Reviews by Cal Kemp

The tenth annual CineVegas film festival has wrapped up and I wanted to take a minute to look at back at three of my favorites from the festival.

"The Last Cup: The Road to the World Series of Beer Pong"

As you can tell from its title, "The Last Cup" is a documentary on a subject that may not lend itself to the most serious investigation. Thankfully, Daniel Lindsay never gives the sense that he's anything less than serious about his first directorial effort and that's a quality that gives the film a definite edge.

The film follows a number of players and teams and they take part in the second annual Beer Pong Championship. The game (if you've never been to college) involves two teams of two facing off against one another and trying to sink ping-pong balls into the other team's beer cups across an eight-foot table.

The best comparison is probably to last year's fantastic doc, "The King of Kong" and while "Cup" lacks the epic villainy of Billy Mitchell, there are a number of real-life characters so invested in their sport that it's still funny and wonderful.

The film does have some minor pacing issues, including an ending that feels somewhat sudden, but overall there's so much delight to take from the wild variety of teams the doc chooses to follow. Whether you love Beer Pong or think it's stupidest game ever invented, there's much to laugh at and with in "Last Cup", making it a documentary with a lot of appeal to a non-documentary crowd.

"Happy Birthday, Harris Malden"

Shot on surprisingly cinematic-looking HD, "Happy Birthday, Harris Malden" feels like a feature length version of a well-honed comedy troupe performance that -- despite having strong, frequent laughs -- still manages to come of as pretty strong in the dramatic department as well.

Five friends came together and shared writing, acting and directing duties. It's amazing how unselfish their individual work appears on-screen. These are guys who well and truly believe that a strong final project is more important than any individual performance and it comes through in spades.

Somehow, "Harris Malden" is both down to earth and over the top. It's sweet, funny and real in a way that only fiction can be. Head over to www.sweatyrobot.com to check out some of the group's short films and you'll get a taste of why "Harris Malden" seems like such a fresh entry on the indie scene.

"Wellness"

My favorite of the festival, Matt didn't like at all. I can't say that I disagree with a lot of his review; "Wellness" is a hard film that doesn't exactly leave you in a good place.

That said, this super-low-budget indie knows the tone it's going for and gets it so perfectly right. You find yourself identifying with the lead, Jeff Clark, (if you don't relate to him, as Matt suggest, I'd contend that you still know someone in your life he's a perfect match to) to the point that you cringe with every move he makes and are left pretty battered by his failed efforts to persevere.

The director, Jack Mahaffy, joked at the screening that this was "the least sexy film ever made" and that's true on every level. It's low budget to the point that Mahaffy laughed trying to come up with a figure and said that he basically just had to pay for blank tapes. It's not easy to make a film like that work at all, much less as powerfully as "Wellness" does.

Yes, it hurts to watch but it's pretty impressive how it strongly and consistently it does so.