Austin, Texas.

That's the place to be this weekend, and for that matter, the next couple of weekends as well. Just listen to Marc Savlov running out of breath trying to get it all into his "Short Cuts" column in the Austin Chronicle.

Cinematexas, still on a roll with that incredible roster of speakers, not to mention the films themselves. Loud and Clear Youth Festival, coming up tomorrow.

Screening tomorrow evening is Babette Mangolte's Les Modéles de Pickpocket, a film that, as Marrit Ingman explains, "catches up with the principals of Pickpocket - [Pierre] Leymarie, Marika Green, and Martin Lassalle - more than 50 years later, examining how their work with Bresson shaped their lives."

A few days later, the Texas Documentary Tour rolls into town. "Most simply put," writes Anne S. Lewis, "Nuclear Family is a film in three parts about Texas-style cheerleading tryouts, high school football, and weddings, and how these cultural rituals - shot through, as they are, with outrageous stereotypical excess and hubris - are handed down from one generation to the next." But reading director Don Howard elaborate for Lewis, you realize that might be a bit too simple.

Then, next weekend sees the premiere of local hero Richard Linklater's School of Rock, with the director and stars Jack Black and Sarah Silverman in attendance and, take it away, Savlov, "the premiere of the locally shot remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse and Ain't It Cool News, at the Travis State School for the Criminally Insane (or, as we like to call it, the School of Shock/Schlock/Beef Stock)!"

Hundreds of Austinites no doubt had a blast pitching in as extras this summer on The Alamo and are now anxiously awaiting its premiere on Christmas Day.

But for those of us who, very unfortunately, cannot be in Austin this weekend or next or at Christmas, the one thing we can share with the lucky bastards who can is a good read: Tim McCanlies, at length on screenwriting, shooting Super 8s and shorts, where Dancer, Texas came from, why The Iron Giant isn't a musical, and of course, on his new film, Secondhand Lions. Not all reviewers are as enthusiastic about the film as Chronicle editor Louis Black, but McCanlies's tales of its making are great fun.

Also in the Chronicle: The Secondhand Lions (and Spy Kids and Chainsaw Massacre) menagerie; Raoul Hernandez on Skin Deep: "[W]atching [John] Ritter carry a film with such ease is to mourn the fact that no one other than [Blake] Edwards ever realized the comedian's big-screen potential"; and, though only tangentially related to film, a brief, entertaining email interview with Mark Dery.

Posted by dwhudson at September 19, 2003 8:33 AM