December '09 Entertainment—Pete Allman's Celebrity Scene Column

AFI Festival Picks
SOME OF THE new films shown at The American Film Institutes Festival are very entertaining. Some are not that impressive. Certainly AFI’s Fest has some of the top young filmmakers making their debut at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

The Loved Ones {Australia} introduces Australian writer-director Sean Byrne; who brings to the screen, the willingness of a father to make his only daughter happy. A high school senior {Xavier Sameul} rebuffs the prom invite of a shrinking-violet classmate {Jessica McNamee}, then ends up the hog led prisoner of her claw-hammer-wedding father.

Byrne’s film pays its respect to Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the late John Hughes while locating a disco hall-accented kitchen with blood-stained linoleum floor. It’s Hell on Earth.

Modus Operandi {USA} was made in Milwaukee where the cost of life was indispensable. That is what filmmaker Frankie Latina shows in a somewhat avant-garde way. It’s the look of the ’70s. Danny “Machete” Trejo plays the bad guy (stunts and all), along with Mark Borchardt {American Movie}.

Latina truly presents a mixture of violence and a bit of surrealism in this film. The plot introduces Randy Russel a CIA agent who takes on a mission that will eventually lead him to his wife’s killer. This flick has an interesting feel to it. It’s a combination of a spoof, a hard click gangster and experimental.

No One Knows about Persian Cats {Iran} is a funny film about government censorship and immigration through a comedic filter, making its political points. There’s various musical performances ranging from alternative rock to heavy metal, during which montages of everyday people unfold, showing glimpses of an Iran more complex than the news outlets in America report.