Daily Loaf

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Creative Loafing team prides itself on producing more Daily Loaf content each week than any individual could ever possibly comprehend. As such, you’re bound to have missed at least one worthwhile story from the pages of this blog over the last few days. Here’s a “greatest hits” list from the week that was, broken down by section:

NEWS

MUSIC

Movies, food, sex and Punky Brewster after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

Routes Music is a documentary film acting as a roving music census, taking in the true musical passions (and disgusts) of the American people. We’re traveling all across the country, stopping along the way to interview local bands, take footage of live performances and chat with anyone and everyone. Learn more about the documentary here; check out all previous entries here.

“Where eeez yer pipe?”

A 6’4 security guard towered over me, glaring.

“Where eeez yer pipe?” he repeated in a thick Islands accent.

“What?” I replied, not sure he really just asked me what I think he just asked me.

“Where eeez yer pipe?” he asked again.

“My what?” I said again, still shocked.

“Yer pipe. Yer pipe.”

Now he was aggravated. I’m enjoying feigning ignorance.

“I don’t know what you’re saying, man.”

The guard switches tactics.

“Drugs?”

I smile.

“No, no drugs.”

“OK, go ahead.”

So began my very first experience at an extended-day music festival, and only my second time ever seeing the seminal jam band, Phish. Luckily, the rest of the three-day fest at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif. went smoother than my entry.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Age of Stupid is an eco docu-drama directed by Franny Armstrong (Mc Libel, Drowned Out) and will be shown as a “first of it’s kind” worldwide live event- simulcast live from a solar tent in New York to only 440 movie theaters in the nation, in conjunction with UN Climate Week.

The film stars Pete Postlethwaite (The Usual Suspects) as a global archivist in the future who is wondering why the heck people didn’t get the clue about global climate change and stop it when we still had a chance. It also interweaves six dramatic stories of people from around the globe facing different ecological crises and features present day news clips that are featured in this future media archive.

See the trailer after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Pek Van Andel had a common idea: to film sex. However, because Andel is a scientist and not an amateur porn director, he had to mask his desire in a scientific project that would garner public funding. Thus was born the scandalous video, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal.”

While you won’t find this title at your local adult video story, it’s on Youtube. Why, you may ask, is a video of intercourse available on Youtube, and CL for that matter? Aside from the fact that this video is less sexual than an emaciated celebutant in a blurry sex tape, what is portrayed in the video in no way resembles the common image of sex. After watching what looked like two beating hearts pounding together, I had serious doubts about if what I was doing in my marital bed even constituted sex. Read the rest of this entry »

Who could forget Megan Fox’s 37-episode tenure opposite Kelly Ripa in Hope & Faith? Or her portrayal of a rich teenager in 2004’s Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen?

Everyone.

But ever since Michael Bay and Hollywood transformed the actress in 2007, reassembling her from scraps of Angelina Jolie and the magnetism of Marilyn Monroe, the actress has been everywhere.

While she’s only completed a handful of films since Transformers, including its mediocre 2009 sequel, she’s had magazine covers, spotlights, interviews, tabloid scrutinies, top Google searches and a place in the hearts or on the dartboard of your boyfriend or girlfriend.

She’s beautiful, fun to watch, loves comic books (she told GQ that “[comic book fans are] not nerds. They’re just passionate”) and she has the mouth of a sailor. (”Fuck Disney,” she offered in the same interview, immediately lamenting that “that was probably a bad move, they own everything.”) As you can see, she’s also a prophet. Megan Fox, clearly, is in the business of fulfilling fantasies.

Until now, however, I’d argue that few of her own fantasies have been fulfilled. (She is engaged to Brian Austin Green, after all. Kidding… I love you, David!) Because now… now, Megan Fox has been a centerfold. Read the rest of this entry »

James Cameron’s Avatar doesn’t hit theaters until December, but that hasn’t stopped hyped-up fan boys and girls from getting excited now. With a wall of secrecy around the project, the desire to see something (anything!) from the flick is at such a fever pitch that a free ticket giveaway today for a special preview of the film throttled the Avatar website.

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.

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Cross-posted from The Political Whore blog.

By Catherine Durkin Robinson
PoHo contributor
Catherine Durkin Robinson is a “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.

When he speaks about the impact of captivity on the mammals, he doesn’t sound like a showboater, and what might seem like New Age-y talk about dolphin intelligence is pointed up with footage that left me haunted, too. That smile, says O’Barry, is nature’s greatest deception. Dolphins smile even when they’re crying on the inside.

Living in Florida, I am used to certain theme-and-water-park douchebaggery.

Comes with the heat, bugs, and old people driving 30-mph down the highway.

But there is something vastly disturbing about certain aquariums and water parks. And not only in Florida.

(Read the rest and see the film’s trailer after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

Sam Raimi, the director behind the Spider-Man trilogy, The Evil Dead series and Drag Me To Hell, is set to direct the upcoming live-action World of Warcraft movie announced by Activison-Blizzard last week. Not only is the director of Spider-Man behind the impending blockbuster, but the producer and production house behind The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, Charles Roven and Atlas Entertainment, will be at the helm of the Warcraft movie as well.

If you ignore Spider-Man 3 for just a moment, this team seems like it might do justice to a video game in movie form. Could it finally be?!

Press Release:

Blizzard Entertainment(R) and Legendary Pictures Sign Sam Raimi to Direct Upcoming Warcraft(R) Movie

Raimi, acclaimed director of the blockbuster Spider-Man series, will bring the forces of the Horde and the Alliance to life in epic live-action film. Charles Roven’s Atlas Entertainment will produce alongside Raimi’s Stars Road Entertainment.
Read the rest of this entry »

The most popular film series since Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is subject to controversy even where none exists. Some religious groups see the film as corrupting the morals of children by depicting magic, which is the enterprise of devil. Others believe the series contains a hidden gay agenda.  Are homophobes just desperate for a new children’s movie to attack,  or does the world’s most popular wizard enjoy both being naked with horses and wand waggling boys?

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this past week:

Reconstructing a historic bat tower in Temple Terrace and how to build your own bat roost- Grant Rimbey investigates efforts in Temple Terrace to reconstruct an historic tower for bats, discusses a large community bat roost he designed for the Florida Bat Conservancy, and tells how you can purchase (or build) your own bat roost for your yard.

Summer Solstice: A brief history- Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, occurs this Sunday- June 21st. Here are a few facts you might not have known about it, from Linda Taylor.

Organics: How to eat well without breaking your budget- With the increase of demand over organic food in the last ten years you would think that a wide range of these products would be easily accessible. Here’s some some advice from Kelly Rothwell on purchasing healthy, organic food in this region without breaking your budget.
Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I received an email from a local filmmaker, Arlen Slobodow of Public Media Productions, asking me to take a look at a 17-minute video he just completed on public health and the environmental consequences of air pollution in the Tampa Bay area.  Because I am such a supporter of local independent media production, things that inspire action for the public good, and combating big polluters, I thought I’d share it.  Also, be sure to check out my interview with the film’s writer/director/producer, Arlen Slobodow, in my next post.

Video after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever heard the Vietnam-era quote, “war is not healthy for children and other living things?” It is a staunchly obvious and painstakingly reasonable appeal that cuts to the ethical core and casualties of war.  I read an article this week that reminded me of it, but instead of war, the murderous culprit in this story is climate change.

A new report by the Global Humanitarian Forum (GHF) says that global warming already kills about 300,000 people a year.  If that projection is not startling enough– or if you have more of an economic mind, and are not much swayed by stacks of human figures—the report also says that climate change costs around $125 billion in economic losses annually.
Read the rest of this entry »

The chatter of well-dressed film lovers and wine connoisseurs filled the Vinoy’s grand ballroom as guests sampled fine cheeses and appetizers, drank from a hearty wine list of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays (but no Merlots), and settled at tables for the featured film, Sideways, starring Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh. Various representatives of the Studio@620, including Chair of High Five events Joanne Johnson, welcomed guests and spoke about the Studio. Read the rest of this entry »

What is it about immortal blood sucking broodaholics that makes women swoon?  Is it the danger?  Is it the biting?  Because trust me girls, I can nibble your neck and I’ve been known to walk fast with a pair of scissors in my hand.  Or perhaps it’s something unattainable to us, the meek mortal man.

Vampire stories such as Twilight and True Blood are currently the hottest things on the market from books, to film/TV and even sex toys.  What gives?  The thought of having my blood removed from the warmth of my veins does not get me wild in the pants.  But the ladies, the ladies do love their undead bad boys.  They want to be taken to the edge and peer over the side.  It drives their juices and makes their heart feel a new sense of life.  The thought that you could be laying with your lover and in the throes of passion and he could take your life must be a mighty intoxicant.  But give me a shot of tequila over a chalice of blood any day.

Edward Cullen does have quite a few more desirable qualities than say Count Dracula.  For one he doesn’t consistently look like he’s heading to the opera.  He’s a moody, anti-social, and more Abercrombie than Hot Topic.  And you’d being lying if you couldn’t admit those eyes are DREAMY. Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently contacted by Underground Xpress, a local Tampa underground video program that covers local music, local bands and other local talents. The creative epicenter and host, Lady Grace, agreed to an interview about Underground Xpress.

How and when did UX start?
I took up videography in July of 2008 and wanted to start an internet video podcast as a learning project. Music immediately came to mind as the main concept because I have spent the majority of my life supporting the local music scene. I wanted to stick with something that I love but I also didn’t want to limit the focus to just music. The words Underground Xpress came to mind because I knew that I would want to cover more than just music and support all sorts of underground arts.

Now I had the idea, the name and I knew how to do the video podcast. Now all I needed to know was whether or not I could pull the whole together. Host it, film it, edit it and so on, when I was really only just learning everything for the first time. So…I got a video camera and a friend and I went to a concert that night to film it and interview the band. I guess we needed to see what we were made of. That night we interviewed and videotaped our first band. and as they say…. The rest is history. Now UX is on public access and the internet and it is becoming the newest source for Underground artists to be supported and promoted locally and nationally on the world wide web.

What inspired you to start Underground Xpress? Read the rest of this entry »

For the Godfatherophiles among us, and I count myself as a big one (in more ways than one), the latest issue of Vanity Fair does not disappoint.

In a long story, author Mark Seal details the Hollywood and real Mob fights behind the making of the Oscar-winning Godfather. The story’s tease pitches it this way:

In many ways, the men who made The Godfather-director Francis Ford Coppola, producer Al Ruddy, Paramount executives Robert Evans and Peter Bart, and Gulf & Western boss Charles Bluhdorn-were as ruthless as the gangsters in Mario Puzo’s blockbuster. After violent disputes over the casting of Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, they tangled with the real-life Mob, which didn’t want the movie made at all. The author recalls how the clash of Hollywood sharks, Mafia kingpins, and cinematic geniuses shaped a Hollywood masterpiece.

Seal details how producers didn’t want the short Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, among other colorful anecdotes. The piece begins:

Read the rest of this entry »

The organizers of the Gasparilla International Film Festival announced their 2009 lineup today, and the big news is three more days of programming have been added beyond the normal week that the festival used to run.

Opening night starts with a Kate Beckinsale-Matt Dillon feature, Nothing But the Truth.

The full GIFF news release today after the jump:  Read the rest of this entry »

Spring brings wondrous things, of course, but its also high season for local film festivals in the Bay area.
Here’s a rundown (in order of calendar date):

1.  Environmental Film Festival – Eckerd College (11th year)
Dates: Saturday, Feb. 21th- Saturday, Feb. 28th
Locations: Dan + Mary Miller Auditorium, Eckerd College
The skinny: Free admission to all screenings! Named CL’s 2007 ‘Best Local Film Series’. Kudos to Drs. Nate Andersen and Cathy Griggs for building the best Environment Film Festival in the Southeast United States. Arrive early for your film — the 300 seat Dan + Mary Miller auditorium is usually standing-room only for screenings!
Website: http://www.eckerd.edu/eff

More festivals after the jump …

Read the rest of this entry »

Jerad Ford: Talking about Movies

Jerad Ford

For me, Sundance has been a once in a lifetime experience. Being in Park City surrounded by thousands of people who are all here to watch films and to support independent cinema is very exciting, because everyone is here for the same cause, to support art. Everyone is willing to talk about movies and trade stories about their experiences here. it’s easy to find out which films are good and and bad just by catching the bus and striking up a conversation or even just listening to other people talk about films. I certainly didn’t expect to make friends with two middle aged men, Jim and Rene, who told me they had been coming to the festival for the past twelve years. But that’s just the kind of thing that happens, you’ll be standing in a line for something and soon you’re discussing all of the films you’ve seen and haven’t seen. I ended up talking to both Jim and Rene a handful of times during the festival, as I always seemed to find them at my screenings. Both of them wished me good luck in making films, and they promised they would keep an eye out for a film by me at Sundance after five years or so.

Rajeev: Get out of the Condo!

Rajeev Rupani

The festival in itself was a great event for me to meet individuals who were really enthusiastic and emphatic about independent cinema. While having conversations with these people, in theater ticket lines, I learnt about some famous independent filmmakers and some movies that are a must-see. Meeting some of the staff members and volunteers, at the festival, gave me a chance to get information on how the festival worked and the manner in which it was set-up. I felt that talking to and interacting with as many people possible provided me with insight and good educational information on the world of independent cinema. The only downside of the festival was that the transit system took a while getting used to because the shuttles would not follow the simple pattern provided in the guidebook. As an official Sundancer – at this point – my advice would be to enjoy the festival as much as possible and interact with people as much as you can. If you are sitting at the condo and have a bunch of free time, just go down to Main Street, or take a chance on a film that you can waitlist for. Some of the best movies that I have seen here so far were either on impulse or because a friend convinced me to go along with them. Don’t spend your time sitting in the condo or watching television, you can do that in Florida, be outgoing and make some new friends in the group that you are with: I did and had the best time of my life. The festival is the opportune time to learn and experience the most that you can about this very unique branch of cinema, and this can be an experience that will last a lifetime.” Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been in Park City for two days now, learning the ropes and exploring.  It’s always tough to get tickets for the first weekend, and while we started out with about 8 or 9 tickets a piece, purchased online, I’ve encouraged the group to push their boundaries, see films they have no ideas about going in, meet and talk to people in line and on the free shuttles, try new things.  Most seem quite eager to take me up on that.

After a flurry of blogging to complete assignments for our class before they got on the plane for Sundance, the group has slowed down a bit, focusing a bit more on taking things in.  Here are just a few excerpts from the things we have written in these two busy first days at the Sundance film festival.

Lizzie Kirkham on her first day and her first Sundance film:

Lizzie Kirkham

My first day at Sundance is extremely incomparable to my first day doing anything else. It wasn’t as drug-induced as getting my wisdom teeth taken out, nor was it as fun as my first race in alpine skiing. It was, despite the overuse of the word, unique. I have the largest collection of tickets, one of which was to the most beautiful movie Before Tomorrow… Read the rest of this entry »

… or at least you ought to try and see when you have some free time and the inclination to stretch your cinematic imagination. On the eve of a new year of discovery and hype (Sundance starts tomorrow, January 15th), it’s as good a time as any to see for yourself why indie filmmakers and distributors still pin their hopes on the festival that got its improbable start in the snowy mountains above Salt Lake City, Utah. Between Netflix and Blockbuster and your local library, you should be able to find most of these.

John Lurie and Richard Edson go to Florida in Stranger than Paradise

Sundance really hit its stride in 1985. Before that it was called the Utah/US Film Festival and hadn’t yet been sponsored by Robert Redford and the Sundance Institute. In 1985 it got a new name and gave the world an introduction to two of the most prolific and exciting filmmaking teams. Jim Jarmusch brought his second feature (following the largely unheralded debut film Permanent Vacation), and introduced the world to his own peculiar take on America in Stranger than Paradise. The Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan) stunned audiences with their visceral take on pulp film noir in Blood Simple. Their ability to create intensity through memorable images – a shovel dragging on the pavement, shafts of light that stab through the darkness as bullets penetrate the walls that shelter a terrified Frances McDormand – signaled the emergence of a powerful new team of storytellers. Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: Nate Andersen’s Eckerd College film class is preparing for their trip to Sundance, during which they’ll be blogging for Creative Loafing. Former student Ryan Conrath, who’s now in film school, sent them this open letter:

Sundance is for many just an idea. It’s something that looms over countless student productions. It’s a running joke in film school: “When we get into Sundance…” In another sense, it’s also taken very seriously. It was a big deal when a colleague’s film got into Slamdance. The same guy’s movies have even been shown at Harvard and Cannes. But to my knowledge, Sundance still remains for him the elusive beast that it is for thousands upon thousands of expectant students and professionals.

Again, as an idea, Sundance is probably the most powerful force in American film today. It is almost more of a bragging point to say that your movie got into Sundance than it is to say it was optioned by Hollywood. Read the rest of this entry »

A girl plays by the rapidly eroding shoreline, in Everything's Cool

Sundance has had a green streak for a long time. It goes deeper than the new line of organic cotton festival wear, and the reliable influx of hybrid vehicles into town for the week. Films like An Inconvenient Truth, Blue Vinyl, Everything’s Cool, The Unforeseen, Who Killed the Electric Car, Fields of Fuel, Flow, Manufactured Landscapse, Up the Yangtze all premiered at Sundance over the last few years and all focus heavily on themes of environmental change and of connections between people and their environments. The festival’s related commitment to Native American stories goes back to its beginnings.

I always pay close attention to such films because of my involvement with Eckerd College’s “Visions of Nature, Voices of Nature,” Environmental Film Festival, that I have co-directed along with its founder Cathy Griggs for the past three years, and that began as a Native American film festival. For several years, we have tried to supplement the February lineup with at least one film that had just shown for the first time at Sundance. Last year it was Up the Yangtze and The Unforeseen (which played Sundance in 2007), and before that we screened Everything’s Cool. It goes beyond documentary. We have also screened fictional feature films from Sundance, films in which place plays a prominent role, such as Chris Eyre’s Edge of America, Jake Mahaffy’s War, and Kevin Wilmott’s CSA: Confederate States of America. (Kevin Wilmott is back again this year, with a western that I discuss below). We’ll see whether we can manage to pull it off again this year.

There are lots to choose from… 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 »

Tromadancers on Park City, Main Street

Alongside the main festival, several other smaller film festivals have grown up in Park City during Sundance – giving the film lover a wide range of choices for films ranging from no-budget oddities to unique and compelling gems that might otherwise go unseen. Festivals with names like X-dance (extreme sports films), Tromadance (look up Troma films if you really want to know), and Nodance (taken over by Forrest Whittaker in 2002, but currently on hiatus), Roadance (that screens films on the side of a moving truck), Slumdance and Lapdance (you may be starting to see a trend), have come and gone, but the enduring alternative to Sundance has been the Slamdance Film Festival, running since 1995 and getting bigger and better every year. In fact, while Chris Nolan of Batman fame was put on the map when he played Memento at Sundance, it was Slamdance that gave him his first big break, screening his debut film Following in 1999.

Started by a group of filmmakers who, for whatever reason, couldn’t get their films into the increasingly competitive bigger-name fest, it has now become extremely competitive in its own right. One of the unique things about the festival is that in the competition screenings they show only films without prior theatrical distribution and with budgets under $1 million, from first-time feature directors… Read the rest of this entry »

Paper Heart, starring Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi

Sundance announced its lineup for the 2009 festival over the last couple of weeks, and there is much to anticipate. Of course the write-ups on films by the festival programmers are aimed to make each sound utterly remarkable and groundbreaking, but experience teaches that it’s not all good. So it’s always a bit tricky to figure out what will be worth watching.  As they say at the festival: follow the “buzz.”  But it’s not so simple.

I remember that the first year I brought a group to Sundance (in 2003) the biggest excitement surrounded an edgy street-racing film called Quattro Noza, that was billed as “Stan Brakhage meets The Fast and Furious” (apparently the director, Joey Curtis, studied with the late experimental filmmaker at CU-Boulder). Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly every year for the past several years, I’ve taken a group of Eckerd College students to the Sundance Film Festival.  The trip is the culmination of a January term course on American independent film.

This year, we will all be reporters, giving you the inside scoop on the latest information and gossip, describing our adventures and close encounters with fame in Park City, and letting you know which films to watch for and which to avoid.

We don’t exactly have the run of the festival, and we aren’t professional reporters, so you’ll get a unique look at the festival from the point of view of ordinary college students and a philosophy professor (me).

We have, however, been given a special welcome: Read the rest of this entry »

Download.

Today marks the inaugural episode of the Reel Projections podcast, hosted by yours truly and fellow movie lover/CL Associate Editor Joe Bardi. Featured is the first part of my recent interview with comic-book artist Dave Gibbons, who talks about his new book, Watching the Watchmen, as well as the upcoming film based on his seminal graphic novel he helped to create with writer Alan Moore, Watchmen.