Thanks

William S. Burroughs Gives Thanks

Kick-Ass, don't fail me

That's a tease of Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of the Mark Miller and John Romita, Jr. comic book series Kick-Ass.

That footage desperately wants to break free of its green band. It's reportedly a hard R. When McLovin pulled out a gun, did that alarm you, too?  You can tell that I'm silly with anticipation.

In regard to the question, "What if super heroes were real?" Kick-Ass looks to outdo Watchmen.


Official site
In theaters: April 16, 2010

Free Speech vs. Censorship

As a sociology project, I interviewed college students and one professor on the subject of free speech and censorship in American society. This video is the result.

I tried to be as objective as possible during the interviews, but as a whole the video does lean toward my stance on the issue of free expression.

The names of my participants were not included to avoid individualizing their responses. My intent was to represent the opinions of society in general.

Brace yourself. Some of the questions are challenging. 

Free Speech vs. Censorship (5 parts ~ 30 min.)

I am un chien andalusia

Naturally this mash-up of the classic short Un Chien Andalou by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali and the Pixies' "Debaser" is the opening act on the band's latest tour. The song and their music were inspired by the short film: "Slicin' up eyeballs/I want you to know."

I saw the best band to ever live last at their 2004 reunion tour. I mourn at the realization that I likely won't make it to this year's Doolittle anniversary tour. Though they're sure to have more tours. I've just shouted in glee and learned that Frank Black wants to record a new Pixies album in 2010, possibly a movie tie-in.

You might have seen the Pixies on Conan last week. Conan held up a their humongous just-released box set Minotaur, a collection of their entire discography.

See PixiesMusic.com for the remaining tour dates and, with an e-mail address, download four live tracks from their Paris concert.  

Concert recap:
Pixies’ Powerful Doolittle Tour Blends Surreal Sonics, Visuals [Wired]

"Dancing the Manta Ray" from 10/16 Paris concert

Download

The Artful Documentary Photography of Vivian Maier

The recently discovered work of photographer Vivian Maier is a spyglass to Chicago streets of the '50s -'70s.

Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work 

Takashi Murakami Turns Kirsten Dunst Japanese

I've always wanted to see stereotypical anime translated into live-action literally. I don't know if Takashi Murakami included big sweat drops, nose bleeds, and speed lines in his short "Akihabara Majokko Princess", but Sailor Dunst looks like an otaku's goddess. Anime Kirsten Dunst will sing The Vapors' “Turning Japanese” in this McG Murakami collaboration for the Pop Life: Art in a Material World exhibit. That overplayed song doesn't raise my expectations, but the visuals are sure to be mesmerizing.

"When will this video hit the net?" is the question.


Takashi Murakami + Kirsten Dunst | touch puppet (pics)
Murakami Exhibit with McG & Kirsten Dunst's Video Opens | anime news network

Remembering Indie Memphis

Indie Memphis isn't over until the 15th, but life has dictated an early leave. Film festivals are like glimpses of heaven for film enthusiasts like myself. So, of course, it's a downer to get back to Earth where movies are a form of escapism only enjoyed on Fridays.

This festival weekend may not have been as eventful as True/False, my first love, but, hey, I had a fucking conversation with Joe Swanberg, and he directed me. I didn't catch too many films, so giving the award of 'Best in Show' to Shooting Robert King isn't completely fair, but I am. I'd like to make up for scathing Cory McAbee's Stingray Sam: his first feature The American Astronaut was amazing. Also (to gloat), my favorite post on the festival would have to be the recap of the Filmmaking for the Web panel, mostly because I wish major publications had the guts to do post like that one.

*Clink*: another festival added to my lapel. If all works out, I'll be covering the LA Film Fest next year! 


Indie Memphis Coverage 

First Impressions
Photos 

Reviews
Shooting Robert King
Stingray Sam
The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Pontypool

Panels and Workshops
Filmmaking for the Web
Amateur Hour with Joe Swanberg

Amateur Hour with Joe Swanberg - Indie Memphis

My Swanberg coverage—uh... I mean Indie Memphis coverage ends with Amateur Hour with Joe Swanberg: Working with Non-Professional Actors, a self-explanatory workshop.

Joe Swanberg (Kissing on the Mouth, Hannah Takes the Stairs, Alexander the Last) has been referred to as a leader of the mumblecore movement, an indie sub-genre that's relationshipy and improvisational. The actors are usually not professional.

His presentation began, and I found myself a voluntary non-actor and being directed by Swanberg. His direction went only as far as setting the scene. With our own background info in mind, we, the participants, acted out improvised scenarios.

I, a film student, was on a lunch break in the park when a lovely girl pushing a baby stroller sat next to me.
We struck up a conversation. She turned out to be an actress, (babysitter on the side) and I got her number.

We did this scene a few times. When we tried to remember our lines from the first take, it became less natural. The best take was the most spontaneous. Other volunteers and subsequent scenes had similar results. The more we felt ourselves, the more believable the scene turned out.

I was surprised to see how much detail resulted from pure improvisation. Just put people together, and a plot won't be far. With four volunteers we were able create a story: A student filmmaker meets actress. His friend, a creative writer, pitches him a screenplay. Filmmaker wants to incorporate just met actress. Actress struggles for independence, wanting to quit babysitting. Her successful husband, an engineer, consoles her, telling her to reach for her dreams. All along Swanberg was very much hand's off. 

Pontypool - Indie Memphis Review

Pontypool is about as unusual as this freeze frame of Stephen McHattie, who happens to be phenomenal in this film.

Grant Mazzy is the radio host of the small Canadian town of Pontypool. When news of inexplicable riots suddenly breaks, it confuses the radio staff (three in total) as much as it does the watching audience. Suspense builds as a reporter describes the madness. Something is infecting the citizens of Pontypool.

The means by which the virus spreads is the unusual part: language. Superficially, it's as if Pontypool is the spiritual successor to The Happening. It only makes sense if you understand this: "a metaphor for metaphors that keep hunting you long after they’ve been meaningful,” the words of the author/screenwriter.

Nearly all of the film takes place in the radio station, which contributes a great deal to the scariness. Director Bruce McDonald and Stephen McHattie should be credited for, likely, the most suspenseful film of the year.

The later half of the movie, alas, doesn't live up to the suspense. It also suffers from a deus ex machina (Dr. Mendez appears from a blizzard). Then the scene after the credits makes it seem like the director is playing with you.  
 


Now available on DVD and Ondemand

Official site
@ Rotten Tomatoes

Filmmaking For the Web - Indie Memphis Panel

From left: Edward Valibus Phillips, Joe Swanberg , Cory McAbee, Craig Brewer

On the festival schedule the venue for the For Screens of All Sizes: Filmmaking For the Web panel was listed as the Festival Café. The address: 2098 LaSalle Place. I entered building 2098, and indeed it was a café, a quaint one, a small one... too small. I laughed at myself. Stupid newbie. The panel was actually being held in a large white tent some yards away.

It might have been the combination of beer and rain in the air, but an odor akin to a urinal loomed at the table I had chosen. On the positive side, Kate Swanberg and who might have been Joe Swanberg's mother-in-law happened to choose the same table. Though that wasn't too exciting, since we acknowledged each other as much as strangers listening to a panel discussion would. If I recall, I believe something about the weather came up.

Craig Brewer moderated the discussion. Brewer, Memphis native and director of Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, produced $5 Cover with MTV. It's a web series about the Memphis music scene. Cory Mcbee sat to his right; Mcbee's latest feature Stingray Sam is available for download.  Joe Swanberg sat next. He's the filmmaker behind: ButterKnife, The Stagg Party and Young American Bodies. Last and least (just kidding): Edward Valibus Phillips, who's screening his web series The Conversion at the festival.

They conversed about the big screen vs. the little screen, how filmmaking is no longer a privileged art, how they judge success in a world where cat videos get millions of views, piracy, advertising and more. I recorded some of it, knowing I wouldn't be able to remember enough to recap it here, only to later realize that my digital camera was set to time-lapse mode (i.e., no audio).

But I'm pretty sure I can accurately retell one anecdote from Swanberg, which is perfect for this free-speech blog.

When Joe Swanberg submitted episode four of The Stagg Party, series about photographer Ellen Stagg, to IFC, they asked him to remove a scene that had pornstar Joanna Angel's spreading her legs. Swanberg said he would instead use a censor bar. That way the viewers would know that censorship was being enforced. IFC didn't like that idea, citing their subtitle: IFC: always, uncut. Swanberg said that if he cut the scene he would make the decision public and notify the world of the censors of IFC. So IFC relented and left the episode uncensored.

Though it's in low resolution.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle - Indie Memphis Review

The intro scene to The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle is a novel take on the message in the bottle cliche. It builds up your interest, then mocks your expectations: a sort of unpredictability that's present through out the film.    

Director David Russo does some clever things with the editing and effects. One sex scene plays with censor bars in the same vein as this BPA video. There are also quite a few trippy light shows and strange visions. Add to that: intriguing oddball characters. The main player, Dory, however, can't keep up.

What follows the exposition tests the viewer. Once it becomes apparent what the film's about, it's is sure to let some viewers down. This depends if you're into the Sci-fi Channel.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle begins admirably strange, yet by its end turns flimsy and unmarketable, something I'm not too upset about.* 
 

Official site

*Of course I'm still bothered by how indie films struggle in a Hollywood world.

Stingray Sam - Indie Memphis Review

Cory McAbee gained acclaim for his 2001 film The American Astronaut, a space-western musical featuring his band the Billy Nayer Show.

McAbee and band mates return to their beloved genre in Stingray Sam, a tale of a lounge singer and his partner the Quasar Kid on a quest to save a little girl from a spoiled son, Fredward, of two men. In the photo above Fredward is the one in the white cloak. The movie explains how two men bear a boy and other story elements in humorous collages narrated by David Hyde Pierce.

Sadly, Stingray Sam suffers from the presumption that music numbers make a movie great. Although some songs are clever, others are less thought out. I'm bored of songs that include lyrics like: I'm making this up as I go along.

The episodic structure of Stingray Sam does well to break up the story in segments (credits in between each episode), because without breathers it would have been a bit more difficult to sit through. This split was done for its tagline: Coming to Screens of All Sizes. And it's probably best to see Stingray in parts on smaller screens. Watching this in a theater is underwhelming, unlike McAbee's last effort American Astronaut, which was far less static and more fulfilling. 

Stingray Sam loses steam in the last couple of episodes, almost as if McAbee either loses interest or maybe he didn't know how to end it.


Official site (buy episodes or DVD)

@ Rotten Tomatoes 

Episode 1 is FREE!

Shooting Robert King - Indie Memphis Review

British filmmakers/free-lance journalist Richard Parry and Vaughan Smith spent fifteen years assembling their documentary Shooting Robert King. And that's only the first remarkable thing about this film.

It's almost unbelievable to follow photojournalist Robert King on the screen from Bosinia to Iraq in a summation of 1.5 decades, from the humorous time of his naivete to his present status as a world renown photographer.

The film juxtaposes Robert King's duality by inter-cutting scenes of King's experiences documenting three different wars with modern scenes of King deer hunting and spending time with his family. We see King mature unlike any character in a nonfiction feature.

Robert King, himself, is simply extraordinary. He's so eccentric his scenes feel like they're written: throwing firecrackers in a war zone, obliviously standing in the midst of enemy fire, getting in the way of other journalist and indifferently snapping bombed areas. All the while, his photos turn out to be masterful works.

Shooting Robert King lets us see tragedy through the perspective of an oddball photojournalist. Oddly enough, it gives us one the truest and most heart-wrenching glimpses of war. 


Official site
at Rotten Tomatoes

Indie Memphis First Impressions

The image of the ideal film festival in my head is of a festival on Main Street, where a lot of the joy of attending comes from the brisk walks between screening venues. For lunch you stop at a local café, where you're likely to spot the director of that film you just watched. Perhaps True/False spoiled me.

Though in its twelfth year Indie Memphis, a week-long festival, seems a lot smaller than the weekend-long True/False Film Festival. All the films are screened at one venue: Studio on the Square, a theater that is also currently showing Couples Retreat. Admittedly, it isn't fair to compare Memphis to Park City or Columbia, MO. Beale Street (Memphis' Main Street) isn't really the best place for a film fest.

Studio on the Square is the hippest movie theater in the city, at least. A collage of classic movie posters decorate the walls of its lounging area, and it has a nice café.

All in all, it's your regular festival. The evidence: festival booklet, Q&As, movie promo cards, live music, and filmmakers as passersby. 

see the other wall

Game: Where's Joe Swanberg? Answer (hover over pic)

Indie Memphis Film Festival  Photos