Elizabeth Stoddard's blog

A Classic Movie Fan's Dream: 2015 Summer Film Classics at the Paramount

Elizabeth Stoddard — Mon, 18 May 2015 16:30:31 +0000

I've compiled a list of my favorites from the Paramount Summer Film Classics schedule for Slackerwood since 2012, so it's with this post that the upcoming end of the blog really hits me. It's been a great run, folks.

This 100th year of the Paramount Theatre means there's quite a schedule in store for us this summer. As in years past, films will screen at both Paramount and Stateside. Tickets are $12, which you can purchase online or at the venue. If you plan to see more than a few of these movies, it's probably worthwile to invest in FlixTix (a pack of 10 tickets for $60) or become a Film Fan.

And don't forget your admission covers double features! Without further ado, my last Paramount Summer Classics roundup for Slackerwood:

The Iron Giant (1999) -- The animated science-fiction story of a boy and his giant metal alien friend, which I reviewed last year for Lone Star Cinema, is a lead-in to the theater's Family Film Festival in July. (Sat 5/23 @ Paramount)
Female filmmakers -- Pariah played the 2011 Austin Film Festival and the coming-of-age drama was one of the best films I saw that year [Don's review]. The Dee Rees film will be paired with Agnes Varda's Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962) on Thurs-Fri, 6/25-26 at Stateside. It's all Penny Marshall at the Paramount that weekend, as her baseball classic A League of Their Own (1992) and the comedy Big (1988) play Saturday evening, 6/27, and Sunday afternoon, 6/28.

Review: Pitch Perfect 2

Elizabeth Stoddard — Fri, 15 May 2015 16:00:01 +0000

The Barden Bellas, with their zany vocal antics, are back. Elizabeth Banks, who produced Pitch Perfect the first, directs the new sequel -- as well as returning to her role as a cappella commentator Gail. Pitch Perfect 2 shows the collegiate group three years after their win at nationals.

So much is packed into this two-hour musical comedy, but I'll try to break it down for you. Beca (Anna Kendrick), with dreams of being a music producer, snags an internship at a studio and doesn't tell her friends. Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) ruins a Bella performance at Lincoln Center and the group's performing duties as current national titleholders are stripped away. New freshman/legacy Bella Emily (Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit) joins the group and they plan to compete in an international a cappella competition in Denmark.

Pitch Perfect 2 skips from situation to situation -- it's more like a longform sitcom than any other movie I've seen recently. Unfortunately, the script includes some lazy and ridiculous writing. A Latina Bella (Chrissie Fit) is relegated to stereotype, stuck with cringeworthy comments to the other girls about her brother trying to barter her for a chicken, or her likely being deported after college and coming back illegally. Besides her flipping skills, her character is basically a caricature. The limitations of the first film haven't been improved on in this regard.

Lone Star Cinema: Fort Bliss

Elizabeth Stoddard — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 16:30:39 +0000

It's nonsensical that actress Michelle Monaghan isn't a bigger name in Hollywood. She is an excellent foil to Robert Downey Jr. in cult dark comedy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and inspires Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code. She was even in the lauded first season of True Detective (which I didn't watch). Fort Bliss, a film written and directed by Claudia Myers, is a special treat for Monaghan fans. Instead of supporting an A-list actor onscreen, Monaghan gets her chance to lead a film.

She plays Staff Sgt. Maggie Swann, recently returned from service in Afghanistan. Maggie is an army medic, quick to respond to injuries in the field, yet thrown by the changes that have occurred while she's been abroad. Her young son Paul (Oakes Fegley, This Is Where I Leave You) has lived with Maggie's ex-husband Richard (Ron Livingston, Office Space) and grown extremely close to Richard's new wife Alma (Emmanuelle Chriqui, Entourage). Maggie expects a warmer welcome from her son than what she receives. Her father (John Savage, The Deer Hunter), also a veteran, reminds her about the story of Rip Van Winkle, and how long absences mean dealing with change upon return.

Review: While We're Young

Elizabeth Stoddard — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 16:30:42 +0000

While We're Young, the new film from Noah Baumbach, touches on multiple themes in its hour-and-a-half running time, some more effectively than others. From the ethics of documentary filmmaking to choosing a childless life to the habits of Brooklyn hipsters, there's something here for almost everyone -- which is likely why the comedy feels more mainstream than Baumbach's previous works.

The lead characters, married couple Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts), direct and produce documentaries respectively. They stumble into a friendship with free-spirited couple Jamie (Adam Driver, Frances Ha) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried, Mean Girls). The older couple is enamored of Jamie and Darby and their lifestyle. Why spend a weekend with your best friends who just had a baby when you can spend it taking hallucinagens under instruction from a shaman accompanied by Danny Kaye's "Inchworm" and Vangelis tunes?

SXSW 2015: Elizabeth's Focus on Female Filmmakers Leads Her to DuVernay, Prince-Bythewood

Elizabeth Stoddard — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 18:30:00 +0000

I took the Monday of SXSW off work as soon as I heard Gina Prince-Bythewood was scheduled to appear that day. This was the first SXSW I was drawn to attend any of the conference events at the festival -- usually I just stick to the movies. But getting to hear the director of Beyond the Lights (including one of my favorite performances of the year) speak a couple days after director Ava DuVernay was to deliver a keynote seemed like too much goodness to pass up.

On Saturday, I arrived two hours early for DuVernay's keynote, assuring myself a spot on the (side) front row. My friend Christina and I chatted with other folks in line, talked about other films on our schedule and spied actor Stephen Root walking past the line as the time grew near.

Hearing DuVernay speak was relevatory. You can view her speech below:

SXSW Review: They Will Have to Kill Us First

Elizabeth Stoddard — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 20:00:45 +0000

When a film starts with a history lesson told music video-style through French-language rap, you know you're watching something unique. The impeccable sound design is the first thing I noticed about They Will Have to Kill Us First; clear gun pops accompany news reports and this introductory music. The opening sequence explains recent events in Mali that led to the split of the country and the sharia law ruling the northern section. Residents of Timbuktu and Goa became refugees in their own country as they left the violent unrest of the north to live in Bamako... or surrounding border countries such as Burkina Faso.

Among those forced to leave were many musicians, as music was banned in the north in 2012. How difficult it is to imagine a day without music -- months without it must have felt a lifetime. As famous singer Khaira Arby puts it, "Music is like oxygen for human beings." When we first see her in 2012, she seems a dimmed version of her self, distraught over the fate of her country. Filmmaker Johanna Schwartz also introduces us to the newly formed band Songhoy Blues, party musician Moussa and refugee singer Disco.

SXSW 2015: Elizabeth's Focus on Female Filmmakers, Documentary Edition

Elizabeth Stoddard — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:00:14 +0000

I'm so satisfied with my idea to limit my SXSW Film schedule to movies made by female filmmakers that I'm wondering if I should make it a regular festival practice. I've seen some groundbreaking work that I might have missed otherwise. Now, all my picks haven't been winners, but most of them have either been astonishing, moved me to tears, or both.

The documentaries in this year's selections have exceptionally strong game, from the more traditional methods of Frame by Frame and They Will Have to Kill Us First to the genre-defying A Woman Like Me. These ladies are creating complicated works, and I am here for it.

On Saturday afternoon I attended the world premiere of Frame by Frame, a documentary about four photojournalists in Afghanistan. The film's subjects, three men and a woman, have confronted various setbacks -- including the Taliban government, which once banned photography of any type. Co-directors Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli show these photographers at work and in tense moments.

SXSW Review: Petting Zoo

Elizabeth Stoddard — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 18:30:05 +0000

Layla (newcomer Devon Keller) is a high-school senior shacking up with her dropout boyfriend Danny (Kiowa Tucker). An honor student, she gets a scholarship to UT Austin and then finds out she's pregnant. Given her predicament, what can she do? Petting Zoo, from director Micah Magee (see my interview with her), thrusts the viewer into several months of Layla's life.

One notable facet to the main character is that she is working poor. Layla refuses to live with her financially stable but abusive father, so has to move in with her elderly grandmother (Adrienne Harrell, Zero Charisma) and share a bed. Magee perfectly conveys the utter vulnerability of her situation. We see Layla sleeping many times -- through loud parties in Danny's apartment, in a friend's car after seeing Girl in a Coma, on her grandmother's couch after hearing bad news. Such sequences illustrate the precariousness of her life, and the limits of her control -- especially when she loses her support system.

This is not to say that Layla has no choice in anything; that would be a false statement. What decisions she can make, she does. She leaves her loser boyfriend, decides to keep her baby, and wants to make it on her own. She also falls into a relationship with fellow graduate Aaron (Austin Reed).

Austin at SXSW 2015: Katie Cokinos Tells a Female Coming-of-Age Story in 'I Dream Too Much'

Elizabeth Stoddard — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 16:30:06 +0000

Director Katie Cokinos brings her feature film I Dream Too Much to SXSW next week. Cokinos, a former Managing Director for Austin Film Society, also wrote the movie about Dora, a recent college grad dealing with a life in flux.

The cast of I Dream Too Much includes such talent as Diane Ladd and Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black) along with the newer face of Eden Brolin, who plays Dora. Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater is executive producer of this movie shot in snowy Saugerties, New York, where Cokinos lives now. She answered some questions for us (via email).

Slackerwood: What inspired the story for I Dream Too Much?

Katie Cokinos: The inspiration for IDTM was my own painful memories of graduating college and not knowing what the hell to do with my life -- but knowing I loved movies. The world seemed huge and I didn't know how to put my passion to use; my life felt like a big unknown. I also had a lot of family pressure to go to law school and I almost did (but it's not a good idea to make a decision based on fear).

Review: Cinderella

Elizabeth Stoddard — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 16:30:26 +0000

In director Kenneth Branagh's hands, the movie Cinderella is an uninspired retelling of the famous folktale accompanied by sumptuous set design and lush, technicolor costuming. From the Renoir-inspired setting of the opening scene to the disappointing finale, the film is pretty to look at but empty of any real depth or feeling.

Young Cinderella (Lily James, Downton Abbey) is born to an adoring, yet soon ailing mother (Hayley Atwell, Agent Carter). Her father, played by an unrecognizable Ben Chaplin (The Truth About Cats & Dogs), is a mercer, I think? After her mother's death, he marries brusque widow Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett, wasted in this role but absolutely pulling off some amazing outfits).

As in the animated Disney original, Cinderella talks to animals. Mice and lizards in this movie are digitized out the wazoo, which is funny yet off-putting. Her stepmother has a cat named Lucifer. Her stepsisters are named Anastasia (Holiday Grainger, Jane Eyre) and Drizella (Sophie McShera, also from Downton Abbey).