Make Films Not Movies

Known to a generation of film fans for his wired portrayal of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (and to another generation entirely as the voice of Randall Boggs in Monsters Inc.) actor Steve Buscemi's feature directorial debut is a raw and unflattering look at the life of dedicated alcoholics.

Trees Lounge is the story of Tommy Basilio, an out of work mechanic with an alcohol problem whose wife has left him for his one time best friend and boss (Anthony LaPaglia). Besides trying to get his boss to hire him again, Tommy spends his days at Connie's bar (a world-weary Carol Kane) amongst the barflies and the down-trodden. His luck turns when he inherits an Ice Cream truck business and returns to work, but it quickly degenerates as he strikes up a worrying friendship with his ex-Wife's seventeen year old niece (a very young Chloe Sevigny).

Filled with mise en scene as grimy as Connie's dark den, along with an impressive number of outstanding performances, Trees Lounge seems to be about the curious need of all people to search for something else. A motif runs throughout the film of elusive wishes - from Tommy's search for the love of his ex-Wife to some poor kid who just wants an ice cream cone and can never seem to win.

Flying well under the radar and not seeing much in the way of commercial success, Trees Lounge is an underrated film with a strong home video following. Watch it with a bottle of something cheeky and a wry smile.

First released on the festival circuit in 2007, Director Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity was bought by Paramount and subsequently released with an alternate ending suggested by Steven Speilberg. This review is for the original 2007 version of the film.

The film's simple conceit involves a young couple who experience unexplained phenomenon in their house at night, mostly while they sleep. Setting up video surveilance, they begin to capture these peculiar goings-on which quickly escalate into terrifying paranormal events.

By necessity, much of the camera work is bland and unsettling but not always in the right kind of way. The use of minimalistic sound was a good choice and the droning noise that often preceeds an event has the ability to scare by itself towards the end. There are a lot of long takes in the editing of the film, obviously to mimic raw amateur footage, that really only made the cut feel lacklustre and unplanned. Performances by Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat are somewhat overstated, though Featherston is occassionally convincing when scared witless.

Comparisons to The Blair Witch Project are inevitable and, I believe, relevant. The groundbreaking 1999 film employed the 'guerilla' style of film-making superbly - going so far as to set up bogus websites, create a long and detailed mythscape around its characters and to actually scare the film's actors while stuck in the woods at night on shoot. In comparison, everything The Blair Witch Project got right, Paranormal Activity got wrong.

While the home handycam style of the film makes for a more visceral projection than TBWP's mostly 16mm student film look, the dialogue is overly scripted, unconvincingly acted (for the most part at least) and you can't help the feeling you're watching someone's home made take of a borrowed idea. While initial screenings of TBWP were viewed by people who didn't know what they were watching wasn't real, I am sure there will be no such viewers for it's 'homage'.

However, as disappointing as I found Paranormal Activity, it was rather creepy in many parts and so in essence served its purpose. I also realise there are many potential viewers too young to have seen TBWP - and their enjoyment will probably not be marred by expectation.

Well worth a viewing at any rate, Paranormal Activity is a great achievement for first time director and one time video game programmer Peli, whose next outing is Area 51