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An avid student of the depiction of youth in movies, I’ve taken to calling the twenties, as we live them nowadays, the benties, after the British word “bent,” for messed up. And, while I realize not everyone will have found this decade of late adolescence / imposed maturity as disconcerting as all that, I know for a fact that most Millennials will be hard-pressed to argue this point. It’s why we’re called the Me-Me-Me Generation after all: for us, the top-down pressure to grow up, move out and settle down rarely takes before the big 3-0 starts looming large. Perhaps, with a little less “luck” on our side, we too might look to the extraordinary lives of, say, Kelly Reichardt’s young female characters, and strive to fight adversity to heroic results. But, for the purposes of this list, we’ll concern ourselves with the simpler, not necessarily brighter,...

I interviewed writer/director Conrad Jackson (photo above) 2 days ago, and will be posting a summary of that conversation later today, as his feature film debut, Falling Overnight, makes its theatrical debut today - Friday, the 27th of July, at Cinema Village in NYC. And then on August 3, it'll open at Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, and at Merrill’s Roxy Burlington, Vt, on August 10. The details in the press release follow below (trailer for the film underneath): Conrad Jackson’S Debut Feature Falling Overnight In Theaters This Summer Film To Open In New York On July 27 And In Los Angeles On August 3 “…ingratiates from...

A film I profiled about a year ago (Falling Overnight directed by Conrad Jackson - photo above - his feature film debut), is on its way to theaters, starting next week Friday, the 27th of July, at Cinema Village in NYC, and then August 3 at Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, and on August 10 at Merrill’s Roxy Burlington, Vt. The details in the press release follow below (trailer for the film underneath): Conrad Jackson’S Debut Feature Falling Overnight In Theatersthis Summerfilm To Open In New York On July 27 Andin Los Angeles On August 3 “…ingratiates from start to finish…terrific.” — Variety “Before...

Lionsgate will release the first and only season of the recently cancelled, tough-talking cop crime drama TV series Detroit 1-8-7 starring Michael Imperioli (TV’s The Sopranos) on DVD on Aug. 30.

Detroit 1-8-7: Season One, a four-disc set that will carry the list price of $29.98.

Michael Imperioli is Detective Louis Fitch in Detroit 1-8-7.

Imperioli is Louis Fitch, a Detroit police detective who agrees to have his unit’s days filmed by a documentary crew as they try to uphold the law in their harsh native town. Other officers include Lieutenant Mason (Aisha Hinds, The Next Three Days) as a single mother struggling to balance her work and home life, and Jon Michael Hill (Falling Overnight) as Detective Damon Washington, Fitch’s streetwise partner.

This is the second recent cop television show starring Michael Imperioli as a law-enforcer to be cancelled after its first season, following 2008’s Life on Mars.

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Highlights from the 11th Annual Phoenix Film Festival Part Deux By Ray Schillaci

As mentioned before, there were so many good films to choose from at the Phoenix Film Festival, dubbed the friendliest film festival to independent filmmakers, that it was extremely hard to catch them all. There are four specific films I will attempt to get screeners of and give a review later next week. From what I’ve heard, you’ll want to hear about them.

Unfortunately, I missed the much talked about documentaries, “Thespians” and “Wild Horse, Wild Ride”. “Thespians” is an involving tale of four acting troupes competing in the largest high school competition in the world and I heard that it did bring some grown men to tears.