"Well, you tried it just for once, found it all right for kicks.
But now you found out that it's a habit that sticks,
and you're an orgasm addict." – The Buzzcocks

The new movie Choke, adapted from the Chuck Palahniuk novel, is about a sex addict (Sam Rockwell) who, in one element of the plot, hooks up with other sex addicts who attend the same Sex Addicts Anonymous meetings as him. Ah, the irony. The same thing happened to Sam Malone on Cheers, if I'm not mistaken, which makes the joke around 20 years old. Yet, despite that fact, sexual addiction as a term and a (non-DSM-recognized) medical problem seem fairly new to cinema.

Sure, there have been sex addicts in films for many decades, but they were more likely to be described as nymphomaniacs, lechers or typical men. Think of Dorothy Malone in Written on the Wind, a number of the female characters created by Tennessee Williams and certainly the locked up nymphos in Shock Corridor. In the past few years, however, there have been a slew of actual "sexaholics," both male and female, though some aren't exactly referred to in such a manner.

Just three wide releases this weekend: A deep-south drama about an angry man and his unhappy captive, a nose-pickin' comedy about morons on motorcycles, and a lengthy crime flick about a true-life serial killer.

Black Snake Moan -- 63 positive / 38 negative at RottenTomatoes.com

Pro: "In fact, I pretty much enjoyed the whole movie, with some incredulity and a few half-snorts." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

Con: "It's an exploitation film fraught with faux-sincerity, and ultimately it's utterly ridiculous." -- Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times

Pro: "If you stick with it, you'll see that its excesses are earned and that this is a heartfelt, thoughtful piece." -- Kevin Laforest, Montreal Film Journal

Con: "Its consciously far-fetched, out-there notions of the things damaged people do in the name of love are reductive and go only so far." -- Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune

Bonus! "The film succeeds because underneath all the symbolism and the outrageous window dressing, we can glimpse real people in the characters." -- Jette Kernion, Cinematical

Wild Hogs -- 12 positive / 68 negative at RT.com

Pro: "These "Mild" Hogs get by on being good-natured, and willing to trade a little star power for the chance to ride and get paid for it." -- Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

Con: "The movie never rises to the level of the professional, much less the comic." -- Stephen Hunter, Washington Post

Pro: "Plays as a pleasingly broad diversion, provided one's level of anticipation is properly adjusted downward." -- Brent Simon, FilmStew.com

Con: "It does absolutely nothing, save for what you know it will do, and it does this with only an absolute bare minimum of exertion, with absolutely no exceptions." -- Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

Bonus! "You can't help but wonder whether folks like Macy, Liotta and Travolta lost a bet." -- Erik Davis, Cinematical

Slate's Dana Stevens has come out with an intriguing review of Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan, attacking the writer/director for setting up his main characters as moral paragons even though they dole out serious abuse to women. Stevens puzzles over Brewer's moral blind spots: how can he let misogynist violence slide, while wrestling with topics like redemption, guilt and self-worth? For those who haven't seen Black Snake Moan, it's the story of a young, white town slut who is raped and left for dead by the side of the road. An aging black loner finds her, takes her home, and promptly ropes her up with a big, clanking chain, which won't be removed until she's 'cured' of her wicked ways.

"What bullshit," is how Stevens starts the critique. "Can we just start with something very basic here? Chaining someone to your radiator is wrong. Depriving a near-naked and recently assaulted stranger of the most basic physical liberty for days on end is a sick, perverse and cruel thing to do." She also takes note of the movie's oddest motif -- the fact that Ricci's character is prone to falling-on-the-ground nymphomania fits, symptoms of which are "writhing in panties and scratching at one's thighs."

Stevens goes on to recount how much she hated Hustle & Flow, a film in which the aspiring-rapper hero throws a prostitute and her baby out on the street as punishment for back-talk. "I couldn't have given a shit whether he achieved rap fame or not," she says. Cinematical recently interviewed Brewer, and he seemed carefully prepared to dodge the film's controversial elements. When asked about the nymphomania-fit scenes, he would talk about panic attacks. When asked about the film's black-white tension, he claimed it wasn't a subject that interested him, before opening up a bit. Check out our two reviews of the film here and here.

Things are heating up on the movie front, and not soon enough. We've got a brand-new Fincher movie and more animals than you can shake a stick at. Whatever that means.

Zodiac: Fincher's back. Did you hear me? Fincher's back -- go! Run, to the theaters, now! Who knows when it might happen again? I'm kidding, of course. But the fact that the director of Seven and Fight Club has lately been taking so long between movies (his last was Panic Room, in 2002) means the arrival of Zodiac is almost something of an Event.

I'm happy to say that the film -- in which Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo are all characters trying to track down the 1960s San Francisco serial killer who calls himself Zodiac -- does not disappoint. It's a smart, intense thriller, brilliantly acted, and far more psychologically disturbing than violent (though there are a couple of early scenes that are not for the squeamish). The only drawback is that at slightly over 2 1/2 hours, it's kind of long; and given the subject matter, the R rating, and Fincher's reputation for violence, it's not as broadly marketable a film as, say, a movie starring John Travolta and Tim Allen ...
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After his breakout film, Hustle & Flow, snagged the coveted Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Craig Brewer probably saw more doors swing open for him than most filmmakers will see in a lifetime, but walking through them hasn't meant leaving his beloved state of Tennessee behind. Like Hustle & Flow, the director's follow-up project, Black Snake Moan, is a Tennessee tale about poverty, neglect and a longing for connection that goes beyond geography, age, or race. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lazarus, a poor, aging man who has no solid relationships in his life but does have some life experience and blues-based wisdom to impart, to anyone who will listen. When fate dumps Rae (Christina Ricci), the town hussy, outside of his run-down home on the outskirts of town one night, Lazarus takes it as a sign that he's been tapped on the shoulder to make a difference in someone else's life, and he decides to do just that -- one way or the other.

Cinematical recently spoke with Brewer, in Manhattan to promote the film. We talked about casting and guiding the actors through these difficult roles, about the racial divide that the characters must bridge in order to find common ground with each other, and about avoiding the pressures of a sophomore project that so many are anticipating. There are a few big spoilers lurking somewhere in this interview, so if you'd prefer to go into the film tabula rasa, you've been warned.

How did you direct Ricci through the scenes where she's sort of having a fit, going through 'heat,' writhing around on the ground and oblivious to the world?

CB: The interesting thing about the way Ricci works -- and this is a challenge, but it was a challenge that I ultimately benefited from -- is that we did some rehearsal, but she didn't really want to go full-tilt because she really gives you one-hundred percent of herself between action and cut. She doesn't like any of that to leak away. She gets into a zone that is....honest. She's not 'faking' tears. She gets in pain and she cries. So I said to her, I go 'listen, I don't know what this 'fit' is going to be, but I know it needs to be something. So we talked about my anxiety attacks that I've experienced, and we basically decided that we would break it down into three Def-Cons. There was a Def-Con 1, Def-Con 2 and Def-Con 3.

The first one I knew would be just kind of like a tick that she came up with, which is just kind of like, rubbing her leg with her palm, like the top of her thigh, hard, as if she's really nervous about something. After that, she would just show me. So I said 'let's not even do a rehearsal, let's just roll' and we rolled it and I was like 'let's stay in the zone and let's do it again,' and we would do another set-up. Really, I was just as surprised as the audience to see what she was doing. Boy, was it incredible. It wasn't just sighing and moaning in sexual ecstasy, she really looked like she was in the grip of something that had her, and that she was even experiencing some pain and anguish with it.

It happens every year: films go to Sundance, play to packed crowds, win Jury prizes and/or score big deals ... and then essentially disappear. It happened in 2005, when Ira Sachs' Forty Shades of Blue took home the Dramatic Grand Jury prize, only to open nine months later on just three screens and eventually gross barely $75,000 in its 84 day release. It happened again last year, when The Darwin Awards and Right at Your Door landed multi-million dollar deals with major distributors, only to be shelved indefinitely. I guess if you're an acquisitions exec, it's easy to get carried away up there on the mountain, but sometimes the same picture that thrilled a packed crowd at the Racquet Club looks downright unmarketable back at the office in L.A. So, with the caveat that I have neither a crystal ball nor any sort of reliable inside information, here are my picks for five Sundance '07 films that will actually see a meaningful release sometime before Sundance '08.


1) The Ten (Cinematical review)


Stu Van Airsdale thinks Manohla Dargis was talking about this film in the NY Times, when she described a distributor who sat through a "bad comedy that features a clutch of low-level film and television actors" whilst fantasizing about "all those recognizable [actor] names once they are printed on a DVD box." I'm actually convinced Ms. Dargis was referencing Gregg Araki's Smiley Face, a stoner comedy starring Anna Faris and half the cast of That 70's Show, which was apparently so awful that even die-hard Araki fans couldn't sit through it. I think if Dargis had attended a public screening of The Ten -- or if she had even caught a glimpse of the hundreds of high school and college kids lining up for the wait list as long as eight hours in advance of the picture's second-to-last show -- she would have a hard time condemning a distributor for trying to cash in on it.

The movie, which was written and directed by David Wain of Wet Hot American Summer fame, consists of ten short segments, one representing each of the ten commandments, strung together by some filler involving Paul Rudd not being able to decide if he'd rather screw Jessica Alba, Famke Janssen or (this is not a typo) Dianne Wiest. It may be less engaging than a 90-minute stint watching old clips of The State on YouTube, but it's got huge college-campus potential, where boys and girls have been known to consume comedy without bothering to consult the second film critic for the New York Times to see if she approves. With savvy marketing, and maybe a few structural tweaks, this could be the sleeper comedy hit of the summer.

The 2007 Sundance Film Festival is a wrap. I saw some outstanding movies (King of California, Grace Is Gone, Son of Rambow, The Nines) and some not-so-outstanding movies (The Go-Getter, Smiley Face), some A-list celebs (Justin Timberlake, Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci) and some not-so-A-list celebs (Heavyset Girl #1 from Black Snake Moan). All in all, it was a great experience, full of flicks, fun and plenty of Bud Lights. In order to best summarize the things I saw, heard and learned at the festival, I now present Sundance by the Numbers.

1: Number of times I heard Justin Timberlake ask Samuel L. Jackson, "Are there any motherf#&!in snakes in Black Snake Moan?"

1: Number of times I heard Samuel L. Jackson reply "Only trouser snakes."

1: Number of movies about a girl who grows an actual set of teeth in her vagina. The twisted and, yes, crowd-pleasing flick is quite appropriately entitled Teeth, and those dangerous vajay-jay chompers belong to rising star Jess Weixler (Little Manhattan).

1: Number of people who laid down on the floor and went to sleep during the press screening of Heather Graham's Adrift in Manhattan.

1: Number of dudes dancing shirtless at the Sundance Awards after-party.

2: Number of movies in which a character goes off to war in Iraq and gives a loved one a digital wristwatch with an alarm set to beep at the same time as the alarm on his/her wristwatch -- that way they'll know they're thinking about each other at the exact same moment. Justin Timberlake gives one to Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan, and John Cusack's unseen wife gives one to their daughter in Grace Is Gone.

2: Number of movies starring a Fanning -- Dakota headlines the controversial Hounddog and younger sis Elle plays a supporting role in The Nines.

3: Number of times Christina Ricci takes her top off in Black Snake Moan.

4: Number of times Ryan Reynolds takes his shirt off in the first 20 minutes of The Nines.

4: Millions of dollars paid by Harvey Weinstein for distribution rights to Audience Award and Screenwriting Award winner Grace Is Gone.

5: Number of attempts it takes drunken teenager Hal Hefner (Reece Thompson) to throw a cello through the window of the girl who jilted him in the Thumbsucker-esque Rocket Science.

The following Cinematical educational message was brought to you by People Against Spending $385 to See a Keri Russell Film.

If you're having a hard time getting tickets to some of the films playing this year's Sundance Film Festival, then might I suggest heading over to eBay where folks are -- gasp -- scalping them for absurd amounts of money. Want two tickets to the premiere of Black Snake Moan and a film guide? No problem, just fork over $345 ... or you can wait until February 23 and see the film for ten bucks at your local cinema. And if you have a problem with this atrocity, feel free to blame the certain residents of Utah, as they're the ones attempting to turn a profit.

See, each year a select amount of Sundance tickets are given out to local folks prior to them going on sale to the general public. But if Don Dimwit from Ogden isn't too keen on traveling to a screening of Waitress, then he's ignoring Sundance's ticket rules (which state that tickets cannot be resold online) and heading to the land of eBay -- cleverly dancing around the rules by offering the tickets for free, along with a very expensive "film guide." Oh, and festival organizers are pissed. So, in retaliation, they're warning all those who buy tickets on eBay that they can remotely deactivate those tickets, leaving you with nothing but a film guide and an empty bank account. Don Dimwit, however, will be treating his entire family to a dinner at Denny's ... on your dime.

I've been told more than once that I have a passion for the bizarre. The subject usually comes up when someone asks about the life-size statue of Anson Williams in my living room, or why my rottweiler is wearing a French maid costume (it's only when he's vacuuming). Donnie Darko and the films of David Lynch are great for many reasons, but I love the fact that they're so unabashedly weird. They wear their weirdness like a red badge of -- well, weirdness. None of the trailers in today's Trailer Park are quite that odd, but each has a quality that puts it about half a bubble off center.

Reno 911: Miami
I know what you're thinking. What's so weird about Reno 911? Isn't that the Cops parody show from Comedy Central? True enough, but if you've ever seen Thomas Lennon as Lieutenant Jim Dangle wearing those horrifically tiny shorts, you wouldn't be asking "what's weird about this one?" If you like the series -- and I think it can be hilarious at times -- I imagine you'll like the film as well. The incompetent members of the Reno Nevada Sheriff's department are invited to a police convention in Miami Beach. When a biological threat quarantines the entire Miami Beach Police Department, our heroes (such as they are) are pressed into service. Amping up the weird quotient is the fact that there's an option to view the trailer with audio commentary from the cast, speaking in character. Martha Fischer first mentioned this film here on Cinematical about a year ago. The film opens February 23.

Kaw
I suppose it speaks well of Alfred Hitchcock's talent that his films are still being ripped off so long after his death. Sean Patrick Flannery of Boondock Saints fame plays a small town sheriff with only one day left on the job when his town comes under attack by a conspiracy of ravens (not to be confused, mind you, with a murder of crows). Much pecking and gouging ensue. Seagulls they ain't, but this still plays a lot like The Birds. Strictly B-movie fair, the trailer has a dark creepy look to it, and I suspect this will go straight to DVD.

I'm not sure how I feel about Black Snake Moan. I'm not sure how I feel about the new Black Snake Moan trailer. And, I'm definitely not so sure how I feel about a plot that revolves around an old black man who chains a malnourished, beaten-up, sex-crazed white girl to his (furniture? floor? door?) in an attempt to ... save her, I think (and hope). However, I am sure how I feel about writer-director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) -- the man has one heck of a creative eye, not to mention he's arguably one of the most talented up-and-coming filmmakers out there right now.

When we first brought you news of the new Black Snake Moan trailer, it was apparently a leaked version, and subsequently pulled. Now, it's back -- and on the official Black Snake Moan MySpace page -- along with a few other tasty treats like pics, screensavers and what appears to be some sort of quiz, appropriately titled "Are You A Nymph?" And if you thought Christina Ricci was often a bit nutty when it came to her role choices, well you have no idea what you're in store for with Black Snake Moan. The girl is out there. Sex, drugs, bruises, chains and Samuel Jackson dressed to look like the next star of Dateline's To Catch a Predator -- count me in, folks.

Early buzz indicates this will definitely be one to watch over the long, cold, festival-happy winter. I can't see the film being heavily marketed (especially during commercial breaks on Lifetime and Nick Jr.), so you're going to have to get your fix and make your decision based off what you see on sites like Cinematical ... and JoBlo, since they're the ones who pointed me toward the trailer. Thanks, dudes! Pic hits theaters on February 25.