Paul Yates Movies
- 1998
In this low-budget experimental drama, filmed in 16mm black-and-white, a man (Jon Hyrns) garbed in a jumpsuit with earmuffs and a stocking cap works diligently and travels the landscape with his leafblower, encountering an Italian rival (Marco Giudice) and a muscleman (Charles Langley) as he blows away dirt, detritus, and debris in order to clear a landing site for the arrival of aliens. Shown at Austin's 1998 South By Southwest Filmfest. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Hyrns, Marco Giudice, (more)
- 1998
- NR
- Add Modulations: Cinema for the Ear to QueueAdd Modulations: Cinema for the Ear to top of Queue
Documentarian Iara Lee, a U.S.-based, Brazilian-born filmmaker, skated through virtual reality, cyber-stimuli, and recreational technologies in her fast-paced Synthetic Pleasures (1995), notable for the memorable "surf's up" sequence inside a Japanese indoor beach with rolling waves. Where Synthetic Pleasures attempted to explore all aspects of the digital domain, Modulations focuses just on modern music-rave parties, techno dance music, and the history of electronic music (John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Robert Moog), moving on to '70s innovators (Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder), hip-hop pioneers, and more recent club-scene creators (Prodigy, Moby, Money Mark, Future Sound of London, The Invisibl Skratch Piklz), capturing diverse dance-track styles (house, trip-hop, acidhouse, ambient). The 35mm film brings together archival material, video clips, concert footage, and numerous interviews with musicians. Shown at 1998 film festivals (Sundance, Berlin). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Charlatan Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts (including a dearly departed Wild West outlaw and an undead judge played by John Astin) into staging hauntings and poltergeists in the homes of likely marks. Bannister's world turns on its head when he starts noticing real hauntings around town -- ghostly assassinations that seem to be tied to the execution 20 years earlier of a brutal serial killer. Lucy Lunskey (Trini Alvarado), the wife of one unlucky victim, teams up with Bannister to get to the bottom of the killings and find out what shut-in Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace Stone) and her witchy mother (Julia McCarthy) have to do with the sinister spree. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, (more)
