Daily Loaf

In this edition, I interview with web designer Gary Burge, who’s personal story includes a 7 a.m. heart attack on the day after Christmas — while Burge was at his desk at work! And stay tuned to the end for details on a Watchmen Tales of the Black Freighter DVD giveaway.

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

Kaye Breeman

I’ve just left the theater after seeing the Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle, and would go to sleep, however I’m too… well… excited. This film was great, not that “great” even comes close. Odd. Puzzling. Emphatic. Ambiguous. Invigorating. Hilarious. Unique. Well, I guess those are closer. But seriously, at what other time in your life could you feel your stomach churn with empathy, or anything at all for that matter, for a man sitting on his kitchen counter staring into the sink at a little blue fish that has recently exploded out of his butt?! This is one of the many feats that director David Russo accomplishes with this film. You are drawn to investigate emotions, implications, and ideas in a story so far-fetched and unrealistic, and yet are so entirely immersed that you hardly have time to doubt.

The film starts when Dory, a strangely religious man, loses his temper at his cubicle job and subsequently loses his job as well. After a fruitless job search, he falls in with a group of misfits that work at Spiffy Jiffy’s Janitorial Service. Late at night, while blasting heavy metal music over the loud speakers, the team cleans, investigates, and sometimes fornicates in the office building. However, this all gets messy when a product testing company decides to use them as guinea pigs for their new product: cookies that emulate oven freshness by warming in your mouth (because god forbid you actually bake your own cookies!). The cookies have some strange side effects though, including being completely addictive, inducing hallucinations and extreme sodium consumption, and quasi-pregnancies that result in the birth of a small blue fish.

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Greg Mottola

Greg Mottola got his start at the Slamdance Film Festival in 1996, when he won their Grand Jury Prize for his debut film Daytrippers. Since then, he stuck with television for several years and got to know Judd Apatow during his 3-episode stint as a director for Arrested Development. He made it big behind the wheels of the Apatow-produced and critically acclaimed raunchy teen-sex comedy blockbuster Superbad.

Now he’s back at the festival that snubbed his first flick, with one of the most anticipated premieres of Sundance 2009: Adventureland, a semi-autobiographical ’80s nostalgia piece about a recent college grad who lands a lame summer job and has the best time of his life. The film will have its world premiere in Sundance’s massive Eccles theater, January 19th. At least one of us is sure to see it and let you know what we think — it probably won’t be me, since I usually try to avoid seeing films at Sundance that I know I could see a few months later in the local theaters, and this one definitely fits that bill. For those who can’t wait, or who want to whet their appetite for our review, take a look at a few of the following clips of the film, freshly picked from the web: Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the day, films like Shaft, Foxy Brown and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song styled funkalicious jazzy soundtracks, tough black heroes and heroines and corrupt white cops and politicians. A new genre was born, both celebrating and exploiting black culture, targeting urban African-American audiences with its style and subject matter. Some of the best of these films have become cult favorites, and have influenced new filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, whose Jackie Brown paid explicit homage to the genre he’d grown up on and loved.

Shaft was remade in slick Hollywood style by John Singleton (Boyz ‘n The Hood) in 2000, featuring Samuel Jackson in the title role. But for the original low budget style and campy flair you had to go to the bargain bin DVD versions, until now.

Scott Sanders’ blacksploitation spoof Black Dynamite premieres this year as one of the “Midnight” category films at Sundance. If the trailer below is anything to go by, the funky magic and excitement appears to be back. Black Dynamite looks hilarious and hotter than TNT: Read the rest of this entry »