December 2007
Movies This Week: The Holiday Edition
Maybe your idea of a fun Christmas week doesn't include a lot of family gatherings, tree-trimming, or waiting in line to see the lights at Zilker. Maybe you'd rather be at the movies. If so, you've got some interesting choices for next week:
- Tons of new movies opening in Austin this week: I've seen Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, and The Orphanage (Alamo South). Cinematical published my review of Sweeney Todd if you're interested. If those movies don't appeal, you also can see Walk Hard, The Great Debaters, The Savages (Arbor), National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem.
- Over at the IMAX theater at Bob Bullock, Christmas is busting out all over. You can see the 3-D version of The Polar Express all week long, or a half-hour 3D animated film called Santa vs. the Snowman.
The Alamo Guide for January & February
Two words: "Spike" and "Mike." (Beginning January 24th!)
Highlights of this calendar are the return of John Gries for a triple threat of Napoleon Dynamite, Terrorvision and Real Genius, our first in a monthly series of rehearsals for the giant Austin, the first two rounds of Austin Air Guitar, a whole new slate of Terror Thursday and Weird Wednesday screenings, Spike and Mike, Justin Timberlake's birthday and more, more, more!
Weekend at Butt-Numb-a-Thon
Many people spent the past weekend shopping for Christmas gifts, or sending cards, or putting up a tree or festive lights. But a number of hardcore film geeks in Austin spent the weekend holed up in Alamo at the Ritz, watching 24 hours of movies, vintage trailers, clips from upcoming films, and even a TV episode. The ninth annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon packed the larger theater at the Alamo -- 13 of us were in the right-hand balcony, and we were all quite friendly quite quickly. (One of my favorite moments with the group was the domino effect with the milkshakes: One of us ordered a shake, and when it appeared, everyone else immediately had to get one for themselves.)
You can see the truly prepared BNAT-ters in the above photo, toting pillows and blankets to make sure they could sit in reasonable comfort in a theater seat for more than a day. I wish I could have taken some photos of BNAT itself -- the costume contest, the meat pies served during Sweeney Todd, and Tim League appearing in a rented wizard's costume (he inadvertently broke the staff) during the traditional showing of the trailer for Stunt Rock. But cameras and other electronic gizmos are banned from BNAT, which is good because you never hear someone's phone go off in mid-movie.
I wrote up all the details on the films shown and audience reactions for Variety's film-fest site, The Circuit. Check it out. Catching up on sleep afterwards sucked, but I had a wonderful time, and my husband even reaped some benefits ... he's been playing with the HD-DVD player given away to BNAT attendees this year, ever since I brought it home.
John C. Reilly Rocks Stubbs BBQ as Dewey Cox from 'Walk Hard'
Woe be unto you, comedy lovers, if you were not Austin Film Festival members this last week and you therefore missed the Festival's sneak preview of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and the subsequent concert by the title character himself.
Director Jake Kasdan (who co-wrote the film with Judd Apatow) showed up at the Highland Galaxy 10 Theaters to introduce the film, which is even more hilarious than one could have hoped. I enjoyed Knocked Up and Superbad, but this is a high point for the Apatow collective, due in no small part to a script that never lets up and of course to the performance of John C. Reilly. Reilly has been a powerful supporting character (Talladega Nights, Tenacious D) until this point but given center stage he is stunningly, achingly funny.
The story is a satiric biopic of a moronic rock star with a tragic past, a way with lyrics, and the inability to say no to drugs or sex. Trying desperately to make up for the accidental death of his talented brother, Dewey strikes out into the world to make something of his musical career. Cox's first wife, Edith (Kristen Wiig), believes in him but thinks he's destined to fail (as she puts it). Dewey finds solace in drugs and in the arms of Darlene (a vamped-up Jenna Fischer, no trace of "Pam" here), a new backup singer. We follow Dewey through the decades of his life and his eventual realization of his life's true purpose. (More about the film and some concert video after the jump.)
Another Option for Tonight: Poultrygeist
I probably should have written up a whole Movies This Week post last night, but -- you know. December. Holidailies. No time. All that. Mea culpa.
However, I felt that even at the eleventh hour, I should let you know that Alamo Lake Creek is showing the latest masterpiece from the notorious Troma Entertainment studios, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, starting today. And if you decide to see this film at tonight's 7:30 pm showing, director Lloyd Kaufman will be on hand.
If you don't know anything about Lloyd Kaufman, check out this interview with him on Austinist. He sounds like he'd provide one of the livelier post-screening Q&As you might ever experience.
Poultrygeist will be showing nightly at Alamo Lake Creek all week long. Hey, it even has Ron Jeremy in it. How can you resist?
See 'What Would Jesus Buy' Tonight for Only $5
The documentary What Would Jesus Buy? had its world premiere earlier this year at SXSW. I am still regretting that I didn't get a chance to see the movie in March. The film's subject, Reverend Billy, was at SXSW with his Church of Stop Shopping Choir, and apparently they were quite the hit. YouTube has a clip of Rev. Billy holding an impromptu protest at/around the Austin Convention Center during the festival. Morgan Spurlock's distribution company picked up the rights to the anti-consumer-greed film, and it's currently getting a limited theatrical release.
What Would Jesus Buy? returns to Austin this weekend for a run at the Arbor Great Hills, just in time to fight the frenzied shopping characteristic of the Christmas season. The Arbor has teamed up with Responsible Growth for Northcross (RG4N) to offer some special screenings and discounts as part of RG4N's fundraising efforts. Tonight (Friday), you can see the 7:30 pm screening of the doc for only $5 admission, with proceeds going to RG4N. You also can visit the RG4N website for a coupon that gets you a discounted admission to the movie at any screening this weekend. RG4N has all the details here.
[Full disclosure: My husband is on the board of RG4N and we live in walking distance of the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter development at Northcross.]
Variety Loves Fantastic Fest
Scott Kirsner over at CinemaTech has been covering the International Film Festival Summit this week in Las Vegas (or as Matt Dentler discovered, not-quite-Vegas) and has some great news to report that affects Austin. At the keynote speech, Variety publisher Charlie Koones listed the ten film festivals that he says Variety loves, and that he also considered interesting and exciting. The list included such long-running and well-known festivals as Cannes, Telluride, the Toronto International Film Festival ... and Fantastic Fest here in Austin. Congratulations to Tim League and the other talents behind Fantastic Fest for developing a festival that film geeks adore and Variety praises too.
The above photo is one of my favorites that I took this year at Fantastic Fest: Wiley Wiggins and Tim League at the opening party festivities. Incidentally, Fantastic Fest has already sold out its VIP badges for 2008 (I bought one myself during the festival).