Contributors's blog

A note from Jette: I'd like to introduce you all to our newest Slackerwood contributor, Paul Gandersman. Paul is an amazing photographer who attended the Predators red carpet and world premiere. My own red-carpet photography skills have come a long way since my first experience with them, but Paul's photos leave mine in the shade. He captured some great photos of Predators producers Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan, director Nimrod Antal and star Adrien Brody. In addition, red carpet appearances included a couple of actors from previous Troublemaker Studios films who Joe O'Connell tells us are about to star in blacktino, a movie produced by Avellan (that I'd love to hear more about): Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids, World's Greatest Dad) and Jeff Fahey (Planet Terror).

I'm posting these photos without any descriptions in between them -- I think they stand on their own very well. For those of you needing a hint, you can mouse over the photos themselves. Enjoy.

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

Throughout the screening of MacGruber at SXSW this year, the audience laughed riotously and cheered. Afterwards we had the pleasure of meeting the cast in a Q&A session and hilarity abounded. Admittedly, I chuckled during the film, based on a Saturday Night Live sketch that spoofs one of my favorite old televisions shows, MacGyver. Still, I am not into silly, sometimes sick, stupid, over-the-top humor like my husband, so some of the film had me head in hand, thinking "Are you kidding me?" To be fair, I am not familiar with the skits on SNL created and made famous by comedians Will Forte and Kristen Wiig, so I went in not knowing what to expect, but if the audience reaction says anything, I most definitely was in the minority that night.

Forte plays MacGruber, a pseudo-MacGyver character who sports a mullet-like haircut and a cherry-red muscle car and seems permanently trapped in a particularly terrible 80s action movie or sitcom. In the SNL sketches, MacGruber's entire life consisted of trying to defuse something, only to be distracted just long enough for the bomb to go off and kill them all, but this would not do in a feature-length film, especially one hoping to garner sequels. So in the movie, he is a sort of uber-commando hired to stop an evil plot by a villain named Cunth (Val Kilmer) – yes, Cunth. The villain's name basically speaks volume to the kind of humor that makes up the rightly R-rated MacGruber.

[Text: Jette Kernion; photos: Chris Hamberlin]

I was lucky to run into Chris Hamberlin at Marfa Film Festival this year. I know Chris from our tech-writing day jobs, but she's also an excellent photographer. The photos I took in Marfa pale in comparison. Chris offered to contribute some of her best photos from the film festival, and here they are, with some brief explanations from myself.

If you want to see more of Chris's photos, from Marfa as well as other subjects/locations, I suggest checking out her Flickr set.

The image at the top is a metal sculpture from Marfa artist Marc Declercq.

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.

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

I do not like watching concerts on film or television. Just ask my husband. Unless the movie has some special draw, like that I want to share the experience with him because he loves music, I avoid concerts that are not live. I also have a huge problem with most music videos. This Movie is Broken, which is having its world premiere at SXSW, is basically a long, long music video with a tiny, interesting but all too brief story woven in between songs, performed in concert format by Toronto's famous indy rock band Broken Social Scene.

Directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Don McKeller, This Movie is Broken had me engrossed in the story of its characters, but since the film's main footage shows the band in performance, I felt frustrated and dissatisfied. However, I did like the story, what little there was of it.

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

One of the things that never fails to surprise me for good or bad, when I attend SXSW or any other film festival, is the fact that some extremely crappy films, like say last year's Observe and Report, can get funding and distribution from the likes of Warner Brothers and other far better films have to seek private promoters or never get released at all. Barry Munday, a movie from filmmaker Chris D'Arienzo, making his delightful directorial debut, still waits to be picked up by a major studio. It is a remarkably simple and entertaining film about a man who, after waking up to find his testicles gone, discovers what it really mean to be a man. It is a coming of age for a thirtysomething-year-old and it is good.

Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Hard Candy), whom I had the pleasure to interview at SXSW, plays the titular character, a fellow who envisions himself as a real ladies man and who appears to be perpetually stuck in the 90s. Wilson himself refers to Barry as "definitely douchey, but not a bad guy." And he's right.

Contributor Rod Paddock returns to Slackerwood, this time with a review.

Every once in a while at film festivals, you come across a film with a strange title, some spare time and if you are lucky a seat in the theatre. A lot of times these movies turn out to be lumps of coal, but sometimes, these movies prove to be a gem in the rough. Well, I had some time on my hands this week during SXSW and found a 100 percent hidden gem: The Parking Lot Movie.

Seeing The Parking Lot Movie reminded me a lot of viewing Kevin Smith's debut Clerks at the Seattle International Film Festival in 1996. This movie treats the viewer with 90 minutes of witty banter and exposition from people who work or worked in a parking lot over a period of many years. There is one major difference: These people didn't have a talented scribe like Kevin Smith writing their dialogue, they lived it.

Please welcome contributor Laurie Coker, whose reviews you can also read at True View Reviews.

Romantic comedies always hit and miss with me. I like them, for the most part, but have grown weary of the formulaic plots and pat endings. Still, with fresh writing, quality gags and dialogue, a good director coupled with a fine screenwriter, can make even formulaic fun. Director/co-writer Rick Famuyiwa and screenwriters Wayne Conley and Malcolm Spellman offer some hilarious moments in Our Family Wedding. Had they left out at least three very stupid gags, it would have been a fine romantic comedy. But they did not avoid the silly, actually asinine, defeating what could have been a decent film overall, which will most certainly disappoint some.

One of my favorite actresses, America Ferrera, plays Lucy Ramirez, a young woman who drops out of law school, becomes engaged to an African-American man, Marcus (Lance Gross), who is heading to Laos as a physician for Doctors Without Borders. Lucy does so without mentioning any of it to her very conservative and traditional Hispanic parents, Miguel (Carlos Mencia) and Sonia (Diana-Maria Riva). Making matters worse, on the weekend they arrive, Miguel has a not so pleasant (and racially charged) encounter with Marcus's father Brad (Forest Whitaker). When the families finally meet, things get wild and cultural traditions clash in crazy mayhem.

Contributor Rod Paddock was lucky enough to get into a "first look" at Predators during SXSW and wrote up the following account of the event. The film is being produced and co-written by Austin filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and was shot in part at local Troublemaker Studios.

On Friday night I was in possession of what has to one of the "golden tickets" of SXSW. This golden ticket was the combination of a SXSW Express pass and a red Predators ticket (see image). The combination of these two items gave me the chance be a part of the sneak preview of the Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal reboot of the Predator franchise: Predators.

After hours of waiting the house lights dimmed, and out came the master of ceremonies, Austin's native son Robert Rodriguez. He started the evening showing us the trailer for Predators. I don't think I have ever been so pumped after seeing a trailer. By every indication this movie is going to be off the hook and will satisfy Predator fans worldwide. The trailer introduces our protagonists, who find themselves transported to a Predator hunting planet. There are some heavy hitters in this cast: Lawrence Fishburne, Adrien Brody and Topher Grace. We also have one of my favorite actors, Walton Goggins (who you might remember from the FX show The Shield).

Here's the latest Austin-related film news. We saved the Quentin Tarantino bit for last, so don't forget to keep reading after the jump.

• Tickets are now on sale for Alamo Drafthouse at Lake Creek's Evil Dead triple-feature on Friday, March 26. Did the tickets actually go on sale starting on Ash Wednesday? I can't verify that but if it's true, that's pretty cool. In fact, it's groovy. If you haven't ever watched all three movies back to back (to evil back), I highly recommend it, especially in a theater full of fans.
• Over at The Auteurs, you can now watch five films -- for free -- that have played the True/False Film Festival. One of those films is The Order of Myths, directed by then-Austinite Margaret Brown, about Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama. Get yourself a Moon Pie and settle down to see this one -- here's my review from when it played SXSW 2008.
• SXSW 2009 feature The Square is set to open in U.S. theaters on April 9. Apparition picked up Australian actor/stuntman Nash Edgerton's feature directorial debut for U.S. distribution shortly after it had built up some good buzz during SXSW.