Lance Around Orlando

You Don’t Want to Miss This Documentary

Spearhunter
Sometimes when you hear the name of a movie you wonder, “What’s that movie about?” With this particular movie, the title says it all. It’s a short documentary about a man who claims to be the greatest living spearhunter in the world. He even built his own museum on route 59 in Summerdale, Alabama. It features all the animals he killed with a spear. It’s a great documentary. The protagonist died of a heart attack in 2011. (Yes, while he was out spearhunting!) However, his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, both of whom are spearhunters and also work at the museum, are interviewed. Perhaps the funniest moment of the movie was at the very end. After viewing the museum filled with the stuffed carcasses of dead animals, the film featured the standard disclaimer: “No animals were harmed in the making of this film.” Is it just because Mrs LanceAround and I are vegetarians that we noticed this irony? Or  was it meant to be humorous?

The Desk
Today starts with one of those magical FFF moments that makes going to the festival so special. Mrs. LanceAround and I go to the documentary The Desk; not quite sure what it’s about or what the film will be like. The film itself is so sprawling, so complicated it’s even difficult to summarize. And yet, it is one of the most intelligent, inspiring, exhilarating films simply because it is just so  smart and wonderful to watch. Yes it is a bit confusing. No it isn’t filled with action. It isn’t that there is anything so great about the acting or the directing or the costumes or the sets. It is just a joy to see a film that is so thought provoking.

The Desk is an incredibly funny and very well conceived documentary–its only flaw  is that it is slightly overcomplicated, but well worth a look. The documentary features Andrew Goldman, a famous writer for the New York Times who was accused of misogyny and consequently fired. The story interweaves tales of intrigue within the Times, accusations of salacious relationships and some sort of nutty celebrity from New Zealand who tries to create his own mobile daytime talk show in America. Like I said, it’s a bit overcomplicated and difficult to convey in a short summary.

I can say it’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Mrs. LanceAround says that while the movie was sometimes difficult to navigate, she found it very intriguing.

Reactions From the Audience
“It was a weird movie. One way it made a left turn and turned into this thing about Iraq,” Says Carl F. Gauze who also writes a local blog.

“Just glad to be at another film festival,” said Scott. “I loved the movie. It was crazy. It was just a manic ride. Great!

“I thought it was great,” says the un-identified woman whom, when I asked, “How shall I identify you in the blog?” replied, “You shan’t!”

“Good…” Lee thoughtfully says about the movie. But she hesitates. “It was a little jumbled. But it was funny too. Of course, you recognize things in it. So you know what happened. It was a little on the wild side.”

“I liked it a lot,” muses Erica Karlinsky. She goes on to say that her son is in a short that’s playing at the Best of Brouhaha. “I’m so proud of him,” says Erica, referring to her son. He also had a role in Dolphin Tale 2. His name is Lee Karlinsky. He’s got an IMDB page,” his proud mother points out.

This entry was posted on April 12, 2015 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Art Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.