Sometimes it takes a village, though, even one that seems at first glance composed of idiots, or at least eccentrics. The debut film from Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin, APART FROM THAT (2006; July 1 at 8:45 pm and July 3 at 7 pm, with Walker and Shainin present), elevates the goofy enigmas and the multi-narrative style of Napoleon Dynamite and The Guatemalan Handshake to a new level. The binding theme is, inevitably, the failure to connect: Ulla (Kathleen McNearney), the pretty, blonde hair-styling student, can’t connect with Peggy (Alice Ellingson), her elderly landlady, even though she makes mocking recordings of Peggy’s daily noises. Peggy can’t connect with anyone, even though she calls in false alarms to the fire department and waits naked for them to arrive. Leo (Tony Cladoosby) refuses to visit his dying son, but he copes by collecting odds and ends to make into a “sculpture.” And so on. Halloween is approaching, and the way things work in this kind of film, there will be more tricks than treats. As Independence Day approaches for us, I can’t think of any better way of celebrating than by enjoying these movies.
Related:
Review: Daddy Longlegs, Hell is other sequels, A Date With John Waters, More 
- Review: Daddy Longlegs
For about an hour, Josh and Benny Safdie’s trendy indie about a deadbeat dad taking care of his two boys for two weeks in Manhattan seems like the kind of movie in which you hate everybody — especially the directors.
- Hell is other sequels
At first, At World’s End doesn’t seem to differ much from the world outside.
- A Date With John Waters
Valentine’s Day, with its heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and colorful candy kisses, is right up filmmaker John Waters’s kitschy alley, not to mention a perfect candidate for the auteur’s obsession with incredibly strange music.
- Shock value
Moviegoers seeking release from the increasingly unavoidable escapism of superhero movies will find much to enjoy in the 11th Boston French Film Festival.
- Lex marks the spot
What makes Lex Luthor tick? ThePhoenix.com interviews Superman’s newest enemy. Reinventing the steel: A behind-the-scenes report from Superman Returns. By Mike Cotton
- Body moving
Beastie Boys’ MCA on punk-rock filmmaking, semicolons, and his new screenplay set in NYC’s Wild Style -era graffiti scene.
- Shaw business
The Shaw Brothers dominated Hong Kong film production in the ’60s and ’70s, and they produced not only martial-arts epics but also musicals, ghost stories, and melodramas.
- Sound and silence
The RISD exhibit reminds us that filmmakers at the forefront of the medium have been consistently drawn to the novelty of the medium.
- Reel lives
The 2006 Rhode Island International Film Festival is screening 282 films selected from more than 2000 submissions from more than 62 countries and 34 states. Watch the trailer for Sweet Dreams (flash)
- Believe it or not
Even the titles of his films are a little weird.
- Frozen River
This Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner takes us to a remote stretch of the New York–Quebec border where, come winter, there’s not much to do but wish you were elsewhere.
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