New England’s Motern Media are among the most prolific and acclaimed regional filmmakers, carving out a distinct body of work over 20-plus years. This Thursday, local film club Phosphene Cinema will be screening a triple feature of Motern films: "Freaky Farley," "Local Legends" and their most recent release, "Evil Puddle." None of these films have been screened in Arizona before.
Who — or what — is Motern Media, exactly? Motern is a collective of New England filmmakers, with two artists in particular at its center: actor/director/musician Matt Farley and director Charles Roxburgh. While Roxburgh has directed most of the Motern films, the affable Farley is the face and heart of Motern. A prolific songwriter in his own right, Farley has garnered attention over the years for writing thousands of songs on Spotify: birthday songs, songs about poop or anything a kid may randomly ask their Alexa to play. He’s written enough of these songs to make a living off of streaming residuals (a practice that he explains in detail in "Local Legends"), an artistic hustle and grind that’s given him a big enough profile as a cult artist to land a guest spot on "The Tonight Show."
Making films for (as Farley puts it in interviews) the price of a used car, Motern Media makes films that blur genres and conventions. A slasher film turns into a battle against ninjas; a pair of cops armed with slingshots try to take down a madman who steals people’s senses with his feet; a downbeat meditation on artistic failure and regret that’s also about a bass player who may be up to no good; a riverbeast attacks a sleepy town while a disgraced tutor tries to clear his good name — these are just some of the kinds of films that Farley and Roxburgh have made.
A big part of the joy of watching Motern films is their ensemble of non-professional actors, many of them locals: neighbors, family members Elizabeth Peterson, who often plays the romantic lead in Motern films, is married to Farley in real life) or former co-workers. If there’s an MVP in the Motern acting stable, it’s Farley’s former supervisor Kevin McGee, a dude who looks like the Platonic ideal of a P.E. coach. Jacked with droopy dog eyes and a dry delivery, McGee steals every Motern film he’s in.
There are a lot of Motern films to explore. The three films screening at Overdue are a good start, and here are a few suggestions on what to watch next. Many of these are available on Motern’s Vimeo channel; Gold Ninja Video also sells Blu-rays of several Motern titles.
‘Don’t Let the Riverbeast Get You!’ (2012)
The good people of Rivertown, USA, are being terrorized by a shambling, spindly-fingered riverbeast and it's up to superstar tutor/prodigal son/pariah Neil (Farley) to save the day. The perfect gateway drug into the Motern universe, "Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!" is full of strange bits of overly-literate dialogue, oddball side characters and fun details.Like the best performance artists, the Motern crew fully commit to the bit: The film never winks at the absurdity of Farley’s tutor being treated as the most important/reviled person in town, nor does it lampshade how goofy the titular riverbeast looks. The narrative is deceptively complex; We follow nearly a dozen characters across a tangle of subplots and running gags (the best of which being Kevin McGee’s ex-professional athlete, who’s always seen playing a different sport whenever he shows up) who eventually converge upon the scaly menace in the woods.
"Riverbeast" is also a good introduction into the non-professional style of acting that’s a hallmark of regional cinema. Most of the recurring players in the Motern ensemble show up here; some are a bit more stilted while others power through on sheer charisma. The let’s-put-on-a-show charm of these films really shines here. You get a real sense of a community coming together to make this gloriously silly and ambitious film.
‘Local Legends’ (2013)
While most of the Motern films are directed by Charlie Roxburgh, this semi-autobiographical film was written and directed by Farley, who stars as both a fictional version of himself and as "Business Matt," his slicked-hair imaginary manager. Shot in black and white, "Local Legends" follows Farley as he plays shows, shoots hoops, drinks diabetes-inducing amounts of “coffee milk,” hilariously shoots down a woman who’s into him when he finds out the only Billy Joel CDs she owns are greatest hit compilations, and struggles to write dozens and dozens of songs to post online. In many ways the Rosetta Stone to Motern films, "Local Legends" is Farley’s manifesto: a genuinely moving look at what it’s like to make art that nobody else seems to care about. We’ve seen countless films about successful artists and doomed ones; this is the rare film that shows an obscure artist, happily plugging away at their craft far from the limelight, compelled by a desire to create that won’t be stymied by market forces.If all that seems a little heavy and high-minded, it’s also worth noting that "Local Legends" has some great jokes in it. Farley knows how solipsistic a film like this can come across and finds moments throughout to poke fun at himself.
‘Druid Gladiator Clone’ (2003)
When the Lumiere brothers set up their first-ever film shoot outside that factory in Lyons in 1895, they could not have imagined the wondrous images that the medium they helped midwife into being would bring us: Bogart and Bergman at the airport; Kim Novak putting on the green dress for Jimmy Stewart; Matt Farley in a bedsheet toga, bricking a dozen half court basketball shots as ominous synthesizer music plays in the background.One of the Motern team’s early efforts, "Druid Gladiator Clone" lacks some of the cohesiveness and structure of their later period. But here’s the thing: How much structure do you need in a movie where Farley and McGee wear discount Sith lord robes and fire CGI lighting from their fingertips? In this one, Farley plays an evil Druid's apprentice who has to wrestle with his master's teachings while also dealing with his own clone and battle a bunch of monsters in a grassy field. An enlightening viewing experience, "Druid Gladiator Clone" shows you both how far Roxburgh and Farley have come as filmmakers since then while also showing how much they could already accomplish with such limited resources.
‘Magic Spot’ (2022)
If I can offer up one piece of evidence in support of the genius of Motern films, it’s this: Try to name one other filmmaker who could create a character named Poopy and make them the emotional core of their movie. No one else has the combination of madness and chops to pull it off. A film seemingly created to spite every English teacher who insisted that stories can’t work without conflict, "Magic Spot" is one of Motern's finest efforts: a gentle, inventive take on time travel.Unlike pretty much every other time travel narrative in existence, the stakes here are extremely low. Farley’s Walter (a public access host who refuses to tape his shows for posterity: you catch 'em live or not at all) finds a rock in the woods that lets him go back in time, which awakens in his sleepy cousin Poopy (Motern regular Chris Peterson) a desire to travel back in time to find a long-lost relative. No one is in danger here; there’s no reality-annihilating paradoxes or sinister forces wanting to seize the magic spot for their own ends. It's just two bros using the magic of time travel to reconnect with old flames and reunite with lost loved ones.
For anyone who’s ever done theater or gone to DIY shows, there’s something particularly resonant in how Farley and company champion local art and being in the moment in "Magic Spot." It’s as much a film about ephemerality and questioning what’s worth preserving for future generations as it is about laughing at a guy named Poopy.
‘Local Legends: Bloodbath!’ (2024)
The first "Local Legends" explores what it’s like to make art when nobody cares. Its audacious, genre-bending sequel asks a more pointed question: What do you do when people start giving a shit about your art? The short answer: Lose your fucking mind. "Bloodbath!" pulls off a tricky balancing act: It completely subverts the original film but does it in a way that the older film is “protected” and not invalidated by Farley’s dramatic heel turn. Establishing the original "Local Legends" as a film made by the Matt in this picture, Farley presents us with a darker, parodic version of himself. Bringing back the "two-Matt” device from the original film, Farley plays a small-time artist crushed by the pressure and demands of his modest success while "Business Matt" returns as his helpful, homicidal manager dead set on removing any distractions that is keeping his streaming golden goose from writing more songs for his Spotify account.It really helps to watch "Local Legends" and a few other Motern joints before watching "Bloodbath!," as part of the appeal of the film lies in how Farley plays with the image of himself that he’s constructed over a dozen plus films, cracking some brutal jokes at his own expense. Pivoting from a slice-of-life film to a straight-up slicing, "Bloodbath!" works as both meta-commentary on a prolific artist’s career and as a horror-comedy film about writer’s block gone horribly wrong. It also patiently builds up to what may well be the funniest punchline in any Motern film, ending on a sublimely mean note.
Phosphene Cinema’s Motern Media Triple Feature. Freaky Farley (5 p.m.), Local Legends (6:30 p.m.) and "Evil Puddle" (8 p.m.), Thursday, Aug. 28. Overdue PHX, 1346 W. Roosevelt St. Tickets are $5 at the door.
