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.
A MacGuffin is a term coined by famous director Alfred Hitchcock (and used continuously by George Lucas) to define a plot element, generally an object, that drives the characters and the story. To illustrate, I compiled some of the most famous MacGuffins. Check my list out, and let me know all good ones I missed by leaving a comment!
7) The Matrix – The Matrix
This one is debatable as a true MacGuffin, because it’s not necessarily an object, but an environment. However, throughout the movie, the question “what is the Matrix” is asked, and answered with varying layers, with the ultimate answer establishing it as a MacGuffin. My head hurts.
(Ever wonder how all those cute little creatures transform from rough sketches on an artist’s easel to 
walking, talking, scheming cartoons? ANIMATION featuring Cartoon Network explores just that: The world of cartoons—from storyboarding to character development and drawing techniques to technical aspects like filming, computer programming and voice acting—they’re all covered in this interactive experience, at it’s the last week to see it at MOSI. Six learning stations demonstrate the principles of geometry, perception and measurement behind animation. The first stop is “History,” where cartoon-lovers can see the evolution of the craft and try their hand at using a praxinoscope, spinning three-dimensional objects to see them morph into a single animation. Then, move on to the “Animation Studio” to enlarge drawings with a pantograph and create scenes using layered cels and moving backgrounds. Next, characters from Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (pictured) pop in to show the relationship between art and math in animation at “Art in Motion.” Let out your inner mad scientist in Dexter’s Laboratory, where you’ll “hover” around the room with the help of some visual effects. At the “Sound Stage,” the Kids Next Door demonstrate the complexity of matching phrases to different mouth shapes. Then, add your own voice to a silent animation and set the mood by picking background music. Finally, see clips of popular cartoons and learn behind-the-scenes secrets at the “Cartoon Museum.” Through Sept. 7, Museum of Science and Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, $23.95 adults, $21.95 seniors, $19.95 kids ages 2-12, mosi.org. Read the rest of this entry »
They say you can see straight through to a movie’s soul when viewing its trailer. OK, nobody says that, but you know they’re thinking it. Movie trailers can be useful promotional tools when done right. Heck, some are even works of art all by themselves. Some too can be life-altering; we almost lost an entire generation of teenage girls to heart attacks when the New Moon trailer hit. So for your pleasure The Rabid One nails you with the best movie trailers of all time.
See thrill-master Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window when The Studio@620 and Push Ultra Lounge team up for the Summer Sunset Film Festival, a free movie 
screening celebrating our picturesque Florida sunset, every Monday through August 31. Rear Window’s star-studded cast includes Grace Kelly, whose boyfriend is played by a particularly paranoid Jimmy Stewart. He’s confined to his room after breaking a leg, and passes the time spying on his motley crew of neighbors. When one of them vanishes, will anyone believe his wild theory about her disappearance? 8:30 Mon., Aug. 10, Push Ultra Lounge, 128 Third St. S., St. Petersburg, studio620org.
I’m not one to pass up a juicy burger for Tofurkey, but not all nutritious foods have to be bland. In Healthy Eating 101, “Healthy Chef” Sherell White explains which foods are good for you and why. Learn about nutrient dense foods, alkaline foods and organic foods. A cooking demonstration and tasting follow the class, including a menu of gluten- and sugar-free oat cereal, pesto tilapia or tofu, gluten-free chocolate roses and more. Call in advance for reservations. Mon., Aug 10, 6:30-7:45 p.m., Aquastone Spa, 300 Beach Dr. NE, St. Petersburg, $20, 727-823-4636.
The Studio@620 and Push Ultra Lounge team up to present the Summer Sunset Movie Festival, a free movie screening in celebration of the picturesque Florida sunset at 8:30 every Monday through August 31. The July 27 selection is the Alfred Hitchcock-directed North by Northwest, a thriller that evokes “oohs and aahs” both with exciting action scenes and old-time movie hunk Cary Grant’s sexy, intellectual onscreen chemistry with blond bombshell Eva Marie Saint. Push Ultra Lounge, 128 Third St. S., St. Petersburg.
Sleep in, enjoy a late breakfast and sling some paint on a lazy summer Monday at the Color Mixing for Painters workshop. Learn the basic principals of color mixing using primary colors, fundamentals of warms and cools, complementary colors, contrast, values and intensity. Call Gayle at 727-482-9967 to register. Mon., July 27, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Artists’ Way Cooperative Gallery, 1403 Cleveland St., Clearwater, $35; includes materials, 727-738-8010.
The 
Studio@620 and Push Ultra Lounge team up to present the Summer Sunset Film Festival, a free movie screening every Monday in celebration of the picturesque Florida sunset. On the heels of last week’s romantic thriller, Charade, comes a plain ol’ thriller (and not the MJ kind) in Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage. Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, it follows Verloc, a seemingly motive-less theater owner who agrees to blow London landmarks to smithereens at the behest of an unnamed foreign terrorist group. Flimsy though the premise may be, pulses begin to pound in that familiar fashion of Hitchcock films when, along with members of Scotland Yard, Verloc’s wife begins to suspect his guilt. 8:30 p.m. Mon., June 13, Push Ultra Lounge, 128 3rd St. S., St. Petersburg, free, thestudioat620.org.
A modern Pandora’s Box that unleashes sin into the world, an animated couple who first wreck each others cars before falling in love in midair, and a touching adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novella, Old Man and the Sea. The common bind is that they’re all part of the award-winning collection of short films shown at the Extra-Large Shorts Festival. This accumulation of the most interesting and unique shorts of the last two decades includes wildly varying themes and innovative filming techniques. Old Man and the Sea, for example, utilizes the beautiful but interminable process of moving oil paint on glass to tell the story of a weathered Cuban sailor who reels in the catch of his life. Pandorama, the updated tale of Pandora’s Box, on the other hand, doesn’t use a camera at all, but includes more than 2,500 images that have been “hand-drawn, scratched, painted, and rubber stamped directly on clear leader and junk footage.” MOSI screens these and several other shorts in the IMAX Theater, so the audience is sure to gain an extra-large appreciation for these mini works of cinematic art. 10 a.m., 1:25 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mon., July 13, continues through the end of July, showtimes vary, Museum of Science and Industry, 4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa, $10.95 adults/$9.95 seniors/8.95 children, 813-987-6100. —Franki Weddington
Grace Kelly and James Stewart in Hitchcock's "Rear Window."
It’s a great weekend to be in Tampa Bay: David Sedaris, a Hitchcock festival, Record Day deals, a raft of pre-Green Day events. And there’s a veritable explosion of art. Check out Megan Voeller’s Artsqueeze weekend roundup for details; among the highlights are the ARTpool anniversary party and an opening reception at St. Pete’s Interior Motives gallery for Linda Newcomb, an artist exiled from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina who has, luckily for us, landed in St. Pete. And there’s also (see below) the 34th edition of one of the region’s biggest outdoor art shows, Mainsail in Vinoy Park.
An Evening with David Sedaris. He may talk pretty some day, but we hope not. The blessedly acerbic, occasionally misanthropic and almost always hilarious American humorist comes to town, no doubt with material from his latest book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames, but with dips (we hope) into his past musings on family dysfunction and homicidal elves. 8 p.m. Sat., April 18, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa, 813-229-7827, tbpac.org. Read the rest of this entry »
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