There's no way around it: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson owes at least some of his fame to the way his dominating figure fits the blockbuster action stereotype with near-mechanical sleekness. However, he also offers an alternative to that reductive perspective. Looking sharp in a business suit and speaking with the relaxed professional discipline of a CEO, Johnson showed up at a screening of Get Smart on Sunday at the CineVegas Film Festival displaying sheer confidence. The screening took place at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino, where Johnson had recently acted in Race to Witch Mountain ("We just added to the chaos," he said), but on this visit, Johnson got a chance to remind people that he's not just a one-note performer, but someone who plays an active role in the international film community (not to mention the health community, since The Rock Foundation pushes obesity prevention).

Outside of his supremely meta performance in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, Johnson has made his interests in adventurous cinema increasingly clear, and boldly champions independent artists. You can get a small glimpse of this aspect of his personality in Operation Filmmaker, documentarian Nina Davenport's account of an Iraqi filmmaker named Muthana Mohmed whose aspirations tragically fall short of the expectations surrounding him. Landing the opportunity to work for Liev Schreiber on the set of Everything is Illuminated, the 25-year-old Mohmed grows increasingly frustrated with the boring tasks given to him, and continually blows opportunities as a result of his unbalanced work ethic.

I guess members of Arcade Fire like to keep an eye on their online reputation, because it took a total of eight days for the band to reduce a popular rumor to rubble. A little over a week ago, Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) had posted that, "a very famous band who is honoring us with being the first filmmakers they've ever scored a film with" had signed up to score his upcoming thriller, The Box. Before you knew it, Pitchfork had picked up the story and was reporting that Arcade Fire was that "famous band".

Cut to one week later and Arcade's co-founder, Win Butler, posted the following message on his blog (through the band's official site): "Arcade Fire is NOT doing the soundtrack to any film. We are all off for the summer, writing songs, reading books and keeping our plants alive" -- although he did concede that he might compose some original music for the film along with band mate Owen Pallet (Final Fantasy).

The Box takes place in 1976, where an unhappily married couple (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) receive a mysterious box from a stranger (Frank Langella). The box will reward the couple with a massive payday, but only on the condition that a complete stranger dies in return. Erik gave us the heads up on some production photos back in February, but so far there is no release date. Hopefully the 'stink' of Southland Tales has finally worn off, and Kelly will be able to secure an official date soon.

Despite all the awards attention it received, Joe Wright's Atonement still sounds too much like a lushly romantic period melodrama for my personal taste. Still, it's one of those movies you probably need to experience yourself before deciding if the praise was too lavish (Ryan Stewart thought it was a "stunning achievement") or the criticism too harsh. The DVD from Universal Studios includes deleted scenes, two "making of" features, and an audio commentary by the director.

From all that I've read, Southland Tales sounds like an astonishing train wreck. Nick Schager began his review for Cinematical by writing: "Let me present Exhibit A in the case against granting talented young filmmakers extensive creative autonomy." Given my perverse nature, that makes me want to see Richard Kelly's futuristic epic even more. The DVD from Sony Pictures includes a "featurette" and an animated short.

Steep presents thrilling footage of big mountain skiers who swoosh down incredibly steep slopes. As I noted in my review, though, I felt it raised more questions than it wanted to answer. The DVD from Sony Pictures includes an audio commentary by director Mark Obenhaus with some of the skiers, photo montages, and an additional interview with one of the sport's masters.

Though it was ignored during last fall's awards season, Mike Newell's Love in the Time of Cholera might be ripe for discovery. (On the other hand, Jeffrey M. Anderson really didn't like it.) Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt star in an adaptation of the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. The DVD from New Line includes an audio commentary by Newell, a "making of" feature, and deleted scenes.

Why are so many film critics rushing around in November as if it's the end of the year? Is Atonement truly worthy of the Oscar buzz? Will Brian De Palma's Redacted be heard over the roar of its own controversy? When did Southland Tales go south, exactly? Is there any 'there' there in I'm Not There? And if Beowulf's truly the future of movies, are we all doomed? Joining James for this edition of The Rocchi Review is Cinematical's Jeffery M. Anderson, whose work for Metro newspapers and the Las Vegas Weekly can be found at Combustible Celluloid. You can download the entire podcast right here -- and we hope you enjoy; those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Quick, tell me what's wrong with this image? I haven't read Maxim in awhile; usually I'll pick up a copy before traveling as it's something easy to read on the plane, but I haven't gone anywhere in a few months and, thus, haven't read any Maxim. I'm not sure if they've always picked their Woman of the Year wayyy ahead of time (like, in the wrong year), but that's neither here nor there. What's baffling to me is why on earth they would choose Sarah Michelle Gellar to represent woman in 2008. For what, exactly? And don't tell me it's because of that image -- heck, you can airbrush me for a few hours and turn out something that makes me look like Brad Pitt. Seriously though ... why her? Of all people, why Sarah Michelle Gellar? And I wonder if she only agreed to pose for sexy pics under the condition they'd give her some bogus prize like 2008 Woman of the Year.

When asked why she decided to grace the cover now, she replied: "I'm 30, and I'm promoting a bunch of different kinds of movies. I like to shake things up every once in a while. It's good to leave people wanting more, but I don't want to leave them waiting too long or they'll lose interest. Besides, how could I not do a Maxim shoot when I have a movie coming out in which I play a porn star?" That movie is Southland Tales, and as of now Gellar has only three roles lined up for 2008 -- two Korean horror remakes (ugh) and Alice. And she claims to be promoting a bunch of different movies? Like .... Southland Tales? Because that's the only movie you're in. (Oh wait, she's also in Suburban Girl, but that doesn't go straight to DVD until January.) Buffy is Back! Actually, technically, she's not back -- Gellar does not have plans to reprise the Buffy character in the near future. So that's a lie. Surely, if it's hotness you're going after, then Maxim could've easily found a better gal to call their 2008 Woman of the Year? I'm a little disappointed. You?

[via Daily Stab]

Besides giving Justin Long some work and making him the geek poster boy, Apple has been pretty good at making lots of people wish they lived in SoHo (as well as a few other choice areas across the US). Along with indieWIRE, they've been bringing filmmakers and stars into their stores for discussion and exclusive clips -- this includes the indie names behind Hannah Takes the Stairs, producers Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente who showed part of Redacted to New York fans, and even Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, and Natalie Portman popped by for Hotel Chevalier, the short prequel to The Darjeeling Limited.

Now things are getting a little more sci-fi, and indieWIRE reports that the next filmmaker on the list is none other than Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly, who will be on hand to show clips from Southland Tales and talk about the film. The event will take place on Friday, October 19, and run for just one hour -- 6:30-7:30 p.m. As per usual, the cost is free, and it is first come, first serve at Apple's SoHo store on Prince Street in New York City. It sounds like this will be a speedy run-through that won't allow for many, or any, questions, but if there's a filmmaker and film around that might benefit from some expository commentary, it's Kelly and Tales!

I want this week's trailer park to be a celebration of the strange, a bash of the bizarre. Once again, we are the weird, and where better to start than:

Weirdsville
You gotta love that title, and the tagline "the road to salvation is paved with burned out hippies," is pretty cool too. Dexter and Royce need to pay off their drug dealer and dispose of a body quick, but run into trouble when the abandoned drive-in theater they chose for a grave site is being used for a satanic ritual. We've got midgets in medieval armor, gnomes and talking mice too. Nice. I have high hopes for this one, and it goes into limited U.S. release on October 5.. Monika Bartyzel saw Weirdsville at the Toronto International Film Festival and you can read her review here.

Southland Tales
Future cult classic or the next Ishtar? Judging from the trailer it could go either way, but I'm dying to see this. I stumbled across Richard Kelly's previous film Donnie Darko when it hit DVD and absolutely loved it, and like many others I've been waiting for his followup project for some time. Cinematical's James Rocchi reviewed the film in May 2006 after it played at Cannes, but apparently the release version represents a very different cut of the film. Synopsizing Southland Tales is quite a challenge, especially since I've only seen this preview, but apparently Kelly is expanding upon his apocalyptic visions from Donnie Darko. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays an action film star and Sarah Michelle Gellar is his porn star girlfriend who has the best line in the trailer when she says "Scientists are saying that the future is going to be far more futuristic than they originally predicted." There appears to be some kind of paranoid conspiracy at work, and I'm getting flashbacks of Terry Gilliam's Brazil and the works of David Lynch.

Though I don't recall being slipped any drugs within the past hour {curiously looks at dog}, I sure did feel like I was on something while watching the newly-released trailer for Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (check out our exclusive poster premiere for this film here). If you're temped to blurt out a "What the ...?" go ahead and do so -- I know I was lost about 20 seconds in. There's obviously a lot going on in this film, which explains why the trailer makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but I sure hope that changes once we sit down and watch Kelly's vision unfold on screen. If not, I'll have to kill time trying to figure out all the different tats Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson sports throughout the film. Is that a two-headed monkey riding a tricycle on his forearm? No? Well can I draw one then?

It's taken quite some time for Southland Tales to hit theaters; the film first premiered at the Cannes Film Festival two -- count em' two -- years ago, where the flick did not receive a warm welcome. Since then, Kelly's been hard at work in the editing room, cutting and trimming Southland in the hopes folks will change their opinion of it given the amount of time that has passed and work that has gone into it. Is it better? Don't know, never saw it the first time -- but the trailer definitely has me intrigued. Everyone in the cast (including Johnson, Justin Timberlake, Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore and Sarah Michelle Gellar) seem to be playing characters outside their comfort zones, which is something I'm always attracted to. As far as story goes, it takes place in Los Angeles and, as they say throughout the trailer, "This is the way the world ends." The rest? Figure it out for yourself. Southland Tales arrives in theatres on November 9.

It's just about time to see if Richard Kelly's Southland Tales was made into anything worth seeing. As we all know by now, the Cannes crowd hated it when it was first screened, damage control claimed that it was unfinished, and Kelly then re-edited it into the version that will be released on November 9. Now the filmmaker is focusing on work beyond the Tales, and Variety is reporting that he has joined his producing partner Sean McKittrick and financier Ted Hamm to form his own production company -- Darko Entertainment. The company plans to back "modestly-budgeted, director-driven films."

The first film listed under the banner is Kelly's Tales, while the first movie to start production under Darko is a flick called Dirty Girl, which will be helmed by Abe Sylvia. After that is The Box -- Kelly's psychological thriller that stars Cameron Diaz. McKittrick says: "Our goal is to get behind filmmakers with unique voices and take advantage of the Darko brand to help independent films reach a much wider audience." This begs the question: will Kelly's future work not have the surprising, mood-changing edits, since they want to help unique voices? He got to where he is right now because of the huge edits on Donnie Darko, and I doubt the film would've been half as big if our first serving of Darko was the Director's Cut.

Cinematical takes great joy in bringing you the final poster for Richard Kelly's Southland Tales (click on the poster for a larger image) -- mainly because we've been anticipating this film's release for upwards of two years now. And so when the last poster goes public, it means we'll be sitting in a movie theater, watching Kelly's follow-up to the cult hit Donnie Darko, soon enough. And what a poster it is! You know they mean business when The Rock goes by his real name -- and only his real name -- Dwayne Johnson. Also starring in this eclectic cast are -- ready for this -- Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Curtis Armstrong, Cheri Oteri, Justin Timberlake, Jon Lovitz, Bai Ling, Kevin Smith, Miranda Richardson and John Larroquette, among others. If that line-up isn't worthy of your lousy 10 bucks, you have issues I don't want to go near.

Essentially, Southland Tales is an ensemble piece (that mixes sci-fi, comedy, music and drama, if you can believe it) which takes place in a 2008 where Los Angeles is on the verge of political and environmental disaster. Boxer (Johnson), an action star with amnesia, soon finds his life intertwine with the dysfunctional worlds of an adult film star (Gellar) and a cop (Scott) mixed up in a conspiracy. But from what I gather (and knowing Kelly's work), there's a whole lot more going on as well. I mean, just look at that poster -- it definitely gives us a peak peek inside the complexity of the film. Southland Tales will finally make its new and improved debut in theaters on November 9.