“The Place of No Words”
Mark Webber is seemingly a jack of all trades. A great actor (“The Hottest State,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World“), he’s also a writer/director, and his latest feature, “The Place of No Words” centers on a big existential question posed by a three-year-old to his father: “Where do we go when we die?” Webber is a father of four and no stranger to big questions from children. His films sees a father and son embark on an epic journey of fantasy realms and mythical creatures in a quest for the answer. It’s a family affair, co-starring his wife Teresa Palmer, his son Bodhi Palmer, plus Nicole Elizabeth Berger, Eric Olsen, Sarah Wright and Phoebe Tonkin.
“Blow the Man Down”
Co-directed and co-written by creative team Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole, “Blow The Man Down” sounds incredibly intriguing and features an excellent cast. The drama centers on a pair of sisters mourning the loss of their mother, who suddenly find they have a crime to cover up, leading them deep into the underbelly of their salty Maine fishing village. The sisters in question are the excellent Morgan Saylor, who made some big breakout appearances in shows like “Homeland” and indie films like “White Girl,” and Sophie Lowe, who some might remember from the casting days of David Fincher‘s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” (she came close to bagging the role). Both are ripe for bigger breakthrough roles and ‘BTMD,’ which also stars Margo Martindale, June Squibb, Annette O’Toole, and Marceline Hugot, sounds like just the vehicle.
“Burning Cane”
Directed and written by Phillip Youmans, “Burning Cane” is Youmans’ feature-length narrative debut, but he’s made a short film with Solange Knowles (“Nairobi“) and a doc about Jon Batiste and the Stay Human band. “Burning Cane” looks like it has a lot of interesting attributes. The participation of Wendell Pierce, not only as an actor, but a producer, Youmans as his own cinematographer—the looks of the film said to be “Terrence Malick-esque”—and an executive producer credit from Benh Zeitlin, known for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Set among the cane fields of rural Louisiana, “Burning Cane” follows a deeply religious mother struggling to reconcile her convictions of faith with the love she has for her troubled son. The drama also stars Karen Kaia Livers, Dominique McClellan, and Braelyn Kelly. Youmans‘ striking work has already made him one to watch.
“Come to Daddy”
After years behind the scenes producing genre fare like “The ABCs Of Death“and “The Greasy Strangler,” Kiwi filmmaker Ant Timpson makes his directorial debut with “Come To Daddy, starring Elijah Wood as a troubled young man coming off alcohol-related struggles, whose life is thrown for a loop when he receives an unexpected letter from his estranged father requesting a visit. Apparently, what should be a family reunion turns into a waking nightmare. “Come To Daddy” is described as “a twisty genre-bender that’s as unclassifiable as it is entertaining” which sounds about right considering it was written by the “The Greasy Strangler”co-scribe Toby Harvard. Expect laughs, but something sinister with mystery box dimensions too.
“The Projectionist”
Cantankerous filmmaker Abel Ferrara hasn’t graced us with his presence much in the last few years and that’s probably because the 67-year-old has struggled to get his indie films seen in the U.S. (2014’s “Pasolini” starring Willem Dafoe just scored U.S. distribution finally, five years after it premiered during the festival circuit). Nonetheless, the determined helmer remains unbowed and is quite prolific with his documentary work of late. A product of the the Times Square adult film houses of the 1970s, in “The Projectionist,” Ferrara documents the life of a kindred spirit: Cyprus-born theater operator Nick Nicolaou who has lived and breathed the world of New York City cinema and has faced all its culturally-ruinous regulation, chain takeovers, and vast cultural shifts. Ferrara (“Bad Lieutenant,” “The Addiction“), hasn’t made a NY-based doc in over a decade, but this doc about Nicolaou—one of the last truly independent theater owners left standing—sounds like a look at another eccentric maverick marching to the beat of his own drum.
