A man sits on his bed in the half-light, shirtless. On his back is a series of little bumps, perhaps scars, possibly cigarette burns, or buckshot wounds? His co-workers at the fish hatchery take secret bets as to their origin. But for Son Hayes (Michael Shannon), they are part of a hurtful past, one that he is forever trying to get beyond. Son's name, as well as those of his brothers, Kid (Barlow Jacobs) and Boy (Douglas Ligon), no doubt came from their awful father, a kind of branding that they can never escape. We never meet this father. He dies at the beginning of Shotgun Stories. Son, Kid and Boy attend his funeral, and that's when the trouble starts. If not for that, life in this Arkansas small town probably would have gone on as always, with Kid sleeping in a tent in Son's backyard, with Boy living out of his van, and with the three of them getting together for beers. (There is a lot of beer drinking in this movie.)

"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton/Old times there are not forgotten." -- "Dixie Land"

And that can cut both ways; writer-director Jeff Nichols's Shotgun Stories is a tale of the South -- the flat fields and summer heat of Arkansas, where people struggle with the past every day. We first meet Son Hayes (Michael Shannon) as he struggles out of bed, his back marked by scars; years ago, Son took a shotgun blast, lived, lived with it. Son's brother Kid (Barlow Jacobs) lives in a tent in Son's yard; their other brother Boy (Douglas Ligon) lives out of his van. They get by, working at the fish farm or coaching high school basketball. And then they're told their father has died. Years ago, their father quit drinking, found Jesus, put his life right -- but not for them. He has a whole separate family, one that knew the man he became; for Son, Kid and Boy, reconciling that fact with the man they knew is a hard thing to do. And maybe they don't want to, when it comes down to it.

Produced by David Gordon Green (All the Real Girls, Snow Angels) Shotgun Stories is another piece of a distinct thread of storytelling that's been running through American independent film for several years now (one which, not coincidentally, Green's also explored in his work). Shotgun Stories is a piece of hardscrabble Southern minimalism, one that wrenches strong drama out of the everyday, set in places where the landscapes are wide open but people's feelings are tightly closed. Son, Kid and Boy go to the funeral to have their say, not to praise their father but to bury him, and their insistence that their pain be remembered part and parcel with his new family's pain at his loss spirals into anger and then into violence.

Right across the street from my apartment sits a nice, fat, corporate-owned video rental store that I rarely visit. It's conveniently located and if I rent older releases I can keep them for a week, but I've simply fallen out of the habit of renting in person. Online rentals are even more convenient, and if I'm patient, most US releases come to video on demand and eventually premium cable. I could admit that I'm just too lazy to schlep across the street to return my rentals, but I'd rather imagine that I'm trying to stay on the cutting edge.

Recently, though, I ventured into the store. Based solely on its premise, I was predisposed to like Yo-Yo Girl Cop: Japanese schoolgirl recruited as a secret agent for a government organization armed only with a yo-yo. It sounds an entertaining action flick; sadly, director Kenta Fukasaku, son of the late, great Kinji Fukasaku, sucks all the joy out of the concept. The action is shot in the fashionable, quick cut, crazy angle, handheld style, but without any grace or distinguishing rhythm. That's typical of the entire picture, which stitches sequences together without any style, wit, or originality, to diminishing and wearisome effect. The DVD includes a 40-minute "making of" feature that is informative and makes me curious to see the original films and TV show.

Paul Verhoeven's Black Book was just as good as everyone has been saying, including our own Ryan Stewart and Christopher Campbell: a rollicking, humanistic Nazi adventure thriller that sizzles right up until it goes off the rails to deliver a heavy-handed message about man's inhumanity to man (as if the preceding two hours hadn't already made that apparent). I'm sorry I missed it on the big screen, though. Carice VanHouten is stunning.

William Friedkin's Bug was even better than I expected from reading Jette Kernion's review; a mesmerizing descent into madness that I resisted initially. It's so powerfully cohesive, though, and features such amazing, award-caliber performances from Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd that my objections melted away. Friedkin is especially forthcoming about his strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker in an interview on the DVD, which helped make my trip across the street surprisingly worthwhile.

The cast and director of Bug recently assembled at a Manhattan hotel to answer some questions about the new horror-drama, which I saw and praised on this site. Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon star as two small-town Midwestern people whose lives intersect one night at her trailer-park home and the match-up creates a sort of perfect storm of paranoia, discomfort, and ultimately, terror. She fuels his pre-existing fears about being followed by a shadowy government agency, while he perversely fills for her a deep-seated need to be taken seriously and to be listened to. It's hard to explain the movie any more specifically than that -- you have to see it. William Friedkin had the press eating out of his hand, photographers wasted everyone's time by insisting on, like, ten minutes of posed photos, and Judd talked a lot about her process of mental preparation. Here is a sampling of the various questions and answers asked by all the assembled journalists -- enjoy.

Ashley Judd

Was it an easy decision, for you to sign on for this one?

AJ: It was very easy for me to decide to do Bug. Billy had been good enough to send the script to my agent. Bug also had in common a producer who was producing Come Early Morning, which was the film I shot right before Bug. So there was a streamline simplicity to the process. Of course, Billy's wife was my mentor early in my career, provided my big break in Hollywood, so it seemed like there were a lot of auspicious things that were coming together around the script.

I really loved Billy's response to Michael. He was very clear and impassioned and firm that Michael was the actor for the film, as he had been unabashedly the actor for the play. I was really impressed with how Billy was just not willing to negotiate around that, and helped me be very comfortable talking with the financier of the film about how Michael was also who I would want to play with in the movie, so there was a lot that I really liked. There was a good backbone and positive energy surrounding the project, and my agent, when she sent the script to me to read, she said 'you might not want to go there' and immediately that intrigued me. I don't think she was intentionally using reverse psychology, but that's the affect it had and I think I became willing to take the part on before I had in fact read it. There's a part of me that gets really competitive with my own creativity, like 'Oh, you think I can't do that? Really ... '

Did you feel you were coming to the part at a disadvantage, with your co-star having done the play?

AJ: I felt I was at a real advantage, because Michael clearly knew the material inside and out, had a very well-developed and evolved relationship with the material. Billy had seen it, he responded so passionately, and we began acquiring the rights, and there was a tremendous and respect there, and I felt I was able to just slipstream in there.

"I am the super mother bug!" -- Bug


In many ways, Bug may represent the apex of Ashley Judd's curious career. She's always been something of a green-screen actress without the green-screen, relying on some kind of method to dig deep and come up with seemingly heartfelt, emotive performances in routine thrillers where the surroundings don't warrant that kind of effort. (I'm looking at you, Kiss the Girls.) Judd's motivation is always in her head, which makes her naturally primed to take on a character like Bug's Agnes White, a lonely, small-town waitress who was frozen inside her own emotional headspace years ago, when her young son disappeared out of a grocery cart. She now spends her days being lusted after by the lesbians at a honky-tonk dive where she works, doing drugs, counting up crumpled dollar bills and bracing herself for the unwanted return of her ex-con ex, who has more than one screw loose. "You tried to kill me," she reminds him when he finally washes up on her doorstep. "That was a rough one, yeah," he replies, without trying to be funny.

I've seen the same marketing you have, and I'm not going to comment on whether, at some point during the film, a swarm of giant bugs may come to attack poor Agnes. I will suggest, however, that deserved Oscar nominations for Judd and director William Friedkin may be thwarted by an attempt to make this film sound like it belongs on the same shelf as Blade: Trinity and Silent Hill. Bug is a horror film, for sure -- one that will leave you bug-eyed -- but not one that pins its hopes on special effects. Instead, it uses a horrific set-up to explore some nimble issues, like how emotional vulnerability can weaken you, impair your judgment and make you not only accept the poor logic of others, but actually become a participant in their delusions. If you have nothing in your life, will you grab onto anything? Sociologists have been asking a variant of that question forever, and it's refreshing to see a movie taking a whack at it, with some success.

I saw Bug at Fantastic Fest last September and I've been waiting for the theatrical release ever since then. Lionsgate originally had set a release date for the end of 2006, but pushed Bug back until May 25. They've decided to release brand-new posters for the film -- the original (partially shown at right) might not have seemed to attract audiences. Also, it looks misleadingly like a horror-movie poster, and Bug is more of a suspense film. JoBlo has exclusive images of the latest posters for your perusal. Both posters primarily feature images of Ashley Judd, who co-stars with Michael Shannon (reprising his role from the original stage production). Judd is probably considered the most bankable asset for PR purposes, although I would argue that it's Shannon who truly carries the film -- his performance is stunning.

The Bug posters themselves are not so stunning. The greenish colors used in the top poster are good and evoke the tone of the film very well, but the smaller floating face embedded in Judd's image is too confusing and weird. I'm not sure what it's supposed to symbolize, but this poster wouldn't make me want to see the film. I prefer the second poster, done in black and white, with a bug silhouette forming almost a cameo image around Judd's head. It doesn't quite represent the tone of the film and makes Judd seem almost Alice-in-Wonderland-like, but it's a striking and attractive poster. Finally, I feel a bit sorry for director William Friedkin -- I thought this was one of his best films in years, but he doesn't get much credit on the Bug posters, except a line nearly squashed by the title: "From the director of The Exorcist."

Ah, there is nothing in the world like a nice, close-up poster of a naked, hairy man's chest sliced up a little bit with embossed lettering. That alone is enough to make me curious about Bug, Ashley Judd's latest film. Last September, Jette reviewed it from Fantastic Fest. To recap -- it's a juicy piece of suspense, even if some parts fell flat and others evoked laughter without meaning to. Then in November, Lionsgate pushed back the release date to some time in 2007. The date has now been set -- May 25 -- and we've got a new, full-length trailer to see what all the buggy fuss is about.

Having Harry Connick Jr. in a creepy thriller is intriguing. Ashley Judd, well, it isn't surprising, but isn't bad either. Then to have Petie in a headlining role -- that's just tasty! Or, so I'd think. This is where I get confused. Check the trailer out. How much can we expect from a thriller when we have one of those "Larger. Than. Life. Disembodied. Voices." saying "They live in your blood" and "They feed on your brain"? Watching the trailer, all I can think of is that bit from My Date with Drew where they get the voice-over guy, George DelHoyo, involved. Coming from the director of The Exorcist, William Friedkin, I'd expect a trailer that pushes the buttons of anxiety and creepiness. Not one that keeps making me giggle. If you turn off the sound, it looks all sorts of creepy. However, if you're ready for a laugh, crank that sucker up and delight in the blood and brains.

I'm not sure what I anticipated before watching Bug, but the film completely surprised me. Perhaps since I was at Fantastic Fest, I expected a traditional horror film, with giant disgusting insects flying around and getting squished in a gross way. Bug is not exactly a horror film -- or if it is, it's in the same tradition as Hard Candy. It's a suspenseful movie, but not a gore or grossout fest.

Bug is adapted by Tracy Letts from his stage play -- only five characters have speaking roles, and most of the action revolves around the two leads. Agnes (Ashley Judd) is one step away from being a stereotype of trashiness: living in a crummy hotel room in Oklahoma, working in a honky-tonk with her friend RC (Lynn Collins), and trying to avoid her ex-con ex. One night, RC brings Peter (Michael Shannon) to visit Agnes, and the two connect instantly as friends, even after Agnes's scumbucket ex Jerry (Harry Connick Jr.) turns up. And then Peter notices the bugs in Agnes's bedroom ... blood-sucking aphids.

The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:

• If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
• Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
  
• Peter Martin at Twitch reviews the workprint version of Apocalypto, including plot spoilers. He's also posted capsule reviews from Friday, Sunday, and Monday's films.
• At News of the Dead, Wiley Wiggins has been posting photos, MP3s of festival Q&As, and his impressions of various films. He perfectly summarized my feelings about The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes.
  
• Austinist has some capsule reviews from the first four days. The site also posted an interview with Lucky McKee, who will be available at Fantastic Fest screenings for The Woods (which he directed) and Roman (in which he stars).
  

Summer roller coaster rides aside, fall is the most exciting time for movie buffs. Movies get more serious; the running times increse, and you begin to see more biopics, more 'based on a novel by' credits and more reverent-looking movie trailers. Which middlebrow films will be slathered in awards, and which films will be ignored masterpieces? I know there's at least one out there that could be a life-changing event; here are three possibilities:

The Black Dahlia -- I'm cheating a bit here, because I've already seen this and consider it one of the year's best films. Based on James Ellroy's novel, it won't get nearly as much love as L.A. Confidential did, what with its strikingly literate script and dazzling cast, but Brian De Palma's lurid, obsessive vision goes into darker, snakier places than Curtis Hanson would ever dare dream of. Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart co-star as ex-boxers turned cops who investigate the case of a murdered would-be starlet (Mia Kirshner). Scarlett Johansson plays the woman who comes between them.

Bug -- Reports from Cannes indicate that this new film by Oscar-winner William Friedkin marks a return to form (though for a few of us, he's never really been away). Lionsgate is choosing to market the film as a thriller, but it sounds quite a bit more complex than that. Based on a play by Tracy Letts, Ashley Judd stars as Agnes, a melancholy bartender who meets up with a creepy ex-soldier (Michael Shannon, who played the role on stage) in a deserted hotel room. Bugs that may or may not be real begin burrowing under their skin. Harry Connick Jr. co-stars as Agnes' volatile ex-husband.