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Friday, February 3, 2012
Film / Nerd Supersonics
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 6:44 PM
Frankly, it’s shocking that nobody has made a found-footage superhero film before now. Both genres have experienced an explosion in recent years, and the low-budget aesthetic of found-footage narratives (the classic example is The Blair Witch Project, the most recent is the Paranormal Activity series) makes the requisite special effects of a superhero movie much more affordable. Someone finally did the math, and about, say, two years later than expected, we have Chronicle, a found-footage movie about three teenage Seattle boys who gain superpowers after discovering a mysterious glowing subterranean artifact.
The bad news is that Chronicle drops the ball on the found-footage front. The trick of these sorts of movies is that the narrative has to explain why all the relevant events ended up on camera; the second half of Chronicle violates that rule in a major way. The good news, which is far more important than the bad news, is that Chronicle is a fun, riveting superhero flick....
(Keep reading.)
Film / Nerd You Should Go See the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Film Festival
Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 3:44 PM
The good folks at the Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Film Festival were kind enough to ask me to help judge this year's SFFSFF, which means a few months ago, I got to watch 21 neat, strange, nerdy short films from around the world. Lindy West, who helped judge the SFFSFF last year, told me before I agreed to be a judge that the quality of the films at SFFSFF were remarkably high, and she was right; I thought maybe only one of the movies was a total bust, 12 of them were very good, and 8 of them were phenomenal. Here's a trailer for the festival:
They're showing all 21 movies tomorrow at the Cinerama in two screenings. Those two showings are sold out. But! A special encore screening of ten SFFSFF films is happening on Sunday at noon at SIFF Cinema. If, like me, you don't care about the Super Bowl, this is your perfect nerdy afternoon diversion. Go buy tickets now.
Film Short Film Fridays
Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 2:59 PM
The short this week is Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes’s “Felt,” a short film/music video for Shabazz Palaces. The reason I couldn't resist posting “Felt” so soon after posting Shabazz Palaces’ “Black Up” is because the company that produced it is run by a young filmmaker with great promise, Shaun Scott (Seat of Empire, 100% OFF). In Scott's words: “My production company, 47th Parallel Films, produced... the new Shabazz Palaces video for "Felt," which we shot over summer immediately after getting done with with my [feature film] 100% OFF. Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes [the former owner pun(c)tuation gallery] was the director, and Andrew Schwartz produced it for 47th Parallel Films.”
What this video makes clearer than previous videos is that Shabazz Palaces represents cultural laboratory that is South Seattle. Shabazz Palaces is black nationalism weaved into the expanding global fabric.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
2012 / Books / Film Happy Birthday, Ayn Rand! You Get a Crappy Sequel.
Posted by Paul Constant on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:19 PM
Remember the terrible bomb of a movie that was Atlas Shrugged, Part 1? It's okay if you don't. It was filmed on a sub-soap-opera-episode budget and it made like six dollars at the box office. (If you'd like to know what it was like, I reviewed it for you.) When it finally came out on DVD, the most hilarious typo ever led to an embarrassing recall. I thought this was the last we'd hear about the Atlas Shrugged movie.
Not so! The producers of Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 took advantage of the occasion of Ayn Rand's 107th birthday today to announce that they're going to put out a sequel. And Democrats better watch out, because this sequel to a terrible movie that basically nobody ever saw is going to have a big effect on the presidential election, according to conservative entertainment news site Big Hollywood:
Ayn Rand may have a voice in the upcoming presidential election if the folks behind the “Atlas Shrugged” series have their way.
“Atlas Shrugged Part 2,” based on Rand’s iconic 1957 novel, begins principal photography in April in Los Angeles, Colorado, and New York. The film’s release window is October 2012, roughly a month before the presidential election.
I can only assume that the budget is actually going to somehow be smaller than the first film. Which will be extra-hilarious, because the part of the book covered in the second movie is when all the strange sci-fi shit starts happening. Bring it on!
Film Music Films at the NWFF: Spring 2012
Posted by Grant Brissey on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 9:29 AM
Kathy Fennessy gives a rundown of the upcoming season.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Film "Extremely Tom and Incredibly Hanks"
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 1:32 PM
Lindy West smells Oscar™ in this week's Concessions:
When they released the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards (airing February 26 on ABC), I ran-not-walked to the cineplex to watch best-picture nominee Hella Close and Grippa Loud: The Tom Hanks Hamstravaganza Never Forgetstival Brought to You by Fig Newtons™. Because, I'm sorry—a whimsical, feel-good 9/11 drama about an autistic-ish child (NAMED OSKAR—coincidence!?) coming to terms with senseless tragedy and the impenetrable void of death, starring Tom "Fucking" Hanks? That's like if Schindler's List banged Forrest Gump and they had a baby, and then that baby banged every other Oscar movie ever (Jesus, get a grip, baby!), and then that baby had a baby, and then they all had to go on Maury Povich's show to figure out who was the father of the baby's baby ("Maury, I am 98 percent sure I'm NOT that baby's baby's daddy!" —Driving Miss Daisy), and then it turned out that the real father was [SUPER SECRET SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST] Amelie the whole time!!! Then everyone's divorced parents got back together, everybody ate Fig Newtons (Oskar loves Fig Newtons SO MUCH YOU GUYS), and Extremely Tom and Incredibly Hanks was retroactively awarded every Oscar in every category since the beginning of time. The end.
That's not really the end. Go read the whole thing here.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Booze / Film / Olympia Another Bill Passing Through Olympia's Innards Right Now
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 2:20 PM
Like many of my fellow Americans, one of my memorable wha? moments when I was a young naif, first traveling in other countries, was the realization that grown-ups in pretty much every other place in the world were allowed to drink in movie theaters.
- Rep. Jim Moeller looks like my kind of politician.
You went to the concession stand to get your popcorn (or whatever weird snacks were popular in whatever country you happened to be in), your soda, your coffee... and your booze: beer, wine, small jars of Slovak liquor that tasted like gasoline to sip-'n'-grimace through a showing of As Good As It Gets during which almost nobody in the cavernous Soviet-era theater watched but just talked through. Whatever you wanted.
Now Washingtonians have the chance to live the dream. A new bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Moeller and Sen. Craig Pridemore (both D, from the Vancouver area), will allow a "theater" (defined in the Senate bill report as "an establishment in which feature motion pictures are regularly exhibited") to get beer and wine licenses so you can drink while watching a movie.
Why would two guys from Vancouver sponsor this kind of bill? The Colombian newspaper has the big scoop.
Kiggins Theatre owner Bill Leigh has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into fixing up and reopening the downtown Vancouver landmark. He hopes a new bill proposed by a Southwest Washington lawmaker will help him attract more patrons by allowing him to serve alcohol in the theater’s auditorium.
That's democracy, people, working for you. I imagine Seattle voters would like this bill to pass as well—what's good for the movie-watchers of Vancouver is good for the movie-watchers of Seattle!
Horrors / ??!! / Media / Celeb / Film / Fashion Do They Actually Never Learn?
Posted by Anna Minard on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:12 PM
Or are they pretty much cool with being annually called out on their racism? Or do they just do it for the free publicity? (If that's the case, sorry for contributing.)
Once again, Vanity Fair's big ol' "The Newest/Coolest/Freshest/Hottest People You Should Look At Right Now" cover, which is almost always a fold-out, puts all the people of color on the folded part that you can't see on newsstands. AGAIN. Jezebel breaks down their history of it, with photographic evidence:
In 2008, it was Zoë Saldana and America Ferrera.
...
2005: Rosario Dawson, Ziyi Zhang and Kerry Washington, on the right and not the left.
2004: Salma Hayek and Lucy Liu, on the right and not the left power panel.
...
In 2001, no black ladies were pushed aside because no black ladies were photographed!
But it's so, so worth the outrage to see those 1995 and 1996 covers, right? (No, seriously, go look.)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Film Short Film Fridays
Posted by Charles Mudede on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 4:33 PM
The short for this week is Gretchen Burger’s “Cover.” What Burger has to say about it: “This is a short non-fiction video I made with Cap Kotz of Cappy's Boxing Gym that explores what it means for a boxer to find and maintain cover.” The short is simple, crisp, and elegantly edited. Once again we discover the whole human universe in a tiny corner of our culture.
Speaking of short films, beginning tonight (and ending on February 2), "Howard From Ohio"...
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