Matt Shiverdecker's blog

Review: 22 Jump Street

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22 Jump Street

Fresh off the runaway success of The Lego Movie, the directorial team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returns with what will likely be summer's most satisfying comedy for adults. Even though the trailers didn't inspire much confidence that 22 Jump Street would actually be any good, it turns out that this wholly unnecessary sequel was worth waiting for.

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill reprise their roles as Jenko and Schmidt, two cops on the hunt for drug dealers. While the first film followed the inspiration of the original Fox series by having them go undercover in high school, 22 Jump Street sends the guys to college. The movie is 150% in on the joke, repeatedly making fun of movie sequels and encouraging the stars to do everything "just like last time" with a knowing wink to the audience. So often, that's what we all hate about Hollywood movies, but it works perfectly here. 

Movies This Week: June 6-12, 2014

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Night Moves

Austin Film Society continues their "Rebel Rebel" film series this weekend with a rare 35mm screening of Getting Straight at the Marchesa. This 1970 film from Richard Rush stars Elliott Gould as a Vietnam vet who attempts to go back to college amid the countercultural revolution. Also starring Candice Bergen and shot by legendary cinemtographer Laszlo Kovacs (Easy Rider, Paper Moon), it's playing tonight and again on Sunday afternoon. Doc Nights is booked for Wednesday evening and will be spotlighting the story of a young ballerina who was diagnosed with polio at 27. Read more about Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq in our preview post here. On Thursday evening, you can view Stanley Kubrick's Paths Of Glory as part of this month's Essential Cinema series about World War I. 

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series has a wide variety of flicks to choose from this week. Saturday and Sunday at the Paramount, they'll be featuring "Discoveries from the TCM Classic Film Festival." Two rarely screened films, Bachelor Mother and a 1949 version of The Great Gatsby that's been holed up for years due to rights issues, will play in a 35mm double feature. The Shop Around The Corner and Arsenic And Old Lace are also featured in a 35mm double feature there on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Thursday night is a tribute to John Candy and John Hughes. Uncle Buck and Planes, Trains and Automobiles play in 35mm at the Paramount while National Lampoon's Vacation and Stripes screen digitally next door at the Stateside. 

The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz has a very special guest coming to town this weekend with legendary filmmaker William Friedkin stopping by for screenings of his recently restored Sorcerer and also an AFS co-sponsored screening of To Live And Die In L.A. on Saturday. The theater's Russ Meyer tribute continues on Monday night with another 35mm print straight from Meyer's estate, Wild Gals Of The Naked West and there's more Dietrich and Von Sternberg on Wednesday night with a 35mm screening of 1931's Dishonored. 

Review: Palo Alto

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 Palo Alto

Twenty-seven-year-old Gia Coppola enters the family business with this hypnotically observational debut feature based on a short story collection by James Franco. She ended up focusing on several of his stories, combining characters and situations into one fleshed-out screenplay that attempts to examine the aimlessness of upper class teenage life in Southern California. Anchored by impeccable cinematography from Autumn Durald and a great score featuring original compositions by Blood Orange's Devonte Hynes and Gia's cousin Robert Schwartzman of the band Rooney, the film takes its time to float around the storyline without feeling unfocused.

April (Emma Roberts) runs with the popular crowd, but she doesn't quite fit in. She's shy, she plays soccer and is shamefully called out at parties for being a virgin. She has a crush on a quiet artist named Teddy (Jack Kilmer in his acting debut), but is being pursued by her single-dad coach Mr. B (Franco himself). As a frequent babysitter for his kid, April ends up having quite a bit of private time with Mr. B, which develops into an infatuation on his part. Roberts, who is herself a few years older than the character she is portraying, adds a believable realism to the relationship as a girl who is flattered and even excited about the attention, but can't really understand why a man who is so much older is attracted to her. 

Movies This Week: May 30-June 5, 2014

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 Chinese Puzzle

This weekend, the Austin Film Society has booked a 35mm print of Douglas Sirk's striking melodrama All That Heaven Allows for their new "Rebel Rebel" series at the Marchesa. One of my all-time favorites, the film screens tonight and Sunday afternoon. It is being released on Blu-ray next month from the fine folks at The Criterion Collection, but it's genuinely exciting to finally have a chance to finally see it projected on the big screen. On Monday evening, AFS is teaming up with The Nature Conservancy for a screening of Hanna Ranch, a documentary about a fourth-generation cattle ranch. Emily Hanna will be in attendance for the film. Powell and Pressburger's 1943 feature The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp is screening Thursday evening at the Marchesa. The screening kicks off a new Essential Cinema series in June, "Films Of World War I."

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series is delivering special sing-along engagements of The Sound Of Music this weekend. Saturday night's evening screening is a special benefit for the AIDS Services of Austin and will be hosted by Rebecca Havemeyer! This screening is intended for an adult audience and will include a "fancy dress costume parade at intermission." Family-friendly sing-alongs will be on hand Sunday afternoon and evening. Tickets for all three showtimes are $15 and there are no passes or flix-tix accepted. On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the Paramount brings us a double feature of films set during the Great Depression: The Grapes Of Wrath and Sullivan's Travels will both screen in 35mm prints. 

Review: Maleficent

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Maleficent

After watching Maleficent, Disney's live-action twist on their own classic animated tale Sleeping Beauty, it becomes evident that nobody but Angelina Jolie could play one of the greatest villains of all time. Ms. Jolie is magnetic onscreen and can smirk in front of a green screen like nobody's business. Her performance may not win her any awards, but she clearly had fun with the part. 

The film filters the story of Sleeping Beauty through a revisionist lens. We get to first meet Maleficent when she is just a young fairy, happily flying through the moor. One day, a young human boy named Stefan literally ends up in her neck of the woods and they become unlikely friends. Over time they even fall in love with each other, but in the grand tradition of many boys, he eventually betrays her. In Stefan's quest to become the king, he cuts off her wings. This sequence has an incredibly rapey subtext (not that it will be read that way by a family audience), replete with slipping her a roofie so he can violate her when she's passed out. I thought I was just being a little sensitive, but I've seen a few other reactions on Twitter that have let me know I'm not the only one who felt a little uncomfortable with the entire situation. What happens next is not exactly I Spit On Your Grave, but it does explain a little better as to why Maleficent places a curse on King Stefan's daughter Aurora. 

Review: Chinese Puzzle

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Chinese Puzzle

Over the course of 20 years, legendary French director Francois Truffaut created a series of five semi-autobiographical films that explored the life of Antoine Doinel. The character was introduced in 1959 and viewers around the world watched him grow up on screen from a 12-year-old in The 400 Blows into a man in his early thirties in 1979's Love On The Run

With Chinese Puzzle, which opens Friday in Austin at Regal Arbor, Cedric Klapisch has completed his "Spanish Apartment" trilogy and given us a contemporary series that certainly owes a lot to Truffaut's Doinel films. When we first meet Xavier Rousseau (Romain Duris) in 2002's L'Auberge Espagnole, he is in his early twenties and taking off for the Erasmus student exchange program. He leaves France and his girlfriend Martine (Audrey Tautou) behind to spend a year in Barcelona studying finance. Xavier makes lifelong friends with the roommates he shares in a small Spanish apartment, but finds a lack of actual passion for his field of study.

Movies This Week: May 23-29, 2014

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Belle 

Memorial Day weekend used to always usher in the official start of the summer movie season, but over the last few years the blockbusters have been sneaking into multiplexes earlier and earlier in May. Now that we've finally made it to the holiday weekend, the multiplexes are already exploding with big-budget tentpoles and sequels. Luckily for you, Austin theaters offer some legitmately interesting counterprogramming.

The Austin Film Society is starting a brand new series tonight called "Rebel Rebel." Earlier this week, we chatted with Lars Nilsen to find out more about the films being featured over the next few weekends. The first selection is Gillo Pontecorvo's 1969 film Burn! starring Marlon Brando. The movie features a score by Ennio Morricone and will be screening in 35mm at the Marchesa.

You'll want to head over to the AFS Screening Room on Tuesday night for the Avant Cinema presentation of Your Day Is My Night. Co-presented with the Austin Asian American Film Festival, the AFS notes for the film reveal that this "provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy and urban life." Out Of The Blue is the final film in Richard Linklater's current Jewels In The Wasteland series and it screens in 35mm at the Marchesa on Wednesday night. Dennis Hopper transitioned from star to director during the shooting of this 1982 film.

Movies This Week: May 16-22, 2014

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The German Doctor 

Austin Film Society has another installment of their "That's Genius" series on Sunday night at the Marchesa. They've invited local filmmaker Yen Tan (Pit Stop) to present a favorite film and he chose Parking. The 2008 film from Taiwan is directed by Chung Mong-Hong and will be screened in 35mm. I'm also incredibly excited about Thursday night's Essential Cinema presentation of Bob Fosse's All That Jazz. This month's theme is "After 8 1/2: The Creative In Crisis" and this film tells the story of a Broadway producer who overworks himself right into a heart attack. 

The Austin Youth Film Festival is happening on Saturday at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. Local filmmakers will be on hand to judge short films from area students who have a chance to win prizes up to $1000! Standard tickets are available for just $10 and you also have the option to buy a $25 ticket that includes a t-shirt or a $45 ticket that includes a t-shirt and pre-order of a DVD collection of the short films that are screening. 

Also at the Ritz this weekend, the Marx Brothers retrospective continues with Room Service in 35mm on Saturday morning. This 1938 comedy also features a wonderful early performance from a young Lucille Ball. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the Ritz is screening a documentary called Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe A La Hache that focuses on the aftermath in a small community dependant on oyster fishing in the wake of 2010's BP oil spill. There are still tickets available for The Matrix trilogy marathon Sunday afternoon. All three films are screening in 35mm, as is the animated rocker Heavy Metal for Music Monday this week. 

Movies This Week: May 9-15, 2014

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 Jodorowsky's Dune

The Austin Film Society has one last screening this evening of the new IFC Films release Hateship Loveship over at the MarchesaKristen Wiig and Guy Pearce star in this adaptation of Alice Munro's story. On Sunday, AFS is celebrating the Hubley Centennial with an afternoon of animated shorts screening from the husband and wife team of John and Faith Hubley. The shorts will screen at 2 pm, followed by an AFS Moviemaker Dialogue with their daughter Emily Hubley at 4.

On Tuesday, LaDonna Harris Indian 101 is playing for Doc Nights. Julianna Brannum's film explores the life of Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who works to this day on educating emerging indigenous leaders. On Wednesday night, Richard Linklater will present a 35mm print of Louis Malle's 1981 drama Atlantic City and on Thursday evening, Essential Cinema will screen Woody Allen's Stardust Memories

The Alamo Drafthouse has a few Mother's Day events happening this weekend. A special brunch feast of The Sound Of Music is happening at the Lakeline and Slaughter Lane locations Sunday morning. You can check out the menu here. Not to be outdone, Ritz will open up Theater 1 to Ms. Rebecca Havemeyer, who will present her annual Mother's Day screening of Mommie Dearest on Sunday night.

Movies This Week: May 2-8, 2014

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 The Retrieval

If you're a member of Austin Film Society, tonight marks the first event in a new monthly series called FREE Member Fridays! Actor Thomas Haden Church and director Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais will be at the Marchesa for a special screening of their new film Whitewash. It is free for AFS members and general admission tickets will also be available for $15 at the door subject to capacity. AFS also is presenting the new release Hateship Loveship on Sunday afternoon. While this IFC Films release is available on VOD, this (along with a second showing next Friday) is your only chance to catch it locally on the big screen. The movie stars Kristen Wiig and Guy Pearce and is an adaptation of a story by Alice Munro. Richard Linklater's Jewels In The Wasteland series returns on Wednesday night with a 35mm print of Coppola's 1983 feature Rumble Fish. Finally, the week in movies at the Marchesa wraps up on Thursday with Essential Cinema presenting Paul Mazursky's 1970 film Alex In Wonderland.

Violet Crown Cinema continues their Criterion Presents series this week with Steven Soderbergh's beautiful depression-era drama King Of The Hill on Tuesday night while the Paramount 100 series heads next door to the Stateside for a double feature of Renoir's Grand Illusion and Jean Vigo's L'Atalante

If you've never seen it on the big screen, William Wyler's 1959 epic Ben-Hur is debuting in a brand new 4K digital restoration at the Alamo Lakeline tomorrow and Sunday afternoon. The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz is delivering more Marx Brothers for you this weekend with A Night At The Opera from 1935. It plays tomorrow afternoon only. There are some great 35mm rep screenings at the Ritz this week including Arthur Penn's Night Moves on Monday, Bachelor Party with Tom Hanks on Tuesday and a Cinema Club screening of David O. Russell's truly hysterical Flirting With Disaster on Wednesday.

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