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Reviews
The Anna Cabrini Chronicles (2005)
Hats off gentlemen, a genius!
I have finally found a director who takes me to where Lynch and others do not dare to go - to that next level. If Lynch is a surrealist than Dorenfeld offers a kind of hyperreality that will challenge your senses - at times you will want to avert your eyes but you cannot and you emerge from the experience of watching this movie with a sense of accomplishment - you have been exposed to something new and have in fact changed as a person because of this.
"Have you ever seen the darker birds . . .?" The director drops you into the abyss, into the lives and thoughts of 3 suicidal personages. For me, the Jonathan Silver character episode is the dark heart of this film - incredible acting by Michael Childers, really, an amazing performance with great direction, also a new form of cinematography - of voyeuristically probing zooms and camera angles - of the director's penetrating consciousness . I had dreamt of this sort of darkness, but I had never seen it, until now.
The other two episodes - Brooke, Merrick are also fascinating, at times unbearably emotionally wrenching and intercut with disturbing psychedelic pencil animations, etc. - this film is an amazing world that must be seen to be unbelieved.
The Curse of El Charro (2005)
Damn fine movie.
Recently witnessed the premiere of a damn fine movie, "The Curse of El Charro" - at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Take "Friday the 13th" add Twin Peaks send-ups, apocalyptic dream sequences and visual references to German Expressionist/Communist cinema. Sprinkle blood into a lesbian shower scene. You don't like that? What's wrong with you?
El Charro himself is as memorable as they come. His sunken mouth, the dragged machete, his mayhem, the horror. I hope this is just the beginning of a potentially classic franchise. Also - brilliant score . . . great sound design.
I'm afraid one reviewer missed the point regarding the supporting actresses. The girls in "Friday the 13th" weren't acting for Oscars, either, and they all die in the end, anyway. I found the lead actress wholly convincing as a magnet for darkness.
This director rocks. Lemmy is in this film! & I saw Alice Cooper at the premiere! I heard this was Rich Ragsdales first film. Here's to many more!