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Review - doing difficult things well - making a period movie about the early 1980s with teenagers - Blake Calhoun's CASEY MAKES A MIXTAPE

By Sujewa Ekanayake * Blake Calhoun is an experienced indie filmmaker - but, it's very difficult to do period movies well - movies set in another era - on a low indie film budget, and it can be difficult to have several teenagers in your cast as the main characters - to get great performances. Calhoun has managed to do both things well in his new movie CASEY MAKES A MIXTAPE. The early 1980s Texas in Calhoun's movie looks - and more importantly feels - believable.  Great cinematography and color grading work.  And his teen actors do a great job bringing their characters to life.   I think the movie is being promoted as a mainstream accessible, realistic, light comedy-drama.  And perhaps it is also being marketed to a teenage audience. But, as an old person in NYC, I found the movie to be almost an observational movie - documenting a summer in the life of the main character (played in a low key, somewhat dramatic, and overall an entertaining way by the excellent Presle...
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3 interesting indie filmmakers to check out - Hong Sang-soo (By the Stream), Blake Calhoun (Casey Makes A Mixtape), Lav Diaz (Magellan) - trailers, links

* Hong Sang-soo has become the ultimate indie filmmaker - making and releasing his movies largely by himself (key crew positions are now done by him) since around 2021 or so.  And his most recently theatrically released movie (by the time you read this article he could release something new - he works fast) By the Stream is an excellent indie film. It's somewhat Slow Cinema-ish, so you have to hang back and let it work its magic on you - go with it.  Here's the trailer (movie should be available to rent or buy soon from Cinema Guild ):  * Which indie filmmaker is crazy enough to make a period movie, on a micro-budget, with teenagers?  Apparently Blake Calhoun.  He mixes iPhone photography with footage from a larger camera and delivers an observational comedy-drama about an important summer in the life of a 13 year old character named Casey.  And the movie went on to receive a 9/10 review from Film Threat - which is kind of amazing.  A micro-budget, rea...
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Lav Diaz has made a big budget type movie - a historical action drama with a star - that's also still a micro-budget type auteur movie - Magellan filmmaking analysis

What a lot of filmmakers and also fans fear when filmmakers move from small movies to large scale movies is the loss of the unique style and approach that made a filmmaker's early work interesting.  A few filmmakers are able to make large budget, large scale movies with stars that still retain their unique filmmaking approach - and are able to make those movies a success (filmmaking wise, not the fake box office numbers type success).  Lav Diaz did the following in his new large scale movie Magellan, and managed to, I think, make a movie that is not very different from his small scale projects - in many respects: - he used the camera as he has always done - largely a stationary camera, and very minimal edits, long takes. - he used costume choices (or lack of clothing) most likely for historical accuracy, but also to make the movie interesting (or shocking in some instances). a choice that can be done on a small budget. - the sailing scenes with the ships were done in a very mi...
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