Daily Loaf

Going to see The Twilight Saga: New Moon? If you aren’t already jumping out of your chair kind of excited, you should be, because we thought it was pretty much amazing…we being me, Nice Amanda and my BFF Mean Amanda. I mean, sure, we might be in our 20s and maybe this isn’t the coolest thing ever for us to love, but we do love it and you should too.

We had the distinct pleasure of checking out the sneak preview last night so if you are into random conversations about werewolves, vampires, “Star Wars for girls” and vampire dildos you should probably listen to the podcast below where the Amandas will educate you on the Twilight saga, what we thought of New Moon and what to look out for, including Jacob’s miraculous back muscles, Edward’s weird nipple, some actual funny scenes and we didn’t even mention the bad wigs! (run-on sentence? Yep, that’s how thrilled I am about this, I have lost all ability type like an adult).

Download the podcast here

And you can check out the real Creative Loafing review here: The Twilight Saga: New Moon: one Twifan’s stream-of-consciousness review

Are you a film fanatic who’s always dreamed of writing your own review of a big Hollywood release? If so, we’ve got just the offer for you: The winning bidder will accompany Associate Editor Joe Bardi (left) to a special preview screening of a major upcoming release. (That’s “preview,” as in “see it before it opens and make your friends jealous.”) Love it? Hate it? Either way, you sort out your thoughts and write the CL movie review for the chosen film — to run in both the print and online editions of Creative Loafing. After you’ve completed the review, attract readers with your own media blitz, including an appearance on CL’s Reel Projections podcast and heavy promotion of your review through Twitter, Facebook and CLTampa.com. Soon, thousands of CL readers will look to you for guidance on what movie to see next. Feel the power!

Suggested opening bid: $50

Place your bid below:

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart in New Moon

I’d like to begin by saying that when it comes to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, all faculties go down the drain. I like to consider myself a reasonably intelligent, slightly nerdy and only rarely socially inept twenty-something, which, to my mind, means that my obsessive — nay, rabid — devotion to a mediocre teen romance novel (about freaking vampires) is somewhat out of the ordinary. But millions of ladies (and dudes) of myriad ages and backgrounds can’t be wrong.

Which is why I should have been prepared for the onslaught of hysteria and hormones that accompanied last night’s pre-screening of New Moon, the anticipated sequel to Twilight that has had fans jonesing for another dose of Edward, Bella and Jacob for 12 long months (Which isn’t all that long I guess; I never had the fortitude to be a Star Wars fan.)

I know, I know; my fellow Twihards are itching to hear about the actual movie (and Taylor Lautner’s abs. I’ll save you the suspense: they’re amazing.) But I have to set up the scene. I arrived to a half-full theater of mostly women — and a few husbands and boyfriends (mine included) who had clearly been dragged along against their wills and better judgment.

Amidst unbearably high-pitched shrieks and screeches (mostly) from the audience’s younger members, the usual gaggle of TV and radio promotion people bestowed precious merch to the ultimate Twifans: she who knows the most trivia wins. By the time the movie actually began, I was thanking my lucky stars that my eardrums had somehow been spared. Boy, was I wrong. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a sports snob. I strongly believe there’s only a handful of truly great sports movies. It’s just too difficult for filmmakers to recreate the drama that takes place on the field. So when the Creative Loafers asked me to review The Blind Side, a sports movie I would never see starring an actress I really don’t like, I was skeptical.

I fell into my comfy leather chair at the Cobb Theater Cinebistro in Wesley Chapel, fully expecting to pan everything about the movie. Then a strange thing happened. The film turned out to be pretty good.

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Hard to believe, but the holiday season is in full swing at the multiplex. The last few weeks have already seen the release of some big blockbusters (2012, A Christmas Carol) and at least one surefire Oscar contender (Precious, which had a smash limited release last weekend and was just announced for a Fri., Nov. 20 opening in Tampa bay), and Hollywood promises the best is yet to come. With six weeks until January, here are 12 must-see titles to close out the decade.

Friday, November 20
WHAT’S HOT: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
They’re hot, moody and in love. Only problem: He’s a vampire who’s gotta get a move on, driving her into the arms of a group of vampire-hating werewolves. The buzz on the latest Twilight film is out of control, led by recent revelations that stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are necking in real life. The franchise is becoming more cultural touchstone than mere film series, and New Moon looks poised to propel the “Saga” into the upper echelon of high-grossing film series like Harry Potter and Star Wars. Believe it.
COUNTER-PROGRAMMING: AN EDUCATION
If all that Twilight hokum sounds a bit childish, the Tampa Theatre will be opening director Lone Scherfig’s An Education in direct competition with the vampires. Starring Carey Mulligan as a 17-year-old student who falls in love with a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard) only to get an early lesson in heartbreak, An Education made film-fest waves earlier in the year after the film picked up an Audience Choice Award at Sundance. Also of note: British novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy) co-wrote the screenplay.

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With this weekend’s release of Twilight: New Moon, the superfans’ ravenous appetite for handsomely brooding bloodhounds will be temporarily satiated. But it won’t be long before they’re craving more, more, more! So what better way to suck up than the ultimate vampire gift-pack: a New Moon reusable, aluminum water bottle (BPA-free!), two different New Moon T-shirts, a New Moon poster (size 11 1/2” x 17”), a set of New Moon Commemorative Cards, and the two-disc Special Edition DVD of the original Twilight movie. And in case that still doesn’t quiet your bloodlust (particularly the lust part), we’re throwing in the Complete First Season DVD of HBO’s red-hot series True Blood.

Current Bid: $20

Place your bid below:

When you strip away all the pomp and circumstance from rock ’n’ roll — the fashion and politics and drugs and groupies and stardom and burnout — what’s usually left is a few simple chords and a tune you can hum. In the 50-plus years since Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc. created an art form, rock ’n’ roll music has morphed from a powerful expression of freedom and rebellion into a multi-billion-dollar commodity to be packaged and sold by record company soul-suckers that view artists as cattle and the audience as ignorant rabble worthy only of being led around by the nose or dragged to court. It didn’t used to be this way.

The new film Pirate Radio remembers a time when the music was king. Well, OK, the music and a small handful of outlaw DJs floating just off the coast of Britain, pumping their pirate signal to millions of the Queen’s subjects while royally pissing off the authorities in the process. Pirate Radio isn’t a true story, per se, but elements of it are inspired by real events in 1960s Britain, when a legal loophole allowed unlicensed broadcasters to drop anchor within spitting distance of the mainland and thrill the masses with records by The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

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Walking out of 2012, the latest disaster epic by Independence Day directer Roland Emmerich, I couldn’t help but feel that the Hollywood Industrial Complex has painted itself into a corner. Make no mistake: 2012 is the disaster movie to end all disaster movies. In the film, almost all of Earth’s continents are destroyed by a combination of massive earthquakes, explosions and huge fireballs that can only be extinguished by massive tsunamis. Cars are flung around like confetti, skyscrapers crumble into dust, and famous landmarks are crushed beneath overturned aircraft carriers. Give credit to Emmerich and his special effects team; 2012 looks terrific. If all you’re looking for is some mindless, high-testosterone action on a Saturday night, I highly recommend this movie.

But for the non-adrenaline junkies in the audience, 2012 suffers from all the same flaws as most of the disaster genre: weak characterizations, preposterous plot and story, and a length (2 hours, 40 minutes) that makes the film ideal for screening on flights to Australia.

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This week has been exciting for movie fans, with the release of three interesting trailers: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Angelina Jolie spy flick Salt and the Clash of the Titans remake starring Sam Worthington.

Check them out after the jump!

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For a movie whose title references the most sinister level of encounter with an alien life form — abduction — The Fourth Kind should probably have come with a modest “buyer beware” warning.

That’s because the film is less about getting prodded and probed by little green men than it is a test of what we are willing to believe and be frightened by. As The Fourth Kind opens, actress Milla Jovovich addresses the audience directly, telling us that what we are about to watch is based on a series of strange occurrences that purportedly happened in Nome, Alaska, during the first week of October 2000.

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If Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe got together to do their own version of The Matrix, it would look a lot like Richard Kelly’s The Box. The Donnie Darko director returns with a morality tale that twists and turns around a complex story like barbed wire around a rose. No matter what notion you have of the film going in, you’ll have a drastically different one coming out; that I can guarantee you.

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For a big budget, Hollywood-style disaster film, 2012 probably wouldn’t come to mind as an “eco film” to most people. But not only does the movie serve as a message (or warning) of the effects of impending climate change, the director, Roland Emmerich, and producers took great strides to be as green as possible when making it.

Roland Emmerich, known for directing and producing other big budget disaster movies such as The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day, has been living a green lifestyle himself – driving a Prius and using solar energy to power his home – and wanted to carry over some eco-friendly practices into his filmmaking. He stated to MNN at the Environmental Media Association Awards, “After making The Day After Tomorrow, I said to myself, ‘From now on my movies should have a green footprint’.”
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Relationship Card

It used to be that film festivals in the Tampa Bay area were a rarity. No longer. Totaling up all the fundraisers, workshops and side programming that go along with the ever-expanding number of festivals, it’s clear that fest-hopping has become a year-round sport. And that’s great, because we can all stand to broaden our horizons beyond the standard Hollywood pulp that fills the multiplex each Friday. In the next few weeks, there are two festivals of note: one with lots of local appeal, and one a bit farther south that attracts filmmakers (and filmgoers) from all over the world.

Independents’ Film Festival
Hosted by Tampa’s The Education Channel, the 16th annual Independents’ Film Festival promises an intimate look at locally produced films, including a strong program of student films out of USF. I say intimate because all screenings will be held at The Education Channel’s beautiful, newly upgraded screening room with seating for about 65 people. Festival organizers also promise ample opportunity to hob-nob with filmmakers and other fest attendees, as each themed evening begins with a food and drink reception and ends with coffee and dessert. (All included in the $15 ticket price.)

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Last week I posted a column about how I thought DirecTV had taken their ad campaign a bit too far by using a scene from Tommy Boy featured dead actor Chris Farley. In the article, I had said that while I wouldn’t stop using DirecTV if I had it (which I don’t because satellite TV sucks in Florida), I don’t particularly find the commercial to be in good taste. There were several comments on Loafing’s website, some positive and others telling me to suck it. There was also a comment released by David Spade’s crew to People Magazine saying, “That [DirecTV] would include Tommy Boy in that [ad campaign], I thought was very flattering.” Spade added, “Oh, my God if [Farley] was here, I guarantee he’d be stoked that this little movie is included,” Kevin Farley, Chris’s brother says it “shows him doing what he loved to do most, making people laugh.”

Yesterday, I found a great post on /Film about the whole mess, which includes a video that might just be next for DirecTV. The clip uses several now dead celebrities — including Heath Ledger, President Kennedy and Jesus Christ. The video is meant to be funny and illustrate a point, but I’m sure some will find it offensive. However, the point is made, and in my opinion, there’s no difference between what is done in this spoof and what is shown in the Farley ad.

Check out the Heath Ledger/Jesus Christ DirecTV ad after the jump …

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It may have been the day after Halloween, but thousands of people had plenty good reason to play dress-up this past Sunday afternoon at the St. Pete Times Forum. One didn’t have to look far to find a Yoda or Princess Leia milling about the concourses. Many congregated toward a makeshift exhibit of original Star Wars props and artifacts, including a Darth Vader costume, blasters and helmets. Nearby, children and adults alike sidled up next to Stormtroopers for photo ops. It was all a prelude to the main event inside the arena, “Star Wars: In Concert.”

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[Editor's Note: This is the first post by new CL film contributor Daphne Hernandez. For reasons unknown, Wordpress swallowed this post last week and I was only able to track it down today. But hey, it's Halloween and this is a flick you might want to see this holiday weekend. So please, check out the review and excuse our tardiness.]

Cashing in on the popularity mass hysteria of vampire lore, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant falls in line with the myth-deflaters of Twilight. Vampires don’t have to kill humans to survive, bats are just rodents that live in caves, and subspecies do exist.  They’re just like you and me, but not like you and me.

Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia) lives a cookie cutter existence best conveyed in a J. Crew catalog. In an alternate universe where everyone wears pastels and drab khakis; he’s the straight-A student your mother will likely trade you in for. After his rebel-without-a-cause best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) convinces him to ditch class, they get caught and Darren is grounded. In an effort to prove to Steve he’s not the “Mr. Perfect” goody two shoes, they follow a flyer tossed out of an Addams Family-style Studebaker (with a Des-Tiny vanity plate) to the Cirque Du Freak, “The oldest continuing freak show in the Western Hemisphere.”

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I recently wrote a ‘five overrated movies’ post that garnered a fair amount of attention. I prefaced the piece by stating that film is largely a matter of personal preference and I was just sharing my opinion. I received so much response, both positive and negative, that many suggested a follow-up article. So, at the risk of offending even more readers, here goes….

I love women. And I love film. But far too often in movies, the role of the villain is written specifically for the male. When given the opportunity, however, some women have embraced the villainous role and ran with it, giving us chilling performances that have often defined their careers.

After watching Saturday Night Fever the other night, I was reminded how much I couldn’t stand Stephanie Modano, brilliantly portrayed by one-hit wonder Karen Lynn Gorney. Throughout the movie, Modano belittled John Travolta, transmitting the abuse she received from others all day directly onto him. I squirmed every time she was on screen. Travolta was no saint, but he certainly didn’t deserve her hatefulness.

That got me thinking about the most detested female characters in film, because for me, she definitely ranks. Accordingly, here’s a list of eight women who instilled us with everlasting images that left us with a sheer hatred, if not fear, for their characters. Where do they rank on your list?

Demi Moore – Indecent Proposal (1993)

Character: Diana Murphy

Famous Quote: “The dress is for sale. I’m not.”

I know what you’re going to say. This one’s on Woody Harrelson. He’s the one who ultimately allowed, if not encouraged, his wife to sleep with Robert Redford. He could have nixed that offer in a heartbeat or simply knocked Redford’s block off as soon as it was suggested. But he didn’t and he ultimately paid the price. The movie asked whether a couple’s self-respect and marital vows could be bought. The scene in which Harrelson shouted from the rooftop, begging his wife to return as Moore and Redford flew off in his helicopter, made even the least jealous man cringe. Despite trying to put the events of that evening behind them, in the end Moore lost respect for Harrelson and ended up with Redford. While Moore may not have been entirely in the wrong in this film, she was still contemptible, torn between two lovers and ultimately ending up with neither. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to a very special, spook-tacular edition of Kevin’s Korner. This week, as we get our costumes ready, our tricks perfected and our tolerance for candy pushed to its peak. Plus, I have some great movie news, including scary tale involving a Spider-Man villain, the newest film from the Broken Lizard crew, and so much more. So, grab some candy corn and read on. And have a great (and safe) Halloween!

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Paranormal Activity has been a huge success created on a miniscule budget. As with any from-out-of-nowhere hit, the urban legends related to the film are growing in popularity on the Net. By now you may have heard that Steven Spielberg was locked in his house for hours after watching the DVD, and was so freaked he brought the movie back to Dreamworks in a garbage bag. Well, that one turns out to be true. In addition, Spielberg offered a suggestion for tweaking the ending of the film, which P.A. director Oren Peli followed. (Duh!) Spielberg’s ending is the one you see in theaters today.

Last week, as the buzz around P.A. grew, the original ending of the film (shown at festivals earlier this year) hit the Internet. It’s obviously spoiler-ific, so if you haven’t seen the movie, skip it. You’ve been warned.

To see the original ending to Paranormal Activity, click below …

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I went into Michael Jackson’s This Is It fearing the worst. After months of breathless coverage following MJ’s demise, what could a hastily assembled documentary about the rehearsals for the King of Pop’s comeback 50-night stand at London’s O2 Arena possibly have to add to the spectacle? I feared This Is It would be little more than a crass attempt by the financial backers of the concerts to not only recoup their money but make a killing in the process. After seeing the film, I can report that greed has won the day.

Read more and check out the This Is It trailer after the jump …

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I’m embarrassed to confess that I had no idea who Gertrude Berg was before I watched You-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, an enlightening if somewhat stock documentary from director Aviva Kempner (The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg). A radio and television pioneer, Berg enjoyed a long career playing signature character Molly Goldberg, a stereotype-shattering Jewish matriarch who maintained a decades-long run in the public eye. Berg starred in and wrote every episode of the radio and TV incarnations of The Goldbergs (and we’re talking thousands of shows), in the process inventing the sitcom and many of the tropes we find commonplace today.

Read more of Joe Bardi’s review after the jump …
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Recently, DirecTV brought out its newest commercial in the campaign that has featured a scene from a famous movie, re-edited into a pitch for satellite TV. (You know, like this one …) The newest clip features the movie Tommy Boy, and has caused a bit of a stir as it features Chris Farley, who you’ll recall died of a drug overdose in December of 1997. So, are people being a bit prudish about this or did DirecTV actually commit a no-no?

Check out the DirecTV ad after the jump and vote whether you think the ad is kosher:

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And now, the article you’ve waited all month … err, all week … err, all day … well, you’ve waited long enough, it’s Kevin’s Korner (Insert applause here). This week we have all kinds of fun movie news, a trailer and a bit of a rant. So buckle up, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride; well, not really, but you get the idea.

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The opening prologue to Lars von Trier’s Antichrist is so visually and rhythmically arresting that it lures the viewer into a state of calm that will slowly be smeared over broken glass as the film progresses. The director seems to take great pleasure leading the viewer through a wilderness of both pleasure and horrific despair. He knows he’s about to leave you unsettled — and he likes it.

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Right now, I’m sitting in a dark, one-bedroom basement apartment in the uptown section of New Orleans. To my right is Catman , a 28-year-old heavy metal fan who got the nickname two decades ago from some cruel children after his Tourette syndrome caused him to lick his hands repeatably and wipe them on his shirt. (These days, he’s lost the habit but still wears the moniker proudly.) On the table next to him is a small studio: mixers, drum machines, two guitars including a Lyon series Washburn electric, a microphone — all connected to a Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. In a thick British accent, Catman describes his musical tastes, his past bands (from the Nundown to Albino Spiders) and the first album he ever danced to (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band). He briefly stands up and hits a button the drum machine filling the room with a techno remix of the old Super NES game, Battletoads.

On my left, two music fans hover over Catman with three video cameras. One of them, Phil Bardi, probes Catman with questions, slowly getting the musician to open up while operating two cameras on a tripod. The other is Terrence Duncan, who pans and tilts and zooms around the room, catching Catman’s musical history on HD. These videographers are with me.

We’re Routes Music – a documentary film acting as a roving music census, taking in the true musical passions (and disgusts) of folks like you and me, and folks like him and her, all across a place we like to call America.

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Under Mira Nair’s direction, Amelia is pretty enough to look at, but its lack of dramatic momentum and episodic nature are deficits the film’s handsome production values can’t overcome. As a biopic, Amelia falls short in two critical areas: It fails to sufficiently illuminate its protagonist, and it is unable to convey the weight of her accomplishments. For this, the script by Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan must also shoulder a considerable part of the blame. Perhaps because the writers seem to take for granted that their story has an automatically compelling subject at its center, they eschew illumination for melodrama. As a result, its title character remains a rather opaque figure dutifully hitting her marks in the story of her life — or, more accurately, its final 10 years.

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The Gasparilla International Film Festival is still months away, but it’s never too early for festival organizers to begin raising some scratch for Tampa’s biggest annual movie shindig. Tonight, GIFF and Brokenmold Entertainment are throwing one such event, a concert by Orlando singer-songwriter Matt Butcher and recent Best of the Bay multi-award winners Poetry n’ Lotion.

This being a fundraiser for a film fest, the music will of course be preceded by a film screening; in this case, the 2008 black comedy Visioneers, starring The Hangover’s Zach Galifianakis. Visioneers flew very under the radar upon its initial release, but has started to garner more attention now that The Hangover has made Galifianakis a mainstream attraction.

Set in a near future not unlike the present except that people keep spontaneously combusting, Visioneers ably skewers corporate culture and is something of a piece with Mike Judge’s cult classic Office Space. Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed it, The Cove is a documentary about the Japanese town of Taijii — the scene of a brutal, annual hunt and slaughter of dolphins. The film is much more than a collection of horrifying images; it’s also at turns beautiful, suspenseful, and even comical. (The Cove is also one of the first movies I reviewed for Creative Loafing, which means it holds a special place in my heart.) I got a chance to talk to the director Louie Psihoyos and star Rick O’Barry about the film. Their mission was simple: Stop the needless slaughter of dolphins. Today, it looks like they have been successful.

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We’ve been hearing about the plethora of environmental films and docu-dramas out today that preach about changing our ways concerning our food, climate change, pesticide use, and so on (Food Inc., The Age of Stupid, Fresh, A Chemical Reaction, etc.). But did you ever look at Mad Max as an “eco film”? Its portrayal of a dystopian future where fuel is scarce and society collapses as a result, thus leaving humanity with a ravaged Earth and living in anarchy. (The scenario now sounds more and more like a possible future of our own.)
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Are enough people waking up to make a difference? Or, maybe the scenario of The Age of Stupid, the film that’s circulating the globe, is a prediction of things to come.

The Student Environmental Awareness Society is starting their Environmental Film Series with the question, “Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had a chance?”

The film stars Pete Postlethwaite looks back from a devastated Earth in 2055, wondering who these people were in 2008/9 and what they were thinking to allow such a disaster as global warming.
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The only Disney franchise with a sequel good enough to get a theatrical releases is back, but should we care? The Toy Story 3-D Double Feature (TS3D) costs almost twice as much as a normal movie. 3-D movies have traditionally been a little blurry on screen, and those big goofy glasses can make your head throb. Plus, everyone saw Toy Story and Toy Story 2 years ago when they first came out (though they are now in “The Disney Vault,” and not the easiest movies to get a hold of).  You may also be wondering if Pixar’s early work still looks good over a decade later, given how far computer animation has come in the time since Toy Story’s release? So it’s not worth it? This 3-D double feature is a total rip-off, right?

WRONG! The Toy Story 3-D extravaganza is totally worth every penny!

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The 20th annual Tampa International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival concludes today, and if the lines outside the films and the comments from Executive Director Chuck Henson are any indication, this was one of the most successful seasons ever, with large increases in single ticket sales offsetting the drop in corporate sponsorship. The fest certainly felt like a success; last night was a case in point, with long lines and big laughs for the screening of Eating Out 3, and a crowded, convivial men’s party at Czar.

There are a few films left to see, culminating with the splashy Big Gay Musical (right) at 7, reviewed below by Ryan Jent. And if you missed Prodigal Sons or Fig Trees, both of which screened earlier today, read the reviews below and decide whether you need to add them to your Netflix queue; for my money, Sons was one of the most powerful films in the fest, so be sure to check it out if you missed today’s screening. Read the rest of this entry »

Had you told me years ago that there’d be a second installment of Eating Out, let alone a third, I’d have thanked you for the warning. The films are full of eye candy, sure, but living proof of why serious actors John Travolta their way into the closet.

But the now-franchise, the third installment in particular, knows exactly what it is: hunky guys, funny girls, ridiculous plots, a dash of heart and the potential for more. No one’s Oscar-bound, but those at the helm have found a winning formula. Read the rest of this entry »

Two rich families move to London. Girl meets girl at a tennis match. Girl, Leyla, begins to question her feelings about her boyfriend, and more so, about her sexuality. Other girl, Tala, fights the temptation that Leyla dangles in front of her because she’s engaged and she says that people just can’t live like that — as in two women can’t be together in a romantic relationship.
Girl, Leyla, is heartbroken that Tala won’t budge, but uses the inspiration that Tala provides her as fuel to find herself. Time passes and girl and girl get set up on a dinner date by their friends. Although girl, Tala, has broken things off with her fiancé, she still hasn’t come out to her parents. This disappoints Leyla. Girl and girl go their separate ways. Read the rest of this entry »

Patrik 1.5

Patrik 1.5 I can count on one hand the number of subtitled films I’ve watched — and prior to watching Patrik 1.5 I’d have wagered its place would be on my middle finger. The Swedish film showcases the perfect gay couple, their new suburban home and an adoption gone awry, saddling them with a homophobic, criminal teenager due to a typing error. No thanks. It all sounded a bit trite, ridden with tired plot devices. Then I watched it. Beautifully shot, its place wasn’t on my middle finger — but rather my thumb, pointing straight up and a bit green from the film’s symbolism. Goran loves to garden; his husband, Sven, loves to drink. It turns out that Patrik, 15 and not 1.5, loves to garden as well — and the film blossoms into something beautiful. I’ve never seen another Swedish film, but if they’re anything like Patrik 1.5, I’m getting a passport. (Or updating my Netflix queue.) Friday, Oct. 16, 9 p.m., Tampa Theatre. —Ryan Jent

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