Cinematical

It's been a while since we here at Cinematical introduced ourselves. Since the last time we ran a "meet the bloggers" type post, we've brought on some new writers and added a LOT of new readers. You read us, you get a feel for what we like and what we don't, but maybe you'd like to know a little more about us as, you know, people. Then again, maybe you wouldn't -- in which case you can just read our dorky little intros and make fun of us to your computer screen or in the comments. Today you'll meet the first half of our crew, and tomorrow (assuming I get it together later tonight) you'll get to meet the other half.

So read all about us, and then you can get real crazy and introduce yourself back to us in the comments. Be as creative as you want -- best reader intro in the comments will win a coveted (and boy, do I mean coveted -- I have a line of readers lined up outside the Seattle office now begging for one of these puppies) tshirt (that's what the tshirts look like, there on the right!) And you -- yes you -- can own one, if you're the cleverest of all.

NAME
C.K. Sample, III

BLOGGING FROM
Bronxville, New York

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
As I'm only a sometimes contributor, I think this question should be: "What's it like being allowed to post on Cinematical?" Answer: "Da bomb."

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
I'm published in Literature Film Quarterly.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
V for Vendetta

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
V for Vendetta

FAVORITE GENRE
Whatever genre you'd classify Akira Kurosawa's work under. I'd say "samurai films," but High and Low and a few others break that mold. There's something akin to a Western in his films; perhaps its the John Huston influences, but, in general, I don't like Westerns. So maybe: "Western influenced Eastern films." Actually, I'm a huge fan of Marguerite Duras, as well, so whatever genre describes a clash of cultures in film, I'd guess that'd be the genre that is my favorite.

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
There are other film sites?

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
I blog about not blogging.

WHY IS FILM IMPORTANT?

It's all scalable. If you're talking about war and poverty and famine
in real everyday life, then film isn't that important in comparison.
However, good film draws attention to problems with the world and
areas of the world that we far too often overlook. If you show a
starving child a Charlie Chaplin film and she laughs, then something
magical has occurred.

Things like Sharon Stone proclaiming "Yes, I'm naked!" at a French
news conference about her reprised role in Basic
Instinct 2 is the horror of film and the film industry. I mean,
Hello, Sharon. You were in Catwoman.

That's the beauty and paradox of film.  

NAME
Karina Longworth

BLOGGING FROM
Greenpoint, the tippy-top corner of Brooklyn, NY

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
Like sliding down a rainbow made of profiteroles, whilst wrapped up in a Fendi fur coat.

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
That I speak with sincere passion about things like rainbows, profiteroles and Fendi fur coats.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
V for Vendetta

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
Certainly not V for Vendetta. I saw a nice print of Invasion of the Body Snatchers the other night, if falling in love for the seventh time counts.

FAVORITE GENRE
Romantic comedy (no, seriously)

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
David Hudson is the king of film blogging, as far as I'm concerned. I also really like Reverse Shot and Slant.

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
That's classified.

TELL ME WHY YOU'RE AFRAID TO GO BACK TO THE SINGLE DECENT VIDEO STORE IN GREENPOINT.
Sigh. Okay: one weekend last fall, it was rainy and I was feeling mopey and I went in and I rented -- wait for it  -- A Room With a View. Then  ... I don't know ... the next day, it started snowing, and I got really busy, and I just didn't return it. For a while. I don't remember *exactly* how long I kept it for, but when I finally returned it, I owed Greenpoint's finest video store $75. I paid the fine (well, I talked it down quite a bit, but I paid it), but still -- what an embarrassing thing to accrue just shy of $100 of debt on. They must think I'm some kind of Helena Bonham Carter freak. Or else, that I live such a sad, solitary existence that mid-period Merchant/Ivory is like smack to me. Neither is true. I'm just monumentally lazy.

NAME

BLOGGING FROM
South Brooklyn, NY  

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
Being able to not just review, but discuss movies with others is the beauty of writing for a film blog.

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
My first job as a critic was reviewing ska albums for a magazine called Lo-Fi. 

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
Dave Chappelle's Block Party

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
I do like the last movie I saw, but the last that I loved is Broken Flowers (I don't use the word lightly).

FAVORITE GENRE
CaprAmericana

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
I'm tapped into ComingSoon.net for movie info, news and trailers. I can't start my week right without Edward Jay Epstein's monday column on Slate.  

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
Seek out new Limited Edition candy I haven't yet tried; go to beer festivals; work stressful temp jobs.  
 
 
WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO FILMMAKERS WHO WANT THEIR FILMS LOVED BY CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL? 
Don't ever make a movie because you can or want to.  Make it because you have to.  And make it something that you would watch ten times rather than ever watch your ten favorite movies again.   

NAME
Scott Weinberg 

BLOGGING FROM
Philadelphia, as seen in several wonderful movies, from Twelve Monkeys to Trading Places to the one with Tom Hanks when he has AIDS. (Can't remember the title off-hand.). Although lately City Hall has taken meetings on perhaps changing the city's name to Shyamalanadelphia. I'm opposed to it.

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
It's like working with a very cool team while sharing your rambly-ass movie opinions with a large, informed, and passionate audience. What's not to like?

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
Everyone knows I'm a horror freak, but how do you explain the fact that Moulin Rouge, The Empire Strikes Back, Toy Story 2, and The Natural make me weep like a small girl who just lost her favorite dolly? (This is off
the record, right?)

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
Stay Alive ...  god help me.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
Hard Candy!

FAVORITE GENRE
Horror's always been my most feverish passion, but I do love a good sci-fi or comedy or action flick. Long as it's well made and not boring, I'm down. (Larry Clark need not apply.)

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
eFilmCritic / HollywoodBitchslap, for obvious reasons. But I only write for sites that I sincerely DIG, which explains why I feel no shame in also pimping Rotten Tomatoes, JoBlo's, and DVDTalk. The IMDb is, of course, my bible. My favorite film critics are the brilliantly trenchant Walter Chaw, who can be found at FilmFreakCentral, the amazingly geek-tastic MaryAnn Johanson (Madame Flick Filospher), the adorably snarky Dawn Taylor, and a dozen other folks who can write circles around the stooge who pens reviews for your daily newspaper. Other daily haunts include Greencine Daily, Movie City News, ComingSoon.net, Cinemarati, Bloody-Disgusting.com, Box Office Mojo, DavisDVD, movie this, horror that, DVD etc., etc., etc....

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
Watching movies, scrawling reviews and articles, talking movies, IMing friends & colleagues about movies, staring at my Jennifer Connelly desktop wallpaper, building a DVD collection that makes me smile, ordering Chinese food, playing a little xBox, re-re-re-watching my Firefly, Arrested Development and Futurama DVDs while damning the Fox network to eternal hellfire, and, despite being a very apolitical guy, seriously hating our current president. Oh, and women who have dark hair and blue eyes. Dem's my kryptonite.

DEAR SCOTT, WOULD YOU LIKE A GIG AS A HIGH-PAID STUDIO SCRIPT DOCTOR?
Hell yes. And I'd be damn good at it, too. All you need to make a crappy movie into a profitable one: more fart jokes, at least one gag involving a domesticated animal and a toilet, and a pot-smoking granny with a penchant for doling out urban slang words,

NAME
Jeffrey M. Anderson

BLOGGING FROM
San Francisco

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
Like working in a giant office building and not knowing where the coffee maker is.

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
I'm about to be a first-time father.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
A double-bill of L'Enfant and Basic Instinct 2

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
Inside Man and Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times

FAVORITE GENRE
I love all kinds of genres, but maybe horror would rise to the top. It's the one in which I'm most forgiving. Oh! and I love silent movies. So I guess silent horror movies.

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
imdb.com, Rotten Tomatoes, Chicago Reader's Film Page, Senses of Cinema, Joe Bob Briggs; www.theyshootpictures.com, Tim Dirks's filmsite.org, Combustible Celluloid

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
I don't have much time for anything else, but I like to eat out (the wife and I are foodies), read, and see friends (usually at restaurants or the movies or both). I'm also in grad school.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN WRONG?
Oh yes. I gave "Jackie Brown" a glum, 2-1/2 star review back in 1997. I saw it again later and realized that it's one of my favorite movies.

NAME
James Rocchi

BLOGGING FROM
San Francisco

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
Constantly, constantly surprising -- from learning things I didn't know from the aesthetic and experience of smart people like Karina Longworth, Mark Beall and Scott Weinberg, to being consantly impressed by the dilligence, casually offhand prose style, brute efficiency and journalism instincts of Kim Voynar and Martha Fischer, to the strum of excitment I get when I see a new post from Jette or Erik or Chris or Richard or ... any of our writers, frankly. Oh, and I don't now where the coffee maker is, either.

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
The Jeopardy! appearance back in 2000? The week spent on the road with a rock band in my early '20s? The uncanny Christopher Walken imitation? That It's a Wonderful Life makes me cry like I've been maced?

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
Like Jeff, I was at that double-bill of L'Enfant and Basic Instinct 2. I actually wanted to wait to fill this out until I could, in fact, see another movie.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
The Inside Man -- Totally Pelham, baby!

FAVORITE GENRE
I like a well-made film; I can get into Syriana and Spider-Man 2, Dodgeball and Nobody Knows.

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE
imdb.com, Roger Ebert's site, Movie City News, anything B. Ruby Rich writes, HollywoodElsewhere, SF360.org

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?
I love to cook; CBS 5 keeps me busy; San Francisco's a great city for walking; I've been known to dig the occasional live rock show, and am also trying to teach my cat to read. It's not going so well.

IS IT EVER OKAY TO ANSWER A QUESTION WITH A QUESTION?
Why shouldn't it be okay to answer a question with a question? 

NAME

BLOGGING FROM
Austin, Texas

WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING FOR CINE?
It's like Jello on springs. No, wait, that's Marilyn Monroe. Well, it's infinitely more fun than technical writing, which used to be my day job. I wish I could meet more of the Cinematical bloggers in person; I've only met Scott and
Karina so far, at SXSW.

WHAT WOULD CINE READERS BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT YOU?
I don't subscribe to cable/satellite TV. (Yet. I'm weakening.)

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW
Sullivan's Travels: Alamo Drafthouse showed it this week and I couldn't resist.

LAST MOVIE YOU SAW THAT YOU LOVED
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. (For me, "loved" means "I'm buying the DVD.")

FAVORITE GENRE
1930s screwball comedy, although most of my favorite movies don't fit that genre at all, like The Wild Bunch and Army of Darkness. (Hmm, maybe Army of Darkness does fit. I wonder if there's a column here on the evolution of
screwball comedy into modern-day horror.)

OTHER FILM SITES YOU LIKE

Cinema Strikes Back , Pullquote, GreenCine Daily, and about a dozen others. I especially like Austin-based film sites; most recently, I've discovered Dumb Distraction.

WHEN YOU'RE NOT BLOGGING, WHAT DO YOU DO?

Freelance writing and editing about non-movie content, like carpeting and pediatrics. And at the moment, wedding planning. Who knew that putting together even the smallest family-only, laid-back gathering would take so much effort?

WHO'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST INFLUENCE IN WRITING ABOUT MOVIES?

Harlan Ellison. His "Watching" columns for Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine are still my favorite film-related essays. I go back and read the collection every so often for inspiration and just plain enjoyment.