pischina Reviews

Twenty Million People (2013)

An Intelligent Rom-Com for Real Adults

[8/10 · 13 August 2013]

(Originally reviewed at http://popcornandvodka.com in February 2013 for the Cinequest Film Festival.)

"I really liked this one film, it's a romantic comedy."

"Oh, that's– Wait, YOU liked a romantic comedy???"

Yes, yes I did, and that says a lot. TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE is great film without the gag-worthy love smarm. This film is about real life dating, real life relationships, and real life, flawed people. It's about not saying what you mean, and paying the consequences for it. It's about assuming things without asking questions, and living with the results. It's about working for what you want, and not giving up.

This is real life. Adult life.

Brian (Michael Ferrell) meets and loses the girl of his dreams, and spends the rest of the film looking for her and/or debating whether he's wasting his time. He's helped by his good friend Edward (Chris Prine) AND the two fictional characters of the last wretched romantic comedy he watched himself. This smug and smarmy couple keep popping up and giving him advice, but what good relationship advice can ever be gleaned from a romantic comedy?

This is a great film, and in my top 3 films of the Cinequest Film festival so far. Yes, a Rom-Com. Yes, I really liked this film. Besides a pretty original story, or at least a twist on the rom-com formula, the actors in this film are outstanding. Michael Ferrell performs a film hat trick by writing, directing AND starring in his own film, and he pulls it off with no complaints from me. Special notice goes to Tom Bartos as the skeevy but hilarious manager of the coffee shop where Brian works. And I cannot forget Devin Sanchez as the antithesis of your typical romantic comedy female. Jennifer Aniston she's not, and I'm telling you that's a GOOD thing. Devin's character, Ashley, is flawed and unintentionally causes problems, but she is also a good human being just trying to figure her way through life.

Please let us see more films from Michael Ferrell.

Tandoori Love (2008)

Seriously Hysterical Swiss-Bollywood Film, not to be missed

[9/10 · 6 March 2009]

Tandoori Love is bright, colorful, musical, romantic, slightly violent and best of all, contains extreme close-ups of beautiful, delicious Indian food. This is fusion film-making at its best and most hilarious, and you will leave the theater desperately searching for the nearest Indian restaurant.

Sonja lives in the Swiss Alps and is engaged to Markus. Well, he hasn't actually proposed yet, or given her a ring, but he has already announced the engagement to their families. Markus seems like a nice guy if a bit of a mama's boy, and Sonja is a gorgeous Swiss Miss with very long legs and red hair.

All is going well until a Bollywood film crew sets up camp next to their chalet/restaurant. Spoiled Priya is a Bollywood diva who loves Raja, the crew cook. But Raja only has eyes for the Swiss beauty in the chalet. Markus, unaware of Raja's love for his fiancé, hires him to be the new cook for the restaurant.

And now the fun begins. The arrival of the film crew has turned all of Switzerland into a Bollywood movie. Raja makes an impromptu marriage proposal to Sonja in the supermarket and suddenly is singing a love ballad while all the Swiss customers start dancing in sync. After every declaration of love or rejection we cut to an overproduced Bollywood music video. And of course we have the standard boy meets girl, loses girl, accidentally stabs a man in the back, and then wins girl in the end. But you never know which boy and which girl will end up with whom.

This movie is just pure, enjoyable fun. There are no deep messages here, no thoughtful quandaries to think about later, it's just a fun and quite beautiful Swiss-Bollywood movie. Definitely one of my favorites at Cinequest Film Festival this year.

Mejor es que Gabriela no se muera (2007)

Anyone who has watched a telenovela (even if you don't understand them!) or a soap opera will love this movie.

[8/10 · 30 December 2008]

I saw this at the Cinequest Film Festival in 2008 and loved it. Not the best movie of the festival, but very very funny. In Mexico, a man gets hassled by a cop. When the cop discovers the man is a writer for his favorite telenovela, he lets him go - on the condition that the writer tells him what will happen. Trouble ensues when the telenovela plot later takes an unexpected turn.

The movie is hilarious in parts, although there were a few times that all of us in the audience thought there may be some serious violence (the cop is not very happy to have been shamed in front of his friends, co-workers AND mother-in-law), no drastic violence occurs and the movie keeps its comedy intact. The last 20 minutes are laugh out loud hilarious, although I'm not sure of the significance of the last 5 minutes of the movie, overall I thought it was a WHOLE lot of fun.

Disfigured (2008)

Amazing Must-See Film

[10/10 · 16 August 2008]

This was a truly amazing film, and one everyone should see - whether you are fit, fat or in-between. It brings up a lot of interesting subjects and surprised me in that early on it is made clear that this is not a movie about making overweight women feel proud of themselves. It also doesn't really answer any questions about weight issues today - what it does is make you think: about how you view yourself and how you view other people, and this includes the overweight as well as the underweight. And yet still it was about so much more. I had the pleasure of meeting cast and crew at Cinequest in San Jose and this was one of my favorite films of the festival.

Sherman's Way (2008)

Awesome movie, pretty flawless, enjoyable, funny

[10/10 · 8 July 2008]

I saw this movie at the Cinequest Film Festival in 2008 and thoroughly enjoyed it, and it seemed like the entire audience did too. Very likable characters, believable character growth, Excellent actors, Excellent writing. I don't like spoiling what movies are about so I won't go into details. The movie description keeps referencing "road trip" but I felt like it was sort of a road trip pitstop movie. Meaning... There's these two guys, they go on a road trip, but then they have to stop at a small town for a few days and that's where the majority of the film takes place. I'm not sure why Lacy Chabert is credited so highly in the movie because she's in it for all of 2 minutes. But Brooke Nevin is in it and she was pretty damn awesome.

I was sad this movie was over as I really enjoyed the characters and wanted to know what happens in the future. I sincerely hope this movie makes it to the big screen or at least to DVD so more people can see it. It was one of the best movies of Cinequest.

Glory Boy Days (2008)

Very promising new film director

[8/10 · 7 March 2008]

I just returned from watching this film in a huge packed theater at Cinequest in San Jose. One character, "Aces", notes that they are all living their "Glory Boy Days." But I think the film is actually about the point when they realize their Glory Boy Days are over or ending. I think that's the point that we all have our first "mid-life crisis". Very reminiscent of Kevin Smith's "Clerks" in several ways, for instance a heavy load of very smart dialogue. The actor that plays the main character told us he had never acted before which is quite unbelievable. I would keep a look out for everyone involved in this film. I was pretty impressed with this film and I think it really shows potential for even better future films from this director.