There were days when I sought out every last bit of news and shred of info on an upcoming, in-development Kevin Smith movie. Inevitably, I found myself learning more about the movies than I wanted to know before seeing them. I went into Zack & Miri as blind as I could. I'm not exactly the movie-watcher that the viral ads and promo sites are made for when it comes to a filmmaker I already like and respect a great deal.
As a reader of Kevin's "My Boring Ass Life" Blog, I came across a post where he described the Weinsteins' decision to finance and distribute the movie, along the lines of Kevin saying (paraphrased) "I have a script called Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Harvey said, "I'm going to make that movie". That's very similar to how I felt about it: Kevin Smith directing plus Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks starring equals something I'll definitely go see, no question.
What I didn't expect at all was the dead-on sociological messaging wrapped in the plot going further than I had figured based on prior experience. A number of people who have already seen the movie have resorted to ranking it compared to all of Smith's other work, which I don't find to be a valid means of comparison here. Zack and Miri has many of Kevin's calling cards, from coarse (though honest and realistic) dialogue to Star Wars references, but it's really an entirely different animal overall.
The recent financial crisis and the woes most regular folks (like me and many of you) out there are going through are reflected in the flick, sure, but what I found myself realizing as the reels went on was that I was watching something that was a PSA for the Fuck What Everyone Says, Go Make Your Dreams Come True Foundation.
The question picking at me briefly during the movie was "what has he not already said about all that?" and it took a while to sink all the way in what he was doing.
Spiritually it's a coda to Clerks, showing off the best tools Kevin has had in his arsenal all along, just evolved further and more precise overall. I have friends who slam Smith's work for any number of reasons, among them that he's "too melodramatic" or something like that, but I think the vast majority of them are saying that out of a need to sate their feelings of inadequacy for not striking out and making their own stuff. This movie doesn't just tell these guys to man up and make something out of themselves they're proud of, but that everyone can and should, no matter who they are. It also doesn't matter what form it takes either, and it really doesn't matter what people think once you finally do it.
As for the performances themselves, Banks and Rogen have fantastic chemistry and timing together. Smith stalwarts Jason Mewes & Jeff Anderson deliver solid performances as well, but honestly the scene-stealer Craig Robinson swiped the movie out from under everyone else. Well, everyone except Justin Long, who makes Brandon "Superman" Routh bite off half his tongue he's so funny. You'll know when you see it.
I could say more about the performances, summarize the plot and so on, but that'd be a disservice to you. Go in as blind as I did and I think you'll like it a lot depending on your sensibilities.
I enjoy all of Kevin's movies, and yes, that includes Jersey Girl (I'm the one guy who bought it day-and-date on DVD), but I didn't just enjoy the movie out of some sort of serial fanaticism, it's a genuinely good look at regular people doing something that changes their lives (in a number of different ways for all in the flick). I'm pre-planning a mass outing with friends, and you should do the same come the end of October.
Read MoreElectric Shadow
Humberto Solas 1941-2008
With all the rush of the first day of Fantastic Fest, I only just this afternoon picked up on the story that one of Cuba's most prominent filmmakers passed away yesterday from cancer that had only recently been diagnosed. My reviews from the last day's films are behind, but coming later this evening.
Humberto Solas may not be a "foreign filmmaker" whose name perks the ears of every US cineaste, but it should. His generation of Cuban film directors, those who came of age during the Revolution, are every bit as significant to Cuban cinematic and national history as the rise of China's Cultural Revolution-era, "Fifth Generation" filmmakers, but for a few different reasons.
Solas was born on 4 December 1941, just days before the USA entered WWII. His family was poor and like many, practiced Santeria, a subject he focused on for Obataleo (1989), one of his documentaries. At the age of 18, during the heated months of 1959 (the year Castro took power from Batista), Solas began making movies, directing his first short films. In 1960, he became a member of the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC, Cuban Institute of Art & Cinema Industry) and began making short docs. Six short years later, he would make Manuela (1966), the film that made him famous in Cuba thanks to it playing in festivals across the world and putting Cuba "on the map."
His most celebrated, signature film was Lucia (1968), which is his best-known film overall and the one that made him famous internationally, telling the stories of three women (all named Lucia) at three crucial moments in Cuban history: the War for Independence from Spain, the Revolution of 1933, and life in the shadow of Fidel's rise to power. The film itself is replete with romantic imagery, considered the primary recurring element in all of Solas' movies. Americans may be tempted to ethnocentrically cast his movies as melodramatic, but take it from a Romance Language guy, this is classic romance from a different culture and time than The Notebook, so give it a chance. I have read few assessments of Solas' work written by Americans that don't casually and lazily dismiss him as something like the Cuban king of melodrama. There are too many "foreign film friendly" US critics out there who think anything that isn't French or that isn't trying desperately to evoke American films is a waste of time.
Solas was Cuba's great romantic filmmaker of the modern era, and Lucia is considered by cinematic iberophiles as not only a classic, but one of the ten greatest Latin American films ever made, without question.
The 1970's saw a period in Cuba when "anti-socials" (homosexuals, free thinkers, etc.) were subjected to heavy persecution, and Solas' association with the ICAIC prevented him from really making movies in which he had much personal stake or vision invested. Solas' next major film would change the shape, face, and direction of Cuban cinema through to the present day.
Fourteen years after the success of Lucia, Solas and his production team took on the adaptation of "Cecilia Valdes o La loma del angel," considered the most important Cuban novel of the 19th century. They came under fire from the then-director of the ICAIC for what was considered by the government to be a "free adaptation" of a national treasure. The whole controversy evolved quickly into a national debate and culminated with the replacement of ICAIC's director Alfredo Guevara, who was apparently a neighbor and friend of my dad's. For those curious, Guevara isn't related to Ernesto "El Che," who was Argentinian. Guevara was later re-appointed to his post by Castro, with whom he'd been friends since studying together at the University of Habana.
Cecilia kicked off Solas' second great series of films, which included Amada and Un Hombre de Exito. All three films are available from First Run Features in their Cuban Masterworks Collection. I reviewed those mentioned above along with the other couple films included (the original Las Doce Sillas, which Mel Brooks remade as The Twelve Chairs and The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin) a while back, but I think I need to revisit them soon. The three early 80's films along with La Cantata de Chile (1975) and El Siglo de Las Luces (1992) make up a bloc of films that were profoundly influenced by Luchino Visconti, whose work Solas adored.
Solas dedicated most of his time since 2003 to the development of the Poor Film Festival of Gibara, one of the poorer Chinese cities in Cuba (most people reading this don't know there are a lot of Chinese Cubans in Cuba). The goal of the festival was to promote low-cost, high-quality artistic projects.
Gibara was almost completely razed to the ground by Hurricane Ike. Think what you want about Ike and why it hit who it hit in the USA, along the same lines as what Falwell said about Katrina but with a Blue State prejudice, but Gibara did nothing but be poor and repressed.
Humberto Solas is one of my cinematic heroes, though unlike many American and other international filmmakers, I never saw him in an interview or heard him in a commentary track. I now have something of a quest in front of me to track down Solas' censored and banned films from the 70's, which I wish I'd seen by now.
A great filmmaker in the political history of the world is gone, and no one seemed to notice. We pay attention to the most obscure Hollywood and Oscar-nominated folks we lose, but guys like Solas only get mentioned in the Spanish language newspapers and will never make the Oscar Reel.
Read More
Humberto Solas may not be a "foreign filmmaker" whose name perks the ears of every US cineaste, but it should. His generation of Cuban film directors, those who came of age during the Revolution, are every bit as significant to Cuban cinematic and national history as the rise of China's Cultural Revolution-era, "Fifth Generation" filmmakers, but for a few different reasons.
Solas was born on 4 December 1941, just days before the USA entered WWII. His family was poor and like many, practiced Santeria, a subject he focused on for Obataleo (1989), one of his documentaries. At the age of 18, during the heated months of 1959 (the year Castro took power from Batista), Solas began making movies, directing his first short films. In 1960, he became a member of the Instituto Cubano del Arte e Industria Cinematograficos (ICAIC, Cuban Institute of Art & Cinema Industry) and began making short docs. Six short years later, he would make Manuela (1966), the film that made him famous in Cuba thanks to it playing in festivals across the world and putting Cuba "on the map."
His most celebrated, signature film was Lucia (1968), which is his best-known film overall and the one that made him famous internationally, telling the stories of three women (all named Lucia) at three crucial moments in Cuban history: the War for Independence from Spain, the Revolution of 1933, and life in the shadow of Fidel's rise to power. The film itself is replete with romantic imagery, considered the primary recurring element in all of Solas' movies. Americans may be tempted to ethnocentrically cast his movies as melodramatic, but take it from a Romance Language guy, this is classic romance from a different culture and time than The Notebook, so give it a chance. I have read few assessments of Solas' work written by Americans that don't casually and lazily dismiss him as something like the Cuban king of melodrama. There are too many "foreign film friendly" US critics out there who think anything that isn't French or that isn't trying desperately to evoke American films is a waste of time.
Solas was Cuba's great romantic filmmaker of the modern era, and Lucia is considered by cinematic iberophiles as not only a classic, but one of the ten greatest Latin American films ever made, without question.
The 1970's saw a period in Cuba when "anti-socials" (homosexuals, free thinkers, etc.) were subjected to heavy persecution, and Solas' association with the ICAIC prevented him from really making movies in which he had much personal stake or vision invested. Solas' next major film would change the shape, face, and direction of Cuban cinema through to the present day.
Fourteen years after the success of Lucia, Solas and his production team took on the adaptation of "Cecilia Valdes o La loma del angel," considered the most important Cuban novel of the 19th century. They came under fire from the then-director of the ICAIC for what was considered by the government to be a "free adaptation" of a national treasure. The whole controversy evolved quickly into a national debate and culminated with the replacement of ICAIC's director Alfredo Guevara, who was apparently a neighbor and friend of my dad's. For those curious, Guevara isn't related to Ernesto "El Che," who was Argentinian. Guevara was later re-appointed to his post by Castro, with whom he'd been friends since studying together at the University of Habana.
Cecilia kicked off Solas' second great series of films, which included Amada and Un Hombre de Exito. All three films are available from First Run Features in their Cuban Masterworks Collection. I reviewed those mentioned above along with the other couple films included (the original Las Doce Sillas, which Mel Brooks remade as The Twelve Chairs and The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin) a while back, but I think I need to revisit them soon. The three early 80's films along with La Cantata de Chile (1975) and El Siglo de Las Luces (1992) make up a bloc of films that were profoundly influenced by Luchino Visconti, whose work Solas adored.
Solas dedicated most of his time since 2003 to the development of the Poor Film Festival of Gibara, one of the poorer Chinese cities in Cuba (most people reading this don't know there are a lot of Chinese Cubans in Cuba). The goal of the festival was to promote low-cost, high-quality artistic projects.
Gibara was almost completely razed to the ground by Hurricane Ike. Think what you want about Ike and why it hit who it hit in the USA, along the same lines as what Falwell said about Katrina but with a Blue State prejudice, but Gibara did nothing but be poor and repressed.
Humberto Solas is one of my cinematic heroes, though unlike many American and other international filmmakers, I never saw him in an interview or heard him in a commentary track. I now have something of a quest in front of me to track down Solas' censored and banned films from the 70's, which I wish I'd seen by now.
A great filmmaker in the political history of the world is gone, and no one seemed to notice. We pay attention to the most obscure Hollywood and Oscar-nominated folks we lose, but guys like Solas only get mentioned in the Spanish language newspapers and will never make the Oscar Reel.Spider-Man 4 & 5 Confirmed, Plus a Villain Guess
Nikki Finke just broke news that Sony has gotten Raimi and Tobey Maguire signed on for a 4th and apparently 5th Spider-Man outing. I wasn't a fan of the third one and my wife thought "they could have saved a bunch of starving people with that kind of budget," so I'm kind of mixed looking forward to the next.
Interesting to note that they say "once you find out who the villain is, you'll know who's playing it." So here are a couple off-the-top-of-my-head guesses:
Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin (Norman Osborn has died & come back a million times, seems like)
James Franco as The Hobgoblin (another "comic book dead" guy)
Patrick Stewart as The Vulture (out on a limb here, and not very compelling)
Bruce Campbell as Mysterio (for chuckles)
The above are all possibilities, but it's got to be...Dylan Hunt as The Lizard. The hint made it too easy. The dramatic groundwork has been laid for this story already, and logically, if you knew the villain was The Lizard, you'd know Dylan Baker would be it.
Also they're still moving forward with the Julie Taymor-directed Broadway musical project, with U2's Bono & The Edge writing the score. Make of that what you will.
Read MoreMissed Pettigrew
I have an admission to make: I fell for it. I saw the ads and trailers and clips and assumed this was what was being advertised, an enjoyable enough "romp" as the quotewhores put it. How foolish of me. The poster makes it look like Mrs. Henderson Presents 2. Yes, it's set in England, and yes it's from the time period just prior to WWII (whereas Henderson occurs during the war), but there's no good reason to dismiss this movie. I'm not saying that Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day really rocks the foundation of cinema, but it's a very enjoyable movie that is true to its source material and not enough people saw it. I hope DVD rectifies that.
Miss Pettigrew opened on just over 500 screens on March 7th of this year, never expanding further. Mind you, this is before Memorial Day. There were no Iron Men, Hulks, Dark Knights or anything of the kind around. We were in Drillbit Taylor country at that point. If this had opened wider and had a better trailer, I'm convinced it would've done great, partly thanks to word of mouth. Not just gangs of girls would've gone, but husbands who'd subjected their spouses to Drillbit and the like would be brought along as well.
So...Pettigrew and Lafosse go to a women's strip club? Having seen the film, I know that isn't the case. Why was this choice made, did the studio think they'd trick horny teen boys into the 500 not-easily-found screens they had this on for a couple weeks? Look, the poster itself isn't horrible (could've been full of floating heads), just misleading along the Henderson train of thought above. The trailers I saw on TV were finished as soon as they'd begun. Terribly unfair to very enjoyable film.
Pettigrew follows the always sublime Frances McDormand in the title role along with Amy Adams as Delysia Lafosse, a singer/actress as they go through a day in Lafosse's world. Supporting appearances by Ciaran Hines, Lee Pace, and Shirley Henderson (known to most as "moaning Myrtle" from the Harry potter films, but much more of an actress than just that role).
It's truly wonderful to see Adams popping up in more films thanks to the broad success of Enchanted. She does a lovely rendition of the actor who gets caught up with who she thinks she's supposed to be in public rather than who she is on the inside. What would be considered scandalous themes and ideas regarding "women thinking" in the 30's or 40's are still relevant especially today as it seems the only way for Republicans to consider a woman worthy or successful is for them to be just as unconcerned with the world and wars at hand as they were 60 years ago, but "salt of the earth enough" to shoot guns and hate endangered species. All righty, political screed over, back to the film.
The movie itself has nearly been made for decades since the book's initial publication in 1938, with author Winifred Watson selling the film rights something like two or three times (intentionally or not, no one is sure). It was originally set to star Bettie Burke (Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz) and would have been a musical. There's some singing in this one, but it certainly isn't a musical. I kind of wonder what that would have been like...knowing current Broadway producers, that could happen before long.
It's out on DVD now (came out a couple weeks ago so quietly I didn't even notice), so give it a rent or blind-buy it as a gift for yourself or someone you know. Bharat Nalluri is a talented filmmaker (not everyone does "period films" well). I gather it's available as a digital download for purchase in a number of places, but this one's worth it for the short featurette and commentary at least, on top of the Deleted Scenes, a couple of which I really would have liked in the film and may have been Producer cuts for sake of shaving runtime rather than Production cuts, if you catch my drift.
You have to flip the disc for the second featurette, over to the Pan and Scam side. Also interesting to note is that the Widescreen side previews Hamlet 2 and Baby Mama and the other features a promo for the Broadway premiere of Billy Elliott: The Musical along with Leatherheads and some Barbie thing or another. How unintentionally hilarious.
Read MoreFelicidades Will Goss! y a note regarding downtime
Today is the 21st birthday of one William A. Goss, recently inducted to the Cinematical Justice League and a SXSW pal from a ways back (mid-20's film festival dudes go). The "A." is for Awesome, since I don't know what his middle initial is.
Read Mr. Goss while I continue rebuilding my entry archive, and continue doing so wherever he goes from here. He's a good writer, a good guy, and he cares about what he's writing about.
When I went off the map after SXSW08, I moved my archive over to the new "Elsewhere 2.0 look" (aka the new hotness) and I lost a bunch in the move. On top of that, a gigantic pile of my recent posts on top of that vanished with the server move.
It's all a matter of re-editing photos, reformatting articles, buckling down and getting it done. Will's more dedicated than I am anyway, he apparently recently watched 10,000 BC. Out of a sense of duty or by choice, I'll leave to you to decide. One way or another, keep reading him.
Read MoreRed Cliff Part 2
So it came to my attention after posting my piece yesterday that there's a detail of the Red Cliff release strategy I was oblivious to: we're not getting the version released in Asia. They got "Episode 1" a couple of weeks ago and "Episode 2" is set for release in January, completing a two-part, 4 hour plus epic war story.
In January 2009, the US will get...a 2.5 hour dehydrated (abridged) version of the movie's two parts under the same title. Didn't US distribs learn the lesson of Kingdom of Heaven, notoriously better in its unabridged Director's Cut? Will however they cut around the intended form of the film as envisioned jeopardize its chances come Oscar time? No, and I can only assume so.
Read More
In January 2009, the US will get...a 2.5 hour dehydrated (abridged) version of the movie's two parts under the same title. Didn't US distribs learn the lesson of Kingdom of Heaven, notoriously better in its unabridged Director's Cut? Will however they cut around the intended form of the film as envisioned jeopardize its chances come Oscar time? No, and I can only assume so.Tropic Thunder & Pineapple Express
I saw Tropic Thunder Friday and have a piece coming on it, and am racing off to a screening of the allegedly cripplingly funny Pineapple Express. Postings to come...
Read MoreBack in the Saddle
Why am I back writing? Jeff told me on the phone one evening he was tired of my only interaction with him being to let him know when someone died. I figured it's only friendly to change that trend.
I've taken an extended absence from Hollywood Elsewhere that ends today. Whether anyone or no one reads this column, I'm putting content back on it with one aim exclusively: cover Hollywood from outside of Hollywood. I don't have a film I'm trying to make or sell. I don't have a script I'm trying to get bought.
Listening to Jeff's chat with Guillermo del Toro a few weeks back, something rang particularly true when Guillermo said regarding living in your 20's (paraphrased) "it's so stressful, you always feel like 'what have I done? I haven't accomplished anything' and it's really tough."
That's described a big chunk out of the last couple years of my life. There were long stretches I'd write in this space multiple times a day, and then life gets in the way. Moving across the country, struggling to make ends meet, and balancing where the focus of my life rests overwhelms everything else. at least I'm cutting myself off of credit in all forms possible as early on as I can. There's no industry more sinister to me than the credit/debt industry.
People come up with names for generations like X, Y, and Millenials and other nonsense. Nomenclature for the sake of systemic nomenclature, it drives me nuts. Baby Boomers' generational name has something to do with their noteworthy anthropological claim to fame, so my generation deserves something like The Ambitious Little Emperors. We have all the drive in the world but default to wanting the world brought to us on a platter. Most of us have never truly gone without (or hungry, for that matter) and feel entitled to the pay rates and lifestyles our parents lived with once they started doing all right at work and abusing credit.
the point of this ramble is this: I'm back and going nowhere.
I don't care that I don't get paid to write on this site, because I prefer the editorial freedom and potential for audience. I won't write something that will waste your time, but don't expect to agree with me at any point. Also do not expect me to review every movie that is released either.
Expect I'll have something posted regularly and you won't be disappointed. The majority of my writing will not take detours into "and then I poured a bowl of cereal, fed my dog, washed my face, and then walked out the door" before 2000 words later detailing what I'm actually telling you about.
Read MoreOff the Cliff
It strikes me as quite odd that Hollywood has completely passed on a golden (or should I say Red) opportunity. The Beijing Olympics begin at the end of this week, and not only has John Woo's Red Cliff not been released in the USA, it isn't set for release until January, according to Merrick at AICN. The reason this strikes me as odd is that the closest to Chinese Cinema we have in US release through the end of the Olympics is...The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. What kind of parity is that?
THR posted a piece reporting Red Cliff opened in multiple Asian territiories doing four times the money Crouching Tiger did there in 2000 before it became the highest-grossing Chinese film in US box office history. Correct me if I'm wrong, but releasing subtitled prints stateside seems to be a huge profit opportunity lost. Guys like me who import Asian all-region DVDs will have had it for some time once it hits here in January 2009.
Wuxia (chinese "sword man") movies are considered a set few things by US distributors from what I can tell: 1) flushing money down the toilet (Iron Monkey), and 2) something the "sword nerds" out there will pay for later or 3) something the Weinsteins pick up and silently dump on DVD or store in a vault (Tai Chi Master and the Chinese Ghost Story series respectively, among many).
I suppose the best shots I have of seeing Red Cliff before January would be if Tim & Harry snag a print for Fantastic Fest in September or I shell out for an import DVD. I'm used to the standard operating procedure for Wuxia or "Asian Sword Dude" movies in general, even ones like Mongol that are nominated for Academy Awards. The pattern has been thus: release it outside of awards season and save space for "our" movies.
Wuxia cinema is a closet industry in the US even though they keep making more and more of them back East and they keep making money. When it comes down to it, there are some great Wuxia films and some terrible ones, and even though Red Cliff had its share of production trouble including Chow-Yun Fat ditching the show on the first day of filming, it's apparently excellent from all accounts.
On the one hand, I know I'll get to see it eventually, but it still angers me that availability is so delayed in this Age of Instant Gratification. This story from the dawn of the era of the Three Kingdoms isn't just some people on wires flying around and bouncing off rooftops talking about spirits of monkey gods, it's legitimate Chinese history. On top of that, it's John Woo's first Chinese flick since Hard Boiled, which came out when I was nine years old. I like these movies as a genre, but tons of people would gladly pay to see it over a seventh viewing of The Dark Knight with the added proximity of the Olympics.
What's in current release or coming out in the next three weeks that would "compete" with Red Cliff? This is a major, multinational cinematic event and the US has decided to just sit this one out.
Read MoreSXSW08: They Killed Sister Dorothy
Sister Dorothy was a simple nun trying her best to give her life in service of positive social change. The title of the film gives away the ending (beginning, middle parts and end, really), but the journey there is more horrifying than the idea of a good-hearted, elderly humanitarian being brutally murdered. The presence of very powerful business interests at the center of the plot to commit Sister Dorothy's murder isn't surprising, but otherworldly.
I've become so accustomed to the comforts and insulation of living a safe, homogenized life in the United States that I forget how different the developing world is. Murders like Dorothy's are unfortunately commonplace, and there's no more dangerous place to be a politician or populist figure than South America or China at this point. Dorothy's voice for the people living in the shadow of massive corporate greed is truly inspiring and heartening. It's the kind of hope I believe in, the idea that one person can stand up for what's right and redirect a mighty river of adversity.
The narration by Martin Sheen is excellent (as is the whole film), but I kept wanting to hear President Bartlett send in the Marines or something. I'm certain this will get picked up by someone for release at some point, so catch it when you can and support it through any upcoming festival screenings you may attend. It won a Grand Jury Award at SXSW this year, but that alone won't carry it.
Read MoreSXSW08: Stop-Loss
Moving and switching gears at work is hell on your free blogging time.
Read MoreDelays Ahead
I'm moving this weekend, so expect me to disappear for a few days. Back with reviews of Stop-Loss, They Killed Sister Dorothy, and Flying on One Engine at the very least, more if I can.
Read MoreSXSW08: Choke
SXSW08: Mongol
I saw Mongol in December at BNAT 9, and if you're here this week, I definitely recommend seeing it at SXSW. Even roughly 6-8 hours in to a 24-hour film festival, this one kept my wife and I rapt with attention for its 2 hour-plus runtime.
Read MoreSXSW08: Secrecy
I'm posting this in between some other catchups before I get ready for tonight's 9:30pm show of Choke. If I don't get this up now, it'll get lost in the shuffle, and I can't let that happen.
A couple hours ago I saw one of the more unsettling things I've seen since watching the first 20 minutes of The Poughkeepsie Tapes last December.
Secrecy was a roll of the dice pick for me on a morning when I knew it'd be completely up to me to see something I had no rep contact for or that Ashley wouldn't want to see, so I picked the one that had the most to do with politics and/or frightening "who watches the watchmen" kinds of questions. That kind of stuff unsettles her more than blood-and-gore horror any day of the week.
The doc primarily focuses on the US government's control, production, and obfuscation of information. Billions of dollars and millions of work hours go into the whole rocess. These days everyone seems to take for granted that the government hides things, rewrites history, and abuses its power on a regular basis. Only the most egregiously badly-handled coverups seem to even enter the American consciousness, let alone become front page news.
As in all bureaucracies, administrators cover up their screw ups that lead to people dying, whether one or a thousand. The directors collect an impressive and very effective set of interview subjects that run the gamut, but are all in some position to know how the beast works.
One of the more intimidating facets of those who had previously worked in the clandestine services was how readily they all seemed to agree that there are some things that the public should never know the truth about, regardless of the particular subject matter.
On the other hand, there are other things, like abuse of executive privelige, that have set so many dangerous precedents in the last eight years that are driving things that for the last century have been public knowledge behind an information blackout curtain.
The flick is really intriguing and definitely worth watching, I just don't know what means of distribution would serve it best.
For those still in town, Secrecy plays again Saturday 3/15, 2:30pm at Alamo South Lamar.
Read MoreSXSW08 Award Winners
In a Dream
Sister Dorothy
Read MoreStriking Out at SXSW08
As I do every year, I hit a point when the overwhelming wave of SXSW's first weekend knocks me over. I'm behind on writeups, interviews, panels, photos...everything. It seems to happen earlier every year.
Something relatively new keeps happening to me this year though: I can't get into anything at certain points in the day. Today and yesterday alone I completely struck out over and over, and when I went to the next closest option, that was full too. Is this karmic retribution for skipping 21 and Harold & Kumar 2? Couldn't be, if anything I should get bonus points for choosing stuff I can't see on 3000 screens soon.
The Missed List (so far):
Monday
Forgetting Sarah Marshall and #2 pick during the same slot Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? (didn't get there in time running from downtown to South Lamar) as well as...
Dear Zachary set to start 90 minutes later, already full, and then...
Battle in Seattle: tried running back to downtown from S. Lamar with no luck
Tuesday
Nights & Weekends
Catching up on the last few days today...I'm taking the time I need to blow through my backlog.
Read MoreSXSW08: Bama Girl
I went to college in the southeast, so this doc focusing on the Homecoming Queen race at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa caught my eye early on. Alabama isn't really known for its progressive race relations attitudes, in case you didn't know (it's the internet, who knows where you're reading this from).
Jessica Joyce Thomas, a black undergrad, decided to take on an entity referred to as The Machine, which consisted of the most powerful, oldest, and white sororities and fraternities, who all compromise on one candidate to support every year, and in fact succeeded in passing voting reforms that made it easier for them to get what they want. Ostensibly this type of organization exists at all major universities in the US.
In particular, the southern universities I'm familiar with that have this type of group have the same organization and aims, which appears to promote keeping everything as crusty and white as possible in terms of not only people in power, but those in merely symbolic positions like Homecoming Queen.
Even though the position means very little to those anointed into them each year compared to others who run that have more passionate, progressive ideas of how to use the position, like Jessica.
In places in Bama Girl, you get to see the real-life people who were born into The Machine by virtue of who their parents are, but resist the trappings of what their great-grandparents decided the future should look like.
Jessica's quest for the crown is undeniably the focus of the film, but there are a few other candidates whose stories get some coverage, and that's what makes this a really compelling look at how primitively-minded many of the college kids put into places of leadership can be even in this enlightened age of information.
Bama Girl does not currently have a distribution deal, but certainly deserves to be seen by more people.
Read MoreSXSW08: In a Dream
Every year at SXSW, my list of must-see movies before the fest begins is usually pretty empty. I rely a great deal upon the SXSW Directory, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the vast expanse that is the Film portion of the conference. Thanks to that book and usually a good deal of word of mouth form those I trust, I am led to the particular undiscovered films that end up filling in most of my blanks on the dance card.
In a Dream director Jeremiah Zagar
Some of them are good enough, better than you or I could make, full of craft, but ultimately forgettable. There are others that I find detestable and unwatchable, which inevitably one friend of mine or another will love so much they refuse to relent blogging it to death or recommending it to people who will later hate them with the fire of a thousand suns for recommending they waste a couple hours of their life.
Then there are the few that transcend the ordinary cinematic experience, the ones you leave shaken loose from the mundane and little closer to heaven for a few hours afterward. To encapsulate these movies in a synopsis proves a difficult task indeed.
Last night I saw one of those films, one that (schedule permitting) I plan to see again before the end of the week, a rarity for a week when it's nearly impossible to see everything.
Jeremiah Zagar's In a Dream could have been a very different film, and I'm very glad this is what it turned out to be.
The director's father, Isaiah Zagar, spends sometimes 14-16 hours a day working on the mosaic murals for which he has become legendary in Philadelphia, the city his family has called home for the last three decades or so. To just pick up a camera and point it at the prolific genius of his father's work would have been "doing the job", but
Jeremiah has instead set himself on making the masterpiece possible with the tools and resources he had available.
We have seen the "genius in my family everyone arbitrarily calls crazy" documentary.
We have seen the "deep, wounding family-rending trauma" documentary.
We have seen the "exposing vulnerabilities no one else is brave enough to" documentary.
We have seen them all in various iterations, these themes. Wondrously, Jeremiah has followed the majestic work of his father and broken these media into shards and chunks, carefully plastering them together in a provocative and fascinating mosaic of a his father's life.
Isaiah's work comes out unfiltered in his murals, spilling from his heart through the work of his hands all across these monuments he's built. The pictures and images are not always pleasant or easy to look at, but in doing so, I find myself relaxing my aversion to expressing my own vulnerability.
Jeremiah's film charts his family history beginning with his father's relationship with his mother Julia, proceeding to pick up characters as we go and constantly touching back on the past and completing the detail work around the whole picture. The symbiotic joys and pressures of maintaining the family Isaiah and Julia built frame the film, always centered around the destructive elements of their life together repairing and reconstructing it through all the crises they face. The film picks up in real-time at a decisive moment when that capacity to rebuild comes into question.
Other writers would summarize the vast majority of the "plot points" of the film, but I respect it too much to do that. In a Dream will have you question whether everyone's a little "crazy" in varying degress, rather than simply "crazy" or "sane." The movie will also help you reassess (as my wife and I did) how "difficult" your life really is at the end of the day. I came away feeling that, at least in this country, we've all got it pretty good.
Anyone and everyone who is in Austin this week should see this film if they are able to get in. It screens again Tuesday at 1:30pm and Thursday at 4pm, both days at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.
An aside: Saturday morning, Isaiah and his team of muralists installed a series of murals on the fence outside Austin landmark Stubbs'. According to what I was told last night, someone has already stolen a portion of it. I took pictures that morning of the almost-finished product, pre-theft, in this post. A damn shame.
Read MoreIn a Dream director Jeremiah Zagar
SXSW08: Super High Me
I first met Michael Blieden five years ago when he came to SXSW 2003 with a wonderful film he wrote that Bob Odenkirk directed called Melvin Goes to Dinner. He returned a couple years later to SXSW 2005 with his own directorial debut, a doc called The Comedians of Comedy that followed Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, and Zach Galifianakis on a different kind of comedy tour than the plethora of other docs that end with "of Comedy". Both projects involved a select number of people talking about things that are important to them, why they're important, and why it matters in the grand scheme of things.
The moment I became aware of Super High Me's existence, my first thought was "I remember some kid making a joke about how he should do Super Size Me but for pot and he'd get paid to get high" coming out of the Super Size Me screening at SXSW 2004. Then I found out Doug Benson was the subject of the movie.
Then I found out Blieden directed it and I decided I had to see it, completely blind.
As I prefaced a review of an Obama documentary last week, I have to add a disclaimer here too: I don't smoke pot and think it should be decriminalized, but at the same time, I don't want people lighting a joint in public. Of course, I don't think we should have people just strolling the streets blowing tobacco smoke around either.
Economically speaking, legalizing and regulating the sale of marijuana would do wonders for the flagging US economy, as well as transform the paper industry, since non-"drug" hemp is a lot faster to renew than the wood pulp used for most paper these days. If people want the US to really "go green" it must start with how and what resources we use. Where the US goes, the world will follow.
People should be free to do whatever they please with their lungs and mental state, but it's my air just as much as it is yours. If you want to complain about where you can and can't smoke your dried leaf product of choice and enjoy another activity, like drink or watch a movie or eat dinner, that's the beauty of a market economy: somebody will build a business model around it.
The other thing I can't always get behind pot docs about is to some extent promoting the idea that getting stoned all the time isn't a major detriment to leading a productive life. The great thing to teach people is an ok way of living life just like any perpetual, anti-productive behavior...notice I said nothing about addiction.
Liking Blieden's previous work got me interested in seeing it past my personal barrier of it being "another pot doc" that says the same stuff, but...like, different, you know?
The bet pays off in spades, because Blieden and Benson do more with the material than just Super Size Me with marijuana, really digging in to some of the capitalist hypocrisy of ongoing US domestic policy with regard to pot. Highly recommended, no pun intended.
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