April 2010

Hollywood is not afraid of rebooting franchises, and this year's big reboot is A Nightmare on Elm Street with Jackie Earle Haley donning the knive-glove and striped sweater that made Robert Englund famous in the 1980s. But like most remakes, there's a lot lost in translation.

Director Samuel Bayer, whose background is in music videos, doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it's hard to tell with a script that plays bait-and-switch with its protagonist. It's not until Act Two that it's even apparent who the real protagonist is, with all the focus on Kris (Katie Cassidy). Screenwriters Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer may be following the basic structure of the original Wes Craven concept, but unlike most Craven stories, there isn't anything truly scary here. Sure, there are jump points, when you know you must be scared, but more often than not you're reacting because you know you're supposed to (often due to loud noises) versus being genuinely startled, let alone frightened.

Here's the latest Austin film-related news.

• Just a reminder that our Crazy Heart DVD contest ends tonight at 11:59 pm. You don't have to write anything fancy, folks, and it's a mighty nice DVD, so head over there and post something, whether it's "I loved Willie Nelson in Wag the Dog" or "I saw A Scanner Darkly, and Graham Reynolds's score was great" or even "I once spotted Lyle Lovett in the audience at an Austin Film Festival panel."
• I couldn't find any Austin movies at Cannes this year, but luckily Charles Ealy at Austin Movie Blog noticed one film with a local connection in the Directors Fortnight. Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman (La Danse), was here in 2008 to shoot a movie about Richard Lord's Gym, titled Boxing Gym. This is especially interesting to me since I used to work out at Lord's Gym back in -- wow, about eight years ago. I still miss the place and if I had a more flexible schedule would be back there in a minute, literally sweating my butt off (no A/C). Can't wait to see the film.
• If you're looking for a movie-related road trip this weekend, head over to the DFW area this weekend to catch one of the three screenings in the Bengali Association of Dallas/Fort Worth Film Exhibition. The films are being shown in 35mm prints at the Cinemark Webb Chapel, and a couple of the filmmakers will be present. The website also promises hot samosas and tea with your movies.

If you missed the Reel Women short films that played during SXSW this year, you can catch special encore screenings of these locally produced films on Friday night, April 30, at Picture Box Studios. The shorts are divided into two sections, one of which screens at 6:30 pm, one at 8:30. Many of the filmmakers are in the above photo.

Local nonprofit organization Reel Women provides support for women at all levels of experience in the film and video industries, and their member filmmakers along with cast and crew from the shorts will be at the event to answer questions. Admission is $5 for one screening, or enjoy a double feature for $8. Reel Women members are admitted for a discounted price of $3 for one screening or $5 for both screenings.

I didn't attend the screenings at SXSW, and am looking forward to seeing these films on Friday. I find the synopsis of Hung Up to be quite intriguing, done in a film noir style and told from the point of view of a dress worn by the femme fatale. The filmmaker is Erin Randall, who has also worked as a costumer on several Robert Rodriguez films. It was voted an "Audience Favorite" by attendees at the SXSW screenings.

Based on a true story, The Basketball Diaries (1995) chronicles the life-changing times of poet Jim Carroll's youth in the early 1960s. As a talented basketball player at a Manhattan Catholic school, Jim showed lots of promise for a professional career. However, his recreational activities with high-school buddies embroiled him in petty crime and hard drugs, including heroin. Now available on Blu-ray from Palm Pictures, The Basketball Diaries provides an interesting retrospective on Leonard DiCaprio's early acting career. After winning several awards for the 1993 critically acclaimed What's Eating Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio took on the intense dramatic role of Jim Carroll.

As much as Jim enjoys basketball and writing in his diary, he spends more time hanging out and causing trouble with his friends including Mickey (Mark Wahlberg), Pedro (James Madio), and Neutron (Patrick McGaw). His best friend Bobby (Michael Imperioli) fights a losing battle with leukemia, and Jim tries to bring some small pleasures to his dying friend. Don't be mistaken -- Jim's not a good boy gone bad, it's evident right away that he has no respect for authority and a penchant for drugs. His mother (Lorraine Bracco) can't understand what's wrong with her son, and after he spirals out of control she kicks him out of their home.

DiCaprio's portrayal of Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries is brutal and raw, often gut wrenching. As engrossing as a bad car accident, the film hooks viewers into watching as Jim sinks deeper and deeper into the seedy and frightening underworld of addiction. Mark Wahlberg delivers as the tough buddy who sticks with his friends until his drug-induced zealousness results in the death of a drug dealer. The late Bruno Kirby plays Jim's basketball coach who wants to get to know him better in a more intimate way. Although I'm not typically a fan of Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), her small role as a dopehead who will do anything to score a fix is underrepresented. Ernie Hudson (Congo, Ghostbusters) as Reggie would also have been welcome with more screen time. Jim Carroll himself oddly appears in a cameo role true to his life of this era.

Cine Las Americas is not quite ready to wrap up, with three more days remaining. That doesn't mean the films playing at the MACC, Regal Metropolitan and Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar are any less compelling.

Manuel Carballo's La Profecia De Los Justos (The Last of the Just) was a Mexican/Spanish joint effort religious thriller along the lines of The Da Vinci Code centering on a man who finds he's at the heart of an ancient prophesy. While it telegraphed the twists too much, and had some of the most frustrating subtitles I've seen in a while, it's the kind of film that makes one want to see more from these filmmakers. Based on the Q&A, they want to bring genre filmmaking back to Mexico and make the world stop seeing "Mexican" as a genre itself.  I wish I recorded the audio of the Q&A, it was worth listening to on its own. 

Rigoberto Pérezcano's Norteado (Northless) is probably my favorite narrative feature of Cine Las Americas so far.  A recurring theme has been "low and slow" this festival, and Norteado epitomizes that, with the the only musical soundtrack coming from jukeboxes or radios, save the beginning and the end.  The plot is simple: an Oaxacan man wants to cross the borders. Between his many attempts, the bonds he makes in Tijuana force him and his newfound friends to confront their relationships. It's a simple, beautifully told story that's deftly handled, as it could easily be tedious.

I love giving stuff away, especially nice new things that people might actually want. Fortunately, Slackerwood has something to give away this week -- a Crazy Heart DVD. Want a chance at winning it? The details (and fine print) are available after the jump.

If you don't know anything about Crazy Heart, check out my DVD review, or Debbie's review from the film's theatrical release. Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for his performance as Bad Blake, a Texas singer-songwriter on the decline. Local musician Ryan Bingham also won an Oscar for the song he co-wrote with T-Bone Burnett for the film, "The Weary Kind." Fans of Texas music should definitely take a look at this movie, even though it wasn't actually shot in Texas (I believe New Mexico doubled for Houston).

If you want a chance at winning the Crazy Heart DVD, leave a comment on this entry about the following: 

I think I may have made another convert for Cine Las Americas tonight. Well, technically this morning.  I took a cab home because I use public transport and Capital Metro stops running near the Regal Metropolitan before the 8 pm is out, so I had to cab it back home. I missed tonight's party, but I like my sleep, something I've been missing a lot of lately. On opening night I had been Miz Cranky Pants big time, and I don't want to do that again.

Anyway, the cab driver was interested in the marquee sign, so I told him about it and he seemed very interested. Maybe he'll be at the Regal Metropolitan on Sunday, or he may go to the Mexican American Cultural Centers for the free screenings there. 

It was a good day; I caught most of the Hecho en Tejas shows, from The Red Queen to Shades of the Border, a documentary that started off focusing on the problems of adopting orphans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, but ended up covering the racial and ethnic issues on the Dominican side of that border. 

Adapted from the Vertigo comic by the same name, action flick The Losers is a tale of betrayal, deception and revenge. At the center of the plot is an elite black ops U.S. Special Forces team, which tackles search-and-destroy missions across the globe. Things get complicated when a mission into the Bolivian jungle becomes a double-cross, and the team is left stranded in the jungle, presumed dead. All this takes place in the opening credits, and the remaining 80-plus minutes of action, directed by Sylvain White, follow the team as they track down the enemy that betrayed them.

The central characters in The Losers are the Special Forces team members, including "Colonel" Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), tech guy Jensen (Chris Evans), tactical Roque (Idris Elba), driver Pooch (Columbus Short), and sharpshooter Cougar (Óscar Jaenada). The group must first focus their efforts on getting out of Bolivia and back into the U.S. to track down Max (Jason Patric), the ruthless rogue CIA agent who is intent on starting a high-tech global conflict.

Yet again, Hollywood thinks that it's cute to insult women and those who love romance by offering up films like The Back-up Plan, starring Jennifer Lopez (Gigli, Monster in Law) and Alex O'Loughlin (Moonlight, Oyster Farmer, Feed).

The opening credits warn the audience this is a two-dimensional fairy tale, with a vapid fashionsita walking around seeing everything turn into baby references. Then we get to meet Zoe (Lopez), who likes baby-doll dresses and nosebleed stilettos and while dressing like a model, just can't find The One. Zoe opts to go solo and have a baby on her own ... and then has an improbable "meet cute" in a cab with Stan (O'Loughlin), the guy of her dreams. You can imagine the rest.

The Back-up Plan feels like a sitcom, and it's not surprising; writer Kate Angelo was a producer on Will & Grace. Director Alan Poul (Swingtown, Six Feet Under) may have some decent TV credits, but none of the brightness in his previous projects found their way into The Back-up Plan.

This week's free screening from Austin Cinematheque is a 35mm print of the 1955 Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis comedy Artists and Models. The cast also includes Shirley Maclaine and Anita Ekberg.

Imagine waking up one day and realizing you were the child star of the worst movie ever made.  That realization inspired the making of the documentary appropriately titled Best Worst Movie. 

In 1990, an exceptionally bad sequel was made in Utah, and it was terrible on every possible level, a perfect storm of ineptness. Eighteen years later, Troll 2 had become a cult classic. Little did Michael Stephenson realize that he starred in one of the most absurdly beloved films of the twentieth century that epitomizes the cult classic phenomenon.  

Stephenson, who was only 12 when he starred in Troll 2, quickly learned that it's not so much his story as that of the rest of the cast and the fans. Focusing on George Hardy, an Alabama dentist who auditioned on a lark and is absolutely thrilled with being in the worst movie ever made, Best Worst Movie introduces the audience to the film and the often outlandish cast of characters involved in the making of the film. Hardy is certainly a character in real life, but he's just one of many. The rest of the cast of characters is almost as strange as their characters in the movie, as Stephenson discovers during reunion interviews. 

The 13th annual Cine Las Americas International Film Festival kicked off last night with Amorosa Soledad (Lovely Loneliness), an Argentinean answer to mumblecore featuring a broken-hearted hypochondriac taking a vow of solitude but finding that life gets in the way. Starring Inés Efron, nothing much happens, but it's a pretty 82 minutes anyway. Amorosa Soledad features a cameo by Ricardo Darin (Nine Queens), who also stars in The Secret in Their Eyes, which will have a theatrical run in Austin this summer. 

Today's Cine Las Americas lineup includes screenings at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, the Mexican American Cultural Center and two screens at Regal Metropolitan. The Regal Metropolitan is the place to be today, and here's a preview of the choices you'll have to make there:

The San Francisco Women's Film Institute (WFI) presents the WFI Shorts Tour, "Films by Women that Entertain, Inspire and Motivate." Out of 300 inspiring entries, 11 films were selected to be premiered. The diverse selection of shorts at the tour celebrates the exceptional contributions of women in the world of cinema and represents a convergence of films from around the globe, including the U.S., Italy, France and China.  

The tour includes an Academy Award-winning short and a cross-section of socially conscious films that will entertain, inspire and motivate audience-goers to take action. The films explore the search for self-discovery, the pain of love and loss, and the struggle to meet society’s expectations of beauty. As well as a range of current political and social topics -- from the growing threat of climate change, to the plight of an orca whale forced to live in an aquarium, to education for undocumented immigrants. 

Screenings as follows:

Best Worst Movie director (and Troll 2 child actor) Michael Paul Stephenson will relate some true stories about Best Worst Movie and Troll 2 ... and then The New Movement Theater will use his stories as the basis for some live sketch comedy. Admission is free.

Last September, just before Fantastic Fest, the Slackerwood gang recorded a very memorable podcast with Alamo Drafthouse staffer Zack Carlson. Like many Alamo staffers, Zack wears many hats: shorts programmer for Fantastic Fest, lead programmer for Alamo Drafthouse in general and the guy who intros and programs Terror Tuesday. During the podcast, he quietly mentioned that he was finishing up a book he's been working on for the last five years that would be out some time in 2010, so "published author" is about to join Zack's other titles.

Since Jette and I were at Alison Macor's book signing over the weekend, it got me thinking: I hadn't heard about Zack's book in a while. I asked him about it yesterday, and guess what? Not only did I find out that the book's available for pre-order, but I got a little teaser about a special event scheduled to happen in Austin during this year's Fantastic Fest.

Edited by Zack Carlson and fellow Austinite Bryan Connolly, Destroy All Movies!!!: The Complete Guide to Punks on Film is a reference book that provides a complete guide (900 pages!) to every punk or new waver to hit the big screen, including interviews and stills. Fantagraphic Books is the publisher. The description on Amazon makes it look like a must-have for anyone who calls themselves a cinephile, or an Alamo-ite.

See the 1985 film Commando, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong, complete with  live pyrotechnics in the theater and other surprises.

See F.W. Murnau's 1929 silent film Sunrise, which won the first ever Oscar for Best Picture, accompanied by music performed live by My Education.

The Mayor's Book Club is holding a special screening, with free admission, of the 1971 movie  Harold and Maude. What does this dark culty comedy have to do with the Mayor's Book Club? The following explanation is from the Alamo website:

"This year, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell chose Amigoland by local author Oscar Casares. Mr. Casares' novel wrestles with issues of aging and family isolation through a story about two stubborn, estranged and aging brothers who live in a small town on the Mexican border.

"Although far removed from the Mexican border, Hal Ashby's HAROLD & MAUDE wrestles with similar themes. To gain some insight into Mr. Casares' novel, please join us for a screening to the 1971 classic followed by a panel discussion organized by the Mayor's Book Club.

"The panel: Stages of Life specialists Shirley Haulotte (LCSW, chaplain and social worker at Lighthouse Hospice) and Dr. Steven Sonnenberg, M.D. (Department of Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine) will discuss both the film and Mr. Cesares' novel. Pauline Strong (director of UT's Humanities Institute) will moderate."

I've been a fan of mumblecore films since the genre arose in the early 2000s. While they are works of fiction, these low-budget, talky, relationship-centric films are often uncannily realistic. The charm of mumblecore is that the characters are everyday people who encounter everyday situations; they could be our friends and family members, and their stories could be our stories.

The 2009 film Beeswax, the third feature from filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, is an exceptional example of the genre. Now available on DVD, Beeswax is the antitheses of mainstream filmmaking. A slow-paced, narrowly focused, mostly plotless examination of human relationships, it has nary a Hollywood-glamorous character, formulaic romance or action sequence. Beeswax focuses on the ordinary -- but it does so with such skillful attention to detail that the film is in many ways extraordinary.

Bear with me while I describe what passes for the plot of Beeswax. The film follows two twentysomething twin sisters, Jeannie and Lauren, played by real-life twins Tilly and Maggie Hatcher. Jeannie, a paraplegic since childhood who uses a wheelchair, is co-owner of an Austin vintage clothing store, while Lauren is between jobs and considering teaching English overseas. Tensions mount between Jeannie and her business partner, Amanda (Anne Dodge), as their management styles conflict and communication problems cause repeated clashes between the two. When Amanda hints that the conflict may give rise to a lawsuit, a panicked Jeannie enlists help from her ex-boyfriend, Merrill (Alex Karpovsky), a recent law-school graduate who is studying for the bar exam. In true mumblecore fashion, the two reluctantly meet to discuss the lawsuit but end up in bed together, as if to avoid dealing with the problem for at least one night.

Rise and shine, and let's see what the Austin film world has brought us this morning!

• The Austin-shot, Robert Rodriguez-written and co-directed movie Machete now has a release date: September 3, aka Labor Day weekend. Austin Movie Blog has more details about the movie that had its germination in a fake trailer featured in the movie Grindhouse. We're hoping Machete will fare better in theaters (and get better release treatment) than another Fox film shot in Austin that opened on the same weekend in 2006, Idiocracy.
• Dallas International Film Festival wrapped this weekend, and several Austin-connected films were included in the festival's awards. American: The Bill Hicks Story, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year, picked up the Texas Filmmaker Award -- the two filmmakers are British, but Hicks was from Houston and many of the interviewees were Texan. Austin filmmaker Amy Grappell picked up yet another award -- Best Short Film -- for her documentary Quadrangle, which premiered at Sundance earlier this year. And finally, Bob Byington's locally shot comedy Harmony and Me, which I reviewed at AFF last year, won a Special Jury Prize.

It's only mid-April, but the first blockbuster hopeful has arrived, with SXSW 2010's Opening-Night film Kick-Ass expecting to kick some box-office ass this this weekend. Officially the summer blockbusters aren't opening til May, but something tells me that Kick-Ass, a very well-named film, is going to leave some lasting impressions at the box office. 

The Art of the Steal (pictured above) -- In 1922, The Barnes Foundation was scorned as a repository of  "horrible, debased art" but after the turn of the millennium, the collection of Renoirs, Cezannes, Matisses, Picassos, Modiglianis and Van Goghs are the subject of a "rancorous" court battle.  This wasn't on my radar, but the synopsis certainly caught my interest enough to be willing to sit in Austin's least comfortable theater to see it. (Dobie)

City Island -- Andy Garcia is a corrections officer secretly studying to be an actor, whose life and that of his family change when Steven Strait's ex-con enters their lives. Debbie has the full scoop in her review. (Arbor)

In the comedic drama City Island, writer/director Raymond de Felitta pairs Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies together as Vince and Joyce Rizzo, a couple that cause more damage by hiding their aspirations than by opening up to one another. Interestingly enough, in The Man from Elysian Fields, Garcia portrayed a man hiding his secret career as a male escort from his wife, played by Margulies. However, City Island is much lighter and palatable fare and with a broader appeal to viewers. 

The Rizzos appear to live a mundane life on the outskirts of the Bronx on City Island. As a corrections officer, Vince Rizzo (Garcia) takes particular interest in young ex-con Tony Nardella (Steven Strait) and decides to bring him home in his custody. Turns out that Vince has many secrets that he keeps from his wife, most importantly that he has an illegitimate son -- guess who? -- and that his weekly poker game is really an acting class. He's afraid of his wife Joyce's (Margulies) temper, although his deception backfires in that she thinks he's having a affair. Meanwhile, his daughter Vivianne (Dominik García-Lorido) is hiding the fact that she lost her college scholarship and is working as a stripper to earn money for school.

With Kick-Ass opening on Friday, it seemed like time to revisit the film's screening on the opening night of SXSW. This year's festival started with a record crowd turning up for Kick-Ass, with many of the film's stars and creators in town. Although Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine), pictured above, had not been to SXSW before, he revealed that this wasn't his first time in Austin. He admitted that he loved Austin and had planned to move here after college, but landed in Los Angeles instead.

To honor 4/20, Alamo is screening (at 4:20 pm, natch), a new documentary about medical marijuana in southern California, How Weed Won the West. Looks like local personality Alex Jones is in the film.

Alamo Village has started showing "digital packages" of Universal films on its spiffy 4K digital screens. This week, the theater has a restored version of Scarface, Brian De Palma's 1983 remake of the Thirties gangster film, starring Al Pacino.

Alamo Village has started showing "digital packages" of Universal films on its spiffy 4K digital screens. This week, the theater has a restored version of Scarface, Brian De Palma's 1983 remake of the Thirties gangster film, starring Al Pacino.

To celebrate Earth Day, Austin Film Festival is hosting a special screening of the 2008 documentary The Garden, about the fate of a large community garden in the Los Angeles area. Admission is free, but you must RSVP by April 20.

On Monday night, I headed to Alamo Drafthouse Ritz for an evening titled "Zellneroids! The Zellner Brothers Short Film Cavalcade," not sure what to expect. I did not expect live tap-dancing and singing, that's for sure.

Nathan and David Zellner are Austin filmmakers who have been making films in Austin, primarily shorts, for more than 10 years. Their short films have played festivals around the world, including Sundance. Sundance was also where their feature film Goliath premiered in 2008. I reviewed Goliath earlier this year when it was released on DVD.

From the UT Film Institute (The Cassidy Kids, Elvis and Annabelle) comes the powerful drama Dance with the One, which premiered at SXSW Film Festival last month and screened this week at the Dallas International Film Festival. Actor Michael Dolan (Hamburger Hill, Biloxi Blues) makes his directorial debut with a story co-written by Smith Henderson and Jon Marc Smith. As thrilling and suspenseful as a crime caper, it's really the family drama and determination of the main character that engage viewers.

In Dance with the One, small-time pot dealer Nate (Gabriel Luna) is in the business to support his family. Scarred by the tragic death of their mother, Nate wants to get his little brother Sitter (Mike Davis) away from his alcoholic dad Owen (Gary McCleery), as well as himself and his childhood sweetheart Nikki (Xochitl Romero) out of Texas to Oregon. Nate takes the opportunity to help his boss Bobby (Paul Saucido) -- who's also Nikki's dad -- to take care of a situation with a harder substance, hoping the money he earns will be the final push to freedom. However, things go wrong when the drugs go missing, and Nate must find a way to protect his family from the silent partner out for his investment and blood.

The film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is an odd but effective take on police corruption and the horrors of drug addiction. The film, now available on DVD and Blu-ray, combines a standard police procedural with elements of quirky, drug-fueled surrealism in a dark commentary about the fine -- and often blurred -- line between police work and criminal behavior.

Set in post-Katrina New Orleans, the story follows Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), a New Orleans police sergeant who injures his back while trying to rescue an inmate from a flooded jail cell. McDonagh is promoted to lieutenant for his heroism, but along with the promotion comes the prospect of a lifetime of debilitating back pain.

Six months after his promotion, McDonagh is assigned to investigate the execution-style murders of five Senegalese immigrants. By this time, he's already deeply addicted to painkillers, supplementing his prescriptions with OxyContin, cocaine and whatever else he can pilfer from the evidence room or score from suspects he detains. But McDonagh's substance abuse is only one of his problems; when not hustling his next fix, he's begging his bookie (Brad Dourif) to loan him enough money for just one more bet or paying a visit to his equally drug-addled girlfriend, Frankie (Eva Mendes), a high-dollar prostitute.

As McDonagh leads the murder investigation, it's obvious that he's a very skilled cop. But his true talent seems to lie in complicating his own life. As his gambling debts mount, he goes to extreme lengths to pay them off. He has a run-in with one of Frankie's johns, an abusive but wealthy and well connected thug who vows to get revenge when McDonagh steals his money. McDonagh also takes his rogue-cop interrogation methods way too far, and soon both his job and his life are in jeopardy.

Alamo is showing the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme film Street Fighter in "Hecklevision" -- here's how Alamo describes the proceedings:

"Pull out your phone and you won't even need to remember any special combinations of half circles and strong punch buttons - just type in your heckles and they'll appear on screen right below M. Bison. You can launch your textual fireballs from the comfort of your seat throughout the whole movie, and afterward we'll all go out into the alley behind the theater and uppercut each other until the pain goes away."

Filmmaker Stephanie Rothman will be at this special screening of her 1970 film The Student Nurses. Attendees can keep their seats after the film and see another of Rothman's films, Group Marriage, at no extra charge. Let's just let Lars Nilsen describe the film and filmmaker, I'm not sure I could do it justice:

"This is a jaw-dropping social, cultural and political document about contemporary attitudes toward medical ethics. Oh, and there are sexy nurses too, you can't have one without the other. Like many films produced by Roger Corman's New World pictures it's kind of an ideological trojan horse. Men who were lured in by the sight of four doe-eyed young nurses on the poster ended up receiving a massive injection of social awareness courtesy of Dr. Stephanie Rothman, one of the few women working as a writer and director in the 1970's. While the novelty of a female working in what was perceived as a man's game has interest for us, her gender isn't even the most interesting aspect of Rothman's films - it's a sensitivity to all her characters, of both genders - her conflicts are always human, never schematic. This film is structured like a soap opera with several character arcs dramatically intersecting as we peek in on the day to day trials and tribulations of a group of student nurses. Rothman and company touch on themes that are still controversial today -- abortion, euthanasia, inequality of health care and more. The left-wing stance might seem strident if the film weren't so entertaining on its own terms. You'll enjoy it so much you won't even noticed you've been radicalized."

This month's Girlie Night selection at Alamo is the 1988 comedy Big, directed by Penny Marshall. Here's what Girlie Night programmer Sarah Pitre has to say about the evening's festivities:

"Since Girlie Night is all about the squee, I couldn't be more excited to watch BIG with an audience who wants to hug Tom Hanks as much as I do. You better believe we'll be playing 'Chopsticks' on a floor piano (I am not even kidding!) and eating baby corn in the most mature way possible. I read it. I said it. I stole my momma's credit! I'm cool. I'm hot. Sock me in the stomach three more times!"

I love it ... bluebonnets in full bloom and all the pollen your sinuses can hold. At least the weather's been pretty summery. But it is kinda warm; I found that out when my AC was on the fritz last weekend. But it's all better now, and I'm ready for some more movies, how about you?

The Black Waters of Echo's Pond -- Friends on holiday on a private island ... you know there's a horror element that has to come into play here, right?  With a title like that, it's fully embracing the B-movie elements, but with a small distributor, we didn't get a chance to see it before it found a theater. Starring Robert Patrick. (wide)

Ca$h -- Sean Bean helmer about a guy recovering what's unlawfully his. This one has a bigger distributor but it didn't screen in advance either. (Cinemark Tinseltown 17)

Date Night -- A too-comfortably married couple on the date night from hell, starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. It could have been great, but gets the Hollywood "make it funnier" treatment. Read my review for more. (wide)

Local film writer Joe O'Connell will interview author Alison Macor about her new book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas.

As part of its exhibition "Manuel Álvarez Bravo and His Contemporaries: Photographs from the Collections of the Harry Ransom Center and The Blanton Museum of Art," the Blanton Museum is screening the 1947 film La Diosa Arrodillada. Admission is $5 for the general public and $3 for museum members and UT faculty, students and staf.

This month, Austin Film Society's Avant Cinema series focuses on the work of Caroline Koebel. From the AFS website:

"Avant Cinema features Flicker On Off, her [Koebel's] current series re-purposing big-budget movies as a platform to engage world affairs, including global warming, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, and the Haditha Massacre. Flicker On Off has been presented at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the European Media Art Festival, Scope Art Fair, Video Art Festival of Camagüey, and the Festival of (In)appropriation. Also showing is a survey of titles -- in both 16mm and digital projection -- selected by the filmmaker for how they interact with Flicker On Off."

File this under Couldn't Be Happier Unless I Had Angel Money to Do This Myself... Austin-based B-Side has been acquired by Slated, and the much missed B-Side Festival Genius has been licensed to long time indie nonprofit IFP.

Just announced Thursday night, the film community rejoiced that the best technological tool for film festivals has been revived. People were downright twitterpated, you could say. I'm re-using the same picture Jette used when she had to announce the sad news about B-Side closing its doors, because, well, B-Side founder Chris Hyams looks equally celebratory and defiant, and that attitude seems to have helped B-Side find a new home.

Personally I could not be happier for Chris and the core members of his team (Chris Holland, Jesse Trussell and Mike McCown) who are all back to work a mere six weeks after the unexpected announcement that B-Side was closing its offices. Hyams and McCown go to Slated, Holland and Trussell to IFP. I speak for Slackerwood and perhaps all of Austin’s film geeks in saying congratulations, guys. These last few weeks must’ve been tough, but we’re very glad to see you land on your feet, and even gladder that a great company and a great tool aren’t left languishing.

If you’re not familiar with IFP, they’re the oldest and largest organization of -- and advocate for -- independent filmmakers.  Slated is a New York-based entertainment and media company. 

Alamo Drafthouse has decided to start a new Alamo Jazz Brunch series, and is kicking it off with Woody Allen's 1973 comedy Sleeper, which has a terrific jazz soundtrack including music from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Stanley Smith and the Jazz Pharoahs will perform live in the theater before the film.

Alamo Village has started showing "digital packages" of Universal films on its spiffy 4K digital screens. This week, the theater has a restored version of the 1978 John Landis comedy Animal House, a great movie to watch with a crowd. Have you seen our photos of Tim Matheson and Bruce McGill reunited at last month's Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards?

Alamo Village has started showing "digital packages" of Universal films on its spiffy 4K digital screens. This week, the theater has a restored version of the 1978 John Landis comedy Animal House, a great movie to watch with a crowd. Have you seen our photos of Tim Matheson and Bruce McGill reunited at last month's Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards?

This week's Music Monday selection is the great cult classic Phantom of the Paradise, the 1974 film written and directed by Brian De Palma, starring Paul Williams and Jessica Harper.

I have to say that Forbidden Zone is the most bizarre-yet-entertaining film I have ever seen ... or at least it was the first truly strange cult movie I ever saw, and those things stick with you. The 1982 film was directed by Richard Elfman and the cast includes Susan Tyrrell, Herve Villechaize and Danny Elfman (as Satan). Here's an article I wrote the last time the movie played in Austin.

Actress/artist Susan Tyrrell will be at the screening. In addition, you can buy a slightly pricier ticket that also gets you into an afterparty and art show at The Highball, featuring Tyrrell's erotic paintings and music from The Octopus Project.

If you thought Austin was film-fest free until Cine Las Americas starts later this month, think again ... and get ready to buy some tickets. The eighth annual Austin Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) runs from Saturday night, April 10, through Friday afternoon, April 16.

The festival kicks off Saturday at 6:30 pm at the Arbor with a Havdalah ceremony followed by the movie Lemon Tree (aka Etz Lemon). Lemon Tree is about a Palestinian woman fighting for her lemon grove when an Israeli politician moves next door and wants it removed. The ceremony and screening are free and open to the public. In fact, this year's AJFF includes a number of free films throughout the week.

On the Friday that SXSW 2010 got underway, I spent the afternoon in a sports bar with a bunch of Cinematical reporters, supposedly to talk about our assignments but in actuality to eat junk food and argue about Kick Ass and Dogtooth and to tease our editors. Occasional Slackerwood reporter and Film Festival Secrets author Chris Holland was also in the bar with filmmaker Mark Potts, whose comedy Simmons on Vinyl I reviewed at Austin Film Festival last year.

Chris and Mark asked me if I would step outside with them for a moment so they could interview me on camera. I was hopped up on sugar and fried food and didn't actually ask what they were going to interview me about, but was thrilled that someone wanted to shoot video with me in it. We all stood out on a downtown sidewalk and Chris interviewed me while Mark shot video.

This is the result of that interview. I would like to say that I would have been slightly less ditzy if I'd thought about the questions beforehand ... but maybe not. If you've heard the Slackerwood podcasts, you know that I am like that all the time.

I started poking around the web this week to see if details on any summer film series were up yet, and look what I came across ... the Whole Foods Let's Retake Our Plates Film Series. 

Apparently this isn't just a local event; Whole Foods is sponsoring screenings around the country. But unlike in the other cities, the movies in Austin are free. This is a perfect time to put thought into what you put on your plate, with the warmer weather making people crave fresher food.

The local schedule features three nights of provocative documentaries: 

No Impact Man is a provocative documentary on one man's plan to have no impact on the planet, and how it impacts his family, and the planet. 

Part of the Whole Foods "Let's Retake Our Plates" Film Series, Food, Inc. is a provocative look at agricorps and how the farming industry is suffocating independent farmers at the expense of the quality of our food. 

I've missed John Pierson's master class at The University of Texas this year. I've enrolled in the master class several times, and have always enjoyed the guests from the film industry that Pierson interviews each week. He's brought a variety of speakers to Austin, from film-festival programmers to local film critics to actors such as Steve Buscemi to well-known filmmakers such as Kevin Smith and Ross McElwee. The "celebrity" speakers are always fun, but I naturally have a soft spot for the local guests ... one of my favorites was a very candid evening with Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League a few years ago.

Last week's class was one I was especially sorry to miss: author Alison Macor, whose book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids was recently published, discussed Austin film history with local filmmaker Richard Linklater. I hope this is one of the sessions that KUT recorded and will air this summer, as they've done with other sessions from Pierson's classes.

You can read more of contributor Laurie Coker's SXSW reviews and features at True View Reviews.

When the PR rep for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo told me not to offer my senior students passes to see the film, my curiosity piqued. Now that I have seen the Swedish (subtitled) mystery thriller, I understand completely. The film will mostly likely garner a NC-17 rating because of some graphic sex scenes and disturbing subject matter. As a huge fan of mysteries, the story intrigued me overall, even though some aspects are predictable, but I'm inclined to admit I found some scenes tough to watch.

Based on Stieg Larsson's novel Män som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women) about a journalist and a young female hacker, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo brings together several unlikely characters, connecting them by way of a 40-year mystery. The story begins with financial reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) being sentenced for three months in prison for filing a supposedly fraudulent story about a well-known businessman, but hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) knows he was set up. From there, the tale moves to Blomkvist being hired by millionaire Henrik Vagner (Sven-Bertil Taube) to investigate the disappearance of his favorite niece (Harriet) when she was 16.

As the Austin Chronicle listing reads: "It's the height of irony for this film to be screening in the very same theatre whose shutdown it documents." Austin filmmaker Kyle Henry made the 1999 documentary University, Inc. about the Texas Union Film Program, which was shut down more than 10 years ago in a manner very similar to the way we're seeing the Cactus Cafe and Union Informal Classes being discontinued now. For more details, check out this interview with Henry from Kimberley Jones at the Austin Chronicle.

The screening is open to the public and admission is free. Interestingly enough, there is no listing for it on the Texas Union event calendar.

A 35mm print of George Miller's 1981 film The Road Warrior, aka Mad Max 2, is screening at Alamo Ritz. Return to the days when Mel Gibson was young and attractive and didn't say much.

A 35mm print of George Miller's 1981 film The Road Warrior, aka Mad Max 2, is screening at Alamo Ritz. Return to the days when Mel Gibson was young and attractive and didn't say much.

Director Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk) pays homage to stop-motion king Ray Harryhausen with his own version of Clash of the Titans, based on Harryhausen's 1981 original. Harryhausen's films from the 1950s through 1970s were full of amazing monsters and stop-motion action, most notably Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and One Million Years B.C.  Like Harryhausen, Leterrier brings to life the mythical world of the Greek gods through larger-than-life monsters and the golden ethereal world of Mt. Olympus.

The 2010 version of Clash of the Titans begins with the infant Perseus discovered afloat at sea by a poor fisherman. Perseus (Sam Worthington) turns out to be the son of Zeus but is raised as a man, and watches helpless as his family dies from the wrath of Hades (Ralph Fiennes), god of the underworld. Mankind is defiant, and the gods retaliate by allowing Hades to teach a lesson to the arrogant king and queen of Argos. With his anger against Hades fueling him, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat the Kraken before it either destroys Argos or takes the sacrifice of the princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos). Meanwhile, Hades plots to seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and unleash hell on earth.

This was my sixth SXSW Film Festival and my fifth as a distinguished member of the press. This was also the first SXSW that I seriously felt like an editor here at Slackerwood. If you look at our SXSW coverage list, you'll see why. We've written 50 articles during and after SXSW so far, not counting the guides and interviews done beforehand. We were able to run five articles a day some days, which is really fucking incredible for a site that used to be dead for two weeks at a time because Chris and I felt too busy or slackery to update it. We had unexpected contributors who pitched in and added to the fun. It did mean more time on the computer and less time in the theater, but I still saw so many wonderful movies that I can't complain.

Let's get to the fun part. I'm taking the slackery way out and giving you a list of my SXSW 2010 experiences.

Favorite movies coming to a theater near you: Micmacs, the latest film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), which I liked so much that I saw at a press screening and then at the official SXSW screening. Okay, part of that was because the line for Cold Weather was too long and I knew I wouldn't get in, but still. Here's my Cinematical review. Expect to see Micmacs in American theaters sometime this summer. I also really liked Steven Soderbergh's film about Spalding Gray, And Everything Is Going Fine, which I hope to review soon (we'll see). And the Duplass brothers' film Cyrus was quite enjoyable (my review), and should be hitting theaters this summer too.