Just last week I received the latest release from the critic-led Benten Films -- Kentucker Audley's mumblecore film Team Picture, which comes out on DVD today. Imagine a Slacker sort of world with everyday life and a collection of varied people, but without the rolling conversation of UFOs and Like a Virgin pap smears.
Audley's style is to show a more realistic life without the allure of stars or irresistably charismatic actors. He leads the film as a slacker musician who really encapsulates the ideas of slackerdom in every area of life -- indifferent to his girlfriend's unhappiness, the need for a future path, and even the quirks of his roommate. While not for moviegoers looking for a fast-paced, tightly written story, Team Picture does have some charm as a sort of dead-pan voyeuristic look into modern slackers. Check out the video above to see what I mean.
The DVD has a commentary, a new epilogue, a short film, music performances, deleted scenes, trailer, and an essay by Nick Dawson.
I think this'll be my last Outlander post for a while; you're probably sick of hearingaboutit by now. But I think I owe you this one as a matter of follow-through. You see, the buzz on the internets is that, as feared, the Weinstein Company is sending the nearly $50 million dollar Vikings-fight-aliens adventure film to direct-to-DVD oblivion.
The source of this semi-substantiated rumor is that a couple of online DVD retailers, such as Movies Unlimited and Amazon have listed a November 18th, 2008 release date for the movie, with Movies Unlimited now accepting pre-orders. No theatrical release date was ever announced, and needless to say, if the DVD release date is accurate, it rules out any sort of theatrical appearance.
I guess I'm a little surprised at the dump, simply because the movie's so darn expensive. But it's the Weinsteins, theatrical releases themselves cost a lot of money, and this was more of a cult item from the start anyway. In any case, November is certainly sooner than I expected to be able to see the thing.
Important to note that there's no official confirmation from the distributor on the DVD release, so this could all be one big mistake. But it doesn't look good.
Last week, I alerted you to a few sneak previews for the new Collector's Edition of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and now you can see the discs in all their glory for yourselves!
The stop-motion classic stars Chris Sarandon as the voice of Jack Skellington -- the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown. He gets bored with the town's work of scaring humans on Halloween, and when he accidentally falls into Christmas and sees all the good tidings, he comes back with a plan to nab Santa and have Christmas Halloween-style. This, of course, leads to a whole big mess of kidnapping and stolen paramours.
Being a real Collector's Edition (and not a crappy re-release preying on our collector mindsets), there's a ton of special features to enjoy. There's a commentary, a tour of the Haunted Mansion done up for a holiday tour, a featurette on the seasonal transformation, Tim Burton's original poem narrated by Christopher Lee, and a making-of featurette -- just on the first disc! The second mainly includes the goodies from the previous release. There's Frankenweenie, Vincent, deleted scenes,art galleries and animation tests, a storyboard/film comparison, and a selection of posters and trailers. The blu-ray disc only offers an extra 30-second intro, but the ultimate contains a digital copy on a third disc, plus funky keepsake packaging and collectible extras.
One of the more controversial and polarizing films at this year's Sundance Film Festival (and last year's Toronto fest) was Towelhead, a dark and uncomfortable comedy about a 13-year-old Lebanese-American girl living in Texas during the first Gulf War. It was directed by Alan Ball, who showed with American Beauty (which he wrote) and HBO's Six Feet Under (which he created) that he has a knack for finding humor in the sinister corners of suburbia.
The film is set for limited release on Sept. 12 (here'sCinematical's review from Toronto), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on Warner Bros. to change the title before it comes out. A press release from the Greater Los Angeles Area office of CAIR said, "The word ('towelhead') is commonly used in a derogatory manner against people of the Muslim faith or Arab origin." Furthermore: "The use of such a derogatory term by a major film studio will serve to increase its acceptability in public discourse."
Really, CAIR? "Towelhead" is a slur? Then I wonder why the filmmakers would use it as a title -- unless -- you don't think -- nah -- could it be that the whole point of the movie is that this girl is trying to find her identity, and that "Towelhead" is one of the epithets she has to deal with while living in a redneck town during the Gulf War? Could it be that one of the movie's messages is that slurs like that are unacceptable? Could it be that only the most bigoted and idiotic of viewers could come out of it thinking, "I'm gonna start sayin' 'towelhead' more often!"?
As I exited the screening of Traitor, the terrorism thriller starring Don Cheadle that opens on Wednesday, I noticed something odd in the closing credits: story by Steve Martin and Jeffrey Nachmanoff. The second guy is the film's director. But that first guy ... Steve Martin? TheSteve Martin?
I knew the one-time Wild and Crazy Guy was a renaissance man. In fact, lately I've enjoyed his writing, which is clever, nuanced, and intelligent, more than I've enjoyed most of his movies. He apparently is not as selective about his film projects as he is about his writing. His novella The Pleasure of My Company is one of my favorite recent books, and Shopgirl (which was made into a film) is another surprisingly emotional gem.
But a terrorism thriller about Muslim extremists and FBI investigations? Even with the understanding that "typical Steve Martin" territory extends much further than the casual fan might realize, this was not typical Steve Martin territory. Checking out the film's website, I found this explanation:
"Traitor began its journey to the big screen when Steve Martin presented an intriguing idea to producer David Hoberman while they were working together on the blockbuster comedy Bringing Down the House. Martin's "what if?" scenario immediately captured Hoberman's imagination with its provocative contemporary themes and surprising final twist."
The production notes go on to describe Nachmanoff and Don Cheadle doing a lot of reworking of Nachmanoff's script, which had been based on Martin's original concept, so I don't know how much of Martin's idea is in the finished product. (He's also credited as an executive producer.) But either way, as a huge fan of Martin's, it's always exciting to see him do something new. It's also nice to know that something positive came out of Bringing Down the House.
It is called Fantastic Fest, and porn is pretty fantastic, so I guess it's a perfect match: Kevin Smith's new comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, will have its U.S. premiere as the opening-night film at the raucous genre fest in Austin on Sept. 18. Smith will be there to introduce the film and take questions afterward, so start coming up with good Jersey Girl zingers now.
Afterward, they're holding the Air Sex World Championships there at the Paramount Theater, and audience members are invited to join. Air Sex is like Air Guitar, only dirtier, and requiring less musical ability. If you wanted more proof that Fantastic Fest is not your typical film festival, there you go.
Zack and Miri stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as platonic friends who decide to raise money by making a sex tape; hilarity ensues. Smith has promised that the film is the filthiest thing he's ever done, which is no minor feat. The film opens theatrically on Oct. 31.
Fantastic Fest runs Sept. 18-25. The Zack and Miri gala is part of the package for badge holders, and individual tickets will go on sale this Saturday. Check out the fest's website for more details, then prepared to get really bummed if you can't go. I've only been to Austin for South By Southwest, and while that's always a raging good time, I'm jealous of the Cinematical crew that gets to indulge in Fantastic Fest. Maybe if I ask Scott Weinberg really nicely he'll bring me back a severed-head prop or something.
There were no big surprises at the box office this weekend. To officially ring in the fall, it was the first weekend since April when no film debuted to more than $20 million. The best opener was the tolerably-reviewed Anna Faris vehicle The House Bunny, with $15.1 million. Interchangeable Jason Statham Movie, a.k.a. Death Race, followed with an estimated $12.3 million -- among Statham's weakest showings and the worst ever for director Paul W.S. Anderson (not counting the indie Shopping, which played on one screen).
Neither The House Bunny nor Death Race could dethrone Tropic Thunder, which held up fairly well to stay on top with a $16.1 million second weekend. It looks to have better legs than Pineapple Express, and should pass that film before all is said and done. In other holdover developments: The Dark Knightfell to fourth, but should reach $500 million by next weekend; Star Wars: The Clone Wars fell an unsurprising 60%+, and will top out around $35 million -- still not bad for a cartoon, I think.
Two more wide release debuts fared poorly. The Longshots -- the Ice Cube/Keke Palmer football drama directed by Fred Durst -- made a predictably tepid $4.3 million bow. But boy was I ever wrong about The Rocker, which was heavily advertised and promo-screened, but landed out of the top 10 with $2.8 million and an under-$1000 per-screen average. Color me surprised -- it's a decent flick, too. I guess Rainn Wilson not only can't open a movie, but affirmatively turns people off.
Hamlet 2 opened on 100 screens before going wide next weekend. Its $435,000 gross -- around $4,200 per screen -- isn't terrible, but doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion.
Last year I saw Gracie, a movie about a teenage girl who wants to play high-school soccer in the late 1970s, when the game was considered a males-only sport in America, and faces a lot of opposition from her school. I finished my review with the line, "If it were football, would we be agreeing more with Gracie's opponents?" The Longshots gives us the opportunity to consider that question. Can we sympathize with, and cheer on, a girl who wants to succeed as a quarterback in an all-boys' football league? The answer is yes, because The Longshots focuses on characters and personal relationships and as a result, feels richer and more satisfying than the standard sports-genre film.
The story is simple and except for the girl-quarterback angle, old-fashioned in a Capra-esque way. Jasmine (Keke Palmer) is a middle-school loner and misfit in a small town hit by economic troubles. Her mom Claire (Tasha Smith) has to work longer hours at the diner -- dad ditched town and family several years ago -- and Jasmine is still too young to be left alone after school. So Claire pleads, nags and finally bribes her husband's brother Curtis (Ice Cube), an unemployed ex-football player, to keep an eye on his niece Jasmine. Of course they can't stand each other at first, but eventually Curtis discovers that Jasmine has an excellent throwing arm and teaches her how to be a quarterback. Meanwhile, the town's playground football team is languishing, and one thing they're missing is a decent quarterback, sooo ...
A brief, sum-it-all-up-in-one-line description of The House Bunnywould probably go something like this: Imagine if a sequel to Legally Blonde and a sequel to Clueless had a child and it was adopted by a sequel to Revenge of the Nerds. That's The House Bunny. Thankfully, a strong and very funny performance from Anna Faris -- as well as decent-enough turns from Emma Stone and Kat Dennings -- save this late summer slacker from flunking out of theaters completely. It's familiar, it doesn't make you work for a laugh and, heck, for some it might be a nice way to cap off a long, dark, foul-mouthed summer full of superheroes, stoners and sequels.
To Shelley Darlingson (Faris), living in the Playboy Mansion is a fairytale come true. Sure, she's not a centerfold ... yet ... and was only featured in a few pictorials (Girls with GEDs, Girls with Charlie Sheen), but that doesn't stop her from bringing half-naked cheer and joy to anyone within shouting distance. Things take a turn for the worse, however, when Shelley's told that Hef doesn't want her in the mansion anymore -- that 27 is, like, 59 in Bunny years. With nowhere to go, a suitcase full of skimpy outfits and the rusty, beaten-up station wagon she arrived in, Shelley wanders the streets until eventually she stumbles upon a whole bunch of mansions that look just like home ... only they're fraternity and sorority houses ... but good ol' Shelley don't know the difference.
These are the times (i.e., late August) that try movie-lovers' souls. But if this week's multiplex offerings are lackluster, don't forget about the art houses! The Indie Spotlight is here every Friday to let you know what's opening in "select cities," keeping you informed so you know which titles to look out for when you're in the mood for something different.
This week's indie releases, in alphabetical order, are: Cthulhu, I.O.U.S.A., Momma's Man, and Trouble the Water. Here's the scoop on each of them:
I.O.U.S.A. What it is: A documentary about America's debt crisis, from the director of the crossword puzzle documentary Wordplay. What they're saying: All the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes so far are positive, praising it for making a dull subject lively and for getting its point across effectively. Where it's playing: About 20 theaters in and around New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Dallas, Miami, Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago, and Washington D.C. Official site: You owe it to yourself.
Medical science tells us that there's a portion of the brain called the R-complex that, nestled low and close to the spinal cord, governs simple, automatic brain functions like respiration and reflex and heart rate; other outlying, larger brain structures cover language, culture, memory and art. I mention this because Death Race, writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson's re-visitation of the 1975 trash-classic Death Race 2000, is wholly, entirely and perfectly designed to appeal to the R-complex portion of your brain. Death Race roars, rages and races down the track, all velocity and visceral violence, unencumbered by logic, sense, reason or dignity. My more evolved brain structures kept objecting to Death Race's more ludicrous contortions as it whipped around its curves, but my R-complex didn't want to hear the high-pitched whining voice of logic and reason; it simply grunted, settled into a soft cushion of popcorn topping and said "Shut up, bigger brain; bald man who talk cool killing now."
It's hard to believe that it's been a whopping 15 years since Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas was released. The Buttercup-stealing Humperdink, or Chris Sarandon as Jack Skellington, Catherine O'Hara as Sally, plus a little bit of PeeWee and the wacky Greg Proops -- the days before Johnny and Helena were in everything Burtonesque.
In commemoration of the anniversary, the Collector's Edition DVD hits shelves next week, but to whet our hungry appetites, ShockTillYouDrop has got three clips from the new disc. Check out how they made the Haunted Mansion as a holiday tour led by Jack, the process of shooting the film, and finally, Tim Burton's original poem of The Nightmare Before Christmas, all funky and animated.
It's looking to be one heck of a great re-release. From seeing how Jack's version of the Haunted Mansion played out, to how the film was made, to Burton's old short film Vincent, it's all there. Will it be in your basket come Tuesday?
"I tend to make an ass out of myself a lot. And so that's kinda the cool thing that comedy has given me -- the ability to laugh at myself." -- Anna Faris You might not know it yet, and she might not know it yet, but the female answer to Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen and all those, well, dudes, has finally arrived in the form of ... a Playboy bunny? In her latest film The House Bunny, Anna Faris plays a Playboy bunny who's kicked out of the mansion, and, in searching for a new place to crash, stumbles into the dorkiest sorority house on campus and signs up to be their house mother. It's a familiar PG-13 comedy that doesn't exactly re-invent the wheel, but if there's one reason to see the film, it's Faris. Here, at least, she proves there's definitely room for big, female-centric comedies in Hollywood.
Cinematical sat down with Faris earlier this week, where we spoke about her new film, what it's like to be on the cover of Playboy and how, exactly, she went from starring in dramatic theater productions in Seattle to landing the lead role in a little comedy called Scary Movie. Cinematical: So congrats on landing the cover of Playboy!
Anna Faris: [laughs] Thank you!
Cinematical: What's up with that? Was anyone caught by surprise or freaked out at seeing you on the cover?
AF: Yeah, I thought it was awesome -- it was rad -- and that all my ex-boyfriends would think, ya know ...
Cinematical: They'd be feverishly flipping through the pages thinking your career was over and this was a last ditch effort to do whatever ...
AF: [laughs] Probably ... but yeah, it was great. Ya know, we planned it awhile ago and just wanted it to tie into the film and all that. My parents are pretty conservative, but they were really happy and excited for me. In fact, I'm taking them to the premiere tomorrow, which the party afterwards is at the [Playboy] mansion ... so [laughs] I'm going to try to drag them up there.
Above: Rainn Wilson lets his hair down for The Rocker.
Fans of Rainn Wilson's offbeat, hilarious and strangely endearing performance as Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Officemight expect him to transition into film work with straightforward comedy, and The Rockerconfirms that suspicion. However, they might not realize the serious professional motives behind his choice. In the movie, directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Grown Monty), Wilson plays a grown-up dolt named Fish with a scary fixation on classic rock. Abandoned by the band Vesuvius in his teens -- before they became a commercial phenomenon -- Fish spends the next twenty years working deadbeat jobs and wishing things happened differently. Naturally, he gets a second chance: When the opportunity rolls around to drum for his nephew's high school, Fish goes for it. Ageism and slapstick humor ensue.
While not exactly a classic, The Rocker proves Wilson has the charisma to carry a movie. The script could use some polishing, but Wilson manages to play a completely dysfunctional human being without ever becoming an annoyance. It's a testament to his skill as an actor with calculated timing. The humor emerges from the naturalism of his performances, which make you believe in the outlandish characters he portrays. In a conversation with Cinematical recently, Wilson elaborated on his particular strategies as his career advances, reminisced about his days as a New York theater actor, and shed some light on a few upcoming projects.
(We're re-posting our CineVegas review of The Rocker to coincide with the film's theatrical release today)
I like the premise of The Rocker so much -- middle-aged wannabe rock star insinuates himself into his teenage nephew's band -- that I'm inclined to go easy on it solely out of good will. It's likable enough, a lightweight rock 'n' roll comedy punctuated by several belly laughs -- but those laughs are all in response to the one-liners, and mostly from one minor character (more on that later). The story, the central personalities, and the uninspired slapstick are bland.
The title wannabe is Robert "Fish" Fishman, played by Rainn Wilson (of TV's The Office) in his first major film role. Fish was the drummer for Vesuvius, a mid-'80s heavy-metal band, but was kicked out on the eve of the group's success. Now, two decades later, Vesuvius is huge and Fish is a bitter has-been (or, rather, never-was).
I think this'll be my last Outlander post for a while; you're probably sick of 
One of the more controversial and polarizing films at this year's Sundance Film Festival (and last year's Toronto fest) was 
As I exited the screening of Traitor, the terrorism thriller starring Don Cheadle that opens on Wednesday, I noticed something odd in the closing credits: story by Steve Martin and Jeffrey Nachmanoff. The second guy is the film's director. But that first guy ... Steve Martin? The 
It is called Fantastic Fest, and porn is pretty fantastic, so I guess it's a perfect match: Kevin Smith's new comedy, 
There were no big surprises at the box office this weekend. To officially ring in the fall, it was the first weekend since April when no film debuted to more than $20 million. The best opener was the tolerably-reviewed Anna Faris vehicle 
These are the times (i.e., late August) that try movie-lovers' souls. But if this week's multiplex offerings are lackluster, don't forget about the art houses! The Indie Spotlight is here every Friday to let you know what's opening in "select cities," keeping you informed so you know which titles to look out for when you're in the mood for something different. 
It's hard to believe that it's been a whopping 15 years since Tim Burton's .jpg)
