Disney may just finally be taking Song of the South out of the vault, where it has been locked away for a good long while.

Due to unforeseen tech issues, this is late and should have been up Friday, but here it is: a 20-ish minute interview with TMNT director and reigning box office champ Kevin Munroe. It's about 4mb. Enjoy.

Some nuggets from an interview coming later tonight with TMNT director Kevin Munroe: When asked about using CGI instead of live action, Munroe is confident the movie as it is couldn't have been done with the hyperkinetic speed and impossible camera angles without it. Interestingly, he also revealed that they re-created scenes from the first movie with the CGI models and in their opinion, it worked and moved better. He later added "there's also only so much emotion and expression you can get out of rubber suits controlled by servos, even though I love what the Jim Henson people did in the previous movies". As for the inclusion of those test scenes on the DVD, they're looking in to it, but there may be rights issues involved that'd prevent it from happening. As for moving forward with a sequel, Munroe is contracted for a sequel script with an option to direct, but all that has been discussed so far are hypothetical storylines, wanting to give more time to Donatello & Michaelangelo since the other two turtle brothers got most of the spotlight this time around. Munroe is also interested in potentially bringing back the Shredder as a villain. Has also indicates a desire to dig back into the original comic series for the theoretical (though I'd call it almost certain) sequel. He's looking to the widely-reported feature adaptation of Gatchaman next, but when asked what his dream project would be moving forward, he named two: an original comic creation of his own, Olympus Heights (Zeus comes to a small town in Indiana to subdue bad guys that keep popping up) and the DC Comics epic Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come, done in CG with Alex Ross-inspired designs, would leapfrog the problems of using franchise-attached characters like Superman and Batman, and wouldn't threaten the developing Wonder Woman property...which brings to my mind a similar route: how Marvel released their animated Ultimate Avengers movies and are separately developing live action standalone movies for Avengers characters like Iron Man. After seeing the movie and talking with him, if anyone is going to be out there making CGI movies, Kevin Munroe treats adapted properties the right way. We should trust guys like him exponentially more than the mass-market, unfunny, condescending glut that's been CGI movies for the last few years. Supporting TMNT is good for CGI movies, supporting the other crap means letting the bad guys win.

Some juicy tidbits from an interview with TMNT director Kevin Munroe: Munroe met with Turtles co-creator Peter Laird with his Issue #1 of the original comic series in hand, and Laird's involvement continued from there and remained a major presence throughout production. As far as he was concerned, if Laird was happy with what they'd done, Munroe felt confident that they'd done right by the longtime fans, which was one of the two biggest influences on sculpting the film in general terms: make it something that is appropriate for the younger audiences and maintains who the Turtles are to tons of fans who've been with them for 20 years. When asked about live action versus CGI, Munroe is confident the movie as it is couldn't have been done with the hyperkinetic speed and impossible camera angles you see in the film. Interestingly, he also revealed that they "re-created scenes from the first movie with the CGI models and in their opinion, it worked and moved better". He later added "there's also only so much expression you can get out of rubber suits controlled by servos, even though I love what the Jim Henson people did in the previous movies". As for the inclusion of those test scenes on the DVD, they're looking in to it, but there may be rights issues involved that'd prevent it from happening. TMNT was the last film Mako worked on, and according to Munroe, he was gracious and an absolute pleasure to be around. His first meeting with the legendary Japanese actor was actually in a restroom, while Munroe was washing his hands and Mako came through the door beaming "Kevin, so nice to meet you!" Kevin found out much later that Mako had been quite ill while working 8 hour days in the studio, without indicating to anyone that anything was wrong. It was a blow to lose him before finalizing the film, but in the end, they used only his takes from his first session rather than use a voice double. According to Kevin: "he gave that perfect father figure presence to the movie, and we didn't need alternate takes". As for moving forward with a sequel, Munroe is contracted for a sequel script with an option to direct, but all that has been discussed so far are hypothetical storylines, wanting to give more time to Donatello & Michaelangelo since the other two turtle brothers got most of the spotlight this time around. Munroe is also interested in potentially bringing back the Shredder as a villain. Has also indicates a desire to dig back into the original comic series for the theoretical (though I'd call it almost certain) sequel. He's looking to the widely-reported feature adaptation of Gatchaman next, but when asked what his dream project would be, he named two: an original comic creation of his own, Olympus Heights (Zeus comes to a small town in Indiana to subdue bad guys that keep popping up) and the DC Comics epic Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come, done in CG, would leapfrog the problems of using franchise attached characters like Superman and Batman, and wouldn't threaten the developing Wonder Woman property...which brings to my mind a similar route: how Marvel released their animated Ultimate Avengers movies and are separately developing live action standalone movies for Avengers characters like Iron Man. After seeing the movie and talking with him, if anyone is going to be out there making CGI movies, Kevin Munroe treats adapted properties the right way. I trust him exponentially more than the mass-market, unfunny, condescending glut that's been out the for a few years. Supporting TMNT is good for CGI movies, supporting the other crap means letting the terrorists win.

I'm from a generation that grew up on Super Mario and Sonic, and I usually chuckle and dismiss cinematic use of videogames as misleading or flat-out offensive to even the average person who's more familiar with Tetris than anything like Halo or God of War. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a "hardcore" gamer, in fact I barely play them at all anymore. There's more to videogames than bang-bang-kaboom gameplay and CGI boobs, contrary to what lots of critics and people on the street would lead you to believe. Three movies I saw during SXSW this year made not just respectful, but organic use of videogames in their narratives, Reign Over Me, Eagle vs. Shark (review forthcoming), and TMNT (in a roundabout way), and I can't tell you how distracting it would have been if they'd gotten it wrong in execution. Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has written up a fantastic piece on the implementation of Sony's Shadow of the Colossus in Reign Over Me. Sandler's Charlie character plays and replays a game where one guy has to go from level to level climbing giant colossi and bring them down. Videogames and symbolism...go figure. The moment I spotted the game in the movie, I thought, "this is the most appropriate choice they could've made". Eagle vs. Shark uses a fictionalized game called Fight Man that strongly resembles the first Mortal Kombat and it works perfectly as a believable game. Again, more on that in the pending review. TMNT's "use" of videogames is more in its kinetic style. In one of the most effective meshings of the two, you get comic book pacing/storytelling/storyboarding mixed with camera angles and dynamics you could only do with the free-moving "in-game camera". Director Kevin Munroe's experience as a game programmer/designer with game production house of the gods Shiny Entertainment makes perfect sense after seeing the movie. Munroe apparently worked there during the heyday of Earthworm Jim and also was a part of designing a little-remembered personal favorite game of mine, Wild 9...but I digress. TMNT plays like the greatest game cutscene ever, and after reading this TV Guide article, now I know where this "unknown" guy came from: he's one of my favorite game designers moonlighting. Games and movies don't have to be a bad thing, folks.

A map from the new Alamo Ritz location to the Paramount in downtown Austin, TX for SXSW-goers like myself who didn't know off the top of their head where the Ritz is located.

Sad and happy news all at once today. It turns out that with this year's SXSW, I've seen my last movie at the original Alamo Drafthouse downtown in Austin because it's closing down. As detailed on the Drafthouse site's blog and on Ain't It Cool News today, come the end of June, the 10 year old Colorado Street Drafthouse is no more due to rising downtown rent costs among other things. Out of the ashes, however, the Downtown Drafthouse will be reborn at the historic Ritz Theater off of Sixth Street. I'll miss the old place, which I have extremely fond memories of, but am excited about where Tim & Karrie League are taking my favorite brand of cinemas. Head over to AICN for more.

I've seen plenty of ads all over TV (the not-you tube) for Shooter, TMNT, Grindhouse (mostly), and (for the love of god) The Hills Have Eyes 2 but nothing for Reign Over Me. Is the studio spending any money on advertising this flick? Most people I know don't even know Reign Over Me is out this weekend, for cryin' out loud. Believe it or not, there are people who've seen 300 and want to go see something that isn't animated, a thriller, filled with explosions, or horror. If you're reading this and have kids, go with them to see TMNT and then hire a babysitter and go see Reign Over Me. Please.

As I was trying to wrap things up in the capital city of the Greatest State (the only one to have ever been its own country) before heading out, I put together some thoughts on Kevin Munroe's TMNT (opening Friday, 3.23). I couldn't finish everything up in time before the long drive, but now that my internet access is restored, here's what I thought: TMNT is not your garden variety, kid-friendly CGI movie. It is PG, but there is none of the Over the Hedge/Open Season etc. "one for you, one for me" humor. This is not the cuddly kids movie you're used to, but it's definitely safe to bring the kids. The movie is family friendly as the TV advertisements say, and unlike its cohorts in the CGI trade, will earn the big huge box office it's tracking for this weekend. At its core, this is a graphic novel brought to motion that sees no need to go back and retell the origin story and acknowledges the continuity of the three live-action flicks and everything that came before: the death of arch-nemesis Shredder, the Ninja Rap (not directly referenced), and even TMNT 3 having occurred (in a minor bit, if you catch it). I admire Munroe deciding to go all or nothing with the backstory...we've seen how not doing that can backfire. TMNT also never wears out its welcome and gets the story told efficiently without dragging us down with subplots to pad out the runtime. The story isn't rushed to ensure a certain number of shows per day in the megaplex either. As for the story, the turtles have been on hiatus from crime-fighting and an ancient evil force rears its ugly head. That's about all you need. The Ghostbusters II-esque "where are they now" montage was a nice touch. There has already been some grousing from other sneak preview screenings about various things ranging from the charcter models not looking right to the fact that former Reporter Girl April is now something of a treasure hunter and has the voice of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Folks, this is a movie about mutated, humanoid turtles that talk like New Yorkers and fight like ninjas...get over it. Munroe has put together a story about family for the turtles, which, if you look back, has not been the primary focus of the series going from the various TV series and movies. The element of family was there, but it wasn't front and center like it is this time around. Past installments have featured gimmicky storylines tacked on as reasons to sequelize or give life support to something that has strayed from the original concept put forth by Peter Laird (who earned a producing credit thanks to heavy involvement) and Kevin Eastman. Munroe has done what a number of comic book fans put in the director's chair haven't managed: he's let the franchise be itself. He's brought the turtle franchise home, and it works. I'm glad he didn't take the Superman Returns formula and half-acknowledge prior continuity in an effort to resist moving forward. You usually see, as I mentioned above, either a tendency to stagnation or a push toward Actionfiguritis (a term I attribute to Joel Schumacher from SXSW 2003) with new villains, guns, and cars every go. Next up for Munroe is a feature adaptation of Gatchaman (Google it if you're oblivious), and I have all the trust in the world in him. So, why CGI and who is Imagi? For me, the CGI really and truly works better for this comic book property than putting men in suits again. When I was eight, rubber suited turtles looked cool, but there's only so much that'd let you do these days. Imaga is a relatively new CGI house that cut its teeth on Father of the Pride for NBC to get themselves out there, and now they've done this flick and are apparently at work on an adaptation of Astro Boy. Again, as with Munroe, I trust them. These guys not only love the source, but also know how to translate it. Now, are you going to like TMNT? That depends on who you are, and you'll know going in. If you're a huge fan (young or old) who loves the turtles hardcore, then certainly so. If you're a kid deep down, you bet. Is it something you'll enjoy taking your younger kids to? Yup. If you feel like you're being dragged to it and have no idea why anyone would want to spend six to ten bucks to see it, then maybe not. Then again, you'll definitely find yourself pleasantly surprised if you've been stuck watching every cookie-cutter animal movie from the last three or four years. I can only hope the (in my mind) definite sequel is left to the esteemed talent of Kevin Munroe and not fussed with based on which direction the suits want it to go. He knows what he's doing folks, just let him do it.

I'm skipping a full writeup of Cyborg in the interest of getting this out, as it looks like my day job is going to eat me alive, along with recovering from the drive to come. Best Documentary & Biggest Surprise Truth in Terms of Beauty My estimation of a doc's worth is half the craft put into it and half the rarity of what I'm absorbing, and lots of them score high on craft and it comes down to splitting hairs on "precious knowledge", but this one takes the cake. It also took me off guard as one I didn't see coming that I love fervently and will cherish my next (if ever) viewing of it. Best Woman-Centric Movie tie I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK Arranged There were a lot of great female performances, but these two movies examined really interesting subjects you rarely get to see (seeing a pattern) in mainstream, homophobic, dick and fart, generic Hollywood movies. Cyborg follows an innocent young woman lost in the cynical modern world, trapped inside her own insecurities. Most of my friends think I'm abnormal for not having seen any of Park Chan-wook's previous films. That's right, I never saw Oldboy or Lady Vengeance (I'll get to them). I think they're morons for not giving this one a chance even though they'll import some of the most generic, cheap, terrible tripe to come out of east Asia. Arranged, as I said in my review earlier this week, focuses on the good of tradition and religion and avoids the more common general demonization of how people live their lives in these cultures. A pair of promising young actresses whose careers will hopefully blossom anchor a simple, engaging story that doesn't drag you down. Best Film of the Week Reign Over Me The piece I wrote a couple days ago goes in depth enough, but I'm re-printing it here in selections so you don't have to scroll way down past all the Knocked Up stuff:

Charlie Fineman (Sandler) and Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) went to dental school together, and have been out of touch for years. The movie deals with Charlie's grief process following the loss of his wife and three daughters on September 11th, and how reuniting with Alan changes everything for both of them. Charlie drifts from place to place every day, meanwhile Alan's wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) manages and monitors his life so closely for him that he never has time to himself alone or to start a hobby. When he meets back up with Charlie, that all changes. Oddly enough, I found Alan's marriage suffers from a similar disconnect as the one portrayed in Knocked Up, but with a much less comedic overtone. The fact that the same root problem pop up in both films may just seem like a coincidence, but I think it's indicative of something that's becoming more and more obvious and prevalent: married couples are collecting all the components of a happy life and aren't able to assemble them to their satisfaction. Nothing fits as perfectly as they'd imagined or hoped. Terrific supporting performances from Liv Tyler as a therapist/colleague of Alan's, Saffron Burrows as an emotionally imbalanced patient, and the aforementioned Jada solidify the bond that the movie is built around, these two guys trying to get back to who they are deep down piece by piece, like they're putting together an old hot rod they used to tool around in years before to give it one more go, see a glimpse of who they were. Binder himself pops in as he has in all his previous films, doing solid work as always, not sticking out unless, like me, you know who he is and think "hey, it's Mike Binder" when he comes in. Momentary appearances from Donald Sutherland, Ted Raimi and John de Lancie are all memorable but unobtrusive, never really detracting from the narrative just because they have familiar faces. The never-seen-them discovery for me was Paula Newsome, playing Melanie, Alan's opinionated, self-assured receptionist. She can make you laugh without saying a damn word, and she does just that whenever she's on-screen and not firing off one of her lines with pitch-perfect delivery. So what's so great about the movie, huh? Well for starters, Binder doesn't knock us over the head with the origin of the trauma that Charlie (Sandler) has gone through. We have information withheld from us due to looking from the outside in at Charlie, and not because the director wants to act like we're stupid. A particular breakdown scene comes to mind, which I'm really glad they didn't cut. It came unexpectedly enough that I felt as surprised as Don Cheadle looked on-screen listening to him. The question Alan is faced with is: do we need to fix people, or should we just help them do the fixing themselves? As much as we may want to do the work for them because we love and treasure our loved ones, Binder's film makes a strong case for the latter. At a post-screening Q&A, a woman stood up and broadsided Mike and his two stars with the fact that she had recently lost her husband, and that the grief process in the film came of as completely authentic. "Everyone wants to just fix you, and make you go to therapy, or take pills, or..." she trailed off at one point. Awkward though it may have been, it hit precisely on what we saw on the screen. All of that and presumably more has been shoved on Sandler's Charlie Fineman, and none of it took for the longest time. What is it about Alan that means Charlie can open up? This has rambled and rolled, but I have to make some final major points or I'll hate this when I look at it in the morning. I've tried not to spoil anything, but still give an impression of what kind of movie you're looking at here. It's Binder's best film, from all the ones I've seen, and these are two of the best performances I've seen from either of these men, and that is saying something for both of them. What's that? Adam Sandler isn't an actor, he's a comedian? Don Cheadle's playing the straight man, right? That's no big task, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong.

All right, that's it. I've got a Mike Binder interview lined up soon, so watch for that too.

All right, I'm gonna squeeze these in before I head off to Cyborg tonight, which I probably won't get written up until a few days from now. I'll try to post something when I get in tonight reardless. Truth in Terms of Beauty Elizabeth Avellan attached her name to a winner, and even before I go back over all I've seen this week, I know this is one of my favorite three movies I saw all week. Herman Leonard is a name you immediately recognize or you don't. Just about everyone will recognize the iconic jazz photos he's famous for, though. Now 84 years old, Leonard has been through 3 marriages, 4 kids, and Hurricane Katrina. This documentary is essentially him telling us his life story, supplemented by his remarkable photos and tons of home movies he shot over the years. He speculates the French government probably sent his first wife back to Morocco for drugs, and according to the director, Leonard has a...ahem..."saucy" email list he sends out provocative pictures on. Leonard met the director, Vince Dipersio, in a cafe completely by chance. DiPersio saw an ad for a photo show and from their first conversation, they became fast friends. I hope this one makes it out on DVD at least before someone co-opts his life story for a fiction film biopic, since Leonard tells the story so well himself. HBO, PBS could air this, I don't care! Someone help give this flick an audience. A telling observation: for all those film purists out there (still and motion), Leonard loves all the new technology out there for digital, including Photoshop, embracing it all ravenously. According to DiPersio, "you can't tear him away from a new toy." Afterward, I saw a kidnapping doc called Ya Basta! but I can't spend the effort it'd take to write up, since I couldn't stand it and the subtitles were really badly translated.

Hotel wireless has been spotty at best, and downtown and the convention center have transformed into SXSW Music central, so I've been cut off from the internet world for longer than I'd like. I'll cover stuff I missed hopefully tomorrow and Sunday. Only thing I've got planned today and tomorrow is Closing Night Film I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK.

Ben and Alison and Debbie and Pete....or Knocked Up

Monday night was the first insane-o line, crowd, and event going down with the highly-anticipated new Apatow movie. It's probably not been since the sneak peek at Hellboy in 2004 that I've seen the lines so long at the Paramount Theatre in Austin than they were for Knocked Up, Judd Apatow's followup to The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Paul Rudd introduced the movie and off we went on a snap-crackle-pop-crackle-snap and pop again laugh a minute ride, as the studio marketers love to put on the posters and newspaper ads. Rudd, I might add, may hold the non-Austinite record for being in the most movies in one SXSW as of this year (The Ten, Diggers, Knocked Up...was there another one?). The movie has the initial hook of being your garden variety 90-minute comedy, but it digs into more real-world stuff than you'd initially expect from a movie called Knocked Up. To me, the movie goes into similar territory to Clerks 2: the Manchild Generation gets a kick in the ass and has to grow up and move on or stay put and get kicked harder. To be clear, that's neither comparing nor degrading either film relative to the other. The story in brief: Ben Stone (Rogen) and Alison Scott (Katherine Heigl) hook up randomly. He's a do-nothing slob, she's an up-and-comer at E! Entertainment Television. She winds up pregnant. She lives with her well-off sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and her husband Pete (Paul Rudd). Debbie and Pete have two daughters and are headfirst into the phase of their marriage where they don't know how to communicate with each other anymore and one or the other of them feels trapped. The movie asks not just whether people in Ben & Alison's place can find their way, but also provided things work out, whether eight to ten years down the line they'll be able to survive together as the Debbie and Pete's of the world. It's a really serious set of issues when you think about it, but Apatow and crew keep it fun and entertaining. You see a lot of moments where Ben says something atrociously juvenile at the worst possible moment that the women in the audience will say "I hate it when they do shit like that" as quickly as guys get some indigestion for thinking "shit, I've done that". The movie is mostly comedy, but as far as I can remember it never veers into the kind of wacky zaniness you find in the Frat Pack comedies it follows. You really get the best of both worlds. I want to make note of some standout stuff before it drifts out of my head or too far back in my notebook....you'll remember Leslie Mann as the alcoholic road rage chick in Virgin, and I don't see her on the big screen as often as I'd like...she can do funny yes, but she can do a lot more than just funny, which you get glimpses of here. Alan Tudyk and Kristen Wiig deserve trophies, medals, trophy-shaped medals, I dunno....for playing a couple of suits at E! so dialed back and ridiculous at once that it defies explanation. I find the sentence you just read makes no logical sense until you've seen the movie. There's an issue I can see with the movie, which I don't think the over-the-mooners who've been posting since Monday's screening are keeping in mind: the movie's hilarious, well-acted, and has a known quantity going for it...but return business might give it trouble theatrically for a couple reasons. Sure, The 40 Year-Old Virgin had it Serious Life Stuff going on and got tons of return business, but Knocked Up is about the cathartic, trying experience of getting out of your comfort zone, which you like just fine, thank you very much. Additionally, it runs 2 hrs. 10 min., and may wear thin on folks who want the 90-minute runtime they're used to getting. However... Knocked Up is really well done, and maybe...just maybe will connect with a generation of guys who really aren't compelled to stop spending their paychecks on japanese swords to hang over their beds and a new bong. The message is strong, and Seth Rogen proves that hell yes can a stocky guy with curly hair carry a movie. Encourage your friends to see this with you in a group, and don't wait for video. You might miss a few lines from the roars of laughter, as I did Monday night at the Paramount, but hey, that's what the DVD's for, right? Before I move on to the movie I'm calling the Best Film of SXSW 2007, I would be remiss if I didn't mention something that comes up in Knocked Up that is near and dear to Hollywood Elsewhere and our overlord-slash-bossman Jeffrey Wells. It has to do with Munich, and if you want to be completely unspoiled on the movie, don't read the paragraph below, skip it and move on. This is not a major plot point, but for those who want things completely unspoiled, skip and move on. It isn't that big a deal anyway. So at one point, Ben (Rogen) and the guys are talking and they bring up Munich and essentially call it the quintessential Jewish guy action movie, where the guys who wear yarmulkes are the no-prisoners gunmen. The way they talk about Eric Bana kicking ass and killing people, I half-expected to hear something like "it's like Jew Hard and Eric Bana is Bruce Willis". As funny as everything in the movie was, this bit about how "in that movie, the dudes with curly hair were the badasses, man" caught everyone off-guard and no one heard a damn thing said for around a minute after the joke hit the high point. So, for all you guys who insist that Jeff took down Munich, sorry guys, he failed. Maybe next time. I'm probably gonna get a call or an email for that last crack. Oh well, it's in good fun.

Even Sandler Gets the Blues...or, Reign Over Me

Wednesday was capped off quite nicely indeed. I have to preface this with some information you should be aware of: A) I haven't yet seen some films I intend to in the last two days of SXSW 2007, but am perfectly happy calling Reign Over Me the best movie I've seen over the last week, if not one of the best I've ever seen at this festival. I'm sure I'm A Cyborg, But That's OK is great and all, but this movie is...well, I'll get into that in a minute. B) No, Jeff Wells did not pay me to say I liked it, neither did Mike Binder, and Sony has no idea who the hell I am, nor do they care. C) Jeff Wells doesn't pay me to do anything, and Sony doesn't pay him to run the tower ads you see on the site currently. He's running them of his own volition because he believes in this movie. Additionally, if you've reacted to the trailer, ads or word of mouth about Reign Over Me by saying a variation on any of the following: "Oh Christ, I don't wanna see another one of those Adam Sandler movies" "9/11 man...too soon" Then take a moment to reconsider this movie, for your own sake. The movie is not Billy Madison 2:Billy's Back, nor is it a United 93-style reenactment of that day. Charlie Fineman (Sandler) and Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) went to dental school together, and have been out of touch for years. The movie deals with Charlie's grief process following the loss of his wife and three daughters on September 11th, and how reuniting with Alan changes everything for both of them. Charlie drifts from place to place every day, meanwhile Alan's wife (Jada Pinkett Smith) manages and monitors his life so closely for him that he never has time to himself alone or to start a hobby. When he meets back up with Charlie, that all changes. Oddly enough, I found Alan's marriage suffers from a similar disconnect as the one portrayed in Knocked Up, but with a much less comedic overtone. The fact that the same root problem pop up in both films may just seem like a coincidence, but I think it's indicative of something that's becoming more and more obvious and prevalent: married couples are collecting all the components of a happy life and aren't able to assemble them to their satisfaction. Nothing fits as perfectly as they'd imagined or hoped. Terrific supporting performances from Liv Tyler as a therapist/colleague of Alan's, Saffron Burrows as an emotionally imbalanced patient, and the aforementioned Jada solidify the bond that the movie is built around, these two guys trying to get back to who they are deep down piece by piece, like they're putting together an old hot rod they used to tool around in years before to give it one more go, see a glimpse of who they were. Binder himself pops in as he has in all his previous films, doing solid work as always, not sticking out unless, like me, you know who he is and think "hey, it's Mike Binder" when he comes in. Momentary appearances from Donald Sutherland, Ted Raimi and John de Lancie are all memorable but unobtrusive, never really detracting from the narrative just because they have familiar faces. The never-seen-them discovery for me was Paula Newsome, playing Melanie, Alan's opinionated, self-assured receptionist. She can make you laugh without saying a damn word, and she does just that whenever she's on-screen and not firing off one of her lines with pitch-perfect delivery. So what's so great about the movie, huh? Well for starters, Binder doesn't knock us over the head with the origin of the trauma that Charlie (Sandler) has gone through. We have information withheld from us due to looking from the outside in at Charlie, and not because the director wants to act like we're stupid. A particular breakdown scene comes to mind, which I'm really glad they didn't cut. It came unexpectedly enough that I felt as surprised as Don Cheadle looked on-screen listening to him. The question Alan is faced with is: do we need to fix people, or should we just help them do the fixing themselves? As much as we may want to do the work for them because we love and treasure our loved ones, Binder's film makes a strong case for the latter. At a post-screening Q&A, a woman stood up and broadsided Mike and his two stars with the fact that she had recently lost her husband, and that the grief process in the film came of as completely authentic. "Everyone wants to just fix you, and make you go to therapy, or take pills, or..." she trailed off at one point. Awkward though it may have been, it hit precisely on what we saw on the screen. All of that and presumably more has been shoved on Sandler's Charlie Fineman, and none of it took for the longest time. What is it about Alan that means Charlie can open up? This has rambled and rolled, but I have to make some final major points or I'll hate this when I look at it in the morning. I've tried not to spoil anything, but still give an impression of what kind of movie you're looking at here. It's Binder's best film, from all the ones I've seen, and these are two of the best performances I've seen from either of these men, and that is saying something for both of them. What's that? Adam Sandler isn't an actor, he's a comedian? Don Cheadle's playing the straight man, right? That's no big task, right? Wrong, wrong, wrong. Adam Sandler has everything he needs in his toolkit that every great American actor has had: humor, charisma, emotional sensitivity, and depth among them. He usually doesn't get to show them off. He says he purposely doesn't read what the press writes because of what it does to you to have to endure that kind of defamation and ridicule. It's like asking to get picked on at school. I don't think you're qualified to be a film critic if you can't objectively give the man his due for this movie. I don't know how Hollywood politics work, but this performance.....you know, I'm not gonna go there, this is enough of a rave already. I'll put it this way--if you think you saw all the nuance he had to offer in Punch Drunk Love, you're sadly misled. As for Don Cheadle, another comment brought up in the Q&A was how difficult it is to play the straight man opposite the affected, pulling Tom Cruise playing opposite Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man as a prime example. As an actor, you have the script, and know everything that's really going on, but having to spontaneously, moment-to-moment go back to the place where you can't see in the other guy's head and feel that helplessness...that's a bigger challenge than you'd think. Cheadle knocks it out of the park, across a state line, and out of another park altogether. You seriously have to see this movie. It's more relevant than every movie I can think of currently in active, first-run release, and as summer approaches, you never know when you'll get to see a movie that really has something to say anytime soon. My damn camera went to shit. I have no means of pulling the photos I've taken off the SD card until (probably) we get back to Florida. Brilliant. Tonight I caught an advance screening of TMNT, a fantastic return to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise that was followed by a Q&A with director/writer Kevin Munroe. Copious thanks to AICN Head Geek Harry Knowles for putting the screening together last-minute and Alamo Drafthouse Founder Tim League for the free pizza party associated with it. Munroe knows how to treat a franchise properly and tell a CGI story that doesn't need squirrels, bears, or penguins or fart jokes for filler. Expect something brief tomorrow during the day.

I'm exhausted. I got plenty of sleep last night, but you never quite catch up, do you? I'm going to be brief with the scattering of movies I saw over the last couple days excepting Knocked Up, as I started to include it here, but it's a hugely overlong piece I've gotta finish and post on its own later. Monday: Smiley Face Anna Faris isn't into pot and eats some. Hilarity ensues, and distribution may be tricky for the movie (even though it's really funny) because it's about pot. I hope it doesn't just get shoved off on a pay-cable channel. People deserve the chance to laugh at this one in a group. It's pot humor that even non-whacky tobacky types like me can dig. Tuesday: Helvetica, Blackbird, and Confessions of a Superhero Helvetica, a documentary about the iconic font, as I have mentioned previously, is font nerd porn. It reminds me of Wordplay, in that it's so much about the magnificent art that is the expression of language. You can have a great infrastructure and tools to work with, but it's all about how they're implemented. If you aren't working with something visually arresting, no one is going to pay attention in this day ad age of instant gratification and recognition. This is one I'll buy on DVD and watch regularly when doing a design project, and will be an absolute must-see for all my graphic design wizard friends. Blackbird was a gigantic letdown and I had barely any expectations going into it. Adam Rapp is a brilliant playwright, but this play just doesn't work on screen for me. That said the performances by the leads are exceptionally good, full of lived-in quality. As we drag on, the movie starts to feel like a slow painful death, which may have been intended, but even for a guy like me who relishes depressing stuff, I couldn't get into it. I swear to God the only reason I didn't ditch was that Scott Weinberg didn't, and if there's anyone I want to be when I grow up...it isn't him---but, I do want to suffer through some of the same garbage so I can try to hate on it more than him. Of course, I'd never win. Confessions of a Superhero is about the people who dress up as Superman, Batman, The Hulk, Wonder Woman, and so on and walk Hollywood Boulevard taking pictures with tourists for tips that make up most or all of their income. This is the doc I always wish would be up for Best Feature Doc at the Oscars so tons of people would see it. All of them seem fixated on celebrity, from a Superman who claims to be Sandy Dennis' long-hidden son to The Hulk who is the American Dream made flesh (working up to an apartment from a cardboard scrap in an alley), to an unsuccessful model/actress Wonder Woman, and finally a Batman who looks strikingly like George Clooney, is delusional, and claims to have killed many people. This will get picked up, it's sharply-edited, well-shot, and never induces checking-of-the-watch. Gotta run to lunch, then a doc, then another, then Reign Over Me. Tomorrow will probably be a Day of Rest.

Caught Knocked Up (excellent), Smiley Face (likable stoner humor), Helvetica (font nerd heroin), Blackbird (let me die before the people in this movie), and Confessions of a Superhero (surprised me and great). Way way behind, but you should see something tomorrow midday or thereabouts.

Gotta make this fast or I won't get a meal before this evening's Knocked Up screening. Elizabeth Avellan's the definition of class. The winner of this year's first annual Ann Richards award at the Texas Film Hall of Fame described making a movie as "going to summer camp and war at the same time" and suggested that as a filmmaker, "if you can move me [a mother, a woman, a venezolana], you can move a lot of people". I asked what recent films have really moved or influenced her, and after considering for a moment, responded The Queen: "the media portrayals of this woman and what she went through are two different stories that are extraordinary on their own, and the strength of this woman, that's not what you see a lot of the time in Hollywood movies." She's attached as a producer on a documentary about legendary photographer Herman Leonard called Truth in Terms of Beauty, which screens tomorrow or Wednesday afternoon.

The backed-up feeling is settling in, and I know that taking time to post this now is going to set back writing up panels from today (Monday) which in turn means delay and erratic posting will come into play come tomorrow. Hang in with me though, it'll all get covered. Eagle vs Shark "The un-Napoleon Dynamite" People will call this comedy-romance from New Zealand "quirky" and it will unfairly be compared to Napoleon Dynamite. This movie is better than Napoleon Dynamite by a large margin. Lauren Horsely and director Taika Waititi (present at the screening) collaborated on a story that, according to Lauren, is inspired by her own life, but exaggerated and embellished. Co-lead Jemaine is well-known to fans of recording group Flight of the Conchords, of which he composes half the group. They're apparently in the process of doing a pilot/first season for HBO of a Flight series. If I had HBO, I'd watch the hell out of it, assuming it's as entertaining as their music. Lauren and Jemaine's characters are similar off-the-beaten path, socially awkward people looking for happiness, love, and in Jemaine's case, for "a Samoan whose ass [he] needs to kick". Dictating the plot would ruin it all, but for a...(jesus christ) "quirky" movie like this that you expect certain things from, it's unexpectedly touching and affecting in places. Interspersed vignettes featuring stop-motion animation seal the deal for me on this one. I hope it's a giant success that puts the aforementioned movie to shame in box office, because this thing is really special. What Would Jesus Buy? "Mickey Mouse is the Anti-Christ!!!" Morgan Spurlock produces this look at Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, who go around the country in this doc preaching the good word of un-commercializing Christmas. Below is a short video of a post-movie performance the full choir gave, it was electric: What an inspiration these folks are. More so than any church preacher I ever heard speak, more so than any professor who lectured their doctoral thesis in my face, these people and what they do grabbed me, sat me up straight, and put things into perspective as starkly as my favorite SXSW06 movie, Maxed Out. I'd venture to say this movie changed my life enough in the last however many hours that it's going to be at the top of my "you gotta catch this before you leave" list for all my friends and acquaintances in town with badges this week. Rev. Billy got the Choir started some years ago to combat the evils waged by the conspiratorial, overzealous, and soulless corporate-worshipping commercial goons of the American retail trade. Who needs a safe, high-quality product made by an American in America feeding an American family when you can get it made cheaper in bulk with lower standards of craftsmanship by a sweatshop in the South Pacific? The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir is funded by some very generous donors and literally drives all over the country doing what I'd call Perform In's to "preach the good word of Stop Shopping to prevent the Shopocalypse". We all know jobs and products are coming from overseas more and more and more, and it's rare you find a locally-owned, well-trafficked business outside havens like dear beloved Austin and Portland, Oregon (home to a lot of friends). It's a tragedy of the highest order that the Great American Assembly Line has been dismantled, crushed, and left for dead. I have a pair of friends we ran into at the mall in Tallahassee last year during the madness of Christmas shopping who "refuse to consume" and how other friends of ours would criticize their practice of not essentially making an offering to the Golden Calf of commercialism during that part of the year. My fiancee may not love the idea of not getting a bunch of "stuff" or whatever is most desirable on TV commercials this Christmas, but at the least, I want to put more emphasis on cherishing the time and company of those you're closest to, not only at that time of the year, but year-round. All right, screw it, I've missed most of the morning's stuff typing all this, but I'm going to make sure I intentionally miss (as planned) the Sex Scenes Stay Hard panel, even though I'd love to see John Cameron Mitchell talk. I've got a date with Elizabeth Avellan.

My fiancee: "This is the best movie we've seen this year." We knew we were going to see Eagle vs. Shark at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar later today, and once it started looking rainy, we decided it'd be good to find something else playing there and just plant ourselves for the afternoon. I'm glad it rained and I'm glad we saw this movie. If there's justice in the world, it'll get seen. It doesn't matter if it gets picked up for theatrical or DVD, but people will get to see this movie and cherish it. One of the first questions during Q&A was where they could buy a copy to show their class from a schoolteacher. The movie is about the unexpected and empowering friendship of two conservatively, traditionally-raised women: one an Orthodox Jew named Rochel, the other a Muslim named Nasira. Their faiths and names set them apart from their surroundings at a public school where they find themselves assigned as teaching partners. Moreso than either woman, those around them in their professional and personal lives make a great big deal about how shocking and appalling it should be to be seen or be friendly with each other. There are no explosions in this movie. There are no knife-fights, and there's no CGI. What you do find is a narrative that is less concerned with beating it into your head that there's a message than realistically looking at the coincidental (though in New York City, one would think, inevitable) meeting of these two worlds. We've seen so many movies criticizing these two belief systems for being arcane and more trouble than they're worth that it's truly, truly refreshing to see people exemplifying the beauty of those faiths working out what they think of each other without being dragged down by an oppressive, self-important wannabe auteur ruining things. There are moments that touch you and others that make you laugh. You also see some actors with more substantive parts than when you recognize them from this or that movie as "That Guy" like John Rothman, who plays Rochel's father. One of my favorite things about indies is that you get to see these towering stage actors tear up some honest material for God/Allah/Yahweh's sake. Zoe Lister-Jones (recently of Broadway's The Little Dog Laughed) and Francis Benhamou play Rochel and Nasira, respectively, and it isn't often you get dual leads that obviously work so well collaboratively. Even more rare is it that you have two female characters this well-developed and naturally portrayed. An indie treasure I hope isn't buried. Eagle vs. Shark & What Would Jesus Buy will get posted in the morning. Too tired, learned my lesson today.

Figure I'm getting sick from how I woke up. I'm gonna forego the panels (Grindhouse, Spurlock) I wanted to hit and rest up so I don't lose the whole damn week to illness.

The drive out here almost killed me, and today has practically drained every ounce of stamina I thought I had, but we made it through. The rest of the week is gonna be rough, because then I get to drive back to Florida, and the closer we get, the less I want to make that drive. The Ten "Not everyone's cup of tea, but it was pretty good." I have a lot of friends who are obsessed with The State and all the folks who made this, Wet Hot American Summer, and the tv show Stella. All of them are going to hate what I tell them and others about this movie. There are bits that made me die laughing, the Y tu mamá también-influenced Jesús/Lord's Name in Vain vignette comes immediately to mind, but there were parts that made me wish the pieces were incorporated into a revival of The State called The Prodigal State or something. Everyone's funny, everyone's well-cast, and it was certainly better than the majority of what you find in the "Comedy" section of the video store Netflix made obsolete. It didn't set me on fire, but when it comes down to it, this one was definitely a thumbs up, especially when David Wain told us after the screening that he had to Google the commandments, not really knowing any of them off the top of his head when he began writing. This one doesn't hit until August, and in the name of non-tentpole, deserving comedies out there, I hope people go see it. Manufacturing Dissent Jon Pierson: "Show of hands: So how many of you like Michael Moore? How many don't like Michael Moore?" My first doc of the festival is going to end up being one of my very favorites, I can tell. Pierson moderated a chat with R. Linklater earlier in the day and served as host for one of the more speculation-worthy flicks on my advance list of "I have to see" movies. Going in to the movie, I like many others, had my doubts about the absolute veracity and/or reliability of Michael Moore's movies and his research, even though I find myself agreeing with him a lot. The doc follows a crew of Canadians who are avowed fans of Michael Moore's who just want a chance to speak with him and do a bio-documentary on him. As they start to sift through the research material available, they find a side of Michael Moore and his "manufactured" persona and history that will make even the most staunch Moore maniac pause. With SiCKO coming out soon, I'm especially startled at the idea that he compares the US healthcare system to that of Cuba, where direct relatives of mine who are doctors work as bellhops to keep eating. Yes the drugs are cheaper and the care is cost-free, but Cuba is far from the model of much of anything in terms of policy or infrastructure. After seeing this movie, my misgivings about referring to him as something of a liberal Karl Rove-type demagogue have disappeared. I admire the things he stands up for quite often, but I can't dig on his "man of the people" put-on anymore. I talked to a friend I used to work for afterward who ran the other way, not exactly digging on the "anti-Mike" message, finding the film potentially misleading and "not his kind of thing". I helped the the same friend plant the seeds and organize the Michael Moore anti-Bush rally in Tallahassee the day before Election Day 2004. I stood there the night of, taking in Mike's over-wrought "gravelly motivation voice" and cheering the anti-Bush sentiment, but generally feeling kind of bored. It's one machine against another, and in the end, as the filmmakers find, Mike's present-day message is an alternate universe version of the Republicans and right-wingers I dislike so much, just with an opposite political bent. My friend seemed pretty uncomfortable, wishing he had some means of defending a hero. It was like seeing an eight year old who moments before himself saw Captain America shoot up heroin and salute Hitler. Clearly confused and hurt, but not sure how to manage betrayed trust. I expect Moore's influence and friends are going to make sure they do everything possible to make this one "untouchable" for general release by a major distributor, but I'd be fascinated to see what develops this summer. Black Sheep "Mutant sheep, I'm there." Midnight rolled around and we squeezed in to the high-demand screening of Black Sheep, from New Zealand. I'm running out of steam as I started in typing this after getting in from this flick. Skipped Q&A and came straight to the hotel, as we're both beat. The big misconception is that this is a zombie movie, an error I equate to people calling Brokeback Mountain a gay cowboy movie when it is so obviously a gay shepherd movie. Yes, the mindless antagonists are hungry for flesh...but they are genetically mutated....not zombified. A corrupt businessman is selling the family business to the dark side by performing all manner of experiments on poor, defenseless sheep. The sheep exact their revenge on the unsuspecting, and it gets baaad. It's too late to keep going, you get the picture. three for three worth admission, depending on particular taste. Each has their big plusses and a few minuses, but nothing so egregious to bestow on any of them a Complete Waste of Time declaration. Tomorrow: more panels, flipping a coin in early afternoon, another New Zealand movie, and a Spurlock-produced anti-shopaholicism doc

We kicked off the morning with a pair of panels no worse for wear from the light evening before... A Conversation with Bill Paxton One of this year's Texas Film Hall of Fame inductees, Mr. Paxton seemed to genuinely feel at home with the crowd and being back in the Lone Star State. A native of Fort Worth (yeehaw cattle town), the anecdotes came fast and loose, from his dad telling him, "son, I love you, but you picked a real fucked business" and how he knew Shia LeBeouf had "it" from back during shooting of The Greatest Game Ever Played, which to be fair, got unrightfully dismissed as "another one of those Disney Insert Inspirational Sports Plot Here movies" when it was really very good. Paxton spoke of film as a true renaissance craft, where you can start anywhere and go anywhere, completely dependent on what skills you pick up along the way. He said that as an actor, "the camera is interested in who you are...it's your plot that has to be developed and what pieces of that story we get to see" and how few actors seem to get that these days. A really classy gent, who, as my fiancée noticed, isn't afraid to wear boots and Wranglers at some fancypants film festival. A Conversation with Richard Linklater Jon "Godfather of the Indie Movement" Pierson served as moderator for this one and dove right in, touching on the fact Linklater doesn't really take much time off and is always kind of doing something, whether a pilot for HBO that sounded really good while shooting one movie and cutting/post-ing another, or the mammoth task of shooting and assembling a documentary on the UT Baseball team while trying to find something else to dig in to. He shot Tape in 6 days. I'll be damned. Makes you want to go find your favorite Stephen Belber play and tell yourself you can shoot it on the cheap (of course, with not nearly the craft or cast he did). We got to questions, and one of my favorite ever "hey I got a script/movie/album/dvd/porn can I give it to you" idiot shootdowns happened. Roughly (badly) paraphrased: Mo Ron: Hey man, I'm like, a writer, and I was all wondering-- Jon Pierson: What? Mo Ron: I mean, could we like hang out or somethi-- Pierson: Are you fucking kidding me? Mo Ron: Uh, what? Pierson: You want to learn something, join the Austin Film Society. Go to some screenings. Linklater: I go to those. Pierson: Yeah, and learn what a question is. Honestly, some people....what do they think this is? I threw in a question about DVD, knowing Linklater's relationship with Criterion was good, and what if any future collaborations with them or special deluxe packages could be expected. Pierson chimed in that it's harder to get a studio to license a movie to Criterion, and that Warner Bros. was almost out-Criterion-ing them. Linklater said he'd like to get some of his non-Special Edition work re-issued, like Before Sunrise/Sunset, and that we could expect to see SubUrbia soon. Regarding filmmaking, he left us with this: "just because digital is inexpensive, don't leave the camera rolling all the time" and with that, was off running to a UT baseball game. Ok, afternoon screenings and then back late tonight, I think.