Jette Kernion's blog

"Finally, the movie that Eat Pray Love should have been."
-- Slackerwood contributor Don Clinchy, immediately after watching Machete

I feel I can't really do Machete justice without channeling Joe Bob Briggs, the drive-in movie of Grapevine, Texas, and giving you a count on decapitations, bare breasts, nine kinds of fu, and other grisly types of fighting, wounding, and death. And tattoos. But Joe Bob, I am not.

I also wish I'd seen Machete in a drive-in theater, but we don’t really have those in Texas anymore -- not the old-fashioned kind, anyway, with the crappy speakers that hook onto your cars and the scary faraway bathrooms and all that. Since drive-ins are nearly extinct, Robert Rodriguez's latest flick will flourish with a big, receptive, rowdy audience for full enjoyment. Don’t wait for DVD. You want the kind of crowd you get at an Alamo Weird Wednesday, who can respect the movie while at the same time cheering and applauding for the best lines and the most creative kills.

However, while Machete was born to be a midnight movie, the movie is happily free of too much self-awareness of this fact, and avoids an excess of camp, apart from the occasional knowing wink to the 1970s exploitation films that inspired it.

The Texas Filmmakers Production Fund (TFPF) recipients for 2010 have just been announced, and without even looking anything up, I can spot a number of Austin filmmakers among the lucky winners this year. Twenty-four projects received a total of $104,000 in cash, film stock and services. Selected filmmakers and projects are from all over the state of Texas, but it looks like more than half have ties to Austin this year.

One great benefit about the TFPF announcement for Austin film lovers is that it's a sneak peek into the projects that some local filmmakers have been working on. Hopefully we'll see some of the following movies in 2011 or beyond ... although one is actually screening in Austin tonight, and another will screen here (at least in part) within the month.

The largest single grant, $9,000, went to Austin artist and photographer Patrick Xavier Bresnan (Otis Ike) for post-production costs on Vietnam Appreciation Day, a documentary feature.

Chris Eska's feature August Evening won an Independent Spirit Award in 2008. Now Eska has received a $7,000 TFPF award for production on September Morning, a Western set during the Civil War about a teenage boy sent to retrieve a wanted man.

Former Austinite (he just left us for Chicago) Kyle Henry received $7,000 for post-production on Fourplay, the collection of four short films about sexual adventures in different U.S. cities. The first short, San Francisco, premiered at Outfest earlier this year and will be playing in Austin as part of aGLIFF in a couple of weeks.

Bob Byington also got a $7,000 grant for production costs on a narrative feature film called Seven Chinese Brothers. Byington's previous films, Harmony and Me and [RSO] Registered Sex Offender, have just become available on Netflix Watch Instantly.

Fantastic Fest has just announced another batch of films in its 2010 lineup, including another gala screening with special guests, a few sequels and remakes, and a variety of genre films from around the world. The fun starts in less than a month.

The gala screening -- which means it plays at the Paramount and has a red carpet beforehand -- is the U.S. premiere of Stone, which stars Edward Norton, Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich. It's a drama about a parole officer trying to decide whether a murderer has truly reformed. Edward Norton will be here in Austin for the Friday, Sept. 24 screening as well as director John Curran.

The world premiere of 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, the sequel to 30 Days of Night, heads up an impressive list of other movies slated for next month's festival. There are films from Argentina, Hong Kong, Spain, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and of course the United States. Ong Bak 3, the remake of I Spit on Your Grave, the 1960 South Korean film The Housemaid and its 2010 remake, Adam Green's Hatchet II ... there's a lot of interesting stuff here. A full list of the announced films with descriptions, including which filmmakers will be at the fest, is available after the jump.

Fantastic Fest runs from September 23-30 this year, right here in Austin, primarily at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar but with gala screenings at the Paramount, and a few screenings and events in other venues around town. The fest has already announced its opening-night film, Let Me In, to be followed by a gala screening of Buried.

TO: Fearless Slackerwood Contributors

FROM: Most Fabulous Editor

SUBJECT: Newly announced Fantastic Fest 2010 opportunities

Folks, we've just received a press release from Fantastic Fest about another movie they've added to the lineup -- Buried, which stars Ryan Reynolds as a guy who wakes one morning to find himself, well, buried, and has to figure out where and why and how to get out. Reynolds and director Rodrigo Cortes will be in attendance at the screening, which will take place on opening night at the Paramount after Let Me In. Of course a couple of us will cover the red carpet, and I'm looking for especially good photos of Ryan Reynolds ... and yes, this is one of those occasions where you can send the best close-ups directly to me. Especially if he's a bit sweaty in the Texas heat. Ahem. Okay.

But that's not why I'm contacting you right now. In addition to the splashy gala screening during Fantastic Fest, Rolling Roadshow is holding a special screening of Buried in Austin on Saturday, September 18 called "Rolling Roadshow for One." I'd like it if you all would immediately head over to the Facebook invitation page for this event and sign up, even though only four people will be selected for the screening. I figure if all of you sign up, we have a good chance of someone being picked, and then we can get a review posted right on time for this movie as well as a fascinating feature about this unique Rolling Roadshow event.

Austin Film Festival has just announced the first films in its lineup for the October festival and conference, and several are from Austin and Texas filmmakers. The "Early 10" also includes some movies from Hollywood filmmakers and actors.

Fair Game, directed by Doug Liman (Mr. and Mrs. Smith), will have its regional premiere at the fest. The action thriller based on Valerie Plame's autobiography stars Sean Penn and Naomi Watts ... and also San Antonio native Bruce McGill, who was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame this year. Actor Dax Shepard (who was in the Austin-shot comedy Idiocracy) makes his feature filmmaking debut as the writer and co-director of Brother's Justice, in which he plays an actor named Dax who decides to become a martial-arts action star.

Texas-connected films include Rainbows End, I Didn't Come Here to Die and Dig, all of which are having their world premieres at AFF this year. I Didn't Come Here to Die was shot locally; Dig was shot partially in Austin as well as in South Texas.

Full details on all of these films after the jump. Austin Film Festival runs from October 21-28 this year. We're looking forward to finding out AFF's complete lineup, which should be announced in mid-September.

Let's catch up on the latest Austin film news, shall we? Here we go:

• The Hollywood Reporter has some updates on Robert Rodriguez's upcoming film Spy Kids 4, claiming that Jessica Alba may star in the film as the stepmom of the new spy kids. Whatever happens with casting, the movie may start shooting here in Austin next month. And oh, yeah, it's in 3D (eyeroll).
• Two features from local filmmaker Bob Byington are now available on Netflix Watch Instantly: Harmony and Me (my review, Don's DVD review) and RSO [Registered Sex Offender]. RSO has also just been released on DVD -- look for our review later this week.
• On the way home from dinner last night, I heard an ad on local radio station 101X for Fantastic Fest, urging listeners to buy fest badges as well as a special "gala pass" that will supposedly get you into all the big splashy fest screenings and events at the Paramount. I then got home and found out that the Fantastic Fest film badges (the ones for the whole fest) are now sold out. You can still buy badges for the second half of the fest or for daytime films ... no word yet from the festival on these mysterious "gala passes" but we'll keep you posted.
• Speaking of the Paramount, the historic Austin theater is running a contest this week and next to encourage you to join their "Mobile Film Club," in which you would receive text messages about their Winter Film Series and other movie-related events. You join the Mobile Film Club by texting the word FILMGOER to 70626. In return, if you join by September 1, you receive a free pass to one Paramount Theatre film, and are entered in a drawing to win a Movie Night for yourself and 49 friends.

I wasn't at the Dobie Theatre last night when Landmark showed movies there for the last time. I did go to the theater on Saturday and took some photos during the daytime, which I'll share a little later this week. It was unfortunate that the theater closed during the same weekend that hundreds of students were moving into the dorms above it, but many local Dobie lovers still persisted in getting to campus for one last movie there.

Among the faithful was Austin filmmaker/film lover Tate English, who saw the last movie at the Dobie last night, and snapped a couple of photos of the Dobie's final message to Austin on its marquee. You can see the other side of the marquee after the jump. If you're on Facebook, you can also see Tate's entire Facebook album from his last evening at Dobie. Thanks again to Tate for giving Slackerwood permission to publish these pictures.

Last Sunday night, I went to Alamo Ritz for this month's Cinema Club screening, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Cinema Club is a monthly(ish) series that focuses on older films, with a discussion of those films afterward. A special guest is invited who has expert knowledge of the film being shown, and the discussions are often lively and interesting.

This month's Cinema Club special guest was Joe Bob Briggs, as you can see in the center of the above photo. You might not associate the drive-in movie critic of Grapevine, Texas with Preston Sturges movies, but he knew all about Sturges' work for Paramount and the ways in which Sturges managed to push this surprisingly racy-for-its-time movie -- about a young woman who finds herself pregnant after a night with a lot of soldiers -- past the Production Code office. I love Preston Sturges films and 1930s screwball comedies in general, but I definitely felt the limitations of my own film knowledge during the post-movie discussion. I didn't mind; it's a pleasure to learn new things about movies from someone like Joe Bob Briggs.

Jenn's been taking us back in time to the early days of Fantastic Fest: 2005 and 2006. I'm switching on the time machine for 2007, a big year for the festival. The fun kicked off with a badge pick-up party outside in the back parking lot of Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar, with odd pinatas and a machine that aimed bloody spatters at willing victims and some interesting mechanical devices courtesy of Dorkbot Austin. This was the first year FF started using "traditional" badges, as I recall.

From a movie news point of view, 2007 was the year that surprised everyone when There Will Be Blood had its first public screening ever as a secret screening at the festival. I remember going to NYC the next year and hearing a PR rep fuss that "Can you believe? They screened it in Austin!" Of course all important movies should screen in New York and LA first, not the flyover.

In addition, 2007 was a big year for me because of Southland Tales. I realize a lot of people dislike this movie. I can't say I loved it, but I thought it was interesting -- my review refers to it as "a fascinating mess." It reminded me of some kind of alternative art exhibit where you admire the originality and the talent without actually wanting to take it home and put it on your wall, or even see it again. But "fascinating" and "extraordinary" were enough for the publicity folks, who asked me if I minded if they pulled those quotes from my review and attributed them to me in the publicity materials for the film. This is why we own the Southland Tales DVD: it's the only one with my name on the cover. I am by no means a quote whore, but it was an amusing experience for me.

So much movie news is going on in Austin that we need a second Slackery News Tidbits this week to handle it all. And I suspect more news will break right after we post this.

• Fantastic Fest has announced its 2010 opening-night film: Let Me In, the American remake of the Swedish film Let the Right One In, which was very popular at Fantastic Fest in 2008. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and as-yet-unannounced cast members will be at the fest screening, which is the movie's U.S. premiere. I must admit I thought festgoers would not be thrilled about an American remake of a film they loved so much (I loved it too), but apparently the footage and trailers that have been released so far are generating a lot of good buzz, not to mention that a lot of Kick-Ass fans are excited about Chloe Moretz in one of the lead roles.
• Austin Film Festival also has some news: The fest's Distinguished Screenwriter Award recipient for 2010 is David Peoples. His writing credits include Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys and Unforgiven. Peoples will be in Austin for AFF in October and will participate in several of the AFF screenwriter conference panels.
• Let's not forget aGLIFF, which is coming up fast on September 7. The festival's full lineup is now available on the aGLIFF website. The fest has also announced that for the first time, it will include juried film awards. [Aside: Whoever designed the fest's Quick Guide this year should get an award of some kind, it's beautiful and functional.]