The Horse Boy

A couple take their autistic son on a rest cure to Mongolia. While that one sentence synopsis explains what happens in The Horse Boy the experience as recorded by director Michel O. Scott is beyond words.
Scott has worked on films for several years in Austin, including crew positions in mainstream fare like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning and Kabluey both shot in and around Austin. But like all filmmakers Scott wanted to work on a project that tested his mettle.
The chance came along when Scott found himself collaborating with Rupert Isaacson who wanted to document an attempt to cure his son, or at least alleviate severe symptoms associated with autism. Issacson has a background in journalism and in fact had written books on indigenous people. One title penned by Isaacson is The Healing Land: The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert. Issacson's wife, Kristin Neff a psychology professor, was hesitant at first but, as The Horse Boy illustrates, open to the non-conventional.
Issacson one day noticed that their son Rowan had a special relation with a grumpy mare that lived next door. There was a link between Rowan and animals that prompted Isaacson to research shamanism and horses. Mongolia, besides having shamanism as its majority religion, was also the birthplace of the domestication of horses. "We spent five to six months just on intense planning," Scott tells Free Press Houston in a phone interview.
At first Scott was going to travel with the family as a one-man film crew but a book advance for Isaacson led to enough money to boost the production budget and a three-person crew. "The film records healing in nature, healing in other cultures."
Describing Mongolia, Scott recalls that it's a huge country but the main highways that cross the land "are dirt roads." Scott utilized a Canon XHA1 high definition camcorder along with a Panasonic DVX-100 digital video camera.
The lengthy planning paid off but Scott also acknowledges a guide they acquired through National Geographic. Among the places they travel are Lake Sharga the waters of which are said to have healing powers. The images are spellbinding especially the way Scott frames the story, whether with stormy skies and mountain vistas or close-ups of the various shamans that the couple enlist. The Horse Boy opens exclusively at the Angelika this weekend.



The Horse Boy author and producer Rupert Isaacson with hold a Q&A and sign copies of the titular book at the Angelika on Saturday, September 12 following the 5:30 and 7:55 screenings.

9

There was an episode of a television show from my youth where they said that in the future people would tell jokes using numbers. Like 14, 23, 4, 76, 3, 17, ha ha ha. This is not what 9 is about although this is also a good time to remind that 9 should not be confused with another film coming out later this year called Nine. In all fairness the year 2009 is more of a marketing tool than a reason for the films since Nine was based on a musical from the 80s and the animated feature 9 was based on Shane Acker's computer animated short from 2005.
9 follows the adventures of a bunch of stuffed sock dolls and the visual splendor that overrides the characters would be the best reason to take in the film. We're not in Coraline territory, a film that grows with repeat viewings, still 9 has plenty of verve. Much of that has to belong to Acker's vision but it doesn't hurt that the film is produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.
The rag dolls are sentient for a reason that ties into the narrative. The world they traverse contains post apocalypse imagery at every turn. There are nine of the dolls all of whom become readily identifiable not only because of the number on their back but because of their voice, mannerisms and personality. Perhaps the best scene, while evoking Wall-E, has one doll listening to an archaic recording of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" while the big mechanical spider monster comes creeping through a fog of destruction.

Cold Souls

Cold Souls is high concept low rent filmmaking at its best. Paul Giamatti plays an actor named Paul Giamatti. The plot takes surreal turns not unlike Being John Malkovich in that the lead character must solve a metaphysical conundrum.
This first feature from Sophie Barthes would've played better as a one-hour Twilight Zone and in fact its best moments are the sci-fi induced themes and devices that pop up throughout. Other times we're drawn to long takes of Giamatti standing in the freezing wind of St. Petersburg or sand swept shores of New York City. There's poetry in Cold Souls to be sure but a lot of it feels telegraphed way ahead of its arrival.
Giamatti, playing Uncle Vanya on stage, feels he's lost himself in the anxiety of this Chekovian character. He seeks a soul transplant, a new and unregulated scientific process he reads about in New Yorker. Dr. Flintstein (David Strathairn) heads up the firm that provides soul removal and storage. For Giamatti the painless operation backfires and results in alienation from his wife and fellow actors.
It turns out a mysterious woman (Dina Korzun) acts as a mule, downloading souls into her psyche and delivering them to a similar set-up in Russia. Somehow Giamatti wants his original soul back and finds he has to travel to St. Petersberg all the while negotiating with the testy new owners of his soul.
Cold Souls has plenty of smart moments but its main appeal will be to sci-fi fans and indie stalwarts.