State of the Arts Category Archive: Film

The story behind the book cover

Posted at 8:49 AM on December 30, 2011 by Euan Kerr (4 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

A small secret about the do's and don'ts of book interviews: avoid asking about the cover. OK, perhaps it isn't a rule. Yet just about everyone in public radio has talked to authors over the years who are overjoyed at meeting someone who has actually read the book in preparation for an interview. And then those authors almost inevitably relate a tale of meeting an interviewer who hadn't and then resorted to asking about the cover. So it's almost a matter of honor to avoid asking cover questions.

However, it's impossible to look at the cover of Steve Boman's memoir "Film School" and not have your curiosity piqued.

It's the story of how a Minnesota-born lad faced down a mid-life crisis by taking himself off to film school at USC. He went in with some expectations, but he anticipated few of the curveballs which flew in his direction. They ranged from equipment problems, whacked-out fellow students and bullying instructors to the fact that at age 42 he had a stroke just as he began his second semester.

Then just months later in a twist which Boman says is reminiscent of a Hollywood plotline, he found himself writing a new series for CBS, based on a pitch he'd made in film class. You can get some of the details in our interview.

When Boman came in to chat about the book I couldn't resist asking him to describe the cover, and the thinking behind it, particularly because the towering figure on the cover is clearly him.

"It's an incredibly Conan the Barbarian-like figure wearing a ripped USC shirt," he said, "Ripped just enough so you can't have copyright infringement for USC, holding a perfect representation of an Ariflex 16 millimeter camera. And at this heroic figure's feet there's four women, girls. Three girls and a beautiful woman - a representation of my wife and kids."

"In the background Hollywood is burning and there's sort of a nemesis character in a Che shirt and a beret. And it's over-the-top, and it's a great cover because people either love it or hate it."

This apocalyptic scene is capped by the blood red title "Film School."

Boman admits to having asked the artist to lard on a few extra muscles.

But what is also quite eye catching is the subtitle "A memoir that will change your life." It's quite a claim, and it's one that causes Boman to roll his eyes. Believe it or not the subtitle is a compromise between him and his publishers.

"I wanted to say 'A true story,'" Boman relates. "And they said, 'The sales people don't like that. They need a memoir.' And I said 'I hate the term 'a memoir' - it makes it sound so self-important. And this is not as much a memoir as a story that happens to be true. So I said 'In all memoirs it's implied that this is very important,' so I thought 'this will be a memoir that will change your life.'"

He thought it up as a joke.

"And they put it on the cover," he said.

Actually the over-the-top feeling of the cover neatly captures the tensions and roiling sense of crisis in the book. Boman says he really likes the cover, although his wife isn't so sure. He admits to getting a little queasy however every time he sees the book in the stores.

"I feel squeamish sometimes because it's pretty personal. But I thought if you are going to write something, you've got to have a point of view and tell the story. I also thought if I was a reporter and someone came up and said 'Here's my story,' and I interviewed them and reported on it, I'd certainly tell these stories, and I thought ok I have an obligation to tell it, for good and for bad."

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Beyond 'Cuckoo's Nest': mental illness on the big screen

Posted at 10:33 AM on November 30, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

From One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Melancholia, there are a myriad of films out there that portray characters suffering from mental illness.

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

Midmorning host Kerri Miller talked with both Bob Mondello, NPR's movie critic, and Lisa Brown, artistic director of Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival, about how films often sensationalize mental illness, but sometimes do a compelling job of getting it right.

Bob Mondello wrote about the recent surge in films depicting mental illness for NPR, which you can read here.

Some of the films discussed on Midmorning:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Black Swan

Ordinary People

Girl, Interrupted

The Hours

Melancholia

A Beautiful Mind

Drop Dead Fred

A Soldier's Heart

You can listen to the show by clicking on the link below:

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First Latin Film Festival gets underway

Posted at 4:46 PM on November 2, 2011 by David Cazares (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

The cast of Abel, a film by Mexican director Diego Luna

By Carolina Astrain

A new tradition for the Twin Cities film community could take hold Thursday, when the first Latin Film Festival kicks off at the St. Anthony Main Theater.

The 13-day festival begins with a narrative film by Mexican actor-turned-director Diego Luna. His first narrative film, Abel (2010), follows the wild imagination of a young boy grappling with the absence of his father.

Luna has shown the film at several festivals including Sundance and Cannes. Many Latinos, particularly Mexican immigrants, are pleased to see it in the new festival.

"This is a great way for Minnesotans to learn more about Latino culture," said Abel Ordaz, a Mexican immigrant who lives in Minneapolis and has no connection to the movie that shares his name.

The festival is sponsored by the Film Society of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The Minnesota Cuba Committee is hosting four films at the festival, including: Habana Eva, La Salsa Cubana, Unfinished Spaces and Battleships.

Following the screening of La Salsa Cubana, local Cuban choreographer Rene Thompson will lead a discussion on the political implications of salsa music on Cuban society.

Carla Riehle, secretary of the Minnesota Cuba Committee, said the film offers an interesting look at the island's culture.

"They're immersed in a way of life that's very foreign to us," said Riehle, who has been to Cuba. "We're so used to competing with each other. That is not so in Cuba, it's a much more cooperative way of life."

Most of the films in the festival come from Latin American directors, but there a couple of others in the mix. Solar System, directed by German-born filmmaker Thomas Heise, is a silent film chronicling the lives of the Kolla people of Argentina's Salta Province. Much in the tradition of Werner Herzog, the film uses stunning photography to tell the story.

Closing the festival on Nov. 12 is Elite Squad: The Enemy Within by Brazilian director Jose Padilha. Padilha gained international recognition in 2002 for his documentary Bus 174, which weaves together live news coverage of a man who kept bus passengers hostage for four-hours. Padhila's latest production features the lives of a crack team from Special Police Operations attempting to clean up Rio de Janeiro's drug scene.

Whether the Latin Film Festival has a future is uncertain, said Susan Smoluchowski, executive director of the Film Society of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

"These festivals, supported in part by Legacy funding, represent the growing international communities here in Minnesota. We were planning for another in this series of festivals next year focused on films out of Africa," Smoluchowski said. "However I think we're getting such a large response from the Latin American community on this one that we may want to do both."

Editor's note: MPR's Carolina Astrain writes occasionally for State of the Arts. Her editor is David Cazares.

Tune in to Morning Edition tomorrow to hear Euan Kerr's report on both the Latin and Arab film festivals launching this weekend.

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Women take on the media in 'Miss Representation'

Posted at 10:10 AM on October 14, 2011 by Marianne Combs (4 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

On October 19, Saint Anthony Main Theater will screen a documentary titled "Miss Representation." It's a provocative and compelling look at how the media shapes the way women are viewed, and indeed, how they view themselves. Here's the trailer:

Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.

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Deadly dollhouses present miniature crime scenes

Posted at 10:17 AM on September 28, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Dollhouses aren't just for happy wannabe homemakers.

A new Twin Cities-made documentary called "Of Dolls and Murder" reveals how important one particular set of dollhouses has been to solving untimely deaths in the U.S. for 70 years.

Detail from a nutshell crime scene
Image courtesy 'Of Dolls and Murder'

MPR's Euan Kerr spoke with director Susan Marks, who said she knew she had to make a film about the dioramas the first time she heard about them.

"Well, the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death were created by a woman called Frances Glessner Lee who was this wealthy heiress to the International Harvester fortune, who had a life-long interest in crime, and the pursuit of justice, really."

This was back in the 1930s, when forensics was known as police science. Lee was one of the few women involved in the detective business, but she taught at Harvard.

Marks said Lee realized homicide detectives needed careful training in looking for clues at crime scenes. Over a number of years Lee painstakingly hand-built 20 of the nutshells. Each is based on a real crime and is accurate down to the tiniest of details. Susan Marks said the dioramas are very low tech.

"And yet they are still used today," she said. "Because no matter how advanced our technology becomes in the realm of forensics, it still all goes back to the investigative skills of what people are observing."

Marks and her crew got to film The Nutshells at their new home in Baltimore. They also filmed some of the detectives who come from all over the country to train by poring over the miniature scenes of murder.

You can hear more about how the dollhouses help detective work, and about the documentary, by clicking on the audio link below:

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Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez on a pilgrimage for "The Way"

Posted at 11:26 AM on September 13, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Martin Sheen in "The Way"

Martin Sheen and his son Emilion Estevez are on a journey across America promoting their new film about a different kind of journey.

Called "The Way," the movie follows the father (played by Sheen) as he retraces his dead sons steps on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The son is played by Estevez, who also directed the film.

On Midmorning today, Estevez says in his mind "The Way" is in some ways loosely based on "The Wizard of Oz." Like Dorothy, Martin Sheen's character meets a series of characters on his journey along the yellow-marked camino.

Making this movie was a personal journey for the actors, who have family history in Northern Spain.

The conversation was wide-ranging, including the nature of pilgrimages and personal discovery, Sheen's family history, acting, and of course Estevez and Sheen's father-son relationship.

What didn't get discussed? Mention of Sheen's other son, Charlie, was noticeably absent from the conversation.

You can hear the hour by clicking on the audio link below:

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The Merry Pranksters present an editing nightmare

Posted at 1:23 PM on September 6, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Sometimes treasures come with a curse attached.

For instance, While Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney was thrilled to get his hands on raw footage of a legendary 1960s road-trip, the find led to one very tedious production session.

This 1934 International Harvester school bus, named "Further" became an international icon of the hippy movement after the Merry Pranksters drove it from California to New York and back in 1964. (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

Ken Kesey and the Merry Band of Pranksters drove from California to New York and back in an old school bus, filming and audio-taping much of the experience.

As Euan Kerr reports, Gibney and co-director Alison Ellwood had to find a way to distill it all down into one documentary:

They had 50 priceless hours of film and 150 hours of audio tapes, captured by very good cameras and microphones. But that thing filmmakers do with the clapperboard at the beginning of a shot to synchronize images and sounds -- well, the Pranksters felt that was unnecessary.

"They didn't do the clap. Ever," Gibney said.

"Once!" interjects Ellwood.

"Sorry, they did it once," Gibney corrects himself. "And that was when they brought in a professional soundman for the day, who promptly quit when he saw how disorganized everything was."

They went to great efforts to find places where the sound matched up with the images.

"We hired a lip-reader to come in and spent half a day and they gave up," Ellwood said.

They found some synch points, including a wild sequence where Cassady drove the bus while high on speed. Listening to music on huge headphones Cassady raps into the on-board public address system, waving his arms and howling into the microphone, only occasionally looking at the road. Gibney admits it's quite frightening.

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Marx, Smith - and Warhol

Posted at 2:42 PM on August 22, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums

Mexican director Pedro Reyes and his crew, who have been hard at work on his project Baby Marx at the Walker Art Center for the past couple of weeks, have now released the first couple of clips from the film they are creating.

The idea is to have economic giants Karl Marx and Adam Smith wander the Walker in puppet form to argue economic theory, while maybe critiquing art, and the modern world.

The first clip released today involves their reaction to Andy Warhol's silk-screen of Jackie Kennedy.

You can also follow the Marx and Smith argument spawned by a cookie here.

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Walker Art Center receives $1 million to digitize films, upgrade cinema

Posted at 9:57 AM on August 18, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums, Video

The Bentson Foundation has granted the Walker Art Center $1 million to "enhance the presentation and preservation" of the Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection.

According to a release from the Walker, the funds will be used to digitize selected films and upgrade the Walker Cinema. Improvements include the addition of high-definition digital projectors, a redesign of the cinema's acoustics, and new seats.

A razor is drawn towards a woman's eye in this still from the film Un Chien Andalou by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, 1928.

The Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection was established in 1973 by a gift from Edmond R. Ruben, a leading figure in film exhibition in the Upper Midwest. The Rubens' daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Larry Bentson, were also longtime supporters of the Walker whose major gift in 1998 allowed the Walker to acquire, conserve, and present film/video materials. The Bentson Foundation was established in 1956 to support a range of philanthropic causes throughout the state.

The Walker's Ruben/Bentson Film and Video Study Collection now includes more than 850 titles, from classic to contemporary cinema as well as documentaries, avant-garde films, and video works by artists.

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John Michael McDonagh on sibling rivalry

Posted at 11:51 AM on August 15, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

What would it be like to have a sibling who was in the same business as you, but was having a lot more luck at it?

MPR's Euan Kerr found out when he spoke to screenwriter John Michael McDonagh.

Don Cheadle and Brenden Gleeson appear as an unlikely pair of crime fighters in John Michael McDonagh's "The Guard." (Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics)

For a long time McDonagh was having a hard time getting his scripts turned into films. When one finally did get bought by Hollywood, the director botched the production. Now nobody was interested in McDonagh's work.

To make things worse, McDonagh's brother Martin had become an overnight sensation in London and New York with a series of award-winning plays, including "The Cripple of Inishmaan" and "The Pillowman."

"I hate the theater," John Michael McDonagh states bluntly. "I only go to the theater when he gives me free tickets for his own plays. Because I find it really boring. So he could have had all the success he wanted in the theater world and I wasn't bothered."

But then, Martin McDonagh started making movies.

"I think when he won an Oscar for his short film, that's when I say a little ulcer started in the pit of my stomach, and it grew when he got 'In Bruges' set up," said John Michael.

"In Bruges," a dark comedy about two Irish hitmen hiding out in Belgium, was an indie hit in 2008, snagging Martin McDonagh a best screenplay Oscar nomination.

John Michael says he's close to his brother, but they rarely talk about work.

Now John Michael is getting back in the spotlight with his new movie "The Guard," which he's directed himself.

To find out more about the movie, which stars Don Cheadle, click on the audio link below.

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Another Earth asks: if you met yourself, what would you say?

Posted at 8:52 AM on August 8, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

If you could visit a parallel universe, and meet another version of you, what would you say?

Another Earth

Such is the premise behind the movie Another Earth, which opened this past weekend.

Euan Kerr recently met with Brit Marling and Mike Cahill, who co-wrote "Another Earth." Marling plays the lead role and Cahill directs.

Cahill and Marling are self-described space geeks who met in college at Georgetown. They collaborated on short films, but often spent time just shooting the breeze, making up stories they'd build around space factoids.

They became fascinated with the idea of another earth, Earth 2, and the implications of speaking with the person who would have the greatest empathy with you - yourself.

"From there we worked our way backwards into what is the human drama where meeting yourself with the possibility of confrontation would have the greatest emotional resonance?" Marling said. "And that seemed to be a story a girl who couldn't forgive herself for something she had done."

They wrote the story of Rhoda Williams, a young woman who on the eve of going to MIT to study astrophysics hears scientists have discovered Earth 2. That night she also makes a terrible mistake that not only wrecks her life, it destroys a stranger's family.

You can hear the rest of their conversation, including one 12-year-old's rave review, by clicking on the audio link below:

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Oestreich takes a hike

Posted at 12:52 PM on July 19, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Some people make a fuss when they leave town: others just slip away.

Ryan Oestreich, who has been a pillar of what's now known as the Film Society of Minnesota for the last four years, tried the latter approach, but we found him anyway.

He says leaving the Film Society was hard.

"We probably are in the best position we have been in in the last seven years," he said this morning on the phone from Chicago.

Oestreich is heading via a roundabout route to Denver where his girlfriend is entering grad school.

The last few years have been pretty wild at what was once Minnesota Film Arts (and before that the U Film Society.) During Oestreich's time there the organization went from presenting programs at two theaters, the Bell and the Oak Street, while mounting the annual Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival, to being an organization focused primarily on the Festival, to where it is now, doing repertory programming at St Anthony Main across from downtown, where it shares space with the regular multiplex fare. Then at Festival time in the early spring it takes over the entire complex.

"The film festival that just wrapped is now the biggest it's ever been," he said. "With over 200 feature films and 80 short films, and then you have year-round programming."

Oestreich says 2011 could be shaping up to be a record year for number of movies shown, very different from four years ago when he first began working with founder Al Milgrom, where he admits things were "kind of stop and go."

While he says its hard to point to one thing which changed everything, he says there is now a clearer direction to the organization and with the help of the board, and Executive Director Susan Smoluchowski's grant-writing expertise, Oestreich says the Film Society is on firmer financial ground.

"The idea was, let's raise more money with the film festival so that can influence the year round programming." Oestreich said. "What happened was the members and the patrons noticed. So the membership doubled and is now is only increasing."

He says a lot of people are discovering, or rediscovering, the Film Society.

"And suddenly you have the best outcome which is more films, more programming, more diversity," he said.

For a long time what was then the MFA was locked in an internal struggle between factions who passionately believed the organization had to focus on the Festival, and those who just as passionately believed in repertory film year-round as the foundation. There were passionate meetings and ruffled feathers.

Oestreich says time has shown a need for both.

"The idea of bringing back repertory is coming along," he said, pointing to recent programs where current releases are paired with similarly themed classics. But what had to happen first was, you sort of have to throw everything out of the house before you start rebuilding it."

"Yeah, there was probably a concern on many people's parts," he admits. "But in time everything came back around, and is sort of getting back into a rhythm that I think people recognize."

He believes the move to St Anthony Main also helped, giving a focus both to the festival and the programming the rest of the year. He says it is a product of the audience wanting a central location.

"It's a place people want to go," he said, pointing to the availability of restaurants, bars and even Segways nearby.

"It's a very strong organization again, and so it's hard to leave at this moment," he said. "And the people that are there are extremely passionate about the mission."

He said he recognizes his own passion for film in the staff he leaves behind and that makes make him feel he's leaving the organization in good hands.

He's hoping to latch onto something in film in Denver, but doesn't have anything set up yet.

When I ask him if there is anything else we should talk about as he leaves town, he counters with the true cineaste statement: "I don't know - have you seen anything good lately?"

Oestreich says he doesn't know what the future will bring, but he's not ruling out a return to the Twin Cities at some point.

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Film director Miranda July talks about The Future

Posted at 9:41 AM on July 11, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Writer and film director Mirand July was in town this weekend to introduce her new film "The Future" to audiences at the Walker Art Center.

Miranda July in The Future

"The Future" which July wrote, directed and in which she performs as Sophie and the voice of the cat, revolves round an earnest, self-absorbed and not very bright couple who decide to adopt an older cat, who has been given a month to live. Then Sophie and Jason learn the cat might live for another five years. They can't adopt the cat for a month, so they decide to quit their jobs and fulfill their life goals in the next thirty days.

MPR's Euan Kerr caught up with July to talk about the new film, and the future:

Miranda July is an unlikely provocateur, which is probably why she is so good at it. She's a slender woman who wears carefully considered outfits. She stares in a disconcerting way, almost as if she's been startled by a random thought, about say "The Future," the concept, not the film.

"Well, I like that the second we start talking about the future you are automatically talking about people's hopes or their fears, you know?" she said. "But pretty much never anything real."

Because the future never arrives?

"Right," she said, "And so even though it's such a kind of mundane common word, it immediately puts you in a sort of interior, esoteric space."

Interested in finding out about your own future? Try Miranda July's online prognosicator.

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Cube Critics: Transformers, Page One and Barney's Version

Posted at 4:17 PM on June 30, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Film

This week on Cube Critics, Euan Kerr and Stephanie Curtis talk about the movies Page One and Transformers 3, as well as the DVD release of Barney's Version. Take a listen and find out why Curtis says she won't go see Transformers 3, even though Kerr recommends it.

And here, for your viewing pleasure, are their trailers:

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Minnesota high school wrestler turned Oscar nominee

Posted at 11:34 AM on June 22, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts around the state, Film

The new movie "Earthwork" opens this weekend at the Film Society in Minneapolis. It stars Alexandria native John Hawkes, who received an Oscar nomination for his role in the film "Winter's Bone."

Oscar nominee John Hawkes plays a Kansas farmer and crop artist trying to work in Manhattan in "Earthwork" (Image courtesy Shadow Distribution)

Hawkes is returning to Alexandria this week to present "Earthwork," and MPR's Euan Kerr caught up with him to talk about the new film, and how he went from life in rural Minnesota to that of a movie star.

Hawkes said he was a high school wrestler, but looked for something else when he gave that up. He said that the reason he became an actor was because of the Guthrie Theater.

In his sophomore year, he got on a bus with his classmates and traveled to Minneapolis to see Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." He said he had never seen a real play before.

"And I was just so amazed that day," he said. "I just kind of couldn't shake the feeling of how I felt and how those people had stirred emotion in me and kind of wondered if someday I could do that for someone else."

Hawkes credits his drama teachers at Jefferson High school in Alexandria for getting him started. He moved to Texas and helped launch a theater company in Austin.

You can read the full story here, or listen to it by clicking on the audio link below:

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MPR's classical hosts head to the movies

Posted at 1:52 PM on June 20, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Music

Okay, those folks over at MPR Classical are having more fun than should be legal.

A while back I wrote about how Emily Reese is interviewing composers who create scores for video games, in a series called "Top Score." The show brings together two Reese's great loves - classical music, and gaming.

Now hosts Bill Morelock and Lynn Warfel are indulging their love of movies with a new show called "Roll Credits."

Bill Morelock and Lynn Warfel, hosts of Roll Credits. Oh wait, that's Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh...

Knowing Morelock and Warfel, the show will be a witty and entertaining exploration of some of the most memorable movies in history, and the music that helped make them so.

Tonight at 8pm the show gets underway by looking at some of the films of 1939: Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Of Mice and Men, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and The Wizard of Oz.

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Monster as metaphor in Super 8

Posted at 10:39 AM on June 10, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Super 8 opens in theaters this weekend. It stars a group of misfit kids and a mysterious and dangerous creature that escapes from the U.S. Air Force in a train crash.

In an interview with Michele Norris, director J.J. Abrams revealed that it's really two different movie ideas combined:

"The idea at first was just a small intimate story," he says. "A story about first love, a story about a broken family."

But the film was missing something, he explains: "I wanted something external, something physical that would represent ... the struggle happening internally with the main character." At the time, Abrams was also mulling over another plot: A U.S. Air Force train transporting contents from Area 51 crashes and its content escapes. "It occurred to me," Abrams says, "that if I combined these stories ... this creature that is out there in this world really does represent all this pain and this agony of the loss this boy is suffering."

Abrams goes on to say that in many ways this film is a tribute to the classic movies that Steven Spielberg made under the Amblin Entertainment label (E.T., Back to the Future, and The Goonies, among others).

..."the feeling is a feeling of infinite possibility," Abrams says. Sure, there were scary moments, but in Amblin films, "you always felt you were in good hands."

Abrams is shooting for heart and wholesomeness -- the kind of film you want to see with the whole family on a warm summer night at a drive-in. "The idea [is] that at the end of the film you feel better then you did when you got there," Abrams says. The experience should feel communal, whether you're in a car or a theater -- and it's one that Abrams hopes diverse audiences will enjoy. "As with Amblin movies, there is no one audience," he says. "The movie is for everyone."

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Vikings documentary relives season of pain

Posted at 2:07 PM on May 5, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

It takes a lot of courage to be a Vikings fan. And for some, rooting for the team isn't just a pastime, it's a full-time passion. The documentary "SKOL" follows some of the Vikings' most dedicated fans through last year's season - you know, the one in which Coach Brad Childress was fired, Randy Moss came and went, and the roof collapsed?

As University of Minnesota sports sociologist Doug Hartmann says, "You can change your religion and your wife way easier than you can change your football team."

Even the Vikings' website admits:

Sure, part of being a Vikings fan is having the ability to feel comfortable on football's emotional roller coaster, but if you're a Vikings fan, you can't ever say you've been bored.

The documentary gets its premiere at 8 pm on Thursday, May 19, at the Heights Theatre. Will you be there? Can you bear to watch?

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Harry Potter movie marathon poll

Posted at 2:41 PM on May 4, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Riverview Theater, beloved destination in the Twin Cities for cheap movies after they've made their first run in the main houses, is considering hosting a Harry Potter marathon this summer, as the movie series wraps up with its final episode "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 2."

However, with seven films in the series, scheduling is going to be a bit of a challenge. And of course, Riverview wants to find the best schedule for its fans.

So, it's put up a poll on Facebook, and the staff are hoping you'll cast your vote.

Here are the choices:

Two Sundays, one week apart (all day)
One movie per night for a week (7pm showtime)
Saturday afternoon and all day on Sunday (3 films on Sat, 4 films on Sun)
Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons (2-3 shows per day)
Tuesday and Wednesday the week before the new film released (all day)

Can you imagine sitting through seven movies straight? Wouldn't you have a serious headache? Or would it be spellbinding?

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Local director salves family tragedy through his film

Posted at 2:00 PM on April 22, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Storytelling

For a Midwesterner Jed Schlegelmilch is getting remarkably used to people seeing him in emotional distress.

"Yeah, it's all out there,"he told me recently. "I guess I'm used to people see me cry now."

Sitting in the upstairs lobby of the Edina Theater where he is the manager, recounts how he came to make the autobiographical documentary "Absence/Presence" which will screen tomorrow at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival.

It's the story of how he set out to deal with the horror of his brother's apparent suicide at a party almost 20 years ago in their hometown of Appleton Wisconsin.

It began after he bumped into a friend of his brother completely by chance. he describes it as a surreal moment.

"We only talked for about a minute or so: our encounter was very brief," Schlegelmilch said. "But, after that, I couldn't stop thinking about my brother. It brought back all these memories again, memories of how he died. It also brought to mind how much I was starting to forget about him."

He decided he had to do something. So he took a 10 day road trip to talk to people who had been around at that time to see what he could learn about what happened, and possibly set his own demons to rest.

"And I thought, if I am going to do this, I want to document it in some way, and I might as well do it in the form that I love, and that's the movies," he said.

"Absence/Presence" is a tough movie to watch. It's a raw film, both in its content and in the way it's shot and edited. But the emotion of what Schlegelmilch is experiencing, along with everyone else in the film burns through it all.

Originally Schlegelmilch just thought he'd make the film for his own family members, but several of them encouraged him to see if he could show it to a larger audience.

He's had a number of screenings, but he admits he's a little surprised he was invited to show the film at MSPIFF.

"It's really the most unlikely of films I think to be selected for the festival," he said. "Because it started as such a personal thing for me, and when you watch it you kind of feel like you are watching a home movie. It's very intimate and personal."

He did get some big time help though when members of Cloud Cult gave him permission to use the band's music in the film.

Unlike some film makers who dream of huge distribution, Schlegelmilch sees the future of "Absence/Presence" in high schools.

"Ultimately I just want it to help people," he said. "I want people to watch it and be moved by it: call a friend, call a family member who they haven't talked to in a long time, or something. I feel it could help in that way."

Here is an extract from the film

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The single image that launched 'Triumph67'

Posted at 3:22 PM on April 15, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Mohannad Ghawanmeh wears at least two hats when it comes to "Triumph67" the new Minnesota-made picture getting it's world premier tonight at MSPIFF.

He is both the producer and lead actor.

"Producing is a much more organizational, cerebral, and socia activity," he told me the other day. "And to me acting is a much more intensely psychological experience."

"The film tells the story of two Palestinian-American brothers," he continued, "Whose lives encounter an event that hurls a nmber of consequential events as well as delivers them to states of being they wouldn't have predicted."

Ghawanmeh says at its roots its also an examination of the state of the Palestinian people at this point in history.

"But only in passing really," he adds.

What is remarkable is the film was shot almost entirely in Minnesota.

"Lets not forget that Minnesota, and the Twin Cities in particular is home to a great many people from all over the globe, and I think there is a global consciousness that might surprise some people, given its distance from the coasts."

The genesis of the project is quite remarkable given it's small beginning.

"The film began in the mind of director Dan Tanz who had conceived of a rather artsy, avant-gard film involving an Arab character riding a motorbike through the Midwestern plains, particularly in the Driftless Area by the Mississippi River."

That image expanded after Tanz invited others to take part including Ghawanmeh to help develop the idea and ultimately a script. He jokes that's when he learned he was going to have to do more than scowl and snee, he was going to have to utter lines.

"I think it worked out for all of us," he laughs. "I still mope,' he says almost with relief.

The crew also used a Kickstarter website to help fund the project. It raised $12,000 for the project which Ghamanweh says came in very handy during post production. He believes the crew's enthusiasm for the project infected supporters and that helped raise the money.

"I think that our film involves people who have proven themselves on the local film scene," he said. "And I think that a lot of people sensed that we were really going for something, that this was an ambitious project."

A certain amount has been made of the fact that Tanz is Jewish and Ghamanweh is Palestinian, but he plays it down a little.

"We think that it might call attention to the film, and of course attention is something that we seek, because there's so many films in the marketplace" he said. "But it's an entirely organic, and authentic collaboration. Dan and I share similar perspectives along lines political and socio-economic and the like, and share our view of the trauma that has befallen the Palestinian people in both the 20th and 21st centuries."

Tonight's screening of "Triumph67" is sold out, but there are still tickets available for the second screening on Tuesday afternoon.

As to the future, the crew hopes to get the film out on the festival circuit and then take it from there.

You can see the trailer here.

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MSPIFF does the numbers

Posted at 12:18 PM on April 13, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People, Storytelling

Ryan Oestreich looked remarkably calm the other day, nestled behind his desk in the corner of the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival. He's the festival co-ordinator, and for the moment he's a happy guy.

A huge board festooned with Post-it notes hung nearby. It's the festival schedule, and a very full schedule at that.

"Two hundred and forty, 250 films," Oestreich said. "Last year we were at 170, so this is a big jump. A really big jump. But we have three weeks."

There are flicks coming in from all over the world, and Oestrich points out that almost all of them will get two screenings, and some three. When asked about possible strategies for wading through the offerings he suggests going with what you love, to see where it takes you, at least on the MSPIFF schedule.

"Basically find a film that you like," he said, "And search by like a title, or a director, or a theme that fits that."

He also suggests checking out movies where the people involved will be there to present their work.

"We have not a few, but 40 to 60 film makers," he said. "Lots, I think 20 to 25, just Minnesota film makers."
When asked why he looks so remarkably calm, he launches into a discussion of what he calls 'the festival high.' He says he only usually notices it when it's gone.

"You only know you have it, when you don't have it," he said. "So two days after the festival you realize you are not feeling as much stimulation, you're just kind of like, moping around. And you think to yourself 'why is this happening?' And you realize 'Oh, it's because I'm not stressed out, I'm not seeing a million movies, and I'm not running around trying to schedule all these things. And that's because of the festival, and it's very strange."

Oestreich describes it as an unquantified fact about film festivals. He smiles and sits back in his seat. We'll have to check in with him in a few days, after tomorrow nights opening festivities if he still doesn't know if he has it.

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Pumping up the Minnesota in MSPIFF

Posted at 2:00 PM on April 6, 2011 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film

The folks at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival are now in the final stretch leading up to the opening of the 2011 edition, and there in their midst is long-time doc-maker Melody Gilbert.

Gilbert (pictured left while shooting her film "Urban Explorers") is programmer of the Mn-Made portion of the Fest, (although she immediately sprang at the opportunity to be called the curator when I asked her if that was her title.)

She's very excited about the huge selection of films now included in the program. "I'm really passionate about this," she says, adding she jumped at the chance to do the programming thinking it might be a chance to, as she put it, "give more opportunities to people locally who may not have a chance to screen otherwise."

She had a lot from which to choose,

"A lot of people submitted films, and I had to go look at all of those," she said. "And after that I went around looking for films from people who I knew who are in the community who may mot have submitted right away, or whose films were not on the radar of the film community."

She found a lot, particularly short films, and she has used that as a reason to expand the shorts programs. In the past she says there's just been one show of Minnesota shorts, with genres all mixed in. This year she's put together five shows, each featuring a different kind of film-making: narrative, documentaries and animation, an all-music video program, and two emerging film maker programs.

The shorts include local pieces which premiered at SXSW, new work by Twin Cities stalwarts Phil Harder, and Patrick Coyle, as well as experimental films such as one featuring punk poet Paul Dickinson walking through the streets of St Paul.

She runs through some other of her favorites including "Keys" by MCAD grad Ned Hurley "It's just this beautiful film, about a piano in a warehouse," Gilbert says. Then there is "Waiting" which she describes as "a musical journey through the delays of life."

"It really hurts not to show them all," she said. "You know ideally we'd have a film festival here that just focused on Minnesota film makers only. There are plenty more films I would have liked to put in here."

Then we move on to the feature presentations, which also includes something new.

"This year we created for the first time ever a 'work in progress screening,'" Gilbert says. "That film is called 'All over the Walls.' Basically it's a documentary that follows a mixed media artist and body painter named Jacob as he pursues his dream of building an art gallery." It will be a free screening where people can come and help the film makers by giving them feedback about their rough cut. "It kind of opens up the process to people who don't normally get to see that."

"We have 'Broken Dreams.' It's about the vanishing Somali Youth that left Minneapolis, and went back to Somalia," Gilbert says. The film is directed by first time film maker Fathia Absie. "This is an important story to our community in Minnesota," Gilbert continues. "I wouldn't want to show a film that some one else came in and did. She is Somali and got right in to the heart of the Somali community and we are really proud to be showing this film."

Then there is "Incredibly Small" which Gilbert describes as "A fun 'mumblecory' film by Dean Peterson, (which) features Alex Karpovsky who is well-known for his most recent appearance in the indie hit 'Tiny Furniture.'"

Gilbert says she is also very excited about showing "Thicker than Water" about an 11 year old boy from White Bear Lake who loves playing hockey who tries to lead a normal life despite the risks associated with his hemophilia.

"The director who is actually from here, and is related to the family, shot this ten years ago, and then decided not to do anything with it." Gilbert says the subject matter just proved to painful for a while, but he finally took it off the shelf and worked with an editor to make the film. The boy is now a student at the U of M, and will be coming to see it as will many family members who have not see it yet.

Then there is "Triumph67" a narrative drama about two Palestinian American brothers. "One of the things I love about this film is it is very beautiful, first of all," Gilbert says. "But the story behind the making of the film is very interesting because it's a first time film from a Jewish director and a Palestinian producer. The director wanted to have this collaboration to prove it could be done."

She also points to "I'm not Black, I am Colored" Twin Cities resident Kiersten Dunbar Chace's documentary about mixed race people living in South Africa who find themselves caught in a limbo within the community.

Perhaps Gilbert's biggest prize will be kept for the end. The closing night screening is "Stuck Between Stations" which she saw as a rough cut in the last year. It was shot in Minneapolis and stars Sam Rosen, Zoe Lister-Jones, Michael Imperioli and Josh Hartnett.

The program synopsis describes it thus: Thanks to a chance encounter, two former high school classmates have one night to experience what could've been if Casper (Sam Rosen) never enlisted in the fight overseas (Zoe Lister Jones plays the other half of this unexpected romance). Initially agreeing to keep their emotions from overcomplicating their rendezvous, nothing about their night turns out as they planned it. The stars, skyscrapers and an uncertain future loom large over their journey through the unsympathetic, urban landscape.

Gilbert hoped to get director Brady Kiernan to premier the film at MSPIFF, but then it got accepted for the Tribeca Film Festival where it will get its world premier on April 22nd. The May 5th screening in Minneapolis is described as a 'sneak peak.' No doubt it will sell out fast.

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Trylon tries a little Mumblecore

Posted at 3:28 PM on March 9, 2011 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Storytelling

Mumblecore is one of those terms that elicits one of three reactions:excitement, horror, or bewilderment. Members of the low-budget, low-tech, high-concept movement (although 'movement' may be too strong a word) produce movies about people drifting through life, looking for meaning and fulfillment, without finding much. If you are a fan, it's a comfortable reflection of real life. If you're not there's an infuriating lack of explosions or resolution. If you don't know anything about mumblecore, you might want to check out "Wah Do Dem" tonight next Tuesday (March 15th) at the Trylon in Minneapolis.

"Wah Do Dem" is the story of Max (Sean Bones,) a mopey 20-something, who finds himself on a cruise to Jamaica. He's there because he won two tickets, but he's alone because his girlfriend Willow (a brief appearance by singer Nora Jones,) dumped him just before departure, and none of his friends can, or will take the time off to go along. Max believes himself a sophisticate of sorts, but he soon gets lost in the very different Jamaican culture, which at one point leaves him stranded alone on a beach, with literally only a pair of cut-off shorts to his name.

Writer/directors Ben Chace and Sam Feischner capture Max's predicament as he works his way out of trouble. It's a gently funny film, with moments of discomforting mysticism, which Max tries and usually fails to embrace.

The "Wah Do Dem" screening is part of the Trylon's Premiere Tuesdays series where the microcinema screens interesting movies which otherwise might bypass the Twin Cities. It's an opportunity worth checking out.

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For Matt McCormick 'Some Days Are Better Than Others'

Posted at 4:42 PM on March 1, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Matt McCormick admits his movie "Some Days Are Better Than Others" might seem like a hard sell sometimes. The film, which is screening in the Sound Unseen series at the Trylon in Minneapolis on Wednesday, follows the misadventures of three misfits in McCormick's hometown of Portland, Ore.

One blurb for a screening in New York described them as competitors in a 'saddest job in the world' contest, but McCormick says he thinks that's unfair.

"I hope it's not entirely a sad film. It deals with some sad issues, but I don't think its a sad film. I think its more about the process of dealing with unfortunate situations," he told me over the phone from Portland. "It's a movie that wears its heart on its sleeve, and its not a feelgood comedy by any means."

In reality "Some Days Are Better than Others" is a beautifully crafted exploration of unfulfilled dreams. We meet a young woman who works in an animal shelter whose boyfriend just dumped her. As she tracks his new found freedom on social media she convinces herself she can escape from her misery by getting on a reality show. There's an aging hipster who believes if he can just get a production job on a local film crew his life will change forever, and then there is the woman who works sorting donations in a thrift store who finds a discarded object which begins to consume her.

"Something that is very important to the movie is all of these various abandoned objects," McCormick said. "Whether its the dogs at the Humane society or the objects at the donation center or the buildings that are boarded up and being demolished. I wanted to have this real life reflection where the audience had to deal with that."

McCormick says each of the stories has roots in real life, but then he abstracted and played with them until the movie came together.He wanted to explore the melancholy mundane feelings people often experience. "Knowing that things are not going the way you want," he said, "But knowing they could be a whole lot worse."

"There's a little stress that comes with that, and it's part of growing up. And I think we are always growing up, whether you are 25 or 40 or 60, you are always going to be facing that reality of where you are at compared with that idealized image you had of yourself 20 years earlier, or whatever, and how you thought things would work out."

Getting back to the idea of selling the film to an audience, McCormick says he didn't make it with that in mind. He just made a movie he wanted to make.

"It relies on the audience doing some of the work as well," he said. He says he doesn't think his audience is necessarily filled with cinephiles. He's looking for an audience like those he finds in Portland

"They are just smart curious people who want to go and find entertainment, whatever, art film music that speaks to them more directly and satisfied them both in terms of entertainment and also intellectually."

He's finding that audience all over. After screenings around the country (including at Sound Unseen Duluth showing last year) the film was due to be released nationally this month. However then it was selected for the New Director New Screens series at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and so the broader release is being held for a couple of weeks until after the showings at MoMa and Lincoln Center.

He says that larger release will likely include the Twin Cities, although it all depends on how it goes in the first few cities.

McCormick has made many films in recent years, and a lot of music videos. He actually worked with two of his actors in their other lives as musicians, Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney and James Mercer of the Shins and Broken Bells.

He says he enjoys making videos because they are face-paced to make, and you can push the creative envelope. Making a feature is very different he says because of dealing with the emotion action and reaction to actors working with their lines.

"And so as a result a narrative work is much more delicate but that's not to say the video work didn't have a big impact on it," he said. "As film makers we are always learning. Any project that I do whether it's a documentary or a more experimental piece, or music video, or even some of the commercial work I do, every project that I do I walk away learning something."

Matt McCormick is always trying something new. He's just opened a gallery show in Portland which is based on a the remarkable story of a group of women who in 1958 set off in a car to explore the Northwest. They drove 3,500 miles and then made the scrapbook to commemorate the trip.

"That scrapbook somehow ended up in a thrift store and I found it, and I retraced their trip and did their entire roadtrip in 2010 and made this project which is one part documentary film, and one part visual art collage, and made this immersive gallery installation show."

He used the trip to document what has changed and what remains the same.

So what's next. He laughed and said he needs to get some busy work done. Like his taxes. The life of a film director isn't always glamorous.

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Video break: "Pina" by Wim Wenders

Posted at 2:16 PM on March 1, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Dance, Film

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost - International Trailer from neueroadmovies on Vimeo.

It's been a long time since I've been so excited to see a new film. But Pina, by Wim Wenders (director of Wings of Desire and Paris,Texas) promises to be a singular event. The film is dedicated to the life and work of choreographer Pina Bausch, with whom Wenders had a decades-long friendship before Bausch died in 2009.

Wenders had long planned on bringing Bausch's dance to the movie screen, but struggled for years on how to do it justice. It was after seeing U2's 3D concert-film that Wenders realized he needed that third dimension to give the film new life. But even looking at 2D clips of the film, the energy, movement and filming is simply stunning.

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The Oscars: the winners, and the almost-winners

Posted at 10:47 PM on February 27, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Events, Film

The King's Speech took home Academy Awards for best film, best actor, best director and best original screenplay

Well it appears that Academy Awards was, for the most part, predictable. There was a lot of momentum behind the King's Speech, Colin Firth, and Natalie Portman respectively. In truth, what I found more interesting was to look at who local critics thought should win. In doing so, they reveal their own personal preferences, and how they compare to industry/popular standards. Here's how they spread out in the top three categories:

In the category of Best Picture

Colin Covert of the Star Tribune
Should and/or Will win: Toss up between Social Network and True Grit

Chris Hewitt of the Pioneer Press
Will win: The King's Speech
Should Win: Toy Story 3

Euan Kerr, MPR Arts Reporter
Will win: The King's Speech
Should win: Winter's Bone

Stephanie Curtis, MPR Movie Maven
Will Win: The Social Network
Should Win: Winter's Bone

The winner: The King's Speech

In the category of Best Actor

Colin Covert
Will win: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
Should win: Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"

Chris Hewitt
Will win: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
Should win: James Franco, "127 Hours"

Euan Kerr
Will win: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
Should win: Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"

Stephanie Curtis
Should and Will win - James Franco, "127 Hours"

The Winner: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"

In the category of Best Actress

Colin Covert
Should win: Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"
Will Win: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Euan Kerr
Should win: Annette Benning, "The Kids Are All Right"
Will Win: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Stephanie Curtis
Should win: Annette Benning, "The Kids Are All Right"
Will Win: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

Chris Hewitt
Should win: Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine"
Will win: Natalie Portman, "Black Swan"

The Winner: Natalie Portman

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Doc maker struggles with balancing family and film

Posted at 3:51 PM on February 24, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Media, People

Doug Block's daughter Lucy is no stranger to cameras. With a documentary maker for a dad that's not surprising.

"She always loved being on camera, and we always enjoyed shooting each other over the years," he told me from New York the other day. Block (left with Lucy as a girl) says video was just part of their lives. "I really liked interviewing Lucy periodically, and she really liked to interview me."

While he wondered over the years about whether these chats could turn into something more, he always dismissed the idea because he didn't think anyone else would want to watch it.

However the idea never totally disappeared. He says while he has seen many movies about parenting, in fact he'd even made one himself called "51 Birch Street," he'd never seen a film about the subject actually from a parent's perspective.

Then when he woke up one morning and realized it was just about a year till Lucy was likely to head to college. The idea of doing a sweet little film about his child evaporated as he realized how much he worried about what was going to happen. Another movie idea began to form.

"It was probably a bit more bittersweet film about bringing a child up, only to let her go" he said. He decided that could work and he swung into action.

Block will introduce the 7.15 screening of the resulting film "The Kids Grow Up" at the Film Society at St Anthony Main tomorrow night. .
I
The movie tells the tale of that last year, mixing the narrative with the material Block has gathered throughout Lucy's girlhood. In some ways she has changed a great deal, in other ways the same personality shines through.

Lucy then and now Images courtesy Shadow Distribution

That final year wasn't a simple shoot. As Block's anxiety mounted Lucy began to chafe. With the time of her departure drawing near, she suddenly announced the filming was weighing down on her, and tore into her father as his camera rolled.

"Suddenly I was confronted with that nightmare of the documentary film maker which is what do you do?" Block said. "I am a parent first and a film maker second. Yet we are right at the end of the shooting and the film has become my baby, and you are protective of the film as well. It just caught me totally off guard."

It's tough to watch, but Block says she never explicitly told him to turn off the camera. He went with his gut and kept rolling, knowing he was on dangerous ground..

"You are trying to live your life and at the same time film it and be objective: stand at a distance and see yourself as a character in a film and yet really the top priority is that you are living your own life, and you are really there for your own family. I don't recommend it," he said.

It's then the film takes on a subplot of whether it will ever get finished.

There are other tough moments in the film, including some scenes where his wife Marjorie deals with a depressive episode which confines her to bed.

Block admits many people might feel the scenes of Lucy's meltdown and Marjorie's illness are to use his words "wildly inappropriate." However he says neither of them stopped him from including them in the film. In fact he says Marjorie is proud that what happened to her is shown.

This isn't the first film Doug Block has using his own family as subject matter. "51 Birch Street" began as an exploration of his parent's long marriage. However it developed a twist after his father married his former secretary very shortly after he mother died.

Block says he doesn't film his family continuously, just five minutes here and there, before he quickly puts the camera away. However he now has a huge archive of material on which to draw as he considers his personal history.

He believes the film making has actually brought his family closer together. He says Marjorie told him he never listens more carefully to her than when he interviews her.

"And so we have these very honest conversations on camera. It gave me the chance to watch and observe my family," he said.

In "The Kids Grow Up" the conversations between husband and wife are brief but intense, as they navigate what turns out to be a tumultuous year.

Block says Lucy was shown the first cuts, including the toughest scenes, and she was given the chance to nix the film if she didn't want it to go forward. She gave the project her blessing.

The film premiered last year, and Block says he's now taken it to about 20 different cities. It will air on HBO in June around Father's Day. He says people really like it when they see it in a theater.

"Now and again we run into someone, usually when they have seen it on DVD, not in a theater, who gets a little taken aback at my seemingly excessive recording of my daughter and probably thinks I am the worlds worst parent and should be locked away forever," he laughed.

The critics have loved it too. Block says the reviews are the best he's received in his career.

He's now working on the DVD of "The Kids Grow Up," which includes the only interview he's done with Lucy since the day they dropped her off at college. It answers the question he is always asked at screenings about what she thinks of the film. Block admits Lucy's reactions are mixed.

"On the one hand she thinks its a really good film, and she's happy that audiences really respond to it," he said. "On the other hand there's one or two scenes that embarrass her."

While he's now making a film about long term marriages, drawing on wedding videos he's shot over the years to supplement his other work, Block also says the Lucy project is truly over.

At the end of "The Kids Grow Up" he talks about how he looks forward to having wonderful conversations with his daughter without the camera rolling.

"And," he said, "That's exactly what we've had for the last three and a half years."

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Giamatti's Barney is a dope you can love

Posted at 1:30 PM on January 28, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

One of the mild irritations of the Oscar nominations was the omission of Giamatti in the Best Actor category. Starting this weekend Twin Cities audiences can catch the performance which netted him the Best Actor Golden Globe for the title role in "Barney's Version."

Barney (Paul Giamatti) meets the love of his life Miriam (Rosamund Pike) just minutes after marrying his second wife in "Barney's Version." (Image courtesy Sony Pictures Classics)

Based on Mordecai Richler's last novel, "Barney's Version" is a glorious romp through the questionable life of the producer of a highly successful, but artistically dubious, Canadian soap opera. Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) is smart in business, but unlucky in love, a man who takes care of his friends and family, while alienating almost all of them, and whose crowning achievement may be falling in love with the woman of his dreams at his own (second) wedding reception.

Director Richard J. Lewis weaves a decades-long story back and forward through his film in such a way that Barney's knotted life tightens ever more grimly around him. There are his hippy adventures, and first marriage, in Italy, followed by re-entry into the strictures of Montreal life and the expectations of a tradition-bound Jewish community (leading to wedding two) and then Barney's comically frantic pursuit of true love.

It's a complex plot, spiced with great actors (Dustin Hoffman as Barney's street-wise cop father, Minnie Driver as wife number two, and Rosamund Pike as the love of Barney's life.)

Yet it's Giamatti who carries the two hours plus of the film with his incredible portrayal of a flawed man who is smart enough to know the right thing to do, but often lacks the strength to follow through. Barney is a complicated man who is driven by love, but continually disappointed in himself and the way the world treats him. Giamatti's strength is in showing Barney's utter humanity and playing a character to whom many of us will feel uncomfortably close.

And yes, if it does win the Oscar for best make up, it's well deserved.

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Video Break: A Poet Poets

Posted at 11:24 AM on January 25, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Minnesota Poets, Poetry, Video

"I don't want you to understand my poetry. I want my poetry to understand you." --Roy McBride

POETRY is one poem in a film about Roy McBride called A POET POETS. Directed by Media Mike Hazard, the world premiere will be at Intermedia Arts this Sunday with shows at 3pm and 4pm. Enjoy the words and the music!

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Julian Schnabel is next subject of Walker Regis Dialog

Posted at 5:43 PM on January 24, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Painting

Painter and film director Julian Schnabel will visit the Twin Cities in mid-March for a Regis Dialog at the Walker Art Center. The event will be the culmination of three weeks of a retrospective of his acclaimed film work.

While he prefers to see himself as a painter, Schnabel is now better recognized for his film-making. The Walker retrospective will include all five of his features so far, including his latest "Miral" which tells a very personal history of Middle Eastern conflict through the eyes of four female characters.

Schnabel's best known film is the multiple-Oscar nominated "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007) which tells the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a high-flying magazine editor almost completely paralyzed by a massive stroke. The film is based on Bauby's memoir, which he dictated by blinking to an assistant.

The Walker retrospective will open with his first film "Basquiat," (1996) followed by "Before Night Falls" (2000) which drew Javier Bardem's first Oscar nomination. It's followed "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and then a free screening of "Berlin" (2007) which captured Lou Reed's first live performance of his famous album in 30 years.

The final weekend of the Schnabel event includes a screening of "Miral" on March 18th, and then the Dialog between Schnabel and Walker curator Darsie Alexander on March 19th.

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"Blue" - the other film opening at the Walker today

Posted at 1:30 PM on December 16, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

"
Derek Jarman at a screening of "Blue" before his death in 1994 (Image courtesy of Walker Art Center, copyright Zeitgeist Films)

Amidst the kafuffle about "Fire in my Belly" opening at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis today, another movie being screened just a few yards away in another WAC gallery has been lost in the shuffle.

That's unfortunate because Derek Jarman's "Blue" (1993) is by all accounts an extraordinary film. Jarman, an activist moviemaker who prided himself for having been denounced on the floor of the British Houses of Parliament, created the film as he was dying from AIDS-related complications.

He was also losing his sight in those final months, and he reacted by creating a feature length film which consists of a single shot of a deep blue color which fills the screen.

"And that is all there is," says Walker Film Curator Sheryl Mousley. "There is no other image, and you are really bathed in this blue light."

However "Blue" is constantly in motion through the soundtrack, which mixes music with the writings, memories and recordings gathered over a period of 10 years leading up to just before Jarman's death. Watchers hear Jarman's voice, and those of others, including his long-time collaborator and friend Tilda Swinton.

Jarman was a noted writer and speaker too, and it all blends in to the "Blue" package.

Mousley says it carries the audience along.

"With stories that are told about everyday life, the world events, as well as the rituals that Derek Jarman is going through as he is saying goodbye to his friends," she says. "He knows that he is dying. He is going through the process of a lot of medical treatments. He is also using a particular eyedrop that causes his sight that he is losing, he sees this cerulean blue."

Jarman talked about Yves Klein blue, which is a big feature of the Klein exhibit in another part of the Walker. Jarman also talks about Klein's courage and his insistence of leaping into the void of the unknown.

Mousley describes "Blue " as "a really lovely end-of-life" transition."

She says "Blue" belongs to the activist art movement spurred by the rise of AIDS in the 80's, and so it is appropriate for the screening room in the three year long "Event Horizon" show which draws on items from the Walker's collection.

"And the idea of it was those things that are in our history that have caused change," she says, "And change in many ways."

Mousley points out that "Fire in My Belly" came out of the same movement.

While"Blue" is set up so visitors can slip in and out of the room, Mousley hopes people will stay for all 90 minutes.

"It really does alter your color perception," she says. "When you leave it takes a bit of time for your eyes to readjust."

You can get a sense of the film from this opening extract

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What girls learn from movies

Posted at 2:27 PM on December 14, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

A study on women and girls in children's movies finds that most female characters are either unrealistic objects of desire, or - like "Ursula" in the Little Mermaid - evil.

For many parents, their dvd player can be a godsend when it comes to getting their kids to sit still for a couple of hours, thereby freeing themselves up to tackle projects around the house, or simply cook the evening meal.

And as long as it's a kid movie, there's no need to worry about what they're watching, right?

Wrong.

An article in today's New York Times profiles the efforts of actress Geena Davis who, once she became a mother herself, was curious to find out how kids movies portray women and girls. In turns out, for the most part, they don't.

[Davis] founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2006 and sponsored an academic study -- enlisting professors at the U.S.C. Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism to analyze the content of 101 children's movies released between 1990 and 2004. Last year she followed up with an analysis of films from 2004 to 2009. Both reached the same conclusions. Of the 5,554 speaking characters studied, 71 percent were male and 29 percent were female. That's a 2.42 to 1 ratio, which has not changed much in 20 years.

Not only were female leads in short supply, researchers found, but in crowd scenes and group scenes only 17 percent of characters were women. In addition, female characters were far more likely to be "hypersexualized" -- 25 percent were wearing tight , provocative, revealing clothing, compared with four percent of males -- and physically attractive (14 percent versus. 3.6 percent). The female characters were younger than their male counterparts, and the sole goal of the females was usually to find romance. Not one of the animated female characters had a shape that was possible in real life.

Davis is taking the results of her institute's study to meetings of screenwriters, actors and animators in the hopes that they'll make an effort to make more of the characters in their movies female.

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Mpls Underground Film Fest founder heeds his own advice

Posted at 4:00 PM on December 2, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Greg Yolen is proud that, now in its third year, the primary aim of the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival is unchanged.

"We have basically one goal," he says, "Which is to inspire people to make movies. If you make a movie, it will be shown."

As the MUFF's founder and director it simplifies things in some ways.

"Just like in previous years, the festival just programs itself," he laughs.

But Yolen says there's a serious point here too.

"There are so many ways to get movies. Film festivals kind of forgot what started them in the first place, to show work that just can't be seen anyplace else."

The Festival which launches tomorrow at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design has once again attracted a wide range and large number of movies.

There are 62 films, a lot of them are shorts, including "The Minneapolis project." It includes profiles and portraits of places around the community. (You can watch a trailer here.)

But the MUFF offers features and documentaries from all over.

There's even "Macumba" a film by Yolen himself. He says it came about following a moment of post-festival exhaustion last year.

"I am yelling at filmmakers saying 'Here I am, I've got this environment for you to show a film at and I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm a filmmaker why am I not stepping up to the plate too?"

So he bought a $250 HD camera on Craigslist and convinced a friend to go with him to Costa Rica, telling him they were going to make a movie.

"It turned into a documentary and there are fires and murders, and it just gets out of control. It's a really interesting film about what happens when young Americans go to a foreign country and mess with black magic. It just gets insane."

Fires and murders? Black magic? I press for details but Yolen doesn't want to reveal any more about his 17 minute film.

"Have you ever had the feeing 'I wish I had a camera to capture all this crazy stuff that's going on? Well I actually did," he teases.

There is one new thing at the MUFF this year- the entry judged best film by the audience wins seven days use of a soundstage for the filmmakers. It's a pretty sweet deal. Yolen is already making jokes about a recount taking months.

At least I think he is joking....

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Not a retrospective - a Gilbert marathon

Posted at 6:20 PM on November 30, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

"That's a fancy word, retrospective," Melody Gilbert chuckles. "I'm too young for a retrospective really. I like to think of it as a movie marathon."

She is talking about the event this coming weekend at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis where she will screen all six of her documentaries, made over the last decade.

These include "Into the Darkness" (seen at left, Gilbert's the one with the camera.) It's her portrait of the world of urban exploration.

There's also "A Life without Pain" which examines the consequences of a rare affliction which leave some children without the ability to feel pain, with often tragic results, and "Whole" the film about the little-known group of people who believe they should be amputees. Both films are emotion-packed and thought-provoking.

The Melody Gilbert Marathon is part of the Parkway's ongoing series showing the work of local filmmakers. When the theater staff talked to Gilbert which of her documentaries to screen they eventually decided just to show them all.

There was more than just an unwillingness to choose behind the decision.

"People always ask me 'what happened to the people on your films?'" Gilbert says. So the marathon is an opportunity for an update. Not only will Gilbert be present at all the films, some of the people in her films will be there too.

"At least one of the couples from "Married at the Mall" will be there -and yes they are still married." Gilbert made that film back in 2002, profiling couples who enter into the joys of matrimony at the Chapel of Love at the Mall of America in Bloomington.

"Every time I watch it it just makes me laugh," she says, " And it captures the joy that I felt the first time I made an independent film."

The marathon also includes a screening of "Fritz" Gilbert's film about Walter Mondale looking back on his political career, and "Disconnected" a documentary Gilbert made with a group of Carleton College students who followed a trio of scholars who tried to survive for a month without using computers.

There is also a chance to get a sneak peak of Gilbert's latest project, which she insists is "gonna be big!"

"The last couple of years I would say I have slowed down a little bit, where I am not obsessively making films that way I have for the last 10 years. I have been advising and assisting other people making their films," she says.

Two years ago she was approached by Phil Lawrence, who had been filming his experiences weaning himself off anti-depressants.after using them for 10 years.

Gilbert says it was amazing and intense to watch.

"And while he was filming himself going through which was essentially withdrawal, he also did interviews with people trying to understand how did we get to a place in our country, in the world really, where we are taking so many anti-depressants and don't know what that means."

Gilbert became executive producer for the movie which is now titled "Numb." She helped re-edit it and found a distributor interested in putting out the film. Gilbert will host a sneak preview for "Numb" at the Parkway on Wednesday December 8th to get audience feedback and to raise money to finish the film.

She's expecting a strong response. Gilbert says when word got out about the subject matter before another sneak peek, the screening sold out. There was also a long discussion after the film about the pros and cons of anti-depressants. Gilbert says it's a rarely discussed topic, but one which touches a lot of people.

"I asked folks in the theater, 'How many of you know someone who has been on anti-depressants, or has been on antidepressants yourself?' And every hand went up in the room."

Gilbert points out that "Numb" isn't part of the Marathon, but she hopes it will draw people who have had their appetites whetted by the six films in the big event.

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"Client 9" digs into dirty business

Posted at 11:31 AM on November 26, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Alex Gibney's new documentary "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer" wrestles with some troubling issues - and prostitution isn't even in the top five. The film works through dirty politics, financial double-dealing, corruption, the hubris of the powerful, and the use of scandal as a modern political tool.

The Oscar-winning director examines the story of ambitious New Yorker who took on Wall Street as state attorney general, then as New York governor trained his guns on a political quagmire at the State Capitol in Albany, only to crash spectacularly when his regular use of high-priced prostitutes came to light.

Gibney, who brought us "Enron: the smartest guys in the room," "Taxi to the Dark Side" (which won him the Oscar,) and "Gonzo: the life and work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson." admits to being pro-Spitzer. That doesn't mean he is easy on him.

Spitzer did five interviews with Gibney, but his trademark eloquence disappeared every time Gibney tried to dig into the reasons why Spitzer, who some people saw as a likely presidential candidate, and pre-Obama, arguably the Democrat with the highest profile, risked everything through his actions.

What Gibney has more success uncovering is what he sees as the campaign by Wall Street leaders who Spitzer attacked as attorney general to discredit him, and bring about his downfall.

Nobody comes out looking good. What is remarkable is the willingness of all sides to talk about what happened, and their own part in the drama. We meet investment banker Ken Langone, former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg, and New York state Senator Joe Bruno who all who openly delight in Spitzer's downfall. And there is self-styled political hit-man Roger Stone, the man with Richard Nixon tattooed on his back, whose alleged chance meeting with a call-girl in a Miami swingers club led to the public revelations of Spitzer's indiscretions.

These are real characters who some fiction writers might set aside as too outrageous.

Gibney's movie is fast-paced, but very dense. A second viewing is as revealing as the first, as brief references early in the film become more telling given subsequent revelations.

He also dances along the challenging re-enactment line. One of his most intriguing characters talked at length to Gibney, but refused to have her face or even voice used in the film. The director finds away around this hurdle, but it's going to leave some viewers feeling uncomfortable, particularly as this is already a story about duplicity.

Eliot Spitzer says in "Client 9" that his is an old story, with themes little changed from ancient Greek tragedy, of hubris and how the mighty can fall. Gibney shows this is true, but how in the 21st century the process can be much faster. It's also clear, with Spitzer now embarked on a new TV career, that the story is far from over.

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More ways to tread "The Thirty-Nine steps"

Posted at 3:02 PM on November 22, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Theater

Ryan Oestereich wants to enhance the Guthrie experience, which is honorable given he works with Minnesota Film Arts, an organization which might be seen as competing with the flagship theater.

He's doing this by screening the Alfred Hitchcock film "The 39 Steps." The film is the basis for the Guthrie's theatrical spoof of the same name.

"When you go and see the play, it's a riot, a ton of fun," said Oestereich of the Joel Sass-directed production.

But Oestereich believes his organization can enhance the stage experience.

"There's these inside jokes, you know particular characters, the funny relationship that goes between the two characters, in that Hitchcock thriller sense that gets a little lost, or goes over your head. However, if you have seen the film, and it's great of course to always see a classic film on the big screen, then it becomes a better event. A more fun interactive, entertaining play."

"And you know we are right across the river from the Guthrie so you could actually almost do a double feature."

There certainly seems to be a renewed local interest in the 1935 classic film, based on the John Buchan novel. As of this writing the DVD is top of the Netflix rental chart in St Paul, and number 2 in Minneapolis (after local filmmaker Patrick Coyle's 'Into Temptation.')

A spokesman from the Guthrie said they knew about the short three day run starting this evening at the MFA's St Anthony Main complex, and thought it was a great idea.

Oestereich, who has learned the art of movie promotion from the grand old man of Twin Cities cinema Al Milgrom, knows how to build on something.

"Thanksgiving has become a juggernaut for Hollywood," he said. "Everybody loves to go to the movie theater on Thanksgiving. It's actually becoming more popular than Christmas."

So that's why he's making a double feature with Wes Anderson's portrait of familial dysfunction "The Royal Tennenbaums."

"I can't say how exactly it's going to make you think about things," he laughs. "Because it's really two different ways about how humanity treats each other."

Actually there is a little method behind the madness. These screenings are a prelude to new projectors being installed in one of the theaters in St Anthony Main which will allow more actual film, and as a result more repertory programming at MFA.

"I know a lot of people know Film Arts from the Oak Street's great repertory calendars. We are going to create an incredible program that is going to balance both new international, documentaries and independent cinema with those classic films from all over the world that either you grew up with, or that you need to watch - it's on the 1001 must-see movie list. But it's going to be that brand new, beautiful, pristine print and the best way to see it of course is on the big screen."

That will be early in the new year, and not long before the Guthrie launches its production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." So might there be a screening of the Cary Grant movie version of the play?

"If you were a betting man, I would bet on that," Oestereich says confidently.

You can see selected extracts from the Guthrie "39 Steps" here, and get a sense of the original below.

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Five years after killings "Open Season" finds anger remains on all sides

Posted at 4:20 PM on November 10, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film

"Open Season" gets an encore screening at "In Search of Asia" at Minnesota Film Arts on Sunday at 3.30 (Image courtesy Lu Lippold)

When asked what reactions have surprised her to "Open Season," the new documentary on the violent confrontation near Rice Lake Wi, which left six people dead, co-director Lu Lippold pauses for a moment.

"After the last screening at St Anthony Main we had a lot of very sad people," she says.

She realized that after working for five years on the film she had become inured to the material, which includes video of the crime scene which was included in the trial of Chai Vang.

"Maybe I had forgotten that it did pack an emotional wallop," she says.

An extra screening of the documentary at 3.30pm Sunday at the "In Search of Asia" film Festival after a strong reaction at the first screening

Lippold says the incident where Hmong hunter Vang killed the members of a group after a dispute as to whether he was trespassing has been largely forgotten by most people, but to the communities involved, it's still very fresh.

"It's interesting how recent this is in the Asian community for sure, and every anniversary in the Rice Lake community as well," she says.

"It's very present and it's somewhat I would say, unresolved as I'm learning as we show it around town and people have very strong reactions."

She says seeing the film has also proved uncomfortable for many of the non-Hmong audience members.

"I think for the urban progressive white audience there is a lot of unpleasant revelation about what I think just has to be called racism. And possibly anti-immigration sentiment that is a little more close to the surface than we'd like to acknowledge in most cases."

She stresses this was not just during the confrontation, but again and again as they worked on the film she and her co-director Mark Tang ran into stories of racist attitudes towards Asians.

She stresses everyone agrees this in no way justifies what happened in Rice Lake. However they did come upon members of the Hmong community who still feel the legal system did not treat Vang well.

"They really feel that this was not a fair trial, like the OJ trial," she says. "People just don't see (the trial) the same way."

Lippold says they are still working on the final sound mix of the film, and fundraising for to cover the final costs. The plan is to put the documentary on the film festival circuit, and then local and potentially a national broadcast on Public Television.

"But there are no guarantees," she says.

There is also the possibility of screening the film in Wisconsin, near where the crime took place.

"We have not shown this in Rice Lake or the surrounding communities, so I don't know what the the reaction will be like there," she says.

Lippold says they want to show the film to two members of the victims families who they interviewed for the documentary. They will then decide about showing it in Hayward or Rice Lake.

"With some sort of protective discussion around it I hope," she says.

Mark Tang will be present at Sunday's screening. Lippold who will be travelling also hopes to be back in time for the q and a afterwards.

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Olivier Assayas brings his energy to Minneapolis

Posted at 3:06 PM on October 19, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

The Jackal makes a point in Olivier Assayas' movie "Carlos" (Images courtesy Walker Art Center)

Sheryl Mousley who heads up the Walker Art Center's film program is brimming with excitement about the imminent arrival of French director Olivier Assayas. He'll appear tomorrow (Wednesday) at the WAC in a Regis Dialogue as part of the retrospective "Between Love and Terror."

"He, almost effortlessly, has made this extremely diverse range of more than 20 films. And we are just showing 10 of them," says Mousley. "They go from 'Irma Vep' that parody of the New Wave to that erotic fast-paced corporate espionage thriller 'Demonlover.' And now on to 'Carlos.'"

We'll get back to "Carlos," the five-and-a-half-hour epic film about the international terrorist known to many as "The Jackal" in a moment.

When asked how Assayas maintains such a range of subjects, Mousley says the director's diversity does not mean there is no through-line in his work.

"One of the things I love about a retrospective like this is you get to see how films, even as they seem very, very different, have these internal links. And he just loves to explore all the various things that are going on in life."

Mousley points to the issues of globalization which weave through the Assayas films. Yet she also sees his ability to switch styles and subjects as a rejuvenating force in itself.

"I think it keeps him energized not to take on the same film again and again."

Mousley notes that Assayas (right) is the son of a screenwriter who worked in the stricter times before the New Wave changed French film. The younger Assayas came of age as Goddard and his colleagues changed the rules about what a director could and could not do. Assayas is part of the next generations she says.

"He is the sort of child of that moment in time, and he has very much taken on the mantle of being very much an auteur himself, but he also relies somewhat on novels and other sources."

Now comes "Carlos" which has induced swoons around the globe. The Walker will show it in its entirety twice on Halloween weekend.

"We get the exclusive local premier of the full five hours and I think it's the way it should be seen. They are going to make a two hour version, that will be released in movie theaters, but people really should see the whole thing."

The film will be begin at 1 pm and shown with a couple of intermissions so people can stretch their legs, and also talk about the experience.

Mousley says in an age where movies are available everywhere, including a phone, some people are looking for more when they go to the movies.

"What I am sensing is that the audience wants more than just a single film. They want some kind of an event almost."

Mousley says "Carlos" is an engaging story which shows how in the 1970s a young Venezuelan with revolutionary tendencies was moved to terrorism through ideology.

"But became very infatuated by it," she says. "And becomes almost narcissistic. He becomes a different kind of terrorist."

Mousley says Carlos changed how terrorists behave, and laid the groundwork for the complex world where we now live.

"We get to see there's a sophisticated system of power that controls international politics through terror and it really sets the stage for contemporary terrorism."

Olivier Assayas is only appearing in three cities during his current visit to the US, and Mousley is honored that he has accepted the Walker's invitation. He'll talk with writer Kent Jones who is currently writing a book about the director.

You can hear my chat with Mousley here:

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Top Secret Rosies

Posted at 2:51 PM on October 6, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

A clip from the documentary "Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II" directed by LeAnn Erickson

In today's world we think of a computer as a thing, but back in World War II a computer was a person, and in many cases it was a woman.

Tonight Minnesota Film Arts is hosting the screening of "Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II" directed by LeAnn Erickson.

Erickson says she stumbled across the story while interviewing twin sisters who owned the first women-run real estate agency in Philadelphia, and were key in integrating Philly neighborhoods, or "blockbusting" as it was called.

It turns out those twin sisters - Doris and Shirley Blumberg - had spent their first years out of high school serving their country with their math skills. Their computations of complex ballistic calculations eventually led to the development of the world's first modern supercomputer, ENIAC (short for "Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer").

It's common knowledge that women took on men's jobs in factory lines during World War II, but not many know they also took on jobs involving complex math and science.

The thousands of women who used their mathematical talents to help figure out when to release a bomb from a plane took oaths of secrecy, and didn't even share the details of their work with their family and friends for decades after the war had ended. Erickson's documentary interviews four of them about their experiences, and the work they did happily in service to their country.

Erickson says in large part, their work has gone unrecognized, and unappreciated.

It's harder for us from that distance to understand what daily life was like for women at this time. When I was looking at the ads right before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there were not only "men only" jobs and "women only" job listings, but as soon as the war happened, and they needed to have all these different high end high tech positions filled, you start seeing all these ads for "women engineers" - where did they think all these women would be coming from if they hadn't had the opportunities beforehand?

While Erickson expects many people to see her documentary as a historical film, she believes the story has even greater relevance for women today.

When you look at the fact that something dismal like 27% of people holding jobs in the high tech industry are women, when 52-53% of all the college graduates are women; it's pretty shocking that they're so underrepresented in a field that's so important. I feel that if girls in high school or even junior high knew that some 18 year old girls helped win WWII because of their math smarts, that the first computer manual was actually written by a woman...that that would actually help inspire them.

"Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II" screens tonight at St. Anthony Main Theaters at 7:15pm. Director LeAnn Erickson will be there to present the film and answer audience questions.

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A little taste of "True Grit"

Posted at 5:00 PM on September 27, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

When they visited the Walker Art Center last year Ethan and Joel Coen(right) said they wanted to remake "True Grit" because they felt the Henry Hathaway directed adaptation of the Charles Portis novel wasn't true to the book.

Now the St Louis Park natives are giving a little sneak peak of what they were talking about with the release of the trailer for their remake. While you can see small references to John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn in Jeff Bridges' portrayal, you get the sense there's a lot more "No Country for Old Men" than "McClintock" in the new film.

You can check it out the trailer here. The movie is released on December 25th.

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Director attacks the Tillman myth

Posted at 12:00 PM on September 17, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Director Amir Bar-Lev doesn't mince words about the central character in his new film, which opens in the Twin Cities this weekend.

"The icon Pat Tillman is a guy the real Pat Tillman would have hated," he says over the phone. "Because Pat Tillman was by all accounts a guy who was incredibly loyal, incredibly driven, and had incredibly strong beliefs. But one of his greatest qualities was he was always willing to challenge his own beliefs."

Tillman was the talented football player who caused a sensation by setting aside a contract with the NFL to join the US Army after the September 11th attacks. He served a tour of duty in Iraq and then died during his second tour, this time in Afghanistan. At first the US Army reported he died protecting his platoon. Weeks later the military changed its story and admitted "friendly fire" killed Tillman.

The admission came with an apology, but Bar-Lev says it's not worth much.

"If you look back over the last four or five years you'll find that the military, the government have repeatedly apologized to the Tillman family for the mistakes that they have made. This is one of these apologies that's not an apology at all. It's actually a piece of the deception."

Bar-Lev's compelling documentary "The Tillman Story" explores what happened, before during and after Tillman's death. He's also blunt about what he sees as a government cover-up.

"The smugness with which they lied to the American people, it reflects poorly on all of us really," he says.

"The Tillman Story" points its finger all the way up the chain of command, and attacks the claim that the generals and the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld didn't know about an effort to suppress the fact that Tillman died as a result of his own side's attack.

Yet Bar-Lev says the responsibility needs to be shared even further.

"I think it's all to easy to try to chalk this up on the last administrations or something like that. But look, their lies worked because the press ate it up, and the press ate it up because we ate it up."

He readily admits the film's debt to Danny Tillman, Pat's mother, who never accepted the official line on what happened. Bar-Lev says the military made a major miscalculation about Danny.

"They handed over 3500 pages of documents related to Pat's death, over to Danny, expecting that she would never actually pour through them," he says.

But go through them she did, despite the fact that many of the pages were black with redactions. She enlisted help from a former Army Ranger who explained and further researched what the official documents said. Bar-Lev says his film stands on the shoulders of Danny Tillman's work.

Bar-Lev says his own view of Pat Tillman changed as he learned more.

"The more we got to know Pat, the more we liked him, the more human he got and the more heroic we actually felt he was," Bar-Lev says. "You know it's hard to emulate a cartoon character. That's one of the things this family's been struggling to correct. If we want to have heroes we can live up to, who we can try an teach kids about, these have to be people who aren't one dimensional caricatures, and that's exactly what Pat has become in his death."

Bar-Lev's last film "My Kid Could Paint That," explored the story of Marla Olmstead, a young girl whose abstract paintings began fetching huge money from collectors. Then people began questioning whether she was actually creating the pictures.

Bar-Lev says there are real parallels between the films. Both are about story-telling he says, and they are both about people who didn't talk publicly about their motivations, Tillman because of his personal philosophy, and Olmstead because she was eight.

"Neither of them said much," Bar-Lev explains. "And in their silence the rest of us came in and spoke volumes about them while disregarding who they actually were, or what were the actual facts."

When asked what impact he hopes for "The Tillman Story" Bar-Lev says he wants members of the public to be more skeptical about what they are told.

"This is a story which should cause people to question something the next time it sounds like a Hollywood thriller," he says.

He also says the story isn't over. He expect there will be more revelations in time.

"When you hear that word 'mistakes' and you'll hear it more and more as this film gets more widely disseminated, you know that the government has not yet come clean," he says.

He has a couple of other things he wants to come of the movie.

"What we hoped would happen with this film is in a way we are giving Pat back to his family and taking him away from this realm of the mythological."

"Because I think we all kind of grabbed at Pat after his death. The Right grabbed at him. Then the Left grabbed at him. The press grabbed at him and he doesn't belong to us. He belongs to his family."

You can hear the first of my conversation with Amir Bar-Lev here: Listen

And here he talks about the iconography surrounding Pat Tillman: Listen

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Machete and Mesrine: two peas from different violent pods

Posted at 2:19 PM on September 3, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

This weekend film fans in the Twin Cities can enjoy a different kind of M and M at the theaters: "Machete" and "Mesrine:Killer Instinct."

The first is the latest tongue-in-cheek gorefest from Robert "Planet Terror" Rodriguez, and the second a much-lauded bio-pic about the real French hoodlum who terrorized both his homeland and Canada for a couple of decades.

Both delight in their blood-soaked tales, but their impact is very different.

"Machete" which first appeared as one of the gag previews in the Rodriguez/Tarantino "Grindhouse" B-movie homage, follows the exploits of a former Mexican Federal police officer, played by Danny Trejo, the actor with one of the most fascinating faces in modern movies.

As his name suggests Machete prefers blades to guns when he is out chasing bad buys, and Rodriguez makes sure his hero has an endless supply of sharp objects to slash, stab, and chop his way out of trouble.

It's a bizarre tale about how Machete, on the run in the US after a Mexican drug lord wiped out his family, gets mixed up in a Texas-sized border dispute dreamed up by a racist state senator (Robert De Niro) with the help of Von (Don Johnson) who leads a vigilante group patrolling the border. Machete falls in with "the Network" which tries to protect Mexicans working along the border, and the stage is set for battle.

It's a goofy, completely over-the-top story which allows Rodriguez to use big name actors to have fun with B-movie stock characters (Jessica Alba, Lindsey Lohan, Cheech Marin, Steven Seagal, and Michelle Rodriguez all appear.)

This is a world where machine gun toting women in leather bikinis head into battle with an army of low-riders bouncing down the street; where elected officials have themselves video-taped while committing capital offences; and where Machete, who is apparently impervious to all sorts of hideous wounds, is also irresistable to young women a third of his age. I think we can guess which demographic is the target of this film.

It's a lot of silly fun, if this is what suits your mood.

Jacques Mesrine is not that dissimilar from Machete in many ways, except he has no illusions of being on the right side of the law, and he's a real person.

A violent thug with a flair for the dramatic the real Mesrine's career spanned two decades and three continents, rising from small-time burglar to gaining the title of France's Public Enemy No. 1. He did this through multiple murders, kidnappings, bank robberies, prison escapes and his association with various terrorist organizations. The media became obsessed with him, a fascination which proved mutual. He wrote a best-selling autobiography, and in later life went out of his way to grant interviews to major publications including Paris Match.

Vincent Cassel carries off the title role with deceptive ease, from Mesrine's almost naive entry into the criminal life, developing over the years to the suave gangster sophisticate. He maintains tension with his underlying capacity for sudden anger and violence, which can explode a friend or foe alike.

Mesrine story is long and complex, so long that it's told in two films ("Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1" opens in the Twin Cities next week.) It's also told in a fleeting style, with director Jean-François Richet moving quickly from incident to incident, and character to character, leaving little time for reflection. However the tale is so long this almost pointillist approach gives us a larger impression of a dangerous renegade. Mesrine saw himself as a revolutionary struggling again the system committing what he saw as victimless crimes.

We know it's going to end badly for him. Richet opens both films with clear clues as to how it will happen. Yet the director tells Mesrine's story in such a way that we can examine the evidence of Mesrine's self-propagated legend for ourselves, and determine if there is any substance to Mesrine's worldview.

As with Machete, a host of other stars fill out the cast, including Gérard Depardieu, Mathieu Amalric, and Cécile de France, although they are each charged with bringing real people to life.

So two views of brutal violence, one played for shock and laughs, the other played for art and pathos. They share a great deal, but probably won't share audiences.

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Video Break: The 3rd and the 7th

Posted at 8:44 AM on August 31, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Video

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

This charming film is reminiscent of Magritte on a tour of great buildings, in a universe devoid of any other people. Created by Alex Roman, the twelve and a half minute homage to line and form is almost entirely made with CGI (computer generated imagery). Throughout the course of the piece, Roman plays with ideas of light, wind and water, all to captivating effect.

For the full impact, follow the link back to the video's home page on Vimeo and hit the "fullscreen" option. That's unfortunately unavailable in the public version.

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Todd Solondz lives 'Life During Wartime.'

Posted at 1:00 PM on August 20, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Paul Reubens in Todd Solondz' film "Life During Wartime." (Images courtesy IFC films)

Director and screenwriter Todd Solondz says he was a little surprised when he found himself writing about people who originally appeared in his 1998 movie "Happiness,"

"I never imagined I would revisit those characters or storylines," he says on the phone from New York. "But that just goes to show my imagination wasn't fertile enough, because in fact, about 10 years later I found myself just writing the first scene of this movie which involves some of these characters."

"Happiness" explored the troubles of three middle class New Jersey families. Actually troubles is a weak word to describe the tale of child abuse, betrayal, and other sordid goings-on. A decade later Solondz decided there was more material to mine and explore.

The result is "Life During Wartime," a disturbing but compelling film which looks at how the characters have developed and changed (or not,) in the ensuing years. It opens in the Twin Cities this weekend.

Solondz (left) recast the characters, drawing in a host of very fine actors for the roles, ranging from Charlotte Rampling, Alison Janney and Ciaran Hinds to Michael Kenneth Williams and Paul Reubens,

All of the characters are flawed people, but with good traits. Some of them have behaved despicably towards people they love. Solondz' question is whether they can forgive and forget.

Central to this is Bill (Hinds) who is in prison for sexually abusing a family member. Solondz says pedophilia serves as a metaphor for all that is demonized, feared and loathed.

"It's hard to beat," he says. "I think most Americans would feel more comfortable having Osama bin Laden at their dinner table than a convicted pedophile, so it becomes a kind of crucible, a test in some sense for those of us in questioning the extent when we say we embrace humanity and love mankind, to say what extent are we capable? What are those limits? Because to be human, of course, is to recognize and to be defined by those limitations. It's a kind of moral exploration."

And Solondz' exploration does a remarkable job of drawing in the audience. The film is filled with twists, turns, and revelations. . As the multi-part story spins out we see each character in very different lights. Not everything is as it first seems - although a lot is. Everyone has much to forgive - and much for which to be forgiven.

Solondz says the situations he deals with in "Life During Wartime" may be unpleasant, but they are constantly in the media, so he thinks audience members are well aware of the issues. Looking for new ways to explore those questions in an accessible drama.is what interests Solondz.

"When I go to the movies, I do want to be provoked and engaged in fresh ways. That's what I look for. In a sense the movies can make you feel a little more alive for those 90 minutes, because they have the power to articulate things that remain unspoken even amongst our intimates."

He admits casting Paul Reubens in the film brought an added element given the actors much publicized fall from grace after an indecency arrest.

"You are not just aware of the talent, but also the so-called baggage that everybody comes with," he says.

"With Paul Reubens, he had read for me years ago for something else. And what I liked here was first of all being able to share with audiences some of what he is able to do as an actor which I don't think anyone had ever imagined. But beyond that his whole history lends a certain poignancy and pathos, and sorrow to his performance, which I think would be absent from most other comedic actors of his stature."

"Life During Wartime" has a Minnesota connection as it is produced by Minneapolis-based production company Werc Werk Works, which shot "The Convincer" in Minnesota earlier this year.

"They financed the film so I am very fortunate that during very difficult economic times they were able to pay for this movie," Solondz says. "Because I really don't think it would have been financed otherwise."

"Life During Wartime" has done well on the festival circuit, taking the award for best screenplay at the Venice Film Festival where it was also nominated for the best film.

When asked what he hopes people will take away from the film Solondz responds this way:

"I suppose in some sense with movies there is always one message that comes loud and clear to anyone who feels very responsive to a film, and that's 'you are not alone.'"

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Video break: German street life in miniature

Posted at 1:34 PM on August 10, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Design, Film, Media, Video

Tumblingerstraße from yo man on Vimeo.

Need a little break from your afternoon slump? Check out this charming short film by a Munich design student (on Vimeo the student simply lists himself as "yo man"). The combination of music, stop animation, and tag art shows an impressive attention to detail, and works together to create a compelling scene. Enjoy!

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'Dinner with....' Not offensive enough?

Posted at 4:30 PM on July 30, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Paul Rudd and Steve Carell consider questions of taste and intelligence in "Dinner for Schmucks." (Image courtesy Paramount Pictures)

This is a week for musing on offensiveness. Here is a true story from the world of radio. I know it is true because I was there.

I was doing a piece for National Public Radio. To be honest I can't remember what it was about, but it did contain a snippet of someone speaking in German. As I worked through the piece with the editor, I felt I should in all good conscience, point out the phrase contained what we in Scotland call sweary words. It was a joke as I recall. Crude but funny

As a result, the editor, following his good conscience, made me take out the piece of tape and use something else. His reasoning is we shouldn't run the risk of offending someone. (This was in the pre-Bono dropping the F-bomb days, where life was a little simpler and less financially dangerous for broadcasters.) I made the change. It was not as fun, but definitely not crude.

So imagine my surprise a short time later when I heard a snippet in another story, this time done by a US reporter in Scotland, which contained some Scots dialect which was every bit as funny, and possibly more offensive than my German tape. "Ah, but almost no-one will have understood that," came the response when I pointed out the double standard.

So if a tree swears as it drops in the forest and nobody hears is it still offensive?

I don't know.

The reason I have been musing about this is because of the confluence of two news items this week. The first is the release of "Dinner for Schmucks" the new Steve Carell Paul Rudd vehicle. The second is the death (I think he would have hated the word 'passing,') of cartoonist John Callahan.

"Dinner for Schmucks" which is based on "The Dinner Game" a French movie from 1998, has Rudd playing Tim an ambitious young executive eager to find his way upwards in the cut-throat financial firm where he works. He learns to succeed he has to bring someone outlandish to a private dinner where the other execs, with their own misfits in tow, will get an evening's enjoyment out of ridiculing the luckless guests.

It's a creepy idea, about which Tim has qualms, particularly after his girlfriend informs him she finds it repugnant. However when Tim literally runs into Barry (he hits him with his Porsche whilst texting and talking on the phone at the same time) he can't resist. Barry (Carell) makes sentimental dioramas out of stuffed mice, posed to replicate great works of art, or people of significance in his life. Tim invites Barry to the dinner, launching a series of unfortunate encounters which allow Barry to burrow like a tick into Tim's life, threatening his relationship, his job, and (horrors!) his Porsche.

Unfortunately for the film it's clear Tim believes he deserves everything he gets. We feel sorry for him, when really we should be hating him. Yes, the dinner for idiots is an offensive premise, but if you are going to do it, go for the gusto.

This was something John Callahan understood. A quadriplegic as a result of a car crash he drew devilishly funny cartoons which set out to smash any and all ideas of political correctness. He would have had little time for this dinner.

A lot has been made of how much of "Dinner" was improvised. And there are moments of comedy. Jemaine Clement ("Flight of the Concords") and David Walliams ("Little Britain") bring some edge to their characters, as does Steve Carell on occasion. Yet much of the film seems to have become movie mush through comedy by committee.

The sad thing is the most offensive thing about the film may be its title, which people with a little yiddish will recognize as having a couple of meanings. But perhaps "almost no-one will have understood that."

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Rachel Weisz and 'Agora': a modern story set in the 4th century

Posted at 6:00 PM on July 29, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Rachel Weisz is blunt about the subject of her character in "Agora," which opens in Minnesota this weekend.

"I had never heard of this Hypatia, this 4th century philosopher," she says. "I must have missed that day in school. So when I read the script it was news to me that she had ever existed."

"Agora" is Spanish director Alejandro ("The Sea Inside," "The Others" Amenábar's epic story of the clash between religion and science in Alexandria in Egypt. It's set at the time the Roman Empire was in decline and Christianity was taking hold as a major religion.

Weisz (pronounced VICE "Like the opposite of virtue," she jokes) who has delighted audiences in an array of movies ranging from "The Mummy" franchise, through "The Brothers Bloom" and "The Constant Gardener" (which netted her a best supporting actress Oscar) to Wong Kar-wai's "My Blueberry Nights."

In "Agora" she plays Hypatia, a philosopher who is fascinated by the movement of the planets. She works at Alexandria's famed library, teaching the sons of the city elite, who in time will rule. It's a true story about a unique woman at a pivotal moment in history.

"As well as being a philosopher she was a magical teacher," Weisz says. "I had one very magical teacher when I was at school who really inspired me. I think there are not many films about magical teachers - or not enough."

Not surprisingly several of Hypatia's students have crushes on her, although as Weisz points out for Hypatia knowledge trumps everything.

"She's not interested in love and she is very passionate about her work. Meanwhile she lives at this time which is at the end of the age of enlightenment and the beginning of I guess what we call the dark ages, which was the rise of Christian fundamentalism."

Hypatia's story spins out over several years as she continues working even as the Parabolani, a hardcore Christian militia becomes the defacto power in the streets under the command of the Archbishop Cyril.

Anyone who opposes them risks being denounced and physically attacked. In time the Parabolani set their sights on the most senior Roman in Alexandria, the Prefect, who has converted to Christianity, but has not bowed to their rising influence. Weisz says this larger conflict leaves Hypatia increasingly vulnerable

"So she lives at this extraordinary moment in history, so you see through her story how attitudes to a woman who is a pagan, who won't convert to Christianity, and who is also looking at the stars, and basically they thought she was a witch."

Outside the Alexandria Library (Images courtesy Newmarket Films)

The role of Hypatia brought a number of challenges. Not only does Weisz have to present what is a very intimate story of an individual in turbulent times, she also has to do this within with director Amenábar's huge cinematic vision, which includes spinning the audience out into space to look back on the tiny individuals shaping the philosophical future of western civilization.

"I guess I was just up for the challenge," she laughs.

And as the central character Weisz really does have to carry the whole film - a task in which she delighted.

"It's really fun to carry a film. It's really fun. It's exhilarating. It's terrifying as well. I once worked with Dustin Hoffman and I asked him, 'Does it get any less scary?' And he goes, 'No. Every time I do a job I'm terrified.' And you need that. You need the fear to fuel the energy to do it. But it's delicious fear."

Part of Weisz's interest in the project is how the story is centuries old, it has a very modern ring about a culture clash.

"As soon as I finished reading it, I closed the script and I thought 'Oh, my goodness, this is a contemporary story, set in the 4th century. Because really, obviously, what it's about is how little has changed."

"It's really about how in a way, we can go to the moon and we've got antibiotics, and freedom of speech most places, but there's a lot that really hasn't changed. Religious tolerance is one of them."

She says she knew she wanted to make the film as soon as she read the script, particularly because she has long wanted to work with Alejandro Amenábar. She admits though there's no guarantees of success in moviemaking.

"Making a movie is alchemy. You can have a great script, great director, great actors and the movie can completely suck. There's no recipe for a movie, which is why it's so interesting."

Released in Europe last year "Agora" has done well, winning critical praise and a ton of awards. The new challenge is now America, and Weisz admits she has no idea how it will play here.

"What do you think?" she asks.

It's a question which Hypatia would ask, but only time and the box office will answer.

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To be taken with a pinch of 'Salt'

Posted at 9:00 AM on July 23, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Who is Salt? Well, Angelina of course, which really says as much as you need to know. (Image courtesy Columbia Pictures)

Want to know how to really wreck a CIA super-agent's day? Walk into the Agency HG and announce said spook is really a double agent, trained from birth by the Russians to take out heads of state.

The world will know this to be true if it believes the central premise of "Salt" the relentless new action thriller starring Angelina Jolie. She plays Evelyn Salt, the agent accused by a loose-lipped Russian informer who knows enough to convince. Salt takes off, saying she wants to make sure her husband is safe. Soon everyone is chasing her including her longtime friend and colleague Ted Winter (Liev Schreiber) and counter-intelligence agent Peabody (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who is charged with shooting first and asking questions later when it comes to possible foreign agents wandering around the nation's capital.

So is she a Russian agent or not? Kurt Wimmer's script keeps us guessing by repeatedly lobbing red herring into the series of frenetic chases which become a central feature in Salt's life. Her loyalties may be open to question, but Ev Salt's amazing ability to run, jump, drive, crash and any other possible ways of getting out of trouble cannot be challenged. She's pretty darn amazing, constructing large ordinance weapons out of household objects, and leaping across lanes of speeding traffic from truck to truck. And she does most of it with ne'er a grimace.

In other words it's classic Jolie. The day after I saw the preview I was astonished to see the movie being shown on the TVs at my local gym. Taken aback by the speed of this jump to video, even in this day and age, I paused to take in a couple of scenes. It was only after a short while that I realized this wasn't "Salt" on the telly, but "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" where Ms Jolie played exactly the same character.

As with most summer films "Salt" is best enjoyed by sitting back and not thinking too hard. There are some great thrills and spills during the epic chase scenes. There is even some tangible angst portrayed by Schreiber and Ejiofor as they wrestle with what to do as a colleague apparently goes rogue.

It's hard to stave off those glimmers of curiosity and wonder. How can someone blast away at a wall at short range with a machinegun without being worrying about ricochets? Can we really believe the intelligence services would be unaware of a decades long effort to plant huge numbers of moles inside Washington?

It can be done with a little effort (although I did start at when Ms Jolie, who is after all a United Nations Goodwill ambassador, growled "I will kill them all" at one point) and it's an effort that's probably worthwhile if only for the sake of summer fun.

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'Inception' provides mind-twisting fun

Posted at 2:00 PM on July 16, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

There was a welcome sound at the end of the advance screening of "Inception" the other night - people coming out of the theater talking animatedly.

Christopher Nolan's film explores the dreamscape through the eyes of Don Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio,) a gentleman who makes his living by extracting information from people's dreams. He's on the wrong side of the law, both because what he is doing is industrial espionage, and he's on the run from his past in the US.

This complicates matters no end, because entering dreams tends of have unforeseen consequences and the past can come back to bite you if you aren't prepared. Cobb is tormented by the death of his wife and his estrangement from their children, but he can't admit how much this may effect what he is doing.

Cobb assembles a team of fellow extractors to try something never done before: to plant an idea in the subconscious of another person. The client is a hard-as-nails executive Saito (Ken Wantanabe) who wants the job done on the heir to the founder of a competitor company. Cobb knows from the start it's not going to be easy.

Cobb's world is fascinating. He is a master at entering and manipulating the subconscious mind of his victims, but he can't do it alone.

He enlists his old compatriot Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt,) Eames (Tom Hardy) an old-style British adventurer abroad, Yusef (Dileep Rao) a brilliant pharmacologist who induces the sleep in which to dream, and Ariadne (Ellen "Juno" Page,) a young designer who comes up with the architecture of the dreams where the team members will work their deception.

As with Nolan's 2000 hit "Memento," "Inception" is a film which demands careful attention. To make the deception work takes a lot of careful planning. It also demands that the team create dreams within dreams, going deeper and deeper into the subconscious, and shifting in time and space.

The film is action packed, as the team takes on the fearsome figures we all know from our own dreams. Yet the real action ends up being philosophical. From the beginning sequence the audience is challenged to work out what is reality and what is a dream.

Nolan, who also wrote the script, has wicked fun with his characters, throwing well-aimed wrenches into their carefully built plan.

One hugely entertaining action sequence is predicated on something which is happening to the physical body of a character in another dream, creating a gravity-defying fight which has to be seen to be believed (or not, if you follow the film's philosophical viewpoint.)

Which brings us back to that chattering audience. This is a film which makes you think, and then discuss what you have seen.

At one point Cobb is challenged to choose between what he knows and what he believes. That question, never straightforward in the best of circumstances, becomes even more difficult in the dream world. It's a lot of fun to see what Christopher Nolan does with it, and even more fun to play with it in those post-movie discussions.

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Love for 'I am Love'

Posted at 5:26 PM on July 1, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Tilda Swinton contemplates food and the future in 'I am love.' (Image courtesy Magnolia Pictures.)

If there is one thing you can say for sure after seeing "I am love," it's Tilda Swinton makes a very fine Russo-Italian quasi-aristocrat. The movie opens in Minnesota this weekend.

After that the way you respond to director Luca Guadagnino's tale of passion and tears amongst members of the Ricchi family depends where you stand on Italian art film. It's a stylish soap opera set in Milan, and other picturesque spots, which follows the internal and external struggles of a family of old school textile tycoons trying to find a way forward in the modern world

They live in a house which is so luxurious it even has a custom designed wooden platter matching the dining table to map out the seating plan. The family is wrapped in a blanket of calm privilege, even as all around them servants scurry too and fro through the maze of doors and corridors to see to their every need.

In the midst of this is Emma (Swinton) a stunning beauty who has apparently bent herself simply to serving her husband and now grown children. It is only as they go out into the world and ask questions about what they see, and begin to fall in love, that she begins to chafe in her own gilded cage.

A startling seafood dish cooked by one of her sons business partners changes her life. As she eats she seems to awaken to the possibilities of life outside the family. (The scene has been described by some as 'prawnography.') Things do not go as she intended.

The film is absolutely gorgeous, paying homage to mid-20th century Italian film through its sweeping camera work, and juxtaposition of designer dresses in primary colors set against the washed out hues of the natural world. There's a lot of time spent playing with very selective focus too. And on top of that there is the John Adams score sending hearts into overdrive too.

Some people are going to love it. Yet it was clear that some people around me in the theater when I saw the film were a little bemused by the experience. Yes there are lessons in the script about the challenges of family, the responsibilities of wealth, and the boundaries of love.

But this is more a film of sensual experience than philosophical depth. As Freud once said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes you just have to watch Tilda Swinton move through a story and simply enjoy it.

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The breakneck silliness of 'Knight and Day'

Posted at 11:40 AM on June 23, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Cruise and Diaz catch some air in "Knight and Day" (Images courtesy 20th Century Fox, photos by Frank Masi)

I spent the first few minutes of "Knight and Day" trying to work out on whom Tom Cruise had modeled his character. He plays Roy Miller, a rogue U.S. government agent who has filched a super-duper mega-battery which will change the future of humanity. He's the kind of guy who wears sunglasses inside so he can scope out all the angles, and sees little problem in taking out a planeload of former colleagues sent to stop him.

He enlists the help of a ditzy hot-rod restorer June Havens (Cameron Diaz) whose early impression of Roy as a dreamboat sent to cure the romantic vacuum in her life is soon replaced by the realization there's a pretty calculating assassin behind the boyish smile.

Roy tells June the government folks will try to convince her he is crazy, and then behaves in a way which seems to prove his erstwhile employers are right.

June does try to do the smart thing and run away screaming, but Roy keeps coming back, having identified some sort of cosmic connection between them. (The ex-who-doesn't-know-when-to-quit motif will no doubt resonate with the teenage demographic so necessary for summer blockbuster success.)

It's his non-stop barrage of cool, calm advice and encouragement as he helps June through yet another gun battle which reveals Cruise's character-building inspiration - a kindergarten teacher. Again this may help the teenage comfort level with the movie.

It's a device which not only helps June master the subtleties of shooting an Uzi from the back of a speeding motorbike, but also lulls the audience through the increasingly silly plot mix of deceptions, double-crosses, coincidences, and iPhones which can track people half-way across the continent using multiple cameras.

That lulling is all to the good though as director James Mangold ("Walk the Line", "3.10 to Yuma") takes the film on a whirlwind global tour of the beautiful places where spies apparently hang out. The fact that there's not a lot of chemistry between June and Roy also gets obscured in the movie's breakneck pace.

But the car chases are spectacular, and there is even a vaguely pleasing resolution to the whole thing, with enough of the loose ends tied up to make it unlikely there will be a sequel. Which in this day and age is usually no bad thing.

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A-Team gets an easy A

Posted at 10:00 AM on June 11, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

The A-Team (Image courtesy 20th Century Fox photo:Michael Muller)
It's all about expectations really. Sometimes you go into a movie not hoping for much and leave pleasantly surprised. "The A-Team" was such an experience.

Being old enough, sadly, to have seen George Peppard and Mr T in the original "A-Team" TV series in my young adulthood it was clear the 21st century adaptation would have to walk a fine line between the expectations of two centuries.

First it has to capture the original's preposterous premise (heavily armed former soldiers on the run from the law running around doing good deeds with high explosives) laced with cornball humor spouted by one dimensional characters (Mr T's catchphrase "Pity the fool" still rattles around in many brains.)

Yet it also has to feed the modern appetite for a little more depth of plot and a lot more spectacle.

Director Joe Carnahan ("Smokin' Aces") gets it right in this summer audience pleaser. Liam Neeson plays Col. Hannibal Smith leading his volatile but effective team of renegades whose loyalty is apparently based on the fact they have matching military tattoos.

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson steps into Mr T's shoes as the mohawked B.A. Baracus, Bradley Cooper plays the smooth talking Face, and Sharlto Copley (recently seen herding prawns in "District 9") plays the crazed pilot Murdoch. Jessica Biel weaves into the plot as one of Face's many former girlfriends. She also happens to be a high-level government operative who has more than a passing interest in the A-Team's activities.

They are an appealing bunch, and Carnahan drops them into various hotspots around the world, which provide attractive backgrounds for the ensuing mayhem.

The plot has an appropriate level of preposterousness, with the team laying out hugely complicated plans which often depend on anticipating quixotic reactions by several different groups of highly intelligent and malevolent people all out to kill them. Yes, there's something about a plot of print billions of dollars worth of counterfeit US currency, but the possible collapse of the US economy is just a small thread in the larger A-Team web.

The special effects are magnificent, and Carnahan amps up the action wonderfully as the story continues. It says something that the flying tank comes only half way through the film.

Silly isn't the word for it. Fun is. As plans and counterplots pile one on top of another you just have to go with the flow, which after all is the summer movie experience in a nutshell.

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Documentary 'Pelada' gets to the naked truth about soccer

Posted at 2:29 PM on June 7, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Just as the top soccer players on the planet gather in South Africa for the start of the month-long World Cup, a smaller but some would argue equally intriguing soccer event occurs Thursday evening at Brit's Pub in Minneapolis.

It's the screening of "Pelada," a new documentary about pick-up soccer shot in 25 countries all over the world. Gwendolyn Oxenham, one of the players featured in the film, will introduce the event.

"Literally the word means 'naked,'" says the movie's producer and co-director Ryan White. It's Portuguese, and a word the "Pelada" crew learned in Brazil.

"That's what they call pick-up soccer there," White continues, "because it's the purest form of the game."

"It's the side of the game without uniforms and without referees. It can be a game between two people, it can be a game between 20 people. Goals can be made out of anything. Rules are made up every game."

The movie came about because the two central figures in the film, college stars Oxenham (shown above in Bolivia,) who played for Duke and Luke Boughen, who played for Notre Dame, had come to the end of their playing careers.

White says that's when they asked themselves a question.

"Kind of a last hurrah to soccer, before they moved on with their lives, if they could do anything combining their passions of film making and soccer, what would they do?"

They recruited another former Duke player Rebekah Fergusson and White to run the cameras then set off on a global expedition.

White says due to the spontaneous nature of pick-up soccer they couldn't really plan. They would pick a likely country, and city, learn the local word for pick-up soccer, and then see what they could find.

"Most of the stories that made the final cut are stories we happened upon. Basically our job for two years of travelling around the worlds was to wander."

White says they found some amazing stuff.

"For instance Luke and Gwendolyn in La Paz, Bolivia, bribed their way into a prison. They heard that the best soccer happens on the prison courtyard."

Then there was the slum in Kenya best known for moonshine production where locals gathered for games, and bet heavily on the outcome.

There were the South African construction workers who played in their lunch break while building the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town for the World Cup.

"They would use their hard hats as the goals, and play in their complete overalls, and they had 25 minutes to play before their lunch break was over and the bell rings, and so that was kind of the perfect story for us in the limelight of the professional game. Literally in the shadow of the stadium these guys, many who were 40, 50 years old and overweight were still out there playing for the love of the game."

And finally there was their trip to Iran, where, despite it being technically illegal for men and women to play in the same game, Gwendolyn was invited to join a group of male players.

White says as their journey continued it was fascinating to see how people reacted to Luke and Gwendolyn. Both are talented players, but she evoked the most interest.

"Luke could go out there and score 10 goals in a game and no-one would bat an eyelash," White says. "And Gwendolyn would go out there and do one quick move around a guy and the whole crowd would go nuts."

The quartet learned how to make the most of their opportunities. They had to be ready for anything, but they also had to be safe. He says they rarely went in telling people what they were doing from the outset.

"We kind of disguised ourselves as backpackers."

Only when they felt they had something good would they break out the cameras, which were, again to remain inconspicuous, consumer models. White says he and Fergusson can now shoot a pick-up game well at the drop of a hat.

"Pick-up games, they might only last three of four minutes, so you have to have it down to a science, to cover all your shots, to make sure you are getting that game and all the shots you need to portray it in the film."

Despite the limitations of time and their equipment the Pelada crew got amazing footage. White says the real problem was deciding what to use, and what to leave on the cutting room floor.

The Minneapolis screening on Thursday is part of a multi-prong approach to distribution. The film is being shown all over the country at special events linked to the World Cup. It's also available through video on demand, and DVD. White says if all goes well there could be a theatrical release, and maybe a broadcast too. PBS is distributing the film internationally, and he hopes there could be enough interest for a domestic airing too.

White says the Minneapolis screening is in part a thank you to supporters in the Twin Cities. Local soccer fans, including the "Inside Minnesota Soccer" blog have thrown their weight behind the film, with some Minnesotans supporting the film financially too.

You can listen to my conversation with Ryan White here;

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And here is the trailer:

NEW Pelada Trailer from Rebekah Fergusson on Vimeo.

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Music and Movies fans rise up

Posted at 4:15 PM on May 7, 2010 by Marianne Combs (4 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums

When news broke last week that the Walker Art Center was putting its annual Music and Movies in the Park series on hiatus this summer, an outcry immediately rose up amongst Twin Cities residents. Here's just a sampling of some of the comments that shot out across Twitter:

aulku: Noo! :( Summer RUINED

AlludedInSquint: Riot in the park, anyone?

When Matt Barthelemy heard the news, he sprang into action. Along with friends he created a facebook page to organize people interested in making the festival happen this summer - with or without the Walker Art Center.

As of this writing, his group "The 34th Year (of Movies & Music at Loring Park)" has 1700 members. Barthelemy says he's "super-excited" to see people joining the cause.

The community doesn't want to burn any bridges with the Walker Art Center - I'm a huge fan of the Walker - and the best thing that they do is movies and music in the park. But they cancelled it without allowing the community to have a voice in the decision. If funding was an issue, or logistics was an issue, they could have at least brought other people to the table to help out.

Barthelemy is now working to form a non-profit, and get a park permit. He says he'd love for the Walker Art Center to at least be involved in the conversation.

Barthelemy says Minnesotans live for summertime and, like the May Day Parade, the Loring Park series is a significant part of the Minneapolis summer experience.

The Walker Art Center's Rachel Joyce says the PR department was contacted by Barthelemy, and has responded to him.

We know about the page, we're aware of it, and it sounds great. We support anyone doing anything in the community around the arts. Obviously it wont be the Walker's movie and music series, so it won't be the Walker's "34th year of movies and music." The next one we host will be "the 34th" - this is their first year."

Walker Director Olga Viso wrote on the museum's blog that she appreciates the special significance of the movie and music series to the civic life of the metro area and is extremely grateful to the community for embracing it all these years:

As a contemporary art center committed to bringing art, artists, and audiences together in innovative ways, we think it is critical to re-evaluate all of our programming from time to time and experiment with new ideas that inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities... Summer Music & Movies and other Walker programs--Rock the Garden, Momentum, and Choreographers' Evening--have taken hiatuses in the past only to return reinvigorated and better than ever. We hope you'll take part in the many free activities planned at the Walker all summer long as we re-envision how a popular program like Summer Music & Movies can be even better in the future.

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No Movies and Music in Loring Park this summer

Posted at 11:05 AM on April 29, 2010 by Marianne Combs (9 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums

The Walker Art Center's longstanding film series is "on hiatus" this summer, according to an e-mail sent out by a Walker staffer.

The event - which featured live bands followed by classic movies - has been cancelled, according to the e-mail, "due to the density of programming being organized by the Walker."
No mention was made of when (or if) the film series would be reinstated.

The Walker Art Center's line-up live events this summer includes a free concert featuring Tapes 'N Tapes and Total Babe on July 11, mnartists.org's Field Day on August 19, and a performance by tropical electronica chanteuse Juana Molina on June 26.

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Different takes on death at the movies this weekend

Posted at 1:57 PM on April 16, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

This weekend Minnesota film audiences who can't decide what to pick at the MSPIFF might want to check out two very different takes on mortality opening this weekend.

Martin Lawrence (l) and Chris Rock (r) deal with a family problem in "Death at a Funeral." (Image courtesy Screen Gems)

"Death at a Funeral" is the latest Chris Rock/Martin Lawrence vehicle, a painfully funny tale about a family trying to deal with the demise of the family patriarch. As the guests pour in for what should be a celebration of the departed's life, family problems and external circumstances conspire to throw the whole thing into chaos.

Now some of you may have seen the Frank Oz directed movie made in the UK in 2007. Director Neil Labute's 2010 Americanized version hews very closely to the same plot. (The scripts is written in both cases by Dean Craig.) There is even a reappearance of the superb Peter Dinklage playing the same pivotal role as he did in the original, although his character is now called Frank instead of Peter.

Watching the new version is a like going to see a remounting of a classic play, with the cast throwing a different interpretation on the words. The first movie examined British middle class suburban angst. The new version is based on middle class African American angst in Los Angeles. It's a tribute to the script that both takes work well.

The ensemble cast of the new "Death," Rock, Lawrence, Tracy Morgan, Danny Glover and Luke Wilson, to name a few, are pitch perfect. You'll probably never have a better time at a funeral.

If you want a much bleaker view on death, and if you are prepared to make a committment, the Red Riding trilogy also comes to town this weekend.

Sean Bean (r) is just one of the suspect characters sitting in smokey rooms in the Red Riding Trilogy.(Image courtesy IFC Films)

Based on novels by David Peace, the three movies each examine life in the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England, an area which has been afflicted by a series of grisly murders over the years. Each of the films is set in a different year: 1974, 1980, and 1983. Each has a different director, and each stands alone. However they also interlock and build to a conclusion which gradually reveals there is a greater evil afoot than serial killers.

This is a world of tough people living in a dying coal-mining economy, beset by violent horrors perpetrated by one of their own. We meet victims and their families, police officers and journalists all trying to make sense of what is going on. It's a grim and compelling tale, played by host of top acting talent including Sean Bean, Warren Clarke and Mark Addy. The Red Riding experience is far from comfortable, but you'll think and talk about it for weeks.

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Fey and Carell finally find their feet in "Date Night"

Posted at 6:24 PM on April 9, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Tina Fey and Steve Carell get down and dirty in "Date Night." (Image courtesy 20th Century Fox, photo Myles Aronowitz)

Despite singular success on television Tina Fey and Steve Carell have repeatedly stumbled when trying to make the leap to the big screen.

The ease which Fey showed in "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock," and Carell's angst on "The Office," didn't translate into big laughs in movies such as "Mean Girls" and Baby Mama" for Fey and "Even Almighty," "Dan in Real Life," and "Get Smart" for Carell.

Yet in Shawn Levy's new comedy "Date Night," Fey and Carell take off as Claire and Phil Foster, a New Jersey couple who believe a night on the town in Manhattan will revitalize their marriage. Lacking a reservation at a hip eatery, they pretend to be another couple to get a table. But what they see as a minor and excusable breach of etiquette drops them into a Gotham underworld where a lot of people seem really upset with them, and many of those people have large guns.

It's a formula which has been tried before, but Fey and Carell are able to apply their 'inner nebbish' to the situation. It seems that screenwriter and director Levy gave his actors room to improvise, and they use that freedom to deliver some spectacular lines.

Thrown in a little action from the Blues Brothers school of automotive care, and some great bit parts by Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, and Mila Kunis, and you have a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours.

Say, on a date night?

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Mixed feelings about "Babies"

Posted at 3:00 PM on April 2, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

The trailer for the upcoming doc "Babies" has been floating around the internet for a few months now, but after watching it a few times today, I am curious how it makes people feel.

The premise of the movie is simple - and smart: Send crews out to follow the first year in the lives of four babies living in very different parts of the world, and then compare and contrast. Thus we meet Ponijao in Namibia, Bayarjargal in Mongolia, Mari in Tokyo, and Hattie, who lives in San Francisco.

Can there be a more important issue than the way children are raised? Possibly not. I am keen to see the film, but I have to admit my heart-strings were being yanked pretty hard by this trailer, almost to the point where it feels like manipulation.

Of course, that's the whole point of a trailer: manipulate your interest so you'll go see the film. But for some reason this feels different.

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Buddy movies of a new kind

Posted at 5:29 PM on March 19, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film, People

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." (Image courtesy Music Box Films.)

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "Repo Men" will pull in very different audiences, yet they share one thing: a story based on two people who have to deal with the moral challenges of their work together.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's hugely successful novel, the first in the Millenium trilogy. It's the story of a disgraced investigative journalist Mikael Blomquist who sets out to solve a 40 year old mystery, the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a 16-year-old member of a powerful family of industrialists. He's hired by Harriet's uncle who believes one of his close relatives killed the girl. Blomquist's efforts attract the attention of Lisbeth Salander, she of the tattoo, who is a brilliant but eccentric investigator. She is so successful because she is a hacker who has no qualms about diving into other people's hard drives. Salander is perhaps the most anticipated character in Scandinavia, and certainly amongst fans of the books.

"Repo Men" is a very bloody futuristic tale of a world where medicine can provide replacements for just about every human body part. That's the good news. The bad news is they are expensive devices, so expensive in fact that most people have to get them on a long term payment plan. If you don't pay, then the company sends the Repo Men to take back its property. Few patients survive the repossession. Jude Law plays Remy, a repo man who loves his work. His partner Jake (Forest Whitaker) loves what he does even more, even taking on extra repos on the weekend, much to the disgust of Remy's wife.

Things go well until Remy has an accident and wakes up with an artificial heart in his chest. He's suddenly on the other side of the fence, and sees things very differently as he struggles to pay his bills. In time he has to start worrying about whether Jake will hew to his mantra of 'a job is a job.'

The plot of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is known to many of the people who will see the film, and "Repo Men" plays out in relatively predictable ways. What makes them interesting is the relationship between the two central characters. In "Tattoo" Michael Nyquist and Noomi Rapace make for a compelling couple, in part because Rapace is wonderful at maintaining her character's glowering distance from Blomquist, even as they become physically entangled. The film explores themes of violence against women, and the ethics of modern journalism, and where to draw the line in dealing with the first and preserving the second.

Law and Whitaker also are the most compelling thing in their film, adding levity to what might be seen as a heavy-handed commentary on healthcare funding. They face their own moral dilemmas too, and if you can stomach the blood, there's some food for thought here too.

It'll never happen, but one has to wonder about how much fun it would be to have a post-screening discussion on morality, and whether ends justify the means, involving audience members from both of these movies.

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Tim Burton, take two

Posted at 3:16 PM on March 5, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

After reading Euan's post, a colleague passed along this skit from College Humor. It's a great jab at the filmmaker, with quite a bit of insight.

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Why Tim Burton couldn't win with 'Alice'

Posted at 1:46 PM on March 5, 2010 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film, People, Storytelling

"Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Dormouse, and the White Rabbit seem mystified in Tim Burton's adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland." (Images courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures)

There's a danger in messing with childhood favorites, no matter how much they may deserve it. As Spike Jonze showed with "Where the Wild Things Are" it can work very effectively to take a beloved story and flesh it out in ways that add whole new dimensions.

However adding that flesh has to add muscle to a whole body. Tim Burton's adaptation tries to do this, but just succeeds in adding appendages which get in the way.

Burton's Alice is not a girl, but a 19-year-old, who is chafing against the plans the rest of the world has for her. When she discovers she is being railroaded into marriage with a chinless wonder of an aristocrat she bolts, chasing a white rabbit she's noticed running through the bushes.

Moments later she falls down a rabbit hole and her adventures begin

Or re-begin. Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska (pictured here with Burton,) apparently has been here before, she just doesn't remember it. This isn't Wonderland, but Underland, a place which holds much more menace for someone with Alice's now adult understanding of the world. She meets Lewis Carroll's characters, many of them augmented with the wonders of modern CGI wizardry. Johnny Depp becomes an eye-bulging, fright-wig body-popper of a Mad Hatter, who is still keeping company with a tea-cup hurling March Hare, and a mildly homicidal Dormouse.

It is they who tell Alice how they are also struggling against the murderous Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) whose obsession with beheadings has the entire country trembling. Alice also learns she is the one who prophesy has anointed as their savior - if she is indeed 'the right Alice.'

Burton is exploring issues of growing up, responsibility, conspiracy theories and responsibility, yet the film doesn't add up, and lapses into a fantasy action film near the end.

You can't help but wonder if this movie had come out 6 months ago, before "Wild Things," before "Avatar," indeed before the whole new 3D revolution, whether this film might have sparkled. But it didn't, and despite some great performances from Depp, Bonham Carter, and Wasikowska, "Alice in Wonderland" just doesn't satisfy.

As ever we want to know, if you have seen the film, what did you think?

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Weekend ahead: cool stuff reigns

Posted at 5:30 PM on February 24, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums, Theater

So many things to do and so few hours. How does one choose?

One theatrical treat opening this weekend is the annual Teatro del Pueblo Political Theater Festival. The company is offering three programs and a total of seven different plays in two locations. The theme is "Across the Divide" which will be explored in plays by both local and national Latino writers. The festival runs through March 13th and you can find details here.

Ongoing at Pillsbury House Theatre "No Child...." features Sonja Parks (left) in a powerhouse performance playing 16 characters in a New York school.

The play by Nilaja Sun is based on her time teaching theater to students in New York public schools, and it has thrilled audiences with the way it celebrates the power and hope of youth despite the challenges thrown in their way by the society, the school system, and just life in general.

A great deal of the acclaim has come about through Parks' performance. An acting mainstay in Twin Cities theater in recent years she's won critical praise for her ability to inhabit her characters. In City Pages Quinton Skinner described her as "a unique and captivating talent, full of barbed charisma, sweetness, and unflinching powers of observation."

At the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis two new shows open this weekend. One called "Abstract resistance" features pieces, mainly from the Walker's collection, by artists who have as the catalog puts it "resisted against the aesthetic orthodoxies of their times." That resistance takes many forms as you would expect from the likes of Francis Bacon, Kara Walker, and Willem de Kooning, amongst many many others.

If interactivity is more your style, check out "Contact" the other show opening at the Walker. This includes two large scale installations by Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica and Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Oiticica has created a homage to Hendrix (right,) using 10 hammocks and a multimedia system. As viewers lounge in the hammocks they can watch images of Hendrix spill across the walls and ceiling as his music plays in the background.

Tiravanija created a thought-provoking environment out of a table under a shelter based on prefab designs meant for use in Africa. On the table sits the thousands of pieces of a huge jigsaw of Delacroix's iconic image of Lady Liberty. There is a deliberate juxtaposition which raises issues of colonial history. However it's likely many people will just get engrossed in the puzzle. (Click on the picture to see the full image.)

If you don't want to spend admission money you might want to check out Thomas Mullen author of "The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers," a pulsating new novel which while set in the gangster era of the early 20th century draws some clear parallels with the situation where we now find our ourselves. He'll be reading at 7pm Thursday night (2/25) at the Bookcase in Wayzata.

If you are more inclined towards the movies, how about this: a collaboration between Werner Herzog, David Lynch, and Academy Award nominated actor Michael Shannon. The film opens at Minnesota Film Arts this weekend in the MFA's new home at St Anthony Main. We'll let the trailer speak for itself.

And if none of this appeals there is always the kaleidescope game.

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NoDak offers film makers a unique chance

Posted at 6:42 PM on February 22, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums, People

The State of North Dakota is offering film makers the chance to make a movie inside the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site. This is one of the decommissioned missile silos which were once the both the backbone of the USA's nuclear deterrent, and the source of great peacenik discomfort.

Now the North Dakota Historical Society and Friends of Oscar Zero are calling for independent film makers to submit proposals to make films at the site. The crews selected will be able to shoot later this year, and into the spring of 2011. The finished films will then be submitted by the end of June. Those films will then compete for cash prizes.

The competition rules do not restrict the kinds of film to be made, but the silo has been a historic site for some time and film makers will have to follow state guidelines. The aim of the competition is to as the call for entries states "enrich the interpretation of the site by cinematically presenting aspects of the tense and complex interplay of military preparedness, politics, culture, and social life during the Cold War period."

It will be very interesting to see what comes about as a result of this unique opportunity. You can find details here.

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Watch it! Short stuff! (Live action version)

Posted at 11:32 AM on February 16, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Media, Technology

The Oscar ceremonies are a few weeks away yet, but later this week Twin Cities and Twin Ports audiences will get their fleeting chance to check out the contenders for the short live action and short animation prizes.

The live action nominees form a lively, if dark, selection, featuring entries set in India, Australia, Russia, Sweden, and the USA, although several of them have international production teams. The stories range from a social commentary piece on child labor practices ("Kiva,") to a twisted tale of apartment living adapted by, and starring, David Rakoff called "The New Tenants." There is the story of a lonely grade schooler in an Australian school "Miracle Fish" and a tragic tale of a family caught in an environmental disaster ("The Door.") A tale of a wannabe magician trying to survive his parents demands he get a real job, "Instead of Abracadabra," rounds out the pack.

Once a staple of the silver screen, the short film is not so well known to many filmgoers nowadays, which is a real shame. Like a great short story, a great short film delivers a slice of life with at least one twist to give viewers a small glimpse of a greater truth or absurdity. All five of the live action short nominees deliver.

The films open this weekend at the Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis and the Zinema 2 in Duluth. Also after a couple of weeks in the theaters the movies will be available for download through iTunes on March 2nd.

I'll write up the animation (which includes a new Wallace and Gromit episode from Nick Parks) tomorrow.

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Howling at "The Wolfman"

Posted at 6:01 PM on February 12, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Gwen (Emily Blunt) discovers it's a scary world in "The Wolfman." (Image courtesy Universal Pictures)

There's lots to be scared about in the Wolfman world. After a while it actually gets a little hard to remember the entire list of people and things fingered as potential dangers in Joe Johnston's lush remake of the Lon Chaney classic frightener.

Let's see: werewolves of course, quickly followed by gypsies, bears, villagers, (both commoners and gentry,) police officers, mentally ill people, scientists, psychiatrists and fathers. Oh, and standing stones are creepy too. It's all quite exhausting because "The Wolfman" is chock-a-block with worrying weirdness.

Sadly that's about as deep as this film gets.

The plot is set in 1891 at Blackmoore, a rundown estate in England where long absent son Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) returns after hearing of the mysterious and bloody death of his brother. The locals suspect a performing bear, but Lawrence's father Sir John (played with chilling smile by Anthony Hopkins) seems to know it may be something much more unsettling. Laurence begins to delve into the mystery even as he finds himself falling for Gwen, his late brother's lady friend (Emily Blunt.)

As the fog draws in around the estate and the full moon begins its ascent, it's clear something supernatural, and clawed, is stalking the grounds.

Director Johnson plays the gothic horror to the max, creating a candlelit world where dangers lurk in every shadow. Yet "The Wolfman" doesn't add anything to the werewolf story other than thoroughly modern gore-splashing. That is a shame, because lycanthropy, to give werewolfism its scientific name, would seem to be an area which could do with a 21st century re-analysis.

The film looks amazing, but just for once wouldn't it be great to have a horror movie where people don't decide to go for a stroll to explore werewolf habitat just as the full moon is rising. Or where police officers cock their eyebrows and tersely ask each other "I don't suppose we have any silver bullets?"

Del Toro doesn't bring much to the role of Lawrence other than a close resemblance to Lon Chaney at certain points in the film. It's also a little distracting that he has an American accent (explained by the claim he's been working as an actor in the US for years,) while his father sports a Welsh lilt, and the village seems filled with transplanted Londoners. It just never quite gels.

Many years ago my mother told me the real reason for scary movies was actually to give people on dates an excuse to hold each other just a little tighter. So perhaps that's the real reason to go see "The Wolfman." Happy Valentines day......

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The Southern Gothic storytelling of 'That Evening Sun'

Posted at 10:40 AM on February 5, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film, Storytelling

Hal Holbrook in "That Evening Sun" (Image courtesy of Dogwood Entertainment)

Making independent movies is hard work, then distributing them is even harder. Just ask Larsen Jay.

But he believes his current project is worth the effort.

"We call it the little movie that could," laughs Larsen Jay, executive producer of "That Evening Sun." "It keeps sort of a slow burn. Everybody, once they see it they start talking about it and we keep building and building and building."

The movie stars Hal Holbrook as an old Southern farmer who decides he can't stand living in an old folks home any more. He sneaks out and heads back to what he thought was his home.

"And when he gets there he realizes the farm is being rented out by the son of his arch rival," Jay says. "and instead of leaving he sort of squats on his own land, and thus ensues this great mental battle between this old salt of the earth character and this young buck both claiming the land for their own. It's a really powerful drama with great characters and a really true depiction of the South."

The film has been winning awards on the festival circuit, including a couple from SXSW. Now Larsen and others involved in the film are doing a 30 city roll-out of the film, playing in arthouses around the country. They are also going to cities where Holbrook performs his Mark Twain show, which he has been doing for 55 years.

As part of that effort Jay will introduce the movie at Minnesota Film Arts in its new home at St Anthony Main tonight at 7.30

He says he believes this is a different kind of a movie, and that was clear on the set.

"This is a storytelling film, and so it's a little different from being on a movie set where there is a whole lot of glitz and glamor. I mean, Hal Holbrook is a craftsman, and he is prepared and he is the character," Jay says."Everyone was very serious about making sure the story was told right, not just making a movie."

Jay is please with the finished film, but now there is a lot more work to be done.

"The response we get after people see the film is wonderful and it continues to build, but it does require a lot of travel, it requires a lot of dedication, time, money, effort. People are not going to find your film just because you made it. You have to go present it to them. You have to go talk to them. You have to explain why this is a story worthy of being seen."

The trick he says is to get people in the door.

"It's hard to market and introduce people to a Southern story about an 80 year old man who is fighting for land. It's not cool and sexy like "Avatar." But it is real life and it is a really powerful story. And when people leave the theater the best reactions we've received are "That made me think," he says. "And that's a really powerful tool if they are going to recommend it to someone else."

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The Art of the Steal

Posted at 2:28 PM on February 3, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums

While I'm not a huge fan of documentaries, I am looking forward to the release of "The Art of the Steal" at the end of this month. It tells the story of the Barnes Foundation, the amazing art collection of Dr. Albert C. Barnes (now valued at more than $25 billion), and how many people are dying to get their hands on it. The documentary promises an insightful look at the business of art, and how greed and corruption have a seat at the table whenever profit is on the menu.

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The far away local Oscar nods

Posted at 12:47 PM on February 2, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Culture, Film, People

Two of the 10 nominees for best picture have heavy Minnesota connections: "A Serious Man" and "Up." The former is the Coen Brothers' homage to life (although they claim not their own) in 1960's St Louis Park, and the latter is Bloomington native Pete Docter's animated exploration of old age, balloons, and to hear him tell it, Midwestern sensibilities.

Now of course we will get into our regular debate as to whether Minnesota can really claim people who have not lived here for years, but let's leave that aside for a while.

Both "A Serious Man" and "Up" are little cinematic gems and if the nominations get a few more people to see them it's no bad thing.

Of course, with 10 nominees, and with "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" in the mix, both of them have to be considered back in the pack, despite their great merits.

The same sadly is true for "Coraline," up for the best animated feature award, which is based on the gloriously creepy novella by Neil Gaiman, who tells people he lives in Minneapolis in part I believe to avoid having to explain he's really living in Wisconsin near the Twin Cities. "Coraline" was one of the first in the new wave of 3D movies which really uses the extra dimension to enhance the storyline. However it's up against Pixar's "Up," Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox," Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" and "The Secret of Kells."

A similar writerly connection links Minnesota and "Up in the Air" which is based on a novel written Walter Kirn who hails from Stillwater. (H/T Curtis Wenzel.)

One other local connection is St Paul native Joe Chisholm who masterminded the clandestine operation needed to get images of a dolphin slaughter which is chronicled in the controversial film "The Cove," which is nominated in the best documentary category.

In the same category "Food Inc." an exploration of the impact of factory farming on the health of consumers, was producer by Minneapolis native Bill Pohlad.

Update: Lucinda Winter at the Minnesota Film and Television Board points out another two we should mention:

2. COSTUME DESIGN - BRIGHT STAR (Apparition is distributor, Bill Pohlad is a partner with Bob Berney in Apparition)

The Movie Maven and I were looking for other vague Minnesota connections. She came up with the fact that "The Hurt Locker" star Jeremy Renner was in "North Country" the Charlize Theron vehicle about sexual harrassment on the Iron Range. And of course "Crazy Heart" writer/director Scott Cooper, says he learned the importance of story while working on "Bill's Gun Shop" in the Twin Cities.

What is remarkable is the number of people from these films who have been on the MPR airwaves over the past months. We've had Peter Docter, members of the cast from "A Serious Man," and "Up in the Air" writer/director Jason Reitman.

We had the animators of "The Princess and the Frog" and of course we have had Neil Gaiman on, talking about "Coraline."

We had writer director Oren Moverman talking about "The Messenger," which snagged a best original screenplay nomination (and a best supporting actor nod for Woody Harrelson.) We had writer/director Armando Iannucci talking about "In the Loop" which is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. There is also an interview with Christophe Barratier director of "Paris 36" which scored a nomination for best song.

And then in the longest Minnesota stretch ever, we should mention Helen Mirren, who is nominated for Best Actress for "The Last Station" She has a tattoo on her thumb, which she recently declared she hates because as she told Good Morning America "I decided to get a tattoo because it was the most shocking thing I could think of doing. Now I'm utterly disgusted and shocked because it's become completely mainstream, which is unacceptable to me."

And where did she get that tattoo? Many years ago while travelling through Minnesota.

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'The White Ribbon' unearths the roots of evil

Posted at 2:10 PM on January 29, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Little is as it seems in the village at the center of Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon." (Images courtesy Sony Pictures Classics)

Director Michael Haneke creates quiet worlds where nastiness if not flat out evil erupts for reasons which the audience only gradually come to learn. They are deeply disturbing works, scarring even, which can slither back into a person's consciousness weeks, months even years after seeing them.

I still think of scenes from "Cache" which give me goosebumps, even though I saw it in September 2005. Ask my colleague Chris Roberts about "Funny Games" (which Haneke made first in German in 1997 and then remade in English in 2007) and he physically shudders.

So why torture ourselves? Because Haneke's bleak view of the world tells us so much about the human condition.

His latest film "The White Ribbon," which opens in the Twin Cities this weekend, takes us through a few months in a village in northern Germany just before the outbreak of World War I. Outwardly it's an idyllic place, a quiet community where flaxen-haired children play in large courtyards amongst the chickens, as their parents work hard but cheerfully on the Baron's estate.

Yet very quickly we learn the village is uneasy as the result of a bizarre attack on the local doctor. Someone stretched a wire across a path near his home which trips his horse, and lands the doctor in a remote hospital.

It's just the first of a number of incidents which spread fear through the community, which (as it is after all the 20th century) is beginning to chafe under the semi-feudal system which has them under the thumb of the Baron. Suspicion swirls through the village, but as with all Haneke stories there are no easy answers.

As the film unfolds he provides glimpses into the families: the pastor who rules his children like a tyrant. There are the workers who are torn between their loyalty to and their resentment of the Baron. And there is the village teacher who gets to witness far more of this than he really wants.

At the center of the story are the children, who live a dual existance. When they are with their parents they are yoked into their place as determined by their family's social position. But away from the adults they have their own society, and it seems their own secrets - many of them quite ugly.

Haneke weaves the multiple stories of the villagers into a dense clump, using the soft tones of his black and white film to highlight the secrecy and hypocrisy of the place.

While he resolves some of the mystery, he leaves his audience teetering with the feeling that something worse is on the way. These are people who are about to be plunged into a world-changing war. And these are the children who will in a few short years be flocking to support Hitler and the fascist cause.

"The White Ribbon" has been hailed as Haneke's masterpiece, and it's easy to see why.

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'Broken Embraces' is an arty soap opera

Posted at 10:09 AM on December 24, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Penelope Cruz as Lena in 'Broken Embraces' (Images courtesy Sony Pictures Classics),

It's always an event when a new Pedro Almodovar movie hits the theaters, and this Christmas he presents Minnesota with "Broken Embraces." It's the story of a writer Harry Cain (Lluis Homar) who was a film maker until he lost his eyesight. We quickly learn Harry is a complicated character, successful with women, but carrying the weight of a torrid and tragic past.

Over the course of the next couple of hours we get to examine Harry's life and regrets. This is no simple journey however. As only Almodovar can the story unfolds like an amphetamine-fueled telenovella, leaping across decades, and between a host of characters, many of whom carry secrets as dark as Harry's.

Along the way we meet Lena (Penelope Cruz), the mistress of a wealthy tycoon, for whom Harry immediately falls head over heels. Soon Harry casts Lena as the lead in his latest comedy, and things get really complicated.

The breakneck pace of the plot, and the twists and revelations, both dark and humorous, make this a hoot to watch. Yet unlike a soap opera there is a lot of depth to Almodovar's romp. He explores the intricacies of forbidden love, the niceties of Spanish life, and the creative process both in terms of writing and film making.

Almodovar (pictured left on set with Cruz) uses his stars effectively as foils in his exploration. They come across sometimes as tragic figures, but just as often as capricious childish. While the always watchable Cruz becomes the central focus of the film, Homar carries much of the narrative, and convincingly places a man who changes through time and tragedy.

This film is much more complicated than "Volver," and less immediately satisfying. However "Broken Embraces" will no doubt draw repeated viewings and reveal more each time.

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What will you watch this holiday?

Posted at 4:55 PM on December 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Media, People

Many of us have Christmas viewing traditions. My sister and one of her best pals always watch "It's a Wonderful Life," a tradition that is now decades old. Some people have the "Ronia, the Robber's Daughter" at the Oak Street, and there's of course "A Christmas Story" or even the viewing of the Lord of the Rings trilogy at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis which happened last Sunday.

Some people flock to the end of year lists, or in this case, end of decade lists to pick something they missed.

My family tries to sit down together with something we have all loved in the past, or that one of us feels everyone will really enjoy. We were going to watch "Clueless" in memory of Brittany Murphy, but decided that was too sad, and so we somehow settled on "Death at a Funeral" which perhaps says something about how we think.

But what about you? What movie traditions do you share with your family at this time of year?

And while you are thinking about that, have a listen to Tay "Cherry Chocolate Rain" Zonday sing a seasonal favorite. Happy Holidays.

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"Avatar": a spectacle in search of a story

Posted at 4:46 PM on December 21, 2009 by Euan Kerr (5 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Film

The Floating Mountains of Pandora, just one of the wonders of "Avatar" (Images courtesy 20th Century Fox)

I left "Avatar" scratching my head a little. The movie is breathtaking. Director James Cameron and his crew have created a stunningly beautiful film, filled with images of fantastic animals, and incredible landscapes. For people of my age they conjure fond memories of the Roger Dean illustrations on Yes albums from the 1970s. What's more the visual feast just keeps coming at you for almost three hours and in 3D too.

The headscratcher is for all the money spent on this film, hundreds of millions reportedly, why wasn't some of that money spent on creating a better story?

It starts out with such promise: a marine who uses a wheelchair after some vaguely defined incident in his past finds himself transported to another world. He's there because he has the same genetic make-up as his scientist brother who trained to be an avatar driver to explore this planet, but was murdered. The avatars are very expensive and built specifically for each driver, so it's a lucky break for the human explorers to find someone who can take over the job.

Thus the grunt finds himself reborn inside the 10 foot tall body of a Na'vi warrior, complete with blue skin and a tail. He sets off and soon finds himself caught between the mining company from Earth desperate to get at the minerals under the Na'vi's sacred sites, and the Na'vi who he grows to respect and love.

It's not that the "Avatar" plot doesn't hold together. It's just predictable. Perhaps huge battle scenes are inescapable in movies like this, but it would have so wonderful to have them come up with some other way of dealing with the conflict. Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" deals with many of the same issues as "Avatar" and came up with a much more novel solution to the conflict.

This is the second time in recent months that a movie with incredible visuals has been lacking a spectacular script. "9" suffered the same fate, although at a much smaller cost.

"Avatar" is definitely worth seeing, on as large a screen as possible, and preferably in 3D. But it's tantalizing to think about what might have been. And maybe that's just what we have to hope for in the future.

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Oak Street Cinema closing - kinda - sorta

Posted at 5:58 PM on December 18, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

You had to look very closely at the Minnesota Film Arts newsletter to see that after years of teetering on the edge the Oak Street Cinema is closing. Once the battleground for strident Twin Cities film fans, the future of the Oak no longer seems to whip up the cineaste blood.

Instead the newsletter focused on the screening of the new print of "Ronia the Robber's Daughter" a quarter century long holiday tradition at the MFA, and before that at the U Film Society. There's a new print this year, and once again the MFA anticipates large crowds for the classic adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's tale. It turns out these screenings may be the last for some time at the Oak Street

The release then mentions the MFA is relocating to an office next door to the St Anthony Main theaters which has served as the base for the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival for the last couple of years. There is a small aside that this is where the MFA will now do its year round programming.

MFA programmer Ryan Oestreich says there is actually more to the story. Reached by cell phone as he helped with the move to the new offices, he says he is also taking over as the general manager for St Anthony Main, so he'll have two employers.

He sees the new arrangement as advantageous to MFA. He says having several screens available will allow him flexibility in scheduling movies which he didn't have at Oak Street. Oestreich says an MFA film can be blended in with the more commercial fare at St Anthony, and perhaps offer more opportunities for the arthouse crowd to catch it.

"One screen is great for now," he said, "But there is a huge possibility to go two, three, maybe even four screens, if this venture is very successful.

He says St Anthony is also just a more attractive location. When asked if it's a loss to no longer be on campus, given the decades long association with the U of M, Oestreich says St Anthony has long been the easy option for U students wanting to catch the latest Hollywood fare, so he sees it as a de facto campus theater.

He also stresses the Oak Street isn't going away. It will be part of future MSPIFF's and other MFA events.

"The Oak Street will be used for galas, and parties, special events and rentals," he said. "So it's still kind of the jewel of the organization."

he says the plans to demolish the Oak and redevelop the block are now abandoned, and now he says he wants to make sure it remains a viable venue to be available for big events. However he admits the long-term future of the Oak is still very much in the air.

Oestreich says he hopes to develop St Anthony as a place where there will be an arthouse feel, and provide venues for movies not picked up by the Landmark chain which runs the Uptown, Lagoon and Edina theaters. he hopes to arrange theatrical premieres and arrange visits by directors in support of their films.

In the meantime Oestreich is just getting pumped for the screening of "Ronia" and seeing families who have made the screening an annual holiday treat. He says there are families where the tradition now spans generations.

He also says to keep watching the MFA web site for updates as things develop. Or, he says, he hopes people will just drop by the new offices at St Anthony Main.

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"Heavy Sleepers" - the China you don't see

Posted at 5:39 PM on December 17, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Museums, Video

"Heavy Sleepers" by Zhao Liang, now on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. (Images courtesy WAC)

There's a danger that you suck the life out of a video installation by describing it. With that caveat let me suggest that a few minutes spent with Zhao Liang's "Heavy Sleepers" which opens this evening at the Walker Art Center is time well spent.

Zhao is a Beijing-based artist who captures on video the parts of China people in the West rarely if ever get to see, even by travelling to China.

"Heavy Sleepers" is a two-channel video installation, displayed along opposite walls in one of the Walker galleries. They are long tracking shots taken inside a workers dormitory.

One channel (immediately above) shows the dorm filled with sleeping workers. They lie side-by-side sleeping fully clothed among the detritus of their everyday existance. These are workers brought in to help with Beijing's building boom. Hard hats, eating utensils, and water bottles lie strewn about the rough wooden pallets where the exhausted men slump against dirty cushions. Are they heavy with sleep or heavy with responsibility?

The other (top of the post) shows the same dorm, now empty of sleepers, although many of the same utensils and bottles sit in the same place. The workers are gone, but it's not clear if it is just to work, or whether they have gone forever. Apparently these construction workers cannot get permits to live in the already crowded metropolis.

The piece is disorienting, not least because the images on walls keep tracking together so you feel you are moving, even if you are standing quite still. This cognitive dissonance is heightened by the apparent disappearance of the people. There is also the sense you are trespassing on these sleepers, who are unaware of the eyes upon them. Yet for all this it is hard to stop watching, at least for a while as the panorama moves on by.

Another of Zhao's works "Narrative Landscape," (left) is displayed on a flat-screen TV in an adjoining gallery.

It is footage shot of the Great Wall of China, in the spots where the tourists don't get to go. These are parts where time and the elements have cracked and bowed the walls, sometimes spilling bricks across the grass much like the personal items in the workers dorm. As the video progresses the snow begins to fall, and the stark bulk of the wall blends into the scenery. Sometimes it seems almost organic, like a vine or a skeleton stretched across the ground. Sometimes, as in the picture at left, you have to really stare to pick out the wall at all.

It's a meditation on the huge task of building the Great Wall, which took countless workers, the predecessors of the heavy sleepers, centuries to complete. Huge effort went into maintainance too, but clearly, even as the snow swirls around and coats the rubble, that work has been abandoned.

Walker Film and Video Curator Sheryl Mousley first met Zhao Liang a few years ago when she visited China. She says his documentary work then was much more "MTV-like," cutting quickly between the images. Now his work has taken on the more contemplative aspect displayed in these two pieces.

Mousley has invited Zhao to visit the Walker in the news year, and he will present two of his films.

"Petition-The Court of the Complainants" premiered at Cannes this year, and follows some of the people who come from all over China to Beijing to lodge complaints about the local authorities where they live. The process can take months, and they complainants live in make-shift shelters as they wait, facing intimidation from the people about who they are complaining.

"Crime and Punishment" is Zhao's film about the guards working the border between China and North Korea, a place swarming with people, some looking for help, and some a quick profit. The films will screen on the weekend of January 29th.

Zhao will do a gallery talk about "Heavy Sleepers" on January 30th.

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On the road with Range Life's Todd Sklar - and a van full of movies

Posted at 2:47 PM on December 15, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Media, People

The last time I talked to Todd Sklar he was in a van in a snowdrift, having gone off the road during a tour to promote his film "Box Elder," ('A movie about dudes being dudes') near Ames, Ia.

This time I caught him eating breakfast in a hotel in Milwaukee, where he spoiled the rhapsodic description of his steal-cut oatmeal and fruit by admitting a 3 am chicken strip eating contest had taken the edge of his appetite.

This is just all part of life when you are trying to re-calibrate the movie distribution system in America.

Sklar is on his way to the Trylon Cinema in Minneapolis tonight where he and his pals on the Range Life Entertainment bus will end their 2009 national tour by showing two movies: the comedy noir "Assassination of a High School President" (with Mischa Barton and Bruce Willis) and the air-drumming comedy "Adventures of Power" (with Michael McKean and Jane Lynch.)

They are two of the 14 films which Sklar has had on the road since early September. (This is the second visit to Minnesota on the tour.)

The movie theater isn't big but the idea is to build buzz. When Sklar went on the road last year he took movies that didn't have distribution deals. This year that's still true of about half his stable, but the other half do have deals, and as in the case of both "Assassination" and "Adventures" got a lot of festival love before falling foul of the economy.

"While we were kind of honing in and figuring out how to make this little road apparatus work as a distribution method," Sklar says, "I think the rest of the distribution landscape continued to fall apart. I think they thought that everything bottomed out and levelled out last year, but the sky was still falling apparently because at this point it's interesting that a lot of the larger films, and even the films that we are working with partners on, are even more excited and more aggressive on what they are doing with us than some of the smaller ones."

Sklar admits that sometimes he's not as convinced as the folks he's working with that what they are doing is working.

"I don't know that I necessarily feel that it's working, but everybody else feels like it is," he laughed. "I know we all feel like there's a lot more to improve."

Sklar says some of the films had offers from companies which then went bankrupt. He says films which might seem like naturals for the movieplexes have ended up sitting on the shelves for months. He calls them "PoW's of this whole thing."

Sklar claims that there are now so many gatekeepers in the distribution business that it makes it hard for some worthy movies to get into theaters. So that's where Sklar comes in with his quick hit shows at colleges and art houses.

"It's easier for us to do that than for a distributor to open for a week in 40 cities," he says. He points to "Assassination" as a case in point. After several attempts to get it into theaters failed, the distributor asked Range Life to take it on the road.

"We have no business being a part of a movie like that," Sklar says. "But at the same time it's very indicative of the current state of the film industry." He immediately agreed to the deal.

Sklar says Range Life offers a low-cost, high efficiency way of generating interest in a movie before it comes out on DVD.

Meanwhile he is still promoting his original mission, promoting low-budget movies that don't have a distributor, but he thinks deserves an audience.

Another less publicized part of this tour is Sklar and his associates have been creating a network of people in each city they visit which they hope they can use to promote some of the movies when the Range Life van isn't on the road. He hopes they can be showing films, or even making films which can come together through this network.

"A little 'Range Life' army around the country," Sklar says. He hopes it could lead to what he calls a whole new generation of content. He says he couldn't have made his own first feature without help and this could provide a framework for future film makers.

As for his own film work it has been on hold because of the touring, but he hopes to have a couple of pieces in play soon. He just produced a film with writer/director Dean Peterson called "Incredibly Small" which he hopes will be out in the spring. He is also writing a film with one of the stars of "Box Elder" which they will shoot in the summer. "It's taken a lot longer than it probably should have," he says.

He promises a Minneapolis show.

"The Twin Cities is the core of what we do," Sklar says. "You've got to bring it back home.

Sklar and his pals will be at the Trylon tonight at 7 for "Adventures of Power" and 9 for "Assassination of a High School President."

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Minneapolis Underground Film Festival rides again

Posted at 5:18 PM on December 3, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Greg Yolen (above) has a simple programming philosophy for the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival.

"The films just kind of programmed themselves," he says

He put the MUFF's address on the web site and received 45 films from nine countries.

"Everyone else can judge the work," he says. "I just want to show it."

All of them are in the 2009 festival which runs this weekend at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Audiences will be asked to vote on the films to decide prizewinners at the event.

He says he learned a lot last year.

"Basically I saw this real interest in films, not only local films, but international underground films, that I didn't know existed," he says.

He also learned about timing, and how an event in August, like the first MUFF has to compete with a lot of other distractions. Thus the new December date.

Yolen says the digital revolution has leveled the movie-making playing field, with people making quality flicks in their homes. He says the problem of independent film has usually been story, or lack of it. However he says this year's entries show film makers are working hard to change that.

He has scored a coup in getting local director John Koch, of Cinema Revolution fame, to present the world premier of his just completed film "The Seducer."

"He took the whole problem of story out of the equation," Yolen says. "He's goy the best writer in history. He shares a writing credit with Fyodor Dostoyevsky. So you've got a great story, just put it in a modern context."

Yolen says he's a huge fan of Koch's film making and the special way he tells stories.

Another of his top picks is "Paddle to Seattle," and adventure documentary made by two friends who built their own kayaks and paddle from Alaska through the inland passage to Seattle.

"It's just beautiful," Yolen says, who also recounts terrifying scenes of suddenly finding themselves in the midst of a school of humpback whales.

The MUFF also offers the opportunity to catch up on some locally made films which you may have missed earlier. Melody Gilbert's "Disconnected" gets a screening, as does "Living Arrangements," about a vegan couple in Minneapolis who find their deep committment to animal rights is tested when they discover a werewolf living in the attic of their new home. There is also a screening of James Vogel's "The City."

The festival is also showing a pile of short films, and some grittier material at its late night screenings.

The full schedule is here, including a number of trailers.

Yolen says he hopes the MUFF will grow and become an important event. He also hopes it will serve as an inspiration for local film makers. He says he's already encouraging people to make piece for the 2010 festival. He sees it all as part of developing and maintaining a thriving film scene.

"I'm just trying to get through this weekend," he laughs. "Then I'll figure it out."

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"Best films of the decade" list raises more questions

Posted at 11:50 AM on December 1, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

In a list obsessed world the New Yorker's Richard Brody is to be commended for his courage in releasing his list of the best films of the decade.

He immediately states that this is a list deserving of an asterisk as it was compiled in part while writing a book, "Everything is Cinema," a huge tome on Jean-Luc Goddard, which also explains how "Eloge de l'amour" Goddard's 2001 film tops his list.)

The comments following the posting are fun of course, as there are few things many cinephiles love to do more than hold up their own lists along with an explanation as to why theirs is better.

I also love this post, which actually touches on a larger problem: i like two other films, both french, both by the same director. I don't remember their titles. In one, based on a huge scandal by a large french multination, a female prosecutor is slowly demoralized as she investigates the corrupt corporation. In the other film, an old, famous French philosopher seduces a young, innocent girl. They are great films.

This comment, along with Brody's eclectic list, point to the huge challenge facing movie fans, which is the massive volume of film flooding through the theaters, TV, the internet, the mail and the few remaining video stores.

Of the 26 films on the Brody list, only a handful had more than a one-time screening here in the Twin Cities, and many have not been shown. Yes, we can add them to our Netflix queues, but there are only so many hours in the day when you can watch movies.

The bottom line is it is impossible to see everything, and so every "best of list" has to have an asterisk.

Of course from a movie-watcher perspective, it's better to have too much choice, than too little.

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Red Cliff and Ninja Assassin: what's a martial arts fan to choose?

Posted at 4:45 PM on November 25, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Things are about to get messy in "Ninja Assassin" (Image courtesy Warner Bros.)

For those who believe nothing quite says Thanksgiving like a martial arts movie, we have not one but two rock 'em sock 'em extravaganzas opening in Minnesota this weekend: "Ninja Assassin" and "Red Cliff."

Both are directed by big names: James McTeigue of "V for Vendetta" fame, and action film maestro John Woo ("Broken Arrow," "Face/Off.")

They also share a number of attributes: high flying stunts, intricately choreographed fights, and a lot of blood.

What they are unlikely to share is much of an audience. They are designed for different demographics.

McTeigue's "Assassin" is a tale of a highly trained ninja, played by Korean pop star Rain ("Speed Racer") who has broken with the sadistic leader of the Azuno ninja clan. The clan has a centuries old business model of bumping people off for the all-in price of 100 lbs of gold. That gets you a group of ceiling-hugging sword-swinging guys and gals in black catsuits and facemasks who make short and bloody work of just about anyone. As shadow warriors, the ninja like things dark. The power goes out a lot, and the blades start swinging. These are not people you want to rub the wrong way - which, of course, is exactly what our hero does.

"Ninja Assassin" is a gore-fest, pure and simple, aimed at teenagers. There is so much blood and viscera it quickly descends into horror flick territory.

The plot doesn't even try to make sense. Why is it that while a ninja hit essentially redecorates a room with bodyparts, Europol the crack investigative unit seems to have missed any evidence of a millennia of such incidents? And why do the ninjas who have the ability to blend into the background so well they disappear suddenly forget all that when they are attacked at home?

This will matter little though for the "Ninja Assassin" audience. The splatter eye-candy is going to sell a lot of tickets.

The army prepares in "Red Cliff" (Image courtesy Magnolia Pictures)

"Red Cliff" has an older target audience, one with more of an interest in history, and a sense of old-fashioned spectacle.

It has plotting problems too, but for another reason. The film is an amalgamation of two epic films made for the Chinese market. The story of a pivotal battle in Chinese history in the year 208 was originally five hours long, but has now been telescoped into a more cineplex friendly two-and-a-half. You can never escape the sense that you are missing something.

"Red Cliff" has a lot going for it. There's the star-studded cast including Tony Leung, Takeshi Kuneshiro, and Zhao Wei.

It is visually stunning. Woo captures the spectacle of thousands of soldiers in hand to hand combat unflinchingly. He uses a host of special effects to take the audience through clouds of arrows, and across the battlefield with a messenger pigeon. He takes us through the dramatic landscape of the river gorge as the battle approaches and deep into the horrors of the climactic battle on land and water. It's breathtaking.

This shortened version of "Red Cliff" does allow for some of the political subtlety of the story, but we never get very deep into the minds of the characters. This is a titanic struggle, involving thousands of people. Yet other than occasional back hand remarks, we never get to hear about the human side of the battle, and that's a shame.

It's not often that I leave a movie of this length wanting more, but I did after seeing "Red Cliff." There are DVDs of the original two movies available. Of course, that can't replicate the big screen experience.

So who will win the "Ninja Assassin" "Red Cliff" smackdown? The ninjas will be carving up the audiences this thanksgiving, but Red Cliff is here for the long haul. And for all the non-martial arts fans, there's always "The Road" and "The Fantastic Mr Fox."

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"The Road" is worth the trip

Posted at 11:07 AM on November 24, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee in "The Road" (Image courtesy Dimension Films

There are weeks when the movie theaters seem filled with visions of a post-apocalyptic world, the likes of "Zombieland" and "2012." But few pack the punch of John Hillcoat's "The Road."

The blogosphere has been full of questions as to whether he could capture Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of a father and young son's determined march through a ravaged America. The simple answer is he has done a remarkable job.

The story is set several years after the world has been devastated by earthquake and climate change.

With animal life pretty much wiped out, and farming impossible, the remaining humans are left to scavenge for ever-dwindling supplies of food. Some have turned to cannibalism. This is truly the Hobbesian world, where life is nasty brutish and short.

The unnamed Man (Viggo Mortensen) and Boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) live in constant fear as they push a supermarket trolley loaded with their possessions across the country. They are headed for the ocean, believing that if they get there life will be better.

Yet they are always prepared for the worst. The Man carries a pistol with two bullets, which he has told the Boy are meant first and foremost for taking their own lives should the need arise.

Travelling the road they talk about right and wrong, bolstering each other to survive, and to live as 'good guys,' a code which gives them a glimmer of hope in a hopeless world.

Mortensen and Smit-McPhee are both dead-on in their portrayals. Mortensen carries himself with the look of someone who has to dig to the bottom of his soul each day to go on, but will not give up because of his son. On the other hand Smit-McPhee's open earnestness, which occasionally slips to reveal the youngster still surviving inside is gripping to watch.

"Are we still the good guys?" asks the Boy after they survive a violent confrontation with marauders.

"And always will be, no matter what happens," replies the Man.

As the story progresses, the important subtleties of their relationship emerge. The Man provides protection and wisdom for the Boy. Yet it is the Boy who provides the pair their real strength, demanding that they live up to their ideals even in the face of bleak reality.

Along the way they meet others who test their humanity. They have to dodge terrifying groups of armed men and women who have crossed the line into murder for food.

Mainly there are just loners scrabbling to get by themselves. Michael K Williams, the fearsome Omar Little of "The Wire" appears as a thief. And there is Eli, an elderly invalid, they pass one day. The Man wants to ignore him, but the Boy insists they share some food.

As they eat the Man asks Eli (Robert Duvall) "Did you ever wish you would die?"

"It is foolish to wish for luxuries in times like these" he replies.

Ultimately "The Road" is about hope, and how little you need to keep going.

It can be argued that Hillcoat's "The Road" is slightly less bleak than the McCarthy novel, although it is by a very small measure. And opening as it does the day before Thanksgiving it will no doubt make many of us realize just how much we have for which to be grateful.

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Sadness, terror, and hope in "Precious"

Posted at 4:15 PM on November 20, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

I have never seen people flinching in a press screening of a movie until this week, when a group gathered to watch Lee Daniels "Precious."

It's probably a good sign that even today in the age of 3D gorefests cinema has not lost its ability to shock with an all-too-real story.

The tale of Claireece "Precious" Jones is brutal. She's a 350lb teenager pregnant with her second child by her now absent father. She lives at the beck and call of her monstrous mother Mary. She sees Precious as a servant, and simply a way to squeeze extra money out of the welfare office. When verbal abuse doesn't produce the results Mary wants, she turns to violence.

Precious escapes into herself, sitting at the back of her classroom she dreams of being a celebrity, dressed to the nines and dancing with handsome young men. She goes there too when the blows fall about her head.

All might seem lost, but Precious catches a glimmer of hope when she transfers to a special school dedicated to getting at risk youngsters their GED. But can she make it through without her mother dragging her back into her old life?

Gabourey Sidibe (right) is simply astonishing in the title role.

She shows how tough Precious can be, displaying her determination mixed with a vulnerability which can set her back as quickly as push her forward. For a first time screen actor to carry this film is remarkable. To portray this character and turn in her into a symbol of hope is even more so.

She get a great deal of help from Mo'Nique who gives a nuanced performance as Mary, eventually explaining how she became the depraved individual she is. Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz both shed their musical personas to portray a social worker and a nurse who try to help Precious. Don't be surprised if you hear these names again come awards season.

Precious is not an easy film, but if it provokes discussion of the abuses which are sadly all too common through out all strata of society then it will have done a service. And if it convinces even one person that there is hope that is even better.

You can watch the trailer here.

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Plowing new ground: the sequel to 'King Corn'

Posted at 6:16 PM on November 17, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

A couple of years ago Curt Ellis (left) and his friend Ian Cheney decided to teach themselves about agriculture by planting, growing, harvesting, and selling an acre of corn in Iowa. They filmed it all of course and released a documentary about the experience called "King Corn."

The neophyte farmers travelled the country with their movie which explored the impact of subsidies on US farms, and on food choices for American consumers.

Now they are back with a sequel. Curt Ellis admits that's a little unusual in the documentary game.

"I think that's probably for good reason," he laughs.

Yet they have done it all the same.

"I guess from the minute we finished 'King Corn' we had a realization we hadn't told the full story. 'King Corn' is really the food story of one acre of Iowa farmland, and we spent a year growing one acre of corn and following our harvest off the farm. But by the end of the year, having learned our harvest was going to become high fructose corn syrup and corn-fed confinement-raised meat, we realized there was something else at least as valuable as the corn we had grown, and that was the land we had tended and the way we had tended it."

Ellis and Cheney went back to Iowa and explored the ecological impact they'd had on their acre of soil, through the way they had plowed it and applied various chemical herbicides and fertilizers.

"We really only spent two hours over the course of the year actually farming," he says. "And most of that time was spent spraying things, injecting anhydrous ammonia, or spraying a cocktail of herbicides on our field of corn that had been genetically modified to make it withstand a direct spray. So there was clearly a chemical process as much as a biological process going on. "

Ellis and Cheney followed the run-off from their land through the watershed and into the Mississippi. They also talked to various experts about the health impact of modern farming methods.

"The goal of the "Big River" film was to create a follow-up to "King Corn" that would introduce people to these consequences that are hidden behind our everyday meals," Ellis says. He talks about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the flow of fertilizers in the run-off from Midwestern farms, and about reports of cancer clusters in some farm communities.

Ellis will bring both films to a screening at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Several local organizations are sponsoring the show, which will include a panel discussion of some of the issues raised.

He says at other similar events there have been a number of farmers in the audience and there has been a great discussion. He expects that to be the case in Minneapolis too.

"It's not always friendly," he says. "But I've been pretty amazed by how friendly it is. Both "King Corn" and "Big River" are pretty moderate films. We are not taking a finger-wagging approach to these problems. You know we are really all in this together. The reality is our food system is in trouble right now, and the only people who can fix that are all of us coming together."

"Big River" is just 30 minutes long and Ellis hopes it will have use as an educational tool in schools and for environmental advocacy groups.

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis look to the future in "Big River" (Image courtesy WickedDelicate Films)

Ellis laughs when asked if there will be a King Corn III, but then mentions the next big project will be called "Truck Farm" which is about how the two film makers took the rust 1986 Dodge pick-up truck which appeared in "King Corn" and put a roof on it so they could grow vegetables. In time they turned it into a community supported agriculture subscription farm serving 20 people. This maybe the only farm which can actually drive around town.

"It started just because Ian and I moved to Brooklyn after we finished our film projects and we wanted to grow food, but we didn't have any land, so we turned to the only open space we knew of which was the bed of the old pick-up truck."

You can see episodes from the project at WickedDelicate films. Ellis sees it as a fun way to spur discussions of the very real problem of so-called 'food deserts,' areas in cities where healthy food is hard to find.

"We had a neighborhood kid who kept eating the parsley down to a stump," Ellis says. "So that was our only pest problem."

The hour-long version of "Truck Farm" will probably premier next spring. They are also working on a film about light pollution from urban areas.

You can hear our conversation here: Listen

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An audience with the Boondock Saints

Posted at 2:33 PM on November 12, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People, Video

It was a strange night at the Mall of America last evening. "Twilight Saga:New Moon" fans filled the rotunda for the appearance by Edi Gathegi and Jamie Campbell Bower. Meanwhile upstairs in the movie theater a wondrous collection of pumped-up Boondock Saints fans were howling at the arrival of director Troy Duffy and star Sean Patrick Flanery (pictured above.)

Duffy and Flanery came to introduce "Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day," and to grow the legend of one of the stranger film stories in recent years.

In case you missed it, here's the thumbnail: in the late 1990's Troy Duffy became a Hollywood hot property because of his "Boondock" script. The story of a pair of gun-toting Irish vigilantes blasting Boston baddies seemed ideal for studios eager to build on the success of "Pulp Fiction." He got a huge advance from Miramax, a budget for his film which he was also to direct.

Then things went south real fast.

Duffy alienated Miramax with his behavior, and the studio pulled out. He also had agreed to let some friends make a film of his experience in the Hollywood limelight, and when things went bad it got captured on film. The resulting documentary "Overnight" portrayed Duffy as an egomaniacal bully. Duffy made his film on half the budget he's had from Miramax, but then found in post-Columbine days no distribution company would touch a movie about a pair of black coat clad guys shooting people. The film opened briefly on a handful of screens, got ripped by critics, and that appeared to be that.

However as Duffy and Flanery told the MOA crowd, that's when the Boondock fanbase began kicking in. As the film appeared in video stores it began to attract fans who made sure their friends all saw it. Then they in turn turned on their friends. Official estimates say about $50 million worth of discs have sold over the years since. Duffy and Flanery toss around much larger numbers than that.

Now after a decade, and lawsuits, and a lot of other strange stuff the Boondock Saints are back, and judging by the reception the movie got from the Minnesota crowd it's not a moment too soon.

The Troy Duffy who appeared in the movie theater was not a monster. In fact, while he does delight in the use of expletives, he was thoughtful, and even charming in a blunt kind of way. Flanery was also clearly having a ball, and described making Boondock 2 as the best experience he ever had making a film, with Boondock 1 being the second.

"It was like they gave a bunch of blue collar dudes the keys to Hollywood," he proclaimed at one point.

After the q and a and a signing where the Boondocks posed for dozens of pictures, they sat down with me for a long chat. We'll air some of it tomorrow evening.

As they left, I mentioned the Twilight Saga folks were there too.

"So who would win in a fight?" I had to ask. "The Boondock Saints or the vampires and the werewolves?"

Sean Patrick Flanery smiled back and said, "I could take five of them myself."

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Jason Reitman on film, family, and Diablo Cody

Posted at 3:42 PM on November 10, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

Jason Reitman says as the son of "Ghostbusters" director Ivan Reitman he felt uncomfortable about following his father's footsteps into the film business.

"Right when I got to college I started getting nervous that I shouldn't be a director," he said today during a visit to the MPR studios.

"I was well aware about the presumptions about the children of famous people, that if you are the son of a famous film director, most likely you are a spoiled brat, you have no talent, and more than likely you have an alcohol or drug problem. And I thought why go into a career where these are the presumptions going in? Best case scenario I live in my father's shadow. Worst case scenario I fail on a very public level."

So he went to college as a pre-med student.

Then his father stepped in.

"He's the first Jewish dad in the history of Jewish dads to tell their son 'Don't be a doctor. Be a film maker,'" Reitman smiled.

It turned out Ivan Reitman was following in his own father's footsteps who had advised him against sinking money into a submarine sandwich shop he was considering.

"There's not enough magic in it for you," Jason Reitman says quoting his grandfather. Ivan Reitman, who was a music major who ran a film club, began developing his interest in movies and eventually became a hugely successful director. He told Jason that he would be immensely proud of him if he did decide to be a physician.

"But," says Jason, now quoting his father,"'There's not enough magic in it for you. You have to follow your heart. You have to be a storyteller.'"

Three days later Jason Reitman was out of his pre-med classes in New York, and talking his way into English classes at USC in Los Angeles. He made short films, and in time was able to parlay that into feature films.

First there was "Thank you for smoking," which was funded by David Sacks, one of the guys who had just sold PayPal to eBay, and had some money to invest in a film as a result.

"I've been accused my entire life of having a career that undoubtedly came from nepotism," Reitman laughs. "And nepotism didn't deliver. It was supposed to bring me a career and it didn't work! Come on nepotism! It ended up being an internet millionaire from San Francisco who started my career."

Then came his meeting with Diablo Cody.

"I remember being very intimidated to meet her. She's covered in tattoos, and she's kind of hyper-cool. And I'm the last thing from that," he said. "I just kind of fell in love with her because she is just so funny and so direct. Her ability to come up with clever dialog in the moment was unmatched by anyone I've ever met."

That meeting resulted in "Juno," and a shower of Oscars.

Now Reitman is publicizing "Up in the Air," a dark comedy about a man who makes his living travelling the country firing people, starring George Clooney. It's based on a Walter Kirn novel

When asked about his apparent attraction to writers with Minnesota ties he responded "I really should live here. I don't know why have been avoiding this so long. I seem to be a natural. Maybe it's because I'm Canadian."

In all seriousness though he says he learned a lot about the trauma many people are going through as a result of the losing their jobs.

"Of the 27 people fired in "Up in the Air," 22 of them are real people who actually just lost their jobs. They are not actors," Reitman says. The film makers recruited the people through a newspaper ad, and then had them come in to be interviewed and then fired again on camera.

It's a tough sequence to watch. Reitman says he had assumed that the worst thing about being fired was the loss of income.

"But it wasn't that. It was actually a loss of purpose. The question they would ask was 'I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Where am I supposed to go after this interview? I get in my car but I don't have anywhere I'm supposed to be."

The film doesn't fit easily into categories. It's funny in parts, and quite dark in others.

On that note, it's intriguing to take a look at the two trailers for the film available one line. The first one focuses much more on the tougher edge of "Up in the Air."

The second, which is in theaters at present is much lighter, although you can still see the edge.

"Up in the Air" opens in the Twin Cities on December 4th. We'll air the interview closer to that time.

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When the term 'Revolutionary Cinema' really meant something

Posted at 7:30 PM on November 8, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Walker Art Center film curator Sheryl Mousley recalls what she had to do when she travelled to China in 2001hoping to see some of the underground social issue documentary films she'd heard were being made at the time.

She made some contacts and was told "This is totally illegal to show these films in China. But if you show up at this bar at noon, anybody who MIGHT want to show you something MIGHT be there."

Mousley says she was there at noon, and found a VCR set up. Over the next few hours, a stream of people turned up to show her their films. She brought some of the tapes back and screened them at the Walker.

Her interest in Chinese film has resulted in the latest Walker Film event "The People's Republic of Cinema" which celebrates the 60 years of movie-making in mainland China since the Revolution in 1949.

Mousley says she hopes the event will offer a chance for people to learn a little more about China through the stories it has told about itself.

"The very first one, made in 1949 tells us of the coming revolution," she says of 'Crows and Sparrows.' The early films capture the stylized look of socialist realism. Later films from the Cultural Revolution have a starker appearance.

"Then the reaction to that by the next generation of making films, but still working within the government system, making films that were classic rural films of still challenging the system, but in a revolutionary way," Mousley says. "And then the next generation comes along and it's urban and gritty and making films about what they are seeing now."

The images are remarkably recognizable, but Mousley says that's perhaps not surprising when we think of how much of US history has come to be thought of in terms of cinematic scenes.

"Going back to the Civil War, we would probably show 'Gone with the Wind' and it would be that great image of Tara, and then we would show 'Bonnie and Clyde' in the thirties. We have all these iconic images of our own history through the cinema as well and so that is what we know."

Some of the films in "The People's Republic of China" are well known here, but some have never been screened in the US before. In fact some of them haven't been shown much even in China.

"So we are seeing a China that not even Chinese people always see," says Mousley. "So it's a very interesting mix of information."

She says repeat attendees will be able to follow the evolution of Chinese cinema. She saw it herself. When she went back to China just four years later in 2005 to do an artist-in-residence program and she asked to see some work in advance. She was expecting trouble again, but that time round the film makers told her they would just post them to her web site.

The People's Republic of Cinema runs through November 23rd in association with the University of Minnesota. Some of the films will screen at the Walker and others at the Bell Auditorium at the U.

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Meet a man who had a man who stares at goats stare at him

Posted at 6:18 PM on November 5, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

George Clooney (left) and Jeff Bridges star in the new film adaptation of Jon Ronson's book "The Men Who Stare at Goats." (Image courtesy Overture Films)

Jon Ronson says initially it didn't occur to anyone that there was an irony in hiring Star Wars star Ewan McGregor to play a role in "The Men Who Stare at Goats."

The movie is based on Ronson's non-fictional account of efforts within the US military to train soldiers to develop paranormal powers and become what the military called Jedi warriors.

"Nobody had sussed it out," Ronson said to me during a phone interview today. "Only after Ewan had been offered the role did he mention it. Total coincidence. May God strike me down if I am lying," he laughed, and then quickly admitted he doesn't believe in God.

It's just one of the many strange things about Ronson's story. He is a writer and documentary maker who began his explorations into the psychic soldiers shortly after 9/11 when he ran into the infamous silverware bender Uri Geller who had long claimed to be a psychic spy.

When Ronson asked him about it, Geller would only say a) that he had been 're-activated' and b) he would deny making his first statement if Ronson told anyone.

This set Ronson off on a series of adventures meeting some of the people who had tried to do such things as pass through walls, make clouds disperse, make people forget about what they were thinking (especially if that thought was about killing you,) and yes, trying to kill goats, and possibly people, by staring at them.

Ronson knows people will be skeptical about the story. "My own skepticism is utterly intact," he says. "I firmly believe that all the things I say happened in the book did happen, but what I don't believe for a second was that any of this paranormal stuff actually worked."

Such was his confidence in this he actually submitted to being a subject by one of the 'goat-starers.' The man said he would enter Ronson's mind and make him so fearful that when he touched him Ronson would fly across the room.

"And indeed that's what he did," Ronson says.

However on reviewing the videotape he had made of the interaction Ronson saw something different happening. He described the soldier in question as 'an enormous Special Forces martial arts trainer.' he describes himself as being quite small. On the tape he saw that the soldier actually hit him quite hard and it wasn't surprising he flew through the air.

"It was an interesting lesson in a kind of pragmatic application of paranormal techniques, which was basically freak somebody out and they will be debilitated and you'll be able to have your way with them," he says.

The movie based on Ronson's book opens with a declaration "More of this is true than you would believe." The film takes Ronson's true tales of paranormal experimentation and builds a fictional story of a mildly hapless journalist Bob Wilton (McGregor) who stumbles across the remnants of a disbanded supersecret psychic soldier group, including Lyn Casady (George Clooney) who takes him into Iraq. Along the way Casady relates the history of the First Earth Battalion and its founder Bill Django (Jeff Bridges.) Things don't go terribly well, all in all.

Ronson says he was advised by his friend Nick Hornby that he should just relax and not worry about the whole film making process. He decided to just enjoy the adventure.

"I think they have made a really nice film," he said. "It's a very sweet, funny warm film that I think people will engage with. Even though my book is quite dark, the film is light. And I think that is fine."

"Because I am such a sceptic, I don't believe for a second that people could actually have these paranormal powers, " he continued. "But I loved that the movie toyed with it: that you don't really know at the beginning of the movie whether its going to change into a kind of X-Men and these people will have these amazing powers and they kind of toy with that possibility in a very funny engaging way."

The movie opens this weekend across the country, and anyone eager for a brush with stardom can meet one of the goats used in the film at the Mall of America this evening. Word is you can try to 'drop the goat' yourself if you are so inclined.

But Jon Ronson isn't holding his breath.

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Birth of a star is just one the reasons to see "An Education"

Posted at 11:28 AM on October 30, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

In "An Education" Carey Mulligan plays a girl who longs for a life of sophistication, and then has second thoughts when she gets it. (Images courtesy Sony Pictures Classics)

Carey Mulligan stars as Jenny, a bright teenager who, in the London of 1961, is tantalized by the world just beyond her grasp.

She is immersed in taking classes to prepare her for the Oxford entrance exams, but still finds time to lie on the floor of her bedroom listening to Juliette Greco, and dreaming of a sophisticated life far from her overbearing father (played with perfect pomposity by Alfred Molina.)

Her dreams apparently come true one day when she meets David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man almost twice her age. He takes her to concerts after having charmed her parents, and introduces her to nightclubs, and a life of excitement which Jenny finds increasingly hard to leave to return to her studies.

Of course David is too good to be true, leaving Jenny with some difficult decisions. Her education in the university of life is both eye=-opening and chastening.

Director Lone Scherfig uses the Nick Hornby script, and a cast which also includes Dominic Cooper, Emma Thompson, and Sally Hawkins to great effect.

While the world of the film may be inhabited by sultry songstresses like Juliette Greco, it is also the Britain which was still recovering from the horrors and hardships of World War II, mixed with the growing realization that the Empire was gone, and the pressure of post-colonial responsibilities are growing. Scherfig gives Jenny glimpses of that new reality, and maybe even some 21st century viewers too.

It is however Mulligan who shines, taking her character from a state of naive self-confidence, through a series of switches and false starts to that of a wiser, worldly young woman. This is Mulligan's first starring role, but will surely not be her last.

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Where the Wild Things Are - closer than we think

Posted at 4:41 PM on October 16, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Storytelling

Early on in Spike Jonze's film adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are" comes a moment many kids - and all parents - will recognize.

Max in his wolfsuit (All images courtesy Warner Brothers)

Max, the young man at the center of Maurice Sendaks classic tale, gets into a snowball fight with a group of older kids. Everyone is having fun, and Max's excitement mounts to the point of mania. Then it all ends, and the shrieks of laughter turn onto howls of anger and frustration.

In seconds Max experiences the switch between the joy and powerlessness of being a kid We've all been there and it's an agony which remains with many through adulthood. In that moment Jonze captures us all.

Max is a lonely young fellow. His older sister is paying him less attention as she enters teenhood. His stressed mother is trying to keep earning a living, and even find a replacement for Max's father who is painfully absent. When Max wears his wolfsuit and throws a tantrum with the new boyfriend in the next room, something has to give. He runs away, and after a stormy sailboat ride ends up with the Wild Things.

Jonze took on a huge challenge when he signed up to do "Wild Things." He's working with what amounts to being a sacred text to many people young and old. He also faced the task of taking Maurice Sendak's handful of pages and creating a cohesive motion picture lasting an hour and a half.

Mercifully he has not only succeeded, he has added new layers to the storyline which elevate the Sendak original. The Wild Things who barely speak in the picture book emerge as fully formed characters with their own strengths and foibles. Most of the time they are low-key doofusses, who take just a little too much pleasure in petty bickering.

Many adult viewers will no doubt be reminded of some recent moment where people were behaving in much the same way.

The Wild Things are naive enough to believe Max when he tells them of his magical abilities and experience as a king, so they quickly decide to set aside their original plan to eat him, and instead give him a crown. Max sees he can use their formidable strength to fulfill some of his own dreams, including building the ultimate fort. It's only later that it dawns on him that a beast which can tear a tree out by its roots could pose quite a threat to him if he's not careful.

Spike Jonze knows it's a lesson everyone needs to learn at some point.

The film is gorgeous in the way it echoes Sendak's drawings. Max Records who plays his namesake is brilliantly believable in the wolfsuit, as are the voices behind the Wild Things including James Gandolfini, Chris Cooper, Catherine O'Hara, Lauren Ambrose, Paul Dano and Forest Whitaker.

This is a film people will be watching in years to come.

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Zombies expected for International Summit

Posted at 12:53 PM on October 6, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Rick Vaicius, who runs the film program at the Lake Pepin Art and Design Center, admits that some people think his programming can sometimes be too serious. So the organizer of the Flyway Film Festival decided to do something about that.

He's inviting zombies from all over the world to attend the International Zombie Summit in Stockholm, Wis., on October 24.

He says it all got started when his wife and sister went to see "Dead Snow" at the Sundance Festival. It's the Norwegian film about a community whose zombie problems take a really nasty twist when it turns out they're are being besieged by Nazi zombies left over from World War II. Vaicius says his wife said afterward it would never show in Lake Pepin, and he said don't be so sure.

He had recently met Pericles Lewnes, the brains behind Troma Films' "Redneck Zombies" (tagline: "They're Tobacco Chewin', Gut Chompin', Cannibal Kinfolk from Hell!"), and together they decided to put together a day of zombie films and panels as part of this year's Flyway Festival.

"We live in interesting and peculiar times, and there is some thought that the type of times that we are living in now is the reason why zombie films have become so popular," Vaicius says.

He says that people seem to feel some affinity with the struggle represented in zombie films.

"I will say that a fair number of the zombie films that are out there now do have lots of very interesting political undertones," Vaicius says. "And in particular "Pontypool," which is another of the films which we will be screening at the weekend, where there is a virus that causes the people in the community to turn into zombies. Although Bruce MacDonald the film maker resists calling them zombies and calls them conversationalists, but the virus is the English language. And I think that is very pointed in its political nature."

Vaicius points out a lot of early zombie films in the '30s were French and Italian, but then the genre took hold in the U.S. during the McCarthy era.

"And then of course we have the late '60s, where George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" came out in 1968, another interesting cultural and political time in our country," he says.

Intriguingly many of the films being shown at the summit are from outside the U.S. "Dead Snow" is of course Norwegian, "Pontypool" is Canadian, and "Colin," a breakout at Cannes this year, was made in Wales.

"That is another really interesting take on the genre, because that's a film that is actually told from the perspective of the zombie," Vaicius says, while also pointing out it was reportedly made for just $70.

The summit is attracting attention from all over. The Facebook page for the event has attracted fans from as far away as the Ukraine and the UK.

So how many people will turn up?

"To be quite honest I have no idea," he laughs. "And our venue is small, so if we have 500 people show up in Stockholm, Wis., 350 of them are probably going to be disappointed, because our venue has 150 seats."

He says he doesn't anticipate they will have a problem as he's assuming people traveling from further away will order tickets online. He's also hoping people will stick around for the other films in the Flyway Film Festival

There will be what amounts to zombie royalty at the event, in addition to Lewnes as host there will be Ed Bishop, his production partner in Redneck Zombies. Justin Johnson of "Zombie Girl" is anticipated, as is Jeffrey Coghlan the producer of "Pontypool." The panel will also include Gary King, who was born in Rochester Minn., and is showing his film "New York Lately," in the full festival, but has been hired to direct a zombie film and so will add a different perspective.

And of course Rick Vaicius is excited about the fans who come down for the event

"What will be really fun is to see if people turn up in zombie make-up. I think it will be really fun to have Stockholm Wi, the tiny village of Stockholm Wi be overrun by zombie movie fans in zombie make-up."

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"Strange Victory" challenges expectations

Posted at 2:54 PM on October 2, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

Artist Matthew Bakkom isn't one to lay it all out for his public.

"We're a really highly educated audience now," he said in conversation earlier this week at Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis, "and we don't suffer lightly being told what to think."

Chambers' Burnet Gallery is presenting an installation Bakkom designed specifically for the space. It mixes together pieces from previous his bodies of work, along with new material, to create a setting that's both elegant and unsettling. The installation is called "Strange Victory."

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

The inspiration for the installation comes in part from a 1961 surreal French film called "Last Year at Marianbad," but you wouldn't necessarily pick that up from walking through the room. The biggest clue comes from a panel on which is written a summary of the film's plot.

Bakkom says he thinks there's a constant tension at play between an artist, the artist's audience, and each of their own expectations about what art should be. Bakkom says he's a follower of DuChamp in that he believes he only does half the work when he creates a piece of art - it's up to the viewer to do the rest.

The room is dotted with images of a baroque chair, a slide of an old painting, and hand gestures. They're each quite suggestive, but suggestive of what? Curator Jennifer Phelps says of Bakkom's work:

I am drawn to work that is composed of various levels... that does not reveal itself to the viewer at first glance. Work that twists and surprises me. I feel Matthew's show does all of this for me. I want to spend time in the gallery trying to absorb his stories and the stories that are generated within me by his artwork. I also find his images quite serene, though they involve a scanner and gestures and information that can not be clearly deciphered.

Photograph by Matthew Bakkom

Bakkom says he has many ideas, trains of thought, and sources of inspiration that go into his work, but ultimately that background information shouldn't be necessary for the viewer to enjoy the work. What is necessary is an open mind, and a willingness to explore some foreign terrain. The story you come up with will be all your own.

"Strange Victory" will be on display at the Burnet Gallery through November 8th - the opening reception is tonight from 6-9pm.

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Sound Unseen launches tonight

Posted at 9:50 AM on September 29, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Music

The best in the world of music on film blossoms on Twin Cities movie screens tonight with the opening of the 2009 Sound Unseen Festival.

There is a huge spread of material, ranging from the opening show, the world premiere of "R.E.M. This is not a Show" at the Cedar Cultural Center tonight at 7pm, to "Died Young, Stayed Pretty" at the Walker about music posters, to "In Search of Beethoven" at the Oak Street.

There are also a host of special events including live performances by The New Standards and Tortoise amongst others.

You can find details about times, locations and all the other goodies at the Sound Unseen site

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The places, people, and language of the Coens

Posted at 9:03 AM on September 26, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

At the beginning of "Fargo," a story of kidnapping, murder, and an infamous incident with a woodchipper, a title splashed across the screen claims it is a true story. Many people still believe it.

"I'm surprised that lasted so long," Joel Coen said at the Walker Art Center last night.

However Ethan Coen went on to say the claim of truth was very important for their main purpose - to tell a good story. He said if audiences believe a story is true, it gives them as film makers much more latitude .

"They (the audience) allow you to do things they won't let you do if they think you made it up," he said.

This was just one of the many insights the Coen Brothers provided during almost two and a half hours in conversation with broadcaster and film critic Elvis Mitchell at the Walker. The event was the 50th Regis Dialog at the Walker, and the central event of "Raising Cain," a month long retrospective celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of the Coen Brothers first feature "Blood Simple."

A great deal of the conversation focused on the Coens attention to the specificity of a story. Their scripts often grow out of a sense of place, such as the West Texas of "Blood Simple" and the Minnesota of "Fargo." In fact Joel Coen said the "Fargo" story grew out of wanting to tell a story about Minnesota in winter. That desire for specificity has also led to them doing what might be described as period pieces, set in the recent past.

Ethan Coen said setting a movie in the present is like an off switch to them as writers, because it makes a story more generic for an audience. Joel Coen followed up by saying one of the pleasures of film making is creating a world, and none of their movies are exercises in naturalism.

Elvis Mitchell's questions and choice of film clips drew some surprises from the Coens. They laughed out loud at some of the scenes, saying they hadn't seen some of the work since completing the film in question. Ethan Coen particularly enjoyed a sight gag from "The Big Lebowski" where Jeff Bridges in the title role gets a shock when he discovers what has just been drawn on a notepad.

They also talked about the challenges of writers block, admitting that they were stuck for months on how to proceed with the "Fargo" script after a scene where one of the characters has sex with an escort. Ethan says they would switch on the computer every morning to see the same somewhat lurid line, and couldn't find a way to go forward.

A similar block in writing "Millers Crossing" led to them setting the movie aside and they wrote most of "Barton Fink" before breaking the block on the "Miller" script.

Joel Coen also said "It took us a while to realize we were writing "The Odyssey," while they were scripting "O Brother Where Art Thou?"

Ethan continued saying they had been writing what he described as a 'three-dopes-chained-together' script and it was only later it came to them that their plot line was echoing the classical tale.

The conversation returned repeatedly to the brothers voluminous reading habits and the works of great writers.

Joel Coen said when they think of storytelling its often in terms of the depth of a novel rather than the simplified plots of movies. While they write, they have to pare out a lot more, but they can find that specificity of story they always seek.

There were also clearly surprises for the Coens themselves during the evening, particularly when Elvis Mitchell posed to them that all their films, with the exception of "A Serious Man" are basically chase movies.

The brothers didn't exactly endorse the idea, but it prompted Joel to quote his son who once asked "Is this going to be another one of your depressing movies where everyone dies in the end?"

There were no clips from "A Serious Man," which will be released in theaters next week. However the Coens talked about seeking to recreate an environment that they render from their own experience. They said though that while they grew up in the 1960s in St Louis Park as the children of two academics, and the central character is a physics prof in the same time and place, that is as autobiographical as the new film gets.

They talked about getting their first Super 8 camera in their early teens and making films inspired by things they experienced. There was their three minute remake of "The Naked Prey" which they did the day after seeing the Cornel Wilde vehicle on TV. They remade the political drama "Advise and Consent" again just a few minutes long, and complicated by the fact it was silent.

They also created original stories including "Henry Kissinger:Man on the Go" with Ethan in the title role, which they shot around the terminals of the Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, which Ethan Coen pointed out would be impossible today.

"It was about shuttle diplomacy in between the flights," Joel Coen deadpanned.

There was also "Lumberjacks of the North" which produced the comment "We had flannel shirts. You use what you have," from Ethan.

Returning to "The Naked Prey," Joel described how they used a parallel shooting technique where they did all the scenes in sequence. It meant they had to keep moving back and forth between two different locations. "The big advantage was when you got it back from the drugstore the movie was finished," he said to laughter from the audience.

The Coens talked a great deal about how they read a lot as children, and how they see many of their films as being in the style of certain writers. The acknowledged the echoes of Isaac Bashevis Singer in "A Serious Man" and after Mitchell brought him up Philip Roth.

They talked about the challenges of capturing the St Louis Park of their youth for "A Serious Man." The suburban architecture is still there, but there are now a lot more trees. They ended up shooting in as many treeless spots as they could, actually removing a few real trees in some cases, but also using a lot of special effects techniques to paint out the trees in other scenes.

Next up for the Coens/ They said it looks as though they will be doing an adaptation of the Charles Portis novel "True Grit."

"Raising Cain" continues at the Walker through October 17th.

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The Coens come home

Posted at 11:22 PM on September 25, 2009 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Joel and Ethan Coen on the set of "A Serious Man" (Image courtesy of Walker Art Center)

Oscar-winning Twin Cities natives Joel and Ethan Coen spent almost two and a half hours with Elvis Mitchell and a sold-out theater at the Walker this evening, talking about films, film-making, and where they find inspiration.

It was a fascinating and at times surprising conversation, not least for the Coens themselves. A number of times during the evening they considered the interpretations of their work which Mitchell posed to them, and more often than not they came away agreeing.

The one that seemed to give them biggest pause was his contention all their films have been at their heart chase movies, barring the latest one, "A Serious Man." Ultimately they didn't argue very hard on that one.

More details tomorrow when I have had time to decipher my notes.

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Take the Movie Natters Poll: which movie will you see this weekend?

Posted at 7:28 PM on September 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Thomas Turgoose considers his options in the Movie Natters Poll while on the set of "Somers Town" (Image courtesy Film Movement, photo:Dean Rogers )

There's not quite as much choice as in some recent weeks, but still there's a lot at which to look.

There's the new Bruce Willis sci-fi on having your own personal robot, "Surrogates" Shane Weathers take on modern teenhood in London in "Somers Town", a French film on how impending mortality can change your perspective, "Paris," Charlize Theron and Kim Bassinger work a script about adultery from the writer of "Babel" and "21 Grams," in "The Burning Plain," the director of "Notes on a Scandal" also takes on adultery in "The Other Man," and finally, a monsters in space frightener, "Pandorum."

And if you are moved to give us some reasons behind your pick, please comment below.

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The lingering lure of "Into Temptation"

Posted at 11:19 AM on September 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (4 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People, Religion

Minneapolis film maker Patrick Coyle says he doesn't know what it is, but "Into Temptation," the small budget film he wrote, directed, and acted in, seems to have grown legs. The film's run at the Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis has just been extended again.

"I had to use all my powers of persuasion to get one week," he says. "And it's turned into five and going strong."

The film follows a young Minneapolis priest as he tried to find a young woman who comes into the confessional to ask for absolution for a sin she has yet to commit. She says she is going to kill herself on her birthday, but then runs out of the church before he can identify her.

The film has now screened in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Coyle's hometown of Omaha. He says the film seems to hook people, and not only do they encourage their friends to see it, they appear to be coming back to see it again.

"The gratifying thing is it's not just Catholics," Coyle says. "It's kind of cross-demographic. Age and gender and religion. So I don't know. It's really fun. That's all I know for sure, it's really fun," he laughs.

"I do think that people are hungry for a story that resonates truthfully with people you care about, that speak in complete sentences."

The big numbers in Minneapolis and Omaha have apparently attracted the attention of First Look the film's distributors, and the Landmark chain, so plans are already underway for runs in other cities, including Duluth and Fargo.

"We don't have national release, but we are going city by city, and we are trying to get to as many cities before the DVD comes out."

Coyle describes it as a race against time, because that release date is October 27th. It's been a busy time for Coyle because even as he is pushing his film, he also plays Lou Grant in the Torch Theater production of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which has also become a hit.

Coyle was speaking to me from Omaha where he is scheduled to introduce the film tonight. "Into Temptation" smashed the Dundee theater's box office record over the weekend.

"They grossed more Friday, Saturday and Sunday at "Into Temptation" than they ever had at this theater and it's been open since the Depression," Coyle says. He admits his family publicity machine has probably helped, but now word of mouth has taken over.

Coyle admits he is mystified as to what the secret is behind the films success.

"One day I might understand it, but I don't now. People see it, they love it and they are telling people about it."

Which makes it a challenge to recreate for his next project. But Coyle is happy that this success improves the chances that will happen.

"I love film making, and think this is definitely going to get me to my next project, and that makes me very happy," he says.

The run at the Lagoon is now scheduled to end on October 1st, but Coyle says he is looking into screenings at other theaters in the Twin Cities.

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Michael Moore comes to town

Posted at 12:07 PM on September 19, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Michael Moore was distressed that the journalists lined up to interview him hadn't seen the film he was in Minneapolis to promote Friday night.

The original plan was everyone would see the film "Capitalism: a love story" and then he would do interviews.

The plan got changed when someone realized he wouldn't make the last plane out to get him back home to Michigan. He thanked everyone for being flexible, and said the set up allowed would allow him to sleep in his own bed for the first time in three weeks.

Moore says he began making "Capitalism" six months before the economic crash, because it seemed obvious to him that something bad was on the way. His film examines the causes and effects of what happened from an unabashedly leftist viewpoint.

We meet people who have lost their homes to foreclosure, pilots who are so poorly paid they have to augment their income with food stamps, and hear Moore's analysis that the worst may be still to come. He's particularly concerned about the mountain of credit card debt out there and the crippling healthcare costs hanging over the heads of many working families.

Occasionally as we talked Moore looked tired, and he admitted the past few years have taken a toll. He has to travel with a couple of security guys because he has been so vilified on talk radio and other right-leaning media he fears for his safety.

"They have created a fictional character called Michael Moore and they lie about him," he told the crowd at the Lagoon Theater during a q and a after the film.

However he says he hopes his film will encourage people to take action. He jokes that he's assuming theaters will be stocking up on pitchforks and torches to replace Twizzlers and Goobers at the concession stands.

Back at the interview room Moore was still concerned that the journos were missing the film. As each interview finished he looked at his watch and said, "OK this is what has happened so far," and then caught every one up. He may be wanting to hand out pitchforks, but Michael Moore is very much a film maker at heart.

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The Imaginarium of Terry Gilliam

Posted at 1:36 PM on September 15, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

I think my belief that "every story has a Minnesota connection" was cemented the day I learned (many years ago now) that Terry Gilliam is a Minnesotan. The Monty Python alum and epic film-maker ("Brazil" is one of my personal all-time faves, but I also love "12 Monkeys" and "Time Bandits") was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota. He moved to California with his family at the age of twelve.

Something about Terry Gilliam's overwrought and baroque imagery emerging from the belly of "Minnesota Nice" seems wholly incongruous to me, but also wonderfully appropriate. It takes a truly fertile field to give rise to such a creative crop!

Gilliam's latest movie "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" may be his most epic in vision yet. Mysterious Doctor Parnassus runs a travelling show and is able to guide people's imaginations. He makes a bet with the devil not once, not twice, but three times, and his luck appears to be running out.

Over the course of the film we travel through centuries and universes and the infinitely imaginative landscape of Terry Gilliam's mind. But the movie returns again and again to the backdrop of modern-day London.

The film stars Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus and Tom Waits as "Mr. Nick" (the devil). Due to the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger, his character is alternately played by himself, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law.

You can see Terry Gilliam talking about his creative vision for "Imaginarium" here.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" opens mid October in England, but an exact release date in the U.S. has yet to be set.

FYI, in 2006 Terry Gilliam renounced his U.S. citizenship (he's quoted as saying it was a political act, but he's also admitted it has tax benefits), so his visits here are limited to no more than 30 days each year.

Odd thought: it seems like a very balanced trade that England should get Terry Gilliam while the American midwest gets Neil Gaiman.

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Interesting reading: a glowing early review of the Coen Bros "A Serious Man"

Posted at 9:56 PM on September 12, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

The crowds at the Toronto International Film Festival have just seen "A Serious Man" set and shot in the Twin Cities. Cinematical has this early glowing review.

It describes the film as the culmination of the Coen brothers 25 years of film making:

It grabs the magic of local flavor and charm we saw in "Fargo" with a cast widely filled with unknown names (that pack as much of a cinematic punch as any star-studded roster you can think of), to the rapidly escalating drama of "Burn After Reading." A Serious Man is cohesive and slick from stem to stern.

The film opens in Minneapolis, New York and Los Angeles on October 2nd.

And just in case you haven't seen it, here is the trailer for the film.

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The Oak Street rides again

Posted at 11:57 AM on September 11, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

The phones keep ringing, but Minnesota Film Arts Program Coordinator Ryan Oestreich looks relaxed and ready as he contemplates the series of events which mean he not only has a theater, but also funding to run it.

While MFA's Minneapolis St Paul's International Film Festival keeps rolling along, the organization's Oak Street Cinema on the U of M campus has been on the verge of closure for years it seems.

But in one of those curious twists of economic fate, things now look better than they have for a while. The proposal to buy the Oak Street and all the other buildings on the block to make way for student housing has been put on hold for the moment.

Oestreich says he knows times are tough, but it's working out for the Oak Street at least in the short term.

"We have been pushed off for at least another year so with a year, we said, 'OK, we had a very successful festival. We had really good showings at the Oak Street of theatrical exhibits from the festival and other films. So we said, let's just take a little bit of a pause and work on a fall program."

The State Arts Board is also helping out with an institutional support grant which is funding the fall season. Oestreich says it's not a complete reprieve, but he aims to make the most of it

"We don't quite know when the Oak Street will be sold, but in the meantime we are going to program it whether it be obscure titles, big titles or foreign titles, the best we can do."

And Oestreich wants to push the envelope a little. "We can take risks," he says with a smile.

The fall season opens tonight with Canadian director Kari Skogland's "Fifty Dead Men Walking" a political thriller set against the Troubles in Ireland in the late 1980s starring Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess.

The following week the Oak will present John W. Walter's documentary "Theater of War" about the Tony Kushner production of Berthold Brecht's "Mother Courage and her Children" at New York's The Public Theater. The film follows Meryl Streep in the lead role aided by Kevin Kline. (It's probably a little different from when they worked together on the A Prairie Home Companion movie.)

Oestreich is excited about his program, but gets even more animated when he moves onto what is a blast from the past. As a student himself in years past Oestreich used to come to the Oak for late night fright nights. Those screenings fell by the way, but now he's bringing them back with a twist.

"Something I wanted to bring back was horror films but in particular, let's do some international stuff so some foreign horror films that never get played in theaters."

The screenings will start on Thursday 17th, with the 9.30 shows on Thursday through Saturday set aside for scary stuff. It starts with the British grave-robbing film "I Sell the Dead" starring Dominic Monaghan, best known as Merry Brandybuck in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Then there's a Canadian take on zombies with Bruce MacDonald's film "Pontypool" and then a Norwegian film "Dead Snow" which moves into the area of Nazi zombies.

The Oak is then moving into a two week "French Crime Wave" series of French noir films, in early October. Titles include "Bob Le Flambeur" ("Bob the Gambler," 1955, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Le Cercle Rouge"("The Red Circle", 1970, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Classe Tous Risque" ("The Big Risk", 1966, Claude Sautet); "Le Doulos" ( The Finger Man", 1963, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Pepe Le Moko" (1937, Julien Duvivier); "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi" ("Don't Touch the Loot", 1954, Jacques Becker).

There will also be a music week in late October featuring films about classical and world music subjects. And every Wednesday will be experimental film night, where a program of rarely seen films will screen.

One of the interesting challenges this year will be the opening of the new TCF Bank Stadium which Oestreich has been watching grow through his office window.

It's going to bring huge crowds down to the Stadium Village area six times a year on Gopher game days. The facility could be a mixed blessing for the Oak. The theater will be sending out e-mails warning patrons to plan ahead on certain Saturdays. Oestreich says they will encourage film goers to come early, use public transportation, or carpool, and at the very least give a little extra time.

Of course having thousands of alums walk by your front door can't hurt, especially for an organizations which has struggled to fill it house sometimes in recent years.

Oestreich says that the MFA's long-time leader Al Milgrom knows where there are 16 mm films of the old games at Memorial Stadium, and they considered showing them for fans on game days, but eventually decided to hold off as it may interfere with regular customers. traffic.

Oestreich admits they are going to just see how things go. He hopes they can keep the programming go through the spring. And of course in the new year things get busy with preparations for the film festival

"I don't see anything slowing down in the film festival word. Probably another 150 titles to come up for April," he says with a smile.

Yes, against all odds, it's going to be a busy year at Minnesota Film Arts.

You can listen to our conversation here: Listen

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The Coen brothers, The Big Lebowski and Dudeism

Posted at 3:19 PM on September 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film, Religion

I'm feeling a little immersed in the Coen brothers at the moment. Anticipation abounds for their latest film "A Serious Man," which is set in their home town of St. Louis Park and features some great local actors, including Ari Hoptman and Claudia Wilkins. The film opens on October 2.

But if that seems like forever-and-a-day away, not to worry - in the weeks leading up to the premiere, the Walker Art Center is hosting a Coen brothers retrospective, called "Raising Cain." That begins September 18th.

This weekend, fans of the Coen brothers' movie "The Big Lebowski" are dressing up as their favorite characters and heading out to "Lebowski Fest." Friday night features a movie party at First Avenue, while Saturday night is all about bowling at Memory Lanes.

But wait, there's more! Tomorrow I'll be filling in on Midmorning, and at 10am I'll be interviewing the author of "The Dude Abides," an exploration of religious and moral themes in the Coen brothers' canon. Author Cathleen Falsani is an ordained priest of "Dudeism" (as well as the religion columnist for the Chicago Sun Times).

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Films for food: A new movement in moving pictures

Posted at 10:10 AM on September 8, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Image detail from the poster for the film "Food Fight"

We love our food. Especially when it's larger than life (dare I say, "Supersized?"). Some of our (ok, my) favorite films include such delectable delights as "Babette's Feast," "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" and "Chocolat." And of course, foodies everywhere are now extolling the virtues of "Julie & Julia."

But there's a new trend emerging in food films, and it has less to do with a beautiful plate than it does with land rights, the environment, and battling obesity. Tomorrow night and the following Wednesday night, Gardening Matters and Midtown Farmers' Market are cohosting a two-part movie series at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis. The Midtown Farmer's Market website explains the impetus for the event:

Our current food system has had an impact on more than just our personal health. Environmental pollution, sharply attenuated bio-diversity, the ruination of rural economies, and the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few are all consequences of the way our food system has been reshaped in order to deliver the cheap and abundant calories upon which Americans have come to rely.

Against the tide, there has been a burgeoning movement to reclaim control over our food supply. Central to that movement have been friends, neighbors, and whole communities that have invested in commonly shared spaces to grow vegetable gardens, create opportunities for urban agricultural enterprise, and establish community farmers markets. In short, many Americans are now looking for innovative models to stimulate the growth of small-scale agriculture while coloring in some of the nation's food deserts with fresher, healthier food.

Tomorrow night the film series begins with "The Garden," in which a group of community gardeners in south central Los Angeles fight to keep the 14 acre piece of land on which they farm.

Next Wednesday the series concludes with "Food Fight," a look at the agricultural industry's methods of providing food at a profit, and how that affects the quality of what Americans are eating.

In addition to the two films in the series, there's also Food, Inc which is already showing at the Riverview. For those people who still haven't had enough of Michael Pollan, this fall the film "Nourish" is expected to get an airing on PBS.

By the way, MPR's Euan Kerr is the local expert on all things cinema, and has some related stories worth checking out. He reported on the recent screening of the movie "Fresh," a movie about the threat industrialized food production poses to food safety and community health. And he interviewed one of the movie's stars, Will Allen, when he came to town. In addition, Kerr has also taken a look at the hard-to-watch documentary "The Cove" which captures an annual dolphin slaughter in Japan (done primarily for the meat) on tragic detail.

Seeing all this promotion for activist films makes me wonder - how affective are movies in changing people's minds? How likely is it that the people the film producers want to reach - need to reach in order to fulfill their agenda - will actually buy a ticket? And if film is not the right medium for the message, what is?

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Duluth gets a new Zinema

Posted at 4:34 PM on September 7, 2009 by Euan Kerr (3 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Walk into the new Zinema 2 on downtown Duluth's Superior and you can't escape the huge mural splashed across the back wall, and stretching down into the basement. It's the work of Rory Skagen and Blue Genie Art Industries of Austin Tx.

It's just one of the little touches (or in the case of the mural big touches) brought in by Tim Massett, looking a little pensive at right.

He moved to Duluth a year ago to prepare and program Duluth's brand spanking new art house cinemas which are now enjoying what Massett calls their 'soft' opening.

There are two theaters. One seats 98, the other 66. Massett says the idea actually came from the Zeppa Family Foundation's Alan Zeppa.

The facility will also include a restaurant and a theater. Massett credits Zeppa with a vision to bring back some life to the rundown side of Superior Street

"And his interest in putting together some place where you can have something to great eat and also experience a good play, because there is a blackbox theater also on the first floor, or descend the staircase into the cinemas."

Massett says people trying to revitalize an area often see a theater as an important element.

"You are bringing 100, 150 people there a couple of times a night on the weekends hopefully and there's just more of a population circulating in the evening," he says.

Putting on his programming hat Massett says the new theaters will fill an important niche in Duluth. Like many smaller cities, Duluth suffers from a lack of screens, and as a result many interesting independent films never get shown in town.

"I think if there were more screens at the multiplex maybe they would allow for smaller specialty films," Massett says. "But the case is they have 10 screens and four of them will play the same movie."

Massett will play a mixture of first run indies, with a sprinkling of film classics. He's opening with Duncan Jones' "Moon," "The Hurt Locker" and the Bill Pohlad-produced "Food Inc."

He will also feature the work of visiting film makers. For the official grand opening, likely in late October or early November, Massett's bringing in animator Brent Green.

"He travels with a group of musicians and performs the voiceover live, the Foley work live and the music live," Massett says.

A tour of the Zinema 2 doesn't take long, but it's impressive. Massett leads the way into the huge projection boxes that look more like locker rooms than the traditional cramped dank spaces tucked away at the back of the theater

"This is the biggest booth I've ever been in," Massett says. "Usually they are closets."

The booths are set up to play a host of different formats from regular theater prints, through archive material and video.

There is a concessions stand, complete with liquor license just outside the two theaters which sparkle with the crackling newness of their red and blue seating.

Massett who also runs "The Talkies" series in the Twin Cities says he's confident the theaters will be a success, although he says he is going on instinct more than anything else. He's been meeting with great enthusiasm as he talks to people in the community and some 600 people have signed up as fans on the Zinema's Facebook page. However he admits he has no hard evidence as to the demand for the Zinema fare.

Yet with a facility like the Zinema 2 he is definitely off to a stellar start.

You can hear our conversation here:

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Character actor returns home

Posted at 1:53 PM on August 21, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Image courtesy of imdb.com

He's the Chinese good guy - or bad guy - in about every Hollywood film made in the past 60 years. From "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" in the 1950s (he was Barry Chan, "Number One Son") to Kung Fu Panda (as the voice of Mr. Ping).

Inbetween, he's graced the sets of "Dragnet," "Zorro," "Bonanza," "Wagon Train," "Perry Mason," "The Fugitive," "I Dream of Jeannie," "I Spy," "Mission Impossible," "Kung Fu," "Hawaii Five-O," "The Rockford Files," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Starsky and Hutch," "Bionic Woman," "Wonder Woman," "Charlie's Angels," "Lou Grant," "Taxi," "Different Strokes," "Fantasy Island," "Chinatown," "The Two Jakes," "Bladerunner" ...in total, imdb.com has him down for 341 different roles in television and film. Impressive, no?

It turns out James Hong was born in Minneapolis and was part of Central High School's Class of 1947. Hong will be returning for a class reunion (billed as the "Everyone is 80 (or almost) Celebration!") on Wednesday, September 9. So the question is, will his classmates recognize him? Or will they say "I swear I know you but I can't place a name with the face..."

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If you only see one South African sci-fi movie this year......

Posted at 6:00 PM on August 14, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is an unlikely hero for our time. He's a slightly dim bureaucrat who is assigned the job of clearing the aliens from a shanty town just outside Johannesburg, and frankly he blows it.

Part of the problem is he's got the job through nepotism. His father in law is a high government official. The other thing is the aliens are from outer space, and Wikus, and the entire human race are over in over their heads.

Writer/director Neill Blomkamp has deftly created a film which provides the thrills and special effects which sci-fi fans crave. Yet it also delivers a parable about tolerance and the importance of looking at what lies beneath the surface (in this case quite literally.) Seen against the legacy of apartheid, Blomkamp's film carried even more power.

This is a director to watch in the future.

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'Africa's Denzel Washington' to visit the Twin Cities on Sunday

Posted at 2:14 PM on August 11, 2009 by Euan Kerr (3 Comments)
Filed under: Events, Film, People

The name Van Vicker might not set your pulse racing, but apparently in Ghana, indeed in Africa, Van is the man. Now the Twin Cities Black Film Festival is bringing him the the Twin Cities for the local premier of his new film "Raj the Dancer."

Van Vicker (Image courtesy VanVickerLive.com)

Van Vicker (he has dropped his first name Joseph) is a 32 year old star of the up-and-coming Ghanaian movie industry. He has made 50 movies, usually playing the romantic lead. You can get a sense of how his fans feel by visiting his web site.

"He's the Denzel Washington of Africa," says the TCBFF's Natalie Morrow, shortly after admitting she hadn't heard of him until recently either. This is Vicker's second trip to the Twin Cities. He was here two years ago to promote his movie "American Boy." Apparently fans spotted him shortly after he arrived at the airport.

"He was pretty much mobbed," said Morrow. "He's a good actor - and he's a good-looking actor. I think that's what's the draw." She says his fan base is overwhelmingly female, but not just African. She says his visits to the US have earned him fans from all over.

Morrow says she has been dealing with Vicker personally as they organize the screening. "He's such a nice guy," she said.

The screening of "Raj the Dancer" will be at 7pm at the Earl Brown Community Center in Brooklyn Center on Sunday evening. There will then be a meet and greet at the Blue Nile restaurant on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis from 10 until 2 am.

The Van Vicker event is just a warm up for the TCBFF, which is set for September 18th-20th. The event will open with a special showing of "The Wiz," the Michael Jackson Diana Ross reworking of "The Wizard of Oz."

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More on Movie Pablum

Posted at 10:35 AM on August 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Earlier today I mentioned A.O. Scott's article in the New York Times about the prevalence of pablum on movie screens this summer. Scott blames the movie industry for retreating to guaranteed formulas to get butts in seats. Thus the sudden abundance of movies based on kids toys and stories.

The article pairs quite nicely with Roger Ebert's latest blog post, "The Gathering Dark Age." Ebert posits the lack of compelling cinema is also the result of an ignorant audience:

If I mention the cliché "the dumbing-down of America," it's only because there's no way around it. And this dumbing-down seems more pronounced among younger Americans. It has nothing to do with higher educational or income levels. It proceeds from a lack of curiosity and, in many cases, a criminally useless system of primary and secondary education. Until a few decades ago, almost all high school graduates could read a daily newspaper. The issue today is not whether they read a daily paper, but whether they can.

This trend coincides with the growing effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns to impose box office success on heavily-promoted GCI blockbusters, which are themselves often promotions for video games. No checks and balances prevail. The mass media is the bitch of marketing. Almost every single second of television coverage of the movies is devoted to thinly-veiled promotion. Movie stars who appear as guests on talk shows and cable news are almost always there because they have a new movie coming out. Smart-ass satirical commentary, in long-traditional in places like Mad magazine and SNL, is drowned out by celebrity hype.

What do you think of the selection of movies available these days? If you find it lacking, who do you blame? What, if anything, can be done to change the quality and selection of movies in major theater houses across America?

I'm all ears (and eyes).

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Food and love at the movies this weekend

Posted at 6:17 PM on August 7, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

There are a lot of films about food and love opening locally this weekend - although it may surprise you which movie is on which subject.

For example "Julie and Julia" is about love, pure and simple. It's impossible to avoid the subject of food when talking about Julia Child who is magically portrayed by Meryl Streep. Yet the film's stories, for there are two, are each about loving couples working through difficult times.

Streep and Stanley Tucci as Paul Child light up the screen with a love affair fanned by the excitement of being two Americans living in Paris. The luminous days of the Childs in France light up the story of Julie Powell (Amy Adams) who tries to escape the despair she feels in post- 9/11 New York by attempting to cook all of recipes in Child's book on French cooking in one year.

Writer and director Nora Ephron faces her own challenges twining these two tales together, but has created a tale which while showing that life isn't easy, having a goal and a good attitude can take you a long way.

"Paper Heart" (above) is all about love, of course, although there are some moments when Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera dine together which really make you wonder about modern courting rituals.

Deep down "The Cove" and "The End of the Line" are about food. In "The Cove" Louis Psihoyos has made a engaging thriller about the relationship between humans and dolphins. The discussion of the film has centered on the slaughter of dolphins at a small village in Japan, but the movie is really part of a much larger debate over what different societies consider vital to preserve their food supply.

"The End of the Line," Rupert (Unknown White Male) Murray's troubling documentary about the impact of overfishing explores the subject at great length. At one point a researcher in the film points out that most people would be horrified to learn of humans killing endangered land animals, however there is little outcry when equally endanger sea creatures are caught and served at high end restaurants. It's a thought-provoking film.

Here is Kenneth Turan's review of "Julie and Julia"

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'80s film icon John Hughes dies

Posted at 9:10 PM on August 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

"The Breakfast Club." "Sixteen Candles." "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Writer and director John Hughes was known best for creating films that connected with young people and defined popular culture in the 1980s.

Hughes' reputation faded in the 1990s and he remained a private figure, penning many scripts under the name 'Edmond Dantès.' He assisted most recently on the scripts for "Drillbit Taylor," "Beethoven's 5th" and "Maid in Manhattan."

According to the Associated Press, Hughes died of a heart attack while on a walk this morning in Manhattan. He was 59.

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Bill Pohlad names his new movie distribution company

Posted at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

It's called "Apparition."

Pohlad (co-owner of the Minnesota Twins) and his partner, movie producer Bob Berney, created the company several months ago, but only recently came up with its name.

Apparition will buy movies and distribute them to cinemas. According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Apparition has established a relationship with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group. Movies already on the company's distribution list include "The Tree of Life" and "Bright Star."

Pohlad is a movie producer in his own right. His company River Road Entertainment has its name on such notable films as "Brokeback Mountain," "A Prairie Home Companion" and "Into the Wild." RRE will continue to operate independently of Apparition.

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The Tiny Circus is coming to town!

Posted at 3:12 PM on August 5, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Theater

Last summer a group of artists got together in Grinnell, Iowa and created their own miniature travelling circus. Using a rehabbed vintage airstream trailer, the Tiny Circus travels from town to town, creating stop animation films that it calls "alternate histories." Past works include "The History of Smiles," "The History of Ghosts" and "The History of Popcorn."

This weekend the Tiny Circus is coming to St. Paul, to (fittingly) the Minnesota History Center. On Saturday, Tiny Circus' Carlos Ferguson will offer a half-day workshop on how to make your own stop-motion animation. The results of the workshop will be shown on Tuesday, August 11th, following the Minnesota History Center's "Nine Nights of Music" program.

Here's one of their recent works, "The History of Rain."

For more information on the workshop, click here.

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Watching Funny People

Posted at 4:28 PM on July 31, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Judd Apatow's new movie "Funny People" is funny - at times. It's also pretty darn serious at others, and that's what will make watching the box office figures this weekend quite interesting.

Apatow teams his old friend Seth Rogen with Adam Sandler in an examination of that wondrous breed of human called the comedian. Rogen plays Ira Wright, a not very good young comic, who through a quirk of fate catches the attention of a comedy superstar George Simmons (Sandler.)

George is a little down because he has just learned he has an untreatable blood disease which is probably going to kill him. George realizes he was pretty unhappy even before the bad news. He pays Ira to write him jokes as he goes back to his roots and tries to find himself doing stand-up. Ira gets a mentor and George, who has burned through all his friends, gets a pal he can order around.

There are moments of great hilarity and a hoard of cameos by other comedians and musicians playing themselves, some which are priceless.

But the comedy is overwhelmed by the weight of the drama as the film moves on. And it moves on for a long time, clocking in at almost 2 and a half hours. The laughs are great, but the drama teaches us little about life, death, or comedians which we didn't already know.

Like "Shrink," the movie about a dope-smoking psychiatrist to the stars which also opens this weekend, "Funny People" runs rails travelled by many movies before. However unlike "Shrink" which is saved by strong performances by Kevin Spacey and others in the cast, "Funny People" doesn't have the acting muscle to keep from dragging.

The Apatow name will draw crowds who loved "40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up." But it will be interesting to see if it suffers the same the fate as "Bruno" which had a great opening night, but then apparently fell foul of the Twitterverse, and saw ticket sales plummet as people posted their 140 character reactions.

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Coen Brother's "A Serious Man" trailer now on-line

Posted at 1:10 PM on July 31, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

It's a month and a half till "A Serious Man" opens at the Toronto International Film Festival, and two months till it opens here but you can get a taste of the tale set in St Louis Park through the trailer.

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Take the Movie Natters Poll: what will you see this weekend?

Posted at 2:05 PM on July 28, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini take a few moments on the set of "In the Loop" to diplomatically discuss their selection in this weeks Movie Natters Poll (Image courtesy IFC Films

This week we have psychiatrists, aliens, politicians, diplomats, animated australian angels, wannabe adult film stars, and the creator of a maze described as "Spanish Inquisition as imagined by Rube Goldberg." After a few weeks of "None of the above" coming out on top, what will it be this week?

To help you make your choice here are some links: "In the Loop," "The Collector," "Humpday," "Funny People" "$9.99," "Aliens in the Attic," "Shrink"

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How to shoot a car (The Egg Timer part 2)

Posted at 5:49 PM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Technology

If you have ever wondered how film makers get those great shots of people driving their cars, take a look at the picture below.

(Click on image for larger version)

It's from Emily Haddad's production blog for "The Egg Timer." Whatever else is going on, Stacia Rice seems to be having fun in the driver's seat.

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Emily Haddad finds out how many people it takes to make a 16 minute film

Posted at 3:17 PM on July 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Funding

Emily Haddad is a big fan of IFP Minnesota. After all it did give her the Fresh Film grant last year which allowed her to make "The Egg Timer" which premieres tonight at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis.

The film, which stars local actor Stacia Rice, had a couple of inspirations when Haddad (left) first began writing it five years ago.

"My mother was very sick at the time and I was taking care of her," she said. "Also a story from my grandmother's childhood. It's about guilt and confession."

Haddad tried to produce it a couple of times, but she was never able to gather the resources she needed to tell the story the way she felt it should be told. The she won the grant.

"It was just a wonderful opportunity," she said, not just because of the money, but also because of the way the Twin Cities film community came together to help her. You can read extensive details in the blog she kept over the last year. What is remarkable is the huge number of people who came forward, and were really needed for the production.

"It's a complicated process," she said. "Pre-production, and then the production with the film crew and the director of photography and the actors. Then post-production, people that help edit it and mix the sound track and do graphics and animation."

Haddad counted up all the people mentioned in the credits of the film, which just runs 16 minutes, and came up with over 100 who had helped significantly with the film.

She says it's a shame that there are so few productions being made in Minnesota. "Because we have so many talented people and we need to really to push to allow them to use those talents on more films."

After the screening of "The Egg Timer" tonight at IFP's Fresh Fete, Haddad will enter the film into film festivals around the country. She is hoping not only to get into events around the country but also to screen the film more around Minnesota.

You can hear our conversation, recorded yesterday by clicking on this link" Listen

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Davis Guggenheim and the feathered fish

Posted at 4:50 PM on July 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, Music, Technology

Film maker Davis Guggenheim says someone in his team told him just before his film "An Inconvenient Truth" went before an audience for the first time that his movie was "a feathered fish."

"What's that?" Guggenheim asked.

"It doesn't swim and it doesn't fly," came the terse response.

"And this is someone who's supposed to like the film," Guggenheim says. Then a studio executive told them no-one would pay to see the film.

Of course it then went to the Sundance Film Festival, became a box office smash, and won the best documentary Oscar.

"And then going with (Al Gore) to get the Nobel Peace Prize, that was pretty cool," he laughs.

Looking back though, he says they made the film in a vacuum, and that was ultimately a good thing. They were convinced that they had an important message to spread, and they were shielded from common wisdom which might have scuppered them.

Guggenheim was in the Twin Cities to talk about his new documentary "It Might Get Loud." It is is built around the meeting of three rock guitar legends: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, U2's The Edge, and Jack White of the White Stripes.

He says he didn't want to make a traditional rock film, and he has succeeded. He interviewed all three of his subjects separately on their home turf and then put them together on a giant soundset in Hollywood (he say's it's where they filmed "The Perfect Storm") and made them talk to one another.

While nominally about the art and science of the electric guitar, the film delves into what it means to be an artist, and how each of these three musicians developed their own approach to what they do.

And then they jam together. It's a fascinating piece of film as three icons from very different parts of the rock world watch and learn from one other.

The film opens in the Twin Cities in late August. We'll have a piece closer to that time but in the meantime here is the trailer.

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Take the Movie Natters Poll

Posted at 3:45 PM on July 21, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

G-Force members Juarez and Darwin consider their weekend movie options in the Movie Natters Poll (Image courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)

You can't complain about being starved for new choices this weekend: there are tricked-out guinea pigs, French artists, young love (with a lot of music,) a scary new addition to the family, a boor giving relationship advice, and a re-release of an edgy Gallic classic.

For further information" "Betty Blue," "G-Force," "Seraphine," "The Ugly Truth" "(500) days of Summer," "Orphan."
And please feel free to comment on your choice, and why, below!

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Francis Ford Coppola on the need for risk

Posted at 1:56 PM on July 16, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Chasing Francis Ford Coppola down for an interview, even with an appointment can be complicated. We were due to chat about his new film "Tetro" which opens in Minneapolis tomorrow.

After talking to someone in Romania who had various other contact numbers I eventually found him coming out of a meeting which had run long. We talked at length about the film, but also where, after a decades long illustrious career, he sees himself fitting into the film world.

He confessed he feels free to explore his own projects. "Tetro" is largely self-financed he said.

"I've concluded that the great joy is to learn something," he told me. "Whether it be learning about yourself, your own feelings, or whether it be to learn about some interesting field or learn about life or how to behave in situations."

"So for me, I make films to learn, most of all to learn about the cinema which is you know really a young art form , not even, it's a hundred years old, and amazingly there have been a tremendous number of masterpieces made in such a long time, but it still is such a young art and much of the language we use in the cinema was invented in the first 30 years of the silent period, because the film makers were very much encouraged to experiment in those days because no-one knew what film was, and they invented it."

"Now things are much more rigid and financiers don't want experimentation, and it's only out of experimentation that you can learn. You have to risk failure in order to have a big success."

I remember once, years ago when an important man asked me 'How do you make a film like the Godfather that is both a commercial success, and plays all around the country, and is also an artistic success?'

I looked at him and I said 'Risk! You have to risk.' There is no such thing as risk free art."

"Nowadays we are obsessed with the best seller and novels follow formulas and films tend to follow formulas. But to have the big success and also to make a contribution to the film you have to go out into the wilderness without any assurances and use your heart and you knowledge and your skills to do something. That doesn't go well with a business that requires hundreds of millions of dollars to pursue."

We will air parts of the interview tomorrow on "All Things Considered."

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Harry, hormones, and horror add up to a summer winner

Posted at 12:08 PM on July 15, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

From the first breakneck race through London to the final creepy credit, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is a winner.

While it'll be no surprise that the legions of Potter fans will swamp theaters this week and beyond, what is pleasing about this phenomenon is movie fans will be treated to a fine piece of cinema.

Director David Yates and Director of Photography Bruno Delbonnel have taken Steve Kloves' screenplay of J.K. Rowling's book and created a nigh-perfect blend of drama, horror and humor which stimulates, satisfies, and entertains.

It's the actors who make the Potter films, of course. The three young wizards Harry (Daniel Radcliffe,) Hermione (Emma Watson,) and Ron (Rupert Grint) have grown into their roles and impart not only the trials and tribulations of adolescence and young love, but inject a clearer understanding that with all the fun and games of what they are learning at Hogwarts School, there is a deeply disturbing undercurrent to magic which threatens to overwhelm them, the school, and humanity.

As Harry, Daniel Radcliffe begins to explore the responsibilities of being 'the Chosen One" who will battle the evil Voldemort, and see the similarities between his own life and that of the young man who was to become the Dark Lord. He handles it well.

The central three are backed up by the cream of British theater, and it's truly wonderful to watch the likes of Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, and David Thewlis slip in and out of the action, giving an effortless power to the whole production. Indeed there are moments where the film becomes for a Gambon film as Dumbledore sets out to take on the gathering powers of darkness. And the introduction of Jim Broadbent as potions professor Horace Slughorn is simply a delight.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is the shortest two and a half hours that I have spent in the movie theater in some time. With Oscar now offering the new extended list of best film nominees, it will be interesting to see if this film makes the cut.

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The monster in the house

Posted at 3:18 PM on July 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Film

Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

When I saw this Slate.com article on the recurring theme of evil adopted children in movies, I just about punched my fist in the air and shouted "finally!" Ever since the trailers for "Orphan" began playing, I've been muttering "again?" under my breath. Evil children are almost as common as zombies in cinemas, and in many ways more unsettling. Jonah Weiner writes:

The plot device of the adoption-gone-wrong plays on a fear that the family will be infiltrated and torn apart by a malevolent outsider it's foolishly welcomed in... In these movies, the eruption of evil often comes hand in hand with the disruption of traditional family order...Time and again in the evil-kiddie canon, it's driven home that Mom and Dad can survive (if not prevent) their child's attack only by sticking together.

While Weiner focuses exclusively on the kiddies, I see the adopted-child-theme as just a subset of a greater genre: the alien in the family. And this genre is not just limited to movies; it goes back to our earliest stories. There's the evil step-mother (Cinderella) and the evil step-father (Hamlet). A new member in a close-knit family presents a threat, and we love to embody that threat with all sorts of awful traits, in order to further justify our loathing.

So do these stories help us, or hurt us? Or are they harmless? Why do we continue to tell them over and over?

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Photographer William Klein to capture Minneapolis skyline

Posted at 9:00 AM on June 26, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film

Legendary photographer and filmmaker William Klein is giving a talk at the Walker Art Center tonight. MPR's Jim Bickal spoke to the 82-year-old Klein. Klein mentioned the project he is working on currently is a book of photographs called "Anywhere." This book will be a collection of "crazy, interesting and strange" landscapes.

On his way to downtown Minneapolis from the airport, Klein says he was struck by the weird looking buildings that make up the Minneapolis skyline. He plans to photograph the skyline for the new book before he returns to his home in Paris. Klein calls the buildings in Minneapolis a "crazy scene."

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Fun video that plays with 3D, math and action/reaction

Posted at 8:10 AM on June 11, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Film

modul / zhestkov.com from Zhestkov on Vimeo.

I stumbled across this lovely little video on vimeo.com - I like how even in a world of high-tech animation, such simple imagery can still be compelling when done elegantly.

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