Movie Natters

Tilda Swinton launches her own film festival

2008-07-06T16:17:36Z

Now this is a festival I'm interested in visiting.

Heads up: stars reading in town Tuesday for "Incarnation."

2008-07-05T14:53:02Z

Chis Mulkey, John Ashton, and Sue Scott will all be onstage at the Ritz Theater Tuesday night for a script reading of local writer Bill True's new screenplay "Incarnation." Tickets are $10 and you may get in on the ground floor of the next big movie smash. More details to come.

Celebrate the 4th with an American patriot

2008-07-04T20:39:09Z

The words 'patriot' and Hunter S. Thompson may not go together in some people's view, but according to director Alex Gibney, Thompson was as patriotic as they come, just in a different kind of a way. You can check out what he means in our feature which aired today.

A smattering of 'Zardoz'

2008-07-03T17:17:55Z

I recently revisited one of my favorite films of my teen years. John Boorman's "Zardoz" (1974) explores a dystopian world of the future where brutal gangs of armed thugs terrorize the population. They worship a giant flying head called Zardoz who supplies them with weapons and ammunition. It is Zardoz who commands the gangs to kill. The elite live in vortexes, safe behind a forcefield, but plagued by their inability to die. Things change when one of the 'brutals' as they are known, a man called Zed (Sean Connery)manages to find a way into a vortex. Through his story Boorman explores the human experience. There are moments when the exploration does go a little awry, and it goes from whacky to wacked out, yet he always wrestles it back onto course again. I have to admit that the opening sequence (below) remains one of my favorite prologues of all time.

"Hancock" is a breath of boozy fresh air

2008-07-02T15:46:15Z

The new Will Smith action epic is just plain fun. He plays John Hancock, a superhero with a serious attitude and drinking problem. Sure he helps people, and deals with the bad guys. But he's never very tidy about it, and tends to cause a whole lot of damage, even just when he lands somewhere. He's foul-mouthed, and far from politically correct in his blunt appraisal of the world. As a result, even though he's a superhero, he's not at all popular. In fact many people use a certain epithet to describe him, which unfortunately is the exact one which makes him behave badly. Enter Ray (Jason Bateman) a naive PR guy who Hancock saves from a train. Ray decides Hancock needs a PR make-over, despite the reservations of his wife Mary (Charlize Theron) who worries about the implications of having a super-powered person in the front room. What makes Hancock work is the great interactions between Smith, Bateman, and Theron. It's smart, funny and twist-filled. There are lots of explosions and high-octane chases too, but such is the fun in the dialog the movie actually slows down when the characters begin to fly. Director Peter Berg (who recently delivered the graduation address at his alma mater Macalester College, and does a little product placement for the school in the movie) allows the characters to develop, and even provides a little philosophical context about our need for superheroes and how they would actually be treated in our cynical world. It's not pretty, but like I say, it's a lot of fun.

Alex Gibney , Hunter S. Thompson, and the fate of "Taxi to the Dark Side"

2008-07-01T22:11:03Z

Alex Gibney laughed when asked about possible links between his three films "Enron:the Smartest Guys in the Room," "Taxi to the Dark Side," and "Gonzo:The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson." He said there are no links, or maybe an 'anti-link' as he put it. "Enron" won critical raves. "Taxi," which is about the death of an Afghan man in a US run-prison and won the best documentary Oscar. Now "Gonzo" is about to hit the arthouses as a 4th of July holiday offering. Given the much publicized phenomenon of US audiences staying away from films about the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, I asked him how the Oscar has helped the film. "I think winning the Oscar has given the film a great advantage," he said,"In the sense that it was a film that because of its subject matter, because it's about torture and an American policy of torture, a lot of people were afraid to see it, because they were afraid that they might be somehow brutalized by this topic. And also because it's an uncomfortable subject because we may all be complicit in this policy in the sense that we have allowed it to happen." He says the Oscar seems to have given people permission in a way to go see the movie. He admits however that it hasn't helped a great deal in terms of audiences because his distributor ran into financial problems and was unable to get the film out to take advantage of the Oscar win. He's in arbitration over the issue at the moment. Gibney feels however that the Iraq war films may be having an influence which outweighs the gross audience numbers. He says that people tend to keep talking about them, and he describes them as a kind of depth charge in the American psyche. "For example, "Taxi to the Dark Side" is now required viewing at the Army JAG (Judge Advocate General) school" he says. "I don't think there are a lot of people who would have predicted that a few years ago." "Now a whole group of admirals and generals have endorsed the film," Gibney says, "And I think people will reckon with it as a vivisection of a moment in time that we will not be proud of in the future." We'll run a piece on "Gonzo" later in the week.

Ali Selim on getting your movie seen

2008-06-30T20:48:09Z

Even if you aren't a film maker, it's worth spending a few moments to check out Ali Selim's piece on Mnartists.org entitled "A Filmmaker's Guide to Getting Your Movie On (the Right) Screen." It's part 'how-to' guide, part 'Sweetland' history, and part Selim philosophy. If nothing else you should check out the accompanying portrait by photographer Jody Ake, taken with a wet collodian camera.

A blast from the Minnesota past: "Trauma"

2008-06-30T01:52:31Z

So I got a copy of Dario Argento's "Trauma" and watched it in all its gory glory. The film is nominally about anorexia, but there's a serial killer too who has a home-made electric garrote and a nasty habit of removing people's heads. Ordinarily I have little interest is gorefests. The world is a scary enough place for me. But what kept me watching was all the people who I have met over the years who have parts in the film. There was Dominique Serrand of Theater de la Jeune Lune playing a creepy Romanian guy, Isabell Monk O'Connor of the Guthrie playing a chiropractor working in a creepy office, Peter Moore who has acted and directed just about everywhere in the Twin Cities plays a creepy TV news director, and local veteran Stephen d'Ambrose plays a creepy seance guest. (It's a creepy film in case you hadn't guessed.) Penumbra veteran Lester Purry plays a fairly normal cop and former local TV guy Tony Saffold plays a local TV guy (and nails it too.) The film also makes use of various Twin Cities locations including the Hennepin Avenue bridge and other downtown locations, and the Hopkins House Hotel in Hopkins. The appearances of the locals and the localities really raise this film. It has been cited by some as marking a downturn in Argento's creative powers, but I can't really judge either way. I'm just glad I've seen it, and now don't really have to see it again.

A list at which to look

2008-06-28T13:30:35Z

Lists, even old lists, are always intriguing, especially if there's a good argument with each film. Have a look at this one.

Wall*E: the joys of love and garbage

2008-06-27T13:42:01Z

The new Pixar movie "Wall*E" is filled with magnificent garbage. Piles and piles of it, some loose and blowing in the wind, and some compressed into tidy little cubes by the garbage robot Wall*E. He's been doing it for so long he has build huge ziggurats that dwarf the skyscrapers which used to house the people who produced the trash in the first place. They have all left because the garbage has poisoned the earth, and Wall*E is the last of the robots left to clean up which is still running centuries after the last humans dumped and ran. And he's lonely. He has one pal, a cockroach. He doesn't have a name in the film but it seems likely it's Jiminy. But, inspired by an aged VHS tape of "Hello Dolly" what Wall*E really wants is someone/thing which a hand it can hold. At it's most basic this is a story about a cute little robot looking for company. But Pixar has also once again done a great job of working a plot on several levels and for all age groups. When a probe turns up from elsewhere he launches on a desperate, but good-hearted effort to make friends. It's visually stunning, there are great action scenes, and there's a none-too-subtle poke at the possible consequences of our consumer culture. While some of you may end up seeing this again and again with the kids on DVD, you should make sure you see it at least once on the big screen just to revel in all that garbage.

My Winnipeg: Guy Madden's muse bites hard

2008-06-27T13:28:00Z

Guy Madden loves and hates Winnipeg. His whimsical meditation on his hometown "My Winnipeg" is part historical documentary, part fantasy, and part child's recollection of our neighbor city just to the north. Madden, made the feature "The Saddest Music in the World," but his specialty is making shorts and you could see "My Winnipeg" as a series of shorts in a way, complete with titles which interject all through the film. Madden used a similar approach to memoir making the fascinating "My Dad is 100 years old" with Isabella Rosselini, but in "My Winnipeg" his muse takes him to new strangeness. Madden's Winnipeg is filled with sleepwalkers lulled by the never-ending winter. It stands at the Forks the confluence of the Red and the Assiniboine rivers, although Madden tells of legends of underground rivers which come together at the same spot, creating mystical possibilities. In the film we meet spiritualists, male beauty contest winners, and hockey legends. There's archive film, Madden home movies, and material Madden shot for the film, but it's often hard to tell what is what. We meet Madden's mother, who plays herself in re-enactments of significant family episodes with actors who plays Madden's siblings. It all takes place in what Madden says was the house where he grew up. The city of Winnipeg commissioned the film, and gave Madden free rein to explore with his cameras. The city fathers and mothers might not have anticipated his rant about the city's hockey arenas, (he hates the new one, and is in mourning at the loss of the old one,) and his resulting venom towards the NHL, but it certainly is entertaining. It's a wondrous strange melange of stuff. Don't go in expecting a narrative. But if you are up for being swept away on a wave of words and black and white images, "My Winnipeg" could be your Winnipeg

This is the weekend "Wanted" makes Timur Bekmambetov a household name

2008-06-26T15:32:32Z

I'm still not entirely sure how to say Timur Bekmambetov, but after the release of "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Terrence Stamp this weekend, a lot of people are going to know his name. "Wanted" is a high octane, comic book-powered, CGI-injected thrill-ride which begins with a poor office drone of a schlub Wesley Gibson (McAvoy.) His life is in the dumpster. He hates his job, his boss is a manipulative jerk, and his girlfriend is sleeping with his best friend. He begins having what he thinks are panic attacks. However one day he learns that what he is experiencing is actually his heart rate going up to 400 beats per minute which gives him incredible reflexes and makes him a candidate for an ancient order of assassins who are extremely good at what they do. He learns this after a rogue assassin tries to do him in at the drug store, and he survives only because Fox (Jolie) steps in to use her driving skills and her ability to shoot round corners. Now this is all just in the first 10 minutes or so, and Bekmambetov who wowed Russian audiences with the delightful "Nightwatch" and "Daywatch," keeps the action going with twists and turns that keep the audience guessing. There's even a little philosophizing on the ethics of assassinations, although it's really more of a way of giving backstories to the characters than applying deeper logic. Bekmambetov's great skill is in the way he uses alternative perspectives in key moments. We understand the assassins' almost supernatural skills by getting a bullets-eye view of some of the action. He also makes use of his actors well, with Jolie's calm as Fox even in the midst of hair-raising battle smoothing away Wesley's (McAvoy's) wild panic. Morgan Freeman as Sloan the leader of the assassins and Terrence Stamp as a mysterious gunsmith heighten all of the storms with their millpond calm. This is definitely one of the most satisfying confections of the summer so far. Now I just have to learn that pronunciation.

Queer Takes looks back and forward

2008-06-25T20:57:31Z

Walker Assistant Film Curator Dean Otto is using this years Queer Takes: Visibly Out, which runs today through Sunday, to take stock. Not only is he using the event to look back at some of the important GLBT films, he's also working with folks at Outfest in their effort to preserve important GLBT films which are at risk. The OutFest Legacy Project is working to make new prints, restore important films, and encourage film makers to donate copies of their work for proper archiving. The Walker is working with Tom Letness of the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights on the preservation of a copy of "Parting Glances," from 1986 which is being shown as part of the Festival Otto is also celebrating a legacy of GLBT films in Minnesota, stretching back to the 80's. We talked at length about both subjects the other day. We also talked about the evolution of GLBT films over the years, going from documentation of pride parades to the sophisticated and widely available genre it is today. On top of all that Otto is excited about the breadth and depth of the films screening at this years event. In addition to the Oscar-winning short documentary "Freeheld" (about a lesbian couples struggle to receive the same medical benefits as straight couples when one of them gets cancer) there is "XXY" (a feature about an intersex child, born with the genitalia of both genders) and "Chris and Don" (a documentary about the relationship between writer Christopher Isherwood, who wrote the stories which became the basis for 'Cabaret,' and painter Don Bachardy who was 30 years younger.)

How 'Trauma' may echo through another film

2008-06-24T22:36:39Z

Just days after recalling Dario Argento's visit to the Twin Cities to make "Trauma" back in the early 1990's, the visit came up in another conversation. Author N.M. Kelby, who in her earlier life was Twin Cities performer and TV reporter Nicole Niemi told me today that her experience working on the film is an important element in her new novel "Murder at the Bad Girl's Bar and Grill." She remembers how Argento would work the cast and crew all night and then suddenly send everyone home with his announcement "And now we sleep." "He talked about it as a great homage to the decline of the American culture," Kelby says. "And I just wanted to go: 'Dude it's really about a guy who chops off heads and puts them in hat boxes.'" Kelby's experiences at Heart of the Beast Theater also play a part in the book. What's wild and circular in a way is now Hollywood is interested in making movies from the books. It's and entertaining tale which you can hear here

John Koch tries a new Cinema Revolution

2008-06-23T21:32:00Z

For the last few years John Koch has been learning some lessons while running his video store, Cinema Revolution, in Minneapolis. One was a lesson in frugality. Thus when he made his first feature film he kept the costs down to just $5,000. He did this with a lot of (free) help from his friends, and by cutting a deal with a local movie equipment rental business to get a less popular camera on a cheaper and extended basis. The movie "Je ne sais quoi" gets its world premier tonight at the venerable Ritz Theater in Minneapolis. It will then screen another 11 times in the coming week. You can check out the trailer here. He says if all goes well, and the audiences turn out he could pay for some if not all of the expenses of making the film. He says it makes more sense than depending on the festival circuit to build an audience. He admits the idea is nothing less than a new model for movie financing. "I would hope so and that's definitely the model that I am going to try to follow," he says. "I'm just approaching it from a business model rather than sort of a lottery ticket model that people seem to follow these days when they just put the money down and hope for their one in a million chance." Another important element of the plan is to use a regular theater instead of a movie theater for the screenings. He says it's easier and cheaper to get a stage theater as they often have periods when they are dark between productions. He also says that nowadays most have the digital projection equipment he needs to show the film. If it works well at the Ritz, then Koch says he may take the show on the road and go to other cities and try the same deal. And just to be safe he is also putting out feelers to a few festivals where he or a friend has connections. So what is this film? Koch says it's a story of two oddballs. "Paul is very well spoken, fairly loquacious young man," Koch says, explaining that Paul enjoys the high arts and has some strong opinions on them. "But he has the problem where he just can't stop talking. It tends to alienate people he wants to connect with." Paul lives across the hall from Anna who Koch describes as "A young woman who works as a florist, who has creative impulses, but has a certain ontological weightlessness, where she is sort of drifting, and she has doubts about herself and about her life." Koch says the two are interested in each other intellectually and romantically, but don't know how to act on their inclinations. "It's about trying to form a connection between two people in a world where it seemingly harder and harder to do so," Koch says. "Because I feel that people expectations, or the rituals that go around the whole dating game are becoming a little blurrier than they used to be." When asked if this is then a mumblecore movie, he says no. "I think if you went into it thinking its a mumblecore film you'd be pleasantly surprised." "The film has a... I feel that the stakes are raised slightly, where I feel like in all the mumblecore films I have seen, the characters, nothing bad ever happens to them. "But I feel that these characters lives are on the line in a way, and I get the feeling that in my film the stakes are raised, the emotional stakes are raised. There's also an expressiveness to this film that those films don't have." Koch says a test screening went really well earlier this year and he has high hopes for the finished film. When asked if running a video store has helped the film he says yes and no. He says running a business has slowed the production process and the editing. However he also says just about everyone who worked on the film he met through Cinema Revolution. He's already working on his next film "The Seducer," which he hopes to be shooting early next year. It's about a love triangle, with a woman trying to decide between two men. "It will be dialog driven just as this film is," Koch says. "It probably will be a bit more of a drama, 'Je ne said quoi' is a bit more of a comedy," Koch hopes it may actually cost less too. He's bought a camera for his own video supply company, so will save on the rental fees. He hopes both to using the flexibility of video, to let the circumstances of where and when they shoot influence the production. He also hopes he'll be able to pay his actors this time.