Reviews

Righteous 'Wrecking Crew' documents rock's real heroes

"The Wrecking Crew," screened at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center on Friday evening for the Anchorage International Film Festival, is a documentary about a group of Los Angeles musicians that happens to be a love story.

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LIVING

Teen sex comedy has Mel Brooks air

"Bart Got a Room," one of five competitors in the Anchorage International Film Festival feature category that was won by the risk-taking Australian film "Streetsweeper," is quite funny at times. Which is a good thing. The gags act like heavy makeup to hide a blowzy tale -- the gags, and the movie...
LIVING

Humdrum fuels madness in Festival winner

The Australian film "Streetsweeper" creates for itself a difficult challenge. It must hold our attention through a character who lives within his head and does not truly engage anyone else. Not that there are many others in the movie for Keith, the street sweeper, to interact with -- a handful of...
REVIEWS

Film explores eroding Alaska village

"The Last Days of Shishmaref" -- perhaps as close and detailed a look at the lives of the Inupiaq Eskimo of northwest Alaska as has been recorded in 35mm color film -- has a clear agenda: Move the town.
LIVING

Lust for life can't be put down

Though filmed in color, the streetscapes of "The Moon and Other Lovers," a movie by Bernd Bohlich, nevertheless evoke the former East Germany, where the story unfolds in a contemporary setting, as a sterile, dispirited world.
LIVING

'Sky' views characters in surreal tones

Hiroshi Toda, director of the beguiling "Sky in December," has made nine movies since his first in 2003. But he is not a career filmmaker. Toda holds a full-time job in Kyoto, Japan, managing a psychiatric clinic where he is also a nurse. He makes movies -- award-winning movies -- on the side.
LIVING

Quirky, funny 'Camille' is a good kick-off

Leaving the Bear Tooth Theatre Pub on Friday evening after the screening of "Camille," a man who seemed to be in his late 30s was heard to say, "This is as close as movies come to making me cry."
LIVING

Dark Fairbanks movie worth watching

How did anything as good as "Chronic Town" come out of Fairbanks? The gloomy cab ride through the dirty side of Alaska -- screened at Sundance and other major movie festivals this year -- features a strong story, great acting, superb cinematography and competent directing to create a movie that ...