Writer/director Matthew Bright is one of my favourite directors. This happened over a period of two days when I saw both of his films. His first film is FREEWAY, starring Reese Witherspoon and Keifer Sutherland in a re-telling of the Little Red Riding Hood fable. His second (which is still looking for a distributor) is FREEWAY 2: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY, which stars Natasha Lyonne and Vincent Gallo in a re-telling of the Hansel and Gretel fable. That's all I'm going to say about the films' plots. These flics should be experienced without any prior knowledge. It's more fun, just to be blown away by them as they happen.
What makes Bright's films so great, is their tone. They're well made films that just happen to be fun, excessive, and trashy. Bright is a filmmaker who makes films the way I want to make films. Film is too stuffy nowadays. Everything takes itself too seriously, and if it doesn't, then it's too silly. Bright's style to me seems like a mixture between Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriguez, Russ Meyers, and I suppose even a touch of Troma films (Toxic Avenger, Surf Nazis Must Die). That's one hell of a combo, and has made for a couple of damn enjoyable films!!!
My introduction to Bright was FREEWAY 2: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY. I saw it last week at the Toronto Film Festival, and enjoyed the hell out of it. Saddly it's going to have a hard time finding a distibutor, because it's really over the top, and just not commercially viable. I hope with all my heart that the film gets a theatrical release because Bright is a great filmmaker, and I'd hate to see his ability to get financing go down the drain after just 2 films. Bright deserves to make his films until the day he dies. Not only does Bright deserve these films, but so do I!!! I've waited for a long, long time to find a director who got EXACTLY what I'm looking for in a fun time at the movies, as far as tone goes. I'm not going to see two films that I love, and then let him not direct anymore films. He MUST continue to make his films.
I'm already psyched for his 3rd film, which is going to be a re-telling of The Three Little Pigs, with 3 cops as the little pigs, and a vicious teenage girl as the wolf. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't fucking wait for that flic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I'm gonna have to I suppose since FREEWAY 2 isn't even released yet. DAMMIT!!!!!! This is a hard wait!!!!! I'm getting way too excited. All I'm seeing is exclamation marks, so maybe I should just stop.
Sure I haven't told you much about the flics (okay, here's a little more about themes in both of the films: lesbianism, drugs, murder, interracial relationships, youth prisons, white trash, and much much more), but as always, I hope I've conveyed my love of them. For now, you'll have to just rent FREEWAY (available on dvd with a, quite funny at times, commentary by Bright), watch it over and over again, then just sit and wait for FREEWAY 2: CONFESSIONS OF A TRICKBABY to get a distibutor, and be released.
Matthew Bright rules!!!!!!! And he sure as hell ain't no trickbaby!!!!!
Metadata: