Warts and All: The Films of Danny Plotnick DVD review (Detroit Metrotimes)

In a world of underground cinema defined by the polarity of auteurs vs. retards, it’s great to be reminded that there are some filmmakers who manage to be both. San Francico’s Danny Plotnick has been mining this middle ground for more than 20 years, applying a punk, DIY aesthetic and an askance sense of humor to his body of work. Well schooled in film formalities, and able to produce exceptional work on Super 8, as well as 16mm and DV, Plotnick has nonetheless made it his life’s mission to create out-of-the-ordinary films rich with humor and bizarre perspective. This 100-minute collection of 20 of Plotnick’s most notable works has everything from scene-ravaging female skateboarders (and their pet rodents) to dangerous little kids to, yes, sock puppets. The highlight, though, is Plotnick’s 1999 tour de force, Swinger’s Serenade, which finds him taking a script pulled from the pages of a ’60s filmmaking magazine and turning it into an appropriately lurid black-and-white commentary on (barely) repressed sexuality. Throughout Serenade and the rest of the DVD, Plotnick never abandons his devotion to technical experimentation, and makes it abundantly clear that he’s well-trained in the rules he’s breaking.

First appeared March 12, 2008 in Detroit Metrotimes.

Buy this DVD at Amazon.com.

The Bank Job movie review (Baltimore Citypaper)

Jason Statham may never get too much traction in the States as an action star, but the man can certainly carry a British crime flick. As he did in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, Statham excels in The Bank Job as a member of an amateur gang bent on making a big job. As a heist movie, The Bank Job is notably slim on planning machinations and dazzling gadgetry; the crew carries off a rather huge crime with a low-tech array of implements that would shame George Clooney’s Ocean’s team. Director Roger Donaldson pins most of the action and suspense on what happens after the robbery, and the majority of the plot unspools in the third act. This was wise on his part, since the movie is based on the true story of a 1971 bank robbery, and thus we know the money makes its way out of the vault. With just enough nail-biting moments and flashes of extreme violence to excuse its thin character sketches and tough-guy dialogue, The Bank Job manages to earn praise for exceeding the limited expectations of both its genre and its star.

First appeared March 12, 2008 in Baltimore Citypaper.