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Archives for March, 2010

LL Cool J’s acting career.

Article: LL Cool J’s acting career.

In a startling public relations gaffe, a Fox News spokesperson responded to LL Cool J’s unwillingness to have an interview from two years ago reappropriated for Sarah Palin’s new show with this snippy self-righteous rejoinder: “as it appears that Mr. Smith does not want to be associated with a program that could serve as an…

What to Watch on IFC in April

Article: What to Watch on IFC in April

This month on IFC, we’re serving up brand spankin’ new episodes of “Dinner With The Band” and “Food Party” featuring indie music and funky recipes to satisfy any appetite. It all kicks off Tuesday, April 27th at 10pm. There’ll be back to back episodes of the psychadelic series “Food Party,” with host Thu Tran creating…

MAdM’s Out of Our Minds multi-media/record release.

Article: MAdM’s Out of Our Minds multi-media/record release.

What began as a second solo album turned into a full on media extravaganza including a film and comic book when Melissa Auf der Maur met director Tony Stone. Like me, she was blown away by his DIY backyard epic, “Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America” (Magnolia, 2007) and sought him to get the…

“Breaking Upwards” and “The Greatest” Explore Young Love’s Doldrums

Article: “Breaking Upwards” and “The Greatest” Explore Young Love’s Doldrums

Now is the early spring of our discontent. Every year around this time, many of the films clotting theaters are the indies no one thinks will secure an Oscar nomination or the big-budget features studios don’t have the faith will score sweet summer box-office numbers. Admittedly, these movies can turn out to be real gems…

Taking on the sacred films of an ’80s childhood.

Article: Taking on the sacred films of an ’80s childhood.

A Melbourne man named Luke Ryan has taken it upon himself to write a list of the“Top ten films that you shouldn’t rewatch as an adult.” This is a brave thing to do, given that a) his title isn’t a bait-and-switch b) his titles include “Labyrinth,” “The Dark Crystal,” “The Goonies,” “Spaceballs” and “Teenage Mutant…

Michel Gondry’s Family Portrait

Article: Michel Gondry’s Family Portrait

Music video artist-turned-auteur Michel Gondry, the French fabulist director behind “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Be Kind Rewind,” has reinvented his organic style yet again by ditching the wild visuals and iconic performers he’s typically associated with for the deeply intimate vérité doc “The Thorn in the Heart” (or for those don’t need…

Great moments in trailer failure: “After.Life.”

Article: Great moments in trailer failure: “After.Life.”

If your trailer can’t win a multiplex audience over — if, in fact, it incites active derision — you’re in serious trouble. Such proved to be the case this weekend with “After.Life,” the upcoming, oddly punctuated Christina Ricci-Liam Neeson horror movie (or whatever it actually is — it’s hard to tell). The “After.Life” trailer was…

Jonas Åkerlund: Requiem for a music video bad boy.

Article: Jonas Åkerlund: Requiem for a music video bad boy.

[Update: The post below refers to Jonas Åkerlund as the director of "Scarface School Play." The real director has since stepped forth: veteran music video director Marc Klasfeld (Jay-Z's "Girls Girls Girls," among others), whose production company -- oddly enough -- has also done a Lady Gaga video. I regret jumping the gun; the sentiments…

The morality of making movies about the Holocaust.

Article: The morality of making movies about the Holocaust.

Bernard-Henri Lévy’s “Shutter Island”/”Inglourious Basterds” op-ed in The Australian has been making the rounds for the last few weeks, jumping from one paper to another. (If you haven’t seen “Shutter Island” and want to go in rasa, stop reading now, though there’s nothing here that isn’t in the first reel.) The editorial, which claims the…

Reinvigorating the Dead

Article: Reinvigorating the Dead

It may not have been exactly the best film released here in 2009 (it was close), but Uli Edel’s “The Baader Meinhof Complex” stoked my hot box like nothing else I saw last year, and it’s a movie about terrorists. A movie that heroizes terrorists. A 2.5-hour missile barrage of protest action, rock ‘n roll…

The punishing action score.

Article: The punishing action score.

Friday sees the release of the revamped “Clash of the Titans,” the trailer for which has to set come kind of record for the most joyless combination of grim faces, heinously ugly monsters and nu-metal roar. It’s all very murky and loud, but mostly it seems like no fun: like the roar of Nickelback magnified…

Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family

Article: Tahiti Boy & The Palmtree Family

Tahiti Boy is Juilliard Schooled David Sztanke who returned to France and put together a lovable Parisian band, The Palmtree Family. Along with contributors like Tunde Adebimpe who sings on “That Song” they’ve put out a Spring pop record of note. Some cello, some Rhodes keys, a bit of The Beatles and a lick of…

Plan 10 From Half Moon Bay

Article: Plan 10 From Half Moon Bay

A few minutes past midnight on Friday, a man in a gray suit and bright red tie took to the stage of the IFC Center’s Theater One and, to the applause of the sold-out audience, proudly waved a wire coat hanger in the air like an athlete brandishing the Olympic torch. This borderline deranged behavior…

Seven deliberately anachronistic movies.

Article: Seven deliberately anachronistic movies.

In a long, fascinating interview with DP Harris Savides at Moving Image Source, Savides — one of the best cinematographers we have — talks about how much of his recent work (“Zodiac,” “Greenberg,” “Milk,” “American Gangster”) has, in one way or another, drawn from the ’70s. There’s a startling side-by-side comparison of a Stephen Shore…

Resurrecting “The Great Mouse Detective.”

Article: Resurrecting “The Great Mouse Detective.”

When Tim Burton arrived at Disney in 1979, fresh out of CalArts, he was put to work on 1981′s “The Fox and the Hound,” one of the more forgettable films of the Disney cel animation era. It was rough for him: working on a story he had no connection to, thematically or visually, he ended…

Kevin Smith’s Critical Dogma

Article: Kevin Smith’s Critical Dogma

A few days ago, Kevin Smith had a meltdown on Twitter, claiming that “writing a nasty review for ‘Cop Out’ is akin to bullying a retarded kid who was getting a couple chuckles from the normies by singing ‘Afternoon Delight’ ” and that the overwhelmingly unfavorable reception his latest film received from critics has made…

Going Hollywood.

Article: Going Hollywood.

Relax, America: “Paranormal Activity 2″ has a director. After a protracted and ugly round of corporate infighting about who was helming the next “Paranormal” and “Saw” films, the gig has passed out of the hands of the genre stalwarts entirely and into the hands of Tod Williams, best known as the writer/director of the mildly…

Five More Disney Documentaries We Want to See (And Probably Never Will)

Article: Five More Disney Documentaries We Want to See (And Probably Never Will)

It looks like we’re entering a whole new world of documentaries about the Walt Disney Company. There have been two feature-length documentaries about Disney released in theaters during the last seven months alone. Last fall’s “Walt & El Grupo” examined Walt Disney’s goodwill tour of South America in the 1940s. This week’s “Waking Sleeping Beauty”…

Austin Psyche Fest 3

Article: Austin Psyche Fest 3

Just when you thought Austin was shutting down for a years worth of airing out and mopping up after SXSW, here comes the Austin Psyche Fest. The bands gathering for this 3rd annual trip out are the last ones standing. Presented by The Black Angels and The Reverberation Appreciation Society, it runs April 23-25th at…

Investing in the Future of Indie Games

Article: Investing in the Future of Indie Games

Every winter, there’s a video game pilgrimage to San Francisco. College students, journalists and dealmakers descend on the city’s Moscone Center for the annual Game Developers Conference, looking to discover or become part of the Next Big Thing in interactive entertainment. At the yearly confab that draws them together, members of development studios all over…

Continuity is boring.

Article: Continuity is boring.

One of the most famous edits in film history is “Lawrence of Arabia”‘s pun-tastic “match cut” — a term normally referring to edits that keep objects and people in the same spatial area, but in this case a legendary cut from a match being blown out to a hot desert sun. But that wasn’t important…

“Greenberg,” a W.C. Fields for our time.

Article: “Greenberg,” a W.C. Fields for our time.

He called himself “The Great Man,” and — especially in the ’30s — W.C. Fields was just that. In a series of misanthropic comedies, Fields repeatedly professed his dislike of children and wives and his love of booze. There was more to him than that, of course — 1934′s “The Old Fashioned Way” is a…

SXSW Narrative Feature Winner “Tiny Furniture,” free soundtrack.

Article: SXSW Narrative Feature Winner “Tiny Furniture,” free soundtrack.

Lena Dunham is the 23 year-old success story behind this year’s big film winner at SXSW. She’s the writer, actor and director of “Tiny Furniture,” a very autobiographical, finding yourself tragicomedy. The set up is thus: “22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother’s TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357…

Now See Hear: A Look Back At The 2010 SXSW Music Festival

Article: Now See Hear: A Look Back At The 2010 SXSW Music Festival

SXSW is a massive festival, constantly growing in its attendees, participants and scope. While the festival has grown to showcase the arts of Interactive and Film, at it’s core is one of the greatest music festivals anyone can ever hope to be part of. It’s been almost a week since the 2010 SXSW music festival…

Animators who have made the live-action leap.

Article: Animators who have made the live-action leap.

It’s a pleasant surprise to see that Brad Bird is being considered as a possible director for “Mission Impossible IV,” a game of musical chairs that is said to include “Zombieland”‘s Ruben Fleischer and Edgar Wright. Of course, “The Iron Giant” director has never helmed a live-action feature before, though that shouldn’t be a stumbling…

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