karina longworth Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Time once again for our weekly Indie Film Blog Group Hug, wherein we check in with other film blogs around the internet to see what other folks are writing about. One of these days, I want to throw a big party at my house and have all the other film bloggers from around the world converge in my living room to wax eloquent about all things film-related over chips and salsa, taquitos and icy-cold margaritas. Wouldn't that be a blast? In the meantime, the Group Hug will have to suffice ...

Oh, and by the way, fellow cinephiles, if you have a film blog I don't know about (or even if you've previously submitted your blog and I haven't covered it in a while), drop me a line at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com to point me your way.

• Over on The Hot Blog, David Poland writes about whether it means anything that Fox pulled out of Comic-Con, and ponders the whole sticky-wicket issues of which critics get into sceenings when, which leads to a discussion of embargoes, which then gets into the whole kerfuffle surrounding the Baltimore Sun and NYT breaking embargo on the lastest (and last) Harry Potter tome. And somehow, he manages to tie it all together in a way that actually makes sense ...
• ... Meanwhile over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Poland's sometime-rival Jeff Wells commentates nicely (I think) on Poland's piece and offers up his own take on the whole Fox-pulls-out-of-Comic-Con-Does-That-Mean-The-Simpsons-Movie-sucks thing.
• Apparently everyone the Baltimore Sun and NYT have everyone thinking about all things Potter this week, as both Anne Thompson, Matt Dentler, and Karina Longworth ** (great minds thinking alike) have posts up about the Harry Potter embargo-breaking, too.
• Strange Culture is already thinking Oscars ... in July! That's right, RC is already positing that Roger Deakins will be nominated for an Oscar for cinematography -- and that's probably a pretty good guess. Any early bets on other Oscar noms?
• Indie Film Nation, which runs some nifty podcasts about all things indie, has a fascinating interview up with Richard Moore, the director of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Good stuff. While you're already over there, check out last week's interview with Goetz Weber, CEO and co-founder of inDPlay.
• Checking out what's going down over at Twitch, Kurt has a little post up {via just about everyone on the planet, so this is obviously old news to everyone but me -- figures) about the possibility that one of my favorite films ever, John Carpenter's They Live, might -- that's might -- be made into a series for the Sci-Fi channel. They live is great political satire wrapped up as a fun horror flick, and I agree with Kurt -- it's never been more relevant than it is now. Keep your fingers crossed -- if it does ever get made, that's one series that's getting set to record on my DVR, baby. Don't forget your special sunglasses ...

**Karina does indeed have a great mind, but that particular post was about Fox and Comic-Con, not Harry Potter. It's still a good post and worth reading, though. The moral of this story? Don't read 40 different film blogs while simultaneously writing a post and getting four kids ready to get out the door for swim lessons without double-checking that you've got it all right. Thanks for setting it straight, Karina. It's good to still have you around to keep us on our toes.

How can the Web be used to connect unseen films with audiences hungry for something new? Is online culture more vulgar than the pre-Web cultural conversation? Is YouTube a viable platform for narrative film? Is Second Life a bold new way of promoting film, or just another niche attempt loaded with hype? This edition of The Rocchi Review features Karina Longworth, daily blogger and contributor to the Webby-nominated FilmCouch podcast for Spout.com, a social networking website for the world of film. You can download the entire podcast right here -- and we hope you enjoy.

Next week, Cinematical contributor Nick Schager will be bringing you a review of Waitress, a romantic comedy starring Keri Russell that's arriving in theaters on May 2 with a lot of unfortunate baggage. Waitress is of course the final film of indie actress and filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered in her office apartment last November, reportedly before hearing that Sundance had accepted Waitress into its 2007 schedule. You may have seen her most recently as a player in Matt Dillon's much-liked barfly film Factotum, or you may remember her as the star of those Hal Hartley movies from way back at the dawn of indie wave, The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. If you want to read more about Shelly and her final film, you can pick up a copy of the spring issue of Filmmaker Magazine, which is featuring an article on that very subject.

The piece, which was penned by media blogfly and former Cinematical editor-in-chief Karina Longworth, is encapsulated thusly on the magazine's cover: "Premiering at Sundance following the sudden death of its writer-director, Adrienne Shelly's Waitress is a bittersweet success." I haven't read the article yet, since that would involve all kinds of complicated actions like leaving the house and catching a bus to the city, but if you're fortunate enough to live closer to a well-stocked newsstand than me, and you're looking for something interesting to read, you might want to go out and pick up a copy. Sarah Polley is the dressed-down cover girl, and the issue also contains articles on, among other things, Hostel: Part II and the Sundance films Once and Zoo.

The extremely popular online virtual reality world of Second Life is getting a new real-world addition: the Sundance Film Festival. If you haven't ventured online in Second Life yet, the best way I can describe it to you is to imagine The Sims times about one million. It's an extremely detailed virtual world that allows users to customize every possible aspect of their appearance, and even develop professions, as well as own real estate and build whatever you want on them. Second Life has many real-world counterparts that exist virtually, like Dell and Toyota, and now Sundance will be joining them.

The first time I ventured into Second Life was a couple of years ago, and after an extremely disorienting first 30 minutes or so, I began to get the hang of things. It's a bit like Tron meets Virtuosity meets What Dreams May Come. Once you create your avatar, the virtual representation of yourself in the game which can be male or female, and look like you or not, then you are released head-first into the sprawling vastness of the Second Life universe. Your character can literally fly, like Superman, to any location in the game, and interact with the environment and other denizens of the virtual. You can do things like find a job, go sightseeing, and even purchase genitalia for your avatar. Yes, it's that detailed.

Sundance is going to be trying to duplicate the festival experience online, by way of the Sundance Channel. Vincent Tibbett, one of the Sundance avatars for Second Life told Netscape's Karina Longworth, "Imagine hanging out with people from your local art house theater. That's the environment we plan to replicate in SL." Having spent two trial weeks inside this world, and also being a veteran of the Sundance experience, I'm not sure how well it will translate, virtually speaking. Still, if it serves as another outlet to introduce films to the world, real or not, I'm all for it. Sundance is a great film festival, but it is often limited by the fact that you have to journey to Park City, UT in order to see many of the films, especially in the different Shorts and Animation categories, that you might never see anywhere else. If Second Life can give users a chance to experience Sundance films from the comfort of their own home, then how can it not be a step in the right direction?

The film launching the Sundance Second Life experience is Four Eyed Monsters, which was written and directed by two people popular in the vlogging world, Arin Crumley and Susan Buice, which should help it make an easy transition to the digital world. We'll be tracking more with the Second Life Sundance presence as it develops. In the meantime, be sure to visit our sister site dedicated to all things Second Life.

It is pretty amazing how well-received Borat is with the critics. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 95-percent in its favor, with the "cream of the crop" critics unanimous at 100-percent. One of the few people to offer a negative review (in part, anyway) is Netscape's Karina Longworth. In her latest "Netscape @ the Movies" video, she says,"as comedy and social commentary Borat fails more than it succeeds," and claims that, "if you live in the world, you've seen 75-percent of this movie." But she also states that the remaining 25-percent is, "totally worth the price of admission," and, "the winning stuff really is worth seeing."

Examining the purpose of such a film, the source of its humor, the validity of its satire, the questions regarding scripted scenes and the defense of its marks, Karina offers an insightful review of the highly-anticipated comedy. Of course, her problems with it havn't altered my immense excitement about seeing the film this weekend. How about yours?

Check out the video here, or download it over at Netscape.

More on Borat:

James' Review of Borat

Film Clips: Too Much Borat -- Who's the Man Behind the Mustache? ...

Is Borat Unethical?

Another election, another politician wanted out of office ... and yet another documentary. This chain of events is so common now that the presence of partisan docs is as easy to ignore as all the real campaign ads on television. Even one such film, about Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, would have passed under the radar if not for gaining a bit of controversy over the weekend. The film, Running with Arnold, is against the re-election of "The Governator" and has reportedly gone over the line as far as taste goes in order to attack the actor's qualifications for office.

One person who isn't happy with the finished product is its narrator, Alec Baldwin. He could sue the film makers after having gotten no cooperation from them regarding his request to be removed from the project or a cease and desist letter that he issued to them. On The Huffington Post, he wrote about his disapproval of the film, particularly the unfair association of Schwarzenegger with Nazis. He also says that the film makers can not accommodate his wishes because of a distribution deadline (I can't seem to find a release date for the film to back up this deadline, but seeing as how election day is in one week, I'm guessing it will play somewhere starting this Friday).

Netscape's Karina Longworth sat down with Death of a President director Gabriel Range, and has intertwined the interview with her own thoughts and criticisms of the faux documentary and the controversial buzz surrounding it. The most important point addressed in the video is probably the fact that the film is actually the opposite of anti-Bush. Karina even goes so far as to say it is, "definitely sympathetic," in its treatment of the president and, "it manages to truly humanize him," turning him into a "misunderstood hero."

You can watch the video right here, or go to Netscape and download it.

More on DOAP:

Cinematical Buzz Reviews: Death of a President

Death of a President: There's No Publicity Like No Publicity

Canadians Want You to See Death of a President

I love SXSW. It's by far the most favorite film festival to attend, in no small part because it's seemingly the last major film festival that cares about whether or not its audience is having fun. So when the people behind the acronym called and asked me to sit on the jury of their offshoot, SXSWclick, I jumped at the chance. SXSWclick, to quote the official website, "is a year-round initiative created to showcase short-form storytelling via mobile devices and the web." In other words, it's a festival specifically for shorts designed for digital, if not device-specific, distribution. There are five categories to submit work in, ranging from music videos to documentary, to "What the F*$!?" - or, the "Not sure we 'get it' -- but it's pretty cool" category. All work has to be under ten minutes, and it needs to arrive at the SXSW offices via VHS or DVD by June 12. Winners receive a passel of prizes, as well as a chance to screen their film for the ever-expanding crowds at the 2007 SXSW Film Festival, and all entrants will be seen by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals, including Jason Reitman, Bob Sabiston, Kirby Dick, and, well, me. Wanna enter? Here's the link.

There's nothing tackier than a Memorial Day sunburn. Come point and laugh at mine, tonight in New York City. Our friend The Reeler is hosting a screening of Lodge Kerrigan's Keane tonight at the Pioneer Theater on the Lower East Side, and after the movie I'll be sitting in on a discussion with Kerrigan, Lawrence Levi, and The Reeler himself, S.T. VanAirsdale.

You probably blinked and missed Keane when it was released late last summer, but the film (which was nominated for Independent Spirit and Gotham Awards alongside films like Brokeback Mountain and Capote) produced some of my favorite pullquotes of 2005. Manohla Dargis' review opened like this: "Lodge Kerrigan keeps such a tight watch on the title character in Keane that at times you think the camera is going to crawl in the man's ear to take a look inside." In The Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern wrote, "This isn't entertainment in any conventional sense, but it's a mesmerizing film all the same." And, in positing Keane as the indie flipside to the Jodie Foster hit Flightplan, Roger Ebert took an opportunity to philosophize on the nature of filmgoing: "The complete filmgoer is open to the movie on the screen, and asks it to work in its own ways for its own purposes."

Tonight's event starts at 6:30. If none of the above seems like reason enough to head downtown, know that there will be free beer and pizza after the discussion, courtesy of Two Boots and Magic Hat -- for ticketholders only. You can buy tickets here; for more info, click here.

Dear Faithful Laws and Sausages readers (both of you),

Laws and Sausages will be on a brief hiatus for the next few weeks, while your intrepid reporter (uh, that's me) focuses her energies (both of them) on developing Fill-In-The-Blank (or whatever it's called, as of next week) and covering Tribeca. I'll be back on the first Thursday of May, with a recap of Tribeca and a look at the state of the American film festival in general. Unless something really, amazingly worth emergency columning about happens between then - in which case, your vacation from me will be cut short. Sorry about that. Hopefully it won't happen.

love and kisses,
Karina
ps: check out the new Laws and Sausages logo - whaddya think?