Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2006 > May
May 2006
What do I know?
I don’t get it. “The Break-Up” is getting thrashed by critics. Except me. Flimsy as it is, I laughed throughout because Vince Vaughn leaves his weird, manic mark all over the film.
Now I look at Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 0 percent rating, meaning the six critics who have so far weighed in hated it.
Now I don’t feel so good.
Entertainment Weekly promises a surprise gift when you renew your subscription. Mine arrived today. It’s the special edition DVD of “Spider-Man.” Cool. But it’s full-screen, not letterbox. Not cool. Thanks, EW. For nothing.
This one time, at movie camp …
— There’s still time to get your aspiring young filmmakers into Austin Film Festival Cinema/ Television Summer Camp. The courses are for students ages 9 to 17. For more information, visit the festival’s Web site.
— The “Snakes on a Plane” official site is here. And so is the site for “Pirates of the Caribbean II.”
— “Evil Bong.” Yes, really.
— Well, this is a shame. We like Victor Nunez.
— We’re late in finding this, but it’s the funniest thing we’ve seen in a while. What ON EARTH could Richard Linklater’s gesture mean?
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New release dates just in
“An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, comes to the Arbor this Friday.
Meanwhile, the opening date of “Superman Returns” moves up from Friday, June 30, to Wednesday, June 28.
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The movie world just shrank
Cinema has lost another master. Japanese director Shohei Imamura died today of liver cancer, according to news reports. The auteur behind Golden Palm winners “The Ballad of Narayama” (1983) and “The Eel” (1997) was 79.
I got my first big taste of Imamura’s bold, dark work during the Austin Film Society series “Pigs, Pimps & Pornographers: The Films of Shohei Imamura” in 1999. The eight-film series included some of his best known work, including “The Pornographers” and “Vengeance is Mine,” and proved that Japanese cinema was not all samurais, family dramas and tea ceremonies. It could plumb social depths, reveal the seedy side of society with the edge of truth.
Lots of Imamura’s films are available for rental at I Luv Video and Vulcan Video.
For more about the artist, click here.
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Coming attractions
Some highly anticipated movies have shown up on the Dobie’s upcoming calendar:
— Australian Western “The Proposition” on June 9.
— Korean great Chan-wook Park’s “Lady Vengeance” on June 30.
— “The King,” which shot in Austin, on July 7.
— “Strangers With Candy,” the long-delayed film version of Amy Sedaris’ cult TV show, on July 21. (“Strangers” is also set for at least one Alamo venue)
— Also tentatively set for July 21: “Wassup Rockers,” Larry Clark’s movie about South Central skate punks in Beverly Hills.
— “Little Miss Sunshine,” which got huge amounts of attention at Sundance, on Aug. 11. It stars Toni Collette and the always wonderful Steve Carell.
Remember, release dates are prone to change, especially with smaller films like these. Also, other theaters besides the Dobie might book these releases as well.
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Migraine? Yeah, right
— You know, they say “migraine”, but we can’t help thinking that’s not the real story of why Ben Affleck was in the hospital. More likely: those famous last words “Hey, how many hot dogs do you bet I can eat?”
— Maddox Jolie-Pitt on his new sister: boring, sleepy.
— Cannes hearts “Clerks II.” (Via Kottke) Ex-Austinite Guillermo Del Toro also creates a buzz.
— We finally checked out “The Da Vinci Code” during the holiday weekend and it exceeded expectations. Admittedly, given the reviews, expectations were pretty low, but still. Sure, the film is slow and talky, but Audrey Tautou and Ian McKellan are good (Tom Hanks, not so much), the premise is intriguing and there are moments of real awe and wonder. Overall, a mildly pleasant surprise.
The “Da Vinci” experience of the weekend, though, belongs to some friends of ours. There’s a scene early in the movie where Tom and Audrey are trying to unscramble some letters to find a secret message. The Talks During the Movie Guy seated next to my friends thinks he has things figured out before our heroes and thus feels compelled to announce his findings. So what’s the secret message? “The Da Vinci Code!” My friends felt honored to be seated near what was clearly one of the world’s pre-eminent cryptographers.
— “X-Men: The Last Stand” rules the box office. We skipped, but obtained the salient plot points from our beau’s 13-year-old son, who demonstrated Jean Grey patented “You can tell I’m evil because I am turning my head … very … very … slowly” move.
— Kiera, no Lindsay Lohan antics. We mean it.
— Get well soon, Out & About. We miss you.
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Aniston on man-training
— Jennifer Aniston says men need to be trained. This totally makes us think of the “South Park” episode about the Dog Whisperer, and we’re imagining Jen pinching Vince Vaughn’s neck and going “tsss!”
— A look ahead at “District B13,” which is set to open in Austin on Friday.
— Praise for “The New World.”
— Our Miss Adventure returned last week, and we couldn’t be happier. She’s even helping you save money while you see movies. Why? Because she cares.
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See movies, help theaters
Want some free movie tickets? Sure you do. On Saturday, Book People will donate 5 percent of store sales to the Paramount and State theaters. Plus, you’ll get two film passes for the Paramount Summer Film Series.
All you need to do is bring in anything that mentions the event: the film series calendar, an ad (there’ll be one in the Austin Chronicle on Thursday), a flier — you could even print out this blog. Then you’d be giving us a sense of purpose, too, and that should pretty much take care of your good works for the year. What’s not to love?
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Canned at Cannes?
Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation” got mixed to bad reviews at Cannes last week. Now his rotoscoped (partly animated) adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s sci-fi novel is getting dissed by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter at the festival.
Variety:
“Audiences may find there’s less than meets the eye in Richard Linklater’s deeply intriguing but almost too-faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s nightmarish 1977 novel about government surveillance, fractured identity and dope-fueled paranoia… .
” ‘A Scanner Darkly’ has in common with Linklater’s other Cannes entry, ‘Fast Food Nation,’ the feeling of a valiant missed opportunity… . Plot point by plot point, the film seems more concerned with achieving a lucid retelling of the novel’s events, resulting in an almost disappointingly well-behaved sci-fi noir that’s mildly provocative rather than visionary… .
“Less successfully, the animation layer has a slightly flattening effect on the actors’ faces, leaching them of some depth. Graham Reynolds’ music is eerily evocative without quickening the pulse.”
Hollywood Reporter:
“Movement-wise, there is nothing animated about this animated feature. It is static. Scene after scene of verbose fiddle-faddle: Characters orate at each other, while sitting in cars, sitting at dining tables, sitting in living rooms, sitting at office desks. The film might be better titled ‘The Big Sit.’
“What is going on? Well, a lot of verbiage about the ravages a drug dubbed Substance D is perpetrating on beautiful downtown Anaheim. Unfortunately, filmmaker Linklater further fuddles the works by allowing the actors histrionic excess… .
“The film’s muted pallet of pastels, while immensely suited to bath soaps, is less dynamic as a filmic eye-grabber. While acknowledging the craftsmanship and creativity of the animation team, ‘A Scanner Darkly’s’ colorings and shadings make the real-life characters look like wood carvings.”
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Calling local filmmakers
The Austin History Center wants your work.
Ben Grillot, the new curator of photography and film, writes:
“Here at the History Center we’re actively seeking copies of any films made in Austin by Austinites. These will be added to our archival collections and help to form a permanent record of Austin — a resource that can be drawn upon by researchers and filmmakers for generations to come.”
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Jared Leto ‘out’
— Really? Hmmm.
— If you buy “The Fast and the Furious Collection” DVD set (a three-disc set of the first two movies) you’ll get a free ticket to “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” out June 16. The DVD set will be released June 6.
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At the Alamo
The Alamo calendar for June and July is out. Here’s a purely subjective list of highlights that we haven’t already mentioned here. For specific venues and other information, visit originalalamo.com.
— A Found magazine live event. (June 7)
— “Esquivel: King of Lounge” is all about the king of “space-age bachelor pad music.” It’s a benefit for KOOP and is hosted by Jay Robillard of “The Lounge Show.” (June 27)
— Two words: Queen. Sing-along. Unless sing-along counts as two words. (July 6, 13, 20, 27)
— Composer Graham Reynolds performs selections from his score for “A Scanner Darkly.” (July 7-8)
— The Sinus Show takes on “Point Break,” a career highlight for both Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, which is saying something. Also, “Back off, warchild!” is the best line of movie dialogue ever. (July 21-22)
— Reportedly super-scary movie “The Descent”, about a spelunking trip gone very wrong, screens — where else? — in a cave. Longhorn Caverns, to be specific. (July 22)
— Someone called “Azzeroth, the Black Metal Comedian” performs with “Metalstorm: The Scandinavian Black Metal Wars.” (July 31)
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Lots of Linklater
— Is Richard Linklater planning a Chet Baker movie?
— Meanwhile, Reuters reports on Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly.”
— The iconic “Brokeback Mountain” poster (itself inspired by the “Titanic” poster) gets ripped off again..
— Matt Dentler has “Marie Antoinette” coverage from Cannes, but more importantly, he also snapped Samuel L. Jackson there.
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Bush to skip ‘Inconvenient Truth’
— In today’s least-shocking news, President Bush says he probably won’t go see the Al Gore global-warming doc “An Inconvenient Truth.” Much has been written about how the president is a fan of Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear,” a novel that dismisses global warming.
— Brett Ratner frets in a surprisingly thoughtful way about the possible ramifications of the age-reversing special effects on view in “X-Men: The Last Stand.” Also, check out that Faye Dunaway pic. Yeesh.
‘Serenity’ for a cause
— Austin is one of the cities where fans of the movie “Serenity” are holding benefit screenings in June. The proceeds benefit “Serenity” creator Joss Whedon’s favorite charity, Equality Now. How sweet and appropriate is it that the man who thought up Buffy the Vampire Slayer supports a group that helps women? Hugs to Joss. The Austin event is June 22 at the Alamo Downtown.
— Doc star Tom DeLay gets confused.
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Ledger, Williams in Dylan film
— Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger sign on for Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan film.
— Last night’s fundraiser for the documentary “Zombie Girl” drew 80 folks, filmmaker Erik Mauck reports. More events are in the works.
— Holiday weekends were made for countdown shows. Bravo runs down the “100 Funniest Movies” Friday and Saturday nights from 8 to 10.
— A Cannes rundown, including info that Bruce Willis has a “Fast Food Nation” cameo.
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Ladd spirals into Austin
— Austin will be seeing a lot of three-time Oscar nominee Diane Ladd in the next couple of weeks. On Friday, Ladd will be in town for the Spirit of Healing Conference at the Human Potential Center. She’ll be introducing holistic medicine expert Gladys McGarey. Then on June 3, Ladd returns to sign copies of her new book, “Spiraling Through the School of Life,” at Book People.
— Turner Classic Movies has just announced a new slate of upcoming programs. The most intriguing is “TCM Underground,” a late-night showcase for cult films hosted by Rob Zombie. It premieres in October.
— To coincide with prom season, “The World’s Best Prom” is out on DVD. The entertaining documentary, which played the Alamo Downtown a while back, is about the extraordinary pageantry surrounding prom in Racine, Wis. We’re talking live TV coverage. Definitely worth checking out.
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Movie stars will wash your car
The Girl Scouts of Troop 1500, who were featured in the outstanding documentary of the same name, are having their annual carwash at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Book People. Proceeds will benefit the group’s trip to Big Bend.
Troop 1500 is made of girls whose mothers are in prison. Made by Ellen Spiro and Karen Bernstein, the documentary was well received at South by Southwest 2004 and was featured on the PBS series “Independent Lens.”
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Ang Lee’s next movie
— Just in: Next up for Ang Lee, who won an Oscar for directing “Brokeback Mountain,” will be the Chinese-language espionage thriller “Lust, Caution.”
— A holiday for Baby Brangelina? You know Tom Cruise is wishing he’d thought of this whole Namibia thing now.
— Austin Underground Film Fest. Tonight. The very notion of it conjures images of rebellion, like the “New Moon on Monday” video where Duran Duran brought down the totalitarian government just by passing out pamphlets and being cute. We’re kind of sad our mind works that way.
— The much-needed dead-of-the-afternoon laugh.
— We wish we had never read this. Seriously. It’s being shared just so you will understand why we’re fragile today.
— Nicole Kidman’s “special song” with Keith Urban is “Wind Beneath My Wings”? You think you know someone …
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Judging Judge
— The June Esquire has a pretty good interview with local hero Mike Judge. The article does a nice job of portraying Judge’s sweet everyguyness, but the critique of how Judge had handled the delayed release of his film “Idiocracy” (currently due out Sept. 1) felt a bit thin. We wouldn’t presume to tell the man who invented Beavis how to do anything.
— Motion Media Arts Center is changing its name to the Austin School of Film & Media Arts Center. What hasn’t changed is what all they have going on, including kids programs this summer.
— The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival will be presenting a new honor at this year’s event. The Soundpost Award is “a soundtrack grant of $130,000 in music supervision, legal services and licensed music,” according to a news release from aGLIFF. It will be awarded to a filmmaker at this year’s festival, Sept. 29-Oct. 7. The deadline for film submissions is June 1.
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Forget the Alamo? No way.
Help the Alamo Downtown! Invaluable local site Austinist beseeches all movie freaks — me, you, that guy over there — to aid the totemic cine-heaven in keeping its original, 10-year-long location in the Warehouse District.
Go HERE for this urgent scoop.
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Zombie party!
— Remember the 12-year-old girl who made her own zombie film? Tonight, there’s a fundraiser for filmmakers who are doing a documentary about her. The party for “Zombie Girl: The Movie” starts at 7 at the Blue Theater. The $10 suggested donation gets you drinks, snacks and entry into a raffle for prizes. Plus, you can see clips of the doc in progress and from “Pathogen,” the film from Zombie Girl herself, Emily Hagins.
— Indie-film loving dads (as opposed to our dad, who’s so indie, he doesn’t even watch movies) might like a subscription to the Film Movement DVD club, which has some discounts going for Father’s Day.
Is Angelina the new Bette Davis?
A poll by Turner Classic Movies reveals that Americans and Canadians are both full of crazy talk. To coincide with its book “Leading Ladies: A TCM Guide to Fifty Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era,” TCM wanted to find out perceptions of today’s actresses. Among the findings:
— “Thirty-three percent of Americans and 27 percent of Canadians see Angelina Jolie as the next Bette Davis for being a tough-talking beauty.” OK, that’s cool. Whatever you think of Jolie and her never-ending personal soap opera, she has icon potential.
— “Halle Berry and Nicole Kidman tied among both Americans (24 percent) and Canadians (20 percent) as the next Greta Garbo, who is known for her flawless, classic beauty and elusiveness.” Kidman isn’t a stretch. In the “Hours”-“Moulin Rouge”-divorcing Tom era, she was such a movie star. But we wonder about the effects of bad films, Ladies Home Journal covers and Keith Urban. And Berry just seems like a featherweight lately.
— “Americans (27 percent) and Canadians (25 percent) agree that Julia Roberts is the next Katharine Hepburn, who was a no-nonsense independent leading lady.” We thought it was pretty well established that Julia Roberts is full of nonsense.
— “Americans (33 percent) picked Charlize Theron as the next Marilyn Monroe; while Canadians tied Theron and Reese Witherspoon for the blond bombshell at 25 percent.” Nothing against either actress — and you know how we feel about Reese — but no. Just no.
— “Twenty-five percent of American women want to be Grace Kelly, while 22 percent of Canadian women want to be Audrey Hepburn.” This is perhaps most suprising to us, as we have clearly underestimated how many of our countrywomen have any opinion at all on Grace Kelly. Personally, we’d like to be Joanne Woodward. Or Beyonce.
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Reiner in town?
We’ve just been told by one of our cohorts that Rob Reiner was spotted in Austin this weekend, browsing shops on South Congress Avenue. We realize how hard it will be to concentrate on work now that you have this knowledge, but try to stay focused.
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Dark days for ‘Darko’ creator?
Variety reports there’s no solid consensus among critics and audiences on this year’s crop of competing films, including Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation,” which “generated generally mixed reactions, although there were isolated ardent voices pro and con.”
And, hold on “Donnie Darko” fans. Apparently Richard Kelly’s follow-up, only his second film, is disastrously bad.
Read on:
“Then there was Richard Kelly’s enormous flat pancake ‘Southland Tales,’ a would-be visionary tale about the dire near-term future that had industryites wondering how it got made without anyone hoisting warning signs, how it got selected for the competition, who on Earth will distribute it in the U.S. and what it means for Kelly’s future.”
Critic Todd McCarthy of Variety also weighs in, darkly:
“Rarely has a picture been so self-consciously designed to be a culturally meaningful touchstone, and fallen so woefully short, as ‘Southland Tales.’ A pretentious, overreaching, fatally unfocused fantasy about American fascism, radical rebellion, nuclear terrorism and apocalypse set two years hence, sprawling pic boasts 10 producers, clearly none of them strong enough to rein in the overweening indulgences of second-time director Richard Kelly, coming off the promising indie fave ‘Donnie Darko.’ . . . This wannabe visionary epic may find cult believers among gullible undergrads ready to embrace anything that projects the worst paranoid notions about America. But the fiasco at hand will be evident to everyone else, making commercial prospects exceedingly dicey.”
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‘Da Vinci’ has last laugh
— “The Da Vinci Code” does just fine at the box office, thank you very much.
Meanwhile, we were bad Americans and took no stand on “Code,” instead going to the see the Astros and Rangers play in Houston. Before the game was a clever promo to encourage All-Star voting for the ‘Stros that mimicked the “Napoleon Dynamite” opening credits. Well done.
— Ain’t It Cool News reports that a New York test audience wasn’t too thrilled with Sept. 11 images used in “The Omen” remake that’s due out 6-6-06.
— The AMC theater chain fires an 80-year-old for his military tattoos. They rehired him, which we don’t think goes quite far enough: How about hiring a full staff of crusty old vets? Guys who would put the fear of God into marauding children who have never uttered “excuse me” in their lives. Guys who who would stomp cell phones to death if they so much as peep. Guys who would take you into custody on the spot if you brought your baby to an R-rated movie.
— I know the Alamo’s Rolling Roadshow has shown movies at a former mental hospital, but what about a cemetery?
— Some pics from the “Fast Food Nation” premiere at Cannes.
— Jack Black is both a dad-to-be and remarkably self-aware: “I think I will be good when it comes to playtime. I don’t know how good I’ll do with the discipline.”
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AFS anniversary final 4
— The Austin Film Society has just announced the last four films in its anniversary series. They are:
Rocco and his Brothers.” 7 p.m. Wednesday. Alamo Downtown.
“Weekend.” June 28.
“Summer.” July 26.
“The Mirror.” Aug. 23.
— If “The Ten Commandments” were a ‘tween comedy
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Burgers, Berry .. and a Brangelina baby?
— Is Angelina Jolie giving birth, like, right now?
— Halle Berry discovers the U.S. has no monopoly on tacky disc jockeys.
— “Fast Food Nation” is the new “Da Vinci Code.” More press from Cannes.
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‘Art School’ in crowd
Anyone who has taken a studio art class can attest to the humor and angst behind the satire in “Art School Confidential.� Clearly, the full house at Alamo South last night had experienced a few class critiques themselves, because they erupted at every gnarly reference. Read more about the coming-of-age movie from an arts guy point of view at Out & About.
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Picking on ‘Da Vinci’?
— Are critics making a sport of slamming “The Da Vinci Code”? Cinematical points out that the movie is faring worse on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes than some notorious stink bombs: “Is ‘The Da Vinci Code’ a worse movie than ‘Shark Boy and Lava Girl’ or ‘Dickie Roberts’? Seriously?”
Meanwhile, in Austin, there’s a protest against the film scheduled this evening at Tinseltown Pflugerville theater. An organizer said the demonstrators would gather about 5:30. An executive with Cinemark, the company that owns the theater, said protesters will have to stay on public property.
Elsewhere on this site, you can get into the debate about the movie.
If the combination of bad reviews and controversy keeps “Da Vinci” from being the blockbuster it was expected to be, that’s a pretty dismal start to summer movie season, considering that “Mission: Impossible III” and “Poseidon” were disappointments at the box office.
None of it, of course, can stop the inevitable video game.
— “Ghostbusters 3”? If this happens, you just know Kanye West will do the reworked theme song.
— A “Fast Food Nation” trailer. (Via Kottke)
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Tasty ‘Fast Food’
Today, The New York Times’ Manhola Darghis weighs in on Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation,” which premiered at Cannes:
“A different political reality is brought to devastating light in Richard Linklater’s ferocious, fictionalized adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction bestseller ‘Fast Food Nation,’ which, among other things, proves that when it comes to critiquing America, few do it better than outraged Americans. (Mr. Linklater, who has never had a film at Cannes before, this year has two: ‘Fast Food Nation,’ which is screening in competition, and ‘A Scanner Darkly,’ which is in Un Certain Regard.) In ‘Fast Food,’ Mr. Linklater and Mr. Schlosser, who wrote the screenplay together, trace a miscellany of characters from both sides of the American-Mexican border as they experience the perils of globalization. The most essential political film from an American director since Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ it may not turn you into a vegetarian, but it will definitely make you think twice about our fast-food culture.”
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‘Da Vinci’ ticket sales
— We sampled a few local theaters Thursday afternoon to see how advance ticket sales are going for “The Da Vinci Code.” Here’s what we found: Gateway, 900; Lakeline Mall, 175; Metropolitan 14, 120, Alamo South, 1,820; Alamo Village, 1,139.
— Finally, someone gets to the important business: a retrospective of Tom Hanks’ hairstyles.
— The Cannes premiere nears for Richard Linklater’s “Fast Food Nation.”
— Even I, one of the few “Poseidon” apologists, agree that it has some diversity issues. As Popwatch puts it, “it was so appallingly retro, it might as well have said ‘directed by The Man.’ ” (Warning: The link has spoilers, but you probably weren’t going to see “Poseidon” anyway, so no big.)
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Big-screen Los Lonely Boys
Remember the Los Lonely Boys movie, “Cottonfields & Crossroads,” from South by Southwest? The film’s Web site has some info about theatrical openings. The film will be at Cinemark theaters in San Angelo, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, Harlingen, Weslaco, McAllen and Mission starting June 9. No word yet on Austin release dates.
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Pajama party!
— The locally produced film “Hef and the Magnificent Mansion” — described as a cross between “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and Playboy magazine — premieres May 28 with a pajama party at Club 115 (115 San Jacinto Blvd.). Doors open at 7 p.m., and admission is free if you wear your PJs (and is only $5 otherwise). The filmmakers are Jamey White and André Meadows.
— Out & About gets dreamy.
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Dueling ‘Showgirls’
The camp classic “Showgirls” is getting mocked all over town.
At the Alamo Downtown, the movie is the target of the Sinus Show.
Meanwhile, on June 29, the Alamo Lake Creek screens the movie with an introduction and instructional interludes by writer/performer David Schmader, whose mockery of the film earned him a commentary track on a re-release of the “Showgirls” DVD.
And speaking of “Showgirls” director Paul Verhoeven, there’s a straight-to-DVD sequel to his film “Hollow Man.” (He didn’t direct the new one, alas.) “Hollow Man II” raises one troubling question: “Why?” But it answers another: Is Christian Slater gainfully employed these days?
A total aside: I love Verhoeven’s “Starship Troopers.” Make of that what you will.
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Close your eyes and think of mutants
— As all the “Da Vinci Code” bad buzz continues, let’s think about the new “X-Men” movie to make ourselves feel better.
— I come down on the side of this being a dumb idea.
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‘Da Vinci’ watch continues
— Another “Da Vinci Code” pan.
— Meanwhile, Ian McKellen probably isn’t easing “Da Vinci” protesters’ minds.
— More “Narnia” in ‘08.
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Katie’s baby blues
— The story that was bound to happen.
— Maybe a little media gossip-y, but an editor who calls “Sudden Death” the greatest movie ever? Awesome.
— SXSW’s Matt Dentler is in Cannes. We, on the other hand, are at our desk eating lasagna.
— Demi Moore as Coco Chanel?
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‘United 93’ Austin angle
Longtime Austin stage actress Starla Benford gives a crackly performance in “United 93.� She plays Wanda Anita Green, one of the flight attendants, with her usual intelligence and dignity. Read more about the movie in Out and About.
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First ‘Da Vinci’ reviews
Early word on the weekend’s blockbuster release:
From Variety:
A pulpy page-turner in its original incarnation as a huge international bestseller has become a stodgy, grim thing in the exceedingly literal-minded film version of “The Da Vinci Code.”
Hollywood Reporter liked it a little more:
For those who hate Dan Brown’s best-selling symbology thriller “The Da Vinci Code,” the eagerly awaited and much-hyped movie version beautifully exposes all its flaws and nightmares of logic. For those who love the book’s page-turning intensity, the movie version heightens Brown’s mischievous interweaving of genre action, historical facts and utter fictions.
For our part, we sent two reviewers to a preview screening: one who’s a fan of the book, one who’s never read it. The “Da Vinci” fan liked it, but points out that it’s loooooong, and Tom Hanks is kind of “just there.” The nonfan was pretty bored by the whole thing.
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DeLay doc in Houston, Dallas
“The Big Buy: Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress” has a benefit premiere screening Friday night at the Angelika Film Center in Houston, where it will also have a theatrical run. Friday’s screening benefits nonprofit groups Texans for Public Justice and DriveDemocracy.org. Before the screening, there will be a reception with activist groups and media types like Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins. Tickets start at $25, and can be reserved here.
The film is also starting a run at the Dallas Angelika on Friday. “Big Buy” is not screening in Austin because the filmmakers don’t want to disrupt legal proceedings involving DeLay, a publicist for the film said. If you want to see the doc without road-tripping, it’s for sale here.
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‘Da Vinci Code’ links
In case you’re obsessing:
— Beliefnet has a smackdown on whether “Code” is anti-Christian.
— Webshots has a gallery of locations from the story.
007’s new ride
— Here it is. This is what Daniel Craig has to do to get you to quit picking on him.
— Gwyneth Paltrow: yoga teacher.
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Target is great, Angelina. I’m just sayin’
Brangelina: Married? Never getting married? Who knows. Either way, the important thing is that missy is too U.N. and special to register anywhere, thus depriving us of the opportunity to read her registry, as we got to do with Tori Spelling’s first marriage. And you know what? That’s just selfish.
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Free movies for kids!
— At Alamo South, they’ll be showing kids classics all summer at 1 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The films kick off with “E.T.” on May 29. And not for kids, unless you really want to instill lessons on zombie-attack preparedness early, are showings of “Return of the Living Dead” May 29-31. The Belgraves add live music to the May 29 show. Visit originalalamo.com for info about both events.
— Meanwhile, the Alamo is taking its Rolling Roadshow to Independence Brewery on June 10 for a drive-in double feature of “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” and “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains.” There’ll be live music by Queen of Spades and appearances by “Dolls” cast members. Plus, thanks to extensive research on our part, we can verify that Independence beers are truly excellent and made by good people who have a nice dog. For more info, visit rollingroadshow.com.
— Not an “X-Men” fan? There’s always Tibet. The big opening Memorial Day weekend is, of course, the third film about those lovable mutants, but the Dobie has “Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy”. And “Mountain Patrol”, a film about efforts to protect the Tibetan antelope from poaching, is at the Arbor.
— Another Dobie note: On June 30, the theater is set to open “Drawing Restraint 9” from artist Matthew Barney. The film features Barney and his longtime partner, Bjork, in addition to themes of whaling, Shinto and relationships.
All Wes, all the time
— Wow, they think a lot about Wes Anderson over at Slate. This time, we have musing about why it takes Anderson and his “American Eccentric” contemporaries so long to make movies.
— The MySpace page for cool upcoming film “The Puffy Chair. (Via Cinematical.)
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‘Clerks II’ moves
— “Clerks II” is now set for release July 21 instead of Aug. 18, a date it would have shared with “Snakes on a Plane.” Seems like a smart move, as there’s likely to be quite a bit of audience overlap between the two.
— The Austin Gossip Blog has a celeb sighting for you.
— The Alamo folks want to keep you harmonizing through June with R. Kelly, boy-band, Beatles and Journey sing-alongs.
— I know I’m a showtune-hating grump, but does everything need to be made into a musical?
— New Orleans doc includes some expats in Austin.
— More on the Wes Anderson AmEx ad.
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The New Yorker’s Wright stuff (and Herzog unleashed)
Two great film articles in The New Yorker:
— In the current issue is Austin writer Lawrence Wright’s “Big in Damascus,” an epic about “Syrian filmmakers working for — and against — their country’s regime.”
Read the article in print, but see a photo slide show of the story, with narration by Wright, here.
— Backlogged on my New Yorker reading, I just came across the long article about “Werner Herzog” in the April 24 issue, and it’s phenomenal. I can’t find the story online, but there’s some chatter about it here.
The story, “How Werner Herzog Makes Movies,” takes place in the Thai jungle, where Herzog is shooting the feature version of his great documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” with Christian Bale and Steven Zahn. Called “Rescue Down,” the film is Herzog’s first Hollywood production, and he just doesn’t get — and forcefully flouts — the way the big money boys make movies. The sparks are hilarious.
“For a man of (Herzog’s) age, it’s a very … raw talent,” says the assistant director. “It’s more like an 18-year-old running into the forest.”
(Herzog is 63. He has made more than 50 films.)
A costume designer comments: “He doesn’t know basic things about filmmaking, things that simply make it easier to tell a story.”
Herzog annoys and flummoxes the entire crew, constantly. “At every turn, crew members let him know that they considered his directing habits strange, impulsive, even amateurish,” writes the author.
The man who made “Aguirre, Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo” and “Grizzly Man” amateurish?
Go to the library. Find this article. Read it. Be enthralled.
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Your take: ‘Poseidon’ misses boat
So what did you see this weekend? How was it? Judging from the comments section and box-office totals, there is no love for “Poseidon” out there. I’m starting to think the fact that I was out sick Friday was bad karma for saying anything nice about it at all.
— Producer/casting director Vicky Boone is the speaker at Wednesday’s Reel Women meeting. It’s at 7 p.m. at 701 Tillery St., Suite 7A.
— The Alamo Downtown will help get you stoked for “Nacho Libre” with “Santo Vs. the Martian Invasion” in Foleyvision on May 28. For more info, visit the Alamo Web site.
— The Austin Film Society starts its “De/Re: Constructing the Narrative: Global Experiments in Film Structure” series on June 6. According to a new release from AFS, the series will “examine recent films which explore untraditional modes of telling a story cinematically.” The offerings include Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant” and the French film “Irreversible.”
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‘King’-sized slam
“The King,” starring Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt, was filmed in Austin last year and should hit theaters this summer.
Already, though, it’s being dethroned by the friendly fellows at IndieWire, where critic Michael Keresky writes: “Never intent to call out its own trash as trash, ‘The King’ couches its head-slapping melodramatics in turgid metaphor and gross self-importance.”
We like mean. Enjoy the verbal disembowelment here.
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We have a winner
- A gaggle of Austinites - producers Ramona Kelly and David Grosvenor; writer-director-editor Mat Hames; cinematographer Wilson Waggoner; and composer Stephen Barber — are celebrating after their documentary “Last Best Hope: A True Story of Escape, Evasion and Remembrance” won the gold award at the WorldFest International Film Festival in Houston.
A canned description of the movie: “The film, which springs from Abilene resident Bill Grosvenor’s experiences in Nazi-occupied Belgium, examines the transcendent power of the human spirit expressed by ordinary Belgian citizens who came together in extraordinary ways to aid downed American fighter pilots during WWII.”
It airs on KLRU in the fall.
— Wednesdays in June at the Bullock Texas State History Museum have been reserved for great movies made in Texas. It’s John Travolta times two with “Urban Cowboy” and “Michael” (June 7), “Selena” and “The Buddy Holly Story” (June 14), “Slacker” and “Bottle Rocket” (June 21) and “Hud” and “The Last Picture Show” (June 28). Details right here.
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SXSWclick
Just got this news release in from SXSW. What an amazing jury they have lined up.
South by Southwest Conferences & Festivals is happy to announce the third edition of its new-media festival, titled “SXSWclick.� SXSWclick is a year-round initiative created by the festival to showcase short-form storytelling via the Internet and mobile devices.
“When we started this new-media fest three years ago, it was a very rare concept,� says SXSW Festival Producer Matt Dentler. “Now, we live in an age of video iPods and mobile phones playing shorts. It’s a great time for SXSWclick, and for artists to use it as an avenue of discovery.�
Film and video-makers are urged to submit their work for consideration, via [the official Web site](http://sxswclick.com/news/. The deadline for submissions is June 12. The festival’s lineup will be available for download on the official site by June 30. An esteemed jury will then select winners in each of five categories: “Old School Shorts,� “Really Real Shorts,� “Animate-It,� “Sound Checks� and “What the Film?� In addition, there will be an audience award to encompass all categories, and viewers will be able to vote online. Films will be available either as Quicktime files for computers or MPEG files, for mobile devices.
The SXSWclick jury will include: Margaret Brown (director, “Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt”), Kirby Dick (director, “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”), Danny Leiner (director, “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”), Karina Longworth (Editor Emeritus, Cinematical.com), Jason Reitman (director, “Thank You For Smoking”), Deborah Scranton (director, “The War Tapes”), Morgan Spurlock (director, “Super Size Me”), Laura Swisher (stand-up comic) and more.
Winners for jury and audience awards will be announced on July 28. Along with an assortment of prizes, the winners are automatically selected to screen at the next SXSW Film Festival, March 9-18. For more information contact Jarod Neece at: film@sxsw.com or 467-7979.
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Take an IMAX ‘Ride’
— A new film coming to the IMAX theater at the Bullock Texas State History Museum has roots in Austin. “Ride Around the World: A Cowboy Adventure” is from Trinity Films, a production company with offices in Austin and Fort Worth. The film, a look at cowboys and cowgirls the world over, premieres here June 2.
— Asia Argento’s “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,” which had a brief run at the Alamo South a while back, is coming out June 6 on DVD. The movie is based on the work of “JT Leroy,” an enigmatic literary star later exposed as a hoax.. The DVD release is embracing the scandal, promising “never-before-seen exclusive footage of JT Leroy and the masterminds behind the hoax in action,” according to a news release from Palm Pictures.
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From Rocky to rock
— First look at “Rocky Balboa.”
— EW Popwatch is as troubled as we are by those lackluster “Cars” trailers. In this crazy world, we just want to be able to count on Pixar. Is that so wrong?
— Just a hunch, but I don’t think “My Super Ex-Girlfriend” is going to be the pro-woman hit of the summer: “Basically, it’s about a regular guy who starts dating a woman and finds out she’s a superhero. It’s great at first, but when she becomes too needy and jealous and manipulative, he realizes he has to break it off with her — but she doesn’t take it too well. She becomes the ultimate crazy ex-girlfriend and uses her powers to destroy his life.” Read more.
— Paramount Classics will donate 5 percent of ticket sales from “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Al Gore global warming documentary, to the Alliance for Climate Protection. The film is set to open in Austin on June 16.
— A couple of treats for music fans at the Alamo Downtown: “Radio Revolution: The Rise and Fall of the Big 8” looks at the groundbreaking radio station that launched the careers of the MC5, Bob Seger and Alice Cooper. The doc shows at 9:45 p.m. Monday.
And looking ahead to June, there’s the Austin premiere of “Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel.” The June 12 screening features a performance by Li’l Cap’n Travis, a stellar live band. (We were lucky enough to be invited to a wedding where they played the reception. Awesome.)
For tickets and more info on both, visit originalalamo.com.
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A fine season finale
The student film-buff collective Union Cinematheque at UT has been showing canonical classics of world cinema all semester at the Texas Union Theatre, titles like “The 400 Blows,” “Knife in the Water,” “Night of the Hunter” and “Throne of Blood.”
Its maiden season has been a thunderous success, with hundreds of movie nuts crowding the venue on Friday nights, thanks partly to free admission. I made a point last Friday of catching the semester’s closing film, Sam Fuller’s rarely seen 1952 newspaper drama “Park Row.” The group screens celluloid, not video, and the sharp “Park Row” they projected is the only extant 35mm print in the country.
Gritty, inky, beautifully shot and written, the movie was viewed raptly and got a noisy ovation at the end from the nearly full house, including the guy who carried in a bulging bag of Taco Bell in lieu of popcorn.
Meanwhile, the mean ole Texas Union doesn’t like that the group uses “Union” in its name, so a name change is in the works for next semester. Get more at www.unioncinematheque.com.
— Also checked out G.W. Pabst’s 1929 silent “Diary of a Lost Girl,” starring the ravishing Louise Brooks, last night at the Alamo Downtown. It showed as part of the Austin Film Society’s amazing series “3 Actresses Abroad: Anna May Wong, Josephine Baker and Louise Brooks,” which wraps next Tuesday with Pabst and Brooks’ masterstroke “Pandora’s Box.”
Local music wiz Graham Reynolds wrote and performed the live piano score for “Diary,” providing a nuanced — here chilling, there lulling — melodramatic match.
— Remember those kinetic ads for “Sin City”? You should. The movie has racked up nine nominations in the Hollywood Reporter’s 35th annual Key Art Awards, which honor surpassing marketing in 29 categories, including posters, trailers, Internet ads and TV spots. Get the scoop here.
— And you can see “Sin City” at 7 p.m. May 25 at the Ransom Center during its Alternative Technologies Screening Series, which is also showing “Waking Life” (June 8) and Luke Savisky’s “D/x” (July 13). It’s free.
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‘MI:3’ finger pointing
— Bloggers killed “Mission: Impossible III”?
— And more “MI:3”: Slate runs down all the ways it’s similar to director* J.J. Abrams’* “Alias.”
— TCM has a war-movie marathon on Memorial Day weekend.
‘Jumbo’ on Jumbotron?
The new hi-def screen at the University of Texas Royal-Memorial Stadium will be the largest such expanse at any stadium.
Why not show outdoor movies there? And not just “Lawrence of Arabia,” which my colleague Chris Garcia thinks is overrated? (Or he did a few years ago.)
Suggest the extra-big-screen movies you’d like to see at UT in our commentary box.
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Mmmm … ‘Da Vinci Code’
The Alamo South has set our mouths watering with a tantalizing description of the “Da Vinci Code” feast on May 23. Seriously. Check this out:
Amuse: Green olives stuffed with smoked dove
Appetizer: Grilled brioche with Samaka Hara, a Syrian dish of red snapper baked in tomato chile sauce
Israeli salad: Diced fresh tomato, cucumber, jicama, bell pepper and onion dressed with fresh lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and parsley
Entree: Steak au Poivre with a chianti porcini reduction with potatoes dauphinoise and haricot verts
Dessert: Tart Magdalene — honeyed goat ricotta topped with fresh figs and pomegranate molasses
For tickets ($50) and more info, visit the theater’s Web site.
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Austin Film Festival to honor Pollack, Black
— The Austin Film Festival and Conference will honor Sydney Pollack and Shane Black this fall. Pollack, a director, actor and producer, will receive the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award for a career that’s included films from “Tootsie” to “Out of Africa.” Black will receive the Distinguished Screenwriter Award. Probably best known for the “Lethal Weapon” films, the writer earned acclaim for last year’s *”Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.” * This year’s festival is Oct. 19-26.
— Yogagroove is hosting the makers of the documentary “Try for Others” this Saturday at 4 p.m. The film is about Dominic Cooke, a “paraplegic practicing yogi and his two best friends as they bicycle across the United States raising awareness and funds to support those suffering from spinal cord injuries,” according to a news release from the yoga studio. Yogagroove is at 7950 Great Northern Blvd. For more information, contact Wayne Baker at 407-9909.
— A couple of Alamo events: First, there’s a screening of “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” to benefit the Austin Yellowbike Project. The “bike-in” event is at 8 p.m. May 20 2013 E. 51st St. For tickets and more information, visit the Rolling Roadshow Web site.
Then, on May 22, the documentary “High and Dry,” about the Tucson, Ariz., music scene, shows at the Alamo Downtown. What leaps out to us in the description of the film is the mention of one Mr. Eddie Spaghetti, great American and leader of the Supersuckers, aka the Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World.
— Between “Knight Rider” and “Sin City” lies … well, God knows what.
— Man, Lindsay Lohan doesn’t get along with anyone. Except maybe Meryl Streep.
— After “Poseidon,” we don’t know about this.
— Science is bad, y’all.
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Gore ‘08?
— Tommy Pallotta, producer of Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly,” is part of what sounds like an intriguing collective film project. The film will be funded by small donations and shaped by the people who donated the money.
— “An Inconvenient Truth,” set to open in Austin on June 16, raises talk of an Al Gore presidential bid. (Via Kottke)
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‘Poseidon’: That sinking feeling
Ick. I loathed this movie, even if my friend and I got tons of chuckle mileage from Richard Dreyfuss’ spectacularly huge single diamond earring.
Dreyfuss plays a gay man in “Poseidon.” We know he’s gay for at least four reasons, thank you ever-so-subtle screenwriters: 1) He mentions with suicidal sadness his lost partner. 2) At the height of a life and death situation — water, fire, destruction, nanoseconds to live — he flirts with a male ship mate, calling him “Gorgeous,” not as an adjective, but as a pet name. 3) His theatrically high voice, with which he whines like a child. Amazingly, the filmmakers didn’t give him a lisp. 4) That gargantuan solo earring.
Maybe, I suggested to my pal, if he had removed the thing, the ship wouldn’t be sinking. Perhaps, she replied, the scrappy group of survivors could use the object as a floatation device. Yes, a twinkling earring the size of a nautical lifesaver. The costume designer needs an Oscar. Now.
That’s just a niggle in a litany of terribleness in this celluloid Titanic, this popcorn Lusitania. But I have to save it for my review, running Friday. I’m just getting warmed up.
Meanwhile:
Harry Knowles has long blasted the sound and projection quality at Cinemark Barton Creek, and last night’s show proved his grievances dead right. Easily the worst sound and image I’ve experienced in a public venue that didn’t include a sheet tacked to a wall and an original print of a 1918 silent film. It was so bad that I just shot off an e-mail begging the studio to never use the theater for future preview screenings.
‘Poseidon’: Sarah’s take
Let’s get this out of the way: “Poseidon” is really cheesy.
And not cheesy in a “we know this is cheesy, so let’s have fun” way like “Snakes on a Plane.” “Poseidon” is all business. It has absolutely no use for exposition. There’s so little to work with in the script that even Meryl Streep couldn’t coax out any subtleties or shades of meaning.
Not that anyone here is Meryl Streep. Kurt Russell plays Ex-Mayor of New York and Overprotective Dad, but looks like he’s thinking the whole time about a vacation in Aspen. Emmy Rossum is The Mayor’s Feisty Daughter. Mike Vogel is That Guy She’s Secretly Engaged To. Josh Lucas is The Loner Gambler Who May Have a Heart of Gold. He seems to have also just had a bad experience with spray-on tanner in the ship’s salon. Mia Maestro is That Screechy Girl. Jacinda Barrett (who was on “The Real World” back when I was a child and binge drinking was actually considered problematic) is Concerned Mom. Richard Dreyfuss is Gay and Sad.
As you might expect, they get into all sorts of pickles as they try to escape the sinking ship. And people say things like “No, that’s impossible! That’ll never work!” and “We have to! It’s our only hope!”
But I have to admit: I still had a good time.
I was grateful to the movie for not trying to make me care too much about the relationship between Mayor’s Daughter and That Guy, or why Loner Gambler became such a loner and a gambler. Forget it, the movie seems to say. Let’s just get to the big walls of water.
The action was a little more harrowing than I expected. Usually, I sit yawning through all sorts of spectacles meant to jangle my nerves. Not because I’m blasé — I usually just can’t tell what’s going on with all your fancy quick cuts and computer effects. But “Poseidon” made me jump and cringe.
And, as someone who’s been on a couple of cruises and had my spells of “I want off the boat. NOW,” I found the whole thing oddly cathartic.
You probably don’t actually need to go see “Poseidon.” In a couple of years, it’ll be on cable every Saturday afternoon. But, unless you hold yourself to more rigorous standards than I do, you won’t hate yourself either.
You stay classy, Lindsay
You know what I would do if I were a movie star? I would go on the “Today” show, and I would answer Matt Lauer’s questions politely. I would realize that Matt Lauer, despite efforts to feign enthusiasm, probably does not care anything about my movie but has a job to do. I would remember that Matt Lauer has his own problems and probably doesn’t need me acting the fool and reminding him of the whole Tom Cruise business. And I would bear in mind that despite the fact that I currently am a movie star, it could all vanish at any moment, because, frankly, my work habits are not the best and Scarlett Johansson is more talented than I am and I get in car accidents and public shouting matches and ill-advised hookups every day.
You know what I wouldn’t do? I wouldn’t do this.
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‘Infamous’ date
“Infamous,” the Truman Capote movie that was filmed around these parts, will be out Oct. 13, Warner Independent has announced. Reportedly, it has a very different feel and focus than last year’s “Capote.” Also, its star, Toby Jones, has no plans that we know of to get in onscreen fistfights with Tom Cruise.
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This one time? At magic camp?
— Don’t forget about Movies in the Park this Thursday. You can see “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” AND performances by teen magicians. Consider us charmed. It’s at 7 p.m. at Republic Square. For more info, visit austinparks.org.
— The New York Times does an article spinning off all the thorny issues in “Friends With Money.”
— The “Amelie” Mother’s Day Feast at Alamo South is sold out, but you can still get it on the “Moonstruck” feast at Alamo Village. My own mom is faraway in Georgia, but I hope that if she’s ever able to celebrate her day with me out here that one of the Alamos will schedule a feast that’s more in line with her taste. “Amelie” and “Moonstruck” are lacking two qualities she likes in her movies: 1) Violence. 2) Space. The menu? Like her daughter, she’d be happy if you just set out chips and salsa and a pitcher of ‘ritas.
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Or maybe we’re just glib
The big stink, of course, is that “Mission: Impossible III” didn’t do well enough this weekend to make Tom Cruise jump on an ottoman, much less a couch. It did worse compared with the last “Mission’s” opening weekend, but what’s more striking is how it fared compared with other recent movies.
The incredibly mediocre kid movie “Ice Age: The Meltdown” made $68 million in its opening weekend a few weeks ago. Over Easter weekend, “Scary Movie 4” made $40.2 million. Not as much as “MI:3,” but then again, they didn’t spent a bunch of money sending Anna Faris out to barnstorm New York.
I tend to believe the conventional wisdom that the movie’s disappointing take has to do with the one-man Crazy Express that is Tom Cruise. I saw the movie myself Saturday, and it’s fine. It does the job as a Summer Action Experience. While it’s nothing that will change your life, I don’t think it could possibly generate bad word-of-mouth either. That makes me think that people are avoiding it outright because they’ve had it with Tom.
I was lucky enough to see “MI:3” at a private party at Alamo South. (You’ve probably seen the “summer blockbuster party” link on their site.) It was a typical, high-quality Alamo experience, although I suspect I’ll be a little let down when I have to go back to seeing movies with srangers.
The pre-show clips are always worth the price of admission at the Alamo, and for “MI:3” they have the infamous Tom Cruise episode of “South Park,” along with the “SNL” bit with Ben Stiller as Cruise on “Celebrity Jeopardy.” Well done!
— Turner Classic Movies is having a Rudolph Valentino film festival May 21. I don’t know much about Mr. Valentino, except that I loved driving by the mural of him at Hollywood High when were in L.A. a few months ago.
— Rumors regarding “Hellboy 2,” courtesy of Omar.
— Out & About has a Muriel Spark film festival.
— Disney and McDonald’s break up.
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Here comes the ‘Bride’ - already
The Dobie might not like this. Israeli family drama “The Syrian Bride” arrives on DVD on June 6 — just three weeks after it opens at the Dobie on May 12. The dates are so close, you wonder if the the DVD is a pirate. Nope, it’s from Koch Lorber.
We’re just happy Cary Elwes won’t be in it: “Saw III” starts shooting Monday in Toronto, with “Saw II” director Darren Lynn Bousman at the helm and “Saw” franchise co-creator Leigh Whannell writing. Robin Bell and Shawnee Smith reprise their roles from prior installments.
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We fear you, Tom Cruise
Sure, Mr. Tom Cruise, you can run around all over the place and plunge out of airplanes and race motorcycles and jump on everyone’s good furniture, but the readers of Us Weekly? We don’t like you.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Us Weekly’s editor in chief, Janice Min, said sales of Cruise and Cruise-Holmes covers do “just average” among Us’ 70 percent female readership.
“Women who are buying Us would like to get swept up in and vicariously experience this glamorous life they think celebrities lead,” she said. “There’s not a lot of women who want to vicariously experience what’s going on” in Tom and Katie’s lives.
That’s the understatement of the year.
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Reese almighty
— Reese Witherspoon is among the entertainers in the Time 100. Because she’s just too polite to come right out and admit she’s the most powerful person in the world.
— Harry Potter meets Terry Gilliam?
— More talk about salary caps.
— EW’s Popwatch predicts “The Da Vinci Code” will flop. And “not because of the hair.”
— We don’t want to believe these Gawker Stalker items about Edward Norton and 19-year-old “Down in the Valley” co-star Evan Rachel Wood, so we are choosing to assume that they’re fake items planted by George Clooney and his Stalker-hating minions. In either case … ew!
— How Katie — we mean Kate — is looking these days.
— Steve Carell in a “Bruce Almighty” sequel. I don’t think this is win-win-win.
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A ‘Proposition’ for you
— The AFS@Dobie series continues with some of the more intriguing indie titles out right now. We’re especially in a bunch about “The Proposition,” the violent Australian Western that looks so good we can’t even stand it. Also of note is “I Am a Sex Addict,” which gets the Snakes on a Plane Award for Most Straightforward Film Title.
Here’s the latest schedule:
May 12: “The Syrian Bride”
May 19: “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days”
June 2: “Clean”
June 16: “The Proposition”
June 23: “I Am a Sex Addict”
June 30: “Lady Vengeance”
July 7: “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”
— They never, ever stop at the Alamo theaters, and now they’re presenting Harold Lloyd’s “Girl Shy” with a live score by Djangos Mustache on May 21.
author=Sarah Lindner author_email=slindner@statesman.com
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A party for your mommie dearest
Kudos first:
— “United 93” is great. It shuns all the horrible pitfalls — romanticized heroism, patriotic pornography — of this type of true story, delivering a sober, fierce and poignant real-time drama executed with cinematic mastery. There’s my blurb.
— Rewatching Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” confirms that it’s one of the (if not the) best directed films I’ve seen in years. Its artistry, its meticulous eye, had me rewinding the DVD over and over to savor Spielberg’s orchestration. Only the wizardry of Michael Mann has excited my film-geekdom so much recently.
And now the news:
— Heather Courtney’s lauded, timely doc “Letters From the Other Side” gets a free screening at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, outdoors at Big Red Sun, 1102 E. Cesar Chavez St. A discussion with Courtney follows the film, which tells personal stories of women left behind in Mexico when their loved ones try to cross into America. Get the trailer and more right here.
— Courtney Davis’ “Love Me Tender” and Vicky Boone’s “Bride Monster” will play during Chickflix06 — a bunch of short films by Austin women — at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Arbor. It’s part of Nudge 3.0, a two-day digital film fest that wraps at 7 p.m Thursday at the Arbor with final project films from Austin FilmWorks. www.austinfilmworks.com.
— Make fun of “Mommie Dearest” loudly during the fifth annual “Mommie Dearest” Roast, a Mother’s Day party thrown by the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. It’s at 9:45 p.m. May 14 at the Alamo Downtown and should be rowdy fun. www.agliff.org.
— The Seguin Film and Arts Festival wants your short films for its annual competition, which happens Oct. 27-29 at the Palace Theatre in Seguin. Call 830-372-1928 or go to www.seguinfestival.org.
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Breaking up with Tom
It’s come to this. The Forth Worth Star-Telegram has to have “the talk” with Tom Cruise. And though we hate to take sides in a breakup, we have to say we’re supporting writer Alyson Ward, especially considering No. 10 on her list of points.
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Where the blog things are
— Barton Creek Square is part of the new AMC Select program that showcases indie and specialty films. Will this mean a shorter wait for some arthouse titles to arrive in Austin?
— The Austin Outsider has a good report on “Between the Scenes,” a cable access series about local filmmakers.
— Even I can understand the math of DVDs.
— Oh my, but this is funny.
— After “Be Kind Rewind,” here comes another impossibly cool-sounding movie.
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Cruise on the loose!
— Hey, it’s Tom Cruise day in New York! Take a moment and be glad you’re in Austin.
— So much to process here: Lifetime viewers get a say on who’s hip? Has our interest in other people’s wombs finally become unseemly? Why does Reese Witherspoon look so Chloe Sevigny-esque in this picture?
— SXSW Film’s Matt Dentler shares our love of the Riverboat Gamblers. We are quietly thrilled.
— The Onion A.V. Club talks to occasional Austin visitor Crispin Glover. (Via Kottke)
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Can you settle Luke Wilson down?
— An article about Luke Wilson that seems to have beamed in from 1955. The best part:
Wilson, who admits to having a girlfriend at the moment, says that starring in a family film is about as far as he’s ready to go at the moment toward settling down to real-life marriage and family. Which means that female fans of the actor can take solace in the fact that there’s still the chance to be the one to finally get him to settle down – but right after he slows down, that is.
Sigh. He’s so dreamy. I’ll so be thinking about this when I stare up at the Luke Wilson pinups above my bed tonight as I practice writing “Mrs. Sarah Wilson” over and over on my algebra notebook.
— A salary cap for actors? Steven Soderbergh says it’s time.
— Guys don’t come off so well in kids movies, a new study says.
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Hiss purr hiss!
— “Snakes on a Plane” on a cat. We thank Defamer for linking to this and making us weep with joy, although it’s really too early in the day to have such recklessly streaked mascara.
— There are the movies we’re looking forward to this summer, like “Snakes on a Plane” and “A Scanner Darkly,” and then there is “Just My Luck.” What is more annoying: the fact that the trailers are ruining that great Rilo Kiley song, or the fact that at 19 Lindsay Lohan plays a PR account executive?
— Remember “The Net”? Good times.
— Randy Quaid drops his “Brokeback Mountain” lawsuit.
— Stars! They’re just like us! They can’t spell!
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A masterpiece is born
Move over “Citizen Kane.” This just in from the Hollywood Reporter:
Jack Black is set to star in Michel Gondry’s eccentric comedy “Be Kind Rewind,” playing a junkyard worker whose brain is magnetized, destroying every tape in his friend’s video store and forcing the pair to remake the lost films.
In the film, Black plays Jerry, a man whose headaches lead him to believe that his brain is melting. His brain is magnetized, leading to the unintentional destruction of movies in his friend’s store. In order to keep the store’s one loyal customer, an elderly lady with signs of dementia, the pair re-creates a long line of films including “The Lion King,” “Rush Hour,” “Back to the Future” and “Robocop.”
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Tuesday news and links
— Tonight at 9:45 the Alamo Downtown has a new print of “The Wild Angels” with the Ugly Beats live. Tickets are $7-$9, and you can get them at the Alamo’s Web site.
— And next week at the Alamo, the Austin Film Society’s Texas Documentary Tour brings in “Woody Guthrie: Ain’t Got No Home.” Director Peter Frumkin will be on hand for the 7 p.m. show. For ticket info, visit the AFS Web site..
— The Austin Gossip Blog feeds your (“your” meaning “my”) unhealthy interest in Matthew McConaughey.
— Bruce Willis is feeling homesick for “Sin City.”
— Life imitates “Arrested Development.” Kind of.
— Wow, Scarlett Johansson can look bad.
— Oh, wait. Scarlett actually looks great in comparison.
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Carole, Kong and Luis
DVDs, in my living room (with pet rat Becky, who apparently gets jealous at the sight of Carole Lombard, as she should):
— The new “King Kong” doesn’t work at all on my 27-inch tube. That monkey will not be contained! He needs more room. Like 10,000 acres. The throbbing thriller is literally diminished by a conventional TV. The action gets lost, Kong is shrunken and Jack Black, well, he’s still badly miscast.
— I have to face it. I am not a big Luis Bunuel fan. I’ve tried with gusto. Criterion will soon release his so-called masterpiece “Viridiana,” a beautiful, fitfully witty, if muddled anti-Catholic screed that left me cold, like so much of his work. (I watched an advance copy.)
Let’s tally:
Films of Bunuel I really like: “L’Age d’or,” “Un chien andalou,” “Las Hurdes,” “Los Olvidados,” “The Exterminating Angel,” “Simon of the Desert” and “That Obscure Object of Desire.”
Hold it. Maybe I am a Bunuel fan. I like seven of his movies. Maybe I think I’m not because I’m not smitten with some of his most lauded films, particularly the unaccountably overrated “Belle de jour” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” pretty pictures carved from ice.
And then there are the films I can’t even recall: “Diary of a Chambermaid,” “Tristana,” “The Milky Way” and “The Phantom of Liberty.”
Boo on Bunuel. Let’s go back to Carole Lombard. The late comic babe and former wife of Clark Gable has a new DVD set out now, “Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection”, featuring — I can’t believe it! — five titles I haven’t seen. And no, it doesn’t include “To Be or Not to Be,” “Nothing Sacred,” “My Man Godfrey,” “Twentieth Century” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”
Please don’t call my house the next five nights.
News bits:
— They’re reliving the great old (film) days at the Texas Union Theatre, where a clutch of savvy UT students has been screening — for free! — must-see classics of world cinema under the rubric Union Cinematheque. The final film of the semester is Sam Fuller’s tough little newspaper drama “Park Row,” playing at 7:30 p.m. this Friday. It’s an overlooked classic that’s next to impossible to get on video. Be there. I will.
— A few entries ago, we noted the Cinema Television Summer Camp, which rolls June 12 through Aug. 4 at UT. There’s still more for kids with cameras: The going-strong Cinemakids filmmaking program, where aspiring Altmans ages 18 and younger get a chance to screen their work publicly, wants submissions. The deadline for short videos, films and computer animation is June 1. Select works will show Sept. 16-17 during the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival. www.cinematexas.org, or call Mary Celeste Kearney at 475-8648.
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Sing along with ‘Hedwig’
I’m in awe of the success that sing-along events have had at the Alamo theaters and think that they might just hold the key to world peace. Next up is “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” Thursdays this month at the Alamo Downtown. Visit the Alamo’s site for ticket info.
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On the DVD front
I’ve watched every “South Park” episode that has ever aired, but I don’t think I have a favorite that tops “Fat Butt and Pancake Head,” the hilarious Jennifer Lopez spoof that starts with Cartman doing a Señor Wences with his hand to imitate the pop star at a Hispanic Heritage school event, and ends with Ben Affleck falling in love with the “New” J.Lo and a police standoff on a bridge. Every “South Park” episode is funny in its own way, but this one continually tops its own absurd premise. Far from being offensive to Latinos, every family member and friend I’ve shown it to thinks it’s absolutely hysterical. Hey, come on. We don’t mind laughing at ourselves. (Or pampered celebrities, at least.)
The episode is on the latest “South Park” DVD set for its seventh season. On the mini-commentary, Trey Parker and Matt Stone share some gossip: Crew members on a Jennifer Lopez movie imitated Cartman’s J.Lo voice (“Taco-flavored kisses!”) and were promptly fired. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter; it just makes the episode that much funnier.
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More upcoming events
— The Austin Film Society continues its “Three Actresses Abroad’ series Tuesday with “Princess Tam Tam,” starring Josephine Baker. The 7 p.m. screening at the Alamo Downtown is free for AFS members and $4 for everyone else. For more info visit, austinfilm.org.
— The documentary “Beyond Fear: Finding Hope in the Horror” will have its U.S. premiere May 8 at the Paramount. The film, about the effects of terrorism and other traumas, is presented by the group Psychologists, Psychiatrists & Social Workers Without Borders. Next Monday’s free event features a Q&A with the group’s board of directors and an introduction by Congressman Lloyd Doggett.
Monday links
— The heartbreak of Bad Movie Sound.. (Via Cinema Minima)
— A “Casino Royale” trailer. But will it stop the rampant picking on Daniel Craig? (Via Cinematical)
— Praise for the Alamo theaters on Boing Boing.
— Have you seen the Wes Anderson Amex commercial?
— Matthew McConaughey talks about “We Are Marshall” in USA Today.
— LAist wonders if the Starbucks stuff hurt “Akeelah and the Bee.”
Nothing quite like ‘Bring It On’
“Stick It,” sadly, is no “Bring It On,” but really, what is? The new film is entertaining enough, though, and has some good messages for The Kids Today.
While I think about how much I miss Torrance Shipman, you can read what else is going on:
— Tonight is Reel Women’s “First Monday Mix.” The social event is from 6 to 8 at Opal Divine’s south, and it’s free. More Reel Women events: The “Nudge 3.0” screenings will be May 10 and 11 at the Arbor. On May 13 is possibly the coolest-sounding workshop ever: At “An Afternoon with Grandmaster Wonik Yiâ€? you can learn about martial arts, stuntwork and stage fighting.
Reel Women’s regular meeting is at 7 p.m. May 17 at Austin Filmworks, and the 48 Hour Film Project is set for June 23-25.
For more information on any of these events, visit reelwomen.org.
— There’s a benefit screening of the acclaimed doc “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” Tuesday night at 6:30 at the Arbor theater. The event benefiting patients at Austin State Hospital is $25 and features “Devil” director Jeff Feuerzeig and Jeff Tartakov, Johnston’s former manager. For more info, call 419-2330.
The Arbor is also celebrating the release of the film Friday with a lobby display of reproductions of Johnston’s artwork and a message board where you can leave a note for the artist.
In other Daniel Johnston news, the artist himself will perform a brief set after a screening of the film May 11 at the Alamo South. To attend, you have to win tickets through drawings at the theater and other giveaways. Visit the Alamo’s Web site for more info.
— In the Absolutely Nonshocking Developments Department, it doesn’t look like the horror flick “See No Evil”, set to open May 19, is going to screen in advance for critics. There is a good discussion of how much reviews matter here, plus you can read negative things about me and Chris. Always a bonus!
— “For Your Consideration,” the latest from Christopher Guest, is set to arrive in Austin in September (but you know how those pesky release dates change). Besides the usual suspects — Harry Shearer, Fred Willard, Michael McKean — the film also features Ricky Gervais. Which is a good thing, because I’m already predicting that we’ll all need something to ease the inevitable post-“Snakes on a Plane” depression.
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