INTENSELY INDEPENDENT: THE MICRO-BUDGET FILMS OF BLAKE ECKARD (2011/2017
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 158 Minutes
Duration: 158 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Blake Eckard
Synapse Films have released a gritty double-feature DVD of independent micro-budget filmmaker Blake Eckard’s two films Bubba Moon Face (2011) and Coyotes Kill for Fun (2017) - let's check it out!
BUBBA MOON FACE (2011)
Label: Synapse Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 84 Minutes 12 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Blake Eckard
Cast: Tyler Messner, Joe Hammerstone, Sylvia Geiger, Jenny George, Brent Jennings, Blanch Eckard
Horton Bucks (Tyler Messner, Backroad Blues) comes back to the miserable Missouri town he grew up in to attend his mother's funeral, and there he finds himself stranded when his car conks out and he's flat-busted broke. He ends up straying with his younger Stanton (Joe Hammerstone, Red Night at Skye's) and hanging out at the local dive bar where he reunites with Leslie (Misty Ballew, Ghosts of Empire Prairie), a bartender turns tricks in a supply closet, and who has a past with him. Things get even uglier when Joe and Stanton's estranged and drug-addled father Gus (Joe Hanrahan, The Tomb) shows up with his creepily younger lover Tammy (Jennifer George, Sinner Come Home), as well as the arrival of an obnoxious fuss of a woman named Sabetha (Sylvia Geiger) who Stanton had a one-night fling with, who shows up with a baby she says is his, and then proceeds to ignore the child, leaving Horton to be its caregiver. The film is a layered exercise in small town depression, depicting lives that seem to be nothing but dead-ends, a place where every corner is chock full of ick, where even our main character is apparently a scuzzball, a former highschool football star is accused by Leslie of having been a pedophile when he was eighteen. It's also a place where a father might be involved in the murder of his own son, and where a brother has sex with his father's wife literally up against the corpse of his brother, there's lots of ick here. The grim reality of the world that Eckard has captured here is dire and depressing, showcasing the ugly underside of of this subset of characters living in a rural area, where hope and happiness seem like foreign concepts, and where there's absolutely no light on the horizon, just despair and darkness encroaching from all sides - there is no happy ending here, just more unhappiness, doom and gloom.
For a micro-budget indie this slice of ick is nicely realized, Eckard uses the limited tools and means at his disposal to achieve a largely ugly and grim reality that feels like you're peeking in through the windows at a seedy trailer park and seeing a side of life you were not meant to see, it's sort of creepy, but I love the authenticity of it. That he achieves this on a shoestring budget is a testament to his ability as a storyteller and filmmaker. It's not the sort of darkness I would care to revisit anytime soon if I am being honest, not because it's not interesting, it's just so damn gloomy. There's a lot of ick here, and in some ways it brings back my own upbringing in a rural, depressed rea of Upstate NY, so it has that sense of grim reality that maybe hits a little too close to home for my own comfort, and that's a testament to Eckard's vision and ability as a filmmaker, even on a clearly no-budget shoot he brought that ick to life in a way that I found affecting.
COYOTES KILL FOR FUN (2017)
Label: Synapse Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 72 Minutes 58 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Blake Eckard
Cast: Roxanne Rogers, Adrianne Martin, Tyler Messner, Todd Morten, Brent Jennings, Blanch Eckard
Eckart's later film In Coyotes Kill for Fun (2017) is another rural nightmare, this time a teacher turned backwoods babysitter named Sue Anne (Roxanne Rogers, Punk Vacation) agrees to help an abused mother of two named Bev (Arianne Martin, The Haunting of Hill House) to escape her abusive boyfriend Larry. She also enlists the help mechanic co-worker Cliff (Tyler Messner), with whom she has an affair, all parties involved unaware that a dark stranger with ties to Larry is headed back to the area, which will result in spree of unsavory violence. This is another slice of rural area bleakness, punctuated by violence, and set in a world that is again based in grim reality filled with dread. I see advancement in the craft here, there's more of an artfulness to the lensing without it being arty, it's still bleak and downbeat, but there's more craft to it this time around.
Audio/Video: Both films arrives on DVD from Synapse Films in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) with Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles. These were both shot on lower resolution formats so the DVD-only release seems appropriate and I do not think that we do not lose anything in the process that would have been improved by an HD format.
Audio/Video: Both films arrives on DVD from Synapse Films in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) with Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles. These were both shot on lower resolution formats so the DVD-only release seems appropriate and I do not think that we do not lose anything in the process that would have been improved by an HD format.
Disc extras include and Audio commentary on Bubba Moon Face, plus a 15-min Jost on Eckard – a video interview with indie film legend, Jon Jost who talks about first meeting Eckart who came to the West Coast from Missouri to attend one of Jost's filmmaking seminars, seeing his films which were not exactly his cup of tea but admiring his tenacity, acting in one of his films after a challenge arose while critiquing Werner Herzog's acting skills, which lead to Eckard acting is his film as well, and describing Eckard as a natural storyteller.
The single-disc DVD arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. Inside is an 8-pg Booklet with extensive writing on Eckart's film by Andrew Wyatt, an essay titles "Blake Eckart: Rutted Gravel Roads Through Hell', a dense eight-page read with no illustrations, so there's quite a bit to read.
Special Features:
- Audio commentary on Bubba Moon Face
- Jost on Eckard – a video interview with indie film legend, Jon Jost (14:43)
Special Features:
- Audio commentary on Bubba Moon Face
- Jost on Eckard – a video interview with indie film legend, Jon Jost (14:43)
- 8-Page Booklet with Liner Notes by Andrew Wyatt
Synapse have been releasing some terrific Blu-ray and definitive 4K UHD editions the last few years, its great to see them once more celebrating some truly underground filmmakers who have never really had their time in the spotlight, I do hope this gets a bit of traction with cult cinema fans so we can get a couple more of these Blake Eckard double-features!
Buy it!
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