Civic Boosterism
Dancing on the Edge sounds like an absurdly earnest production. A labor of love, detailing a teenage ballerina’s struggles with substance abuse… So what if everyone will mistake it for a Black Swan rip-off? You wanna know what I love? MacKenzie lays out a radical critique of every fly-by-night feature film and shitty TV movie that ever exploited the Pacific Northwest to great profit in exchange for a three-week cash injection to the local economy.
South By Southwest
South By Southwest, the annual Austin-based film/music/“interactive” festival, is in full swing even as I type this. And their 2011 Film Lineup is a grab bag of obscure titles we’ll probably see a lot more of in the coming year. We could just drill down through the data together and speculate about whose cuisine shall reign supreme, but one film immediately jumped out at me: James Gunn’s “indie black comedy” Super.
Opera 3Dique
Starting this week, opera lovers lucky enough to live near one of the seven hundred and fifty participating U.S. theaters will get a special treat: the theatrical debut of Francesca Zambello’s Royal Opera House production of Carmen. In 3D. Of course.
Why Does Everybody Love the '80s?
Topher Grace, will be tearing up the screens in Take Me Home Tonight, a self-conscious throwback to the Coming of Age dramedies of yesteryear. The South End has a nice interview with Grace and his co-star, Daily Show alum Demetri Martin. Their motives seem to be pure…but c’mon, guys. Don’t you know the ’90s are back?
Sequelitis Seizes Society
One in five of the movies set to premier this year will follow-ups to previous films, a full twenty-seven in all. Better start praying now: summer’s just around the corner.
When There's No More Room in Hell, Objectivists Will Walk the Earth
After years languishing in development hell, Objectivists are finally getting a new movie all their very own. Let the geeking out ensue!
The Princess of the Universe
Now The Hollywood Reporter reports Melissa Rosenberg, writer of the Twilight pentalogy, is in talks to pen said upcoming remake of Highlander.
Trailer Park: 2011
While I’m still good and hungover, I thought I’d take a page from everyone elses’ playbook and review the trailers that premiered during this year’s Superbowl telecast. Because why watch the damn thing when you can wait twelve hours or less and have all the trailers available on the internet.
Hacks With Sacks
Wham-O is the company behind the Hacky Sack, the Boogie board, the Slip N’ Slide, the Hula Hoop and (God help us all) the Frisbee. We all know the Hula Hoop already has a movie (The Hudsucker Proxy) and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. But what in god’s name can you do with the Frisbee? Or the Hacky Sack?
On the Coming of Garzilla
From the Things Close to My Heart Department: Legendary Pictures just announced Gareth Edwards will helm the next Godzilla movie, due to shoulder its way into the already overcrowded looking summer of 2012.
Truly Gritty
As I’m sure most readers are now aware, the Coen brothers are set to release True Grit, their latest masterpiece (a loaded word and certainly a premature assessment, but who can deny the Coens numerous achievements?) and an adaptation of Charles Portis’ brilliant novel as well as a reworking of the Hathaway/Wayne classic.
The Way Back
The Way Back, Peter Weir’s first picture since 2003’s Master & Commander, apparently made some waves at Telluride. He has a distributor and it should be in theaters come January. The synopsis couldn’t be more enticing for a filmmaker of Weir’s talents and the available stills are promising.