Considering how much puffing is usually done to launch those "little movies that could," it's ironic that a documentary about blowing up balloons has made its way into the spotlight without an inflated media campaign. Sounds like the New York Times's Douglas Quenqua has noticed Sara Taksler and Naomi Greenfield's documentary about balloon twisting during its nationwide tour. After debuting at 2007's SXSW (Cinematical's Scott Weinberg notes the opening of Twisted: A Balloonamentary here), the film now has a solid run going at St. Louis's Landmark Tivoli theater.

Deer Park, Texas' Ralph Dewey, who uses balloon twisting as part of his gospel ministry, told the Times he isn't going to see the documentary on the grounds that there's too much uncleanliness in it. Unfortunately, some artistes twist the poor innocent balloon into hard-R and even unrated shapes, as you've probably seen at bachelorette parties and on cruise ships. The conflict between "gospel twisters" and "adult twisters" is unflinchingly depicted here, in accordance with the rule that every successful doc needs heroes, villains and conflicts. ("Michelle" seen above, supposedly paid for her house with the unholy art of adult balloon twisting.) Taksler, now a producer for The Daily Show, raised the money for the film by auctioning off the executive producer credit on eBay. And Jon Stewart himself hosts an animated sequence of the film. Twisted: A Balloonamentary opens in June in NYC.

If you thought leading a revolution was easy, try filming one. In The Huffington Post, Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere discusses Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevara biopic, comprised of The Argentine and Guerilla. Despite earlier rumors to the contrary, it appears that both movies will definitely screen next month at the Cannes Film Festival, where Soderbergh was warmly welcomed last year for the premiere of Ocean's Thirteen. The reception of his latest project could be even more positive, but its distribution prospects are another story: As Wells explains, Soderbergh's project guarantees to offend some people for its apparent exclusion of Che's stint as the overlord at La Cabana fortress, where he ordered the execution of over 600 political prisoners. Add to that the heavy amount of Spanish dialog and the director's insistence that the two movies should be enjoyed as a four hour-plus package, and you've got enough red flags to send even the bravest U.S. distributors packing.

Wells, who read both scripts, analogizes the project to Lawrence of Arabia. "Hey, how about presenting the two films as a single, gargantuan Lawrence of Arabia-styled deal with an intermission, running between four or four and a half hours?" he suggests, perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

Jon Stewart had it right during the Oscars this year when he ironically geeked out over Lawrence of Arabia on an iPod. If most audiences can't appreciate that movie on the big screen now, why would they turn up for something like this?

The other day, Erik asked you for your ideas on new Oscar categories to shake things up a bit. I don't think it's Jon Stewart's fault the Oscar's tanked, but will he be asked back next year? I'm betting not, but who knows? Meanwhile, Cinematical's Chris Campbell, who also writes for Spoutblog.com with former Cine EIC Karina Longworth, has some excellent ideas for ways to boost the Oscar ratings.

My favorite among his suggestions is the Gary Busey Red Carpet. Hell yeah! Get rid of Regis, who's about as boring as watching bread get moldy, and bring on the Busey action. He can show up drunk with his fly open, and attack all the talent as they make their walk up the red carpet. It'll be almost like adding a sporting event to the Oscars -- duck and run from Gary Busey before he attacks your neck!

Poor Jennifer Garner would probably have to bring an entourage of everyone who's f*cking her husband, Ben Affleck, to be her body shield against further Busey attacks. For added fun, Busey can bring along his son Jake, who can also get drunk and talk loudly to everyone within ear range about how he's Gary Busey's son. The two of them could become a regular Oscar team like Melissa and Joan Rivers ... only drunker and with less cleavage and plastic surgery.

For more of Chris's ideas, including what Diablo Cody should have really done on that stage, go read the full piece.

Once again, the lovely Jon Stewart is hosting the Oscars -- a gig that may be worthy of your time not for the awards, but rather to see what they made of the whole thing last minute. Will the rush help the Oscars improve? Will they completely suck? Who knows?!

But it would all be better with weed, according to Jon. As I see it, we need to balance out all of Stewart's political comedy and fancy shmancy hosting with some old-school stoner comedy. In Half Baked, he played the "Enhancement Smoker" -- the dude who thinks Mary Jane actually makes everything better. Stars are better. Scent of a Woman is better. The back of a $20 is better (or was ... I wondered what he'd see in it now). So, it goes to assume that the Oscars would be better ... on weed.

Maybe that's the secret to a good Academy show?

Over at MTV-land, Josh Horowitz has a rather clever short up in which he inserts himself into the nominees for the Best Picture Oscar. Horowitz gets verbally abused by Keira Knightley, finds out he got Juno pregnant, uses his hamburger phone to call Javier Bardem's serial killer to take care of his "little problem," has a chat by the fire with Daniel Plainview, and gets yelled at by George Clooney. The editing isn't seamless, but it looks quite good, and Horowitz, when he's not being annoying, can be funny.

It's pretty darn amusing (or at least, it was to me, but I've only had one cup of coffee this morning, so it's possible I'm just not awake yet), and just the kind of thing Jon Stewart might do for the Oscars. I wonder if Stewart had something similar planned, saw this online and said, "Damn that Horowitz! He stole our idea!"

What do you think about the video? Funny, or not?
[Hat tip: Hollywood Elsewhere]

There's a piece up over on the New York Times about Jon Stewart prepping for the Oscars in only eight days, instead of the couple months he thought he'd have before that pesky writers' strike happened. While on the one hand I was kind of holding out for the strike to last past the Oscars, if only to spare myself having to liveblog the event, on the other hand I do like Stewart very much, and of anyone who could be hosting the Oscars this year, I think he's the most likely to make them at least moderately entertaining. Okay, I'll settle for "not painful to watch."

Stewart last hosted the Oscars two years ago (last year's event, you may recall, was hosted by Ellen DeGeneres), and for that event he was invited in December, and had just under two months to prep. This time Stewart and his Daily Show writers have just eight days to write their material, and for the most part, the nominated films don't really seem to lend themselves to a lot of light-hearted humor, so it will be interesting to see what they come up with on short notice.

Are you looking forward to seeing Stewart back on as host? Would you rather they'd picked someone different -- DeGeneres again? Robin Williams? Billy Crystal? Obama? (Just kidding on that one ... well, kinda.) It's your sandbox -- discuss away!

[via Movie City News]

People has officially named Matt Damon 2007's Sexiest Man Alive -- and a whole bevy of hot guys as sexy runners-up (is that kind of like being part of the Homecoming Queen's Court?), and we've taken some time to ponder their selection. Not that we have any objection to Damon -- he's certainly deserving of the honor, after rocking the Bourne flicks as the mysterious and oh-so-sexy Jason Bourne, but with so many choices out there, it's so hard to choose just one as "Sexiest." What does that mean, anyhow, to be the "sexiest?" Sexy is so subjective, it's really impossible to say conclusively that this particular guy is truly THE sexiest man alive, isn't it? That's why we threw together this gallery for you, dear readers, of some of our picks for our own Sexy Man list.

Browse our selections, then chime in on our poll to tell us who you think is the sexiest man out there ...

pun·dit
Pronunciation: 'p&n-d&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi pandit, from Sanskrit pandita, from pandita learned
1 : PANDIT
2 : a learned man : TEACHER
3 : a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media : CRITIC
- pun·dit·ry /-d&-trE/ noun

Quick, name the most powerful American pundits you can think of. Bill Maher? Bill O'Reilly? Jon Stewart? According to an article on Forbes, who analyzed data from E-Poll, the most powerful pundit in America is film critic Roger Ebert, who's been reviewing movies for 32 years. Ebert scored top marks for being "intelligent, experienced and articulate," he appealed to 70% of those polled, and he's recognized by well over half the population. Also making the top ten was another critic, Entertainment Tonight's Leonard Maltin, ranked seventh on the list, thanks in part to his Movie and Video Guide. Maltin ranked pretty close to Ebert in terms of appeal (67 out of 100), with an "awareness" level of 24.7%.

Who else made the top ten? You'll find Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly there, but not Howard Stern or Jon Stewart -- Forbes decided that Stern and Stewart, although they offer opinions, serve the primary purpose of entertaining. Forbes also finds it "troubling" how many young adults get their news from Stewart's The Daily Show (what, but Fox counts as "news" in their book? Please.) Just because it's entertaining doesn't mean it's not informative, Forbes -- Stewart's merciless cutting through the crap and political spin is what draws so many of the younger demographic to trust him over mainstream news media. You will find Fox's Greta Von Susteren on the Forbes list, along with Rosie O'Donnell and Geraldo Rivera (!). Check out the full top ten in pictures or read the full story here.

It's pretty darn impressive for two guys who write and talk about movies to hold two slots on the Top Ten Pundits list, especially at a time when critics are getting canned and consolidated by places like The Village Voice, and the field of film criticism is constantly questioned as to its relevance. The proliferation of individual bloggers writing their thoughts on movies may make it harder for readers to suss out whose opinions to listen to, but at least Ebert and Maltin are still up there. It's interesting to note as well that both Ebert and Maltin are on television; I wonder how print and online critics would rate overall in a poll strictly about the movie biz. Would we see print and online personalities like David Poland, Anne Thompson, Nikki Finke, Mahnola Dargis, and indieWIRE editor Eugune Hernandez on such a list? Who are your favorite film pundits?

I'm probably not alone in this, but until today I had never heard of the British music legend Joe Meek -- but I guess that's what Wikipedia is for. Dark Horizons is reporting that the former lead singer of The Darkness, Justin Hawkins, and ex-Libertine guitarist, Carl Barat, have signed on for roles in a biopic about "the flamboyantly gay, tone deaf, songwriter-producer". I wish they could call it that, but they're going with Telstar instead. So be it. Meek was an independent producer and songwriter who was credited with being one of the pioneers of modern music. Notable for being truly independent, he worked out of his home and crafted a string of hits in the '60s. Like many other icons of the '60s, Meek's life came to a tragic end when he murdered his landlady before taking his own life in 1967.

Nick Moran of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels fame will make his directorial debut with the film; he also wrote the 2005 stage play called Telstar (named after one of Meek's big hits) which serves as the basis for the film, including the title. Back in July, Patrick had reported that Kevin Spacey had already signed on for a role as Major Banks, one of Meek's financial supporters. Some of the other cast listed on the flick's IMDB page are a little stranger; mainly the inclusion of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart in the part of 'Dennis'. There is no word on who Hawkins or Barat will play, but it definitely won't be the lead, since British actor Con O'Neill is reprising his role from the stage as Meek. Telstar is currently in post-production and is set for release sometime in 2008.

*Correction: Image removed due to copyright issues

According to a story in The New York Times (who, surprisingly enough, have appeared to scoop the scoopers, and their scoopers), The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce today that Jon Stewart will be invited back to host the Oscars this year. The event, which is scheduled to air on ABC this coming February 24, will mark Stewart's second time hosting; he last took the reigns reins back in 2006. Although this is The New York Times, I do have to throw out the requisite "rumor" warning since they claim their sources are "two people involved with the plan who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to talk to the news media." And I imagine those two people would suffer a major beatdown if someone were to find out who they were. It was you Colbert! Wasn't it! Damn you! Damn you I say!

So now we have to raise the obvious question: Should Stewart be back? Last time out the man was fairly well received, but not according to the numbers. Last year, Ellen DeGeneres helped score the show 39.9 million viewers, whereas Stewart took in only 38.9 million. Compared to Chris Rock's 42.1 million in 2005 and Billy Crystal's whopping 55 million in 1998 (when Titanic was pretty much guaranteed to win everything -- and it did!), Stewart doesn't seem like the obvious choice ... on paper. But he's a likable enough guy, his jokes and mannerisms are usually pretty funny, and he's tame. He'll most likely be asked, once again, to hold back on all the political humor -- everything will be fine and dandy -- and we'll live-blog the whole thing. Sweet. Now all Hollywood needs is a big fall, because nothing looks appetizing from a viewer's standpoint thus far. And Stewart had Brokeback Mountain (as well as all the jokes that went along with it) back in 2006; will anything even come close this year. I doubt it. What do you think?