Josh Braun Movies

Take a trip back to a time when New York City wasn't all glitz and glamour as filmmaker Celine Danhier offers a look at the birth of "No Wave Cinema" and the vibrant art scene that exploded out of the East Village in the late '70s. In the years before Ronald Reagan took office, Manhattan was in ruins. But true art has never come from comfort, and it was precisely those dire circumstances that inspired artists like Jim Jarmusch, Lizzy Borden, and Amos Poe to produce some of their best works. Taking their cues from punk rock and new wave music, these young maverick filmmakers confronted viewers with a stark reality that stood in powerful contrast to the escapist product being churned out by Hollywood. Interviews with the aforementioned artists as well as Debbie Harry, Steve Buscemi, John Waters, John Lurie, Lydia Lunch, and Thurston Moore reveal how a group of young visionaries pooled their resources to birth a film movement that produced some of the most challenging art of the 20th century. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

In 2003, filmmakers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein traveled to Iraq and spent several months with 2/3 Field Artillery unit as young soldiers simultaneously tried to fight a war and keep peace shortly after George W. Bush had publicly announced major combat operations in Iraq were over. The result was the acclaimed documentary Gunner Palace, and six years later, Tucker and Epperlein catch up with some of the men of the 2/3 FA and find out what's become of them since returning home in How To Fold A Flag. Michael Goss is still dealing with the violence he witnessed in Iraq and has taken up a career as a wrestler as he tries to satisfy his need to somehow stay in battle. Javorn Drummond came from a poor family and planned to use his G.I. benefits to attend college. But getting the aid he deserves proves difficult, and now he has to help his mother who is living with cancer but has no medical insurance. Stuart Wilf was a wild kid into heavy metal when he joined the Army, and for all his high spirits and profane humor it's clear that he still hasn't put his demons to rest; at the same time he tries to support his mother, who now has another son in Iraq. And Jon Powers came home with a desire to serve his community and decided to run for office, only to become the victim of attack ads questioning his conduct while in uniform. How To Fold A Flag was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Filmmaker Douglas Keeve (Unzipped and Seamless) turns his attentions from the fashion industry to a famous New York City landmark that's undergoing a controversial renovation in this portrait of the legendary Gramercy Park Hotel. In it's early days, the Gramercy was a high-society hot spot - the Kennedys once rented out an entire floor, and a young Humphrey Bogart exchanged his wedding vows there. Later, in the 1970s and 80s, musicians, artists, and junkies haunted the hallways, attracted by the management's "anything goes" policy as well as the Gramercy's affordable room prices. Now, as luxury hotelier Ian Schrager prepares for the grand re-opening of the iconic Hotel Gramercy Park, director Keeve attempts to find what kind of impact this posh renovation will have - positive or negative - on the hotel's notorious reputation as a seedy-chic hotspot. Some residents refused to leave during the construction, and many neighbors resent the glossy makeover that the Gramercy is getting. In addition to speaking with the people who live and work at the Gramercy, Keeve also explores the sometimes-tragic story of the Weissberg family. The Weissbergs have owned and lived in the Hotel Gramercy Park for fifty years, and experienced their fair share of both joy and heartache within its walls. As the Weissbergs reflect on the legacy of the Gramercy, viewers are offered an intimate and comprehensive reflection of a place that has become known as a virtual beacon for the creative and cultural elite. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

David Cronenberg directed this screen adaptation of a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke which explores how an act of heroism unexpectedly changes a man's life. Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) lives a quiet life in a small Indiana town, running the local diner with his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), and raising their two children. But the quiet is shattered one day when a pair of criminals on the run from the police walk into his diner just before closing time. After they attack one of the customers and seem ready to kill several of the people inside, Tom jumps to the fore, grabbing a gun from one of the criminals and killing the invaders. Tom is immediately hailed as a hero by his employees and the community at large, but Tom seems less than comfortable with his new notoriety. One day, a man with severe facial scars, Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris), sits down at the counter and begins addressing Tom as Joey, and begins asking him questions about the old days in Philadelphia. While Tom seems puzzled, Carl's actions suggest that the quiet man pouring coffee at the diner may have a dark and violent past he isn't eager to share with others -- as well as some old scores that haven't been settled. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based upon Peter Biskind's book of the same name, this BBC-produced documentary traces the rise of a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who briefly changed the face of movies with a more personal approach that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable onscreen. Influenced by such European directors as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Federico Fellini, the movement kicked off in the mid-'60s with two films directed by Arthur Penn: Mickey One and Bonnie and Clyde. (The latter had been offered to both Godard and Truffaut before it wound up with producer/star Warren Beatty and Penn.) What really kicked it into gear was the unexpected success of Easy Rider, a biker-road movie that became that rare film phenomenon: acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival and a huge commercial success. Film school graduates, the first generation brought up with movies as their main cultural reference, flooded the studios (whose own regimes were changing) with production chieftains such as Robert Evans of Paramount and David Picker at United Artists; they approved risky-looking projects and allowed relatively untested filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola to take on heavyweight movies such as The Godfather or Hollywood newcomers like Britain's John Schlesinger to make quirky stories like Midnight Cowboy. Enriched by success with their TV show The Monkees, producer Bert Schneider and director Bob Rafelson formed a company that produced not only Easy Rider but seminal '70s films such as Five Easy Pieces and the Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds. Another godfather to the new movement was producer Roger Corman, who gave early career opportunities to Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jonathan Demme on low-budget projects that allowed them to learn their craft.

Two things brought this movement to an end: Some individual filmmakers' personal excesses (such disastrous flops as Dennis Hopper's follow-up to Easy Rider, appropriately titled The Last Movie, and Scorsese's New York, New York), and the studios growing fascination with special effects-driven B-movies. An outgrowth of two box-office and marketing juggernauts -- Jaws and Star Wars -- the resulting films became entertainments rather than personal statements of the directors. Narrated by William H. Macy, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features vintage clips of Coppola, Scorsese, Beatty, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, and Pauline Kael. It also includes original interview material with Penn; Corman; Bogdanovich; Hopper; Picker; writer/directors John Milius and Paul Schrader; actresses Karen Black, Cybill Shepherd, Margot Kidder, and Jennifer Salt (the latter two shared a house in Malibu, a social center for young filmmakers); actors Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, and Richard Dreyfuss; producers Jerome Hellman, Michael Phillips, and Jonathan Taplin; editor Dede Allen; production designer Polly Platt; writers David Newman, Joan Tewksbury, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck; cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond; agent Mike Medavoy; and former production executive Peter Bart. Among the films discussed are Rosemary's Baby, The Wild Bunch, Mean Streets, American Graffiti, The Rain People, Midnight Cowboy, M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. (Three interviewees -- cinematographer Gordon Willis, critic Andrew Sarris, and writer-director Monte Hellman -- listed in the Variety review of this film, were not included in this version from a screening on Bravo.) ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi