Local spots on the big screen
From Winter of Frozen Dreams: yep, that's Schenectady.
A couple of films that were shot in the Capital Region have surfaced lately.
The Skeptic, which was shot in Saratoga and a few other local spots, opens at the Spectrum on Friday. The film's writer/director, Tennyson Bardwell, will be at the theater for a post-screening talk Friday and Saturday evening.
Bardwell told the Gazette recently that Upstate New York is a good place to make movies because there's "not a jaded film community like you see in L.A. or New York." The centerpiece location of the The Skeptic is the Batcheller Mansion in Saratoga -- it's all over the film's trailer.
The other locally-shot movie is Winter of Frozen Dreams, which is based on "the bizarre tale of a brilliant biochemistry student who lead a shocking double life." It was shot at many locations around Schenectady -- in fact, First Prize Mike's shows up prominently in the trailer. WoFD is already available on DVD -- and it's scheduled to be shown at Proctors on May 14.
So are these movies any good?
The aggregated reviews on Metacritic for The Skeptic are not positive -- the Village Voice calls it a "TV-grade suspenser" and NYT's Stephen Holden says he'd rather watch "a bunch of teenagers terrorized by chain-saw-wielding zombies." The reviews for Winter of Frozen Dreams are worse -- one reviewer said "this lady's lame tale stole a hour and a half of our entertainment energies" and a Netflix user review called it "a slow-paced, confusing movie, with a dull script and mediocre acting."
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Comments
What, something upstaters are not jaded about? That guy's obviously an outsider.
... said B on May 8, 2009 at 10:25 AM | link
Early reviews of The Skeptic are unanimously negative:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493451/externalreviews
... said Rob on May 8, 2009 at 12:20 PM | link
You could also add the award winning documentary 'So Right So Smart" to your list. They shot a few scenes right in Clifton Park. The documentary will be screening at the Palace Theatre in Albany on May 30th.
http://www.magicwig.com/WhatWeDo/documentary/index.html
... said corey on May 8, 2009 at 4:00 PM | link
@corey: We're on it. We've already interviewed the director. The interview should pop up on AOA in the near future.
... said Greg on May 8, 2009 at 4:36 PM | link
My favorite local movie was Zombie Police of Schenectady. Although, when you think about it, that was more of a masterpiece than a movie.
... said Pantaloons on May 8, 2009 at 4:50 PM | link