What are the characteristics of Neil Breen films? Neil Breen. (2023)

A mysterious sphere passed through the sky and hit the sunny desert land. From this came a messianic being. For viewers, it's the beginning of 2009's Here I... Now, “the proceedings have veered in one of two directions: a serious discussion of drug use, corporate corruption and environmental exploitation, or a wildly incompetent sci-fi tale fantasy whose Charme focused solely on the middle-aged man playing the alien. His name.” is Neil Breen.

Breen produced, wrote, directed and starred in five films. His sixth film, Cade: Crossroads of Torment, just hit select theaters (in New York this August), and if the trailer is any indication, his unique if strange vision remains intact.

With each production, he takes on multiple roles: venue manager, music director, sound effects supervisor, editor, lighting designer, set designer, special effects designer, director, stunt coordinator, even legal and accounting services. His face is emblazoned on every poster, making it undeniable that the extraordinary character in a Neil Breen film is none other than Neil Breen.

"Honestly, I'm doing the best I can with the resources I have, both materially and financially," Breen said in a statement.Interview 2014Works with New York Movie Radio. (He did not respond to interview requests for this article.)

If inventiveness is one of the cornerstones of independent cinema, then Brin may well be one of the most important filmmakers of the past two decades. When he talks about his work, he proudly repeats the same anecdotes about how he approached actors through Craigslist ads or how he came into direct contact with theaters showing his work. Instead of pondering the meaning of his ambitious but barely coherent sci-fi project, he delves into the details of how he supports his cast and crew.

Breen's entire cinematic approach can be summed up as a "backyard picnic scene."great discovery(2013), in which the characters actually eat. One gets the impression that Breen intended to direct, act and eat at the same time.

All of Breen's films seem to make this clearit makes senseSeeing some things, disbelief is constantly threatened by strange directorial choices. Even 90 minutes can be overwhelming for some. In a simple dialogue scene, he frankly breaks the 180-degree rule, an essential stage technique for guiding the audience. His later films made heavy use of composite photography, with characters either very large or very small in the same ethereal perspective. Among its many qualities, the one I like best is the thunderous, expository dialogue. This is from 2016"Crossover":

Media President:I know senior elected government officials in the country and can impose my political bias and influence on other politicians to get them to vote for me. In return, of course.

Tejer (Brin):Isn't that corruption?

None of this was a reasonable anticipation of Breen's gruesome, cartoonishly violent narrative. Through reaches its climax in one of its darkest scenes, where Thgil—another messianic alien Breen excels at—walks toward the vanishing point of the horizon. Hundreds of thousands of corpses are strewn across the country as genocidal punishment for those who abuse the planet's precious resources.

For me and many others, Fate's Discovery is Breen's craziest film and embodies the deadpan tone and liberal fury that permeates his work. The first two thirds encounter drama, characterized by alcoholism, painkiller addiction and unrequited love. At the end of the story, kidnappings, murders, teleportations and an apocalyptic press conference culminated in a series of six suicides.

With each production, Breen's audience grew through word of mouth and social media. He begins to arouse people's interest when he says "Here I am...". Now playing in West Coast theaters such as the now-defunct Cinefamily in West Hollywood, Californiapromoted as a hilarious oddity.

For many viewers, laughter is the natural response to Breen's film. often compared toTommy Aquarius, whose Room (2003) is considered one of the worst films of all time, or Ed Wood, whose charmingly messy exercise in the genre from the 1950s can be seen as a precursor to Brin's work. But these comparisons are superficial. By the end of his career, Wood was forgotten, shooting porn under an assumed name. Wiseau seems to have succumbed to self-deprecation. The six-part comedy Neighbors and his appearances in other films such asSamurai Detective 2: Deadly Vengeance") without showing the manic power of "The Room".

Breen still makes films in the same unassuming conditions, which means that, despite her technical ambitions, they remain as disjointed as ever. While his previous films favored the suburbs of Las Vegas and the nearby desert, his 2018 cyber thriller Twisted Pair is filled with green screen photography and archival footage. Breen plays two characters, twins Kyle and Cade, who were born with superhuman strength but are faced with consequences that could change the world. Action scenes - like when Cade stops time or jumps like a grasshopper on the upper floors of a building - contain lightning from The Matrix. In these clips from the Chicago Music Box 2018 screening:The crowd goes crazy.

"I used to go to the premieres of movies like 'Double Down' and 'I Am Here' ... now I'm 'sitting in the back of the theater and listening to the audience,'" Brin said in an interview in 2014. . "The audience might laugh at parts of it that I never thought of, but in the second half of the film they'll start to understand."

Trevor Dillon, a developer for Breen's productions at the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, California, said he thought, “Neil Breen really liked 'I Care.' It's the movies, I'm a director and my movies are shown at 8 p.m.," adding that the question is, "Is there a lot of self-awareness out there?"

"I think he's a fighting independent filmmaker, and I think he's an even better businessman," Dillon added.

Jake Isgar designed Twisted Pair and the upcoming sequel Cade: The Tortured Crossing at Alamo Drawing Studio in San Francisco. "I don't want to call his movies midnight movies or make any other distinction," he said. "Why does an independent artist need to publish their work in a certain way?"

(Like me, Isgar hasn't seen Breen's latest film. He says Breen is "too blunt" and refuses to send a projector to preview the film. "He says, 'Well, you've already seen it.' My other movies.''")

In his correspondence with cinemas, Breen specified that his films should be shown around 7 p.m. and that screenings will have to be curtailed to maintain demand. But within these limitations, one could conclude that he refuses to marginalize his work or is presumptuous to consider it a mainstream experience. Regardless, Breen's films continue to captivate audiences around the world.

Consider screening Twisted Pair 2019 at Le Grand Rex, Europe's largest cinema in Paris. All shows shown by the publisher are sold outNanarland("Nanar" is a slang French term that roughly translates to "very bad but good") and the crowd "went crazy," says Régis Brochier, co-founder of Nanarland. "It was an incredible performance."

Clips posted on YouTubeThe excitement was captured: sobbing crowds spilled from two balconies. People started clapping. The movie they wanted to see hadn't started yet.