INTRUDER
by Marty McKee

Writer-director Scott Spiegel’s slasher movie with a sense of humor, INTRUDER, was produced long after that genre had died off at the box office. Spiegel co-wrote EVIL DEAD 2 for high school buddy Sam Raimi and shares his friend’s visual style but with less grace, placing his camera inside grocery carts and telephone dials to dizzying effect in the effort to disguise his thin screenplay. One shot is from the point-of-view of a turning doorknob! If only he’d put as much effort into continuity; keep an eye out for the ever-changing TV Guide covers in a film that takes place during a single night.

It’s closing time at the local grocery store in Walnut Lake, which is being sold by co-owners Danny (Eugene Glaser) and Bill (Dan Hicks). While the teenage employees prepare the store to shut down and contemplate their jobless futures, a mysterious psycho stalks the aisles and bumps them off using a meat hook, band saw, butcher knives, and any other tool allowing the just-launched KNB EFX Group (Robert Kurtzman, Greg Nicotero, and Howard Berger) to show off their skills staging creative and wildly grisly murders. These are the film’s reason for being and easily the highlight of INTRUDER.

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THE SWEET LIFE, or, Strange Irony
by Nathan Schwalm

Before the Film: Simple observations of the limited on-line coverage about this independent film tell me the primary expectation is to expect the unexpected. Filmed in New York City and completed in 2003, THE SWEET LIFE seems to be a satirical take on cliché romantic comedies. The product description for this belated release hints at the concept of a “romantic comedy for people who hate romantic comedies” featuring Joan Jett as well as her songs. I will soon find out if this is accurate when I watch the DVD, issued last month by Synapse Films. Already, the curiosity is kicking in.

After the Film: On the surface, the two brothers Michael (James Lorinz) and Frankie (Robert Mobley) are a complete contrast as the film shows polar opposite personalities and interests. Michael is a sensitive, hopeless romantic and film critic who is constantly accused of being gay and having bad luck. Frankie is wealthy, arrogant, and a typical self-centered business man who constantly scores with the ladies. It is a tense dynamic familiar to many films but THE SWEET LIFE adds a bizarre twist to its buddy story – a common love interest for the siblings.

Both Michael and Frankie want to be with Lila (Barbara Sicuranza) but for different purposes. Michael just wants to be friends, Frankie just wants someone to have sex with. Lila is a working class tomboy who frequently receives unwanted attention, as numerous guys think that she is a prostitute, but her main passion is to become a massage therapist. Her roommate, Cheri (Joan Jett), is a completely different story.

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MANIAC COP
by Marty McKee

“You have the right to remain silent … forever!” read the original tagline for MANIAC COP, a fast-moving action/horror flick with a subversive sense of humor. It was written by Larry Cohen, who virtually created his own subgenre of witty monster pictures with independent hits like GOD TOLD ME TO, IT’S ALIVE, and the inimitable Q about a winged Aztec serpent that plucks bathing beauties off New York rooftops and carries them back to its lair in the Chrysler Building. Cohen screenplays have their own unique rhythm and humor, and MANIAC COP is no exception.

Cohen frequently directed his own scripts but stuck to producing MANIAC COP, handing the directorial reins to William Lustig who demonstrated a flair for gritty violence in VIGILANTE and MANIAC, the latter marked by Tom Savini’s splashy gore effects and an off-kilter lead performance by TAXI DRIVER actor Joe Spinell. Like Cohen, Lustig had a penchant for casting venerable cult actors with minor mainstream acceptance and strong acting chops that knew how to go beyond the script to flesh out their characters.

White-haired Tom Atkins, who built his horror cred on John Carpenter’s THE FOG and the underrated HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH, takes top billing as Frank McCrae, a lone wolf police detective investigating a series of brutal murders in New York City. Despite flack from the police commissioner (SHAFT’s Richard Roundtree) and his superior officer (William Smith, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dad in CONAN THE BARBARIAN), McCrae steadfastly adheres to his theory that the killer, whom witnesses describe wearing a policeman’s uniform, is an actual cop rather than someone in disguise.

His theory starts to bear weight when patrolman Jack Forrest (THE EVIL DEAD’s Bruce Campbell), whose wife is the latest victim, is arrested for being the Maniac Cop. However, Forrest’s lover, vice cop Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon of Cohen’s I, THE JURY), was with Forrest when his wife was murdered. Mallory convinces McCrae of Forrest’s innocence and teams up with the older cop to find the real killer.

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THE EXTERMINATOR
by Marty McKee

James Glickenhaus (SHAKEDOWN) directed THE EXTERMINATOR, an Avco Embassy Pictures exploitation classic from 1980 that plays like two separate films spliced together, one about a violent urban vigilante and the other about a New York cop. It’s as if Glickenhaus had already finished the film and then received word from the studio that it retained Christopher George for 10 days of work, and, “Could you please create a part for him in the movie? Thank you.”

Robert Ginty, a nondescript television actor who had previously played supporting roles on THE PAPER CHASE and BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP, stars as Vietnam vet John Eastland, who stalks the streets of the Big Apple to track down the scum that paralyzed his best pal, Army buddy Michael Jefferson (Steve James). He finds them, kills them, and then kills more bad guys: a mobster who shakes down businessmen for protection money, purse snatchers, human traffickers, anyone he can find.

Glickenhaus, who also wrote the screenplay, has a firm grip on the tackiness and despair that permeated 42nd Street during the 1970s. He and cinematographer Robert Baldwin (LET’S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH) successfully capture the worst aspects of pre-Giuliani New York City with their camera, shooting in locations squalid enough to make Andy Warhol vomit. He doesn’t care as much about his characters. Eastland is a cipher, and the way Glickenhaus uses fadeouts and fade-ins to cut sequences makes me wonder whether he shot scenes explaining Eastland’s behavior and later thought, “Ah, who cares, let’s get to the violence.”

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Good day, MICRO-FILM faithful! Current inklings have inspired us to reactivate the MICRO-FILM News Blog on a very limited basis, during which we will post vintage material, fresh coverage, and updates involving behind-the-scenes efforts that will affect the future of both MF and companion local-zine, C-U Confidential. We dare not promise anything prematurely at this point – other than to warn THE EXTERMINATOR will be looking for you this afternoon – and simply encourage everyone to keep watch here as our plan unfolds. We’ll share MFBlog links on the C-U Confidential Facebook page and send updates through our Mailing List; please write us if you would like to be added to the latter!

Thanks for checking in!

~ Jason Pankoke, Editor

Greetings again, everybody…

Never thought that I’d have the ability to wax philosophic from the confines of a drinking-and-dining establishment in downtown Champaign, Illinois, that is not the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, but, here we are!

The following is a slightly shortened rumination that I sent along to the fine folks on the C-U Confidential mailing list, so now I’m sharing it across all our forums to let you know what your humble editor is thinking in terms of the MICRO-FILM past – all 10 years of it! Not necessarily the most glamorous or productive history, especially given our recent times under the radar, but I respect everything that everyone has done for the MICRO-FILM cause since 1999, along with all the crazy independent cinema that I’ve had the fortune to cover since we started.

Please feel free to record your thoughts at the conclusion of this post!

~ Jason Pankoke

~~~~~

MICRO-FILM: 1999-2009 ~ or ~ So, now what do we do?

This is a conspicuous time here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters.

Very conspicuous … especially, the 10th time around.

Yes, indeed, on October 29, 2009, we reached the point in time marking a full decade after the publication of the very first issue of MICRO-FILM, the Magazine of Personal Cinema in Action. While not technically the first time for MF in print, it was the first time that MF had been realized the way that we thought was appropriate – as a legitimate publication for media artisans and non-Hollywood film fans alike.

So now, we hit the milestone after an unfortunate stretch of silence – at least, depending on where one looks and how one listens. MICRO-FILM 7 is the last print issue to date, arriving in late October 2005 with enfant terrible Lars von Trier on the cover, and the companion MICRO-FILM News Blog has been mostly devoid of blogged news during the last 18 months. What, then, is to celebrate here?

It is because we have kept alive the MICRO-FILM mystique with C-U Blogfidential and C-U Confidential. Having always been a part of MF, the C-Us helped bring the coverage down to an immediate, personal level. Through sheer stubbornness – and the lack of having anything physical and timely for Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in 2007 – we went back to print with CUZine and have since released it on an annual schedule. In fact, the promise and prominence of the C-Us in MICRO-FILM Country has yet to be fully realized … in our opinion, not by a long shot.

Introducing the C-Us as their own entity was the beginning of an effort to create indie media about indie media with a refreshed state of mind. The C-U quotient really was – and still is – the soul of MICRO-FILM. Does this mean that MF itself can have a second life in a digital age which has matured tremendously since its nascent, pre-2000 era?

We don’t know that answer right now. The main reason why? Bring up your browser and type “independent film” in Google. There is your answer – (arguably) too much repetitive information on the subject, a very difficult density in which to build (or re-establish) a marketing and readership push that will make our spin stand out above most others.

This will not stop us from exploring how we can develop the C-Us as we’ve seen in recent years – particularly with the slow but sure upswing of local production – that “thinking locally” instead of globally (even though, of course, we hope that local productions will be prosperous far and wide) might be the more productive way to channel our efforts. During the next few months, you will learn about our upcoming issues, bonus publications, additional products, expanded Web features, increased presence on social networks, and (promise!) a brief reprieve for MICRO-FILM, but our continuation can only be prolonged by what happens outside of MFHQ. It starts with all of you.

We’ve asked you to pass along our news and announcements to your friends, colleagues, and collaborators. Have you done it in the past? Will you please do it from here on out? This is the first, no-cost step in how you can help anchor the future of the C-Us and MICRO-FILM.

The next step is for all of you to keep tabs at the following URL, and not just immediately after the occasions when we pipe up via The CineMicroGraph. Read early, link to us often, synthesize via conversations within your circles, show your support when we release products, join with us publicly when we take our act to the streets, the coffee houses, the academic auditoriums, and the watering holes:

http://www.micro-film-magazine.com/cublog/

The third step, of course, is for the ballsiest of you to spring forth and engage in the world which we trumpet 24/7 – the creation of independent cinema and, by extension, independent art. Take advantage of the inside knowledge we offer to you with run with it. It’s your choice to step up to the front lines instead of perennially watching from the sidelines.

It’s been an enlightening ride even though our visibility outside of MICRO-FILM Country has been dimmed during the last few years. Please ask yourselves to trust us a little longer, look at what we do a little deeper, and encourage us (if not join us) to reach ever so higher with our stubborn creativeness. For the last 10 years, we’ve been doing the same for all of you.

Jason Pankoke
October 18, 2009

Greetings, everybody…

Just going to throw up here a couple of quick notes this week. First, MICRO-FILM passed it’s 10th anniversary last week on Thursday, October 29. While we didn’t throw a party or marshal any spectacular product release, we do have a modest series of upcoming occurrences in the works that will put the proper perspective on MF‘s history and where it will and won’t go from here.

That will include not only the oft-delayed MICRO-FILM 8 but a pair of small limited-edition “retro” publications that will be coming out in early 2010, C-U Confidential ’99 and MICRO-FILM 2000. Stay tuned for more news here as well as C-U Blogfidential for more updates!

Finally, you may notice at some point between now and Christmas that the MICRO-FILM main site and Weblog may go down for several days at a time. We will be doing some re-design and updating on these sites as well as the C-U contingent.

If you are a film/entertainment writer interested in contributing material for upcoming releases, contact us at microfilm.magazine [at] gmail [dot] com. MICRO-FILM is a non-paying gig, so please consider this before making contact.

~ Jason Pankoke

Hello from the icy, gusty, frosty, foggy, drenched Midwest! We’re checking in to say “Happy Holidays” and wish everyone a bright and productive 2009, during which We the People need to achieve improvement in our world and save the American face. More than ever, art and media speaks out internationally so it is a cue for independent filmmakers everywhere to use their tools creatively for the greater good as well as their own artistic whims. Let Hollywood whip up the fluff as they may.

The next 12 months will also be an active and sobering time for MICRO-FILM. It has been a while since we’ve been able to keep MF going on a constant basis and the course we are taking will not exactly be normal given a highly volatile publishing environment that has swallowed up many a beloved title. It is sad, frustrating, and even a bit embarrasing for a country that supposedly values its wide range of voices, but both the survivors and victims in the independent press can win using adaptation and intellect.

Right now, we’re looking to eradicate back-door SPAM problems that have been plaguing the News Blog, and once that’s done we’ll resume regular posting. We also can announce that MICRO-FILM 8 will be published in April 2009 alongside the third issue of C-U Confidential. More details on both will be released at winter’s end!

~ Jason Pankoke

It’s a cliche, which we’re not particularly fond of ’round here at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, but with these less than stellar economic times – buoyed somewhat by an election cycle that has brought about more hope than sustained dismay – we certainly have to be thankful for what and whom we have in our lives. We hope that you will have a peaceful Thanksgiving this week with your family and friends. Cheers to all!

As to all the quiet here on this Midwestern front as of late … we’ll be posting some important news during the next few weeks about the future of MICRO-FILM. It may be inevitable, but the pathway towards conclusion is not exactly what you’d expect.

~ Jason Pankoke

SUGAR
Golden, Jolley, Reynolds

by Jeff McCoy

Your outer breath stops and you experience stark reality;
   your immaculate naked awareness clear.
At that instant you must recognize it as yourself. – The Bardo Thodol

With a quote as enigmatic as its title, SUGAR opens with its silent, nameless protagonist (Samara Golden) cowering in a refrigerator. Venturing out into her squalid, debris-strewn apartment, she removes the grating from a crawlspace and drags out a corpse which may belong to the former tenant Anthony. Answering machine messages from concerned individuals – mother, landlord, creditors – indicate that Anthony was on a downward spiral before his (apparent) disappearance. As the apartment’s new occupant clears out detritus, she begins to uncover disturbing clues that Anthony’s spirit may be lingering. Is Anthony dead, and if so, did the young woman kill him? Is she insane? Or has Anthony’s own insanity seeped into the apartment itself, infecting its new tenant?

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