The week-long Fantastic Fest started on Thursday night and it's difficult for those of us involved to remember that other film events and screenings are occurring all around Austin this week. But there are plenty of choices for Austinites who aren't interested in science-fiction or horror films ... especially if you like movies with a lot of music:
Indie/arthouse movies opening in Austin this week include the documentary The War Tapes at the Dobie, Time to Leave (pictured above) at the Dobie in collaboration with Austin Film Society, and Confetti at the Arbor.
The Project Greenlight horror film Feast (which played Fantastic Fest last year) will screen at midnight tonight and Saturday at Alamo Village and the Dobie.
This week's local film festival is Cinematexas, which focuses on short, experimental films. Celebrating its eleventh year, the festival hired its first-ever guest artistic director, Ed Halter. The Austin Chronicle recently ran a great interview with Halter about his work with Cinematexas; the festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday.
If you're not drawn to short films, Austin has other moviegoing options:
The AFS@ Dobie collaboration is back, in which indie/foreign films that missed Austin finally get a regular week-long run. This week's selection is the 2005 surrealist Czech feature Lunacy, which opens today at Dobie.
It may be the only theater in the country still showing the unpublicized Mike Judge film, but Alamo on South Lamar is keeping Idiocracy around for one more week, with regular showings every day until Thursday.
Alamo Downtown is showing the documentary Tales of the Rat Fink throughout the week: It'll screen Saturday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. The film, which focuses on the life and work of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, premiered earlier this year at SXSW.
If you're in New York City and you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine yet (or even if you have), tomorrow is your chance to grab a little sunshine for free. Just show up at the Planet Hollywood in Times Square at noon, where they'll be giving out free Little Miss Sunshine passes and cool promo items, and free lemonade too, just in case you get thirsty hanging around.
Little Miss Sunshine is doing well at the box office so far, which is great news for the cast, the directors, and most of all for Fox Searchlight, which ponied up a pretty penny for the hilarious dysfunctional family road trip flick at Sundance. It's nice to see a studio take a big chance on an indie and not get burned; hopefully the success of Sunshine will encourage the Searchlight folks (and other studios) to keep on bringing us great indie films.
It's the time of year when an overly air-conditioned theater sounds absolutely wonderful, even if the movie itself is mediocre. I'm not sure I'd want to see movies outside this week, even after dark, except for the ones at Deep Eddy Pool. However, an outdoor nighttime movie would then be a good excuse for lots of frosty beverages and maybe ice cream. If you're really lucky, you were able to score tickets to the sold-out Rolling Roadshow preview of The Descent this weekend at the cool Longhorn Caverns. If not, check out the other special screenings this week in Austin.
Deep Eddy Pool is showing movies you can watch from the comfort of the refreshingly cool water. On Saturday night, you can see Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit if you pay the usual pool admission.
The Paramount's Summer Movie Series continues with another week of comedies: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum on Sunday, a Blake Edwards double-feature of The Party and The Pink Panther on Sunday and Monday, a delightful George Cukor double-bill of The Women and Adam's Rib on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a Billy Wilder/Marilyn Monroe set of Some Like It Hot and The Seven-Year Itch on Thursday and Friday.
Little Miss Sunshine, a comedy about a wildly dysfunctional family trying to get eight-year-old Olive to the Litte Miss Sunshine pageant, was one of the biggest hits at Sundance (as well as the first Sundance film to strike a deal). Now you can see the film for free at a promotional screening. The film has a stellar cast, including Steve Carrell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin. I haven't seen the film yet (I'll be reviewing it for you soon), but the buzz on this film has been awesome, and every film-biz person I know who has seen it has loved it. And hey, even if you see it and don't like it, it's free, so qwitcherbellyachin'. Go to this link to see if there's a free screening coming to a city near you.
The winners of the 2006 Seatte International Film Festival Golden Space Needle awards are French hit OSS-117: Nest of Spies, for Best Feature, and Full Disclosure, for Best Short. I'm not at all surprised that OSS-117: Nest of Spies won the audience award at SIFF -- the response to the spy spoof at the screening I attended was overwhelmingly positive. The Trials of Darryl Hunt, about a man who spent years in prison for a brutal rape and murder he didn't commit -- even after DNA testing proved he wasn't the culprit -- won for Best Documentary. I don't have the info yet on the other prizes ( was at a screening of Monster House with my kids this morning instead of at the awards announcements), but will post that info when it's available.
Summertime in Austin brings many prayers for rain, mosquitos when it finally does rain, big blockbusters in air-conditioned theaters ... and tons of free movies. I love all the free movie opportunities in town all summer long, even if most of them are meant for children. The AMC theater chain isn't extending its free summer movies to Austin, but other venues are, such as the Regal-owned Westgate and Lakeline theaters. No one usually checks to see if you're with kids, so take advantage of the wealth of free movies in theaters, coffeehouses, parks, and anywhere else imaginable.
This week's AFS@Dobie film, which will play all week at Dobie Theatre, is Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy. The 2005 documentary explores Buddhist monasteries in India and Nepal.
The Paramount kicks off its Summer Movie Classics series this weekend with the traditional screening of Casablanca, this time in a double-feature with The Maltese Falcon tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. Other screenings this week: West Side Story on Saturday and Sunday, a double-feature of To Catch a Thief and The Trouble with Harry on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Shadow of a Doubt with The Lady Vanishes on Thursday.
Alamo Lake Creek is showing Dr. Strangelove at midnight tonight (Friday) and Saturday. No, they are not offering grain-alcohol-and-rainwater drinks.
"[Cavite] ventures into rarely seen terrain - the slums of greater Manila - even as it pays homage to the Hollywood bomb-on-a-bus blockbuster Speed." -- Dennis Lim, New York Times
"[A] cross between A Single Girl ... and a great episode of 24 ... this is a great, great example of a true indie film: 2 guys, a camera and a script, traveling halfway across the world to a country considered one of the most dangerous places in the world and shoot a feature film. It makes me want to grab a camera, go to a foreign land like Africa or Colombia and start shooting away. But first I'd have to grow a pair of balls." – Moriarty, Ain't it Cool News
"Cavite tackles such pertinent issues as cultural identity, family and terrorism ... guerilla filmmaking at its finest." -- Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
"For a guerrilla-style, no-budget Yank indie to even tackle issues of jihad terror and naive Western thinking is noteworthy in itself, but [Ian] Gamazon and [Neill] Dela Llana inflame the issues with a gutsy, athletic filmmaking package that shows what can be done with a minimum of tools." -- Robert Koehler, Variety
Wanna see it yet? If you're in New York, email karina AT cinematical DOT com and we'll put you on the list for the free screening Cinematical is hosting tonight in Manhattan. After the film, I'll be leading a short Q & A with the filmmakers. Check out the distributor's spin on the basics after the jump.
We're still accepting RSVPs for our free screening of Cavite in New York City this upcoming Monday. The film has won numerous awards since debuting at Rotterdam last year, including the Someone to Watch Independent Spirit Award. I saw it again last night for the first time in awhile, and I'm all the more excited about this event. Cavite is, ostensibly, a low-budget thriller, about a Filipino-American who is called back to the home country and forced to capitulate to the cell-phone-call demands of a terrorist who claims to be holding his mother and sister hostage. It's an effective nail-biter, but at some point watching it last night I realized that the film is almost Antonionian in the way it insistently anthropomorphizes the landscape of the city in which it takes place. Cavite is much faster paced than, say, Red Desert, and it seemingly has very different politics -- but there's a dreamlike quality that the films have in common which fundamentally sets Cavite apart from any other video-shot, single-actor thriller I've ever seen.
I'll be talking about all of that stuff, as well as the film's shoestring production and the filmmakers' struggles with distribution, with writers/directors/producers/actors/sound editors/cameramen Ian Gamazon and Neill Dela Llana on Monday night after the screening. Wanna come? Send me an email at karina AT weblogsinc DOT com, with your name and plus one info, and I'll let you know when/where it's all going down. If it's within your power to be in New York City on Monday night, you do not want to miss this.
As far as I can tell, there are three
(possibly very small) groups of people who will pay to see Take the Lead (trailer): 1)Antonio Banderas fans; 2)people who love, love, love them some dancing;
3)those obsessed enough with America's Next Top
Model to go see a movie because a former contestant is in
it. (Not that I know anything about the latter, of course.) If you fall outside of these three categories, live in one
of the following cities, and have an idle interested in the movie, here's your big chance to see it, while
simultaneously denying New Line your hard-earned cash. All screenings are April 4 at 7:30pm.
Sure, Hollywood is doing cartwheels trying to stop
piracy of movies, shutting down certain internet sites and fining those who help piracy live on, but you can still
download movies legally, and for free! That is, movies that are now in the public domain and freely available to
redistribute. Public Domain Torrents has some pretty cool titles,
such as Metropolis and Night of the Living Dead, while you can also choose to visit the Internet Archive: Feature Films site to browse a few more, like
Nosferatu and Dressed To Kill. Not too shabby at all.
As you perhaps have
noticed, winter is a very, VERY slow time when it comes to free screenings. Apparently studios only careabout us during
the summer, when people are so bored, and so desperate for air condition, that they'll sit through anything. However,
thanks to JoBlo, who unearthed this Final
Destination 3 screening, we've got a nice, popcorn sequel for your mid-winter view pleasure.
All of
the screenings are on February 8 at 7pm; the links below will get you a ticket. Whether you get a seat depends on how
early you're willing to show up to stand in line.
Once again, Loews is presenting a month of themed freebies. Though December's
grouping is officially called "Holiday Classics," I've chosen to call a
spade and spade and out them all as Christmas movies. I mean, really -
as if anyone is going to see the phrase "White Christmas" and think "Hmm.
Is that the Kwanzaa flick?" And if the Grinch ever stole Chanukah, it
was in a totally different book.
Click on the city names after
each title to register for passes. (Registration is just for the next
screening; if you want to see one later in the month, wait until the week beforehand to click.)
I'm kind of at a loss here, so I'll let Fox Searchlight pitch their movie to you directly: "The Ringer spikes the uproarious with the uplifting in a story about an ordinary man who discovers what it truly means to be special when he attempts to "fix" [the] Special Olympics." Yes, it really says that. So apparently it's not just the Farrellybrothers (who produced the movie) laughing at the...differently-abled. Yeah, I'm not convinced either - but here's your chance to find out at no cost. Let us know how it is when you get back, huh?
No date set yet; if you win, you'll be contacted by December 9 with screening information. The movie opens December 23.
This one is for those of you who mock your Ryan Reynolds-loving
friends by saying cruel, hurtful things like "Dude, I would NEVER pay
money to see a movie with that guy in it." (Not that I'm speaking from
personal experience or anything - I've just heard that this happens.)
But now, you're in trouble. Whether it's because you're a freak who
thinks Chris Klein is "talented" and "funny," or because you love cute Amy Smart, or because you actually think the movie might be good, you find yourself wanting to see Just Friends - but Ryan Reynolds is in it, so unless you break into a theater, you can't go and maintain your dignity. But now, problem solved! Click on your city below and go for free. (And slowly,
Ryan will begin to work his magic on you. Just wait. He can't be
stopped.)
Links take you directly to the PDF file of the pass; all screenings are tomorrow (11/17).
If you're in New York City and you haven't seen 
Little Miss Sunshine
Some words of praise for Cavite:
Sure, Hollywood is doing cartwheels trying to stop
piracy of movies, shutting down certain internet sites and fining those who help piracy live on, but you can still
download movies legally, and for free! That is, movies that are now in the public domain and freely available to
redistribute. 
