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Reviews
Kickstarted (2015)
Late to the crowdfunding party.
It doesn't feel like it's been long, but three years ago crowdfunding was on a white-hot tear. Spearheaded by pioneers like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the idea that you could pay to make an average person's dreams come to life was quickly cloned for all kinds of purposes, helpful or malicious. Eventually, big players who didn't want to risk their own skin on creative gambles, like Hollywood actor/producer Zach Braff, clogged the scene and pushed a lot of small players out of the limelight. Kickstarted was pitched and funded before this mood swing and, three years since its very own crowdfunding campaign successfully wrapped, it feels oddly anachronistic.
While originally pitched as an opportunity to meet a variety of game developers (who were the kings of the crowdfunding hill in the early half of 2013), this doc focuses on musician Brad Carter and his struggles to fund an album before his tremors disable his ability to make music. Alongside Carter's story is aspiring UCLA filmmaker Dallas King and Hozon, his campy and extremely violent martial arts film, as well as a pair of inventors who bumble through one crowdfunding campaign after another, coming across as a bunch of grifters than passionate dreamers.
All of this would have been well and good had the film released in those halcyon debut days of crowdfunding, but three years later, it feels like a time capsule. The producers state that post-production issues kept them behind - there certainly are a lot of interviews here and some guests are weirdly unmic-ed, coming off as awfully amateurish - but they also wanted to finish filming the arc of Carter as he weaves in and out of surgery to reduce his tremors. His story winds up being the anchor of the film, but would it have had quite the effect if the doc had informed us he was already a somewhat famous actor with appearances in critically-acclaimed series like True Detective and Sons of Anarchy? I genuinely don't know.
After Carter, there isn't much weight to the movie. The plight of King and our rural inventing schemers are decent stories, but there's no emotional heft to them. The film barely runs 70 minutes as-is and it seems the opportunity to pivot and cover the industry shift that came after this documentary was funded was limited by the budget. It would've been genuinely cool to see a Gibney-style investigative flick that dove into why some campaigns failed to materialize after funding. I have nothing against a documentary about very real human stories involving crowdfunding, but it feels like a much smaller film than the one I pledged my dollars into so many years ago.
Ben & Arthur (2002)
An awful example of how NOT to make a film.
Oh, Sam Mraovich, we know you tried so hard. This is your magnum opus, a shining example to the rest of us that you are certainly worth nomination into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (as you state on your 1998-era web site). Alas, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt. With Ben & Arthur, you do just that.
Seemingly assembled with a lack of instruction or education, the film's screenplay guides us toward the truly bizarre with each new scene. It's this insane excuse of a story that may also be the film's best ally. Beginning tepidly, the homosexually titular characters Ben and Arthur attempt to marry, going so far as to fly across country to do so, in the shade of Vermont's finest palm trees. But, all of this posturing is merely a lead-in for BLOOD. Then more BLOOD, and MORE AND MORE BLOOD. I mean, there must be at least $20 in fake blood make-up in the final third of this film.
The film in its entirety is a technical gaffe. From the sound to the editing to the music, which consists of a single fuzzy bass note being held on a keyboard, it's a wonder that the film even holds together on whatever media you view it on. It's such a shame then that some decent amateur performances are wasted here.
No matter, Sam. I'm sure you've made five figures on this flick in rentals or whatever drives poor souls (such as myself) to view this film. Sadly, we're not laughing with you.