Free Movies

­Here is your chance to be part of the biggest movie marketing hype since Snakes on a Plane. There will be nationwide sneak previews of ­Cloverfield next Tuesday, January 15. The Austin Chronicle is giving away free passes­ that will entitle you to stand in line for many hours, with some chance you'll actually get to be shoehorned into a movie theater to see it before anybody else. For free!

Act now if you are interested. Deadline for signup is 4pm, Tuesday, Jan. 8.

[Updated by Jette on Jan. 10 to note that Spill.com has announced ­another pass giveaway on Sunday night at Elysium on Red River.]­

­

Maybe your idea of a fun Christmas week doesn't include a lot of family gatherings, tree-trimming, or waiting in line to see the lights at Zilker. Maybe you'd rather be at the movies. If so, you've got some interesting choices for next week:

• Tons of new movies opening in Austin this week: I've seen Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, Sweeney Todd, and The Orphanage (Alamo South). Cinematical published my review of Swe­eney Todd if you're interested. If those movies don't appeal, you also can see Walk Hard, The Great Debaters, The Savages (Arbor), National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem. 
• Over at the IMAX theater at Bob Bullock, Christmas is busting out all over. You can see the 3-D version of The Polar Express all week long, or a half-hour 3D animated film called Santa vs. the Snowman.

It's a movie-rific week, let me tell you. I don't know if it has something to do with the week before Thanksgiving or if everyone is simply in a movie-watching frame of mind, or what. Anyway, there's a wide variety of stuff going on, some of which is highlighted in the list below.

• After Dark Horrorfest is taking place at Rega­l Metropolitan this week. Eight horror films are being screened, usually 1-2 per day through Nov. 18.
• This week, Alamo Ritz is showing the documentary King Corn, which premiered at SXSW this year. The theater is also screening Michael Clayton and The Darjeeling Limited daily.
• Austin Cinematheque is showing Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 film The Passenger on Monday night at the Texas Union Theater. Admission is free.

Now that Slackerwood is back up and running smoothly, there's no reason why we shouldn't have a Movies This Week, and the sooner the better. Let's look at some of the special screenings and events you can catch around town this week:

• Screen Door Film and B-Side Entertainment are partnering to show us some great films you probably haven't seen outside of festivals yet ... and really should. Four-Eyed Monsters (which played SXSW in 2005) is playing on Wednesday, Pirate Radio USA (one of my favorites from AFF last year) on Thursday, and The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat and Beers (a favorite from AFF 2005) on Friday. All screenings are at Salvage Vanguard Theater on Manor Rd.
• Nueva Onda is showing a feature-length film at the restaurant's Movie Night this Thursday: Lasting Images. Admission is free. The movie starts at 8 pm, but get there early for a good seat on the patio. (More movies after the jump.)

School is about to start, so the free summer movies for kids are winding down -- most programs have stopped except for Alamo, I believe. However, there are still some good free movies and other interesting events this week around Austin.

• If you're reading this on Tuesday, there may still be time to head down to Hampton Library on Convict Hill Road for a free screening of Muppet Treasure Island at 6 pm. Tim Curry as Long John Silver rivals Johnny Depp as Captain Jack, I promise you.
• Alamo Summer Movie Camp is showing Heavyweights this week, and you can still catch the movie on Wed. and Thurs. at 11 am at the South Lamar location. One of the writers on this summer-camp film was Judd Apatow, who wrote and directed Knocked Up. (More films after the jump.)

Filmmaker, stuntman and Austinite Gary Kent started his career by fighting his way through many low-budget biker and exploitation films. He acted and was a stuntman in Richard Rush's The Savage Seven (1968), Psych-Out (1968) and Freebie and the Bean (1974), as well as Peter Bogdanovich's classic thriller Targets (1968). He also was in The Girls from Thunder Strip (dir. David L. Hewitt, 1966), which will screen at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar for Weird Wednesday on August 15 with Kent in attendance. Kent was stunt coordinator for Hell's Angels on Wheels (dir. Rush, 1967). He was also the production manager for Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and the second unit/assistant director for Al Adamson's Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971).

With all the work Kent was getting at this time, it's surprising that he found time to write and direct The Pyramid (1975). This highly personal, mystical and metaphysical low-budget movie was shot in Dallas primarily with local talent.

The Pyramid tells the story of young TV news cameraman Chris Lowe (pre-videotape -- he carries around a 16mm camera) and his disillusionment with the politics and petty bullshit of his profession. This disillusionment goes hand-in-hand with his personal development as a "sensitive male," which he nurtures through yoga and discussing metaphysics, psychic phenomena and mysticism with his reporter friends and his girlfriend. Chris plays guitar and is not afraid to cry or show emotions. He attends his girlfriend's confrontational therapy encounter group. He's a modern non-racist Southern man (circa 1975) whose close friend and work partner is L.A. Ray, the African-American news reporter at the TV station. (More after the jump.)

Austin is celebrating Home Movie Day this Sunday, August 12, at the Carver Museum's Boyd Vance Theater. From 2 to 6 pm, you can watch other people's home movies, which sounds like a wonderfully voyeuristic experience. You can also bring your own home movies -- which must be on film, not video -- and if the film is in good condition, everyone could be watching what happened that Easter on your grandmother's birthday when you secretly taped a piece of paper with her age onto the back of her blouse. Not that anyone I know would have ever behaved like that. In addition, film experts will be around to offer advice on caring for home movies on film. Admission to the event is free.

I have two shoeboxes full of Super 8 film from my parents and grandparents (luckily, I borrowed my grandparents' film shortly before the post-Katrina floods swamped their house). I had it all transferred to DV, but I've always wanted to watch some of the movies on a projector again. It's not quite the same on TV as it was when we were kids, trying to keep the flimsy screen from falling, and learning the great responsibility of running the projector. The above photo is a screenshot taken from a family home movie at Christmas, I think in 1973, at my aforementioned grandparents' house. At least the groovy outfits are interesting.

If you're interested in learning more about Home Movie Day, News 8 Austin has posted an interview with the event's founder, Snowden Becker.

I've been out of town for a long weekend in the New Orleans area, where they really could use more indie/arthouse theaters, although that's not exactly a priority post-Katrina. Still, my youngest brother is terribly envious of the diversity of film choices we have in Austin, which is why I hope he doesn't see the following list. He's not going to be in a good mood until he gets to see Superbad, and that doesn't reach theaters for another 10 days. If he were here, these are the movies and film-related events I'd be telling him about:

• The Paramount is showing Rules of the Game tonight and Wednesday, and I would love to see this Jean Renoir movie again, especially since it's a restored print. I can't go (I actually have to see Daddy Day Camp tomorrow) but you should all go for me and tell me how wonderful it is. Other Paramount movies in the Summer Classic series this week include a David Lean double-bill of Brief Encounter and Summertime on Thurs. and Sunday, Fellini's La Strada on Sunday, and Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast on Monday.
• The "Sing-Along" version of Hairspray will be showing for the rest of the week at Barton Creek Cinemark (the one that's not in the mall). I still need to see the non-sing-along version myself, although I am wary after what happened with The Producers. (more films after the jump)

Let's see what Austin has to offer in terms of special screenings and free movies this week. If I missed something, please let me know in the comments section.

• Thursday night, Austin Film Festival is hosting "Very Early Works," a collection of short films from local filmmakers who have gone on to bigger and better things. The evening includes short films from Steve Collins (Gretchen), Scott Rice (Perils in Nude Modeling and those funny, funny Script Cops shorts that served as AFF in-house trailers last year), the Zellner brothers (Redemptitude), Mike Akel (Chalk), Jeffrey Travis (Flatland). Plus there are shorts from filmmakers who aren't yet quite so well-known, like Toddy Burton and John Merriman. Some of the filmmakers will be around to discuss their shorts. "Very Early Works" is being held at Alamo Lake Creek, and you can buy tickets at the door.

  If you don't live in Austin, check out the "Eat My Shorts" posting on Cinematical Indie a while ago where I found early shorts online from some of these filmmakers as well as others from the "Mumblecore" movement (I also explain what I think that means). Read the entry and see those shorts for free.

• Alamo Lake Creek is starting a new weekly film series called Tromatic Thursdays, in which the theater brings us films from the prestigious Troma studios. This week's classic offering is Tromeo and Juliet, a timeless love story. The movie screens at 10 pm and admission is free. (More events after the jump.)
  

I swear, sometimes the most difficult part of Movies This Week is dealing with the title. It always seems kind of clunky. Anyway, let's jump right into a list of movies and events that look like fun:

• Screen Door Film is showing The Last Days of the San Jose on Wednesday night at 7:30 at Salvage Vanguard Theater. Director Liz Lambert will hold a Q&A after the screening, and then everyone is heading over to the Hotel San Jose for cocktails. If you live in Austin, I can't recommend this documentary enough -- it's not just about the San Jose Motel, a S. Congress dive that Lambert had to manage while waiting for funding to tear it down and build a boutique hotel. It's about the transformation of S. Congress (I hate the term SoCo). Most of it was shot on Lambert's personal DV camera, but there are also some lovely shots of downtown Austin.
• If you've ever wondered what all the fuss was about with Citizen Kane, you can see it in a theater and decide for yourself if its greatness is overhyped. The Orson Welles film is playing at the Paramount tonight and Wednesday, on a double bill with Touch of Evil. (Like last week with Dr. Strangelove, I keep brainstorming the best movie for a double-feature with Citizen Kane -- so far I've considered His Girl Friday shown before, or The Cat's Meow shown after.) More cool movies after the jump!