Dabis
Starring: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Alia Shawkat
96 mins.

By Josh Perrault

Cherien Dabis’ directorial debut film, ‘Amreeka,’ is a film centered around a Palestinian American family during post-9/11 Chicago. When Muna Furah (Nisreen Faour) is rewarded an American green card through the lottery, her and her son Fadi (Melkar Muallem) move to America from Bethlehem to live with Muna’s sister Raghda Halaby (Hiam Abbass) and her husband Nabeel (Yussuf Abu-Warda) and their three children in Chicago. While Fadi attends American school and Muna looks for work in a U.S. bank that is equivalent to her work back home, unfortunately her job search is unsuccessful and finds work serving burgers at a White Castle only earning minimum wage. All the while, Fadi is attending school and experiencing the difficulties of racism and violence during this post-9/11 and Iraq war American environment. Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) stars in this feel-good comedy with a mix of stealth political attributes that confronts the issues of ethnic tension in the world today.