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Usually when I think about independent films I think low budget, inexperienced, messy and full of dialogue that is questionable, this however just shows how much the big movies can hypnotise and cram us full of nonsense.
I have now watched a multitude of independent films that have surprised and delighted me, with a professional look and the obviously talented contributors having done an amazing job. Though one stand out film for me is Fairview St from Rebel Pictures, it is by far one of the best independent films I have ever had the pleasure of viewing, and that is my honest opinion. I may not have seen many, but easily enough to know when heart and soul have been pumped into the production. Who needs the big budget when you have determination?
Filmmaker Gavin White explores the past and present of London's Speakers' Corner, dubbed "the single best known place for free speech on the planet." A native Australian, White has just moved from Melbourne to London to work as a producer on "The Media Report", a show for European Business News when he discovered the Speakers' Corner phenomena. 
From word go Broken Dreams tells you in the title that it's going to be an emotional movie that suggests depressing themes. When I first read the title I was prepared for a film that centralised around a broken home or failed relationship, but these genres are merely background noise to the unexpected darker subjects that are tackled within this beautifully executed production.
First film, first award. Jeremy and Jesse Ververka, two brothers who produced and directed "China: The Rebirth of an Empire", won the FAN award for best documentary at the first annual Astoria-Long Island City Film Festival last week. The festival, which ran from Oct 22-24th, had a successful launch. Film lovers turned out to see documentaries, feature films, short films, and super short films. There were also script readings and panel discuss
It may be possible that no one loves Brooklyn more than Jason Cusato, a 35-year old Park Slope movie maker, who makes films about his borough to capture its ever-changing charm.
“I try to make films about the Brooklyn that practically doesn’t exist anymore,” Cusato says. “The borough has changed so much and I want people to remember what it used to be.” Jason Cusato got his start at the School of Visual Arts when he helped to shoot a documentary The Aid to Church in Need about a lower Manhattan congregation.
Familiar Voices: A Reaction to the Crisis in Darfur
Over 400,000 dead. 2.5 million displaced. A genocide that most of the world ignores. Darfur, a place many sympathize with but rarely think about is brought to the spotlight in the riveting documentary Familiar Voices by Danny Mendoza.
When his L.A. life and his second marriage fall apart, Frankie Razzini, a guy who likes to roam about, comes back to the Bronx to understand what he had done wrong in the past. In his wallet he carries a picture of his first love, and deep in his soul a bitter remorse, and perhaps a secret. He meets up with his best friend Eddie in the old pub they had once favored and strikes up a conversation with Brenda.
This insightful, intelligent documentary which runs just under 59 minutes, is directed by Meghan Shea and co-produced with Michael Rogers. This film is really a video education program. In it, cameras are given to youngsters in 3 schools as disparate as one can image. One of the classes is from Lungtenzampa Middle School in Thimphu, Bhutan, about as far away from the United States as one can get.
Elena Beloff, a graduate of the New School University where she had studied film production, wanted to make movies since she was a little girl in her hometown in Tatarstan, Russia. When she was in high school she came to the USA as an exchange student and returned later to pursue her dreams. "Filmmaking is my passion. I chose it because I can communicate my vision, beliefs and love for art through film."
With the action genre being a little bit hit and miss over the last decade, the film Expendables will remind everyone what a true action movie is all about. We have all recently grown accustom to the more psychological action hero like Jason Bourne with his more laid back incognito type attitude, or the more over the top impossible traits of fantasy superhero or magical protagonists.
Do you believe in the wonders of dreaming, the possibility of sharing a dream with another person, the capability of designing your dream right down to the last tiny detail? The Writer and Director of Inception Christopher Nolan does.
Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the main protagonist Dom Cobb, a thief who specializes in stealing ideas straight from your very head by invading your dreams. The art is called extraction, and the mechanics behind this are somewhat of a science fiction element to the film, though I can already see conspiracy theorists concluding that this is no make-believe concept. Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), is Cobb's right hand man, the guy who is an expert in controlling said mechanics in the art of extraction.
Astoria/LIC International Film Festival is proud to present Polygamy, a clever, thought-provoking full-length feature film by Hungarian director/producer Dénes Orosz, in which he explores the ever-controversial subject of polygamy from the surprising angle of what would happen if someone's coveted wish was miraculously fulfilled.
Remake or reboot? I can’t decide with Predators. I am a fan of the originals and have to admit I even enjoyed the action in AVP, but the story was a little sour. The script for the new film was written by Alex Litvak & Michael Finch, who loosely based it around an old script by Robert Rodriguez who worked on the film as a Producer. Predators was directed by Nimród Antal. The film seems to follow on from the 1987 original, with no impact from the sequel or the more modern crossovers. It’s set in a jungle like the first original, and even has a mention to it.
Predators Opens with Royce (Adrien Brody) falling from the sky whilst unconscious, he awakes to find himself falling to his death and failing to let out a parachute. His parachute then automatically deploys seconds before Royce reaches the treetops. Others follow, all loaded up to their ears with weaponry. The group consists of Isabelle (Alice Braga), a sniper-wielding token female. Cuchillo (Danny Trejo), a Mexican gang leader. Nikolia (Oleg Taktarov), a Russian soldier. Hanzo (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a Yakuza gang member, and a few other former combatants. The most out-of-place of them all is Edwin (Topher Grace) a doctor who seems to be useless throughout.
Bill Nighy, Emily Blunt, Rupert Grinn and Rupert Everett star in this black comedy based on the 1993 French film Cible Emouvante. From trailers and advertisements you would be lead to believe that Wild Target is a leg slapping corker of a laugh out loud comedy. This however only rings true for the majority of the first half and only a few moments later when it’s a little more cringe worthy humorous than the comedy you would expect to continue throughout.
As far as other reviews go, I appose them all. Get him to the Greek may be an over the top, eyeful of a comedy, but I agree when comparisons have been made, and taglines read it’s this year’s Hangover. If any movie has made me laugh from start to finish so far this year, it’s this film. With fan favorite stars and an easily comic plot, there’s not much room for error in this feature.
