TED Talk from 2023

This make-believe TED Talk from 2023, done in conjuncture with Ridley Scott's new film Prometheus, reminds me of EPIC.

More info.

The Black Rainbow Trailer

A creepy sci-fi flick set in the past:

Requiem for a Dream performed by Muppets

This is why they made the internet:

Save Natalie from the Best Actress Curse

Amy's Robot issues a cri de coeur to the Academy: Save Natalie from the Best Actress Curse!

...

Hm? Yes, I'm still plugging away over here on the old clickety-clackety. Stay tuned. It won't be long now.

Cuckolded by the Academy

What Oscar nomination day is like when your ex-girlfriend has slept with a nominee. [via Pop Loser]

Saddam Baron Cohen

Sacha Baron Cohen will (kinda sorta) be playing Saddam Hussein in a comic adaptation of Hussein's novel(!) Zabibah and the King.

Other Westerns

So you liked True Grit. Now what? The Coen Brothers list their favorite Westerns, including one they haven't seen all of yet. (Some uncommon choices in there.) NPR's Bob Mondello put together a starter kit of essential Westerns, which has more common selections. Which ones would you add?

Ballet Dancers on Black Swan

NYT finally files its obligatory piece on what ballerinas think of Black Swan. Despite the delay, the story is just what you'd expect.

Elvis Out, Ignatiy In

A few weeks ago, Elvis Mitchell dropped out/was canned as co-host of the new At The Movies. Now, his replacement has been named, just three weeks before the show premieres: "Roger Ebert announced Tuesday that he had chosen a young and relatively unknown Russian-born movie critic, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, to serve as a host of his new movie-review program, Ebert Presents At the Movies, which will have its premiere Jan. 21 on public television stations around the country." Read a few of his posts... The kid has to dial back his academic tone or it's going to be flat.

Francomatic

James Franco is having a moment: Oscar buzz, Oscar hosting, soap opera appearances, a book or two. And he's doubling down: Reportedly, he's wrapping up talks to write(!) and direct(!!) As I Lay Dying and Blood Meridian. Is this for real or what? It's like Joaquin Phoenix in reverse.

Dargis on Bale

As part of its extensive coverage of the awards season, Manohla Dargis takes a microscope to Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter, specifically a scene early in the film in which his character -- a boxer-turned-crackhead -- relives the zenith of his career, a fight with Sugar Ray Leonard. The article makes liberal use of hyperlinks, including one to the NYT's original capsule review of "High on Crack Street," the 1995 HBO documentary on crack addicts in Lowell, Mass., which (in real life) featured Bale's character, Dicky Eklund.

The Social Network Trailer

Somewhere

please hold while i dance a tiny jig of hope

Joss Whedon to maybe helm The Avengers movie. FOX to probably let him finish.

Seriously, is there a genre for behind-the-scenes fanfic yet? Because I kinda want someone to imagine the sexual tension (and its inevitable, completely bonkers resolution) between Joss & Robert Downey Jr. -- FB

Trolling Troll 2

Trailer for Best Worst Movie, which documents the belated reaction to Troll 2, which some have labeled the worst movie of all time. -NA

I Am Love

The trailer for Italian film I Am Love makes me want to use words like 'sumptuous' and 'ravishing' even though I have no idea why. [via]

More to the point though, I just googled 'Fuck Yeah Tilda Swinton' and no Tumblrs popped up. Travesty! Somebody rectify this please. -NA

Filming the Singularity

There are now two movies about the singularity: Transcendent Man, which debuted at Tribeca last year; and The Singularity is Near, which will show at the Sonoma Film Festival this month. Unfortunately, there's no trailer for the latter yet, but there is a description of it on IMDB. [via] -NA

The Humourous Rollerskater

I admit that "Australia's earliest film" may not be the most exciting title you've ever read, but beyond the historical interest - apparently this helps people piece together a line that leads up to Chaplin - there's just something fun about having a video from 104 years ago open in one tab and one uploaded to YouTube an hour ago in another.

Paniteur Grotesque "shows a bearded man, dressed in a top hat and smoking a cigar, rollerskating in a park before a circle of onlookers. He stops and lifts his jacket to reveal a white hand print on the bottom of his trousers in a cheeky gesture to the camera". Like ya' do.[via] -NA

The Apotheosis of Porn Parodies?

The Big Lebowski Porn. Erm, you're welcome? -NA

Fassbinder made a sci-fi movie

Rainer Werner Fassbinder made an insane number of brilliant films before his death in 1982 at 37. Newly restored is World on a Wire his obscure sci-fi movie for German TV. Dennis Lim for NYT calls it, "Head-trip cinema about virtual-reality immersions, its an analog-age 'Avatar,' a movie that anticipates 'Blade Runner' in its meditation on artificial and human intelligence and 'The Matrix' in its conception of reality as a computer-generated illusion." (via.)-JM

Alexandro Jodorowsky's comics

Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountain, El Topo) also made some really amazing comics (Check out The Metabarons.) Here's a collection of his weekly comic strips that ran in the late-60s. (via.) Also, Abel Cain/Sons of El Topo/Whatever the El Topo sequel is finally called: it's happening! -JM

Life During Wartime trailer

Trailer for Todd Solondz's latest film Life During Wartime, a semi-sequel to Happiness. Yeah, that's Paul Reubens you see in it. -JM

Norwegian Wood

Stills from the upcoming movie based on Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood. The movie features Babel's Rinko Kikuchi. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is doing the score, following his terrific soundtrack for There Will Be Blood. More in the Atlantic (via.) - JM

Scarface

Scarface produced as a school play. Amazingly not fake.

Logorama

The 2010 Acadamy Award winning animated short Logorama on Vimeo. 16 minutes. :DS

SnagFilms

Find, watch, and support documentary films online at SnagFilms :DS

Netflix Alert: Kenny

I highly recommend this addition to your Netflix queue: Kenny, the delightful Australian comedy about a portaloo delivery man. It's been a worldwide sleeper hit since its release in 2006. The accents are a quite thick, so you might find it helpful to watch it with the subtitles on. :DS

tron

Even though it looks terrible. --DG

We're All Looking At The Oscars The Wrong Way

It wasn't just the first time a woman has won Best Director (and then take Best Picture). It's the first time a woman has been able to shove that shit in her ex's face and go "See? I am better than you." Kathryn Bigelow is literally the best director of 2009. Fuck you and your little blue suicide-inducing Na'vi, James Cameron. --DG

We Live In Public

We Live In Public is now available on DVD. --RX

Reviews of Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland opens today. Here are some reviews:

• Manohla Dargis in the NY Times doesn't like it
• Kenneth Turan in the LA Times doesn't like it much either
• Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times likes it until the third act

Ebert notes that the 3D feels tacked on and adds nothing to the entertainment. --ADM

Ebert on Oprah

Gawker has compiled some great clips of Roger Ebert on Oprah. --ADM

Pink Noise at the Movies

NYT's Natalie Angier has a very poetic piece on some new research showing that over the last 50 years, the pacing of movies has tended toward the natural rhythm of the brain (and the universe). It's hard to summarize in a sentence, so Angier explains at length:

The basic shot structure of the movies, the way film segments of different lengths are bundled together from scene to scene, act to act, has evolved over the years to resemble a rough but recognizably wave-like pattern called 1/f’, or one over frequency -- or the more Hollywood-friendly metaphor, pink noise. Pink noise is a characteristic signal profile seated somewhere between random and rigid, and for utterly mysterious reasons, our world is ablush with it. Start with a picture of Penelope Cruz, say, or a flamingo on a lawn, and decompose the picture into a collection of sine waves of various humps, dives and frequencies. However distinctive the original images, if you look at the distribution of their underlying frequencies, said Jeremy M. Wolfe, a vision researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital, "they turn out to have a 'one over f' characteristic to them."

Researchers analyzed the length of shots in films and noticed the trend, which Angier suggests may explain why movies are so captivating even when they aren't that good. The researchers also seemed surprised that a montage from Rocky IV showing Rocky and Drago training separately featured matching shots of equal length for each boxer. As with the golden ratio, it seems like pink noise is the sort of thing that artists and audiences figure out before scientists do.

An accompanying graph shows how various films align (or not) with the 1/f ratio, objectively and as compared to the average for its year of release. Of all the films analyzed, Back to the Future matched 1/f’ most closely. Even so, researchers noted that there is no consistent correlation between a film's adherence to pink noise principle and its popularity with viewers. --ADM

Tribeca Film Festival expands its mission

The Tribeca Film Festival opens on April 21 in NYC. Its stated mission is "assisting filmmakers to reach the broadest possible audience, enabling the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promoting New York City as a major filmmaking center." So of course Shrek 4 is opening the festival this year. --ADM

Hurt Locker's realism

The NYT's Lens blog features an essay by a photographer/videographer who has been covering bomb squads in the Iraq War over the last six years. He says The Hurt Locker is completely unrealistic:

The film is a collection of scenes that are completely implausible  wrong in almost every respect. This time, its not just minor details that are wrong...More disturbing and implausible yet is the way the protagonist repeatedly endangers the lives of his team members. The soldiers I have worked with over the years are like brothers to one another. Never have I seen stronger bonds between men. Any soldier who routinely endangers his own life or those of his squad members would not be punched, as the movies star is in one scene. He would be demoted and kicked out of his unit.

Does it matter? --ADM

Time to Die

This short video clip brings together two of your favorite things from the 1980s: the "Tears in Rain" scene from Blade Runner and Legos. (It may have gone around before, but the creator re-cut it recently.) --ADM [via Make]

Bourne Again?

Will Matt Damon be in another Bourne movie? His message has been consistent since about the time the last one came out. But people keep asking him about it, so here he is repeating it:

"If Paul Greengrass does it and we have something to say, definitely," said Damon. (Greengrass sounded less willing: "I'm out of it. I'm going to try other things.")

But this time Damon adds an unsettling twist:

"I think the way is to extend the franchise is to create a 'Bourne identity' that different actors can take on. I could pass the identity to Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington or Ryan Gosling."

Please don't talk like that, Matt Damon. --ADM

Greengrass on Green Zone

NYT talks to Paul Greengrass and Brian Helgeland about Green Zone, which opens on March 12. In their comments, they reference Judith Miller, David Simon, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, and The French Connection. --ADM

British Critic Says Burton and Scorsese are So Ove

The Guardian's Daniel Leigh thinks we should stop pretending that Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese are still making great movies. In anticipation (or not!) of Alice in Wonderland and Shutter Island, Leigh examines why he just can't muster up any enthusiasm for either. Here he is on Tim Burton's last six films [I disagree with his assessment of Big Fish, but he has a point--am I breathlessly awaiting Alice in Wonderland because I actually think it's going to be fantastic? Not really. As Leigh argues, we should know better.] --FD

Is the world really so hard up for set-dressed flights of Gorey-esque fancy that we're rewriting history to forget 2005's drably gleaming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory retread? Or that his very finest moments in recent years could best be described as satisfactory (Corpse Bride) or efficient (Sweeney Todd)? And bear in mind that after them we're into Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes and, oh God poke my eyes out with a fantastical curlicued kebab skewer if I ever have to witness it again, Big Fish.

Fish Tank

Netflix alert: Fish Tank, which won Best British Film at the BAFTA awards last night, about a teen girl adjusting to her mother's new boyfriend. Fish Tank was in good company: it beat out An Education, In The Loop, and Moon. [Or, if you can't wait and you're super not-lazy, the movie is currently playing at IFC.] --FD

Best Movie Shots of '09

Kris Tapley, of the weblog In Contention, has posted "Top 10 Shots", his annual list of best movie shots of the year. Tapley explains reasons for each choice and includes a brief commentary from the director of photography that captured the image. Check out numbers 6-10 here and the top 5 here. --MM

Ebert Speaks

You know what's even better than the Roger Ebert Esquire interview? The response he posted on his blog today.

"I mentioned that it was sort of a relief to have that full-page photo of my face. Yes, I winced. What I hated most was that my hair was so neatly combed. Running it that big was good journalism. It made you want to read the article."

--MM

What would Werner Herzog do?

A guy walks into Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School. With a fake ID, of course.

"The school was what you'd expect. He got lock picking out of the way at the outset and quickly moved on to forgeries. He spoke of the World Trade Center antics of Phillipe Petit of Man on Wire fame, and recounted temporarily halting his shoot on the Peruvian Amazon only after getting shot at by a teenaged border guard."

--MM

Cather in the Rye- the Movie

The Guardian pays homage to the late J.D. Salinger by hypothesizing who should direct and star in the movie version of "Catcher in the Rye". The Coen brothers, Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze made it to the list, while they simply could not decide who should play the young Holden Caulfield. According to the Guardian: Joseph Gordon Levitt is too old, Anton Yelchin too Russian, Michael Cera too geeky, and Jessie Eisenberg "too Jew-fro" (?). Dakota Fanning maybe? She would kill it. --MM

Cherry Bomb

Yes! Trailer to The Runaways is out. Stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

A Single Man

The trailer to Tom Ford's A Single Man, based on the 1964 Christopher Isherwood novel, looks fantastic.

Roger Ebert on Twitter

Ebert is now on Twitter.

Arrested Screenplay

This rumor is getting tedious, but here's an update: Arrested Development script in works.

Smash Cut

In case you were wondering if Sasha Gray was going to make more non-porn movies: Smash Cut trailer. (Diablo and Quentin will both love this. No one else will.)

Diablo Cody's Star Wars

Diablo + Star Wars + Tumblr = Yep .

Mr. Herzog, Your New Teacher

Whoa. How would you like to spend the weekend with Herzog? Here you go: Rogue Film School. From the description:

Related, but more practical subjects, will be the art of lockpicking. Traveling on foot. The exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully. The athletic side of filmmaking. The creation of your own shooting permits. The neutralization of bureaucracy. Guerrilla tactics. Self reliance.

The price is not unreasonable: $1,450. [via]

Interactive Films

This is pretty excellent: HBO Imagine. They are short films, done with multiple camera angles that you control. Art Heist is a good example.

Not Bad Lieutenant, Misunderstood Lieutenant

Manohla calls Herzog's take on Bad Lieutenant "one of the best movies of his career."

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

Creepy real-life details on the new Werner Herzog:

Produced by David Lynch, the film is based on the true story of a southern California actor who kills his mother. And proving life can be stranger than fiction, Herzog said the real-life actor was known in some circles for playing the role of Orestes, who in the Greek tragedy kills his mother.

Herzog said that, when he decided to do the film, he visited the man after his release from a mental institution, where he had lived 8 1/2 years after being declared unfit to stand trial.

"From a distance, I could tell he was still kind of dangerous, still really insane," Herzog said. He recalled finding in the actor's small trailer home a poster of Herzog himself with a crucifix over it and a candle beneath. "After that meeting, I never contacted him again."

Maybe The Executives Make Things Watchable

NYT Mag has published its big Spike Jonze feature for the eventual release of Where The Wild Things Are in mid-October. It mostly poses studio execs against creative geniuses, or something like that, with quotes like: "Jonze told me that one of his models for the dialogue was the work of John Cassavetes, which may be exciting news if you're a fan of avant-garde cinema, but might not sound quite as good if you're the president of Warner Brothers." [via]

The Fourth Kind

The first time I heard about The Fourth Kind was seeing the trailer before District 9. I was into its Blair Witch meets X-Files vibe, but I stumbled on the part where the professor claims that an audio recording contains spoken Sumerian, "the oldest language in human history." From my memory of college linguistics, I immediately was like, "No fucking way do we know what Sumerian sounds like." The distance between spoken and written was still vast, with grammatical elements like verbs (much less morphemes) still in development. But then Wikipedia sorta proved me wrong by suggesting we can at least guess at the phonemes, though it's not exactly conclusive if we would be able to recognize spoken Sumerian. Linguists out there: please help!

Tarantino on Charlie Rose

Tarantino on Charlie Rose was one of the best TV experiences of 2009 so far.

Gamer

GQ wrote this of Gamer this month: "If Guy Debord wrote the movie of Society of the SPectacle after injecting a case of Ed Hardy Energy Drink into this member and playing 174 hours of Call of Duuy, that would look like Howards End compared with Gamer. Michael Bay, get ready to cry yourself a new hole." Trailer.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Trailer to Michael Moore's newest: Capitalism: A Love Story.Looks like a renegade version of the Frontline special that was probably better: Breaking the Bank.

Avatar

A decade in the making, James Cameron's Avatar finally has a trailer and a release date: December 18. Avatars, for Cameron, are the product of a human mind implanted into and alien body. It looks awesome.

Where the Wild Things Soundtrack

Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things: October 16. Karen O's soundtrack: September 29.

We All Live In A...

Included in the onslaught of Beatles retromania: a remake of Yellow Submarine.

Tarantino's Favorites

Tarantino lists his favorite films since he did Reservoir Dogs. [via]

Dorian Gray

Turning Dorian Gray into a film sounds like a good idea, but this doesn't.

Let's Put Squeaky Fromme on the One-Dollar Bill

On the occasion of the release of Squeaky Fromme: the spastic conspiratorial "Let's Put Squeaky Fromme on the One-Dollar Bill" section of Slacker. (Btw, people always remember Squeaky's relationship to Manson, but forget her actual reason for attempting to assassinate Ford: to save the redwoods. If you're in the mood for a flashback, read the 1975 Time cover story.)

Until the Light Takes Us

In 1991, Norwegian churches started to burn, just after an underground circle of metal musicians had formed. While reporters and police scrambled for answers, more and more churches went up in flames. They had no leads until Varg Vikernes, one of the architects of an underground music-art-political scene known as BLACK METAL took credit and was quickly arrested. While he was in police custody, the media ran a largely fabricated story of satanic rituals, abductions and sacrifices. This film reveals the true story behind the music, murders and church burnings, and shows what happened when these young men, who tried to change the world using music, art and violence, found that they could not control what they had created.

You may have heard of Varg before -- he was charged with four counts of arson (all historic churches) and of murdering his bandmate (via 23 stab wounds). He smiled as he was convicted to a 21-year sentence. After 16 years in prison, he was released a few months ago on parole. Here are the documentary's creators, who also seem crazy, but in the exact opposite way satanist nazis probably seem crazy, discussing the film in a sorta Christopher Guest kinda way. [via]

Eclectic Method's John Hughes Montage

It's almost like it didn't happen until Eclectic Method creates their definitive cultural news mashup.

Soderbergh on Letterboxing

The letter-box wars are back!

Television operators, the people who buy and produce things for people to watch on TV, are taking the position that films photographed in the 2.40:1 ratio should be blown up or chopped up to fit a 16:9 (1.78:1) ratio. They are taking the position that the viewers of television do not like watching 2.40 films letterboxed to fit their 16:9 screens, and that a film insisting on this is worth significantly less -- or even nothing -- to them. They are taking the position that no one will dare challenge them and risk losing revenue.

A Kiss from Tokyo

Does turning your book trailer into a movie trailer give it a better chance of being optioned?

Into the Rabbit Hole

After all those take-down notices last week, it looks like the Alice In Wonderland trailer is back up.

Anna Wintour Doc

Trailer to The September Issue.

Boo!

Next time you promise a Megan Fox red band trailer, you better deliver.

The Social Network

Still playing catchup... this news broke last week: David Fincher is possibly directing something called The Social Network, an Aaron Sorkin-written film about the creation of Facebook.

Wreckage of My Past

The trailer to the Ozzy Osbourne biopic Wreckage of My Past makes his life sorta look like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

Scary

The red band trailer for Park Chan-wook new film, Thirst. [via]

Choose Your Own Hunch

Hunch answers "Which sci-fi movie should I watch?" in that fun Hunch way.

Star Trek 360

Fun 360-degree interactive panorama of the new Star Trek bridge. [via]

The Follow Shot

On the Creepy Alluring Art of the Follow Shot. "I love this shot because it's neither first-person nor third; it makes you aware of a character's presence within the movie's physical world while also forcing identification with the character." Video includes examples.

The Girlfriend Is Experienced

Sasha Grey lists her five favorite films. 5) Herzog's Stroszek, 4) Breillat's Fat Girl, 3) Godard's Pierrot Le Fou, 2) Cassavetes' A Woman Under The Influence, 1) Carpenter's Escape from New York. Yipe.

Bad Bad Lieutenant

Trailer to the Bad Lieutenant remake, originally starring Harvey Keitel but now featuring Nicholas Cage. [via]

Krysten Ritter

Predix: Krysten Ritter is the next big something-or-other. She owned the second-best Gossip Girl epp, and just missed that almost-happened spin-off; she's recently had the best drug and sex scenes in Breaking Bad; she's the only thing saving the otherwise ignorable The Last International Playboy, BuzzKill, and How to Make Love to a Woman; girls loved her in Confessions of a Shopaholic; I loved her in Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls; and her band might be better than those three other Gossip Girl bands -- and probably able to catch some Bats For Lashes zeitgeist. Best part: like no one is following her on Twitter.

The David Lynch Interview Project

The David Lynch Interview Project.

Lens Flares Modernize Everything

Awesome, if you've seen the new Star Trek: the old Star Trek with lens flares. [via]

Whatever Works

Trailer to that sorta-anticipated Larry David / Woody Allen project: Whatever Works.

Best Worst Documentary?

Documentary about maybe the worst movie of all time: Best Worst Movie.

Tetro

That Vincent Gallo / Francis Ford Coppola project has a trailer: Tetro.

Rent Girlfriends

It's not even in theaters yet (it played Tribeca last week), but you can already rent the Soderberg/Grey project The Girlfriend Experience on Amazon.

Rip

A feature film about open source release for free: Rip: A Remix Manifesto (trailer). Stars the usual suspects: Lawrence Lessig, Girl Talk, and Cory Doctorow. Wired's Underwire has an interview with the director.

J.J. Abrams Five Faves

Pause for a second and try to guess what J.J. Abrams five favorite films are. Okay, now look. (SPOILER ALERT: Jaws, Philadelphia Story, Star Wars, Tootsie, and Rear Window.) [via]

Post-Grad

First film to chronicle millennialists' sense of privilege clashing with the current economic climate? Sure, let's say that: Trailer to Post-Grad.

Videodrome

While Cronenberg preps a film version of Robert Ludlum's The Matarese Circle (starring Tom Cruise and Denzel Washington), Videodrome is getting remade.

The Boyfriend Experience

Your favorite Sasha Grey link on this site for the next five minutes: The Girlfriend Experience trailer. If this movie isn't good, I will go on a murderous rampage against high-end hookers.

Antichrist

New Lars von Trier: Antichrist. With Charlotte Gainsbourg! [via]

Mickey Rourke Gets In The Ring

If someone had told the 16-year-old version of me that the guy from Wild Orchid was going to be in Wrestlemania with Rowdy Roddy Piper and Jimmy Superfly Snuka, I would have gone bananas.

We Live In Public

Last night I finally saw We Live In Public, in which Josh Harris tries very hard to make anyone who has used a web browser think he's a dick genius visionary. A surprising number of people were fooled by the "attack" that occurred during the Q&A, but people like to succumb to myth-making. Despite all that, I highly recommend you see it, as it makes pre-9/11 NYC look exciting and interesting in a way that nothing since has. (Various cameos in the film: Gabriel of Gawker, Calacanis, Fred Wilson, Julia and Meghan, etc.).

The Informers

It looks as though the best thing about turning Brett Easton Ellis' The Informers into a movie is reassembling an '80s cast that includes Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, and Winona Ryder. Trailer.

The Girlfriend Experience

I've been in North Dakota for the past five days. Did I miss anything? Oh, that new Steven Soderbergh / Sasha Grey flick is looking hot. (Also on steady rotation: Sasha's Twitter account, which is usually boring until it's suddenly great, just like porn.)

Dazed and Bemused

Linklater shooting "spiritual sequel" to Dazed & Confused. It will be set in the first week of college.

Where the Wild Things Are

Trailer to Where the Wild Things Are. I'm certainly no Arcade Fire fan, but the song makes the movie look almost good.

50 Greatest Documentaries

A VH1-ish countdown for the rest of us: 50 Greatest Documentaries. It's a 100-minute Channel 4 special.

Mad, Men

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix...

Where The Wild Things Aren't

First photos from the Jonze/Eggers project Where The Wild Things Are.

Fempire

Fempire? Well, it's catching on...

Examined Life

Marsh connects Facebook and Examined Life. He should be at SXSW.

Hunt not the Snark but the Snarker

"Snarking is cultural vandalism. I have arrived at this conclusion belatedly. I have been guilty of snarking, and of enjoying snarks. In the matter of snarking, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But it has grown entirely out of hand. It is time to put away childish things. I must restore my balance, view the world in a fair way, hope to inspire more appreciation than ridicule. No doubt there will always be a role for snarking, given the proper target and an appropriate venue, and I reserve the right to snark when it is deserved, as in certain movie reviews. But in general I must become more well-behaved." Who? Roger Ebert. [via]

Cherry Bomb

Dakota Fanning to play Cheri Currie in The Runaways biopic. No word yet one who's playing Lita Ford or Joan Jett, but this could be the best speculation thread of all time... Update, from the comments: Kristen Stewart to play Joan Jett. This will be the greatest movie of all time.

Bottom 100 Movies

IMDB's bottom 100 movies of all time has a new leader.

Ebert Gives Watchmen Four Stars

On the other hand, Ebert loved Watchmen.

Harder, Faster

Daft Punk is doing the music for the upcoming flick Tron 2.0. (I have no Tron jokes to make with this link. Please write your own.)

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation trailer. Now I understand why Christian Bale was so angry!

Watchmen in New Yorker

I haven't seen Watchmen yet, but here's Anthony Lane: "The good news is that you don't have to stay past the opening credit sequence -- easily the highlight of the film."

Examined Life

n+1 interviews Astra Taylor about that documentary, Examined Life, mentioned here last week.

n+1: He's always billed as "Slavoj Zizek, Philosopher and Psychoanalyst." That made me wonder, is he really a psychoanalyst in the sense that I could be his patient?

AT: Absolutely not. And he's never successfully gone through analysis. He tells this story about how he lied his way through a few sessions with Jacques-Alain Miller, Lacan's son-in-law. He would invent dreams, tell Miller he was having sexual fantasies that he was making up.

How You Know The World Is Ending

Total Recall remake.

Tetro

Whah! Tetro, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Vincent Gallo.

Trailer: Big Man Japan

Keep. Japan. Weird.

S. Darko

S. Darko is a Donnie Darko sequel but Richard Kelly has nothing to do with it. It's going direct to video, despite having Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) as a star.

Skullcap

Seriously, the only important question last night was What Was the Deal With Philip Seymour Hoffman's Skullcap Last Night?

Rourke's Spirit

Here's what you missed, Oscar voters... Mickey Rourke's Spirit Awards Acceptance Speech.

Defamer RIP

Defamer... bye bye.

Nate Silver Finally Wrong

Nate Silver redux: 4 for 6. FAITH SHATTERED. [Post-mortem.]

Lynch on Twitter

The David Lynch Twitter account is real.

Examined Life

Examined Life, a new documentary from Astra Taylor (interview; she last directed Zizek!), features interviews with philosophers Cornel West, Avital Ronell, Peter Singer, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, and Sunaura Taylor. The conceit is that the all interviews are held in motion -- walking, driving, boating. The trailer has Cornel West talking in the back of a cab. (For New Yorkers, it's opening at IFC Center on Wednesday; for Minneapolites, it's at the Walker on next month.)

Nate Silver Predicts Oscars

The words "Nate Silver predicts Oscars" might as well be read as "Spoiler alert!" [via]

Inglorious Bastards

Trailer for Tarantino's WWII epic, Inglorious Bastards Inglourious Basterds.

Ethereal Void

Ebert's getting philosophical lately. Shakespeare, SETI, existentialism, Herzog, Google, Prospero, Socrates, fractals, yikes.

Observe and Report

It's amazing how much better a movie looks if it gets a red band trailer: Observe and Report. [via]

Tokyo

And now, the far eastern triptych: Tokyo trailer. Directors: Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon-ho. Looks decent.

17 Again

So if Matthew Perry lost 20 years he would be Zac Efron? Actually, now wait... that's kinda perfect.

Chocolate

Your Thai favorite movie trailer for the next... forever: Chocolate. It's a Thai film about an autistic girl who kicks ass. [via]

We Live In Public

Winner of best documentary at Sundance: We Live In Public, about the O.G. of oversharing, Josh Harris. Trailer. The director, Ondi Timoner, also did Dig!. Other links: Cinematical review, Variety review, Spout review, original Wired profile, original New York profile, more recent Radar profile, and my most-recommended item of all time, Errol Morris' First Person, which contains a profile of Harris.

Four Stars

How film critics feel about using stars to rate films. Ebert's four-star quote: "I don't know where the stars come from, but they're absurd. Often, people will cite my stars who obviously have not read my review."

Pirating the Oscars

The annual Waxy: Pirating the 2009 Oscars.

Save Kristen Bell

Veronica Mars Movie Finally in the Works.

Oscars

Oscars were just announced. Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader for best picture. WALL-E and The Wrestler got screwed. The rest inside.

Mike Tyson at Sundance

David Carr interviewing Mike Tyson at Sundance about the new documentary, Tyson:

Tyson: I'm getting over all this, all these cameras. That's a straight ticket back to picking up cocaine. All of this is very frightening and intimidating.
Carr: Will you tell me more about how that becomes a trigger. I just walked down the street with you, and I couldn't stand being that closely observed, I couldn't stand people swarming around me. How does that impact how you see yourself?
Tyson: You being a former addict yourself, I don't know how it works in your particular situation. But I never get high because I'm depressed or sad. I always get high because everything is going great.
Carr: Right. Everything's going your way.
Tyson: Do you understand that?
Carr: Oh, absolutely.

Hideous

First clip from Krasinski's flick, Hideous, based upon the David Foster Wallace book, debuting at Sundance.

Miss Double G

Rachel in Daily Beast: the history of Miss Double G, the person who hands you the Golden Globe. (It's usually a famous person's kid.)

9

Tim Burton is finally back: 9.

SFX

Top 50 Movie Special Effects Shots, with video clips. Pretty great. [via]

Andy Warhol meets Steven Spielberg

Your favorite random video clip for the next five minutes: Andy Warhol interviews a stoned Steven Spielberg. And Bianca Jagger is there too. Wild.

Slacker

The entirety of the movie Slacker is on YouTube. At about 27:30 is the infamous Madonna pap smear scene.

Criterion Top 10

People who have recently made top 10 lists for Criterion: Adam Yauch, Neil LaBute, Richard Linklater, Diablo Cody, Steve Buscemi, Jonathan Lethem, and many more.

Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation trailer.

Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake

Brett Easton Ellis is working on a screenplay about the tragedy of Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake.

YouTube Trailer for YouTube Documentary

YouTube Trailer for YouTube Documentary.

This Is The End

Gallery of "The End" screens from movies.

Singularity

Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near is being made into a movie.

The Wrestler

Several things that don't make sense together: Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky + former Onion editor Robert Siegel + Wild Orchid actor Mickey Rourke + Jersey singer Bruce Springsteen = The Wrestler. [via]

The Documentarian Critic?

"Auteurism had Andrew Sarris. Abstract expressionism had Clement Greenberg. Punk rock had Lester Bangs. Where is the equivalent voice for today's documentary scene?" [via]

Criterion

Criterion has introduced an online store where you pay $5 to watch a film online, and then that money can be applied to the purchase of the physical DVD.

2012

Oh for fucks sake. Didn't we go through a millennial scare once already? Trailer to 2012. (Though that's an interesting tagline at the end: "FIND OUT THE TRUTH. GOOGLE SEARCH: 2012" -- scary!)

Cyborg Documentarian

"I am a filmmaker who lost an eye so naturally I decided to modify my prosthetic eye into a video camera." Whoa. [via]

Star Trek: The Abrams Years

So which is more crazy awesome -- that the new Star Trek trailer starts off with a scene that looks like a cross between Thelma & Louise and the first Superman movie or that it ends with implied space nudity?

Where the Things in Cloverfield Happen

This is why the internet exists: Where the Things in Cloverfield Happen. It's a guided tour (via Google Maps) of the events in Cloverfield. The writing is superb -- items include "I'm guessing this is where that yuppie party was" and "Man remember that they hella bomb the monster and dudes are like whoa at least it is all over and then the monster is like nuh uh and just lashes out and knocks the chopper to the ground." [via]

Buffy for Old People

Eliza Dushku is playing a grown-up!

Notorious

Second Notorious trailer.

Warhol Screen Tests

Coming to DVD: 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests. Screen tests include Jane Holzer, Dennis Hopper, Nico, Lou Reed, and Edie Sedgwick (and not Dylan).

W.

So who remembers JFK (the movie)? And who remembers Nixon (the movie)? And who remembers The Doors (the movie)? All of those historical events predate me, but from '91-'95 the filmic versions dominated my cultural thinking. This week, W. opens in theaters, in a moment incredibly more important than any of those films. Nonetheless, I get the feeling no one cares. Am I wrong?

You Fell Asleep Watching A DVD

YouFellAsleepWatchingADVD.com. [via]

Slacker on Hulu

Probably the most influential movie in my life, Slacker is on Hulu.

Good Dick

Good Dick.

Michael Bay on Twitter

BOOM! Michael Bay on Twitter.

26 Actors Who Deserve Better

Onion A/V: 26 actors who deserve better careers.

Can't Hardly Wait

Just when it seemed that Criterion releases could pass without notice, this week the teen comedy Can't Hardly Wait (starring Jennifer Love Hewitt) drops. Trailer. Update: Oops, that's actually not a Criterion release. Nevermind!

No Man Can Eat 50 Eggs

Cool Hand Luke - No Man Can Eat 50 Eggs scene.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Trailer to that crazy rock opera (let's call it Buffy meets Repo Man meets Marilyn Manson meets Saw meets Bauhaus meets Phantom of the Opera meets Paris Hilton): Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Notorious BIG

Movie trailer: Notorious. Out in January, but I know someone who's standing in line already.

The Joker's Paradox

Compare: Neal Stephenson's NYT op-ed about 300 from 18 months ago to Jonathan Lethem's NYT op-ed about Batman from today.

Toypunks

Toy Punks, a documentary about Japanese toys, fashion, and punk rock, is now available on DVD. Trailer.

Synecdoche

Trailer to Synecdoche, directed by Charlie Kaufman and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. [via]

Rated R

Slate: on the art of the R-rated trailer.

DFW Did Not Write Screenplay

Karina has more details about the Infinite Jest screenplay.

Sukiyaki Western Django

Awesome. Trailer to Takashi Miike's newest, Sukiyaki Western Django, a spaghetti western starring Tarantino.

Facebook, the Movie

Aaron Sorkin is writing a movie about Facebook.

Woody Allen at the Box Office

Cinematical: Woody Allen at the Box Office. Vicky Cristina Barcelona opened in 10th place in the box office -- the first film of his last eight to crack the top 10, when Small Time Crooks last did it eight years ago. And that was the first one since Husbands and Wives did it eight years and eight movies before that. Although I love the guy, I don't think he's made a good movie since the late '90s when Deconstructing Harry, Mighty Aphrodite, and the under-rated Celebrity were major discussion points, even though none of them cracked the top ten either.

August

Remember that Josh Hartnett film about the internet startup scene circa 1999 (the one with a Calacanis cameo)? You forgot already, and it opened in theaters a month ago! Refresher: it's called August, and it comes out on DVD tomorrow. (Also noted for tomorrow: the fourth season of Entourage.)

New Documentaries

Pick a hot-button issue as these new documentaries hit theaters: votes are being stolen, languages are dying, water is running out, the national debt will destroy us.

Died Young, Stayed Pretty

I'm not even joking... Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a movie about rock posters.

Borders Rocket

Your authenticity skewered: Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman do a commercial for Borders on YouTube. [via]

Body of Lies

The trailer to Body of Lies, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe.

Hulu Flicks

Some movies I didn't realize you could watch in their entirety on Hulu: Metropolitan, The Fifth Element, 28 Days Later, Requiem for a Dream, Lost in Translation, Koyaanisqatsi, and Eternal Sunshine.

Godard on Woody

Meetin' WA, a 26-minute film about Woody Allen, shot in New York by Jean-Luc Godard. See also: Onion A/V Club interview with Woody Allen.

Antonioni

Antonioni starved himself to death because he had gone blind.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Some clips to In Search of a Midnight Kiss have appeared.

America Psycho, Que'st Que C'est

In my favorite strange connection in quite some time, NY Post somehow connects the dots between John Edwards' love child and America Psycho! (Just rewatched the film version last night. I know a lot of people appreciated what Mary Harron did with the book, but I think she made it simplistic and moralistic by turning Patrick Bateman into a cartoon. Also, horrible editing.)

Could Tarantino Revive Britney Like Travolta?

Britney Spears to appear in Tarantino remake of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill. (Or, well, maybe.)

Chungking Express = Micro-Tampering

Kottke notes the term micro-tampering used in this NYT article about a woman who was stalked by an ex who would break into her house and move small things around. Finally, there is a term to perfectly describe the plot of the second half of my favorite movie, Chungking Express, which interestingly flip-flopped the genders and involved a cop as the victim (and it's a romance!).

Midnight Kiss

Karina updates us on Midnight Kiss.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Repo! The Genetic Opera is an upcoming rock musical movie starring Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton, and Paul Sorvino. They all sing, and if the trailer is any indication, it will be bat shit crazy.

Tarantino's Mind

Tarantino's Mind explores the unified theory of Tarantino films. Impressive. [via]

W.

Trailer to W, Oliver Stone's biopic of G. W. Bush.

POV Horror

The fourfour Guide to POV Horror.

Jennifer's Body

The poster is out for Jennifer's Body, Diablo Cody's new movie starring Megan Fox. [via] Update from the comments: Ooops.

...and...

Richard Roeper is quitting Ebert & Roeper, leaving it the most paradoxically-named show on tv. Update: Ebert announced he's officially leaving too. Sounds like the show is dead for now... Update: AP story.

Watchmen

Watchmen trailer. Yipe.

Diablo 5.0

Another Diablo/Spielberg project in the works.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Manhattan + Before Sunrise + Internet Dating =
"What are you looking for?"
"The love of my life."
"On Craigslist?"
(In Search of a Midnight Kiss)

August

I guess we all hafta watch August, right?

Choke, Choked

Sadly, the R-rated version of the trailer to Palahniuk's Choke doesn't make it seem any better.

Inglorious Bastards

Wow, props to Vulture. They somehow got their hands on Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards script.

WALLEMGMT

WALLEMGMT.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

Kevin Smith's new movie, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, might get an NC-17 rating.

Nuke the Fridge

Nuke the Fridge. Pass it on... and then hate yourself.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Trailer the new David Fincher flick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Also: the very short F. Scott Fitzgerald story on which it is based.

Requiem For A Day Off

I love decontextualized stuff like this: Requiem for a Dream + Ferris Bueller's Day Off = Requiem For A Day Off. [via]

Tumblr Doc

Tumblr, The Documentary. "A blog website for idiots and assholes." Genius.

Be Kind Rewind

I'm pretty sure you didn't see it in a theater, but the dvd came out today: Be Kind Rewind.

Miracle at St. Anna

Trailer to the new Spike Lee flick: Miracle at St. Anna.

Religulous

Trailer to Bill Maher's new documentary: Religulous.

New X-Files trailer

New X-Files trailer.

Burn After Reading

Glad to see the Coen brothers returning to comedy: Burn After Reading, starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt.

Gonzo

Trailer to Gonzo, the Graydon Carter-produced biopic of Hunter S. Thompson.

Choke

Trailer to Choke, Pahlanuik's newest. Meh, right? (YouTube has some clips too.)

He's Just Not That Into You

So the cast of He's Just Not That Into You includes Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Long, Kris Kristofferson, Scarlett Johansson, and Ben Affleck? Hey look, a trailer.

After Hours: A Plagiarism?

Whoa, add this one to the plagiarism files: Martin Scorsese's After Hours. It sounds like radio artist Joe Frank was "paid handsomely" to stay quiet. Listen to the audio and judge for yourself, but they sound very similar.

My Winnipeg

For Guy Maddin, Winnipeg is home. For me, Winnipeg was where I would drive two hours with my college friends to legally drink, from the ages of 18-20. He made a movie out of his version, My Winnipeg, even the trailer of which is self-indulgent and annoying. My Winnipeg would be more like Judd Apatow meets Fargo Rock City.

Leyner Is Back

The trailer to War, Inc., which I just realized was written by Mark Leyner, a writer no one under 30 probably even remembers, though he was Mr. Generation Definer for Gen Xers at one point. (Though Et Tu, Babe was a big influence on me in college, in retrospect he seems like an '80s writer wedged into the '90s.)

Hancock

A second trailer for Hancock is out. It reveals more of the plot and continues to look like the movie of the summer.

Sex and the City

NY Mag has three clips from the new Sex and the City movie. Hurry, before YouTube yanks them.

Bad Lieutenant

W.... T.... FUCK! Herzog (my boy!) is remaking Bad Lieutenant (my fav!), starring Nicolas Cage (my... nevermind). [via]

Scarlett and Penelope

I know we're all sad that Woody Allen has become essentially irrelevant over the past several years, but he still deserves some props for getting the two hottest women in the world in his new movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Scarlett Johansson and Penelope Cruz make out in the trailer.

I Want To Believe

X-Files trailer! X-Files trailer! X-Files trailer!

Visioneers

From the trailer, Visioneers starring Zack Galifanakis looks promising. [via]

Criterion Goes Hi-Def

Criterion is releasing a dozen+ of its titles on Blu-Ray.

Drunken Orson

Drunken outtakes of Orson Wells' Paul Masson champagne commercials. [via]

Just Like Honey

More proof of my Lost in Translation theory regarding that new Scarlett video: that freaking old guy canoodling with her is Salman Rushdie!

Diablo Cody on Twitter

And I give to you... Diablo on Twitter. Honest to... forget it.

Honest to Blog

Chock full of extra scenes, Juno comes out on DVD tomorrow.

Barbarella

Rose McGowen: Barbarella flick still on course. We are clearly following this one very closely.

Remember the Daze

All trailers should be this long so we can just stop going to movies: Remember the Daze. Yeah, so it's Linklater meets Kids meets the Cloverfield yups in high school.

Megan Fox, In The Flesh

Megan Fox is going to appear nude in Jennifer's Body. Your ability to hate on Diablo is now greatly diminished, losers.

Supercuts

Waxy has coined a term: supercuts. His definition: "Some obsessive-compulsive superfan collects every phrase/action/cliche from an episode (or entire series) of their favorite show/film/game into a single massive video montage" -- so like the Lost What? thing I linked to yesterday. Buzzfeed and company haven't gotten it yet, but you'll see it in 5... 4... UPDATE: There we go.

Standard Operating Procedure

For Errol Morris' new movie: Standard Operating Procedure, the website. If you play around with it a bit, you start to imagine that maybe the whole movie could be presented this way. [via]

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Contractual obligations require I link to all Kristen Bell projects, so please forgive me for passing along this trailer to you: Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's okay, Bellsy, we'll give you this one... but NO MORE FUCKING WITH US, m'kay?

Juno Outtakes

Ellen Page sings "Zub Zub" on the Juno DVD's deleted scenes.

Standard Operating Procedure

Trailer for Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris' new documentary about Abu Ghraib. (More info at Eyeteeth.)

Funny Games

The NYC critics are destroying Funny Games. I'm pretty sure I'm going to love it.

Errol Morris and Werner Herzog

A conversation in the new Believer between two personal heroes: Errol Morris and Werner Herzog. So many great parts, but you MUST READ the part about the "falling out" they had years ago over Ed Gein's mother's grave.

Blood+

If you're one of those people who likes anime but doesn't follow it close enough to know what's good, I highly recommend Blood+: Volume One which is released tomorrow. It is produced by Production I.G, which also made the spectacular Ghost in the Shell series. More info at Wikipedia.

Diablo Naked

Apparently, five seconds ago, the blogosphere discovered there are naked pics of Diablo Cody on the internet. Two seconds later, everyone in Minneapolis gulped, "Uh, where the fuck have you been? It's been my desktop photo for three years." Seriously people, you haven't even found the good stuff yet -- check my Treo.

Jumper Review

My Jumper Review. This kid is my Ebert. [via]

Diablo Parody

Super Deluxe takes down Diablo Cody. [via]

Juno DVD To Be Sold at Starbucks

Prep your backlash to the backlash to the backlash speech: Juno DVD to be sold in Starbucks.

Michel Gondry in A/V Club

This week's Onion A/V Club interview: Michel Gondry.

Filth and Wisdom

A clip from Madonna's directorial debut, Filth & Wisdom. [via]

Sweded

For the release of Be Kind Rewind, an attempt to create a comprehensive list of sweded movies. (Hint: it's long.)

Greenaway

Is it just me or does no one ever talk about Peter Greenaway any more? I just noticed that The Draughtsman's Contract and A Zed & Two Noughts were released on DVD yesterday.

Oscars for Cartoons

Matos tracks down nearly all the Academy Award winners for Cartoon/Short Subjects, year by year, on YouTube.

Expelled

Do you remember when Ben Stein wasn't bat shit crazy? He has a new documentary coming out about intelligent design. Actually, it's about how intelligent design theorists are persecuted. The trailer and the official site for Expelled. (The "Bad to the Bone" riff is totally killah, dude.) Oh look, little splashy has a blog too.

Sesame Street - Casino

De Niro and Pesci as Bert and Ernie. And there's Sesame Street by Martin Scorsese. Brilliant. (Update: commenters tell me this is old news. Oh well.)

Second Skin

Looks potentially good: trailer to Second Skin, a documentary that takes "an intimate look at people whose lives have become transformed by the virtual worlds in online games such as World of Warcraft, Everquest and Second Life." And it's premiering at SXSW! [via]

Uncredited

The book Uncredited looks at the role of graphic design in film. [via]

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?

Trailer to Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? directed by Morgan Spurlock.

Meta Swede

Michel Gondry sweded the trailer to his own trailer for Be Kind Rewind.

Completely, 100% E-Page

Ellen Page writes and sings a song about Diablo.

Son of Rambow

Trailer (for realz): Son of Rambow.

My Rambo Review

Don't bother seeing it, just watch this: My Rambo Review. [via]

Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In is a Swedish vampire novel that has been turned into a movie, the trailer of which looks like a Japanese horror film. That all sounds like it will be good, right?

Smart People

If you're wondering what Ellen Page, Dennis Quaid, and Sarah Jessica Parker are all doing next (okay, maybe one out of three), it's something called Smart People -- oh lookie, a trailer. (Using that Westerberg song from Singles frightens me!) [via]

Rambo Kill Chart

Rambo Kill Chart.

Chapter 27

What a brilliant idea -- imagine a biopic of Mark David Chapman starring Jared Leto and Lindsay Lohan! Wait, what? Holy working class hero, that's the worst goddamn idea ever. Don't believe me? Trailer! (Apparently, this has been out there for a while -- it's the film Leto gained all that weight for and Axl wrote a song for.)

Oscar Nominations

Oscar nominations. Juno made it in for best picture (and director, actress, and screenplay), causing a bunch of my friends to start drinking at 9 am. And since we're dwelling on our midwest past, Pitchfork has a Tapes 'n Tapes interview about the new album, Walk It Off, due out in April. They'll be at SXSW, where I expect to join in the drinking this time.

From Sundance, Gondry Curates YouTube

Michel Gondry is guest-editing the YouTube homepage. [via]

Tom Cruise

Some people will now forever remember Tom Cruise from those Scientology vids, but I choose to cement my memory in the not-so-fictional version from Magnolia. Your moment of nostalgic zen: Lying Under Pressure and Respect The Cock.

Shrooms

Are the kids even trying to make decent movies any more? Shrooms trailer.

Juno Junkets

So best: Michael Cera and Jason Bateman doing press junkets for Juno. [via]

Cobain Biopic

Courtney Love has chosen Ryan Gosling to play Kurt Cobain in the film Heavier Than Heaven. And she has asked Scarlett Johansson to play herself. [via]

The Hottie and the Nottie

Do you remember how when Paris Hilton got out of jail she promised to do charity work? Apparently her idea of charity is starring in the worst movie of all time.

Cloverfield

I've been avoiding Cloverfield links like the viral plague, but it should be noted that Harry Knowles has seen it -- and thinks it's "fucking brilliant." Which will probably only complicate whether or not you'll like it.

My Blueberry Nights

There's nothing I'm looking forward to more this year than seeing My Blueberry Nights (trailer 1 | trailer 2) from Wong Kar-Wai, who -- let's get it out there -- is my favorite working director. It stars Natalie Portman, Jude Law, and Norah Jones. Some great photos just showed up, and a release date of February 13 has been set.

Movie Trailers Lie

What do you mean movies trailers lies?

Diablo Update

Karyn Kusama has been tapped to direct Diablo's next movie, a horror flick set in Minnesota called Jennifer's Body. Megan Fox will star.

Darth Vader as Case

Gibson himself has been skeptical about whether Neuromancer will ever become a movie, but there is a new rumor that Hayden Christensen (ahem, Darth Vader) could play Case.

Film on the Small Screen

You undoubtedly saw the fake David Lynch iPhone commercial (it is pretty funny), but you might also have thought there's something a little, erm, precious about his point. Kent Nichols of Ask A Ninja goes even further: David Lynch is a Tool. "You're getting to be a cranky old man. If someone wants to pay you to watch your weird little films on a cell phone or a DVD or a flipbook, just smile and take the money." [via]

Internet Traffic KILLS

O!M!G! The movie Untraceable was MADE FOR YOU, ME, AND ALL OF OUR FRIENDS. The plot: a murderer is killing people via website metrics. YOUR HEARD ME! People visit a website that is livestreaming a murder -- an increase in traffic speeds up the process of death. The trailer (WATCH NOW!) is full of such wonderful quotes as "The more people who visit the site, the faster he bleeds" and "Any American who visits the site is an accomplice to murder" and "We ARE the murder weapon." As far as I know, this has nothing to do with Gawker's new pay structure.

Penelope

I haven't mentioned it here, but one of my current consulting gigs is at IFC, through which I just saw Penelope (starring Christina Ricci and Reese Witherspoon), which is much weirder than the trailer suggests.

21

Opening SXSW Film will be 21 (starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, and Kevin Spacey), which mixes gambling, sex, and math genius -- so a sure hit. The trailer is here. [via]

Juno

Juno is killing, which reinforces Karina's question of indie-ness.

David Cross in the Chipmunks

David Cross responds to hatahs screaming SELL OUT for being in Alvin and the Chipmunks. [via] Update: Onion A/V writes a response.

Pathology

Trailer to Pathology.

He Directed That?

He Directed That?

Calvin and Hobbes Film?

Film about Calvin and Hobbes in the works?

Gondry in Wired

Wired's feature story on Michel Gondry. If you haven't seen it yet: the trailer to Be Kind Rewind.

IndieWire Critics Poll

IndieWire's Critic's Poll (which is sorta the film equivalent of The Voice's Pazz & Jop poll).

Ebert's Top 10

Ebert's Top 10 Films for 2007. #1? Juno.

Machine Girl

Machine Girl trailer. Awesome.

Freakonomics, the Movie

Proof that you can cross-cross-market anything: Freakonomics Film in Development.

Sex and the City Trailer

Completely contentless Sex and the City trailer. [via]

Speed Racer

It's true, the stills from the Wachowskis brothers' new Speed Racer (starring Christina Ricci) do look like some sort of completely new form of animation-cum-live-action. UPDATE: the trailer.

Cody News

It's strange to report on people you know like this, but Diablo and Jonny are getting divorced (discovered via tattoo). Their words directly: Diablo | Jonny.

Rambo in Burma

Wait, what? Stallone directed a new Rambo? Trailer.

Diablo

Diablo in the Sunday Times, written by David Carr. It includes some mention of the bullshit criticism that's occurring back in Minneapolis in The Rake (from Rob Nelson, who I otherwise love, but I get the sense that maybe The Rake put in an order for a take-down piece). If you're following the story, the MNspeak thread where Diablo jumps in is fantastic.

Ebert 06

Roger Ebert just turned in his Best Movies of 2006 [sic] list. "Yes, I know it's a year late, but a funny thing happened to me on the way to compiling a list of the best films of 2006. I checked into the hospital in late June 2006 and didn't get out again until spring of 2007." [via]

Persepolis

Persepolis trailer.

Cloverfield

There's a new Cloverfield -- or is it 1-18-08? (is this annoying everyone else yet?) -- trailer.

Southland Tales

Karina's review of Southland Tales doesn't give one much hope for another surprise cult hit, but I'm still holding strong.

DiabloBlog

Diablo landed Esquire's Women We Love and a big EW profile. Prepare for this to turn into DiabloBlog when Juno is released.

X-Files Returns

This one will be hard to market to the kids: X-Files sequel in the works. Mulder whah? Scully who? [via]

PKD

Another Philip K. Dick flick, this time starring Alanis Morisette?

Barbarella No More

My dream movie, the remake of Barbarella, has been shelved because Robert Rodriguez wanted to cast his new girl, Rose McGowan. [via]

One Missed Call

The trailer to One Missed Call. Or rather, that's the U.S. version -- the original is one of my favorites from Takashi Miike.

New Media Releases

Mildly amused that tomorrow's DVD release of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is billed as The Complete Series. Other DVD releases this week are Transformers and Grindhouse: Planet Terror.

This Is Not a Bob Dylan Movie

Out of a very boring Sunday New York Times this week, the magazine's cover story on Todd Hayne's forthcoming Dylan biopic stands out.

Rushmore Handjob Montage

Rushmore handjob montage.

Be Kind Rewind

New trailer to the new Michel Gondry: Be Kind Rewind. Mos Def and Jack Black are two videostore clerks who decide to film their own versions of quasi-classic flicks.

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time

Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time.

Blade Runner

Wired's interview with Ridley Scott on the 25 anniversary of Blade Runner.

Portman

You already know that quirk king Wes Anderson has a new movie coming out this week, The Darjeeling Limited. You have also likely heard about this 13-minute "prologue" available on iTunes, Hotel Chevalier. Now, this might sound like something that will just fly under the radar until the DVD comes out -- except that Vulture notes that Natalie Portman is naked in it. I smell a tipping point.

Southland Tales

Finally! The trailer to Southland Tales is out. (It's Richard Kelly's follow-up to Donnie Darko, which I've been frothing over for over a year.) It looks different than the earlier clips though. [via]

Juno Trailer

Breaking: the trailer to Juno is out. Stars include Jason Bateman and Michael Cera, opens December 14. (Juno was written by Minneapolis pal Diablo Cody.)

Oh, The Horror

It's been a while since I've expressed my distaste for lucky boy Mark Cuban, but I have to admit this new project in which he will produce some edgy horror flicks sounds cool.

Wachowski Sisters

Whoa, missed this one. Cinematical a couple days ago reported that Wachowski brothers are no more -- that is, now one's a girl. Citing a post on Rated-M, the man formerly known as Larry Wachowski had apparently completed a full sex change -- and Larry was now Lana. But a Fox News story has the brothers disputing this. [via]

My Second Life

HBO has purchased the rights of the documentary My Second Life. [via]

Olsen Twins

My idea is to have the Olsen Twins play the roles of J.T. LeRoy and Laura Albert. Hollywood's idea is to have one-half of them star in the adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' The Informers. I like my idea more, but Hollywood's is pretty inspired too.

Thumbs Down

Last night while watching the still-Ebert-less Ebert & Roeper, I discover that they are no longer doing thumbs up and thumbs down on the show. Why? Ebert is using it as a negotiation tactic to sign a new contract with the show's distributor. Update: Ebert's response.

Trapped in the Closet

If I were in college right now, every term paper would somehow contain references to Trapped in the Closet and every night would be spent arguing with Chuck about some nuance of R. Kelly's masterpiece. Thankfully, I've grown up, and now my stupid blog is obsessed with the 22-chapter series while Klosterman writes about R. Kelly in The Guardian. (It's pretty great -- go read it. After you've watched the magnum opus.)

Brazil

Really great Vulture post about how the soundtrack for Terry Gilliam's Brazil seems to be popping up in every movie trailer lately.

No Country for Old Men

New Coen Brothers movie: No Country for Old Men.

The Signal

New trailer: The Signal.

The Nines

Trailer: The Nines.

I'm Not There

The trailer to Todd Haynes' much-anticipated I'm Not There, in which several actors (including Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett) play the role of Bob Dylan. There's also a clip where Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan and David Cross does Allen Ginsberg. [via]

My Kid Could Paint That

My Kid Could Paint That.

Mumblecore

A little late to the scene, NYT does its cover feature on mumblecore. Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation) was also profiled by Klosterman a few months ago. (Update: the trailer for Hannah Takes the Stairs is out now too.)

Helvetica

Pre-order Helvetica on DVD. November release. [via]

Good Copy Bad Copy

Good Copy Bad Copy is a documentary about copyright that features interviews with Danger Mouse, Girl Talk, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Lawrence Lessig, and others.

Be Kind Rewind

For Gondry-philes: someone at ComicCon recorded the trailer to Michel's new flick, Be Kind Rewind. As recorded from the audience, the quality sucks. Update: actual trailer.

Ingmar Bergman's Soap Commercials

Ingmar Bergman's Soap Commercials.

More Ingmar

Time: Woody Allen on Ingmar Bergman.

Croenenberg

Trailer to the new Croenenberg: Eastern Promises. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts.

Antonioni

More memoriam: the final scene of Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point (1970). Music by Pink Floyd. [via]

Bye, Bergman

In memoriam, a scene from Ingmar Bergman Wild Strawberries. See also: Woody Allen's 1988 review of Bergman's autobiography.

More Cloverfield

I realize I'm becoming a shill for this potentially silly JJ Abrams project, but Entertainment Weekly has the movie poster for Cloverfield.

Darjeelilng Limited

When I first saw the poster for The Darjeelilng Limited, I assumed it was somebody doing a parody of a Wilson brothers movie. But the trailer insists it's real.

JJ Abrams New Movie

01-18-08. Cloverfield. Monstrous?

Errol Morris, Blogger

Ooo-ooo-ooo! NYTimes.com gave Errol Morris a photoblog. Boo-boo-boo! It's TimesSelect.

Yo-Yo Cop Girl

Must-have DVD release of the week: Yo-Yo Cop Girl. It involves an underground website, terrorism, a lesbian relationship, and lots of fighting girls. From the producer of one of my favorite films, Battle Royale.

X-Files Returns

New X-Files movie?

Cloverfield Video

This 10-minute video of some dude trying to dissect the Cloverfield ARG is so fun that I almost want to play along again.

The 11th Hour

Looks like Leonardo DiCaprio decided there needs to be a sequel to An Inconvenient Truth.

Simultaneous Star Wars

Ever wondered what it would look like if you watched all six Star Wars movies at the same time? Me either, but this guy did.

1-18-08

Mystery solved (sorta): the trailer to 1-18-08 (Cloverfield) is up.

Broken English

Since I have a track record for linking to Parker Posey trailers, here's the newest: Broken English, directed by Zoe Cassavetes, a name you might just recognize. And Gena Rowlands plays P.P.'s mom.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is up on Google Video in its entirety. So is Michael Moore's Sicko (again), but I'm not sure how long that will last.

Cloverfield Redux

Follow-up to yesterday's post about J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield. There are also EthanWasRight and EthanWasWrong, which have something to do with it.

1.18.08

Everything about this story is perfect: J.J. Abrams is supposedly working on a top secret monster movie called either 1.18.08 or Cloverfield or The Parasite. No one really knew about it until the trailer started appearing before Transformers this weekend. The preview still isn't officially online, however a pirated version has appeared on YouTube. But because the movie is supposedly shot with home video cameras, the effect of a pirated trailer is sorta perfect. Commenters at Cinematical think it's Lost-related.

Revenge of the Nerds

A Slate.com story about Orson Welles narrating a character (actually, a planet) in the original Transformers movie (it's true!) says that Welles also narrated the trailer to Revenge of the Nerds. So of course I looked it up. It's true!

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Wanna see a NSFW trailer for a family heist movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, and a naked Marisa Tomei? Okay. You haven't heard of the Sidney Lumet-directed Before the Devil Knows You're Dead because it has no US distributor yet. [via]

Errol Morris

A Brief History of Errol Morris (44 mins.), including details on the Herzog shoe-eating incident. [via]

Richard Kelly Update

While we wait for Southland Tales, Richard Kelly (that's the Donnie Darko director) has signed Cameron Diaz for his next movie.

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers. Brilliant!

Film Snaps

Dude has an idea: distill an entire film down to a single image. How does he do it? By snapping an 8 x 6 pixel image every second. Outcome? Sorta brilliant -- I want the poster version now.

Chris Marker

The Criterion Collection of Chris Marker's La Jetee and Sans Soleil comes out today.

Interview

This movie in which a dorky journalist (Steve Buscemi) hooks up with a beautiful actress (Sienna Miller) is pretty much every dorky journalist's dream and every beautiful actress' nightmare: Interview.

100 Best-Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies

Rotten Tomatoes has the 100 Best-Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies, presented in the most annoying way possible (one film per page), so I've put the top 10 in the comments.

Atlas Actually Shrugged

Update on that Atlas Shrugged movie with Angelina Jolie.

Sicko

You probably heard that Michael Moore's new film, Sicko, leaked onto the internet last week. Right now, it's on Google Video. [via]

Blade Runner Special Edition

Details on the upcoming five-DVD special edition of Blade Runner.

Wall-E

The robot in the trailer to the new Pixar film Wall-E looks suspiciously like the robot in Short Circuit (1986).

The Invasion

You wouldn't guess that a remake of Invasion of The Body Snatchers would be any good, but the trailer tricks you into it with a combination of Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, and a Sigur Ros soundtrack. (I can't find any proof that it's Sigur Ros, but it's gotta be.)

All God's Children Can Dance

Trailer to a new film based on Haruki Murakami's short story "All God's Children Can Dance."

Luke Skywalker / Dirk Diggler

Boogie Nights / Star Wars mashup. [via]

Paris, Je T'Aime

A bunch of directors (Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne, Olivier Assayas, etc.) and a bunch of actors (Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Nick Nolte, etc.) pay homage to Paris in Paris, Je T'Aime.

50 Best Date Movies

Nerve: The 50 Best Date Movies Ever. Films I've personally used as clinchers: Heathers (#45) Annie Hall (#34), Rear Window (#30), Chungking Express (#19), Before Sunrise (#10), and Barbarella (#5).

Reservoir Dogs

Just for fun, a random flashback trailer: Reservoir Dogs. Next time you get me drunk, remind me to tell you the story about meeting Mr. Pink during the filming of the movie Fargo.

Trailers

Eli Roth is making a feature film consisting of nothing but trailers, thereby bringing the dreams of every film student undergrad's notion of genius to the big screen.

Worst Movie Scenes Ever

Worst Movie Scenes Ever.

Criterion Sale

Amazon is throwing a sale on selected Criterion titles. Kicking & Screaming, The 400 Blows, or Hoop Dreams for less that $20; Slacker or My Own Private Idaho for $26; Seven Samurai or The Complete Mr. Arkadin for $33.

Day Night Day Night

The trailer for Day Night Day Night reminds of Run Lola Run meets Battle of Algiers. That's one you never saw coming.

Great Long Tracking Shots

I love, love, love posts like this: The Greatest Long Tracking Shots in Cinema. Includes clips from Touch of Evil, Goodfellas, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Children of Men, and many others.

Gondry And Gainsbourgh

In a four-part interview (1, 2, 3, 4) Michel Gondry interviews Charlotte Gainsbourg, in which they both speak English and it sounds ridiculously sexy. [via]

Movie Posters

I suppose movie posters are one of the things I collect, so I created a short photo tour of some of posters around my house. (I have a Dead Ringers poster above my bed, a Slacker poster in my bathroom, and a Breathless poster in the closet -- now's your chance to psychoanalyze.)

Va Tech and A.O. Scott

A.O. Scott's column on the Virginia Tech massacre and pop culture.

What Cho Seung-Hui Got Wrong

Slate: What Cho Seung-Hui Got Wrong about Oldboy.

10 of the Strangest Sex Scenes

10 of the Strangest (Non-Porn) Sex Scenes, including woman-on-duck (Howard the Duck), doll-on-doll (Bride of Chucky), everybody-on-everybody (Eyes Wide Shut), puppet-on-puppet (Team America), and more.

Coen Brothers Return

I was just thinking the other day, are the Coen brothers ever going to make a movie again? They are -- and Brad Pitt is starring.

Old Boy

The news is trickling out that much of Cho Seung-Hui's imagery for his weirdo multimedia presentation of himself (vlog champion Chuck Olsen notes: don't call it a video blog) was borrowed form the film Old Boy. I actually own this film on DVD and wonder if it's now suddenly eBay-worthy. [Update: Karina has a good post about this.]

Fay Grim

Wait, Hal Hartley is releasing a sequel to Henry Fool, staring Parker Posey as a mom? (Trailer.) How come no one told me?! (Update: NY Observer does a little ditty about how Parker Posey -- along with Claire Danes and Chloe Sevigny -- is all grown up now.)

New Barbarella

After many rumors that it would be Sienna Miller, the new Barbarella will be played by.... Kate Beckinsale.

30 Strangest Movie Posters of All Time

30 Strangest Movie Posters of All Time.

Speed Racer

The Wachowski brothers' next film will be Speed Racer and Christina Ricci will star.

Zizek-mania

I just noticed that in addition to The Pervert's Guide To Cinema (which is my movie of the year so far -- NYT profile), Slavoj Zizek has another biopic-ish film being released: The Reality of the Virtual (out next week), which is in addition to the 2003 film Zizek.

Barbarella

Looks like that Barbarella remake is moving forward. I am silly elated about this. [Update: in the comments, speculate on who should be the lead.]

Oceans 13

Oceans 13 trailer.

Daft Punk Is Filming At My House

How come no one told me Daft Punk is making a movie called Electroma? Trailer. [via]

Twin Peaks 2

I will only tell you this once: the second season of Twin Peaks finally comes out on DVD this week.

David Lynch on Product Placement

David Lynch on Product Placement.

Tarantino and Rodriguez: Top 10 Movie Posters

Entertainment Weekly: Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez pick their Top 10 Movie Posters. (See also: Grindhouse cover story.)

New Releases

Children of Men comes out on DVD today. And the much-hype Klaxons CD, Myths of the Near Future, also drops.

Pervert's Guide To Cinema

There was a pretty great episode last week of Radio Open Source with Slavoj Zizek and Sophie Fiennes related to the release of The Pervert's Guide To Cinema, which from the trailer and clips (1, 2) looks like it will be awesome.

Criterion Contraption

The Criterion Contraption. A blog that chronicles some dude watching everything in the Criterion Collection. [via]

Air Guitar Nation

Trailer: Air Guitar Nation. This was showing at SXSW, but I didn't get a chance to see it. (Salon review.)

Stephenson and 300

Neal Stephenson has a NYT op-ed piece about seeing 300 (at a Seattle theater a few blocks from my house, actually). He argues that only the "less politicized majority" get the film, meandering his way to geekdom: "The growing popularity of science fiction, the rise of graphic novels, anime and video games, and the fact that geeks can make lots of money now, have given creators and fans of this kind of art a confidence, even a swagger, that -- hard as it is for some of us to believe -- is kind of cool now."

Color Me Kubrick

Looks promising: Color Me Kubrick, about a person (played by John Malkovich) who fakes being the director for several months.

The TV Set

This flick about the making of a tv pilot looks like it might be good: The TV Set. Stars David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, Justine Bateman, and others you'll recognize.

Paprika

Trailer to decent looking new anime getting wider distribution: Paprika.

Children of Men Graphics

The ambient background clips from Children of Men. Includes the commercials, billboards, and user design from the film. [via]

Hostel 2

The trailer and the poster for Hostel 2 are both NSFW... or H.

Helvetica

Screening schedule for that Helvetica movie (trailers). Premiers at SXSW, hits NYC in April, Minneapolis in May, Seattle in August. [via]

Machinima

Slate: video slideshow of machinima.

Gondry's Revenge

You might remember how a few months ago Michel Gondry put a video of himself on YouTube solving a Rubik's Cube with his feet. That was followed by someone decoding how he performed this stunt. Well, now Gondry is back, solving a Rubik's Cube with his nose.

On DVD

Released on DVD today: Babel and the first season of Family Ties. Which you gonna buy?

lonelygirl15 returns

Just two issues ago, Jessica Rose was on the cover of Wired, yet she almost already seems irrelevant.... until the comeback! She has a bit part in the upcoming Lindsay Lohan film I Know Who Killed Me.

Superstar

Todd Haynes' Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (the cease-and-desisted cult film that used Barbie and Ken dolls to recount Carpenter's death) is on Google Video. [via]

An Unreasonable Man

Trailer to the Ralph Nader biopic: An Unreasonable Man.

Across the Universe

Just when you thought hoped boomer nostalgia had become passé, along comes the film Across the Universe, which strangely fetishizes the Beatles while still looking not quite horrible.

A Milli Vanilli Biopic?

A Milli Vanilli Biopic?

New DVDs

New DVDs out this week: Martin Scorsese's The Departed, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, and Criterion version of Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves

Wholphin

Radar has what I believe is the first press about Wholphin, the new-ish DVD product from McSweeney's.

Barbarella

So the rumor that there could be a Barbarella remake had me all giddy until the producer described it as "a female James Bond in outer space." Dude, Barbarella is so much more than that.

Factory Girl

I haven't been keeping up with all the chatter about Factory Girl, but Slate hates it. (See also: NY Mag on Andy Warhol's endless 15 minutes.)

Errol Morris on Abu Ghraib

Errol Morris' next film will be on Abu Ghraib. [via]

Ghost in the Shell

As if killing Aeon Flux for future generations wasn't enough, there's some talk of a live-action Ghost in the Shell flick. On the plus side, the rights were acquired by the producers of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, which I can't praise enough. [via]

McLuhan's Wake

Some biopic-type-thing called McLuhan's Wake came out on DVD yesterday. You so know I did. (And brilliantly titled, since he was famously a Joyce fan.) See also: A debate between McLuhan and Norman Mailer.

Pirating the 2007 Oscars

Pirating the 2007 Oscars.

Darkon

A documentary about "a full-contact medieval fantasy wargaming group"? Christopher Guest might as well retire. [via]

We Are The Strange

NYT's Carpetbagger interviews M dot Strange, who has been making a movie, We Are The Strange, via YouTube and is now in Sundance.

Hi-Def Porn

NYT: In Raw World of Sex Movies, High Definition Could Be a View Too Real.

Star Wars Trailer

Making the rounds is the original Star Wars trailer, which truly looks like the schlockiest movie of all time.

Most Unfilmable Novels

The Most Unfilmable Novels, with notes on which director could maybe pull it off if they tried.

8 Bit

A documentary about video games: 8 Bit. And the trailer.

Heavier Than Heaven

Official Kurt Cobain biopic? Courtney acquires the film rights to Heavier Than Heaven.

Drawing Restraint

While in SF for a conference last summer, I dropped in to see Matthew Barney's newest, Drawing Restraint 9, at SFMOMA. It was fascinating and, I suppose, a little tiring, but also surprisingly simple, not nearly as ponderous as some people suggest. Nonetheless, while Barney's style has kept me engaged enough to seek out his work while traveling, his distribution methods have always annoyed the fuck out of me. His insistence on not releasing these works on DVD has always struck me as more pretentious than anything involving dressing up like a bird-satyr-angel-fish thing. ANYWAY, apparently a copy of Drawing Restraint has leaked onto the internet. Up next: the edited version for Blockbuster.

Star Trek Updated

In Entertainment Weekly, J.J. Abrams talks about what he's going to do with his version of Star Trek. Matt Damon is a rumored star. [via]

On DVD

The Illusionist came out on DVD today. Also, Snakes on a Plane came out last week, without an ounce of internet hype.

Blondie

Kirstin Dunst + Michel Gondry = new Blondie biopic.

Future of Movies

David Denby has a rambly future of movies feature in this month's New Yorker. Although it has moments of uncomfortable nostalgia, there are also some good spots, covering all areas of filmmaking -- marketing, production, casting, and distribution.

Lynch

Wired News posted a long David Lynch interview.

Battlestar Galatica DVD Movie

What'd I do on my xmas vacation? Devoured Battlestar Galatica and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Which is why I'm now reporting on items like a possible direct-to-DVD Battlestar Galactica movie.

Bands in Films

Pretty great post: Top 12 appearances of bands in films. Includes Bullitt, Collateral, Wings of Desire, Midnight Cowboy, and Blow Up.

Indiana Jones

Take your pick: Harrison Ford is returning with a new Indiana Jones or Val Kilmer is returning for a Real Genius sequel.

Grindhouse

Trailer to the Tarantino/Rodriguez exploitation bonanza, Grindhouse.

In Search of the Valley

Proof that I'm a sucker for artifacts of internet nostalgia, I bought a copy of In Search of the Valley. [via]

Black Snake Moan

Someone needs to make a list of awesome trailers for movies that suck. I suspect Black Snake Moan is #1. All I have to tell you is Samuel L Jackson chains up Christina Ricci in her underwear in his shack.

Transformers

New Transformers trailer. (I didn't realize until just now that it was produced by Spielberg.)

A Scanner Darkly

A Scanner Darkly came out on DVD today.

Winona

NSFW or new desktop images? Hi-res screencaps of Winona Ryder's rotoscoped nude scene in Scanner Darkly.

Overrated Movies

My over-rated movies lists would look very similar to Premiere's 20 Most Overrated Movies list. Chicago, Clerks, Jules and Jim, Nashville, Easy Rider... all check, right up until 2001: A Space Odyssey.

10 things code does in the movies

10 things code doesn't do in real life that it does in the movies.

23

Trailer: Jim Carrey is totally freaked out by the number 23 in the new Joel Schumacher flick.

Inland Empire

Trailer to the new David Lynch, Inland Empire.

Jesus Camp

Watch Jesus Camp in its entirety online. UPDATE: Sorry, it's been removed.

50 Years of Janus Films

Jeesh, Merry Christmas: Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films. 50 DVDs, $650.

Sci Fi Babes

Alright, nerd boys: 15 Sexiest Sci-Fi Babes.

Saul Bass

I predict some of you will find this immensely cool and immediately order your own copy, and the rest of you will shrug in befuddlement: a DVD of Saul Bass' film title sequences. (Psst, only available in the UK though.) [via]

Biz Movies

Here's an interesting little collection: Top 10 Business Movies. Barcelona? Lost in Translation? [via]

Sushi Western

One of my favorite directors, Takashi Miike, is working on a "sushi western" which will include a role played by Tarantino.

Factory Girl

Trailer to the new Edie Sedgwick biopic: Factory Girl. Doesn't look promising.

Simpson's Movie

Simpson's Movie trailer. Out next summer.

Scarlett Johansson Take-down

It was bound to happen eventually: the Scarlett Johansson take-down piece. "Basically, her acting repertory consists of staring intently at the person she is speaking to, keeping her lips spread apart, and hoping no one will notice that she is no threat to Meryl Streep, and not all that much of a threat to Hilary Duff."

Jesus Camp

I really wanted to write about Jesus Camp, the documentary about the radical evangelical training camp which just happened to be located an hour from where I grew up. I had a good idea for reviewing it from a personal perspective, but just never found the time. Now I see that the camp has been shut down because of the film.

The Fountain

Wired profiles Darren Aronofsky about The Fountain. Trailer.

Blondie

Yikes, Variety reports (very last item) that Kirsten Dunst is considering the role of Deborah Harry in a flick about Blondie. [via]

Vice Guide to Travel

I missed this DVD release from earlier this month: The Vice Guide to Travel. "We dispatched correspondents all over the world to vist the planet's weirdest and most dangerous places. We went to such farflung locales as the Pygmy villages in the Congo, the radioactive ruins of Chernobyl, and the illegal arms markets of Pakistan. We looked for mythical beasts, met the PLO boy scouts (suicide bombers of tomorrow), chatted with a man who sold black market nuclear warheads and hung out with Osama bin Laden, and got shot at in the slums of Rio. This is travel at its most bizarre, equal parts LSD and adrenaline, and sometimes we can't believe we made it back."

Do You Want Lies With That

Interesting movie website for the upcoming release of Fast Food Nation: DoYouWantLiesWithThat.com. Aggregates YouTube, Del.icio.us, Technorati.

Reds

Has it really been 25 years? Reds came out on DVD today.

300

Choice trailer: 300.

For Your Consideration

Trailer to the new Christopher Guest: For Your Consideration.

The Best Movies in the Public Domain

Wired: The Best Movies in the Public Domain. Huh, that means you can legally remix Night of the Living Dead and Reefer Madness.

Courtney Love Doc

Trailer to a new Courtney Love documentary.

Garden State

What if that scene in the doctor's offices had Nelly instead of The Shins? Brilliant question...

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry gets the full profile treatment in the NYT Mag.

Netflix Judgement

Slate: Judging your friends by their Netflix queue.

Arbus

When did Diane Arbus become such hot material? When I was back in Minneapolis a couple months ago, I saw The Walker retrospective with Courtney and was really intrigued by it. Now, there's a movie, starring Nicole Kidman.

Girls Gone Wild

Girls Gone Wild dude pleads guilty.

The 50 Best High School Movies

EW: The 50 Best High School Movies.

Amazon Unbox

Amazon Unbox is out. Download movies or tv shows.

Jesus Camp

Trailer: Jesus Camp.

Al Franken

Trailer to the new Al Franken movie.

The Bridge

Strange-looking documentary about people who commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Hoax

Finally, the Clifford Irving biopic is done... but it looks sucky. The Hoax.

Infamous

The other Truman Capote movie: Infamous.

The Amateurs

Imagine The Dude trying to make a porn movie: The Amateurs.

Stranger than Fiction

Imagine Will Ferrell in Adaptation: Stranger than Fiction.

The Amateurs

Imagine Richard Linklater directing a non-fiction book about fast food. Oh wait: Fast Food Nation.

Black Dahlia

New De Palma, starring Hartnett, Johansson, Swank, Eckhart: Black Dahlia.

Brick

Brick is released on DVD today.

Renaissance

Trailer: Renaissance. Paris, 2054, black & white anime.

Mel Gibson

While you were sleeping this weekend, Mel Gibson imploded his career. Stupid Christian.

The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time

The Top 50 Movie Endings of All Time.

Pulse

Write your own allegory: Kristen Bell stars in Pulse, in which dead people use contemporary technology to connect to living people.

Running With Scissors

Augusten Burroughs' book turned into a movie: trailer to Running with Scissors.

Netflix

Photos from Netflix' headquarters.

Errol Morris

New Errol Morris interview.

The Big Lebowski - Fucking Short Version

The Big Lebowski - Fucking Short Version.

Free A Scanner Darkly

Watch the first 24 minutes of A Scanner Darkly here.

The Prestige

Trailer to the new Christpher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins): The Prestige.

Charlie Kaufman's Scanner Darkly

Apparently Charlie Kaufman wrote A Scanner Darkly screenplay too, in 1997.

Southland Tales

Two clips (1 | 2) from Southland Tales, in which Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a futuristic prostitute. The tagline, pinched from the movie website, which is weird as hell, is "The Internet is the Future. The Future is Just Like You Imagined." Doy, directed by Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), who is interviewed in Cinema Scope about the bad reception the film got at Cannes.

The Intergalactic Mashup King

Wired's story on Herzog's new film which spliced together documentary footage from NASA and the National Science Foundation's US Antarctic Program to create a sci-fi flick: The Intergalactic Mashup King.

The Science of Sleep

Trailer to Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep.

Tansformers movie trailer

Tansformers movie trailer. It's awesome. (See also: McSweeney's Transformers No One Bought.)

The Oh In Ohio

New Parker Posey (+Paul Rudd ++Mishca Barton), which looks almost decent: The Oh In Ohio.

Ebert Hospitalized

Roger Ebert had an emergency operation and is in serious condition.

Blackballed

Mockumentary about a paintball hero caught cheating starring Rob Corddry: Blackballed.

The U.S. Versus John Lennon

Trailer: The U.S. Versus John Lennon.

Scanner Darkly on Myspace

I noticed that A Scanner Darkly has an elaborate MySpace page. I wonder if they had to pay for the special treatment or if they just hacked it.

Joy Division Movie

Anton Corbjin is directing a movie about Joy Division: Control.

Clerks 2 Trailer

Clerks 2 trailer.