Tag Archives: festival coverage

VIDEO: Take a Ride in the Tricked-Out, Fire-Breathing Medusa Car from Bellflower

Evan Glodell’s nihilist love story/vengeance tale Bellflower is a dangerous piece of must-see American indie filmmaking for Mad Max fans and, in a way, the same crowd who can’t wait to see Quentin Dupieux’s killer tire flick Rubber . After premiering at Sundance, where Oscilliscope snapped it up for a summer 2011 release, Bellflower blazed a diesel-fueled trail through SXSW treating attendees to a glimpse of the heavily modified Buick Skylark that Glodell transformed into the flame-throwing beast known as the Mother Medusa.

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VIDEO: Take a Ride in the Tricked-Out, Fire-Breathing Medusa Car from Bellflower

Film Fest Pro Tips: Do Eat Bugs for Sport, Don’t Heckle Your Own Movie

As a bunch of brassy strippers once taught us, you’ve gotta have a gimmick if you want to get ahead. The same goes for dancers as it does for indie films, three of which demonstrated that time-tested lesson Monday night at SXSW. Which brings us to our Movieline Pro Tips of the Day: Bringing fun/hands-on props to delight the crowd after your movie screens can help the goodwill linger. Loudly heckling your own movie for kicks while a dozen or so journalist types sit near you, aghast and annoyed? Not so much.

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Film Fest Pro Tips: Do Eat Bugs for Sport, Don’t Heckle Your Own Movie

DVD: The Humor (and Angst) of Peanuts Lives On in Its First Two Films

Charles Schulz’s landmark comic strip Peanuts has occupied a unique niche in American pop culture. It’s part of a medium often aimed at children, and its cast is a group of kids under the age of 10, doing normal child-like activities like playing baseball, going to school, and ice skating. But these kids also talk about Beethoven, theology, and The Brothers Karamazov . They throw around words like “depressed” and “neurotic,” and one of them puts up a “Psychiatric Help” stand instead of selling lemonade. The strip balances hilarity with the fragility of life and the pain of existence, and that balance surfaces in Peanuts’ first two big-screen adventures, A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Come Home (both available this week as a two-disc DVD from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment).

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DVD: The Humor (and Angst) of Peanuts Lives On in Its First Two Films

SXSW: Brian Taylor Talks The FP, Ghost Rider 2, and Shooting 3D on the iPhone

Brian Taylor took a break from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance duties to trek down to SXSW in support of The FP — a film he describes as “a Jerry Bruckheimer action movie from the ’80s” where said action is Dance Dance Revolution. His ties to the indie action-comedy trace back to his close circle of filmmaking friends: Director Brandon Trost is a frequent DP and collaborator to Taylor and partner Mark Neveldine, while actors from Neveldine + Taylor’s Crank films also show up in The FP . As Taylor closed out his brief SXSW visit, he shared his love for The FP gang via phone along with details on Ghost Rider 2 ‘s new origin story, Crank 3 , and how one might go about filming a 3D movie… on the iPhone.

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SXSW: Brian Taylor Talks The FP, Ghost Rider 2, and Shooting 3D on the iPhone

SXSW: Brian Taylor Talks The FP, Ghost Rider 2, and Shooting 3D on the iPhone

Brian Taylor took a break from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance duties to trek down to SXSW in support of The FP — a film he describes as “a Jerry Bruckheimer action movie from the ’80s” where said action is Dance Dance Revolution. His ties to the indie action-comedy trace back to his close circle of filmmaking friends: Director Brandon Trost is a frequent DP and collaborator to Taylor and partner Mark Neveldine, while actors from Neveldine + Taylor’s Crank films also show up in The FP . As Taylor closed out his brief SXSW visit, he shared his love for The FP gang via phone along with details on Ghost Rider 2 ‘s new origin story, Crank 3 , and how one might go about filming a 3D movie… on the iPhone.

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SXSW: Brian Taylor Talks The FP, Ghost Rider 2, and Shooting 3D on the iPhone

SXSW Buzz Report: Pee Paparazzi Goes Viral, Joe Swanberg Inspires Walkouts

SXSW is a fest that caters to alterna-sensibilities, so it’s no surprise genre fare has done well thus far. Insidious scored high marks with the horror crowd, but The Kill List notched all-out raves from even mainstream press — though the Conan O’B rien documentary Conan O’B rien Can’t Stop contains enough rage and demon-exorcising to give both a run for their money. Meanwhile, Bellflower — a Sundance entry in the Emerging Visions sidebar — screens on Monday night, as does the Dance Dance Revolution thriller The FP . Yes, you read that right: a gang warfare film about Dance Dance Revolution. Don’t you wish you were in Austin?

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SXSW Buzz Report: Pee Paparazzi Goes Viral, Joe Swanberg Inspires Walkouts

Whole Foods Market Launches a Film Festival, Because Why Not

On a day when South by Southwest basked in the afterglow of a wildly successful Bridesmaids screening and Tribeca announced the bulk of its remaining selections for 2011, the last thing on most movie enthusiasts’ minds is, “Dang, if only we could saturate this spring with yet another film festival.” Nevertheless, here comes Whole Foods Market — yes, that Whole Foods Market — with a multi-city, six-film program starting April 1. This could be a good thing, though.

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Whole Foods Market Launches a Film Festival, Because Why Not

Movies, Breakfast Tacos, and Karaoke: Follow Movieline at SXSW!

Austin is a place that likes to think of itself as strange — as in the city’s motto, “Keep Austin Weird.” But it really seems more nerdy than weird when the massive film-music-tech bonanza that is South by Southwest kicks off every year, drawing thousands of geeks of all stripes to congregate. And for the next week or so, Movieline will be among the crowds of geek illuminati reporting on film goings-on from the ground. Join us, with the magic of technology!

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Movies, Breakfast Tacos, and Karaoke: Follow Movieline at SXSW!

Elmo’s Master, Duplicate Earths: Sundance 2011 Competition Slates Announced

It’s Sundance time again, meaning it’s time to either wrinkle your nose with genre apprehension or dig in with a highlighter and get your ticket selections straight. Or maybe you’re trying to get an early bead on next year’s Precious or Winter’s Bone . You might be looking a while, to be honest — though at least Vera Farmiga’s directing debut is in there.

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Elmo’s Master, Duplicate Earths: Sundance 2011 Competition Slates Announced

John Cameron Mitchell on Rabbit Hole, Nicole Kidman’s Face and How to Share Power on the Set

It was just a matter of time before the Nicole Kidman/Aaron Eckhart drama Rabbit Hole found a buyer up in Toronto, and now that Lionsgate has staked its claim , the Oscar race is reportedly next. It’s strikingly new territory for John Cameron Mitchell, the writer-director best known for the cult-classic fringe musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the sexually explicit ensemble dramedy Shortbus . Here, directing David Lindsay-Abaire’s adaptation of his own celebrated play, Mitchell settles admirably into a suburban idyll riven by grief, guilt, frigidity and dark humor eight months after the accidental death of Becca (Kidman) and Howie’s (Eckhart) young son. And then there was the year of editing.

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John Cameron Mitchell on Rabbit Hole, Nicole Kidman’s Face and How to Share Power on the Set