{The Source Family opens Friday, May 3 at 9 PM at the SIFF Cinema at the Film Center in Seattle Center, 305 Harrison Street, and runs through May 9, 2013. Source Family members Makushla, Omne, and Rain Aquarian will be at the premier in person.}

For underground music fans of the god-jam variety (namely, psyche heads) the names Father Yod and Ya Ho Wa 13 can evoke mystical states of I want I want I want. Most fans of even just some of the hundreds of releases these often free-form musicians put out since the late 60s are aware there is a wild cultural backstory to their creation; and some of those LPs feature pivotal artists such as Sky Saxon of The Seeds, who converted to the unabashed cult which formed the bands which made their sounds. 

That's right, FY and YHW 13 are actual cult artists, the former once known as Jim Baker, a Judo master and Marine and miracle-magus who underwent a Yogic conversion in the 60s and charismatically collected together something called The Source Family at the height of the West Coast New Age wampum.

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There are Kickstarter campaigns galore, but I want to bring your attention to one that I think is MORE than worthy of your donations: the Northwest Film Forum needs to make the leap to DCP conversion, because eventually, whether we like it or not, 35mm is going to be gone for good. So, to help make sure NWFF can show as many new films as possible, and keep this amazing piece of Seattle film community going, they need to raise $50,000 to get new technology, as well as modernize a few other things. 

Where will your money go? 

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Weekend movie time! There are a few Indies screening at The Grand Illusion and SIFF this weekend that I wanted to share with our imaginaries.

First up, Antiviral: screening at Grand Illusion Cinema , 4/19-4/25.

Antiviral is about an evolution in the way people view celebrity. Placed in a future bathed in clean white, the film centers on Syd, a salesman at a popular clinic where the commodity is live infections taken from celebs. A celeb gets infected or sick with something—herpes, the flu, etc.—and sells their virus to the clinic for a price, who in turn sells it back to super fans who want to be as close to that famous person as possible.

Gross, right? Imagine someone paying to get injected with Kim Kardashian's ... whatever.

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If you can’t tell from the trailer, John Dies at the End is one of those movies that’s completely unhinged—which is honestly why I think I liked it so much. And likely why I laughed almost all the way through the end (that reminds me, make sure you stay through the credits!). 

It’s hard to describe the plot since it’s kind of all over the place, but in a nutshell: John and Dave are two friends who stumble onto a psychedelic drug called “soy sauce” (courtesy of a Jamaican named Robert Marley) that may or may not be alive.

While on the sauce, the boys have the ability to talk to the dead, travel between dimensions, and completely mess with their own timelines. At some point, they get recruited into fighting the forces of evil alongside a slick celebrity Doctor named Marconi (a Russian-accented, suited up Clancy Brown. Yay!).

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I am terribly behind on this, I know! But it wouldn’t really feel like the start to a new year if I didn’t make some kind of list about the movies I fell in love with. It’s way too tough for me to make a traditional Top 10—so I’m going with the imaginary format I used last year. 

Best EVERYTHING: The Cabin in the Woods (Director: Drew Goddard)
I can’t even tell you how much I love this film. And sadly, I can’t even really tell you what this film is about without running it—short of saying that it’s about 5 college kids who go to a cabin for a weekend of fun only to have it turn into a screaming night of terror—which would be doing it an injustice. After watching this 5x (so far) and listening to the commentary twice, I’m convinced that the Whedon/Goddard pairing is a match made in horror heaven. I cannot wait to see what these guys do next! And I hope it’s soon. Really, really, really soon.

Best romantic comedy/drama that felt like it could really happen: Your Sister’s Sister (Director: Lynn Shelton)
Shelton’s finest film to date features a killer cast that folds you right into the story, with Mark Duplass working equal parts charm and stupidity, Emily Blunt emoting one-million different things with just her eyes, and Rosemarie Dewitt being as fabulous as she is in everything. Talking too much about the plot would give it away, so let’s just say it’s full of great surprises and sharp dialog. And I especially loved the completely unconventional ending.

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{Hyde Park on Hudson opened in Seattle on Friday, December 14, and is screening at the Landmark Egyptian Theater as well as the Bellevue Lincoln Square Cinemas}

Hyde Park on Hudson is a fascinating film, but not in a particularly positive way. It's fascinating as a demonstration of how any numerical 1-5 star type rating approach would miss how good the best parts are, and how "meh" the rest of the picture is.

Hyde Park follows a relationship between FDR (Bill Murray) and a somewhat distant cousin Daisy (Laura Linney). Over a critical weekend in the British/U.S. relationship on the eve of World War II, the Roosevelts entertain the King and Queen of England in their home.

The picture is a grab-bag of messages. History lessons, thinly veiled commentary on the nature of media presence in the modern era, dark romance, and aspects of period costume drama crash together. Producing a work that's mostly pretty dull, but decorated with an occasional flash of genius.

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{The Comedy opens in Seattle on Friday, December 7, and is screening at the SIFF Film Center}

Director Rick Alverson is in a band called Spokane, and works with their creative and successful independent label Jagjagwuar, to make films two films before the just-released The Comedy, The Builder (2010) and New Jerusalem (2011). He's also done videos for Will Oldham, which is a good point of reference for his latest work. Both of his first two films dealt with illness and spirituality, and change and morality, in stark and scenic ways, similar to an LP by Bonnie Prince Billy. In the midst of both, a raging, sad, troubled heart beats -- even if the dark humor and sense of space surrounding it seem contemplative. 

The Comedy continues Alverson's gorgeous yet provocative style, but with the addition of comedians Tim Heidecker (in the starring role) and his partner Eric Wareheim (yes, it's that Tim and Eric), and LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Neil Hamburger (well, his real life persona Gregg Turkington), a whole other thing is happening. I will admit to being a Tim and Eric Awesome Show fan, and I am very sorry about that.

Yes, I know their aesthetic is obviously deplorable, but as a huge fan of Albert Brooks, I like my comedy to make me squirm, deeply. (And yes, they're a lot more disturbing and disgusting than Brooks, but that sense of absurd-existential malaise belongs in the same family, buy it or not.) When I play their DVDs, my wife says, "You didn't pay money for that, did you?" (Yes, yes, I did. Sorry, sweetheart.) Tim and Eric create a world without any sense of kinesthetic pleasure; it is grossly yet thoughtfully unpleasant. Mindfully upsetting and emotionally disturbing. I dig it, but in small doses, like really messed up electronic psychedelia or something (they're the Adult Swim equivalent of "Frankie Teardrops" by Suicide, maybe? Thirteen minutes of psyche-smacking "pleasure.")

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{Miami Connection can be seen at the Grand Illusion Cinema Friday and Saturday night at 11pm, and this coming Thursday at 8pm}

I'm not an really big fan of so bad it's good movies. But when I heard tale of Miami Connection the lost 1980s-made action flick featuring drug deals gone bad, motorcycle ninjas, and a musical band of crime fighting tae-kwon-do masters who belte out ridiculously catchy synth-rock ballads -- I was at least a bit intrigued.

It turns out that Miami Connection is less a bad movie than a piece of joyously un-ironic filmmaking that wears it's wonderfully optimistic heart on it's sleeve. While introducing its audience to new levels of unintelligible story plot points, poor acting and stilted dialog. All worked in between insanely catchy yet horrible music that infects one brain with a grip more addictive than the film's "stupid cocaine."

The package works as a super entertaining unintended parody of a decade's genre action movies. As well as a triumph of artistic determination so pure that it overwhelms a myriad of execution flaws to make one want to give the filmmaker a hug for trying so hard. It's bad - but it's actually quite good.

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{The Seattle premiere of An Encounter with Simone Weil is at The Northwest Film Forum Monday, 9/24, and it screens through Thursday, 9/27. The Thursday showing includes a special introduciton by The Stranger editor Chrisopher Frizelle.} 

Totally intense philosopher, political agent, and spiritual worker Simone Weil was sort of the Ian MacKaye, Henry Rollins, and Dave Bazan of the 20th century revolutionary world. Born in 1909 and raised in a standard French bourgeois home, she was obsessed with the plight of the suffering, and the mechanics of oppression. All over the world, on every level of human existence. The way that a lot of artists and musicians are, or want to be seen as if they are. But when it comes to revolution, her drive was actualized in her own habitual writing, union organizing, mystical visions, and eventual death in 1943.

Some might think of it all as a neuotic waste, but a lot of others (including cultural maven Susan Sontag) found deep inspiration from even its most pathological extremes. 

Weil's tornado of doubt-infused living is solemnly and seriously documented by historical and activist filmmaker Julia Haslett in An Encounter with Simone Weil, who approaches the material with the ferocious focus required.

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{The Imposter screens at SIFF Cinema Uptown starting today, Friday, 8/10, through Thursday, 8/16}

By all accounts, Direct Bart Layton's documentary The Imposter is so crazy, you have to see it to believe it. And those accounts aren't wrong. I agree, with enthusiasm, that this is possibly the craziest documentary I've ever seen.

A 13-year-old boy disappears from San Antonio, TX, and just a little over 3 years later, he's found in Spain. Sounds too good to be true, right? Of course. But somehow, a 23-year-old French-Algerian con man named Frederic Bourdin convinces the parents, the police, the judge assigned to his case, and everyone else who comes in contact with him that he's an American-born 16-year-old boy who's been kidnapped and held for three years as a sex slave. He escaped, and he's ready to come home.

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