clerks Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Meghan Eckman's The Parking Lot Movie tells the story of the days in the lives of parking lot attendants in Charlottesville, Virginia. The entertaining documentary will be having its world premiere at this year's South By Southwest Film Festival. Cinematical caught up with Eckman and her Assistant Director/Co-Editor Christopher Hlad to offer you this preview of a film to look out for.

Cinematical:You have referred to the legendary status of the Corning Parking Lot in Charlottesville. Is it just because of its quaint existence within the community or have there been stories that set it apart from larger garages and operations?

ECKMAN: This parking lot has been referred to as a temporary autonomous zone, a liminal space – so there's a lot of lore and myth built up around it. But in reality, it truly is exceptional as far as parking lots go. There are so many stories regarding things that have happened there that I couldn't include in the documentary. It seems to be a space that attracts these outrageous situations – and I think it's in part due to the geographic location of the lot – it's located among bars within an affluent town – so you have a sort of class struggle at play as well as the bar college scene –both of which clash with the workspace of the parking lot Attendant. I can't tell you how many engaging stories had to be left "on the cutting room floor", and I can only hope to publish the interview transcripts down the road.

I'm sure everyone has heard about Kevin Smith's incident on Valentine's Day, when he was booted from a Southwest flight for being too fat for a single seat on the plane. There's been enough talk and complaint from him via Twitter, podcast and blog, so now it's time for him to do what writers do best by turning his misfortune into gold, through the magic of storytelling. That's right, he needs to make his next movie based on the ordeal. And he could title it...

Customers

The name is in reference to his breakthrough film Clerks. Just as Mike Judge recently jumped fence with a comedy for bosses (Extract) ten years after making a comedy for employees (Office Space), Smith should make a movie on the side of customers in response to his classic debut, which heroicized rude employees. Throughout his discussion of the Southwest incident, he has focused on how bad the airline's customer service has been. "Granted, I'm the guy who made Clerks," he admitted in his latest Smodcast, "but I was never that clerk."

In the time-honored tradition of last summer's Superhero Movie Tournament, Cinematical humbly presents its first ever Geek-Off, pitting the most endearingly nerdy characters of the silver screen against one another, armed with nothing but their wits and their pocket protectors.

As we mentioned yesterday, we've excluded the likes of Peter Parker because of his involvement with the above-mentioned superhero showdown, and after much discussion, we've decided to also leave out C-3PO on the grounds that he was programmed to be geeky as no other characters here have. Also, to prevent any sort of monopoly, we've only selected one character per movie -- the only pick this really seems to have any bearing on is Revenge of the Nerds, but your vote counts whether it's for the ensemble or just for that one character. (We honestly wouldn't know the difference.)

The first pairing out of sixteen characters is listed below, with more after the jump and even more coming over the weekend (so don't lose it if you don't see a fave -- there are sixteen more to come). Ready? Set... Vote!



Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Jurassic Park vs. Erwin "Whistler" Emory (David Strathairn), Sneakers

In the View Askew world, we've already got Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Clerks 2, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on Blu-ray. Now, finally, Kevin Smith has revealed that his two big classics are getting their turn. Over on Twitter, Smith announced that both Clerks and Chasing Amy are getting the high-def treatment this November.

Two films loved for their gritty visual feel, it's not surprising that it took this long for the pair to be released. But now that they are, the Blu-rays won't be without added perks. Each will have one hefty feature to lure fans to the Blu-Askew. Chasing Amy will contain a "look-back docu," while Clerks, which will be the same as Clerks X, will get Oh, What a Lovely Tea Party. That is, unless it's too big for a disc yet again!

Tea Party is Jennifer Schwalbach Smith's directorial debut, boasting three hours of behind-the-scenes shenanigans from the filming of Jay and SIlent Bob Strike Back. It's already been bumped twice due to its size -- once from Strike Back, and once from Clerks X -- but I imagine Blu-ray will have enough space for the doc.

Are these two extras enough to re-invest in the films, or will you be sticking to regular DVD?

Me, I'm just waiting for Mallrats.

After 22 hours of flying on planes, waiting on security lines and sitting in airport food courts, I've finally returned home from my two-week trip in Australia. (And get this -- not one politician came on to me in the airport bathroom! Drats!) Did you miss me? Did you even know I was gone? Do you even know who I am? Anyway, apart from bringing home some art and some severe jetlag, I also brought with me some cool Aussie slang. For example, I promised my Aussie friends I'd start using the word 'Brekki' in replace of 'Breakfast.' Instead of greeting someone with "Hey, how ya doing?," I've decided to start using the primary Aussie greeting (no, not G'day Mate) -- "How ya going, Mate?" Oh, and I've brought home a Koala to hang out with my dog. But don't worry, it's just a doll.

And is there a better time to return home than on Labor Day Weekend? It's been absolutely beautiful here in New York the past three days, and since my car is still in the shop, I've spent all of it inside, in bed and in front of the television. After all, two weeks running around on the other side of the world can kind of knock you out. Labor Day is a funny holiday because, while we're supposed to be taking a day off to celebrate all the hard work we've accomplished, all we think about all day is how summer has ended -- goodbye beach vacations; hello work and school. For a day off, you have to admit it's sort of depressing. But if you're looking for a good way to celebrate Labor Day by utilizing your home DVD player, there are plenty of work-related films to check out.

Since I spent most of my years in a cubicle, there's no other film like Office Space to show you the comedic side of corporate life. After doing a stint in the world of television production, I'm also quite found of both Network and Broadcast News. For sexy and seductive, go with Secretary. For some funny rise-to-the-top stuff, go with Working Girl, The Devil Wears Prada or (one of my personal favorites), The Hudsucker Proxy. Crazy teens doing crazy things in the workplace? Empire Records. Jaded twenty-somethings hating life? Clerks. No matter what you're in the mood for, there's definitely something for everyone. Which film will you be watching tonight?

My greatest cinematic weakness is the movie conversation. A great action scene or shocker can pull me in like anyone else, but it's the words that mesmerize. A good movie conversation tugs at those appealing strings of voyeurism. You watch the intimacy of words, but they, and the scene, are not directed at you. It's amazing how much can really be done with words. With the right dialogue, you don't need a gimmick for the audience. You can vicariously have fun with another's conversation, or you can watch a story play out within the span of hello to goodbye.

The following list is by no means comprehensive, but it hits on many of the big conversational accomplishments of the last 30 years. Each has its own way of relating information through words. Some are backed by the urgency of eyes, some are fueled by unnaturally delightful wordplay and some just allow the conversation to happen, wherever it travels to and whatever it says. These seven films have words that roll off the tongues of the actors, creating a cinematic verbal candy that ties into everything from the artsy fartsy to the fart jokes.

My Dinner with Andre

Long before Wallace Shawn was thinking of what was inconceivable, he headed this conversational 80's zeitgeist with Andre Gregory. It's an intellectual niche film, and not for every audience. That being said, there are innumerable subtleties that make it worthy of a first, second and third viewing. What I find most intriguing are the secondary bits that are tacked onto the words, and more importantly, the silence. Shawn is reluctant to go to dinner with Andre, which keeps him silent for a good chunk of the movie. Yet for every word and crazily interesting story that Andre relays, Shawn reacts. He says everything with minute reactions – an eye twitch here, a raised brow and chuckle there.

For better or worse, I have had some experience in the "ultra-low budget" filmmaking world. So, it has fallen to me to create this particular list of the seven best films of that class. Before I go on, let us first define what exactly qualifies a film as "ultra-low budget." If we were to follow the Screen Actors Guild definitions for these things, then "low budget" films have a budget of less that $2.5 million, all the way down to $625,000. Really, I don't think that's exactly right for our purposes here. We're really talking about "ultra-low budget" films -- not "low budget" -- so how do we define the category? Some might consider a film "ultra-low budget" if its made in Des Monies by a teenager and some friends with a video camera and a credit card. That's certainly one way to look at it, but I feel that definition might limit us a little too much.

For our purposes, I'm going to consider films made for a million dollars or less to be "ultra-low budget." That way, we can have a much larger set of films from which to choose. By Hollywood standards, where the average "studio" movie costs over $60 million, a film made for a million dollars or less really should be considered "ultra-low budget." Heck, the catering budget of the average studio film is probably more than the total budgets of the films on this list. You know those big stars, they really love to eat. Anyway, moving on. Here is my list of the best "ultra low-budget" films -- in order of release. Enjoy.


THX 1138 (1971) -- George Lucas' first feature foray into sci-fi -- a genre that would, in a few short years, make him one of the most famous and successful filmmakers of all time. It's a rather dark and depressing tale of survival and forbidden love in a dystopian future city, with the lives of the city's inhabitants being closely regulated and medicated and with love and procreation strictly controlled and monitored by the state. The film, which is a more elaborate and elongated version of a Lucas' short film Electronic Labyrinth 1138 4EB, was shot in and around San Francisco and became notable for its use of the new, state-of-the-art BART system to help depict the city of the future.

Also notable is Lucas' use of students and military personnel -- who were learning filmmaking from Lucas at the time -- as crew and extras, and the elaborate use of sound and sound effects which would become a Lucas mainstay going forward. It's also notable that the actors, including Robert Duvall, had to shave their heads to better depict Lucas' vision of a future nearly devoid of hope. Finally, I really love the smoothly polished killer police robots -- a great contrast to Lucas' depiction of robots in subsequent films like Star Wars.

I haven't picked up an issue of Premiere Magazine in quite some time, but a friend of mine recently recommended I visit the publication's newly refurbished website. So I did. Pretty solid content across the board, I'm happy to opine -- but one particular article caught my eye, tickled my fancy, and squatted in my brain long enough to recommend it here.

Basically, a bunch of the Premiere writers were asked to come up with their picks for Most Overrated Film of All Time -- and while most of the sacred cows slaughtered here are pretty darn obvious ones, the opinions and explanations as to why each film was chosen, well, I thought they were fairly compelling. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see someone call Field of Dreams "just too on the nose," because it absolutely is.

Fully prepared for the onslaught of How Dare YE!! hate mail, the Premiere posse has wisely decided to add an equally pithy rebuttal in defense of each movie. So when someone has the audacity to impugn The Wizard of Oz, we sane people have a defender who'll say Dude, Please. I've placed the 20 titles under the jump, just to help spark discussion, but do not let that stop you from reading through the whole article. It might make you think a little differently about some of those Unquestioned Classics that everyone's afraid to admit they don't really dig. (Yep, 2001: A Space Odyssey is overrated; I said it and I'm proud.)

I'm sure many cineastes had the same reaction to this week's box office list: cinema is now officially dead. The day Jackass: Number Two -- isn't it clever how the title is a reference to fecal matter? -- becomes the most popular film in America is the day each of us ought to give up and become plumbers. I'm talking all film critics, as well as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar-wai, Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Charlie Kaufman, etc. Throw in the towel, guys. It's over. It doesn't matter anymore. I'll meet you at the bar, and I'm buying the first round.

It gets worse: At the same time, the esteemed film critic/screenwriter/film director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, etc.) has published a brand-new film canon in the most recent issue of Film Comment, and the news is not good. Schrader started out writing a book, but realized that film will no longer have a place in the 21st century and gave up after 20 or so pages. He does list his 60 great films for inclusion in the canon but (with the exception of Wong's In the Mood for Love) they're all products of the 20th century.

Yes, film art is gone. All you have to do is perform stupid stunts, point a video camera in that general direction, and you've got a classic.

The other day, rumors were swirling regarding Kevin Smith's next project. Apparently, Smith was asked about this during a Q&A session (one of about 5,000 the dude does each year) and his answer surprised a lot of people: Silent Bob was planning on directing a horror film. Say what? Horror? Kevin Smith? Of course, with little info to go by, folks immediately began speculating as to what type of horror film Smith would take on.

Well, since news travels real fast, the question was once again raised when Smith and the gang recently returned to Red Bank, New Jersey to screen the original Clerks, as part of that whole Netflix Rolling Roadshow thing. This time, fans zeroed in on the horror film, forcing Smith to go into a bit more detail. He revealed his next project will indeed be a horror film, though admitted it was at least two years away from hitting theaters. When pressed to explain what type of horror flick, the writer-director insisted it would be "straight horror" and not some Jay and Silent Bob Return from the Dead sort of thing. According to Smith via a tipster (who is paraphrasing), "Its gonna have all of the horror you'd expect, blood and guts...and tits. No, no, no, not that, I'm talkin' about man tits. What? What's so bad about man tits? I have tits! They're sexy! And hairy ... but, yeah, I'm doin' a horror movie."

Smith also claimed to be shooting the entire thing in Los Angeles, meaning he would finally be leaving New Jersey ... though, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. After all, New Jersey needs a great horror film -- I've often found myself scared to death while driving through some parts of the state. I mean, have you ever tried to make a left turn in Jersey? Talk about hanging on for dear life -- there's a horror flick just dying to be unleashed.