Talk Film #1: Brian McKechnie

Talk Film is going to be a regular feature here on skgfilms.com  As Filmmakers, we’re constantly picking brains for ideas/thoughts/perceptions/tips and we’ve decided to make those conversations public.

For Talk Film #1, we chatted with Citytv Toronto’s resident film reviewer, Brian McKechnie.  Links at the bottom.

What was your favourite film SO FAR in 2010?  Why?

I have two favourites so far: “Kick-Ass” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. “Kick-Ass” for the sheer entertainment value and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” because it was an amazing thriller and made me go out and buy the second book in the series it’s based on so I could continue the story.

How did you get into reviewing films for City?

I came to City as a producer of a technology and web culture show. My contributions were always more focused on entertainment-related stories (i.e. how a studio was using the web to promote a new movie, etc.). When the show was canceled, I started producing my own stories online at CityNews.ca. This grew into doing a regular movie review feature called His Take/Her Take. After my colleague in that moved to another position at City, I continued to review films solo and now it’s my main job.

Do you hold a different standard when reviewing independent films vs. big studio pictures?

There is definitely different expectations when viewing a $200,000 film compared to a $200 Million film. In the end, it comes down to story and whether it worked for me or not. I do go above the call of duty in promoting smaller films I enjoy because I know they can’t afford to market it the way a studio film can.

Do you feel there is a difference in Canadian Indie film and US Indie film?

I do, and it’s not between the quality of films as some might assume. It’s the audience. Sadly, English-speaking Canadian audiences do not support our film industry the way American audiences do. An indie has the chance at becoming a hit in the U.S. because cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have groups who support them and push them. If you can manage to get screen time in Toronto or Vancouver, you have a week to make an impression and then you’re gone. Of course it’s a different ballgame in Quebec where French-language indies, such as “J’ai tué ma mère”, do become hits.

What are the best and worst indie films you’ve reviewed in the last few years and why?

That’s a tough question because there are varying degrees of indie films. I really enjoyed “Passenger Side”, which is about two Canadian brothers driving around Los Angeles running errands for a day. It’s a simple premise but it really pulled me in and had some great performances. The upcoming Vincenzo Natali sci-fi “Splice” was also quite different and interesting and could end up being one of my top ten films of 2010. As for recent bad indie films, I would have to say ” Wendy and Lucy” and “My Winnipeg”. I found both to be pompous “we’re better than the audience watching them” works.

Does watching movies for a living, good and especially bad, ever make you consider trying your hand at filmmaking?

You can’t truly criticize something unless you’ve tried to do it yourself. Sure you can say you like or don’t like something but to get into the why you need to have some knowledge of how it was put together. That said, I actually started down this path as a filmmaker and have made a few shorts and a very independent feature that would probably get the thumbs-down from most of my peers. I do plan to take another crack at it one day and have a few scripts on the shelf.

Technology is changing and often modest budget films are able to crank out near-studio level films.  Indies also seem to move along with that changing technology (production AND distribution) at lightning speed.  Can you see a scenario where the new wave of indie and indie-styled studio filmmakers will start overtaking the majors?

No matter how great a film is (big or small), it still comes down to marketing in order to get a wide audience. It didn’t cost that much to produce “Paranormal Activity” but it would not have been a box office hit if Paramount did not spend millions promoting it to the masses (it was actually released on video years before they decided to push it in the theatre). Where technology is taking over the industry is with filmmakers getting the studios and media to take notice of them by using the Internet and social media as their launching pad.

Any thoughts/advice for the independent film community from the critic’s table?

Keep telling interesting stories and believe in your work and you will succeed. I’d also like to add that getting mad at critics doesn’t do any good. We might all sound cranky but in reality our job is to push filmmakers to make better movies. Kevin Smith, who I admired a great deal until recently, had his career launched by critics when he made “Clerks”. For him to snap and call us all out over the bad reviews his latest film “Cop Out” got makes no sense to me and I’ve lost some respect for him because of it.

What “done-to-death” movie premises still lure you in to watch?

I’m a sucker for slasher films. 99% of the time they are the same rehashed story but I still get excited for them.

What film are you most looking forward to seeing this year?

“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” is tops on my list when it comes to the bigger movies coming out this year. Mainly because of its ties to my hometown of Toronto and because it looks like they’ve done justice to the graphic novel it’s based on. I’m also really interested in seeing what Robert Rodriguez does with “Machete”.

Check out Brian’s movie reviews @ Citytv or on his blog, Criticize This!
Follow Brian on Twitter.