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ByShelkyMika
Staff writer
Someone asks, “Who do you know who’s
famous from Nebraska?” The answer: usually
Johnny Carson or Willa Gather (athletes excluded,
of course.)
Then Los Angeles opened a little spot in its
corporate heart for musicians such as 311 and
Matthew Sweet
What’s the next step? Com farmers on Oprah?
Lil’ Red scoring a TV sitcom?
Not quite. Btft some Lincolnites are trying
their hands at making movies.
To support the efforts of these Nebraska film
makers, The Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater will
present four f1ms by local artists in two free show
ings. The following is a summary of what can be
expected.
“The Passing” by Robbie Wilkins
A truly short film (less than 4 minutes), “The
Passing” is a funny little movie about two people
passing each other on the street. The film is as brief
as the glance between the characters, but Wilkins
manages to put together a work with good time
delay footage and an eerie, comical setting.
“The Walk” by Scott Pittock
A man smokes a million cigarettes while walk
ing on a dreary night and finds himself in a bar
with an attractive stranger.
From there, the viewer may think the film noir
style will lead to a racy romance, but Pittock twists
the ending like metal in a car accident. If you can
figure out the end, fill mein.
“Carpula” by Ross Brockley
It’s not about a killer fish.
Instead, “Carpula” follows a man and his
dream of stocking a fish farm by breeding carp
with tolapia. Brockley’s film is loosely based on
the 19th century book “Good Husbandry of
Pondes” by British author Janus DuBravius, who
first introduced carp to America.
Earlier this year, Brockley ran a trial screening
of “Carpula” to test the waters. The film succeeded
in being original and very funny, but Brockley and
co-director John Andrews were still in die editing
process.
Final cuts should make the film popular with
Ross patrons. Among all of the films, this is the one
to catch.
“The Dean’s Boys” by Daniel B. Iske
I think there’s a difference between watching a
movie about young people and actually being in
the presence of immaturity. “The Dean’s Beys,”
which was shot in Omaha, fits the latter.
Although there are some quasi-intellectual
conversations (which are delivered like speeches
rather than dialogue), for die most part, all we see
are four guys screwing around.
To oversimplify, the basic plot is this: Four
friends find themselves getting into and out of
trouble beginning with getting caught altering a
friend’s grades.
Three of the four friends need to get laid. (This
point is made very clear in the film.) The fourth
friend’s name is fitting: Party is getting all the
“action” and tries to help out his buddies.
Of course, none of this is really essential to the
plot, aside from what it weakly adds to character
development.
Much of the dialogue is at least one of four
things: Poorly written, poorly delivered, unoriginal
or out of place.
For instance, one character is talking (actually,
more like delivering a speech) to his prospective
girlfriend. As they discuss-get this-movies, of all
things (a central metaphor in the film), he explains
how characters don’t seem fake but come alive on
the screen. At die same time, he is sounding really
fake himself.
Oh yeah, and he needs to get laid.
Other things that would help out are hiring
some decent actors, keeping the subtle jokes, los
ing the physical humor and using die camera as an
art tool, not singly a recording device.
“The Dean’s Boys” is billed as a comedy.
Some goofy physical humor appears, and, once in
a while, a truly funny piece of dialogue appears
among the rest of the stale loaf.
^Nebraska
IjSgFeatures
TYPE: Films
DIRECTORS:
Ross Brockley, Daniel
Iske, Robbie Wilkins and
Scott Pittock.
COST: FREE
GRADE:
"Carpula" A;
"The Passing" B;
"The Walk" C-;
"The Dean's Boys" D
THE SKINNY: Local
Directors offer both
good and bad movies.
It’s easy to compare “The Dean’s Boys” to a
Hollywood movie. And I have no doubt that Iske,
not to mention any average Joe, could make a good
movie if given enough money and a good cast.
But that’s not what Iske is working with.
Instead, inexperience is his material, and the learn
ing tool here is his film, which makes me think that
if the young Daniel Iske were more mature, he
could use his talent to make a decent movie.