July 2009

This week, Debbie and Jette and Jenn all watched Judd Apatow's latest film, Funny People. The comedy stars Seth Rogen as Ira Wright, an up-and-coming comedian who lucks into a job assisting the rich and famous comic/movie star George Simmons (Adam Sandler). George is fighting some health problems, which leads him to reminisce about his long-lost love Laura (Leslie Mann). The cast includes Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzmann, Eric Bana, and a number of other comedians, as well as other members of the Apatow family.

Austin has a very small connection in this film: Jonah Hill is wearing an Alamo Drafthouse t-shirt -- one of the Badass Cinema shirts -- during one scene in the film. No, Seth Rogen does not appear next to the Alamo South lobby's hot dog in this movie, but we live in eternal hope.

Let's start with Jette this time:

Funny People is supposed to be writer/director Apatow's Big Important Movie. And perhaps it is, but I didn't find it all that involving ... or all that funny. For one thing, the film would have been vastly improved by having about a half-hour trimmed. It would also have helped to have at least one character that I liked or empathized enough with to care about what was going on with them.

I was fortunate to meet David Neff, Director of Web and Interactive Strategy for the American Cancer Society and the main man behind Sharing Hope.tv when he presented his "User Generated Content: Listen Up or Fade Away" talk at BarCampAustin III last year. I was quite excited when David started talking about his new project, the Lights. Camera. Help. festival. It comes as no surprise that one of the local advocates of "Social Media for Social Good" would put ideas into action by hosting a film festival dedicated to social causes.

Tickets are still available for the Lights. Camera. Help. festival, which will run Friday and Saturday evenings with a wrap-up party on Sunday. Check the fest website for more details, including the lineup.

It is time for me to confess that I think all the men in The Big Lebowski are sexy. There's Jesus Quintana, with his tight-fitting coveralls and the tongue action before he throws his bowling ball, Steve Buscemi with his quirky expression, and of course the the Dude himself with his virile sperm. Although John Goodman's character Walter is a bit less desirable, I have had a secret crush on him since I first saw him in True Stories. Therefore I am always excited when The Big Lebowski screens in Austin, especially if it involves white russians and bowling.

Lebowski Fest has hit the road for a tour of 15 cities across America, with the final stop in Austin, Texas on October 9-10. The first night of the local fest will include a movie party with special guests and a screening of The Big Lebowski at Stubb's Amphitheatre. The second night features a bowling party at Highland Lanes that will include costumes, trivia and other contests.

More details from the Lebowski Fest website:

The Paramount Theatre is holding a raffle right now to benefit the theater's youth outreach program. The website doesn't say what the deadline is for buying raffle tickets, but they're announcing the winner on September 23, so I assume it's shortly before that date.

The winner gets to hold a private film night at the Paramount and invite anyone they want -- up to 1,100 audience members total. The website says you can show "the movie of your choice" but it also says restrictions apply, which probably means No Porn, although you'll have to win to find that out for sure. You can't charge admission for the event, either.

Opening this Week

SXSW closing-night film (500) Days of Summer opens today, and it's likely to be the sleeper hit of the summer (pardon the pun). It's the type of romance film that guys really enjoy. I wasn't as impressed with it as some, but it's not a bad film, just makes a few missteps that distracted me. Check out Slackerwood's group review.

Debbie caught G-Force earlier this week, so you can check out her thoughts here.

Jette witnessed The Ugly Truth, and here she is barging in with her reaction:

The Ugly Truth made me realize how sick I am of formulaic romantic comedy. Formulaic dance movies can still have interesting choreography; sports movies often have some fascinating action sequences on the field or in the ring; action films have cool explosions. But the by-the-book romantic comedies offer nothing but attractive stars and sporadic cliched humor. We don't even get witty dialogue anymore.

With numerous jam-packed action films to his name, producer Jerry Bruckheimer brings his first 3-D film to the screen with the comedy adventure G-Force, which opens in theaters Friday. Through the effective use of Disney Digital 3-D and projectors using Texas Instruments' Digital Light Processing device, viewers feel like they are part of the action. I jumped a couple of times when an insect almost seemed to fly directly over my shoulder and into the screen. The visual effects were quite convincing to the point of my "suspension of disbelief" kicking in. The only time I thought, "Did they get that right?" was the need to count whether a dancing roach had the proper placement of his three pair of legs (don't get me started about the factual errors in Antz).

The story is simplistic, and immediate -- a covert government program trains animals, including guinea pigs, to work in espionage with the use of high-tech spy equipment that would make James Bond cringe with envy. The program is about to be shut down, so the G-Force decide to prove themselves to upper management through a covert mission to prevent global domination.

The Austin Film Society (AFS) has announced this year's Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund (TFPF) review panel: Oscar nominee Sam Green (The Weather Underground); Independent Spirit Award nominee So Yong Kim (In Between Days, Treeless Mountain); and Mike Plante, Director of Programming of the CineVegas Film Festival.

In August, the TFPF review panel will convene in Austin to review applications and administer awards. AFS will announce the awards on August 17.

During the panelists' visit, the Austin Film Society will present special screenings of their films:

• August 12, 7 pm - So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain, Alamo S. Lamar
• August 12, 9:25 pm - Sam Green's The Weather Underground, Alamo S. Lamar
• August 13, 7 pm - Docs-in-Progress screening of Mike Plante's Be Like An Ant, Austin Studios Screening Room

Admission is free for both AFS members and nonmembers but reservations are suggested. Tickets can be reserved online via the AFS website.

Continued from Part One ...

Having a film crew and cast set up for two days of shooting Simon Rumley's latest film Red, White and Blue in our house was what I'd expect it would be like to have an small army moving in. Despite the small production, at least 20 people invaded our house en masse with cinematography and sound equipment, wardrobe, and makeup supplies. It was quite obvious that by day 12 of the 18-day shoot the crew knew exactly what needed to be done as they quickly set up.

Our house had been selected to be the home of slacker bandmates Alvin (Nick Ashy-Holden) and Franki (Marc Senter). Production designer Josh Crist dressed the house with band posters, Lone Star beer bottles, and other "slacker" accoutrements. My boyfriend's PA system was assembled in the garage along with a loaner drum kit. As the first scene was set up, neighbors I had never met before came out of their houses, inquisitive about the "punk rock" band playing in our garage.

See, sometimes I go to events that aren't in movie theaters, or where movies aren't shown. Last Wednesday, stuntman/actor/filmmaker and now author Gary Kent had a book signing at BookPeople, where he read from his book Shadows & Light: Journeys with Outlaws in Revolutionary Hollywood.

Kent, who now lives in Austin, has appeared at Alamo Drafthouse events for films in which he's worked on -- The Girls from Thunder Strip and recently Psych-Out. Besides Psych-Out, he's done stunts for other Richard Rush films such as Hell's Angels on Wheels, The Savage Seven, and Freebie and the Bean. You may remember Anne Heller's 2007 article for Slackerwood about The Pyramid, which Kent wrote and directed. More recently, he was stunt coordinator for Bubba Ho-Tep.

When I first heard about the call for locations for Simon Rumley's new film Red, White and Blue, I was eager to offer our house as a location.

I had the pleasure of meeting Simon when he attended South by Southwest Film Festival in 2006 to support his friends who produced Darkon. I am quite a fan of Simon's work, which includes The Handyman and The Living and the Dead.

Reading over the list of locations needed, one in particular caught my eye. "Ed's - Slightly older contemporary of Franki/Alvin's etc. Lives with his girlfriend and young daughter. Has backyard and two floors." I thought it sounded like a perfect fit. My boyfriend Ed and I live in a two-story house, and my niece often stays in our guest room.

Anyone who's visited my personal blog will notice that I have a passion for drinking water. As part of my "day job" working as a drinking water quality specialist at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, I'm reminded on a daily basis of the importance of water. With the Texas summer heat upon us, many water systems are instituting voluntary and mandatory water restrictions to deal with current or potential water shortages. Surprisingly enough, a look at the drought map indicates a high number of the affected systems are located in Central Texas.

With that said, I am quite pleased to have stumbled across the Intelligent Use of Water Film Competition. It's the third year for this film competition that features short films about using water wisely. This year's entries are due on August 15, 2009.

Rules from their website: "Films must run between 1-10 minutes (total or excerpted time) and not exceed 25 MB in size. Films must focus on the topic of responsible water use, exploring approaches and ideas to intelligently manage and efficiently utilize earth's most precious resource. Films may be narrative, documentary, animated, experimental and/or student-made productions."

Be sure to check out some of the great finalists from past competitions, posted to the competition website. I especially loved Rainwater Harvesting (2008).

[Image credit: "Ruthie" by Sophie Diehl, used with permission from the artist.]

Austin has so many free movie options -- we wrote up a whole guide to free summer films, after all -- that you wouldn't think the city had room for more. But a new source for free films this summer has appeared on the scene -- BookWoman, on N. Lamar near 2222, has launched "An Evening for the Ladies Film Series" on Fridays at 7:30 pm this month.

The series actually started July 10, but here's the info on the other three films for July:

Friday, July 17: She Likes Girls, Vol. 3 -- A 2007 collection of lesbian-themed short films from filmmakers such as Guinevere Turner, Julie Goldman, Cassandra Nicolaou and Tina Scorzafava.

Friday, July 24: Women in Love -- In this 2005 film, Karen Everett creates a documentary about her own love life and her circle of friends, as she reaches age 40.

Friday, July 31: The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love -- The title says it all in this romantic 1995 film from writer/director Maria Maggenti.

Last week, director Simon Rumley's latest feature finished filming here in Austin. Red, White and Blue, touted as a "slacker revenge thriller," filmed in various locations around town, including one afternoon at local honky-tonk landmark The Broken Spoke.

A few weeks ago, Tim League, executive producer of the film and co-founder of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters, posted a call for extras to the Alamo blog and Twitter, with the promise of fun and standing around and drinking beer.

I've got friends in Vancouver who've been extras on a few films, and they were telling me to bring a book or two, it'll be boring. It'll take hours to shoot a single scene. Well, okay -- it took 3.5 hours from the time we were asked to be there, to "That's a wrap. Thanks, folks." Even if I had brought a book, I wouldn't have had a chance to look at it. We were too busy having fun. And it helped a local film, so even better.

Writer/director/actor Mike White obviously wants to spend some quality time in the Central Texas area this fall. Fantastic Fest has just announced via Twitter that the Year of the Dog writer-director will be in town for the fest's opening-night film, Gentlemen Broncos, in which he has a role (and is a producer). He'll be joining the film's writer-director Jared Hess and actor Jemaine Clement.

But wait, there's more. White will return to Austin less than a month later for Austin Film Festival ... or maybe he'll hang out here the whole time, who knows? AFF has posted a fun interview with him that covers screenwriting, film fests, and other topics. No word yet on whether AFF will show any of White's films during the fest -- his screenwriting credits also include The School of Rock, The Good Girl, Nacho Libre and several episodes of Freaks and Geeks. Fortunately, both festivals are at the right time of year for Austin, weather-wise.

Fantastic Fest is announcing its first round of 2009 films at 10 am, and the organizers been working festgoers on Twitter into a frenzy with rumors of "bombshell announcement" and "huge news." In fact, they like Twitter so much that it will be the first place the announcements are posted.

If you use Twitter and want the very first heads-up on Fantastic Fest 2009 news, now would be the perfect time to start following @fantasticfest. If you aren't interested in Twitter, don't worry -- Jenn Brown will be keeping an eye on the news, and she'll post the titles and info here on Slackerwood as soon as possible.

While we're talking about Fantastic Fest, filmmakers take note: the deadline for submitting your films to the fest is this Friday, July 17.

The above photo is from Fantastic Fest 2008 -- Tim League preparing to announce the awards while a sister act pre-show plays onscreen. I've posted a second photo after the jump from the 2008 opening-night World Air Sex Championship, in memory not only of last year's fest but a recent political announcement. Enjoy!

With record-breaking temperatures all week, staying in the delicious chill of AC is ideal. Austin offers plenty of movie events to keep you busy this week.

Opening this Week
Many Austin film film fans ave been waiting impatiently for Moon to open locally after a very successful SXSW premiere, and our patience is finally rewarded. Director and co-writer Duncan Jones, along with Nathan Parker, have penned an old-fashioned science-fiction tale, the sort that utilizes an unfamiliar landscape to explore the human condition and social vistas. In this case, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is at the end of three-year stint alone on the moon, and has clearly been there too long, when he has a very personal encounter. It's the type of movie that screams for lengthy discussions after viewing, but works best the less you know.

Needless to say, it's not a typical post-millennium Hollywood movie, but one that is destined to become a classic. The underrated Sam Rockwell finally gets a lead role that really allows him to show his chops, far beyond his comedic turn in Galaxy Quest, or the shamefully under-viewed Joshua. It's playing at Dobie and Arbor, and if you don't see it, turn in your sci-fi geek card immediately. It's not quite a shame it's not playing at the Alamo, as you don't want to be distracted during this quiet, thoughtful, cerebral film.

Have you recovered from Part One yet? If so, read on for more basic theater etiquette.

Personal Space. Just because you put your feet up at home does not mean that's okay in the movie theater. No one should have to share an armrest with your toes, or be forced to look at them in the seat next to them. If you put your feet on the tables at an Alamo, I hope the waitstaff puts theirs on your food.

Hats Off, AKA Bouffant Be Gone. Seriously, if your thinning hair makes you so self conscious that you can't remove your hat indoors, either sit in the back row or talk to your doctor. As for you, Big Hair, the 50's want their bouffants back, and no wants to get whiplash trying to look around you. If you don't sit in the back, pay for the seats that you block.

Austin has a film fetish. From the municipality to the people who keep it weird, we love cinema. Emancipet, which has provided free and low-cost neutering and other services for Austin's pets for 10 years, is capitalizing on that with their annual Fur & Film Fete.

The Fur & Film Fete includes food, drink, music, animal-themed films and a chance to mingle with other film fans who care about their pets. Sweet Leaf Tea and Tito's Vodka are supporting the event, according to an Emancipet staffer's tweet.

Last year's event featured a series of kitschy old educational films, and the previous year included a retrospective on William Wegman. Austin Film Festival's Kelly Williams is involved, so there is considerable film and film programming knowledge behind the event.

Emancipet is facing critical funding shortages due to city budget shortfalls, and needs all the help they can get to keep performing between 1,200 – 2,000 neuter procedures a month. Yes, a month. Emancipet recently completed its 100,000th neutering procedure. Not neutering pets has a lot of hidden costs, both to individual owners and the community: unwanted pet pregnancies, which result in abandoned pets, overflowing shelters, and more.

The Alamo love for Michael Jackson continues, with a special, free simulcast of the Michael Jackson memorial services on Tuesday (today) at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. Admission is free, but you can reserve a seat by purchasing a $5 food and beverage voucher. Seating begins at 11 am, and the service begins at noon.

So not only do I have this cool new illustration to show you this morning, I have a good story about where it came from. John Gholson is a local film geek who wanted to raise some funds so he could go to Fantastic Fest this year. So he came up with a fun way to earn the money: a blog called Taking Requests, where you can pay him $5 to draw anything (within reason) and he posts the requests and resulting illustrations on his site.

I heard about this on Friday and thought, "Ooh, I wonder if he could draw the Slackerwood photo." The photo at the top of this page doesn't quite measure up to the way I wanted it to look in my head. And, you know ... five bucks? You can't beat that. Sure enough, the resulting art is a lot closer to the way I've always envisioned the Slackerwood theme. Thank you, John!

Tim League also heard about John's fundraising project, and not only requested a drawing of his own, but posted the info to the Fantastic Fest blog. Naturally, this increased the requests John's received. He's drawn some cool and bizarre things: a zombie for Megan Hagins, who produced her daughter Emily's zombie film Pathogen; a Patrick Swayze centaur for Austinist film writer Steph Beasley; and my favorite so far, a sketch of H.I. McDunnough from Raising Arizona.

Go check out the Taking Requests site, see John's latest illustrations, and maybe spend $5 on something wild and crazy all your own.