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Emotional
support for this project though isn't immediately forthcoming. His
friend Jason even asks as he's being filmed, "You're making
a film about yourself?...Evan, who wants to see a documentary about
a spoiled, Jewish, rich kid from the Valley?...Documentaries should
be about black kids from Watts...You're not interesting enough."
It
does seem nothing is going on in Aaronson's life, but the determined
director then shares a fable with us about two birds: A sparrow
asks a dove how much a snowflake weighs. "Nothing more than
nothing," the dove replies. Then how come a whole bunch of
snowflakes together can break my branch, the sparrow queries.
Like
snow, Aaronson's nothings start adding up...hilariously. With his
camera always on, we watch his annoyed family celebrate Thanksgiving,
his mom's 50th birthday, and the advent of daylight savings. He
goes to Costa Rica and we observe him eating airplane food and being
ignored by the girl he went to visit. There are car breakdowns in
Mexico, Jehovah Witness forays into his California apartment, funerals,
and supportive grandparents. Then there's his dog Lucy, who besides
having an identity problem from being a mixed breed, is confused
by the fact she's being raised by a species totally unlike her own.
Sprinkled
throughout "Nothing," there are literally hundreds of
moments that are so beautifully structured, so surprisingly set
up, and about so much more than they appear to be at face value,
you wind up being awed that Aaronson, in his relative youth, is
so totally in control of the medium. He knows how to milk every
visual sometimes with a disparate remark, an off-the-wall observation,
or a wit so sharp you're taken aback. His editing sense is flawless.
His personality delightfully flawed. It's the perfect commingling.
Currently
without a distributor, but making the festival circuit, "Nothing"
won a top prize at the Moomba International Film Festival in Australia,
was the hit of the New York Underground Film Festival, and out of
300 submissions to the Sundance Film Festival, it was among the
top 25 considered for the final selection. That it didn't make the
final cut was Sundance's loss--and in the end our own. Let's hope
some film company wakes up and sees what a something "Nothing"
really is.
CityPaper,
Balitmore’s Free Alternative Weekly.
"A
documentary isn’t supposed to be about some spoiled Jewish
rich kid from the Valley," says a friend of Evan Aaronson at
the beginning of Nothing, Aaronson’s 90-minute film
about himself -- a spoiled Jewish rich kid from Los Angeles. "Make
it about some poor Black kid from Watts or a quadriplegic from Vietnam...
You’re just not that interesting." But what else is a
23 year old N.Y.U. film grad with no prospects and the stigma of
being fired from his lowly wedding videographer gig to do but to
turn the camera on himself, his dog Lucy, his dysfunctional family,
his antagonistic friends, and all the unattainable women who have
rejected him, in an attempt to sort it all out? Raised in an "age
of unanswered questions" (He was born the day Man landed on
the moon), Aaronson attempts to come to terms with some pretty pressing
concerns of his own. Deftly editing footage of a cheesy made-for-TV
documentary about Man’s Origins with home movies, interviews,
and audio tapes of unauthorized phone conversations ("I’m
not recording this call. Why would I do that?"), Aaronson embarks
on a hilarious slacker’s Sherman’s March through
Costa Rica, Mexico, New York, and LA, in addition to that proverbial
"inward journey" of the soul, just to prove that he existed.
After all, a tree falling in a forest when no one’s around
to hear it may not make a sound, but Aaronson reasons, "If
someone were there with a camcorder when the tree fell down, it
would have gotten on TV and therefore been talked about and preserved
for eternity". In that sense, Nothing lasts forever.
This toast of the New York Underground Film Festival makes its Baltimore
debut in two screenings at the Mansion Theater, where the H.O.M.E.
Group will present its Monthly Independent Open Film & Video
screening in between at 9:00 p.m. The Mansion Theater, 4201 York
Rd. (corner of York & 42nd St.) (410) 435-3604, $2
(Tom
Warner)
HELLO
JULIE (Short Film) Review - Filmson.com
This flick is another perfect e-mail postcard. It's an over-the-top
gem that takes goofiness to the utmost extreme. We've all rehearsed
our pickup lines in the mirror, perfecting the nuance with which
to open a dating pitch, but few of us have screwed it up this badly.
I don't know who the actor is (unfortunately he's not credited--maybe
it's director Evan Aaronson), but he's got some seriously hilarious
dimensions that should be developed. I can see an interesting one-man
act in this guy's future. Hello Julie is another shining example
of a simple idea that doesn't take one baby step beyond its means.
Fire up your modem and dial up this flick. - Busch - Filmson.com
NORMAN'S
PENIS (Short Film) Review - Filmson.com
Norman's Penis takes a one-line
dick joke and weaves it into a hilarious little boner of a flick
that is far too funny to describe. Evan Aaronson is a hilariously
irreverent filmmaker who clearly derives glee from his adolescent
hijinks, without giving a flying f**k what people think. Hey, people
probably called Trey Parker of South Park fame an immature ignoramus
too, and look at all the bazillions he's made. One of the last remaining
American taboos is (ahem) exposed here in all its erect glory. But
why is it that our country just can't deal with the male organ?
It's as if there's some potent power in the penis that, if exposed,
will cause rioting in the streets. Show all the titties you want,
but hell and damnation will follow if you show the Johnson. Keep
it up, Evan! I'm pulling for you.
- Busch - Filmson.com
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