Noticias

Satirize This: Bilandic’s Scruffy Send-up of NYC Art Scene

Though starting off on a stronger note than where it eventually ends up, Michael M. Bilandic’s sophomore feature, Hellaware is an entertaining satire of the ultra-pretentious art scene in New York. Filled with sharp one liners and skewering observations of the self-important hipster scene, it’s a group that’s easy to target, which may explain why it eventually feels a bit inconsequential once it fosters its full circle treatment. But Bilandic’s acerbic, hilarious wit is often more than enough to carry the narrative through a slim manifestation.

While at a ridiculous and utterly pretentious art gallery of what looks like a variety of depraved children’s’ paintings, jaded struggling artist Nate (Keith Poulson) miserably shares his critical hatred for such types with tagalong friends Bernadette (Sophia Takal) and Gauguin (Duane C. Wallace), apparently taking the name of the famed artist.

Music is at the core of two new Specialty features making their theatrical bows this weekend, albeit from rather different ends of the spectrum. XLrator Media will open Jimi: All Is By My Side focusing on the artist’s life in London in nearly three dozen theaters, while Samuel Goldwyn Films will bow faith-centered The Song in over 300 theaters, the biggest number of runs for a limited release newcomer this week. Magnolia Pictures will take thriller The Two Faces Of January starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac to an initial half-dozen locations in the wake of its VOD release late last month and CBS Films is targeting the same number of runs for its Cannes ’14 feature Pride. Factory 25 is opening its art meets goth-rap thriller Hellaware and Cinema Libre will debut a former Swiss foreign-language Oscar contender The Little Bedroom in exclusive New York runs. The weekend is...

Written and directed by University of Texas graduate Michael Bilandic (who we interviewed before Austin Film Festival began), Hellaware is a playful modern morality tale that explores the ups and downs a young photographer experiences while trying to make himself a part of the New York art scene.

Hellaware stars Keith Poulson (Somebody Up There Likes Me) as Nate, a slacker with abstract dreams of fame and just a few vague ideas about how to actually achieve it. After his girlfriend (Kate Lyn Sheil) dumps him to be with the pigtail-wearing Brooklyn artist of the moment, he descends into a downward spiral of self-pity and complaints. One night while attempting to mute his sorrows with booze, drugs and the internet, Nate and his friends (played by Sophia Takal and Duane C. Wallace) stumble across something on YouTube that is mesmerizing in its repulsiveness.

An absurd rap/rock video made by...