Cinematicalhttp://www.cinematical.comCinematicalhttp://www.cinematical.com/media/feedlogo.gifCinematicalhttp://www.cinematical.comen-usCopyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Attention, SXSW Wannabes! The Panel Picker is Herehttp://www.cinematical.com/2009/07/03/attention-sxsw-wannabes-the-panel-picker-is-here/http://www.cinematical.com/2009/07/03/attention-sxsw-wannabes-the-panel-picker-is-here/http://www.cinematical.com/2009/07/03/attention-sxsw-wannabes-the-panel-picker-is-here/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

So you wanna rake in the indie cred in Austin at next year's South by Southwest Festival? You have a skootch more than a week left to submit proposals for panels and/or rate the ones that have already been submitted for SXSW. But lucky for you, the SXSW Panel Picker is at your fingertips any time of the day or night. This cool new tool allows for everyone to have a say in what panels get okay'd for the festival.

According to the official site, "SXSW thrives on the creative intersection that takes place when great minds get together, and we feel the Panel Picker truly celebrates that. We believe that the real experts at SXSW are the people who bring the event to life - you, the thousands of people who attend every year. You know what you want to see, so this is your chance to help make that happen."

Previous panels include "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession," which featured Cinematical's very own Scott Weinberg, "From Script to Screen," a Stanley Kubrick discussion, and much more. Get on your horse and head over 'cause the Panel Picker closes its doors on July 10th.

You can also stay up to date on all the latest SXSW-related film news and reviews over at the official blog. They gave Erik Davis' earlier post on the real girl behind SXSW's indie hit 500 Days of Summer a nice shout out, too. Even if you don't get your very own panel, you should do yourself a favor and hit up the festival since it's filled to the gills with enough media to burn your retinas and pop your eardrums. Plus, you can eat some BBQ with the peeps you Tweet at. Hey, just sayin'.

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]]>Austinpanelssouth by southwestSouthBySouthwestSXSWSXSW 2010Sxsw2010Jenni MillerFri, 03 Jul 2009 16:33:00 ESTAustin Film Festival Wrap-Uphttp://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/26/austin-film-festival-wrap-up/http://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/26/austin-film-festival-wrap-up/http://www.cinematical.com/2008/10/26/austin-film-festival-wrap-up/#commentsFiled under:



October in Austin might mean the Texas-Oklahoma game to some people, or the welcome end of triple-digit temperature hell to others, but for movie lovers it brings us a week of Austin Film Festival, which celebrated its 15th year last week. I can remember when the festival was limited to one hotel and a couple of movie theaters, and the films were just something to do at night after the screenwriters' conference. This year, the conference spread out over several venues and the film festival itself, which lasts a full week, screened films in nine different locations around town.

The Paramount Theatre, which seats about 1,200 people, was packed for the opening-night film, W., with actor James Cromwell in attendance. This was a specially apt venue for the Oliver Stone film because if you walk outside the Paramount and look down the street, there's the State Capitol. The Governor's Mansion -- well, what's left of it right now -- is in walking distance of the theater. If we could only have blocked off Congress Ave. (hah), we could have posed Cromwell with the Capitol prominent in the background. Cromwell not only stuck around after the film for a Q&A, but stayed for the screenwriters' conference the next day to lead a conversation-style session about acting.

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]]>Austinboogie man the lee atwater storyBoogieManTheLeeAtwaterStorycharlie kaufmanCharlieKaufmanCinematicaldanny boyleDannyBoylefilmjames cromwellJamesCromwellmovienew yorkslumdog millionaireSlumdogMillionairesynecdochesynecdochenewyorkw.Jette KernionSun, 26 Oct 2008 17:03:00 ESTAFF Review: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Projecthttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/31/aff-review-mr-warmth-the-don-rickles-project/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/31/aff-review-mr-warmth-the-don-rickles-project/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/31/aff-review-mr-warmth-the-don-rickles-project/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,



Oh, what times we live in, that we can enjoy foul-mouthed documentaries like The Aristocrats and F**k. I grew up equating "documentary" with "National Geographic," so any nonfiction film that uses four-letter words or would shock my mom, automatically makes me smile a little. As a result, I was slightly biased toward Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project from the moment the film's subject uttered his first profanities during a stand-up routine.

Rickles reportedly has been reluctant to have his live performances recorded until now, but let director John Landis shoot part of his Vegas show. The documentary uses the footage from Rickles' stand-up act as a springboard for a biography and filmography of Rickles, a superficial discussion about intentionally offensive comedy, and a general reflection upon Las Vegas and how it's changed in the past 40 years or so.

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]]>Bob NewhartCinematicalClint EastwoodDon RicklesfilmHarry Dean StantonJohn LandismovieMr. Warmth: The Don Rickles ProjectSarah SilvermanJette KernionWed, 31 Oct 2007 20:07:00 ESTAFF Panel: 'Harold and Kumar' Writers Share Tips, Discuss Sequelhttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/29/aff-panel-harold-and-kumar-writers-share-tips-discuss-sequel/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/29/aff-panel-harold-and-kumar-writers-share-tips-discuss-sequel/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/29/aff-panel-harold-and-kumar-writers-share-tips-discuss-sequel/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,



Austin Film Festival doesn't only show movies, but also includes a screenwriters' conference. This year, the lineup included Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and have written and directed the upcoming sequel, currently known as Harold and Kumar 2. (First they were going to Amsterdam, then they were escaping from Guantanamo Bay. Maybe next they'll be searching for a crystal skull bong.)

Hurwitz and Schlossberg sat down with moderator Josh Weiner and an audience of conference attendees to discuss both the Harold and Kumar movies, and used clips from the first movie to share various lessons they learned in screenwriting.

The first clip shown was the scene in which Harold (John Cho) encounters Maria (Paula Garces) in the elevator, both in his fantasy world and in reality. Hurwitz said the scene was pivotal to the movie because it introduced Maria as a romantic interest, which provided something for the audience to connect with in a movie that otherwise has a fairly slight storyline. In fact, the impact of the scene ultimately caused the ending to be reshot.

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]]>CinematicalfilmHarold and Kumar 2Harold and Kumar Go to White CastleHayden SchlossbergJohn ChoJon HurwitzKal PennmovieNeil Patrick HarrisJette KernionMon, 29 Oct 2007 12:02:00 ESTAFF Review: America Unchainedhttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/24/aff-review-america-unchained/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/24/aff-review-america-unchained/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/24/aff-review-america-unchained/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



So if Borat Sagdiyev had been a British vegetarian who thought all chain stores were an embodiment of The Man -- nah, that's a totally unfair way to describe America Unchained, which screened at Austin Film Festival. The narrator of this documentary is far less over-the-top than Borat, but he's still engaging enough to save the film from terminal earnestness.

British comedy writer/performer Dave Gorman is our tour guide on this film. He tells us that the last time he took a tour of the United States, he was booked in big-chain hotels and ended up eating primarily in chain restaurants. He decides that this time he wants to see the "real" America, so he plans to drive from L.A. to New York (coast to coast) without giving any money to "The Man" -- no buying from any kind of chain, be it a hotel, fast-food restaurant or most difficult of all, a gas station. Gorman and his original director/camera operator set off from California in a car they didn't buy from a chain, either ... a 1975 Torino station wagon, which looks like the family car from my childhood when we took long road trips ourselves (not unlike the Griswolds in the first Vacation movie).

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]]>America UnchainedCinematicalDave GormanfilmmovieJette KernionWed, 24 Oct 2007 11:02:00 ESTAFF Review: Under the Same Moonhttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/22/aff-review-under-the-same-moon/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/22/aff-review-under-the-same-moon/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/22/aff-review-under-the-same-moon/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , ,



Earlier this year, Under the Same Moon (originally titled La Misma Luna) was bought at Sundance by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company for a surprisingly high amount of money. It's understandable because underneath the film's unsubtle messages about undocumented Mexican workers working to survive in the U.S., it's essentially an old-fashioned family melodrama. I caught the film at Austin Film Festival this year, and it's currently scheduled to hit theaters in March 2008.

Rosario (Kate del Castillo) is a young immigrant from Mexico living and working in Los Angeles to support her nine-year-old son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), who lives with Rosario's mother in Mexico. He hasn't seen his mother in four years and misses her terribly. Meanwhile, Rosario is trying to scrape up enough money for a lawyer to help her bring Carlitos to America legally. When his grandmother dies, Carlitos decides to cross the border himself and travel to Los Angeles to find his mother, because he's scared she'll forget about him. He encounters an unlikely lot of helpers and companions during his attempt, including American college students (America Ferrera and Jesse Garcia) who want to make extra money smuggling children over the border, and Enrique (Eugenio Derbez), a migrant worker who has no desire to deal with a small child on his hands.

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]]>America FerreraCinematicalfilmJesse GarciaLa Misma LunamoviePatricia RiggenUnder the Same MoonJette KernionMon, 22 Oct 2007 15:09:00 ESTAFF Review: Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Grashttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-dont-eat-the-baby-adventures-at-post-katrina-mardi/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-dont-eat-the-baby-adventures-at-post-katrina-mardi/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-dont-eat-the-baby-adventures-at-post-katrina-mardi/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



I grew up in the New Orleans area, so I can't resist movies set in that location, especially documentaries. The only problem is that I worry about seeing anything involving the term "post-Katrina" in a theater, because I'm always worried I'll end up in tears or enraged in public. Fortunately, Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras kept me more amused than sad, but at the same time managed to accurately represent the problems that South Louisianians faced in the six months after the hurricane and ensuing floods.

Don't Eat the Baby focuses on the ways in which New Orleanians dealt with Mardi Gras in 2006. The city was devastated, with much of its population forced to live elsewhere, and for many people it seemed inappropriate to spend money and other resources on a big celebration. Still, the large parade organizations (called krewes) wanted to roll, the mayor and other politicians hoped that the festivities would draw tourism and thus bring needed revenue to local businesses, and many New Orleanians simply wanted to take a little time to forget about the bad things in their lives, and celebrate as they have done every year.

Continue reading AFF Review: Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras

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]]>CinematicalDon't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi GrasfilmKatrinaMardi GrasmovieNew OrleansTodd BergerJette KernionSun, 21 Oct 2007 14:02:00 ESTAFF Review: Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artisthttp://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-will-eisner-portrait-of-a-sequential-artist/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-will-eisner-portrait-of-a-sequential-artist/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/21/aff-review-will-eisner-portrait-of-a-sequential-artist/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



I'm not a comic-book reader, so I didn't know much about the subject of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist before seeing the documentary at Austin Film Festival. I knew he was the creator of The Spirit, a comic-book series that Frank Miller is adapting into a feature film ... and that's about all I knew. Fortunately, the documentary filled in many of the blanks for me about Eisner and provided some interesting details about the artist's life.

Eisner is credited for being one of the pioneers in the comic-book form -- as the film's title indicates, he believed in making the comics sequential, giving them an ongoing storyline, which was not standard back in the 1930s when he started work as an artist. His character The Spirit was not a traditional superhero with crazy superpowers, but an ordinary guy in the smallest of masks, who happened to fight crime. During WWII and afterwards, Eisner created military instructional manuals that were drawn in a comic-book style to make them interesting and easy to understand. Later in life, he created more dramatic, personal comic books (A Contract with God) that he dubbed "graphic novels," and paved the way for this type of work to be taken seriously.

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]]>CinematicalfilmFrank MillermovieThe SpiritWill EisnerWill Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential ArtistJette KernionSun, 21 Oct 2007 11:05:00 ESTThe (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar: Festivals Big and Small, and Karen Black Live!http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/11/the-mostly-indie-film-calendar-festivals-big-and-small-and-k/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/11/the-mostly-indie-film-calendar-festivals-big-and-small-and-k/http://www.cinematical.com/2007/10/11/the-mostly-indie-film-calendar-festivals-big-and-small-and-k/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , ,

Welcome to The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar, a weekly look at what's happening beyond the multiplexes all around North America. If you know of something indie-related happening near you -- a local festival, a series of classic restored films, lectures, workshops, etc. -- send the info to me at Eric.Snider(at)weblogsinc(dot)com and I'll add it to the list. (Please put "Cinematical" somewhere in the subject line so I can easily separate you from the spam.)


Atlanta: The Urban Mediamakers Film Festival, running today through Sunday, is a combination of under-the-radar movie screenings and workshops for independent film professionals -- though if you're just a film lover and you only want to see the movies, that's fine, too.

Austin: Is it nothing but festivals in this town?! South By Southwest, Fantastic Fest, and now the more intuitively named Austin Film Festival... don't you crazy Texas kids have jobs? Just kidding. You kids are great, with your film festivals, and your hipster music scenes, and your Alamo Drafthouses. AFF began last night and runs through Oct. 18, with a few dozen features, documentaries, and shorts. Of note: The centerpiece film is Juno, which people have been going crazy about since it premiered at Telluride last month.

After the jump, more fests and events in L.A., NYC, Philly, Portland, and elsewhere....

Continue reading The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar: Festivals Big and Small, and Karen Black Live!

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]]>Eric D. SniderThu, 11 Oct 2007 12:02:00 ESTAFF Review: Chalkhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-chalk/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-chalk/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-chalk/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



The screening of Chalk I attended was the only sold-out movie I encountered at Austin Film Festival, and it was on a Tuesday night after the conference had ended. I heard that the previous night's showing of the feature film sold out as well -- and this was at the Arbor's largest screen. Was it because the movie won AFF's narrative feature award? Or was there some sort of word-of-mouth building in town among Austin educators, since teachers were the focus of this film? Before the movie started, Chalk's director Mike Akel asked how many teachers were in the audience, and I saw a large show of hands. It probably didn't hurt that Chalk was filmed in Austin, either.

Chalk uses that mock-documentary style found in The Office to focus on a group of high-school teachers (and one former teacher, now a vice principal) struggling to deal with their jobs in the course of a school year. There's the brand-new teacher, Mr. Lowrey (Troy Schremmer), who can't maintain control of his classroom; a comically ambitious, extroverted teacher, Mr. Stroope (co-writer Chris Mass); the short-haired, strident gym teacher, Coach Webb (Janelle Schremmer); and continually overworked vice-principal Mrs. Reddell (Shannon Haragan). The situations are usually played for laughs, but there are a few touching moments, particularly with Mr. Lowrey as he tries to connect with his students. Since they occasionally look right in the camera and talk to us, we know who has a little crush on whom, who's about to lose their mind, and who wants to strangle certain other teachers.

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]]>affchalkCinematicalfilmmovieteachersJette KernionTue, 31 Oct 2006 18:02:00 ESTAFF Panel: Writing Family Filmshttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-panel-writing-family-films/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-panel-writing-family-films/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-panel-writing-family-films/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,



As I've mentioned before, Austin Film Festival has a screenwriters conference to accompany its weeklong program of films. In fact, the event used to be better known for its writing panels and sessions than for the films that screened. I'm not a screenwriter so I don't attend many panels anymore, but this year I decided to sit in on on the "Writing Family Films" panel.

Why did I choose a panel on children's and family films? I could have gone with some friends to a session down the hall about comedy writing, featuring Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black, which I'm told was quite entertaining. I don't have any kids, and I've never written anything that was aimed toward a younger audience. But I've always enjoyed watching quality children's films (although I often feel like the only unaccompanied adult in the theater), and I wanted to hear more about the ways in which writers approach material intended for kids.

The panelists (in the order pictured above) were Bob Dolman, who wrote the screenplay for Willow and adapted and directed How to Eat Fried Worms; Susannah Grant, who worked on the scripts for Pocohontas, Ever After (a favorite of mine) and the upcoming Charlotte's Web; and Mike Rich, who wrote Finding Forrester, The Rookie, and The Nativity Story. University of Texas screenwriting instructor Stuart Kelban moderated the session. The small conference room at the Stephen F. Austin hotel was well-filled with writers and other film-industry people.

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]]>CinematicalfilmmoviescreenwritingJette KernionTue, 31 Oct 2006 14:38:00 ESTAFF Review: Come Early Morninghttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-come-early-morning/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-come-early-morning/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/31/aff-review-come-early-morning/#commentsFiled under: , ,



I don't normally see films with titles like Come Early Morning unless vampires are involved. However, I was intrigued about the feature directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams, who also wrote the script, and I liked Ashley Judd so well in Bug that I thought the movie might be worthwhile. Unfortunately, Come Early Morning suffered from an amateurish script, predictable characterizations, and a lack of vampires.

Judd, as the main character Lucy, is playing almost the same exact character as in Bug, but with a little more money and a little less desperation. Lucy lives in a small Arkansas town and has a nasty habit of drinking too much at the local honky-tonk and waking up in hotel rooms with strange men. However, we know right away that she's an independent woman who doesn't want to rely on anyone -- she insists on paying for the hotel rooms herself. The title is probably derived from her habit of getting up before her bedmates in an attempt to sneak out of the hotels before she has to talk to them.

During the course of the film, Lucy starts to realize her life isn't the way she wants it to be. She takes steps to become closer to her dad, takes in a stray dog, and tries to start what might become more than a one-night stand with Cal (Jeffrey Donovan), a new guy in town. She also takes home the local honky-tonk's old jukebox, although she's not sure why, or what she'll do with it. (The old jukebox does provide the film with a fantastic soundtrack, including Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Billy Joe Shaver songs.) She's a contractor, complete with a hard hat, but she doesn't seem to get much satisfaction from the job.

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]]>Ashley JuddCinematicalfilmJoey Lauren AdamsmovieJette KernionTue, 31 Oct 2006 09:03:00 ESTAustin Film Festival: The Photobloghttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/austin-film-festival-the-photoblog/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/austin-film-festival-the-photoblog/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/austin-film-festival-the-photoblog/#commentsFiled under: ,

It's a challenge to take photos during a film festival. You never know which screenings will be the kind where you'll be subjected to a metal detector, purse search and repeated warnings about No Cameras. And if you're attending a big splashy premiere at the Paramount in downtown Austin, you usually have to park pretty far from the theater, so you can't just run back to the car at any time to dump your camera. Despite these limitations, I did manage to snap some pictures from this year's Austin Film Festival, which I thought I'd share.



I love the marquee at the Paramount, so I had to take at least one photo of it all lit up. The Paramount was the venue for AFF's biggest films this year, since it's centrally located and has a pretty large capacity. The TV Set was AFF's opening-night film.

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]]>AustinCinematicalfilmHideoutJake KasdanmovieParamountphotoblogJette KernionMon, 30 Oct 2006 17:03:00 ESTAFF Review: The Third Monday in Octoberhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/aff-review-the-third-monday-in-october/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/aff-review-the-third-monday-in-october/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/30/aff-review-the-third-monday-in-october/#commentsFiled under: , , ,



I kept having flashbacks while I watched the documentary The Third Monday in October. No, not the drug-induced kind, but the kind that you get when you're watching a situation that you encountered yourself a long time ago. The Third Monday in October is about student council elections, which I often entered and never, ever won, so I was cheering for the underdogs right away.

The Third Monday in October was shot during the 2004 U.S. Presidential election campaign, and focuses on student-council presidential elections in four middle schools around the country: Francisco Middle School in San Francisco, Hall Middle School in Marin County, Inman Middle School in Atlanta, and St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin. (I drive past the Austin school practically every day, so I was specially interested to see what goes on there.) The film follows eleven of the student candidates, although some get more screen time than others. The filmmakers also interview teachers and advisers involved in the student election process. Eleven students may seem like a lot for one documentary feature, but a few stand out along the way.

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]]>CinematicalelectionsfilmmoviepoliticsStudent CouncilVanessa RothJette KernionMon, 30 Oct 2006 09:06:00 ESTAFF Review: Specialhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/29/aff-review-special/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/29/aff-review-special/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/29/aff-review-special/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



I wasn't sure what to expect from a movie called Special, "special" being a word that gets used snarkily and ironically these days. Fortunately, Special turned out to be a good narrative feature with elements of comedy and drama, giving character actor Michael Rapaport a chance to really shine in a complex lead role.

Rapaport plays Les, who works as a meter maid -- only of course, being a guy, he's a parking enforcement officer. He won't admit to feeling depressed, but his job is causing him problems, so he signs up for a pharmaceutical trial of a new antidepressant, Special (Specioprin Hydrochloride). The drug is supposed to remove self-doubt; in Les, this means that he believes he has developed superpowers. He can feel himself floating in midair, and he can hear other people's thoughts. Perhaps he can even walk through walls. Is he becoming a superhero or progressively insane? His friends who run a comic-book store aren't sure whether they believe him, and the doctor who gave Les the pills is acting extremely odd. But Les is determined to pursue a life of heroic crime fighting, and he's not going to stop taking his Special pills.

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]]>CinematicalfilmMichael RapoportmovieJette KernionSun, 29 Oct 2006 11:02:00 ESTFilm Blog Group Hug: Austin Film Festivalhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/26/film-blog-group-hug-austin-film-festival/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/26/film-blog-group-hug-austin-film-festival/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/26/film-blog-group-hug-austin-film-festival/#commentsFiled under: ,

This week's Austin Film Festival might not be quite as big as that other film festival that takes place in Austin in the spring, but it's still possible to see films on an entirely different parallel track to someone else. In other words, I can think of a few people I know who are also attending the festival whom I haven't seen because they're watching different films than I am. After all, it's impossible to see everything. Check out some of these blog entries from other AFF attendees who watched Death of a President while I was at Rescue Dawn, or who attended more conference sessions that I could manage.
  • AFF itself has a blog that includes some interesting interviews with filmmakers whose movies screened at the festival this year. Highlights include Dale Kutzera, who directed the feature Military Intelligence and You, and Daniel O'Connor, who directed Run Robot Run.
  • Austinist has been covering AFF continually, and was the best place to find the latest info about awards and special screenings -- I believe the site is actually one of the festival sponsors. There's a good interview with Brian Helgeland, who screened a director's cut of Payback at AFF. I also liked Austinist's cool photos from the opening-night party.

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]]>AustinCinematicalfilmmovieweblogJette KernionThu, 26 Oct 2006 16:32:00 ESTAFF Review: Pirate Radio USAhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/24/aff-review-pirate-radio-usa/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/24/aff-review-pirate-radio-usa/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/24/aff-review-pirate-radio-usa/#commentsFiled under: , ,



The documentary Pirate Radio USA is an enjoyable if somewhat strident look at the world of pirate radio, in which do-it-yourself radio afficianados build their own (illegal) mini-stations and broadcast at ultra-low frequencies (called microcasting). The film strives to use pirate radio's legal difficulties to paint a larger picture about the disintegration of American rights and the influence of mainstream media and large corporations.

Pirate Radio USA is an unabashadly personal and partisan film --the filmmakers aren't afraid to appear on-camera to tell you what they think. Director and longtime radio pirate Jeff Pearson periodically narrates the film with help from Mary Jones on a stylized set that is actually a working pirate radio station, in their on-air personas of DJ Him and DJ Her. (The station set does not get raided by the FCC, which is fortunate but would have made the film even more interesting.) Pearson is engaging and amusing even when he gets a bit ranty about the FCC. He's got that Morgan Spurlock-style narration down pat.

The budget of Pirate Radio USA must not have been much bigger than that of one of the radio communities it profiles -- for example, cities are portrayed by crude yet cute plastic models. The Seattle model involves a big Starbucks coffee mug, of course. The models fit in nicely with the overall retro look and feel of the movie -- the filmmakers often use older stock footage in the public domain to illustrate their points, especially when discussing the history of low-frequency radio. (At Austin Film Festival, the documentary screened in the tiny theater at The Hideout, an independently owned coffeeshop, which provided the perfect setting.)

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]]>CinematicalFCCfilmJeff PearsonmovieradioJette KernionTue, 24 Oct 2006 18:00:00 ESTAFF Review: Catch and Releasehttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/23/aff-review-catch-and-release/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/23/aff-review-catch-and-release/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/23/aff-review-catch-and-release/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,



The opening scene of Catch and Release is a funeral reception ... on what was supposed to be a wedding day. A tragic accident befell the groom during his bachelor-party weekend. We see the florist accidentally bringing wedding bouquets instead of funeral flowers, a multi-tiered cake stashed in a refrigerator, and a very sad young woman in black instead of white. She escapes to a bathroom and hides in the tub to cry, but suddenly is interrupted by a laughing couple who ducks into the bathroom for a quickie. The combination of touching drama and absurd comedy is excellent and promises a good quirky movie, full of dysfunction, dark humor and the unexpected.

Unfortunately, Catch and Release doesn't fulfill the potential of that well-balanced opening, and ultimately turns into a typical contemporary romantic comedy, with the stress on the romantic. It's still an interesting movie to watch, but the cliches can be a little grating at times, and even as a romantic comedy it never reaches the level of, say, The Truth about Cats and Dogs.

The film is set in Boulder, which provides a charming background that's a pleasant change of pace from LA/New York. After her fiance's funeral, Gray (Jennifer Garner) tries to return to as normal a life as possible. She moves in with her two male buddies, Sam (Kevin Smith) and Dennis (Sam Jaeger). Gray finds out that her fiance was secretly a millionaire, and that every month he sent money to some unknown person. Grady's California friend Fritz (Timothy Olyphant) sticks around to help Gray deal with these revelations, and maybe because he likes her, too. Is he becoming another friend, or something more?

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]]>CinematicalfilmJennifer GarnerJuliette LewismovieSusannah GrantTimothy OlyphantJette KernionMon, 23 Oct 2006 15:32:00 ESTKevin Smith and Other Austin Film Festival Newshttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/11/kevin-smith-and-other-austin-film-festival-news/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/11/kevin-smith-and-other-austin-film-festival-news/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/10/11/kevin-smith-and-other-austin-film-festival-news/#commentsFiled under: ,

Catch and ReleaseIt seems like I'm getting news every day now about new speakers and panelists added to Austin Film Festival. The festival includes a conference geared towards screenwriting and filmmaking, which runs from Oct. 19-22, and a lineup of films running through Oct. 26. I've been volunteering for and/or attending the festival since 1996, when it was still called the Austin Heart of Film Festival. At the time, the films seemed like more than an afterthought -- everyone was there for the screenwriting conference, and the feature films were something to do when you got tired of hanging out at the Driskill bar with other writers. Over the years, however, the film festival has become bigger and stronger, and has added documentaries to its schedule. You can catch a studio film before it's released in theaters, or watch low-budget indie films that haven't yet found distribution.

This year's AFF screenings include the opening-night gala showing of The TV Set, with writer-director Jake Kasdan in attendance; Werner Herzog's latest film, Rescue Dawn (no, he's not going to be there); The Night of the White Pants, shot in Texas, with co-stars Nick Stahl and Janine Turner at the screening; The Amateurs, which stars Jeff Bridges as a wanna-be porn director; and Catch and Release (pictured above), a feature starring Jennifer Garner and Juliette Lewis. Cult movie fans will be happy to hear that actor Danny Trejo is scheduled to show up at a screening of Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror.

I did mention Kevin Smith, didn't I? Smith was in town earlier this year for a local Clerks II premiere, but he's returning to Austin not just to enjoy the cooler weather, but to promote Catch and Release, in which he has an acting role. He'll also participate in one of the conference panels, but the specifics have not yet been announced. The festival is presenting awards to several notable screenwriters and directors who will also be at the conference: Shane Black, Sydney Pollack, and David Milch. The AFF Blog has the latest details on scheduled panelists and special guests. I'll be covering the film festival for Cinematical, so if you're not in Austin in a couple of weeks, you can live vicariously through me. And no, I'm not going to spend the whole week at the Driskill bar.

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]]>AustinCinematicalfilmmovieJette KernionWed, 11 Oct 2006 14:06:00 ESTNews from Slackerwood: Let the Fall Fests Beginhttp://www.cinematical.com/2006/09/08/news-from-slackerwood-let-the-fall-fests-begin/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/09/08/news-from-slackerwood-let-the-fall-fests-begin/http://www.cinematical.com/2006/09/08/news-from-slackerwood-let-the-fall-fests-begin/#commentsFiled under: , , , , ,

Calvaire (The Ordeal)

In other parts of the world, people are gearing up for Toronto's big clambake, or those film festivals in Rome and Venice. Here in Austin, the fall film schedules are slowly being released and we couldn't be more excited. We don't even have to leave town! The next couple of months will bring a variety of festivals to central Texas:
  • Cinematexas, the renowned short film festival, runs from Sept. 20-24. This year's schedule hasn't yet been posted online.
  • Fantastic Fest runs from Sept. 21-28 and the full schedule went public this week.
  • Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (aGLIFF) runs from Sept. 28-Oct. 8 and the schedule went live this week. If you want more details, you can attend the free aGLIFF Launch Party on Sunday at noon at Cafe Caffeine. The festival is also looking for volunteers.
  • The first Austin Polish Film Festival will run over four Thursdays in October. The festival's theme is "50 Years of Polish Films from the Lodz School."
  • Austin Film Festival runs Oct. 19-26. A schedule of films isn't available yet, but you can view a list of panelists who tentatively are set to attend the screenwriting conference. Sydney Pollack, Shane Black, and David Milch will receive awards this year during the festival.

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]]>AustinCinematicalfilmJoseph LoseymoviePaul WilliamsJette KernionFri, 08 Sep 2006 13:30:00 EST