Rating: 
Summary: How to consume yourself in boredom for 3.99
Review: 1000 words??? !!!! I only need one....BORING................Maybe a few more..like.. what the heck was that about?????? What a waste of film. I hate directors that try to make these really deep films and then the gullible American public doesn't want to speak up and say that film was crap...in fear of being out of touch with the artsy folks. Kind of like the people who go into art galleries and view a painting and just rave about how the artist used the light to do this or that and the colors bla bla bla and find out later it was painted by a monkey. I know some of you liked this film...my only question is....why??????
Rating: 
Summary: Northfork is a Real Nice Film.
Review: Michael Polish's Northfork is a film that is very hard to critique. I've only seen it one time, and that was many months ago--so, basically, you should stop reading this review right now because I have little to say. I didn't understand it at all. I hate to take the loser's approach to film analysis, but I'm tempted to in this case. The loser's approach to film analysis, if you do not know, is this: I didn't get it, so therefore it must be because the director and writer are pseudo-intellectuals and are just throwing out a bunch of meaningless psychobabble--trying to look smart. I don't necessarily think that is what is going on here. But I don't know. The scenery in Northfork is very pretty. Its like Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row." Really. I like this film. It's nice. I like when the little boy asks the angels if they will take him one thousand miles. That's nice. It is a nice film. A real nice film. I recommend seeing this film in the morning, and really polishing up that Thinking Cap of yours. That should be fun. I wouldn't recommend buying this before you've seen it. You should probably rent it first, if you're not up for the challenge.
Rating: 
Summary: Decay and Change in the Montana Plains
Review: Northfork is a very personal film. This is a very important fact to know before viewing or reviewing the film. The Polish brothers, Michael and Mark have invested a lot of their efforts, thoughts and experiences in their film, and as such like most personal films, it has a certain originality and a particular identity that might not be to everyone's tastes, but nevertheless it does not take any of its beauty.
You know it is a personal film due to the fact that it is an ode to Middle America,most specifically to Montana the home of the Polish brothers, the vastness, the big skies, the progress of the age that was creeping slowly all over America(set in the middle 50s) and the decay and death that goes hand in hand with time of incredible change.
Moreover, the difficulty that the brothers found financing their film, shows that the studios still lack the nerve and creative impulse when a script does not contain sex and digital action.
I was interested to watch Northfork mainly because of the brilliant cast, James Woods, Nick Nolte, Peter Coyote, and Daryl Hannah, without knowing what to expect, being the first Polish brother film I see.
And I was totally captivated by the whole experience, from the very first scene, with the floating coffin, up to the last with the gorgeous and forboding emptiness of the Montana plains (that have inspired many artists, most notably George Winston).
With the last days of a town about to be flooded by the construction of a new dam, and the few remaining inhabitants who refuse to leave, fantasy and reality collide effortelssly:
the evacuation teams, a cross between door to door evangelists and mob enforcers trying to persuade the last of the Northfork living to leave by reason or force, and save them and the dead people of the town in the cemetry from doom, not unlike Noah's biblical flood,
the priest (played by Nick Nolte, and giving in my opinion his best performance since Affliction) who somehow is resigned to his fate,
the group of eccentric angels who are looking for a lost and unknown angel,
and the dying sick child, who has visions of being one and has his amputated 'wings' to prove it..
these characters all move on the fringes of the great incoming catastrophe.
There are many unforgettable scenes in Northfork,
ordering food in an empty diner, persuading a religious zealot with two wives of leaving by showing him angel's wings as a sign from God,the bargaining between the little boy and the angels regarding the number of miles he wants to travel,and when he finally goes with them,he boards a plane that will take him away from the all sufferings he endured.This is all very touching and superior stuff.
But what strikes you the most in Northfork is the scenery. It is simply breathtaking! A beauty that you know is about to disappear very soon, one that you will visually as well as mentally be lost in.
Northfork admittedly, as I said above is not a film for everyone, but I think we have been given so much commercial films lately that the tastes of the new generation of moviegoers, brought up by the MTV-few seconds attention span-culture, have changed and find such personal little gems very alien, pretentious or even 'boring'(exactly like listening to commercial pop and garbage for years and when you hear Beethoven's music it will sound alien and boring too).
Northfork is a poetic and personal film,that deals with life, decay, death, hope and rebirth,with limited choices and distant horizons and devouring yet beautiful vastness ,a creative and original film that should apprecaited and assessed as such.
Rating:
Summary: Don't know if it's good, and I watched the whole thing!!
Review: I rented this movie tonight because it seemed interesting---and it was. However, I watched some scenes numerous times thinking that I must have missed something, but no, it's just really weird. You know how sometimes it takes a while into a movie for everything to come together? Well that never happens here. The whole concept deals with death, but the scenes change so often that you can't really tell what's real or what's a dream. What was that weird monster thing that got shot by the tranquilizer gun? Anyway, I'd recommed watching it, just for the sake that it is different, but when you start to get a little confused, don't expect to get any answers.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious Garbage
Review: This is a film I wanted to like but couldn't. As it turns out, there was nothing there to like, so I don't feel so bad.I knew I was in trouble when the preacher, in the begining of the film, misread the Bible when retelling the flood story (the "bow" God sets in the air is a rainbow, not a bow (rhymes with wow) as in ship.) And why do they call the preacher "Father?" There is nothing at all to indicate that he or his followers are Catholic (nor would they likely be in that area). And nobody builds an outhouse with a cross on it--particularly in the Bible Belt. The Christianity in this film is like a pastiche written by somebody who has no inkling of what Christianity is about. The writer must also be young-- men back then didn't wear hats indoors! I also suspect the writer is from NYC or California because 1.5 acres of property would not have been a sizeable award in that era--let alone that locale--even if it were lakefront! This film has more loose ends than a pair of worn out socks. Why does the child have a foreign accent? What is that strange creature (a.k.a. man on stilts)? Who are the "angels"? Why does one of them have a head full of safety pins? Why does another have interchangable hands? Why is another dressed as a drag queen? What was that scene in the diner all about? Why do the men in black give out wings? And then there is the bad Foley--the plague of movies nowadays. Why does everything have to make a sound? Somebody touches a feather, and you hear crinkling noises. Somebody touches skin and you hear "shhhhhippp." Footsteps on open ground can be heard from 50 feet away. Too bad the sound people didn't pay more attention to reality (that musical door chime would have sounded like crazy when the door was open and closed). The score? It was lovely until they brought in cheap Casio synthesizer sonorities. And enough with the digital-synth-as-music-box! Far from "A Masterpiece! A Visionary Epic!" as the sell-out critic Roger Ebert squeals, Northfork is a classic exercise in pretension. Characters are cardboard, scenes go nowhere, there is no real plot, and if you look very carefully, you'll notice that most of the "artsy" editing is done in the first 20 minutes and then abandoned--as though they wanted you to know the movie was "art," then got it over with. This silly, puffed-up piece of trash ranks among the worst movies of recent memory. Flood the town already!
Rating:
Summary: Love/Hate
Review: If you take some time to read the various reviews of this title, one point becomes strikingly clear - you either love or hate this film. As someone who appreciates films outside of mainstream Hollywood that are shot with beautiful cinematography and engaging actors, I was surprised to find myself among the latter group of individuals that would loath a second viewing. Be warned, Northfork is neither a documentary nor a conventional drama but rather a bizarre fantasy about death involving (among other things) a terminally ill boy and some angels. The movie is full of symbolism and unique characters, but with the exception of the orphan who was left behind to die, I felt no emotional connection to any of it. Even the town, which was as significant a character as any, feels hollow and lifeless. We are given no real history of the town or any explanation of the angels which may inhabit it (unless I missed it). Although I believe I understood part of what the directors were trying to achieve, it wasn't enough to keep me from fast-forwarding though several sections including the last twenty-thirty minutes. Northfork is tedious. After vesting an hour and twenty minutes I lost my commitment to finish it and I didn't see anything at 8x speed to rekindle my interest.
Rating:
Summary: A Love Letter to Death
Review: Northfork is one epic love letter (or poem) to death. How to face death seems to be the theme no one is discussing, but that's what I got from watching the DVD. The death of a boy, the death of a small town, the death of the American dream. If you're afraid of death, then you will probably reject this film, but if you find death as a transition to another plain then you'll probably accept the film. I personally found the film beautiful and disturbing at the same time. A child's death is incomprehensible and no film can portray the grief that comes with a child passing. But what the filmmakers seem to be saying is that we manifest our destiny and what a wonderful thought that is. Death is such a difficult subject to understand and I applaud the Polish brothers for attempting to grasp it. What brave young men. Northfork is not for everyone, but everyone should see it. No love letter should go unread, even if it's not written to you.
Rating: 
Summary: Strange for Strange's sake
Review: My wife and I dislike the "typical" popcorn fluff movies that come out of Hollywood these days, preferring instead something that makes you think about your own life's experiences and such. Having said that, you might think we would have liked NORTHFORK, unfortunately this is one of those "artsy-fartsy" type movies where the writers and directors go out of their way to be strange just for the sake of being strange without really ever putting anything to celluloid that draws you in or is memorable. I must confess, we tried watching this movie 3 times and never got further than 50 minutes or so into it.... just couldn't stand it anymore. Feel like getting introspective and deep ?
Go sit outside late tonight and stare up at the stars pondering the origins and meaning of life... you will probably find this to be more entertaining passage of 2 hours of your life.
Rating:
Summary: I like Box
Review: I did not see this movie yet....but I really like the DVD box
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE BY DEFINITION
Review: Northfork is an unconventional film. I felt my defense mechanisms on autopilot when I first saw this movie at the Angelika theater. Northfork was territory I hadn't been before and I passed judgment too quickly. Once I was able to have the patience to watch Northfork on DVD it took me down a path I could have never imagined. It's a slow movie, but it needs to be, Northfork has a lot on its plate. I can only really describe Northfork by what it is not-- A Coen brothers movie? You'll be disappointed these brothers aren't that smug. The Polish brother's characters are sympathetic, you feel when they feel. They had this beautiful quality with Twin Falls Idaho. Is Northfork more a David Lynch story, I don't believe Northfork is weird for weird sake. I think the Polish brothers allow their imaginations to roam, and their stories are too genuine not to participate. The Polish Brother's exhibit a real craft of filmmaking like the Coen's and Lynch but they're going for a much different experience. They have more to with Stanley Kubrick than probably any other filmmaker, and that may even be just for comparison sake. They have created a language all their own and as frustrating as Northfork may be to the general audience, it is a masterpiece. Commentary by filmmakers Michael and Mark Polish is usual fair. They explain some of the mystery behind their creative choices. You get a sense that the filmmakers are at ease and appreciate moviemaking. I particularly like their accessibility to talk about their ideas, it's a nice treat. "Bare-Knuckle Filmmaking: The Construction of Northfork " is the true gem on this DVD. Anyone who is interested in filmmaking should watch this. You really get to witness the force of the Polish brothers. Mark and Michael Polish are wonderful to watch as they set out to make their third feature. This documentary goes behind the scenes to show the audience how Northfork was made, from the birth of the screenplay to the producing of the feature film. Most movies released on DVD have some sort of "Press kit" or a basic "Behind-the-Scenes" to add to the extras, but this documentary could be sold on its own if it was longer. The Photo gallery is as good as the cinematography. There must have been a real photographer on the set because these photographs don't look like "stills". The 40 or so pictures here are well composed shots of the cast and locations, none of them resemble shots in the movie. I'm wondering if this is from a book about Northfork? 24 Frame News segment is a small piece that was on the Sundance channel. It shows the promotional tour the filmmakers went on to promote Northfork. A good slice of the filmmakers history. This Northfork DVD has the benefits of time, it will only get better with age.
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