Normally, I like to pick a theme for Film Blog Group Hug. Let's face it, that theme is usually related to Austin, Texas, where I live. But I enjoy variety in my reading as much as anyone else, so this week I found all kinds of interesting and notable blog entries that -- believe it or not -- had nothing to do with Austin. Or Texas. Or the South. This week's Film Blog Group Hug entries range from thoughts on distribution and exhibition, to marketing examples, to film festival coverage, and finally to miscellaneous fun and games.
Over at the Onion A.V. Club, Scott Tobias explains why recent decisions about exhibiting Death of a President and Deliver Us from Evil make him feel he's being treated like a child: "These gatekeepers have basically decided that adults need to be shielded from ideas that they deem inappropriate. They've created a special rating and it's called GFY (Go F**k Yourself)." Here in Texas, I'm wondering whether we'll get any chance at all to see Death of a President. [via ScreenGrab]
Speaking of Death of a President, Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere notes the links between the chains refusing to show the film and the Republican Party. I'm a little skeptical -- I think the motives are likely more commercial. But I'd love to see an in-depth article on theater-chain corporations and their political donations and affiliations; if such an article exists and you know about it, please share the link. [via Movie Marketing Madness]
Some days, when you're on week two of the head cold/flu bug/plague from hell and your head feels like it's going to explode from some point directly behind your right eyeball, your ability to come up with a witty blog post title gets diminished. I figure lots of other people out there are sick too -- at least I know they are here in Seattle, because the Safeway keeps running out of and restocking the Theraflu and Triaminic, and they've added a great big display of Kleenex, Gatorade and chicken noodle soup at the front of the store. When you're feeling crummy, the one thing you can do to pass the time is sit your ass on the couch, wrap up in your favorite warm and fuzzy blankie, zone out on cold medicine and internet-surf. And we, dear Cinematical readers, are here to serve you in your hour of need. You don't have to think too hard about which other film sites to check out. Just read on, we've rounded up some of the coolest film stuff out there for you right here. And there's nothing like a big group hug to make you feel better, right? So read on ...
The bloggers are out in full force for Fantastic Fest in Austin this year. In fact, bloggers primarily were responsible for reporting on the sneak preview of Apocalypto and Mel Gibson's comments afterwards, which have now hit media publications internationally. Here are a few blogging highlights:
If you want to hear the full Q&A from Gibson's appearance at Fantastic Fest, Blake from Cinema Strikes Back has an MP3 for you. (I believe you can hear our own Scott Weinberg too.) If Gibson isn't your cup of tea, Blake's also posted an MP3 and photo from the Q&A with Michael Shannon after Monday night's screening of Bug (Cinematical will have a review later this week).
Matt Dentler, one of the festival programmers, describes his reaction to Apocalypto and posts a photo from the Q&A. His description of the "massive amounts of blood and body parts" makes me feel a little better about not getting into the screening -- I'm not a fan of extreme gore.
It seems like everyone's in Toronto this week (including Cinematical). Man, I feel so left out. However, since I couldn't possibly make a dent in all the Web coverage of the festival from news sites and blogs, here are a few blogs with some interesting reviews and opinions regarding TIFF:
First and foremost, check out the Toronto Doc Blog if you haven't already. Filmmakers with docs at the festival are blogging about their experiences.
John DeFore is posting colorful anecdotes about TIFF at Austin Movie Blog. He's bemused by the security measures at even the most obscure festival offerings and wonders if this isn't the wrong approach to take when publicizing an obscure film.
Twitch is covering TIFF like crazy, cranking out reviews and interviews faster than you can say, well, twitch.
Moviepie caught five movies at TIFF on Tuesday (yes, that's one person), and is reporting on 2-3 movies on other festival days.
If you want still want to read more about TIFF, GreenCine Daily not only has daily dispatches, but also entries chock-full of links to festival coverage.
Central Texas bloggers are, for once, all talking about the same thing: Idiocracy. Austin, Dallas and Houston were three of the seven cities in which the Mike Judge movie opened last Friday, and local film bloggers grabbed the rare opportunity to write about a movie before the New Yorkers could. In addition to the film itself, alot of bloggers are also writing about how disgusted they are with Twentieth Century Fox's limited release and non-publicity accompanying the release. Here are a few reactions from Austin and Dallas film bloggers:
Austin Movie Blog: Sarah Lindner calls Idiocracy "not half-bad." She notes, "The main thing that bothered me, though, is that you can tell the movie is unloved. While I liked Idiocracy's inventive vision of the future, the film looks cheap and rushed, especially some special effects."
Dumb Distraction: Micah quotes his wife: "Funnier than Beerfest." He speculates on the reasons for the limited release: "When did a little thing like bad taste prevent a studio from releasing a film?" He also experiences some very Idiocracy-like moments on the drive home.
Matt Dentler's Blog: Matt thinks Idiocracy is definitely flawed, and that the jokes get old after a while. However, he observes that the opening sequence is "so clever it could exist as its own short film (or could be virally sent around the Web or YouTube as a guerilla marketing campaign)."
More news on a different filmmaker currently in Austin: Blake at Cinema Strikes Back alerts us to a local news clip about Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino's segment of Grind House. You can see Tarantino and Kurt Russell quite clearly over at the Texas Chili Parlor, but not that kickass car.
I'm afraid this week's edition of the Film Blog Group Hug is be rather less organized than those my colleagues have offered you in the past few months. Instead of listing blogs which focus on a particular genre or aspect of film, I'll instead introduce you to a small group made up of my personal favorites (those not linked by others in this feature, anyway) and other sites that are offering particularly interesting content at the moment.
The Reeler: Stu at The Reeler -- a news blog with a New York focus -- fits into both categories: I read him regularly, but he's also really outdone himself over the past week or so (ironically enough, he's been absent during that time). During his vacation, Stu got a collection of his illustrious friends to pinch-hit for him, and the result is posts on topics from Roman Polanski's foot fetish to Dada; from filmmaking to Jews in the movies. Well worth a browse -- every post offers something of interest.
That Little Round-Headed Boy: Yes, Charlie Brown is a film blogger -- who knew? Though my personal favorite post by TLRHB is the one on Myrna Loy (because I adore her as much as he does), virtually everything on the site is insightful, opinionated and intelligent. Plus, who else would offer posts on Elvis and Michael J. Fox, back to back?
Blowing Smoke: Not a film blog per say, Blowing Smoke is actually a group blog for people involved in the TV movie of the same name. In reality, the posts comes primarily from two people not actually connected to the movie, but that doesn't mean they're not sharp and funny. The postings cover a wide range of pop culture topics, but the absurdity of Hollywood is never far away. A warning: If you're easily offended, don't bother visiting.
Film Experience: Nathaniel is, in the best possible way, totally out of his mind -- and, for that reason, his blog would be one of my favorites were he a movie fan or not. Lucky for us, however, he is, and regularly brings his wit to bear on such subjects as his own troubling "actressexuality", the glory that is Pedro Almodovar and, just recently, an exhaustive FOUR PART examination of Moulin Rouge. Yes, that Moulin Rouge. Oh, and his favoritestarsstop by from time to time, too. Too wonderful to miss.
Kaiju Shakedown: Grady Hendrix was writing about Asian film before I was born. That's actually a lie, but my point is that if anyone in the US is qualified to pen Variety's shockingly comprehensive, entertaining blog covering all things Asian and cinematic, it's Grady. For people with DVD collections heavy on region 0 discs with burned-in subs (Or is it only my Hong Kong discs that have those?), Kaiju Shakedown is indispensable: It's a perfect mix of informed commentary and silly gossip; even when I don't have time to read all my feeds, I always make sure I get to this one.
Nistagmus, submitted to me a while back, is based in Argentina. Unfortunately for those of you who don't speak Spanish, that's the language it's in. It's a nicely-designed site, and co-administrator of the site, Martin, who submitted it to me, describes it thusly: "We just blog about the kind of movies we love, and we love "geek" films. I mean, is it a strip/cartoon/graphic novel/comic book based feature? Is an asian pop-culture weird film? It´s a 20k slacker garage film? It is a surprisingly buzzy indie horror film from middle east? We may be interested... It´s the next Brangelina of J-Lo Housewives-targeted flop? We probably don´t want to hear about it... Well I think you get the point.". I can muddle my way through just enough Spanish to figure out that if I was really fluent in Spanish, this site would be a regular read. You folks out there who do speak the language, check it out.
Over in England, Matt Grover runs The Matte Reviews, "Film reviews by Englishmen who watch films (if only we'd get paid for it!)." Most recently, Matt has written up reviews (from a "regular guy" viewpoint, not a film critic one) on Japanese flick Haze ("I just didn't know what was going on by the end"), Spielberg's Munich ("ok, film, long but good performances and some good sequences"), and a low-budget UK flick called Crooked Features (which he highly recommends). Nice versatility -- if you want a Brit point of view on film, this is a good site to peruse.
It's time once again for the Weekend Film Blog Round-up, where we take a peek around some of my fave film blogs to see what's going on ...
Over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeff Wells (who is so dedicated -- or so insane -- he was blogging from the hospital, where he was getting IV antibiotics for an exacto knife cut gone very bad) has an interesting bit up about Rupert Everett uniting with his neighbors to keep Starbucks out of their neighborhood. There's an interesting discussion going on in the comments which has ended up heading down the path of Western Imperialism and capitalism.
Nikki Finke gives the lowdown on Snakes on a Plane's less-than-stellar box office take this weekend, and wonders what the world is coming to when so many otherwise-reputable actors are lining up to do horror.
Over at The Horror Blog, this week's Horror Roundtable is "Name your favourite cinematic animal attack." Birds and spiders and mutant dogs ... so many to choose from -- what's your pick? While you're there, if you have lots of free time you might want to check out Steven's podcast of him and some friends roleplaying Snakes on a Plane.
And last, but certainly not least, a pick from the film blog grab bag: A site I've just added to my favorites, Blank Screen, "New York's Home for Film Nerds." If you're a New Yorker, and you love film, Blank Screen will keep you hopped up on all the cinema you can handle. This site is like a drug pusher for film addicts, always teasing with little tidbits of cool cinematic happenings in the Big Apple, just to get you hooked and begging for more. Of course, since I'm in Seattle, all this does is give me the film jones, but I still like reading about all the NY film stuff just to torture myself, especially when I'm feeling all artsy and depressed. Go check out all what all the hip film geeks were up to over the weekend, so you can be green with envy too.
When the Cinemasters told me it was my turn to do a Film Blog Group Hug, I knew it was time for some of the horror-heads to get a little extra time in the spotlight. Of all the most popular movie genres, few seem to inspire as many blogs, websites, fansites and message fora as Horror ... but it takes a helluva lot more than a creepy background and an affection for Fred Krueger to impress me. So to those blogs/writers who are listed below, I say thanks for maintaining an air of creativity, intelligence and passion for an oft-maligned genre. Lord knows horror could stand to get a little more respect.
It's pretty tough to come up with five or six movie titles that I've never even heard of, but the crew over at Twitch does it at least three times a week. Showing a devotion to genre flicks of all shapes and sizes (not to mention nationalities) that borders on obsessive (which is meant as a compliment), Twitch is where you go when you need some information on that new zombie flick from North Korea, or that sci-fi soft-porn flick from the southern coast of France. And yes, they show love to the English-speaking genre fare, too. Plus, and this is a big one for me, those Twitch guys really know how to write, as evidenced by this excellent feature entitled The Five Films That Made Me Love Movie Gore.
Ah, Sunday. Nothing much going on news-wise to report on, but it's a great day to kick back with a nice cup of coffee and catch up with what's going on around the world of other film blogs and film sites. Think of it as a Film Blog Group Hug, Sunday Edition.
Over on Film Threat, Paul Goebel wonders: When did Jim Belushi became such a douche?
Who says cinephiles aren't social animals? Sure, we may spend a great deal of our time with our butts planted firmly on couches and in theater seats, but we like to talk about film too, and unless you have multiple personalities that all get along, you need other people to talk to. If you don't want to leave the comfort of home for stimulating conversation, though, here are some online options to check out:
Nerve.com has launched the Nerve Film Lounge, where you can check out film reviews and interviews and chat about your opinions.
There's also indieWIRE's social networking site, indieLOOP, where you can form groups, join groups, talk about your film or other people's films, hook up with friends who are going to festivals, and more.
If you're a filmmaker, or you just really love film, you might want to check out IKlipz, where you can upload and watch short films. IKlipz members can view uploaded films, rate them, and discuss them with other members. Just this morning, I treated myself to a viewing of The Intervention, by the Duplass Brothers (they of The Puffy Chair) -- a 14 minute or so about a group of friends holding an "intervention" that has more under the surface that it first appears. Check it out.
Over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, you can put those summer doldrums to rest and flex your brain muscle by taking Professor Julius Kelp's Endless Summer Chemistry Test. Which questions like "Is it possible to know with any certainty if you could like or love someone based partially on their taste in movies? If so, what film might be a potential relationship deal-breaker for you, or the one that might just seal that deal?", you're sure to have fun with it. [ via Green Cine Daily ]
A while back we asked you to submit your film blogs to us for consideration in future Film Blog Group Hugs. And, wow! Did you ever come out in droves. I was flooded with submissions -- so many, I haven't made it through them all yet, but there are some promising blogs on my list now. Some of them, I've added to my already lengthy regular-read list, some I've put on a list for our team to pull from, and some of those, I'm pulling from today for this Blog Roundup -- consider it the best of the submissions I've had that I've managed to make it through so far. And hey, if you don't see your blog here, it doesn't mean we thought it was lame. It probably just means it's one of the 89,000 submissions I haven't had time yet to read.
(Note: I'm still looking for blogs with the following specific focuses: Pacific Northwest, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, horror, and geek. If that's you, email me your info at kim@cinematical.com).
As a cinema veteran, I am always on the look out for blogs written by theater employees, former or current, as well as vocal moviegoers. Though I'm now a full year away from the theater business, I am still interested in it. I also haven't gotten sick of popcorn, yet (I never will). Unfortunately, I haven't been having much luck with my search for cinema blogs (if you have one, let us know), but there is always the chance that Mark Cuban, co-owner of the Landmark chain, among other businesses, will discuss the theater industry on his own blog. Last week he went all out:
On July 23, Cuban unleashed "The Movie Business Challenge", which asked his readers to give ideas on how to market either the movies released by his distribution company (Magnolia Pictures) or those showing at Landmark -- he didn't specify -- and also boost movie-going. He ended up with over 900 responses, in comment and email form, many of which are fun to read, though most of the contributors don't seem to know anything about the business or about Cuban. So last Friday, he posted a response to the response, in which he discusses the need for an image makeover on the theatrical end, and pleads with the MPAA to spend money on this makeover rather than wasting money on anti-piracy tactics. He also mentions some of his own ideas for Landmark, such as the lame-sounding "Rock and Roll Theater". Check it out to see why Cuban is thinking of actually letting people talk MORE during the films at his theaters.
Here we go for another lap around the blogosphere. This time, seeing as I've been knee-deep in my new Eat My Shorts feature, I figured we would take a look to see who else was talking short films. Check it out:
Over on the Atom Films blog, Chris is freaking out over how hot it is right now in California. I feel for you man. In an attempt to vent his frustrations, Chris points us towards a short animated film called 107.6 Degrees about "two prehistoric critters on a quest for shade."
Dong Resin from Screenhead delves deep inside the twisted short film that is Randy and Steve. He notes, "Probably just as well that these two can't biologically have kids ... they'd be like Truman Capote reading The Dude's lines from The Big Lebowski, and they'd almost certainly sit next to us on a long bus ride."
Allan from short film review dissects The Whistler, a short animated film that definitely reminded me of those old school Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. Produced by Trunk films, Allan tells us The Whistler was one of Indiefilm's top ten funny choices from Aspen's Short Film Festival.
How much would it suck if you were Darth Vader's little brother and, instead of blowing up planets in an attempt to rule the galaxy, you were forced to take on the role of day shift manager at your local supermarket? Dave from Soliloqueer points us toward Chad Vader, yet another humorous and creative Star Wars fanfilm.
We're going to be expanding our Film Blog Group Hug coverage, dear Cinematical readers, so this is your big chance. If you have a blog (or just a film site, you don't have to call it a blog) and you write primarily about movies, we want to know about it. Are you an indie film freak? Can't get enough of those obscure foreign pics? Do you wax eloquent about film theory and delve deeply into the careers of directors no one outside your circle of cinepheliac friends has heard of? Know more about horror film than even our own Scott Weinberg? We want to know about your site. If we like what we see there, and you post interesting stuff on a regular basis, you just might find your blog featured here on Cinematical, where it will be read about by zillions of people.
Think you have a site that shines? Send the following info directly to kim@cinematical.com. Do NOT post it in the comments, because it won't get included on my list if it's there. Here are the guidelines for how to submit your site:
*In the subject line, please put "Film Blog Group Hug." Just that, nothing else. I get a ton of email, and that's how I'm sorting these, so if you try to be clever, it's just going to get buried beneath reams of spam emails trying to sell me Viagra, or sent to the virtual trash heap.
*Your site must have original content -- no aggregate feed reader sites, please.
*Yes, if you are a filmmaker and have a blog for your film, you can submit it.
*Yes, we will consider your site even if you have posted mean or nasty comments here on Cinematical. We're forgiving folks.
*In the body of your email, please include the following information:
YOUR NAME
NAME OF YOUR SITE
URL
TYPE OF MOVIE-RELATED CONTENT YOU COVER
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA YOU COVER (if you focus on, say, film in Austin or Burkina Faso or whatever)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR SITE
That's it, folks. Submit away, and I will faithfully check out each and every site submitted and add those that don't suck to the list of sites our madcap team of writers will be surveying for this weekly feature.
This week, Film Blog Group Hug focuses on Austin, Texas. It's almost too hot to blog here right now, but local writers are managing to share their thoughts on Austin film productions and screenings.
Heath at Metroblogging Austin describes a day (or two) as an extra on the set of The Hitcher, which is being filmed in nearby San Marcos. Sean Bean was sighted.
Austin Movie Blog posted some photos of Mark Zupan, one of the rugby players featured in the 2005 documentary Murderball ... as a zombie. Zupan is one of the many local celebs filming cameos in the movie Z: A Zombie Musical. That movie might be interesting to watch just to catch Joe Ely, Mayor Will Wynn, Dale Watson, Sara Hickman, Kinky Friedman and others all in undead makeup.
Alamo Downtown's long-running Weird Wednesday midnight series has its own MySpace page, where Alamo programmer Lars writes about upcoming films. He recently posted the August/September schedule, which includes TNT Jackson and Chained Heat (pictured above). Some of the film posters and stills posted by commenters are worth a look.
Wiley Wiggins saw Parents at a recent Terror Thursday screening at Alamo, and recorded his thoughts on the movie as video notes.
Normally, I like to pick a theme for Film Blog Group Hug. Let's face it, that theme is usually related to Austin, Texas, where I live. But I enjoy variety in my reading as much as anyone else, so this week I found all kinds of interesting and notable blog entries that -- believe it or not -- had nothing to do with Austin. Or Texas. Or the South. This week's Film Blog Group Hug entries range from thoughts on distribution and exhibition, to marketing examples, to film festival coverage, and finally to miscellaneous fun and games.
The bloggers are out in full force for 
It seems like everyone's in Toronto this week (
Central Texas bloggers are, for once, all talking about the same thing: 
I'm afraid this week's edition of the Film Blog Group Hug is be rather less organized than those my colleagues have offered you in the past few months. Instead of listing blogs which focus on a particular genre or aspect of film, I'll instead introduce you to a small group made up of my personal favorites (those not linked by others in this feature, anyway) and other sites that are offering particularly interesting content at the moment.
It's time once again for the Weekend Film Blog Round-up, where we take a peek around some of my fave film blogs to see what's going on ...
When the Cinemasters told me it was my turn to do a 
Ah, Sunday. Nothing much going on news-wise to report on, but it's a great day to kick back with a nice cup of coffee and catch up with what's going on around the world of other film blogs and film sites. Think of it as a Film Blog Group Hug, Sunday Edition.
A while back we asked you to submit your film blogs to us for consideration in future Film Blog Group Hugs. And, wow! Did you ever come out in droves. I was flooded with submissions -- so many, I haven't made it through them all yet, but there are some promising blogs on my list now. Some of them, I've added to my already lengthy regular-read list, some I've put on a list for our team to pull from, and some of those, I'm pulling from today for this Blog Roundup -- consider it the best of the submissions I've had that I've managed to make it through so far. And hey, if you don't see your blog here, it doesn't mean we thought it was lame. It probably just means it's one of the 89,000 submissions I haven't had time yet to read.
As a cinema veteran, I am always on the look out for blogs written by theater employees, former or current, as well as vocal moviegoers. Though I'm now a full year away from the theater business, I am still interested in it. I also haven't gotten sick of popcorn, yet (I never will). Unfortunately, I haven't been having much luck with my search for cinema blogs (if you have one, let us know), but there is always the chance that 
Here we go for another lap around the blogosphere. This time, seeing as I've been knee-deep in my new 
We're going to be expanding our 
This week, Film Blog Group Hug focuses on Austin, Texas. It's almost too hot to blog here right now, but local writers are managing to share their thoughts on Austin film productions and screenings.
