Whip It
Directed by Drew Barrymore
2009, 111 minutes, USA

It should be prefaced that this week has oodles of recommendable discs—including The House of the Devil (podcast), A Serious Man (interview), Bronson (review), and Eleven Minutes (podcast)—so here's a plea to those who might've sadly ignored Drew Barrymore's directorial debut last week simply because, well, it's Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. The former Charlie's Angel hasn't exactly developed a distinct style and vision to canonize her as a great American auteur or anything, but in her capable hands, a potentially hoary coming-of-ager about a small-town Texas high schooler who finds empowerment through an all-girl roller derby league proves to be an infectious, emotionally credible dramedy with a decidedly postfeminist ideology. More movies deserve to focus on the kinds of progressively written female characters Whip It offers in teams, but almost as important, it's a kick-ass entertainment, too.

]]> Adapted by Shauna Cross from her semi-autobiographical novel "Derby Girl," the film tracks young Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page, shaking off her snark and precociousness) as she longs to escape a dead-end waitress job and the beauty-pageant career inflicted upon her by an obsessive mother (Marcia Gay Harden. After Bliss and best friend Pash (Alia Shawkat) sneak off to a hipster slice of Austin to discover the loyal sisterhoods and fierce competitions of derby (and dreamy indie rocker Landon Pigg, but that's a later subplot), the girl power is contagious enough for Bliss to dig out her childhood Barbie skates and start practicing to become one of the "Hurl Scouts." If the familial conflict that comes next seems predictable, what redeems a familiar youth-in-revolt arc is that nobody gets a one-dimensional vilification. Mother and daughter clearly love each other, as does Bliss' football-loving goof of a dad (Daniel Stern), but a warm-hearted tone doesn't make Mom's overbearing nature any less of an obstacle between a teenage dreamer and her passions.

You'd be to correct to guess that the truly choice material comes from the sport itself. The thrills are visceral as we watch Bliss evolve into a speed-skating superstar with the nom de plume "Babe Ruthless." Unlike the ADHD headaches of cross-cutting that ruin so many action flicks today, frequent Wes Anderson cinematographer Robert Yeoman's lensing of the derby auditions and matches has a straightforward visual clarity without losing its kick. Then the zipping, whipping and taking hits becomes more engaging once we're introduced to Bliss' de facto family of tough chicks, from ditzy "Smashley Simpson" (Barrymore) and New Zealand badass "Bloody Holly" (Zoe Bell) to veterans like alt-mom "Maggie Mayhem" (Kristen Wiig) and feral arch-rival "Iron Maven" (Juliette Lewis)—who, again, is not a singularly malevolent figure, even if she makes sinister faces outside the arena.

It's a spot-on ensemble (let's also hear it for Andrew Wilson and Jimmy Fallon) across the board, and Barrymore gives almost everyone a chance to carry a scene, sweetly subverting the very underdog clichés she adopts (the big game, the love interest, the best friend falling-out). Actors-turned-directors are regularly praised for filching fabulous performances through personal experience, but Barrymore's greater strength (with compliments to Magnolia editor Dylan Tichenor) is in capturing the spontaneous minutiae of her cast's work. All the ad hoc gags, single-take reactions and left-in actor impulses would feel just as at home in a loosey-goosey comedy like Dazed and Confused or Rock 'N' Roll High School—you know, the kinds of films whose flaws only charm you into watching them again.

]]> 7722@http://daily.greencine.com/

Whip It
Directed by Drew Barrymore
2009, 111 minutes, USA

It should be prefaced that this week has oodles of recommendable discs—including The House of the Devil (podcast), A Serious Man (interview), Bronson (review), and Eleven Minutes (podcast)—so here's a plea to those who might've sadly ignored Drew Barrymore's directorial debut last week simply because, well, it's Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. The former Charlie's Angel hasn't exactly developed a distinct style and vision to canonize her as a great American auteur or anything, but in her capable hands, a potentially hoary coming-of-ager about a small-town Texas high schooler who finds empowerment through an all-girl roller derby league proves to be an infectious, emotionally credible dramedy with a decidedly postfeminist ideology. More movies deserve to focus on the kinds of progressively written female characters Whip It offers in teams, but almost as important, it's a kick-ass entertainment, too.

Continued reading DVD OF THE WEEK: Whip It...

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(Joe Bowman on Feb 4, 2010 10:34 PM) Good call, Aaron. I was... charmed.

Robert Hanson (Jakob Cedergren) is a Copenhagen police officer who, following a nervous breakdown, is transferred to a small provincial town to take on the mysteriously vacated Marshall position and subsequently gets mixed up with a married femme fatale. Robert’s big city temperament makes it impossible for him to fit in, or understand the uncivilized, bizarre behavior displayed by the townspeople. Quickly spiraling downward into an intense fable reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple and No Country for Old Men, Terribly Happy displays a unique, often macabre vision of the darkest depths to which people will go to achieve a sense of security and belonging.

GreenCine Daily has 5 pairs of tickets to give away to see Terribly Happy at the Angelika Film Center in New York City. To enter to win, you must live in the NYC area (okay, New Jersey and Connecticut, you can play, too). Below the jump are screenshots from three Oscilloscope titles in which nobody looks too terribly happy. The first 5 people to identify all three films will win a pair of tickets. Good luck!

]]>

Send your answers to cinephiliac [at] gmail [dot] com with the subject line "Terribly Happy" and please include your full name and mailing address... Good luck!

]]> 7718@http://daily.greencine.com/ This Friday, Oscilloscope Laboratories will release Danish filmmaker Henrik Ruben Genz's Terribly Happy in New York, with more dates to follow in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver and more. From the official synopsis:

Robert Hanson (Jakob Cedergren) is a Copenhagen police officer who, following a nervous breakdown, is transferred to a small provincial town to take on the mysteriously vacated Marshall position and subsequently gets mixed up with a married femme fatale. Robert’s big city temperament makes it impossible for him to fit in, or understand the uncivilized, bizarre behavior displayed by the townspeople. Quickly spiraling downward into an intense fable reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple and No Country for Old Men, Terribly Happy displays a unique, often macabre vision of the darkest depths to which people will go to achieve a sense of security and belonging.

GreenCine Daily has 5 pairs of tickets to give away to see Terribly Happy at the Angelika Film Center in New York City. To enter to win, you must live in the NYC area (okay, New Jersey and Connecticut, you can play, too). Below the jump are screenshots from three Oscilloscope titles in which nobody looks too terribly happy. The first 5 people to identify all three films will win a pair of tickets. Good luck!

Continued reading CONTEST: Win 2 Tickets for TERRIBLY HAPPY in NYC...

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It was a late hour on Thursday night when Parker Posey began tearing up the dance floor in Sundance's filmmaker lounge. Nobody can deny the obvious metaphorical connotations of the festival's prototypical indie starlet showing off her legwork for a crowd mainly comprised of newbie auteurs. It felt like a gesture of optimism: Celebrate, fellow devotees of the moving image cult, for this is your moment.

Or something like that. The paradox of the Sundance Film Festival is that its galvanizing spirit can seem at once inspiring and obnoxiously cheesy, an issue reflected in the typically hit-or-miss program. My mind has been spinning over the last week and a half as dozens of movies whiz through my consciousness, but only certain ones stick out as distinctly, unabashedly part of the Sundance routine. Marching to the beat of the Posey metaphor, these cinematic offerings clearly define the standards associated with the festival: Two art house tendencies, one a little older than the other, both occasionally grating but nonetheless admirable.

]]>

Veteran director Eric Mendelsohn's 3 Backyards focuses on the isolated experiences of several suburban households on the same block, using lush visuals and an enigmatic storytelling technique to tie them all together. An alienated businessman misses his flight out of town and decides to crash in a hotel rather than go home. A woman giddily offers a lift to her famous neighbor and learns about the element of humanity beneath the celebrity facade. And so on. The movie feels like an attempt at expressing an emotional foundation beneath the mundane quality of a settled blue color existence, but it's mostly just a bore. Hitting the restroom as the closing credits rolled, I overheard some chatter that pretty much sealed the movie's fate: "This is one of those arty films that nobody will ever see." Which is not exactly a shame, because 3 Backyards loses its emotional staying power to cumbersome, formally aimless exposition—but one has to wonder exactly how many other movies at the festival for which my anonymous urinal companion offered the same verdict.

Douchebag, by contrast, never loses momentum, but its formal properties do occasionally seem strained. Drake Doremus' story of two warring brothers who embark on a road trip to find one of the guys' fifth grade girlfriend tries super-hard to embody any number of newly formed indie clichés, from its shaky-cam style to the playfully improvised dialogue and ultra-whimsical humor. As a colleague astutely observed, "It's Humpday-lite." The comparison fits the product because Douchebag essentially functions as a kind of Sundance clip reel. Road trip? Check. Quirky familial conflict? Check. Dopey pop soundtrack and romantic confusion? You get the idea. Douchebag has a title that intends to provoke, but actually conforms to tradition by operating under the pretense of a fuck-the-establishment vibe when, in fact, it simply fits into the typical indie tendency to defy commercial appeal for no particular reason at all. In that sense, Douchebag is less an epithet than Doremus' form of a warped self-compliment. The aspiring indie auteur lives on! And the Posey waltz continues through the night, for better or worse.]]> 7717@http://daily.greencine.com/ by Eric Kohn

It was a late hour on Thursday night when Parker Posey began tearing up the dance floor in Sundance's filmmaker lounge. Nobody can deny the obvious metaphorical connotations of the festival's prototypical indie starlet showing off her legwork for a crowd mainly comprised of newbie auteurs. It felt like a gesture of optimism: Celebrate, fellow devotees of the moving image cult, for this is your moment.

Or something like that. The paradox of the Sundance Film Festival is that its galvanizing spirit can seem at once inspiring and obnoxiously cheesy, an issue reflected in the typically hit-or-miss program. My mind has been spinning over the last week and a half as dozens of movies whiz through my consciousness, but only certain ones stick out as distinctly, unabashedly part of the Sundance routine. Marching to the beat of the Posey metaphor, these cinematic offerings clearly define the standards associated with the festival: Two art house tendencies, one a little older than the other, both occasionally grating but nonetheless admirable.

Continued reading Posey's Waltz: Thoughts on the Sundance Tradition...

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From radio to television and now feature films, Chris Morris has amassed an impressive body of work in the UK as a trenchant writer, director, actor and prankster. Perhaps best known for his current-affairs TV satires Brass Eye and The Day Today (the latter co-created with In the Loop director Armando Iannucci and featuring Steve Coogan's befuddled host Alan Partridge), Morris was more recently seen as managerial madman Denholm Reynholm in The IT Crowd. Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, his directorial feature debut Four Lions has been brewing some oh-no-you-didn't controversy:

Could there be a more hot-button topic than terrorism these days? Although it is historically the subject of serious documentaries and intense dramatic films, renowned British comedian Chris Morris finds the humor (and ultimately the humanity) in this extremist world. Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that—while terrorism is about ideology—it can also be about idiots.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:02)

Podcast Music
INTRO: tUnE-yArDs: "Lions"
OUTRO: Braintax: "The Grip Again (A Day in the Life of a Suicide Bomber)"

[Four Lions screens again at Sundance on January 28 and 29. For more info, please visit the festival website.]

]]> 7714@http://daily.greencine.com/

From radio to television and now feature films, Chris Morris has amassed an impressive body of work in the UK as a trenchant writer, director, actor and prankster. Perhaps best known for his current-affairs TV satires Brass Eye and The Day Today (the latter co-created with In the Loop director Armando Iannucci and featuring Steve Coogan's befuddled host Alan Partridge), Morris was more recently seen as managerial madman Denholm Reynholm in The IT Crowd. Premiering at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, his directorial feature debut Four Lions has been brewing some oh-no-you-didn't controversy:

Could there be a more hot-button topic than terrorism these days? Although it is historically the subject of serious documentaries and intense dramatic films, renowned British comedian Chris Morris finds the humor (and ultimately the humanity) in this extremist world. Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that—while terrorism is about ideology—it can also be about idiots.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:02)

Podcast Music
INTRO: tUnE-yArDs: "Lions"
OUTRO: Braintax: "The Grip Again (A Day in the Life of a Suicide Bomber)"

[Four Lions screens again at Sundance on January 28 and 29. For more info, please visit the festival website.]

Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(Steve on Jan 27, 2010 8:23 PM) Thanks for the podcast. Looking forward to his film.

whisper & SHOUT (flüstern & SCHREIEN)
Dir. Dieter Schumann
1988, 115 minutes, in German with English subtitles
First Run Features

Red Cartoons: Animated Films From East Germany
1974 – 1990, 57 minutes, in German (no subtitles)
First Run Features

As the exclusive North American distributor of the DEFA film archives (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, the state-run studio of former East Germany, which disbanded after reunification), First Run Features has smartly doled out a pair of discs this past week showcasing unlike artistic mediums with plenty of thematic overlap in the GDR era: rock music and animation.

]]> Which isn't to say the illuminating rock doc whisper & SHOUT isn't highly animated in its own way, as hinted by a commanding title card: "Dieser film muß laut gehört warden" ("This film must be heard loud"). Dieter Schumann's roving portrait of the late-'80s East German glam-and-punk-influenced underground scene, the first in a proposed trilogy of "rock reports," isn't so much a backstage exposé as it is a sociopolitical thermometer of the period. (Surprisingly, the censors approved it, two years before the Berlin Wall fell.) All-access vérité passes like Woodstock, Dont Look Back and The Decline of Western Civilization certainly come to mind as we dip into the touring lives of post-punkers Feeling B (whose keyboardist Christian Lorenz and rhythm guitarist Paul Landers went on to join Rammstein), the more popular synth-centrics Silly, peacenik troubadours Sandow, and Chicorée—who later spins off into two-piece Die Zöllner after frontman Dirk Zöllner is booted by his bandmates for having too much integrity to sell out. Wait, really?

Sure, but consider the artistic throughline between the bands—rebellion against the system, heard in the mostly charmingly labored metaphors of their lyrics—and the fact that only antiseptic, state-licensed and subsidized pop bands like the Puhdys (twice sneered at onscreen with the same contempt given to disco) were finding wide commercial success. Rock musicians could barely survive without government support, but who could fault the passionate rebels playing makeshift concert venues, too prideful to suck up to an oppressive regime that once reprimanded Silly for having an anglicized name? To be honest, more than two decades later, much of the music here won't necessarily have you clicking your way to the iTunes store, but the live performances are spirited time-capsules of a forgotten struggle, one Westerners should find colorfully exotic enough to raise a lighter. Sometimes it's even cheesy in the most agreeable way, as when André + Die Firma wail a new-wavey number with a repeating motif that translates to "Hot and horny are my dreams."

What really juices whisper & SHOUT to 11, however, is the outside influence of the teenage groupies and other onlookers (even a police officer!) who support the cause. Nubile beauties sunbathe topless while being interviewed about their anticipation for a killer show. A scraggly kid smokes cigarettes and mouths every single word from the crowd. Riled-up boys aggressively jig at each other in a peculiar cross between a mosh pit and Riverdance. Schumann even tracks a young blonde named Tara, the ultimate Silly super-fan (see top photo) with a bedroom covered only in posters of her idols, and perhaps the film's most compelling scene is a fervent dinnertime discussion about her obsession and punky aesthetic with, presumably, her mother and grandparents. Having come of age in the chaos of the GDR, here's a girl who recognizes and connects to the pointed themes in her heroes' songs, except her generational angst cuts deeper for knowing two enemies: the socialist state... and her parents.

Unlike those rockers making their critiques from the fringes, the East German animators included in the Red Cartoons collection quietly pointed their fingers from the inside. DEFA's animation studio produced more than 800 shorts since its 1955 inauguration, but it wasn't until the '70s when films were made for audiences other than children, which allowed a subtle creeping-in of social satire that would've been banned within live-action cinema (not that all GDR cartoons were censor-proof, as an on-disc essay further explains). Most of the 16 "adult" shorts here are cutesy, utilizing uncomplicated but vibrantly colored illustrative styles on sparse backgrounds—some of the later work even tries out mixed-media supplements—like a poor man's Schoolhouse Rock! or classic Sesame Street bit, or reminiscent of the Little Miss children's book series.

If the animation techniques themselves seem dug up from a time capsule, the gently subversive ideas within are worth blowing the dust off of. The satirical weapon of choice throughout is O. Henry-style irony, like in Otto Sacher's 1978 Star and Flower, in which a man in the sky amongst his stars longs for a earthling's flower and vice-versa, their shared frustration leading them to destroy their respective treasures—East, meet West. The work of Klaus Georgi, represented in over half of the shorts, is perhaps the most directly engaging. In 1979's Variants, two neighbors whose houses butt up against one another (okay, we get it!) replay the same happening with three different joke endings: what to do when a pile of leaves has accumulated on their shared property line. In his 1988 short The Full Circle, industrial pollution has forced every businessman, high-society woman and playground tyke into a gas mask, and what does the nearby villainous factory produce? Gas masks. Saving the best for last, both here and on the DVD, Georgi's sometime collaborator Lutz Stützner's 1990 Island Joke sees three men survive drowning in the ocean by making their way to a small patch of land. Naked and freezing, they're magically greeted by a mermaid who offers up a long swathe of fabric to warm themselves. Cut back to: the still nude and chattering men, now saluting the flag they've dutifully hung. *rim shot*

]]> 7710@http://daily.greencine.com/

whisper & SHOUT (flüstern & SCHREIEN)
Dir. Dieter Schumann
1988, 115 minutes, in German with English subtitles
First Run Features

Red Cartoons: Animated Films From East Germany
1974 – 1990, 57 minutes, in German (no subtitles)
First Run Features

As the exclusive North American distributor of the DEFA film archives (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, the state-run studio of former East Germany, which disbanded after reunification), First Run Features has smartly doled out a pair of discs this past week showcasing unlike artistic mediums with plenty of thematic overlap in the GDR era: rock music and animation.

Continued reading DVDs OF THE WEEK: Whisper & Shout / Red Cartoons...

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The 2010 Sundance Film Festival opens today, and indieWIRE correspondent Eric Kohn and LA Weekly's Karina Longworth have already both weighed in rather astutely on the festival's NEXT section, a showcase for low-budget indies. In that particular mix is the intimate relationship dramedy The Freebie, the directorial debut of The Puffy Chair star Katie Aselton—who can also be seen at the fest in Cyrus, co-directed by her husband Mark Duplass. Dax Shepard (Idiocracy, Employee of the Month) co-stars:

Darren (Shepard) and Annie (Aselton) have an enviable relationship built on love, trust, and communication. After seven years of marriage, they wouldn’t change their relationship one bit. They still enjoy each other’s company and laugh at each other’s jokes, but, unfortunately, they can’t remember the last time they had sex. When a dinner party conversation leads to an honest discussion about the state of their love life, and a bikini photo shoot leads to crossword puzzles instead of sex, they begin to flirt with a way to spice things up. The deal: one night of no-strings-attached sex with a stranger for each of them. Can one night of freedom be just what they need?

A few days before The Freebie's world premiere, I spoke with Aselton and Shepard about their collaboration, being too candid among friends, whether Aselton is concerned with the film's passing resemblance to Humpday, and if Shepard recognizes how miserably prescient Idiocracy seems with each passing year.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (18:10)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Antonio Carlos Jobim: "Dax Rides"
OUTRO: The Anomalies: "Employee of the Month"

[The Freebie screens at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. For more info, visit the festival website.]

]]> 7708@http://daily.greencine.com/

The 2010 Sundance Film Festival opens today, and indieWIRE correspondent Eric Kohn and LA Weekly's Karina Longworth have already both weighed in rather astutely on the festival's NEXT section, a showcase for low-budget indies. In that particular mix is the intimate relationship dramedy The Freebie, the directorial debut of The Puffy Chair star Katie Aselton—who can also be seen at the fest in Cyrus, co-directed by her husband Mark Duplass. Dax Shepard (Idiocracy, Employee of the Month) co-stars:

Darren (Shepard) and Annie (Aselton) have an enviable relationship built on love, trust, and communication. After seven years of marriage, they wouldn’t change their relationship one bit. They still enjoy each other’s company and laugh at each other’s jokes, but, unfortunately, they can’t remember the last time they had sex. When a dinner party conversation leads to an honest discussion about the state of their love life, and a bikini photo shoot leads to crossword puzzles instead of sex, they begin to flirt with a way to spice things up. The deal: one night of no-strings-attached sex with a stranger for each of them. Can one night of freedom be just what they need?

A few days before The Freebie's world premiere, I spoke with Aselton and Shepard about their collaboration, being too candid among friends, whether Aselton is concerned with the film's passing resemblance to Humpday, and if Shepard recognizes how miserably prescient Idiocracy seems with each passing year.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (18:10)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Antonio Carlos Jobim: "Dax Rides"
OUTRO: The Anomalies: "Employee of the Month"

[The Freebie screens at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. For more info, visit the festival website.]

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Late last night, I received an impassioned email from Michelange Quay, a Paris based Haitian-American filmmaker with whom I've been friendly since his feature debut Eat, for This is My Body screened at New Directors/New Films in 2008:

Aaron, could I implore you to read about and mention my young film students in Haiti, from Ciné Institute, the country's only film school, and their efforts to document the tragedy and recovery since the earthquake? I'm trying to raise awareness in our media profession for them, our younger brothers down there, showing us that in the face of CNN etc's version, there is a human, patient, hopeful, sober reality to survival and solidarity in Haiti before and after this tragedy. Although they've lost family and friends, school, equipment, their films… their dreams... their first instinct was to pick up the one or two cameras left in the rubble and be of service with them. They prove that a camera can be a vital and noble thing. Please spread the word and get their story out. Sorry to disturb you with this.

Consider it done, Michelange. The clips—mostly shot from the southern coastal town of Jacmel—feature personal testimonies from the refugee camps and up-close-and-personal footage of the victims and damage rarely seen in other reports. To visit Ciné Institute's Vimeo channel directly, click here.

If you'd like to contribute to the Haiti relief efforts, the American Institute of Philanthropy has rated the nonprofit charities.

]]> 7704@http://daily.greencine.com/

Late last night, I received an impassioned email from Michelange Quay, a Paris based Haitian-American filmmaker with whom I've been friendly since his feature debut Eat, for This is My Body screened at New Directors/New Films in 2008:

Aaron, could I implore you to read about and mention my young film students in Haiti, from Ciné Institute, the country's only film school, and their efforts to document the tragedy and recovery since the earthquake? I'm trying to raise awareness in our media profession for them, our younger brothers down there, showing us that in the face of CNN etc's version, there is a human, patient, hopeful, sober reality to survival and solidarity in Haiti before and after this tragedy. Although they've lost family and friends, school, equipment, their films… their dreams... their first instinct was to pick up the one or two cameras left in the rubble and be of service with them. They prove that a camera can be a vital and noble thing. Please spread the word and get their story out. Sorry to disturb you with this.

Consider it done, Michelange. The clips—mostly shot from the southern coastal town of Jacmel—feature personal testimonies from the refugee camps and up-close-and-personal footage of the victims and damage rarely seen in other reports. To visit Ciné Institute's Vimeo channel directly, click here.

If you'd like to contribute to the Haiti relief efforts, the American Institute of Philanthropy has rated the nonprofit charities.

Comments (1)

Comments on this Entry:

(sami on Jan 19, 2010 2:46 PM) these talented kids in Jacmel are an incredible and hopeful story amidst the devastation. thanks for spreading word.

"Comparable in force and originality to Godard or Fassbinder," began the Village Voice's J. Hoberman about the hypnotic hyperrealism of a certain Belgian auteur, "Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation." On January 19, Criterion will release an inarguably vital Eclipse box set entitled Chantal Akerman in the Seventies, which will include "The New York Films" (La Chambre, Hotel Monterey and News From Home), her feature debut Je tu il Elle, and my personal favorite of the set—Les rendez-vous d'Anna:

Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) has created one of cinema’s most distinctive bodies of work—formally daring, often autobiographical films about people and places, time and space. In this collection, we present the early films that put her on the map: intensely personal, modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene. Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in their day and continue to have a profound influence on filmmakers all over the world.

During a brief visit to New York in December, Akerman gave me the pleasure and honor of a sit-down to discuss these early films. Typically, I forewarn my podcast interviewees that I edit our audio later to make us both sound clearer, removing the uh's, hiccups, burps and spaces. I reluctantly obliged Akerman, who was against the idea, of course: "The spaces are the best part!"

We chatted about the '70s avant-garde filmmakers who inspired her during her New York residency, the strangest job she had in the "phallic city," being Andrew Bujalski's thesis advisor at Harvard, and why she now takes back a title she once rejected.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (26:50)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Univers Zero, "Célesta (For Chantal)"
OUTRO: Jacques Brel, "Bruxelles"

]]> 7700@http://daily.greencine.com/

"Comparable in force and originality to Godard or Fassbinder," began the Village Voice's J. Hoberman about the hypnotic hyperrealism of a certain Belgian auteur, "Chantal Akerman is arguably the most important European director of her generation." On January 19, Criterion will release an inarguably vital Eclipse box set entitled Chantal Akerman in the Seventies, which will include "The New York Films" (La Chambre, Hotel Monterey and News From Home), her feature debut Je tu il Elle, and my personal favorite of the set—Les rendez-vous d'Anna:

Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) has created one of cinema’s most distinctive bodies of work—formally daring, often autobiographical films about people and places, time and space. In this collection, we present the early films that put her on the map: intensely personal, modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene. Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in their day and continue to have a profound influence on filmmakers all over the world.

During a brief visit to New York in December, Akerman gave me the pleasure and honor of a sit-down to discuss these early films. Typically, I forewarn my podcast interviewees that I edit our audio later to make us both sound clearer, removing the uh's, hiccups, burps and spaces. I reluctantly obliged Akerman, who was against the idea, of course: "The spaces are the best part!"

We chatted about the '70s avant-garde filmmakers who inspired her during her New York residency, the strangest job she had in the "phallic city," being Andrew Bujalski's thesis advisor at Harvard, and why she now takes back a title she once rejected.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (26:50)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Univers Zero, "Célesta (For Chantal)"
OUTRO: Jacques Brel, "Bruxelles"

Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

Goliath
Directed by David Zellner
2008, 80 minutes, USA
MPI Home Video

David and Nathan Zellner's Goliath is a passionate ode to old ties and new beginnings, steeped in metaphor, strangely evocative, yet hilariously deranged. The Austin-based sibling filmmakers seemingly know the tropes of mainstream comedy and work against them. A plot synopsis tells you almost nothing: Though essentially the story of one man's ties to his cat, the movie operates on a singularly bizarre narrative plain based around the ramifications of becoming a social pariah. It moves along in fragments of scenes, sudden outbursts and extended pauses. A climactic sequence involves as much emotional finality as it does absurdity and mayhem. In the final minutes, it's like a Looney Tunes cartoon came to life, invaded suburbia and absorbed its discontents. In other words, Goliath is purely unique cinema.

]]> David Zellner plays Guy, a lonely character embroiled in ugly divorce proceedings while vainly struggling with his dead-end office job and decrying the sudden disappearance of his titular feline. It's this third ingredient that provides a surreal kick to the narrative arc. Our hero desperately goes through the motions, posting flyers all around northeastern Austin and calling out for his missing pet. The filmmakers seem less poised to look down at Guy's pathetic quest than to inhabit it, as the movie opens with a montage of photographs showing the missing kitty in play and concludes with adorable shots of his eventual replacement. Everything else in the character's life seems not only secondary to Goliath but actually a distraction from his importance. A four-minute take in which Guy and his wife sign divorce papers goes on and on, stops being funny and grows terribly frustrating [editor's interruption: and strangely becomes funny again!], to the point where we know exactly how Guy feels. We want him to find the cat as much as he does.

I won't spoil the fate of the missing pet except to say that it's not a pretty one. On the DVD commentary, the brothers reveal precisely how much realism they wanted to inject into the story, and it shows. (Their short films, particularly the Sundance 2010 selection Fiddlestixx, display their wilder experimental tendencies.) Everyone in Guy's insular world, from his steely-eyed bosses (including an utterly creepy Andrew Bujalski) to his dismissive ex, find faults in this strange man. Only Goliath, it seems, unconditionally accepted him. The tragedy of the cat's disappearance is legitimized by this implied relationship. "If we took it lightly," Nathan says on the commentary, "it would have trivialized the whole thing."

Cat lovers everywhere, rejoice: Your obsession is understood. Goliath becomes a symbol more than a creature, which enables the movie to defy genre expectations. In trifles like Marley and Me or that infernal Beethoven franchise, animals are asked to develop character weight that's obviously above their capacity. Goliath's perpetual invisibility places the emphasis on the way he affects people.

Which brings me to that maniacal climax. The Zellner brothers, who last appeared together onscreen for Bujalski's Beeswax, engage in a brutal face-off that combines slapstick with violent thrills. Guy has lost his mind, essentially gone postal. He projects his shortcomings onto an obnoxious neighbor (Nathan) and hurls the full force of his anger at his chosen foe. You get the sense that David and Nathan fought like this when they were kids—minus the mace and sharp objects (maybe)—because Guy's fury contains a powerful degree of authenticity where other actors may have turned it into farce. The movie ends with a combination of insanity and clarity. Goliath succeeds, then, because the Zellners take their subject seriously. Life itself, however, they turn into a grand joke.

]]> 7699@http://daily.greencine.com/ by Eric Kohn

Goliath
Directed by David Zellner
2008, 80 minutes, USA
MPI Home Video

David and Nathan Zellner's Goliath is a passionate ode to old ties and new beginnings, steeped in metaphor, strangely evocative, yet hilariously deranged. The Austin-based sibling filmmakers seemingly know the tropes of mainstream comedy and work against them. A plot synopsis tells you almost nothing: Though essentially the story of one man's ties to his cat, the movie operates on a singularly bizarre narrative plain based around the ramifications of becoming a social pariah. It moves along in fragments of scenes, sudden outbursts and extended pauses. A climactic sequence involves as much emotional finality as it does absurdity and mayhem. In the final minutes, it's like a Looney Tunes cartoon came to life, invaded suburbia and absorbed its discontents. In other words, Goliath is purely unique cinema.

Continued reading DVD OF THE WEEK: Goliath...

Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

2009 was a decent year for finding good gay-themed films on DVD. While Milk might seem a shoo-in for the list, I would suggest instead renting the original documentary about Harvey Milk, which is superior to the Van Sant film in almost every way (except budget). My choices this year include one very fine lesbian movie; I wish there were more in this vein to recommend. Some of these are more subtle than others in the manner in which they address their gay themes, but each is worth seeing and thinking about. I’ve chosen my top 12, not on the basis of whether the main characters are gay, or whether the film in question is a "gay movie." Instead, I’ve tried to choose films in which gay characters and themes are used more richly and inventively. God knows there were a number of other movies not included here that gave center stage to gays (Were the World Mine, et al.), but that didn't necessarily make their quality of a higher order. In past years, I've included the first two films from the Eating Out franchise; the latest addition, however, while not bad, just didn’t quite make the cut. (Each subsequent film in this three-part series has grown slightly less acerbic and more cutesy.)

Here, in alphabetical order, are my dozen choices:

]]>

Beautiful Ohio

Actor-turned-director Chad Lowe's quiet, acutely observed family drama is so specific that it builds into a grand picture of a time (the 1970s), place (suburban Ohio) and people (an unusual family trying, against all odds, to be "functional.") The cast is a mix of well-knowns—William Hurt, Rita Wilson, Michelle Trachtenberg—and little-knowns (David Call, Brett Davern), who all play so well together that each moment rings true. Beautiful Ohio is not for all tastes or those with short-attention spans, but as a familial drama drawn with enormous subtlety, it doesn't get much better than this.

Choose Connor

Political scandal, coming of age and sexuality all mix in this remarkable debut from another actor-turned-filmmaker, Luke Eberl, who was only 20 at the time. Whip-smart about people and politics, the movie is cast well, too: Steven Weber is terrific as a Congressman who takes a bright high-schooler under his wing, exuding the right mix of charm, occasional honesty and steel innards. As his teen acolyte, Alex D. Linz makes a perfect foil; you can believe his every word, idea and stance. The pivotal character who bridges Weber's world to that of Linz is played by Escher Holloway, who possesses the kind of quiet charisma that should have us seeing much more of him in future.

Chris & Don: A Love Story

Guido Santi and Tina Mascara's documentary tells the story of the very long-term relationship between writer Christopher Isherwood and painter Don Bachardy—venerable icons of gay life from a time when most were closeted, holding the door tightly shut from the inside for dear life. Full of terrific interviews and film footage from an era long gone, this inspiring and surprising doc is also, finally, extremely moving.

Johan

An iconic fragment of the French gay '70s that has not been seen since its 1976 debut, this a kind of doc in which writer/director Philippe Vallois and his film both search for a replacement for his lover and supposed star—who is in prison for multiple petty larcenies, and thus, unable to either film or fuck. In fact, the movie comes close to being a near (and quite early) example of a mockumentary. It's full of knowing ironies; deliberately provocative (in its own day, but even now) with its views of handsome young men, often full-frontal and sometimes engorged; exhibiting sly humor combined with vexing self-satisfaction and self-pity. As was the wont of filmmakers in this era, the footage alternates between color and black-and-white. Trust me, all of it is fun.

La León

Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography of Latin American panoramas and a couple of hunky guys are the main reasons to view Santiago Otheguy's La León, an interesting if slow-moving character study of a good-looking middle aged fellow in a tiny port town whose gayness seems to ruffle the feathers of only one particular tugboat captain. Problems inevitably ensue, but the odd and oddly appealing life our "hero" leads almost makes up for the movie’s sleepy pacing. And, oh, that cinematography!

The New Twenty

Chris Mason Johnson’s stylish but deeply-felt tale of college chums reuniting 10 years later is a killer ensemble piece, beautifully acted and full of smart writing that bares character while keeping the plot unfurling nicely. So well do we grow to know these half-dozen people that, by the film’s end, we don't really want it to. One of the unusual strengths of the movie is that it shows a group of friends in which gay and straight characters easily intermingle yet still have their issues.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sure, it's the subsidiary characters here who are gay, but they're such a delight and drawn so interestingly that it’s no wonder the film won a GLAAD award. Not that Nick and Norah themselves aren't a lot of fun: who can resist the easy charisma of Michael Cera and Kat Dennings? And Ari Graynor is way-weird as the zonked best friend. The movie has plenty to offer, including its take on the New York and Brooklyn music scenes. Watching it is like getting an extra-special tour of the Big Apple and environs.

Pageant

Ron Davis and Stewart Halpern-Fingerhut's documentary tracks a recent Miss Gay America competition, bringing us close to several of the leading contestants. We get to know them, sometimes their friends or significant others, and why they want so much to win. Most fascinating of all is the twosome made up of a contestant and his best friend (who isn't gay but still clearly loves his BFF, and will do anything for him).

RocknRolla

This was also a GLAAD nominee for "Outstanding Wide Release Film"—surprise—for the unusual way in which it handled homosexuality among the British gangster set. Although it's not the main theme, it comes back and back again (in the form of supporting character Handsome Bob, played by Bronson's Tom Hardy), and used in a funny and shockingly non-judgmental manner. The movie itself is lots of fun, with smart turns from Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton and especially Tom Wilkinson, nearly unrecognizable in this role.

Save Me

Movies that have tackled the question of Christian sexuality or "ex-gays" (men who have supposedly fought and succeeded in surmounting their homosexuality via their strong belief in Jesus)—Saved!, Fall From Grace, For the Bible Tells Me So—have found the Christian part of the equation wanting. What makes director Robert Cary's Save Me such a find—and a fine example of the religion-struggling-with-sexuality bind—is that, here, both sides are filled with caring, decent people trying to do the right thing. The combination of sharp writing and direction, coupled with excellent performances from Judith Light, Stephen Lang, Chad Allen, Robert Gant and Robert Baker, results in one of the best this year.

The Secrets

's broadside against the fundamentalism of the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel is full of life and growth for its protagonists, as well as some of its lesser characters. In a female seminary, the bond experienced by two girls results in some truly wonderful experiences, as well as disappointment and sorrow. By the end of this remarkable film, which features the magnificent Fanny Ardant in a supporting role, you’ll feel like you yourself have made an important journey.

Stealth

Although officially released on DVD in 2008, Stealth is a film I didn't catch up with until this past year. But as it’s so good, I must include it as one of this year's bests. Lionel Baier, who directs and stars, gave us the unusual Garçon Stupide a few years back, and his latest is even better—lighter, funnier and more accomplished. A young man's discovery of his Polish ancestry leads him to question his gay identity and take a cross continent trip to his "source." Along the way, he's met with surprise and personal change, taking the viewer on (dissenters might say "for") some ride!

]]> 7692@http://daily.greencine.com/ by James Van Maanen

2009 was a decent year for finding good gay-themed films on DVD. While Milk might seem a shoo-in for the list, I would suggest instead renting the original documentary about Harvey Milk, which is superior to the Van Sant film in almost every way (except budget). My choices this year include one very fine lesbian movie; I wish there were more in this vein to recommend. Some of these are more subtle than others in the manner in which they address their gay themes, but each is worth seeing and thinking about. I’ve chosen my top 12, not on the basis of whether the main characters are gay, or whether the film in question is a "gay movie." Instead, I’ve tried to choose films in which gay characters and themes are used more richly and inventively. God knows there were a number of other movies not included here that gave center stage to gays (Were the World Mine, et al.), but that didn't necessarily make their quality of a higher order. In past years, I've included the first two films from the Eating Out franchise; the latest addition, however, while not bad, just didn’t quite make the cut. (Each subsequent film in this three-part series has grown slightly less acerbic and more cutesy.)

Here, in alphabetical order, are my dozen choices:

Continued reading BEST OF 2009: Gay Films on DVD...

Comments (3)

Comments on this Entry:

(Joe Bowman on Jan 4, 2010 5:28 PM) Good list. I saw plenty of wretched gay-themed films this year, and I'm happy to see that none of them showed up here.

(Colin on Jan 4, 2010 9:34 PM) Um, Ari Graynor was the zonked best friend in Nick and Norah's. Alexis Dziena played the vile ex-girlfriend.

(Aaron Hillis on Jan 5, 2010 10:56 AM) Good eyes, Colin. I updated James' piece.

My god, can we please put this recession-wrought year out of its (and our) misery? Not that 2009 didn't have its pleasures, especially when it came to film, as it was a fruitful year for the cinema. My own New Year's resolution for 2010—again, when it comes to film—is about the same as it was last year. I'm going to strive to be progressive, pragmatic and curatorial as a critic, innovative as a distributor, and motivated enough to write and direct a second feature. I thought it might be fun to ask fellow members of the film community to share their own pledges for 2010, and was excited that less than 24 hours' notice yielded responses from over 40 filmmakers, critics, distributors, publicists, and other noteworthy voices. Be safe tonight, friends... Nah, screw that. Get into some trouble, try something radical, and let's shake things up in the new year.

]]>

"To have no shame: no 'guilty pleasures,' only pleasures; no wish for do-overs, only excitement re: the next opportunity."

David Edelstein
film critic, New York magazine

"To write (as much as my myriad obligations will allow). To ignore outside pressures and follow my own instincts (as foolish as that may be). To revisit favorite old movies. How many times did Orson Welles watch Stagecoach to prepare for Citizen Kane? Movie-watching is still the best film school."

Greg Mottola
filmmaker (Adventureland; Superbad)

"New year's resolution: Try to stay within budget. (Amazing how $60 balloons to $96.)"

Zachary Oberzan
filmmaker and star of Flooding with Love for The Kid, a one-man Rambo epic filmed in a studio apartment for under a hundred dollars

"Like Pauline Kael says, I hope to go deeper into movies—but especially into horror: besieged, underpromoted and loveably in transition (as ever). I also resolve to watch Russell Crowe's Robin Hood movie with a straight face."

Joshua Rothkopf
film critic, Time Out New York

AH: "For 2010, I'm looking forward to celebrating Milestone's 20th anniversary (!) with a special night on TCM, and working on the re-release of the amazing Word is Out, which will be screened at the Berlinale in February. Otherwise, we plan to stay small, work hard and keep the overhead LOW (pretty easy to do since we work out of our basement)."

DD: "The same as every year. To keep energetic and enthusiastic in distributing our films, and to hope that archives will continue to find and preserve more works that make our lives better."

Amy Heller & Dennis Doros
co-founders, Milestone Films

"When I began blogging about film and eventually settled into my niche as an aggregator, I consciously gave equal weight, whenever warranted, to views from nonprofessional critics. Resolved for 2010: Seek out more noteworthy opinions on movies from people who aren't critics at all, whose expertise lies elsewhere and who can bring something fresh to the conversation."

David Hudson
former editor of GreenCine Daily; now blogs at The Auteurs Daily

"I solemnly resolve to wage a one-man war on people that text during movies. I don't wave a flashlight around in your face when you go to your church, so don't do it to me, or 44oz of Diet Coke has your name on it."

Dylan Marchetti
president of Variance Films; former THINKFilm director of distribution and marketing

"In 2010, I resolve to WERQ."

Nathan Lee
freelance film critic, formerly of The New York Times and The Village Voice

"Projects shot on cell phones, projects shot in 4K or film, more organized shoots, more chaotic filmmaking—2010 will be all about embracing the extremes in filmmaking, and working in both fiction and non-fiction is no longer enough..."

PJ Raval
cinematographer (Trouble the Water) and filmmaker (Trinidad)

"To put at least one moment on film I've never seen before. Preferably several!"

Graham Reznick
filmmaker (I Can See You)

"In 2010, I resolve to continue to give thanks every single day, and to remember to connect to the larger picture instead of rattling round and round my more limited neurotic mental landscape."

Janet Pierson
producer and director of programming, South by Southwest (SXSW)

"I resolve to fast-track my long-delayed transition from writing about other people's films to making my own. And I'd sincerely like to thank our economy for the kick in the ass."

Mike D'Angelo
freelance film critic, formerly of Esquire and Time Out New York

"My New Year's Resolution is to try to make some video essays as innovative and surprising as the best work done this year by Kevin B. Lee, Steven Boone and the Red Letter Media guy, whose Phantom Menace review [on YouTube] is just mind-boggling."

Matt Zoller Seitz
critic, film editor and founder of The House Next Door

"I resolve to read more and faster, see less crap movies (and, implicitly, more good ones) and finish my film Revenge of the Mekons. God willing."

Joe Angio
filmmaker (How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company); former editor of Time Out New York

"To quote Craig Yoe: 'Resolving not to make any resolutions—life's too short.'"

Nina Paley
filmmaker (Sita Sings the Blues)

AE: "Finish the script for The Living Day, get it financed and into pre-production. Get really healthy without drinking any less."

AA: "Same as Audrey. Plus, record and release a new album."

Audrey Ewell & Aaron Aites
filmmakers (Until the Light Takes Us)

"After reading the new Robert Altman biography I resolve to make sure the next project has cinematic BALLS, even if it scares off the gatekeepers."

Craig Johnson
filmmaker (True Adolescents)

"Less je ne sais quoi, more work. More production."

Barry Jenkins
filmmaker (Medicine for Melancholy)

"2009 was probably the best artistic year of my life, so as the new year approaches, I'm trying to be more thankful than openly hoping for new and better stuff. But, that said, if 2010 wants to try and do 2009 one better, I welcome the attempt..."

Nat Sanders
editor (Humpday; Medicine for Melancholy)

"Not only production, but distribution. Innovation in a dynamic way, on every single film. Not expecting audiences to come to us, rather going to them. Telling not only the stories we want, but the ones the world most needs. Breaking traditionally-accepted boundaries of what is a film is, not only in terms of content and production, but in terms of audience engagement and collaboration. "New budget" filmmaking: high-value, low-cost. "Distribution partnerships," not "sales." Paying filmmakers for their work. Creative collaboration. Only good movies."

Thomas Woodrow
producer (True Adolescents; 2010 Sundance selection Bass Ackwards)

"Make another movie."

Damien Chazelle
filmmaker (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench)

"This isn't the first time I've made this resolution but: Spend less time watching new releases and more time brushing up on the classics. Don't know how I did it in 2009, but I saw 274 new features (38 more than '08) and still found time to watch all 61 Oscar foreign language winners. The latter project was by far the more enlightening."

Peter Debruge
associate editor (features), Variety

"My goal for 2010 is to help good films get released to audiences, and to help good filmmakers make as much money as possible."

Matt Dentler
head of programming and marketing, Cinetic Rights Management

"Cover more film festivals... and publish an epic piece about underground Japanese splatter comedy. And pay the rent doing it."

Steve Dollar
freelance film critic, formerly of the New York Sun

To see more made-for-TV movies with titles like Her Last Chance. Also, to watch more Japanese sexploitation films. And to find my inner avatar."

Ry Russo-Young
filmmaker (You Wont Miss Me)

"My goal for 2010 is to find out whether Dr. Carl Weiss killed Huey Long."

David Modigliani
filmmaker (Crawford)

"In 2010, I will direct my 2nd film and also develop six pack abs."

Mark Webber
actor (The Hottest State) and filmmaker (Explicit Ills)

"Funny, my New Year's resolution is also: In 2010, I will complete my 2nd feature film and develop six pack abs."

Laurel Nakadate
visual artist and filmmaker (Stay the Same Never Change)

"First, do a documentary web series. And then make an IMAX movie. The latter not by 2010, but definitely by 2015."

Jeremy Yaches
producer (In a Dream)

"My biggest resolution is to get back in touch with the young man who voraciously devoured cinema of every stripe back in college—working through that dog-eared copy of Danny Peary's Guide For the Film Fanatic—but has since been preoccupied by reviewing contemporary fare for a living. Basically, I feel like I'm drawing from a mental database that's about 15 to 20 years old, and need a refresher course—both to get new perspective and insight, and to remind myself why I care about movies in the first place."

Scott Tobias
film editor, The A.V. Club

"I'm finally going to get all my DVDs and CDs sleeved and shelved, to make my home less of a hovel."

Noel Murray
freelance film and culture critic, The A.V. Club and The Los Angeles Times

"I'm going to finish and release a new EP, and an album of film scores if it kills me. (And it just might!)"

Michael Montes
musician and film composer (The Windmill Movie)

"Hang out with Bill Ross more, work harder, and watch every movie that has 'Warren Beatty' written in the credits somewhere."

Jody Lee Lipes
cinematographer (Afterschool) and filmmaker (Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be the Same)

AS: "When a person proposes to make a documentary project about their life story, do the responsible thing and run in the other direction. Here's to 2010!"

DR: "My resolution is to recover from 2009."

Ashley Sabin & David Redmon
filmmakers (Invisible Girlfriend) and co-founders of Carnivalesque Films

"Back to Mono. (A lesson from P. Spector.)"

Zach Clark
filmmaker (Modern Love is Automatic)

"My aim (while also hopefully true) in 2010 is to finish a new script I'm currently drafting out, revise a script I finished in '09, and going back to revise page-by-page the one script I'd optioned. I'd also resolve to see more films in '10. Not that I slacked this past year, but I really want to watch several a week. Lastly, I'd like to become backup point guard for the Lakers, but I think the scriptwriting thing probably has better odds. Slightly."

Craig Phillips
editor, GreenCine

"To begin production on my next film, to make that a better film than my first, to write more and to do my damndest to keep my baby sister from growing up into a Right Wing Republican."

David Lowery
filmmaker (St. Nick)

"Since my 4-year-old daughter has recently declared—after watching Shaun the Sheep (from the creators of Wallace and Gromit)—that she no longer likes 'talkie movies,' I plan to make her discover the pleasures of my favorite silent comedy directors and actors, from Buster Keaton to Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, all the way to Jacques Tati, who might as well be considered silent. My other resolution, harder to keep, is to try and stay awake one Saturday night in the year to make it to the opening monologue of SNL, and maybe beyond..."

Sophie Gluck
film publicist, Gluck PR

"Kentucker Audley resolves to shoot for 12 feet down so even if he comes up short, he'll still be 6 ft. under... r.i.p. jokes."

Kentucker Audley
filmmaker (Team Picture)

"My goal for 2010 is to simplify my life as much as possible and find a healthier balance between consumption and creation."

Michael Tully
filmmaker (Silver Jew) and film blogger for Hammer to Nail

"To find one modern action movie that doesn't include at least one person screaming 'GO, GO, GO!' while running away from a fireball."

Matt Singer
on-air host of IFC News

"Sorry Aaron, just no time! Happy New Year!"

Rob Corddry
actor and comedian (The Daily Show), creator of Childrens' Hospital

]]> 7690@http://daily.greencine.com/

My god, can we please put this recession-wrought year out of its (and our) misery? Not that 2009 didn't have its pleasures, especially when it came to film, as it was a fruitful year for the cinema. My own New Year's resolution for 2010—again, when it comes to film—is about the same as it was last year. I'm going to strive to be progressive, pragmatic and curatorial as a critic, innovative as a distributor, and motivated enough to write and direct a second feature. I thought it might be fun to ask fellow members of the film community to share their own pledges for 2010, and was excited that less than 24 hours' notice yielded responses from over 40 filmmakers, critics, distributors, publicists, and other noteworthy voices. Be safe tonight, friends... Nah, screw that. Get into some trouble, try something radical, and let's shake things up in the new year.

Continued reading New Year's Resolutions for 2010...

Comments (6)

Comments on this Entry:

(Ray Pride on Dec 31, 2009 5:36 PM) To pounce upon deadlines, even one like for this, offered with 12 hours notice; alphabetize; annotate; finish the documentary; publish the books of photography. Describe better. MovieCityNews headlines editor; Newcity film reviewer; MovieCityIndie editor

(Mr. Milich on Jan 3, 2010 7:39 AM) My resolution is to dangle Aaron Hillis out the window of the IFC Center until he agrees to email his resolution request to Ray Pride, so Ray doesn't have to leave it as a comment.

(Dan Heaton on Jan 4, 2010 7:48 AM) To somehow see more films (classic and new), write better commentary about them for PopMatters and Erasing Clouds, get organized at home, and balance all that with being a new dad.

(FilmKaravan on Jan 4, 2010 8:22 AM) Bring Sita home with a DVD of SITA SINGS THE BLUES Buy on Amazon: http://amzn.com/B002G50002 Rent on Netflix: http://tinyurl.com/ybbqd7b Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "the Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told." Need another reason why? Check out Roger Eberts Review! http://tinyurl.com/ebert-on-sita

(Aaron Hillis on Jan 4, 2010 8:36 AM) But Mr. Milich, I did. Ray just missed his deadline, but glad he could still be a part here... (And I'll allow the Sita spam because it's a little film that I really like that deserves more love!)

(Mr. Milich on Jan 4, 2010 4:37 PM) Ahh... But you never requested MY resolution. And I had to type it in response to Ray's comment. Therefore, you still need to get dangled from the IFC!

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Honorable Mentions: Antichrist, Avatar, Coraline, Harmony and Me, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, The Maid, Next Day Air, Pontypool, Tyson, The Windmill Movie

]]> 7686@http://daily.greencine.com/ indieWIRE and Village Voice poll ballots (oops, just did), I've given in to birthday indulgences with a more visually dynamic presentation, alphabetically ordered and with my Top 10 notated. Merry whatever-you-celebrate, GreenCine readers!

Continued reading BEST OF 2009: Aaron's Top 32 Films...

Comments (5)

Comments on this Entry:

(KDR on Dec 28, 2009 8:25 AM) Year in, year out Aaron has one of the most interesting & varied lists...I bookmark these gems and make sure that I catch up on the ones I have managed to miss all year (or never made it out to the Mile High City!)...the one picture for each film is a great touch too. Thanks... KDR

(gates! on Dec 28, 2009 6:51 PM) Great list! Thank you!

(Frodon on Dec 29, 2009 11:54 PM) Dear Aaron Though I like your list, I am puzzled and a bit frightened by the fact it's more than 90% US movies. If you care, here is my list for 2009: http://blog.slate.fr/projection-publique/2009/12/25/meilleurs-films-2009 All the best JM Frodon

(Aaron Hillis on Dec 30, 2009 12:10 AM) Don't be frightened, Monsieur Frodon. I only count 18 of my 32 (56%) as American productions, but if even half the non-U.S. films on your list had received proper or any distribution here (poll rules), this might've changed drastically. The Greek film "Dogtooth" was technically my favorite of 2009, but it doesn't get a stateside release until 2010, and Resnais' "Wild Grass" would've ranked high on my Top 10 as well. "United Red Army," too. 2009 may have been my most American-heavy list in years, and if I had included more than just these films, I'd have given shout-outs to "Tulpan," "Serbis," "O'Horten," "Taxidermia," "Lake Tahoe," and others. Oh well, there's always next year. Thanks for reading, er... looking!

(Stella on Jan 3, 2010 8:16 PM) After years of following your lists I'm delighted to see you still doing them. This one appears solid (and challenging) as usual. Is your old blog still around? (I can't recall the name.) I'd like to have a re-peek at some of those lists gone-by for gems I may have missed. SW

]]> Features 2009-12-24T12:19:45-08:00 http://daily.greencine.com/archives/007684.html

Beginning as a strip cartoonist and then animating member of the groundbreaking comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus (celebrating its 40th anniversary this year), Terry Gilliam is most widely recognized today as the mischievous auteur behind such hallucinatory, darkly comic fantasies as Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and 12 Monkeys. His latest flight of surreal whimsy is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, credited with love as "A film from Heath Ledger and friends" since star Ledger unforeseeably died during its production:

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his troupe make up an extraordinary traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to enter the world of their imagination. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina (Lily Cole) is now rapidly approaching this milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win.

Sitting down with Gilliam in New York, I promised to talk sparingly about Ledger's death ("Good," Gilliam joked, "He's boring anyway.") so that we'd have more time to discuss the devilishly entertaining Tom Waits, why working with his producer was "child abuse," the lost projects he's most frustrated about, and all he really wants for Christmas.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:07)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Tom Waits, "Way Down in the Hole"
OUTRO: Cornelius, "Brazil"

[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 25th, and nationwide on January 8th. For more info, please visit the official site.]

]]> 7684@http://daily.greencine.com/

Beginning as a strip cartoonist and then animating member of the groundbreaking comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus (celebrating its 40th anniversary this year), Terry Gilliam is most widely recognized today as the mischievous auteur behind such hallucinatory, darkly comic fantasies as Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, and 12 Monkeys. His latest flight of surreal whimsy is The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, credited with love as "A film from Heath Ledger and friends" since star Ledger unforeseeably died during its production:

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and his troupe make up an extraordinary traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to enter the world of their imagination. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina (Lily Cole) is now rapidly approaching this milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win.

Sitting down with Gilliam in New York, I promised to talk sparingly about Ledger's death ("Good," Gilliam joked, "He's boring anyway.") so that we'd have more time to discuss the devilishly entertaining Tom Waits, why working with his producer was "child abuse," the lost projects he's most frustrated about, and all he really wants for Christmas.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (16:07)

Podcast Music
INTRO: Tom Waits, "Way Down in the Hole"
OUTRO: Cornelius, "Brazil"

[The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 25th, and nationwide on January 8th. For more info, please visit the official site.]

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Comments on this Entry:

Amongst other things, December is the magic time of the year when lists of the "Best/Most Important/Least Degrading/Most Thoughtful/Most Transgressive/Most Crowd-Pleasing Films of the Year" are compiled by critics and other buffs; once in a blue moon, you also find lists championing the "Best/Greatest/Most Entertaining/Artfulliest Films of the Decade." While there's certainly an argument to be made in favor of these self-important necessary evils, one of the many problems with these lists is that they exclude so many good, sometimes troubled films just because they don't end up where they start out.

These are the cinematic equivalent of "shaggy dog" jokes—stories that build and build only to leave the viewer with a preposterous anticlimax of an ending. Sometimes they drag the viewer along and build up the expectation that some central burning question will be solved when, in fact, it won't. Sometimes their creators bite off more than they can chew, delivering a film that's prematurely deemed an ignoble failure because it's too wrapped up in its own obtuse punchline to let us in on the joke. Whatever the reason, the fact that they don't add up in the end is what makes them so fascinating, confounding, irritating, bewitching and cruelly funny. A few of them involve God, outer space and/or other generic conventions, because nothing makes for a more enticing road to nowhere than a heady story about alien or celestial mother ships. Behold, my Top 10 Favorite Shaggy Dog Movies of the Decade That Was the Aughts. There are a good deal of SPOILERS along the way; you've been warned.

]]> 10. Izo (2004)

By that year, Takashi Miike (Audition, Zebraman) had already established himself as an international cult darling and a prolific provocateur. Nevertheless, what sets Izo apart from Miike's other noodle-scratchers is its heartfelt (though clearly unbalanced) critique of the interminable cycle of universal violence and the indomitable psychic forces that make sure history repeats itself. Yes, really, Miike said all that. Izo's titular hero tries to confront and kill the person or persons responsible for the world's problems and winds up confronting God. Miike begins with a crucifixion and ends with a legion of magnified sperm, leaving the viewer to wonder what the hell came in between the two.

9. Crank (2006)

As the film that put the endearingly spazzy co-writer/director team of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor on the map, Crank came as a shock to unprepared viewers expecting a generic action film with a tweaked set-up. Like a sleazy parody of D.O.A., Crank follows Chev Chelios (Jason Statham in what has retrospectively become his über-performance) as he tracks down the killers that gave him "The Beijing Cocktail," a synthetic drug requiring him to keep his heart rate up, lest he double over and die. The film is infused with its protagonist's convulsive energy, emulating and exaggerating the obnoxious, hyper-kinetic rhythm of its L.A. setting with hilariously crude results. Its spit-take-worthy non-resolution sets up this year's avant-retarde sequel in such a way that you have to marvel at Neveldine and Taylor's ballsy and proudly juvenile sense of humor.

8. The American Astronaut (2001)

Writer/director Cory McAbee's indie sci-fi musical western whatsit garnered a sizeable cult audience with good reason. The soundtrack, attributed to The Billy Nayer Show (a band led by singer/songwriter McAbee), is strange in the best way possible, and the film is wonderfully imaginative in its depiction of an intergalactic bounty hunter Samuel Curtis' (McAbee again) quest to deliver a real live boy to a planet of sterile women. At the same time, there's no real resolution of the film's biggest theme, namely how the alienation of space leads to sexual frustration and borderline psychotic obsession. Villainous Professor Hess is on Samuel's trail, has a crush on him, and uses a ray gun to turn everybody in his way to dust—while our hero begins to bond with "The Boy Who Actually Saw a Woman's Breast," a 16-year-old child raised as a deity on a planet of men that have never seen a woman before. In the end, "The Boy" gets delivered, his handler gets away and the bad guy just sort of disappears. If there is a moral to this story, it's that a lack of consummation can drive you crazy.

7. Frailty (2001)

What's misleading about actor Bill Paxton's brooding directorial debut is how it solves its main theological quandary. The crux of the film is whether Paxton, playing a mild-mannered father who believes he must kill demons disguised as normal people with a holy log-splitting axe, is in fact God's liberator... or just a crazy guy with an axe. His two sons, one of whom he is asked to sacrifice a la Abraham, are the only ones that get to know that answer. We see that one is in direct communication with God, continuing his father's work without ever revealing if his father ever had a holy mandate in the first place. It's like answering, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" with "Because her chicks followed after her!" That doesn't compute, but by that point, Paxton has already led us by the nose down such a grim road that even if this were just a story about an abusive father, it’d be a memorable one.

6. Dante 01 (2008)

Tragically dumped direct-to-video in the US, the first feature directed solo by Marc Caro (City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) is a gorgeous, thoroughly perplexing, pseudo-religious space odyssey. It channels Alejandro Jodorowsky's mystical, genre-mashed-up movies through the filter of Jodorowsky's broader space-opera comic book stories, creating a strange B-movie companion to Solaris. A mental patient is sent to a remote space station to test a new cure for schizophrenia, except he is actually the cure. The mystery patient, nicknamed "St. George the Dragon-slayer," is imbued with cosmic curative powers that allow him to see a person's illnesses and remove them like a practitioner of holistic medicine would a chicken liver. Because Dante 01 mostly follows St. George's interactions with his fellow inmates, the fact that only a handful of the station's inhabitants realize he is the intergalactic messiah means that the psychedelic finale comes out of nowhere. In that sense, it's a spiritually hopeful, utterly perplexing headache of a film. Thanks to Caro's keen sense of style, however, it's a beautiful migraine.

5. Doppelganger (2003)

For all intents and purposes, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Doppelganger was a way for the Japanese auteur to get some extra energy out of his system before returning to his heady, dour and all seemingly water-damaged horror films. Koji Yakusho stars as a man who meets his exact double while working on a robot chair for the handicapped. At first convinced his mirror image is out to kill him, he discovers instead that he actually wants to help finish the chair, but why is anyone's guess. The doppelganger is easily Kurosawa's least complex abstraction, a figure whose tendency to say inappropriate and inexplicable things suggests he's a projection of the main character's repressed ego. He's more aggressive when it comes to winning over the girl of their dreams, and more proactive when the fate of their invention is threatened by a loss of funds. And yet, the shadow's secretive and flamboyant actions ultimately make him a generic threat and the chair—a project that both men agree must be finished—goes out of control and heads off for parts unknown. Never trust your evil twin, least you take your eye off the prize and it drives away with its robot appendages flailing in the air like Johnny 5 on a bender.

4. The Fountain (2006)

Arguably Darren Aronofsky's greatest film, The Fountain remains his most unsung because it's his least straightforward. Using a trifurcated structure, the film follows three ambiguously linked moments in time, centuries apart, leading up to a moment of revelation that forcibly prevents the viewer from achieving a coherent resolution. Granted, it's about the mysterious border between life and death and one man's passion quest to find the Tree of Life, so it works well in that sense. Still, seeing a man impaled on a root of said tree only to have a semen-like substance dribble out of his mouth is... not at all what viewers expected. Nevertheless, the film's vision carries the absurdities and grants it one of the most unsung, fitting, utterly romantic finales on this list.

3. Inland Empire (2006)

It's remarkable that a little less than three decades after Eraserhead, David Lynch is still making people confused as sin and more than a little ireful because of it. Inland Empire split critics straight down the middle, with some loving it as ambling three-hour opus of hallucinatory skits that circuitously revolve around psychic violence and the repression of women. (The film's tagline is "A woman in trouble," after all.) Others dismissed it as self-indulgence for its own sake from a master, not unlike his Wild at Heart. Yet there's something squirming about in Lynch's scattershot imagery that relates primal fears in a new format (this is, notably, the auteur's first dabbling with digital photography—and not high-end equipment). The last scene, a sock-hop from hell, recalls the eerie opening sequence of Mulholland Dr., but that cursory similarity is not meant to make the viewer feel comfortable. Rather, it's to induce the menacing state of déjà vu that the recurring characters in the film grapple with throughout its comically sinister vignettes. Inland Empire fascinates and confounds Lynch-heads because it's so good at sharing its wealth of alienation.

2. The Wicker Man (2006)

Writer, director and playwright Neil LaBute's remake of the cult-beloved 1973 horror film is wickedly perverse. By unevenly re-imagining Anthony Shaffer's original story of a missing girl on an island community of pagan hippies as a caricature of dueling patriarchial/matriarchial ideals, LaBute won himself few fans. But the ones that are in on the jokes and recognize the film as an intentional but lopsided black comedy—in which Nic Cage plays a swinging dick in a world full of schizoid feminists—see it as an audacious failure. The original's much-hyped ending, which effectively invalidates the rest of the film's procedural plot, now actually feels satisfying thanks to Labute's spoof of that film's conservative paranoia. YouTube clips be damned: there's something about the manic energy Cage puts in the film, mixed with LaBute's ill-advised zeal, that makes their Wicker Man a lumpy treat.

1. Southland Tales (2006)

Richard Kelly's sophomore feature was received with such fire and brimstone that it's easy to overlook how much more ambitious and successful it is than Donnie Darko, his excellent debut. A gleefully puerile post-modern parody of the Information Age, Southland Tales is a sprawling film full of allusions, backstories and Kelly's usual brand of questionable spiritual provocations. It's an incomplete text, one that strings viewers along with its promises of forthcoming answers, while showing through its endless tangential questions why no such denouement will ever appear. It's a stew of unglued, context-less historical and pop culture references, from the Pixies to Norman Kefauver—the senator responsible for spearheading the 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Too many characters, too many frathouse jokes, and an unhealthy smattering of the warped sense of humor rampant throughout Philip K. Dick's more slippery stories make Southland Tales hard to swallow. But its willingness to go over the top and refusal to explain most of its mysteries also makes it endlessly rewarding.

by Simon Abrams

Amongst other things, December is the magic time of the year when lists of the "Best/Most Important/Least Degrading/Most Thoughtful/Most Transgressive/Most Crowd-Pleasing Films of the Year" are compiled by critics and other buffs; once in a blue moon, you also find lists championing the "Best/Greatest/Most Entertaining/Artfulliest Films of the Decade." While there's certainly an argument to be made in favor of these self-important necessary evils, one of the many problems with these lists is that they exclude so many good, sometimes troubled films just because they don't end up where they start out.

These are the cinematic equivalent of "shaggy dog" jokes—stories that build and build only to leave the viewer with a preposterous anticlimax of an ending. Sometimes they drag the viewer along and build up the expectation that some central burning question will be solved when, in fact, it won't. Sometimes their creators bite off more than they can chew, delivering a film that's prematurely deemed an ignoble failure because it's too wrapped up in its own obtuse punchline to let us in on the joke. Whatever the reason, the fact that they don't add up in the end is what makes them so fascinating, confounding, irritating, bewitching and cruelly funny. A few of them involve God, outer space and/or other generic conventions, because nothing makes for a more enticing road to nowhere than a heady story about alien or celestial mother ships. Behold, my Top 10 Favorite Shaggy Dog Movies of the Decade That Was the Aughts. There are a good deal of SPOILERS along the way; you've been warned.

Continued reading Shaggy Dog Movies of the '00s...

Comments (2)

Comments on this Entry:

(Lucas Moreira on Dec 21, 2009 8:06 AM) Congrats for this list! Its really good to see "Izo", "The Fountain", "INLAND EMPIRE" and "American Astronault" being remembered. I will just add "There Will Be Blood" and "Bug" here too.

(Kat on Dec 26, 2009 7:55 AM) I haven't heard of any of these. Well, Southland Tales. And where are the Coen Brothers?

Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske together form Broken Lizard, the irreverent comedy troupe behind such films as Super Troopers, Club Dread and Beerfest. In their new film and Heffernan's directorial debut, The Slammin' Salmon, the Lizards are teamed with Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan:

"Slammin" Cleon Salmon (Duncan) is a former Heavyweight Champion of the World turned celebrity owner of a high end Miami seafood restaurant, The Slammin' Salmon. A terrifying bull of a man, Salmon uses fear to rule over his misfit wait staff and on this particular night, he takes his bullying skills to a new level. In an effort to pay off a gambling debt to the Japanese Yakuza, Salmon sets up a contest to "inspire" his wait staff to sell more food than they ever have before. The top selling server wins $10,000 while the waiter in last place gets served with a broken rib sandwich—courtesy of the Champ himself. Spurred on by greed and panic, the staff resorts to backstabbing, bribery and indecent proposals in an attempt to up sell their patrons while simultaneously sabotaging their co-workers. As the hours pass, the dining room action becomes more frenzied as the contest escalates into a brawl for first place in order to win the money.

Sitting down with all five Lizards at City Crab, a Manhattan seafood restaurant where Steve Lemme once worked, the boys rowdily discussed with me their illicit experiences in food service (did I really want to know that someone had sex in the very dining room I was sitting in?), what always makes for sure-fire comic material, their favorite films of 2009, and the worst part about working with Michael Clarke Duncan—who then turns up in a cameo appearance to keep the boys in check.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (20:47)

Podcast Music
INTRO: 'Weird Al' Yankovic, "Eat It"
OUTRO: The Chemical Brothers, "The Salmon Dance"

[The Slammin' Salmon opens today in select theaters. For more info, please visit the official website.]]]> 7675@http://daily.greencine.com/

Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske together form Broken Lizard, the irreverent comedy troupe behind such films as Super Troopers, Club Dread and Beerfest. In their new film and Heffernan's directorial debut, The Slammin' Salmon, the Lizards are teamed with Oscar nominee Michael Clarke Duncan:

"Slammin" Cleon Salmon (Duncan) is a former Heavyweight Champion of the World turned celebrity owner of a high end Miami seafood restaurant, The Slammin' Salmon. A terrifying bull of a man, Salmon uses fear to rule over his misfit wait staff and on this particular night, he takes his bullying skills to a new level. In an effort to pay off a gambling debt to the Japanese Yakuza, Salmon sets up a contest to "inspire" his wait staff to sell more food than they ever have before. The top selling server wins $10,000 while the waiter in last place gets served with a broken rib sandwich—courtesy of the Champ himself. Spurred on by greed and panic, the staff resorts to backstabbing, bribery and indecent proposals in an attempt to up sell their patrons while simultaneously sabotaging their co-workers. As the hours pass, the dining room action becomes more frenzied as the contest escalates into a brawl for first place in order to win the money.

Sitting down with all five Lizards at City Crab, a Manhattan seafood restaurant where Steve Lemme once worked, the boys rowdily discussed with me their illicit experiences in food service (did I really want to know that someone had sex in the very dining room I was sitting in?), what always makes for sure-fire comic material, their favorite films of 2009, and the worst part about working with Michael Clarke Duncan—who then turns up in a cameo appearance to keep the boys in check.

To listen to the podcast, click here. (20:47)

Podcast Music
INTRO: 'Weird Al' Yankovic, "Eat It"
OUTRO: The Chemical Brothers, "The Salmon Dance"

[The Slammin' Salmon opens today in select theaters. For more info, please visit the official website.]

Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry: