Written & Directed By: Adam Rifkin
Cinematography By: Scott Billups & Ron Forsythe
Editor: Martin Apelbaum

CAST: Guisippe Andrews, Rhys Coiro, Spencer Radford, Fred Ochs, Shane McAvoy, Tom Hodges

A surprisingly entertaining movie. The film has a depressing quality to it. But even though you know most of the film is scripted. I give the actors credit because they play there parts very well so that it feels like they are playing realistic parts.

The film feels realistic in the fact that the footage in the film links the characters and each has there own storyline, but the film doesn’t make judgements concering the characters some make good decisions some make bad. We in the audience are not made to hate or love the characters they are good people making stupid mistakes. Who shouldn’t be judged by certain actions. Then there are characters you feel sorry for or made to like who then do horrible things in there spare tie and unlike a Hollywood movie some get there comeuppance some don’t even though you want them too and that maybe why some audiences may not like it. it doesn’t guide you. You are made to think and make your own conclusions based on the footage you are seeing. As usual when it comes to adam rifkin films this film is filled with sex scenes and nudity so if that is your thing this is your type of movie

There is just one character to me who is the epitome of evil throughout then when they get there comeuppance you feel a little sorrow. Then there is one you start off feeling so sorry for then it is reveled they actually deserve there lot in life and worse.

It’s a challenging piece of work but I have to say it is a achievement for Adam Rifkin a filmmaker I have had a love/hate relationship with when it comes to his work I feel he is a interesting writer with a good imagination and plenty of ideas his follow through isn’t always the best it could be, but he is a director who I am always interested in when he has a new project coming out.

This is obviously one of his triumphs and one of his few dramas. The last one was the endlessly depressing A NIGHT AT THE GOLDEN EAGLE since then he has learned not to lay it on so thick when it comes to drama. Here other then some juvenile humor. The film starts off light then jars you into some surprising scenes as slowly it delves deeper into a unescapeable abyss of mayhem. I even like the original songs sung by actor guiseppe Andrews. Who appears to be Adam Rifkin’s Robert DeNiro as he is in almost all of mr. rifkins movies though usually not as a lead but somewhere in the cast he is a strange actor but a good character actor.

If you are looking for a movie with merit and challenges you I highly recommend this one.

GRADE:  B

The New York Post reported this morning on Page 6 (which is actually Page 13 today) that a postcard promoting the May 5 national DVD release of Adam Rifkin’s LOOK (www.look-themovie.com) was pulled by the U.S. Postal Service:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04072009/gossip/pagesix/no_delivery_163241.htm

U.S. Postal Service pulled this ahead of May 5 DVD release for LOOK

Howdy there my famous frolicking friends,

This week, I wanted to let you all know about something stupendously super cool! My clown-noir extravaganza short movie “A CLOWN CAROL” is screening at one of the east coasts most awesome film festivals, Saturday March 14th at “The 2009 Backseat Film Festival”. Not only is it screening along side “Dead Sucks” the vampire horror comedy directed by Elias of Biff Juggernaut Productions (Elias also plays Bobo the Clown in A CLOWN CAROL), but Little Jane Rose, (Blight the Clown’s comic strip nemesis) is also screening her new short called “Heading Home” and my wacky friend Ben Jurin is also showcasing his movie “Even”.

The awesomeness doesn’t stop there! My crazy little clown movie looks like it is going to be the last movie that screens before the days main event! The amazing filmmaker Adam Rifkin, director of great movies like, “The Dark Backward” & “Detroit Rock City” will be presenting his new move, “Homo Erectus”!

Come out to the fest if you can, I will be there all weekend long, so if you ever wanted to chat with me about my wacky clown movies, just find me! Or email me and let me know you are coming!

Scroll down for movie trailers from the film fest!!!

Also, Blight the Clown is back this week in an all new Missing Adventure!

:::THE WEBCOMIC:::

-THE MISSING ADVENTURES OF BLIGHT THE CLOWN #24-
(Click the image for a larger version)

(Click here for the comic archives)

:::THE FILM FESTIVAL:::

THE 2009 BACKSEAT FILM FESTIVAL
Sat, March 14th – 4pm
Part of ‘Shorts Program III’
The 941 Theater
941 Front Street
Philadelphia, PA 19122

Tickets: http://backseat.bside.com/2009/schedule/2009-03-14

Website: http://www.backseatfilmfestival.com

FACEBOOK Invite: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=130717840715

-OFFICIAL FILM FEST TRAILER-

-DEAD SUCKS TRAILER-

-EVEN TRAILER-

-HOMO ERECTUS TRAILER-

-Detroit Rock City Trailer-

Well that’s all for this week,
Thanks for everything,
Until next time,

Blight the Clown
(A.K.A.) Brian A. Bernhard
Producer/Editor/Artist/Clown
Blight Productions
Website: http://www.blightproductions.com
Band: http://www.totsland.net
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BlightTheClown1
Blog: http://blightproductions.wordpress.com

Joyce Park (left) & Adam Rifkin (right) by Ifindkarma via Flickr

Renkoo, a Redwood City, Calif-based startup that is fast approaching its fourth birthday is rebooting…again. Co-founded by Adam Rifkin (CEO) and Joyce Park (CTO), the company had launched Renkoo.com as a social planner, pitching themselves as Evite 2.0. But in 2007, the pair changed tactics and started developing applications for social networks.

Renkoo built half a dozen apps — including Booze Mail for Facebook and MySpace — and got a lot of people (about 36 million) to use those apps, but it got bored because “these applications were not fulfilling to us because although they were entertaining, they did not help people help other people,” they write on their blog. With Facebook-app mania raging, the company was able to raise a whopping $6 million in a second round of funding in February 2008, bringing the total VC infusion to $9 million. Matrix Partners was one of its main investors.

Now it’s rebooting again. What is Renkoo 3.0? “We are currently working on a brand-new application that employs everything we’ve learned for the last four years — and enables a suite of voluntary actions that everyone can do in the United States and around the world,” they write on their blog. In other words, a social app for charitable causes, in the mold of Sean Parker’s Causes effort. How that translates into a business is anyone’s guess.

Update: Team Renkoo thinks the cynical-me needs to develop a heart and do good and not worry about business models. Just a difference of opinion I guess!

Today the guys did their Comic Book Club panel. It was great, and they even had a musical guest that was hilarious. There were 5 guests (instead of the usual two or even one). I of course was on hand to capture the whole event on film.

Today’s Comic Book Club panel included from left to right (as pictured above) Alex at the podium, Justin, Pete, Eric Powell (Writer and Artist of The Goon), Gabriel Rodriguez (artist on Locke and Key), Adam Rifkin (Director: National Lampoon’s Homo Erectus), Scott Adsit (actor 30 Rock), and the musical guest who’s name will escape me until I watch the video I shot again (back at the office).

The panel was great, and a lot bigger than it normally is. Usually there’s only one or two guests, and the PIT (People’s Improv Theater) is a lot smaller than one of the ballrooms at the San Diego Convention Center. The musical guest was hilarious. I’ll post the video of the song soon. Let’s just say it’s very phallic and meant to make you laugh (and think/be confused).

If that wasn’t enough we had surprise tickets from Alex’s manager for the Comedians of Comedy show downtown in the Green Lantern District. I didn’t know a lot about the show before hand, but it included Sara Silverman, Maria Bamford, Brian Posehn, Zach Galifianakis, and Eugene Mirman.

Sara Silverman was the surprise guest, and the show was also Patton Oswalt’s farewell performance. Check out my Comic Con Nightlife Flickr page for more from the show (I can’t believe the crazy ticket lady wouldn’t let me bring my soda in, but my SLR Camera was no problem. Ridiculous. But the box seats were more than enough to make me forget about it.

Then some random person (at least I had no idea who she was) told us to come to the after-party for the stars of the show (Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, et Al.) I didn’t see the scribbles on my ticket that said I had already been invited, but at the time I felt pretty cool. I managed to grab a few pictures inside the bar where the party was at before realizing all the actors and celebrities that were there (and hastily retiring my camera for the evening).

Good Times. Ask Justin about how Patton Oswalt requested him on Facebook (funny story).

Read more about Adam Rifkin’s new film, National Lampoon’s Homo Erectus — here’s a great article from Variety.  The film opens on July 11 in theaters nationally, click here for tickets.

It stars Ali Larter, her boy-toy Hayes MacArthur, supermodel Carol Alt, the incredible David Carradine, “YO Adrienne!!!” Talia Shire, the insane comedy of Miles Dougal and Giuseppe Andrews, a tame yet incredibly potent performance by a loin-clothed Ron Jeremy, and his friend Jacklyn Lick, the Chocolate Diva Marie Luv, star of Showtime’s hot new show Californication, Madeline Zima, and many more.

Click here for an exclusive new clip from LOOK that just posted at Mr. Skin.

LOOK opens in theaters nationally today, click here for official website and tickets.

Did you know that American’s are caught on tape at least 200 times per day, and substantially more in major cities? How about that only thirteen states in the U.S. have laws banning security video cameras in dressing rooms of places like Macy’s and Bloomingdales as well as public bathrooms? Adam Rifkin, the director of the new film LOOK interviewed security guards at department stores like these expecting to find white haired, retired cops wearing private security company uniforms. To his surprise, the staffers at the joysticks of these cameras were seventeen year old high school drop out hacker types, who carried USB hard drives in their knapsacks to port clips zooming in on hot girls’ boobs or big fat people falling on their faces so they could anonymously post them to YouTube once they got home. So when your girlfriend or wife is trying on a string bikini, don’t be surprised when your friend sends you a link to it posted on some website.

LOOK is shot from the perspective of surveillance cameras and tells the story of various people’s lives Crash-style, with plot lines intertwining in some surprising ways. In each scene, you can see “lobby cam 9″ or “traffic cam 7.9.1.3″ or whatever in the corner so you know how the footage is being captured. And while the main characters are unknown actors, all the other people in the environment have no idea a film is being shot so the reactions of the extras are as realistic as you can get — BECAUSE THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE CAUGHT ON TAPE IN THE FILM.

Without giving away the plot, the story is enjoyable from a pure entertainment standpoint with lots of sex, comedy, violence, horror, surprise, tragedy, and more. But the way the story is told makes an even larger statement. In today’s paranoid, post 9/11, YouTube-enabled society, where do you draw the line between privacy and security?

LOOK opens March 21 in theaters nationwide.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Click here for theater listings.

Click here to read USA Today story.

Click here to read Associated Press story.

Click here to read BusinessWeek story.

Click here to read Newsweek story.

Click here to read Wall Street Journal story.

Click here to read Huffington Post blog.

Click here to see Maxim photo spread with the beautiful stars of the film.

Click here to see video of the making of the Maxim photo spread.

Click here to see an exclusive video clip on Maxim.com.

Recommended by the Girlfriend

Using 9-11 and counter terrorism as excuses, people all around the world are slowly but surely giving up on their civil liberties and compromising on their basic human rights just to become “safe”. We put up with inconveniences and do not even mind when we have people looking through things that were once considered “private”.

So here comes Director Adam Rifkin (who incidentally, also gave us Monster, one of the most disturbing shows I’ve watched…. they managed to make Charlize Theron Ugly??????!!!) with Look – a show shot entirely using… Surveillance Camera?

The trailer itself is deeply disturbing enough for me… I mean, “the average American is recorded 200 times a day”. Really??? Big Brother is watching.

But is this the Real Deal or just Gimicky Movie Making? Time will tell. Me? I’ll (eagerly) wait to see how this one turns out.

Thank you, Girlfriend

Link: CCTV al cinema. E viceversa. – Luca Annunziata su Punto Informatico

“Pero tienen canciones buenas”. Así de comedida fue la respuesta que recibí por parte de un amigo cuando, contemplando unas camisetas de Kiss, me burlé del aspecto de sus integrantes. Luis estaba en lo cierto, pero se quedó corto; hablar de Kiss es hablar de algunas de las mejores canciones del Hard Rock, entre ellas Detroit Rock City. Escrito por Paul Stanley y Bob Ezrin, el tema fue elegido como tercer single de Destroyer (1976). Aunque la canción no gozó de éxito comercial, se convirtió en una de las favoritas de sus seguidores.

Resulta curioso como Beth, su cara-B,  sí  experimentó una buena acogida, por lo que Detroit Rock City salió de nuevo al mercado, pero en esta ocasión como cara-B de Beth. Al margen de las cifras de ventas, el tema destaca por su ritmo contagioso y la fuerza de sus acordes y coros. En él se narra la historia real de uno de los fans de Kiss, fallecido en accidente de tráfico cuando se dirigía a un concierto de la banda.

Letra & Vídeo →

El nombre de la canción se empleó como título para la película de 1999 dirigida por Adam Rifkin, en la que cuatro adolescentes viajan hasta Detroit para asistir a una actuación de Kiss. Al igual que ocurriera con el tema, la cinta resultó un fracaso comercial, pero se convirtió en una obra de culto para los seguidores de la banda y del Hard Rock en general.

I feel uptight on a saturday night
Nine o clock, the radios the only light
I hear my song and it pulls me through
Comes on strong, tells me what I got to do
I got to

Get up
Everybodys gonna move their feet
Get down
Everybodys gonna leave their seat
You gotta lose your mind in detroit rock city

Get up
Everybodys gonna move their feet
Get down
Everybodys gonna leave their seat

Getting late
I just cant wait
Ten oclock and I know I gotta hit the road
First I drink, then I smoke
Start up the car, and I try to make the midnight show

Get up
Everybodys gonna move their feet
Get down
Everybodys gonna leave their seat

Movin fast, doin 95
Hit top speed but Im still movin much too slow
I feel so good, Im so alive
I hear my song playin on the radio
It goes

Get up
Everybodys gonna move their feet
Get down
Everybodys gonna leave their seat

Twelve oclock, I gotta rock
Theres a truck ahead, lights starin at my eyes
Oh my god, no time to turn
I got to laugh cause I know Im gonna die
Why

Get up
Everybodys gonna move their feet
Get up
Everybodys gonna leave their seat

Un film del 2007, regia di Adam Rifkin, con Rhys Coiro / Hayes MacArthur / Giuseppe Andrews / Spencer Redford. Prodotto da (98min)

Drammatico

Il film parte da una considerazione inquietante: in America, ciascun cittadino si trova ad avere a che fare con una telecamera almeno 170 volte al giorno, il tutto a sua insaputa. Quanto viene registrato è il fulcro della narrazione.

Un film del 2007, regia di Adam Rifkin, con Adam Rifkin / Ali Larter / Hayes MacArthur / David Carradine. Prodotto da (88min)

Comico / Commedia

Ishbo, una sorta di ‘filosofo delle caverne’, è innamorato di Fardart che però non ricambia ed anzi, non ha occhi che per il fratello di Ishbo…