a search

note: an old post from pinoydvd that i decided to repost in this blog.


What Alice Found - A. Dean Bell

Caught this film as I browsing through the channels trying to find something to watch. Thank heavens for the Independent Film Channel for indie gems and productions that probably would not make a mainstream release. Anyway, What Alice Found is an independent delicacy that lacks certain spices but leaves enough aftertaste to either like it or hate it. The film tells of a young girl (Alice) who meets and befriends an elderly couple on her way to Florida. However, she learns that things aren't the way it seems, and she is forced into the world of truck-stop prostitution. Judith Ivey (Keanu Reeves' mother in The Devil's Advocate) stars as one of the elderly couple who may, or may not what she seems she is, fabricates lies to the young Alice, prompting her to believe plenty of things that may or may not be true at all. It's not a crime story, the title would interpret otherwise, however the mystery is perhaps one thing that carries the entire film in a rather, ambiguous conclusion: what will become of Alice? Although, it is actuallly a coming-of-age movie, it certainly defies the nuances that makes it one. The twists are sketchy, but it completely conveys the message to the audience. What Alice Found is one independent movie that in a way, deserves any kind of respect from its viewers.

death trip

James Ellroy's Feast of Death - Vikram Jayanti

Caught this while browsing Sundance Channel. This documentary meticulously reconstructs the murder of bestselling author James Ellroy's mother 47 years ago. However, the reconstruction limits itself to gruesome police photographs, the now-and-then description of the place where the body was dumped, and Ellroy reciting lines from his memoir My Dark Places. Interestingly, the movie also dwells with the unsolved murder of Black Dahlia (a crime which Ellroy attributed his mother's tragic demise- - -that until this very day---still remain unsolved), and in a astonishing diversion from Ellroy, he invited a colleague to present a plausible theory as to who really murdered Elizabeth Short. Superimposing with the detailed narration of the Betty Short case by Ellroy's friend Larry Harnisch (whom he considered to be a Black Dahlia freak) are crime scene photographs from the 1947 casefile including a close-up view of Short's face (gruesome, I know, that i tend to look away when the shot was shown), the decapitated body of the deceased and, also, the now-and-then comparison of the body dump place. Reviews of the film when it was shown at BBC and Showtime Channel a few years back claimed that it somehow solved the Dahlia case after all. Personally, I'm an Ellroy fan- - -read almost all of his books- - - and the movie in anyway, provided me with the answer as to who Ellroy really is (and probably the reason of his fetish with unsolved crimes). The film, though somewhat pretentious in its attempt to solve Ellroy's mother's death, is definitely a must see for any fan of the author.