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COLD WEATHER review


This is a movie review but it's an unusual review (probably) because I am going to just ramble on and on about the movie & related things for a while. Anyway, Cold Weather, made by director Aaron Katz & team was a good time at the movies. I saw it about a week or so ago at the IFC Center in NYC. Now, I was just very glad to get a couple of free hours & hang out at a movie theater (isolated from phone calls, e-mails, the never ending essential/do today 2 Do list, etc.) because life in NYC is pretty insanely busy (i call it New York Speed - which is like at least 4x faster than the pace of things in other parts of the country) so I wasn't taking a sharp critical eye to the movie but I was watching it with another filmmaker, & the discussion afterwards brought out some aspects of the movie that I did not think about earlier because I was too busy enjoying the movie - and those critical aspects will also be mentioned - later (maybe, if i feel like it when i get there). So let's get to the essential stuff & the good stuff. Cold Weather is about a dude who moves in with his sister (go here for a cast list) & then stumbles onto a mystery & then goes about trying to solve it with the help of a friend from work & the said sister (go here for a whole bunch of regular reviews of the movie, if you are interested in learning more stuff about the movie & getting some pro-reviewer perspectives). So, I enjoyed the movie - it was shot well, acted well, edited well, great music, unpredictable, and I liked the ending. The ordinary, domestic stuff, scenes that appear early in the film had an extra degree of tension & suspense to it since I knew going in to the theater that the movie is more or less a mystery movie (yup, i was busy looking for clues while the characters were doing their sibling bonding thing). Also, star Raul Castillo did a great job I thought (his character did not seem to be aware of the fact - well, far less than others - that he was in a movie - i guess the performance felt a little bit more "real" for me (i know, a vague & highly subjective statement, sorry)). For you filmmakers out there, the flick was shot on a Red camera for a $100K budget, according to statements made by the filmmakers. Film looked great, & sounded great, at/for any budget really. So, going forward, I guess we can't have any more excuses about low tech quality in indie movies because of the low budget. There's a little cafe/sandwich shop/whatever right outside one of the exits to Bedford Ave subway stop that looks just like (if i recall correctly) a restaurant that was in Katz's previous movie Quiet City.


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