Results tagged “film” from The Daily Nugget

During the next two weeks, 177 films will screen from more than 50 countries. It's the largest film event in Northern California, and more than 10 percent of all movie tickets sold in San Francisco this year will be to a movie in this festival (kind of mind-blowing when you think about it – wow, SF really likes independent films!) Aw yeah, Nug readers – the SF International Film Festival is on. It's the oldest film festival of its kind in the United States, and considered to be one of the Top-10 film festivals in the world. Sure, it's a venerated, lauded institution and this is their main event, with a ton of notable world premieres, North American premieres and West Coast premieres scheduled -- like the scheduled world premiere of Andy Garcia's documentary on Cachao.  Andy Garcia not only directs and acts as a lead in the documentary, but he is rumored to appear at the opening of the film.

But why we love it: because even in a post-Netflix world, occasionally movies are a once-in-a-lifetime event. In 2003, we watched a screening of Oliver Stone's movie about Fidel Castro, "Comandante." It was scheduled to air on HBO three months after the film festival – big whoop. It was presumed that if you missed it at the film festival, it seemed certain that you would be able to watch it a few months. But what happened next sealed the movie's fate: just a few weeks after the screening, Castro went on a rampage and executed a few people without proper trials. The international climate changed and for some reason, Stone was forbidden to screen the movie ever, anywhere, ever again. Stone, the only American film director ever granted permission by Castro to make a documentary about him, with exclusive months-long access to the reclusive revolutionary – all to be shelved like the McGruder film, and will need something like Freedom-of-Information-Act request to ever see the light of day. Who knew that one of Fabian's early posts to this blog would be one of the few things ever to be written about it?

Asia Argento as The Last Mistress

We have finally made our film selections for this year's festival.  As always, we will try and bring you a special report about the opening night excitement.

The opening night film this year will be The Last Mistress (France 2007), directed by Catherine Breillat.  The film is based on a controversial novel by 19th century author Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly.  The story centers on a Frenchman on the verge of marrying an innocent aristocratic young French socialite.  But before doing so, he confesses to an affair with a Spanish mistress to the bride's grandmother. A surprisingly open-minded old woman, the grandmother seems to delight in every sordid detail of the young man's relationship with his mistress.

The other films that we will be watching during this year's festival are as follows:

The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival, which will be held from April 24, 2008 to May 8, 2008, will open at the Castro Theatre this year with The Last Mistress (France), the latest film from acclaimed director Catherine Breillat. The Last Mistress will screen at 7:00 pm with Catherine Breillat in attendance, followed by the gala Opening Night party at 9:30 pm in the scenic settings of City View at Metreon, located on the penthouse level of 101 Fourth Street at Mission.

Admission for the Opening Night film and party is $85 for general public/$70 for San Francisco Film Society members; VIP tickets are $135. Tickets should be going on sale at the SF Film Society website soon.

Pixar Studios created Buy n' Large, a fake website for one of their upcoming movies. In the film, the Buy n' Large corporation is credited as the cause of human civilization's descent into couch dwelling sloths. Click on the privacy policy at the bottom of the front page for real laughs.

No End In Sight is a documentary by Charles Ferguson, the original creator of Microsoft FrontPage, that pieces together over 200 hours of footage from high ranking officials to give a candid look at the errors made after the fall of Baghdad. The interviewees include Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003), Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003) as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.

The film examines the principal errors of U.S. policy, which include allowing the looting of Baghdad, the disbanding of the Iraqi military, the use of insufficient troops, and the removal of professionals from the Iraqi government. The story is retold by the ultimate insiders, not armchair analysts here in the U.S. The film brutally concludes that the errors made created the insurgency, chaos, and violence that exists in Iraq today. And sadly, for the time being, there is no end in sight.

The film opens today at The Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco and Charles Ferguson, the producer and director, will be around to answer questions after the showing on Friday, August 10th at 7:30pm and Saturday, August 11th at 5:00pm. Check it out.

Ocean's Thirteen was a fun film unburdened by romance or love interests, Julia Roberts is not even in it. The film is about the Ocean's crew pulling off a caper, plain and simple. They seek to pull off this caper not merely for the money, but to ruin the reputation of the villainous casino owner, played by Al Pacino. Al Pacino's character screwed with one of the crew, played by Elliot Gould, and now he has to pay.

The spectacle of how they do it is the payoff here. The specifics on exactly how they do it is hard to understand at times, but that doesn't even really matter. The film is clever and funny at just the right times and the high arching storyline moves at a fast clip. Ellen Barkin, the only woman in the film provides all the sex appeal in the film even though she's in her fifties, and it turns out to be just the right amount.

The film makes the life of being a world-class thief look cool and fabulous. At the end of the film you feel like you want more and hope that they would get together again for another caper. Unfortunately, George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh have promised that this is the last Ocean's film. Even if they don't make another one, they are definitely going out on top.

So I remember watching the original Transformers cartoons when I was a little kid on Saturday mornings. There was no 24-hour cartoon channels then. If you wanted to watch your favorite serialized cartoons you had to get your ass up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to watch them because that's when they aired.

The theme song for the cartoon was really catchy, even if it sounds really dated now:

The Transformers, more than meets the eye
Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons
The Transformers, (Robot Voice) robots in disguise
The Transformers, more than meets the eye
The Transformers

However, will someone please explain to me how the hell we went from this:



to something that now looks like this:



The camp of the original is all gone. Is anyone really excited about this new movie?

Q: What do you get when you mix the Village People with the Backstreet Boys and add some Chinese four-spice?

A: Alive – the Hong Kong Boy Band.

The Heavenly Kings, the title of the movie that we saw on Friday night at the Castro Theatre, was our first of 12 scheduled movies – and I have to say, the evening was a home run. Having an excuse the schlep over to the gorgeous Castro Theatre is always a treat, but when you get the “full film festival experience” in addition...well, let’s just I’ll enthusiastically jump over a few more crack bums on the way. (C’est la vie en San Francisco!)

By “full film festival experience” and why we just love, love, love the SF Film Fest: Filmmakers often show up for their films and stay around to discuss the films after, either formally, on stage, in front of the audience, or can be found just milling about the lobby and informally chatting it up with movie-going peeps afterwards. Two years ago, we sat about 10 feet away from Metallica—aw yeah!, and three years ago, we were about 20 feet from Kevin Spacey. (So I just name dropped--so what?)

For the red carpet entrance, the Daily Nug photog (Fabian) said there were at least 20 or 30 women in the front who were screaming at the arrival of the film’s stars. Daniel Wu, who acted in several hit Hong Kong movies before making his directorial debut is a familiar face, as were the film’s other main characters in the film. Conroy Chan, a former Hong Kong male “supermodel”, Andrew Lin, a Hong Kong B-level actor and Cal grad, and Terence Yin, also a famous actor who had previously recorded an album. By the way, Daniel Wu, a Berkeley native, just won a Hong Kong academy award for this film for Best First Time Director.

The 50th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival is finally here! This is the third year that the Daily Nugget was invited to cover the festival as press. Due to our busy schedules however, Melissa and I did not attend the opening night film, The Golden Door, on Thursday night. However, we went to the Castro Theater last night to see a screening of the Hong Kong film,the Heavenly Kings. Melissa will be writing a review of the film and I do not want to steal her thunder, so I'll let her tell you about the film herself in her review post.

The atmosphere at the Castro Theatre was electric. Daniel Wu and his friends are pretty famous actors in Hong Kong, even if most American audiences have no idea who they are. There were several Chinese and Chinese-American girls that knew exactly who these guys were, as evidence by their screams and agitation when they came down the red carpet. Roger Garcia was on hand at the red carpet to welcome the director and actors to the screening.

Screaming fans, flashing lightbulbs, a little bit of mayhem on the side of the ropes--it was what I always had pictured red carpets to be, but in a much smaller scale. It wasn't the Academy Awards or the Grammys, but it was fun to watch and take a few pictures. I had a tiny Canon point-and-shoot camera and was standing behind the "real" photographers from the Chronicle, WireImage, and other event photographers.

I was okay standing a few feet behind and taking in the whole scene--it was a bit surreal. If this night was any indication of the level of excitement at this year's festival, then we are really excited about the 12 films that we will be watching this year!

The festival runs through May 10th. For tickets, venue information and a complete schedule, go to www.sffs.org or call (925) 866-9559.

In reading a recent interview with Quentin Tarentino for his new movie Grindhouse, he refers to the Carson Twin Cinema theatres in Carson as a place he used to watch movies when he was a kid. This sparked a bit of nostalgia in me, as I used to also go to the Carson Twin almost every weekend to watch movies from 1984 to 1986. Granted, this was about eight years or so after Tarantino, but surely the theatre had not changed in that time, it wasn't even remodeled!

My mom used to drop me off at the Carson Twin on her way to the Samerika Bingo parlor that was located just down the street, at Avalon Blvd. and 223rd Street. The theatre was located on Avalon Blvd. at the North end of a dilapidated strip mall called the Scottsdale Shopping Center that was located at the intersection of Scottsdale Drive. The theatre itself was a separate box shaped building adjacent to this sleezy Ranchero Mexican Bar that was located at the end of the strip mall. I remember seeing the scantily clad "bar ladies" getting dropped off in the early evening by their "boyfriends" or pimps, I'm not sure which.

I just found this funny video series titled Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager. It's a simple premise, Darth Vader as the day shift manager of a small grocery store. It sounds a little corny at first, but whatever you do, don't underestimate the power of the dark side! These videos have great effects, high production value, and have to be seen to be believed. If you are a fan of Star Wars, the five video episodes in this series will have you rolling on the floor laughing your ass off. Enjoy.

George Lucas announced today that the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones film franchise would be filmed in 2007 for a May 2008 release. Harrison Ford will return as the title character even though he is 62 years old. No film locations have been decided. No plot points were released. I am thinking that it may be called Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth!

How's this for a plot!? Once Indy finds the fountain of youth the rest of the movie can be filmed using a younger actor as Indiana Jones fighting some bad guys through the Amazon jungle. Indy dispatches the bad guys, seals the fountain, but the effects are temporary. In the final scene, Harrison Ford can then be wheeled into a really large old folks home, much like the ark was wheeled into a really large warehouse at the end of the Raiders of the Lost Ark. One can only hope.

Although the nerdcore subgenre (hip-hop hardcore + nerds = nerdcore) is a few years old, it may gain critical mass now that a new documentary about the movement is seeking distribution. Nerdcore for Life is a new documentary that sheds light on the most popular nerdcore artists and their lives. The trailer for the film has garnered over 600,000 views on YouTube.

MC Router, pictured here, has a famous beef with Wired Magazine for running a story about nerdcore (issue 14.09) and stating there's "even a few ladies" on the scene without giving her any props. Click on her picture to hear "Unwired" on her Myspace page, it's her rap rebuttal to the Wired story. Damn, even if you may not like her rap style you gotta admit that she has one of the sweetest tattoos ever!

I am completely fascinated by nerdcore and would love to see the film be entered and shown at the next San Francisco International Film Festival. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether the film was even entered prior to the December 15th deadline for the festival. In any case, I sent the director and producer an email about the festival and can only hope that he follows up with the festival organizers. I wish him the best of luck in getting his film shown and distributed. For more on nerdcore go to nerdcorehiphop.org.

The Halo feature film which is currently in development is now in limbo because Universal backed out of a co-financing and distribution deal with Fox. The film, which according to trade papers now has a budget of $200 million, was supposed to be released next summer. Now, it may not.

Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez were on hand for the premiere of El Cantante at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this week.

The film was produced by Lopez and stars Anthony in the leading role as Hector Lavoe, the legendary salsa singer, and Lopez as his hot-headed wife Puchi. While the film did not win the top prize at the festival, Picturehouse, an independent distributor co-owned by HBO and New Line Cinema, paid just under $6 million for North American distribution rights to the drug-fuelled story of the late salsa pioneer.

The film is a biopic of Hector Lavoe, a Puerto Rican salsa singer who became crazy famous in the late 1960s and in the 1970s. However, despite his incredible success, Hector sought alcohol and drugs as a refuge from his own fame and pain. He survived the death of his brother in a car crash, the murder of his mother-in-law, the death of his father, and the accidental death of his son with his wife Puchi at his side. The weight of these tragedies, in addition to the alcohol and drug abuse, lead him to jump off the ninth floor of a hotel room in an apparent attempted suicide. Those closest to him later claimed that he saw a vision of his son outside the window asking him to come outside. Although he survived the fall he would never be the same from that day forward. He died four years later from complications related to AIDS, which he probably contracted through his extensive intravenous drug use. Also, even though he was wildly successful, due to his excesses he died penniless.

The tragic story of a man that made amazing music. I just can't wait to see this film.

The 50th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival will be held April 26 through May 10, 2007. The festival is the oldest in the western hemisphere and its half century mark is a historic event. The SF Film Society is currently calling for film entries to show in this landmark event and the SF film community is abuzz with anticipation.

In related news, the Kabuki Theatre, which has been the main venue for the film festival in recent years, was unceremoniously sold by AMC to the new Sundance Cinemas in August. This brings speculation that Robert Redford and high profile supporters of the Sundance Film Festival will show up in San Francisco. It would be interesting to find out what Graham Leggat, Executive Director of the SF Film Society, thinks of the Kabuki Theater's change in ownership. On one hand, Sundance's loose involvement can be seen as a positive development that will increase the profile of the festival. On the other, it can be seen as Sundance attempting to hijack the San Francisco festival by controlling its main venue, but I doubt it. It's a good thing.

For tickets, venue information and a complete festival schedule once finalized please visit www.sffs.org. Be sure to mark your calendars, April 26th through May 10th, and see you all there!

We went to see Burnie Burns's Cock Byte: Masters of Machinima on Monday night. The makers of Red vs. Blue: Blood Gulch Chronicles, Rooster Teeth Productions showed a 60-minute summary of the first season instead of the "greatest hits" collection that they were supposed to show according to the program. This was a bit disappointing, but the first season of Red vs. Blue has a redeeming exploration of philosophy. The characters humorously ask, "why are we here, in this canyon" and ponder the meaning of their lives in the Halo video game. Sophomoric teen humor, yes. But entertaining to fans of Halo everywhere. One kid even flew in from Alaska to catch the screening.




Burnie was not on hand but he sent two of his minions, Jason ans Gus, to address the crowd. And yes, they used the same sophomoric humor to address the crowd during the Q&A session as the characters in the film, after all they voice a few of them. I wish these guys the best of luck, maybe they can make a feature film comedy from these Halo shorts. Who the hell knows?

We missed our Tuesday night screening of Obaba out of sheer exhaustion. Our next film is Thursday.

On Friday we saw Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, our first screening of the festival. On Saturday, we were at the film festival all day and saw a total of four films. Well, actually we saw three and a half films. Because of the parking situation caused by the Cherry Blossom Festival, we arrived late to the screening of Domestic Dramas, a program of narrative shorts from all over the world. We missed the first two of the shorts in the program titled "The Light," and "Kitchen." We were particularly bummed to have missed "The Light," since it is a local entry from San Francisco.

The other shorts were interesting, particularly "Remain Upright!!" and "The Pretty Boy Project." The "Pretty Boy Project" was about urban kids settling their disputes not with guns and knives, but with a double dutch jump rope competition. It was pretty damn funny. The producers, director, and cast for "The Pretty Boy Project" were on hand for the Q&A after the program.




After Domestic Dramas, we retired to the press hospitality suite to check out another movie, Al Franken: God Spoke. We used the Kaleidescape kiosks to check this one out. It was an interesting film that followed the political pundit for two years, from the late 2003 of his bestselling book "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" to his recent announcement that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate representing the state of Minnesota in 2008.

We then left the suite and made our way to the screening of Perpetual Motion, a charming Chinese film by a female director that explores feminist themes. A woman invites her best friends to her home during the Spring Festival celebrations to figure out which one of them is sleeping with her husband. Witty dialogue and a mesmerizing meal scene involving chicken feet made for an entertaining look at the lives of Beijing upper-middle-class women.

Immediately following the screening of Perpetual Motion, we waited at the same theatre to watch Factotum. Starring Matt Dillon, the film is an adaptation of Charles Bukowski's 1975 book by the same name. Although we weren't fans of Bukowski's work, we decided to see the film because Matt Dillon would be around for the Q&A. The film was very well made and interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and sometimes brutal. The film is a semi-autobiographical account of Bukowski's own life, which included a lot of drinking, screwing and writing, usually in that order. Again, not our favorite, but well made.




At the factotum screening we met Jason Wiener, a consummate film fan that has been to three festivals and seen over 148 films this year, and it's only April! It was such an amazing feat that I just had to take a picture with him. We had seen him the night before at the "Metal" screening and finally got a chance to talk to him for a few minutes. Immediately after the Factotum screening, he skipped before the Q&A with Matt Dillon to see another film, The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai. Jason is a true fan of film and not of celebrity and a really interesting guy. I hope to get a chance to interview him at length before the festival is over.




One interesting item of note is that during the Factotum film screening, which was being cycled through two projectors in adjoining theatres, the film jammed and the projector lamp burned through the film print in two places. I had seen this happen in films, but never in a live screening. The burn-through caused a 15 minute delay as the film was re-spliced together about two thirds of the way into the film and quite the discussion amongst those in the theatre. That was cool.

Please go to my Flickr 2006 SF Film Festival set for more photos from the festival.

"I never questioned my sexuality at any point, and I was up there in lingerie."
-- Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister

We went into this film expecting it to be about metal fans in Canada. Instead what we were treated to a very well organized film essay about the history of heavy metal. From Black Sabbath to the most extreme current Norwegian black metal bands, the film explores the history of metal, its origins, its fans, its culture, and its themes: sexuality, religion, violence, and death. The film also seeks to find out why metal has been dismissed by many critics over the years.

Filmmaker, co-director, and narrator Sam Dunn, an anthropologist, uses academic efficiency in breaking down the history of metal. The film even boasts a metal genealogy chart that just has to be seen to believed. A lifelong metal fan, Dunn interviews metal luminaries like Bruce Dickinson, Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie, and Vince Neil. He also visits metal meccas like Los Angeles, California; Birmingham, England; Wacken, Germany; and Norway. Dunn was like a mad metal professor teaching class as he answered questions from the crowd after the screening. A smart and articulate scholar, he effectively breaks down the stereotype of the "stoner metal fan."

Perhaps this documentary can bridge the gap between metal heads and the rest of the world. It is only a shame that the film wasn't longer so that each metal branch could have been explored in greater detail. Dunn said that in order to do the film he wished to make it would have had to be eight hours long! I definitely would like to see an extended version of the film that he said will be released on DVD soon. Until then, please visit www.metalhistory.com for more info and go see this film. Whether you are a metal fan or not you will enjoy it.

We have been attending the film festival for many years and have seen our share of good and bad at the festival. However, you get the feeling that this year is a special year for the festival and that there is the proper leadership to lead the festival into next year's big 50th Anniversary celebration. Here are some thoughts from walking around the festival last night.

Attendance
The parking lot at the Japan Center Parking lot was almost full. This was a good sign since we were getting there at 9:00PM to see the Late Show at 10:30PM. We will be able to better guage the turnout at the festival today since the first weekend is the busiest.

Will Call and Volunteers
When we arrived to the festival, we went to the will call desk and picked up our tickets. This was rather uneventful which is exactly what you want. It was nice to see that our order for 26 tickets, 13 pairs, was filled without any errors and the volunteers were cordial and helpful.

Press Hospitality Suite
The press hospitality suite is amazing this year. They basically turned one of the smaller theatres on the bottom floor of the Kabuki Theatres into a lounge for press to sit and file their stories. It hase food and beverages. And it even has WiFi for realtime blog updates and a movie kiosk screening system. The system is made by a company called Kaleidescape and works like a TiVo that lets you screen over sixty of the festival entries in one of four kiosks using 26" LCD panels and headphones. We plan to take advantage of these when we have more than a two hour wait between films. In fact, I am posting this from the festival right now!

Although opening night was last night, the SF Film Festival starts for us tonight with the first of fifteen films.

We've finally purchased tickets for the films that we plan to screen this year during the 49th Annual San Francisco Film Festival. We will attempt to watch a record 15 films, up from the 12 of 14 we saw in 2003. This is a lot of films to watch in the first 10 days of the festival, but somebody's got to do it. Anyway, here's our list of films (in screening order):

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey (Canada, 2005)
Domestic Dramas (Shorts from Several Countries, 2005)
Perpetual Motion (China, 2005)
Factotum (Norway/USA, 2005)
A Perfect Couple (France/Japan, 2005)
Cock Byte: Masters of Machinima (USA, 2000)
The House of Himiko (Japan, 2005)
Viva Cuba (Cuba/France, 2005)
Obaba (Spain/Germany, 2005)
The Life I Want (Italy, 2005)
American Blackout (USA, 2005)
Runner's High (USA, 2006)
The Bridge (USA, 2005)

We are also trying to obtain press passes for the following sold out films:

Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple (USA, 2006)
Romance & Cigarettes (USA, 2005)

It's fitting that the last film we will screen at the festival is The Bridge. It is an exploration of the mythic beauty of the Golden Gate Bridge, which also happens to be the most popular suicide destination in the world. Eric Steel and his crew filmed the bridge during daylight hours from two locations for all of 2004, recording most of the two dozen deaths that year and preventing several others. They also taped over 100 hours of footage with friends, families, and witnesses that recount tales of struggles with depression, substance abuse, and mental illness. In related news, a $2 million study into erecting a suicide barrier on the bridge received final funding this week.

The San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) held the opening press conference for the 49th Annual San Francisco Film Festival yesterday morning at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in Union Square. About 300 press corps members, part of the local and international press corps attended the event. Due to the film festival's Hong Kong entries, there was even a news crew from World Channel International, the local Chinese language station.

Graham Leggat, the SFFS's new executive director, spoke articulately with a slight Irish accent. Although he has been on the job for only the last five months, he exhibited very intimate knowledge about the festival and its entries. Unlike Roxanne Messina Captor, who was not very articulate, often would fumble film titles, and didn't seem to be as as intimate with the festival's programming. The primary message to his speech was simple: putting together a film festival is a social endeavor.

Leggat stated that the film festival has gone out of their way to create a citizen press corps by recruiting Bay Area bloggers, like myself, to attend the film festival as press. This is my second year covering the festival, even though I have been writing about the festival in the form of film reviews for the last four years. So far my experience with the festival this year yields a sense that the festival is a lot more organized, surely due in part to Leggat's new leadership.

Electric Dreams was released in 1984, when the general public had not even seen a personal computer, let alone know exactly what a computer could do. This film could not have been filmed and released at any other time. So in that respect, the film is not timeless, but it reflects the culture and the fantastic perception of personal computers brought on by Apple's legendary 1984 ads which ran literally months before this film was released.

Electric Dreams was produced and written by Rusty Lemorande, who would later produce Michael Jackson's Captain Eo, a full length video that ran at Disneyland for many years during the 1980's. Also it was directed by Steven Barron, the director for Michael Jackson's Billie Jean video. It should be of no surprise then that music is a primary character in the film. The film has many musical montages, small video segments, without which it would only be about a half hour in length.

The film score was done by Giorgio Moroder and included songs by 1984 pop attractions like Culture Club, Heaven 17 and Jeff Lynne. Add a mixture of rock and classical music by Tchaikovsky and Bach and you have a unique score that represents the New Wave music of the early eighties.

The San Francisco Film Society's flamboyant executive director, Roxanne Messina Captor, departed amid confusion from her post just one week after this year's festival. A move that startled some members of the Board of Directors but was "made mutually" according to Melanie Blum, the Board President. Today, the San Francisco Film Society issued an official press release seeking a replacement. Hopefully they'll get someone in time for next year's festival. Stay tuned.

I was contacted by the San Francisco Film Festival last week. This in itself wasn't out of the ordinary since I am a member of the San Francisco Film Society. However, this was different. I received an email from the publicist of the festival because in the past I have posted information and reviews of the festival on The Daily Nugget. She apparently searched for online press in Google and found my past blog posts and reviews. Due to my previous "coverage," she offered me press credentials to cover the event officially this year.

This is proof positive that bloggers are being recognized as valid news sources by many industries, including the entertainment industry. I assume that my blog isn't the only blog invited to attend the event. However, needless to say, being recognized as a news organizaton is very flattering and exciting. As official press for the event I will be able to schedule one-on-one interviews with film directors that will be attending the festival, see advanced screenings of the films, and obtain full-access to opening night and closing night ceremonies. Look for official SF Film Festival coverage soon.

The Incredibles is truly an incredible film. Rarely do advancements in technology create a more profound artistic experience. I mean really, do we need cell phones with crappy cameras in them? But in this case, the advancement in technology has spurred artistic creativity to make something that transcends technology, animation, or computer graphics.

The world of Bob and Helen Parr is something truly special. It is beautiful, humorous, and even, dare I say, filled with human emotion. This from actors that are pixelated and created in server farms by a legion of computer artists. Several times during the film I forgot that I was watching animation because the characters acted so "human." This is largely in part to the amazing voice talents of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jason Lee. But they can't take all the credit. The visuals are stunning and the sound effects are fantastic. Lots of explosions and action, enough to make Jerry Bruckheimer jealous.

But what truly sets the film apart is its storyline, without which all the effects, voices, and graphics in the world would simply be meaningless. This is a world in which all superheroes are forced out of business by litigation from the citizens and forced to hang up their superhero suits for good. The story centers around the family of Bob Parr, who used to be Mr. Incredible, and includes Helen Parr, his wife, who used to be Elastigirl, and their three children.

To you, a robot is just a robot. But you haven't worked with them. You don't know them. They're a cleaner, better breed than we are.
-- Dr. Susan Calvin, character in the book I, Robot

This film uses Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:

1. A robot must not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where those orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, except where such protection would conflict with the First or Second Law.

Apart from the Three Laws, the film is a total departure from the collection of short stories that make up Asimov's I, Robot. In short, this is not a film adaptation of the book, it is just loosely based on some of the stories, a couple of ideas from "Reason" and "Liar!" For example, Dr. Susan Calvin, the "robopsychologist," is a beautiful young scientist and not a 70-year-old woman, which is a welcome change.

The film revolves around the life of Del Spooner, played by Will Smith, a robot-hating detective that investigates a mysterious death of a top robot scientist and his nightmarish discoveries about what's going on at the company. The company is named U.S. Robotics, which is a bit nostalgic for me. I remember when a company named U.S. Robotics made the best modems in the world, but I guess I am aging myself.

Spiderman 2 is the best super hero film of all time. I know it is hard to believe that it beats out Superman: The Movie and X-Men series, but it does. Spiderman 2 builds on everything we thought was great about the first one. The special effects are much better as are the acting performances by all involved. In short, a much better film with a great storyline.

Spiderman is much more vulnerable than other superheroes, and Tobey Maguire plays him perfectly. Also, Tobey adds just the right amount of humor to the character at key times. It would be hard to imagine another actor stepping in for Spiderman after this one.

In this film, Spiderman is stressed out at having a dual life. Pizza delivery guy, student, freelance photographer, and Spiderman. The stress of this fragmented existence is so great that his superpowers start to fade at key moments in the film. He's unable to produce webbing, has trouble sticking to walls, and his eyesight even starts to fail him. Unable to keep up with everything, he gives up being Spiderman.

I don't want to spoil the film for those that want to "go in fresh." So let me say this, by the end of the film many people know of Spiderman's secret identity. And thankfully, it is a plot ingredient that does not reset after the movie ends, setting up the anticipated next film in this series. Until then, this one does not disappoint.

I saw this film last night at the Metreon in San Francisco and can only describe it this way: documentary filmmaking at its best. Michael Moore bring us a film that is informative, funny, provocative, moving, and unabashedly critical of the Bush Administration and their use of the Iraq war to further their own agenda.

The film opens with the Gore-Lieberman victory celebration on election night, 2000, and poignantly asks if the last four years has been a just a bad dream. It explains what we now know is a fact, Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris knowingly disenfranchised many minority Florida voters to help George W. Bush steal the election. For more on this see the 2002 documentary, Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election.

The film portrayed the way the congressional Democrats, with the exception of a handful of African American House members, rolled over without protest to the theft of the election. It showed defiant African American House members rising honorably in protest on the Senate floor to object the certification of the election results only to be gaveled out of order by Al Gore, President Pro-Tem of the Senate presiding over the joint session. The objectors could not force a debate because they could not get a single Senator to support their right to do so. Not Lieberman, not Kennedy, not Edwards, and not Kerry. This was sad to see.

The film then goes on to detail the months leading up to the 9/11 attacks and chronicles Bush's vacations, including embarrassing responses that Bush himself gave to the press trying to justify his time off. This is not just Moore's opinion, the record shows that President Bush was listed "on vacation" over forty percent of the time during his first eight months in office.

The film credits roll when the timeline reaches 9/11. Instead of showing the gruesome images of the Twin Towers being struck by airplanes, Moore allows the audience to call up their own recollections of the chilling event by using a black screen and audio of that fateful morning in New York.

Moore then shows George W. Bush choosing to go ahead with a photo opportunity at a Florida school after the attack on the first tower. During the photo op, after the second tower is struck by terrorists, Bush's chief of staff whispers into his ear, "America is under attack." This is where we all get to see Bush's world crashing in around him. For seven minutes we watched the surreal scene. Without anyone to tell him what to do, Bush continued with the photo op while apparently thinking "what the fuck do I do now?" Bush's possible thought process is masterfully narrated by Moore during this amazing scene--you have to see it to believe it.

I just watched the tail end of AFI's 100 Years, 100 Songs: America's Greatest Music in the Movies. I only saw the Top 15 songs in the countdown. The countdown included the greatest movie songs as chosen by experts in the film community, including directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, critics and historians. The Top 10 were as follows:

10 The Sound of Music, The Sound of Music, 1965
09 Stayin' Alive, Saturday Night Fever, 1977
08 The Way We Were, The Way We Were, 1973
07 When You Wish Upon a Star, Pinocchio, 1940
06 Mrs. Robinson, The Graduate, 1967
05 White Christmas, Holiday Inn, 1942
04 Moon River, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961
03 Singin' in the Rain, Singin' in the Rain, 1952
02 As Time Goes By, Casablanca, 1942
01 Somewhere Over the Rainbow, The Wizard of Oz, 1939

Damn, how old are these people? They went back through dust bins to find some of these. I mean Pinocchio? Holiday Inn? I am a child of the late seventies and eighties and my Top 10 is drastically different:

10 Donke Schoen, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986
09 Up Where We Belong, An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982
08 Raiders March, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981
07 Overture (Opening Theme), 2001: A Space Oddyssey, 1968
06 Take My Breath Away, Top Gun, 1984
05 Wind Beneath My Wings, Beaches, 1988
04 Gonna Fly Now (Theme), Rocky, 1977
03 Stayin' Alive, Saturday Night Fever, 1977
02 Star Wars Theme, Star Wars, 1977
01 Speak Softly, Love (Love Theme), The Godfather, 1972

What would be your Top 10 movie songs?

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is by far the most awe-inspiring of the three films in the trilogy. Peter Jackson did an amazing job of blending the epic battle scenes with Frodo's quest to destroy the ring masterfully. And although this is the longest running of the three films, at 3 hours and 20 minutes, the film does not lose the audience's grasp--it grabs on to you and doesn't let go.

Minas Tirith, and the battle there, is visually stunning. It has to be seen to be believed. Alas, I don't know what I can say about this film that hasn't already been said before, or that I didn't already say in my review of The Two Towers. All I can say is run, don't walk, to go see this film. Just be sure to empty your bladder and not get a drink unless you want to suffer during the last hour of the film. It's very long, but worth every minute. A masterpiece from beginning to end.

Here is another great review of the film by fellow Blogcritic, Kevin Holtsberry.

"You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back!"
--Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), Gattaca, 1997

I just watched Gattaca, one of my favorite films on the Sci-Fi channel. It is the amazing story of someone who was told by society that he wouldn't amount to anything, but through hard work and perseverance, he fulfilled his dreams of going to the stars. We could all learn a little from Vincent Freeman. I guess you have to see the film to understand the quote. I am totally using it as inspiration for getting me through school right now. Rock on!

Lost in Translation is a beautifully shot film that captures the anxiety and sadness of two individuals that feel lost and without purpose in a foreign country. The Japanese scenery is breathtaking and the soundtrack, at times, hypnotic. Sophia Coppola establishes amazing mood as the backdrop to the plot.

Bill Murray does an excellent job in this film. He plays Bob Harris, a sad and sweet over-the-hill actor in Tokyo to shoot a series of commercials and print ads for Suntory Whisky. Bob does not know the Japanese culture or language and feels a bit disoriented. Sadly, he is also disoriented because he is away from his kids and the relationship with his wife is deteriorating, as evidenced in some very cold phone calls back home. He can't sleep.

Bob meets Charlotte in the hotel bar, a young Yale graduate tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband who is on assignment. Charlotte is trying to find a sense of purpose in her life, and her lack of purpose is only amplified by Japan's strange surroundings. Scarlett Johansson does an amazing job as Charlotte, portraying a young woman in crisis trying to find herself. She can't sleep either. Bob and Charlotte find each other in this hotel in the middle of bustling Tokyo and share an immediate connection.

Robert Rodriguez's Once Upon a Time in Mexico is current film in the El Mariachi saga. It follows the continuing exploits of El Mariachi (Banderas) while he seeks revenge for the death of Carolina (Hayek) and their daughter. The backdrop to vengance is a presidential coup d'etat being manipulated by a CIA agent (Depp).

Depp's character is excellent, adding enough complexity and comedy to make the film very entertaining. However, the film does not have the raw sexuality and style of Desperado and relies on action elements that were already explored in both of the previous films. Although it is an entertaining film, it pales in comparison to Rodriguez's earlier efforts.

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill appropriately opens with words uttered by Ricardo Montalban's Khan in Star Trek II, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Khan preceded the quote by explaining that it was an old Klingon proverb and Tarantino credited the quote as such. But there were those in the audience that knew exactly who said the words and when. This film was made for those people.

Who are these people? People who have loyally watched the Star Trek franchise go through its ups and, most recently, its downs. People who watched in awe as Bruce Lee fought his way up the pagoda in Game of Death. People who loved Japanese anime before Robotech brought it to the Western masses. People that would go out of their way to watch seventies Hong Kong films like the Drunken Master, Master of the Flying Guillotine, and Sony Chiba's samurai classics like Samurai Reincarnation.

Kill Bill pays homage to all these influences and more with style. It doesn't assume that everyone in the audience can identify the plethora of inside jokes and references to other films and genres. Instead it presents the concepts with a certain amount of style and grace that is reserved only for truly great directors.

It is a movie that exploits everything in extremes--like a comic book come to life--like, or dare I say, pulp fiction. And yes, even the extreme violence is done using extreme style. Blood doesn't simply ooze out of severed limbs and body cavities, instead it sprays forcefully as if dancing through a concert of park fountains. It is a visual assault that grabs you and doesn't let go.

It is nothing new, movies about revenge have been done before. However, the strong female warrior themes that are exploited in this film are concepts that are new to American cinema. Concepts that are long overdue and should be celebrated, even if the subject of revenge is "a little violent."

So, I urge you not to kill Kill Bill, but to kill the critics. For taking the over-the-top pulp fiction violence literally, for not seeing the underlying message of female independence, and for not recognizing the stylistic genius of Tarentino for a few severed limbs. Kill the critics by watching this film en masse and proving that critical acclaim is never a vital ingredient for box office success.

On paper, a film devoted solely to the journeys of migratory birds doesn't sound all that interesting. However, in execution, this film is a cinematic masterpiece with awe-inspiring cinematography. Filmed over three years, the film follows bird migrations in seven continents in all types of conditions, from deserts to snow-capped mountains to lush green countrysides.

The first thing that strikes you about this film is its amazing cinematography. Birds were filmed using a variety of light aircraft and remote controlled planes and helicopters giving the perspective and feeling of actual flight. It feels like you are migrating with them--it is truly astounding. The shots obtained in this film have no equal and will probably be forever known as the best bird footage ever captured on film. It sets the standard by which all other bird documentaries will be judged.

Additionally, the soundtrack captures the emotion of flying through the air with these birds in their amazing journeys and the narration is informative but unobstrusive. This is not only the best bird documentary, but it is the best animal documentary I have ever seen. It is just short of a five-star rating because it is still a movie about birds--but it's the best movie about birds ever.

The Italian Job was an entertaining action film about thieves double-crossing thieves. Although the plot has been done before, most recently in The Score, which also starred Edward Norton, the locations, action sequences, and comedy take it to the next level.

Unfortunately, having seen The Score, makes you realize quickly that Ed Norton's acting talent is woefully underutilized in this film. The director will have to take the responsibility for that, since Norton has ability, see The Score and Fight Club. Mark Whalberg does a good job as the lead and is likeable, but he's always likeable. His performance is not impressive, but it serves its purpose. The same could be said of Charlize Theron who had the strongest acting performance out of the entire cast.

The movie moves the storyline quickly, with a few twists and turns thrown in for good measure. There a lot of good jokes in the film, and Napster founder Shawn Fanning even makes a cameo. Also, the film also has amazing car driving sequences, although maybe not as good as the ones in Ronin. Either way, definitely worth watching on a Sunday afternoon, especially if you like Mini Coopers.

I had the opportunity to view Comandante at the San Francisco Film Festival earlier this month (see entry). In response to HBO's choice not to air the film, Oliver Stone has recently flown back to Havana to obtain additional interview footage from Castro regarding the most recent incidents. These new scenes will now be incorporated into the documentary and the new film will air on HBO at a later date. Having already seen the original film, it will be interesting to hear Castro's thoughts on the recent executions and the brutal repression of Cuba's dissidents by his regime. If you are even remotely interested in global politics, you must watch this incredible film when it is released.

The Matrix has you, and me, and him, and her. Apparently it has almost everybody. The theatre house that I saw it in was packed to the gills, and it was a Friday afternoon! I wonder if anyone has tried to correlate drops in worker productivity to major theatrical releases. Or at least, drops in technology production when sci-fi movies are released.

The film is visually stunning. An amazing spectacle of special effects wizardry intermingled into an admittedly weak storyline. The first Matrix movie was fresh and unexpected, since we didn't know what the Matrix was then. When Morpheus says that the Matrix is the world that has been pulled over our eyes to blind us from the truth--we were shocked, we cared, we were interested.

The plot of this installment is simple, in the real world, the machines are making their way down to the city of Zion to destroy the city and its quarter million inhabitants. Morpheus says that the prophecy states that Neo will bring end to the war between the humans and machines, and destroy the Matrix.

Neo goes into the Matrix to speak to the Oracle about fulfilling the prophecy and destroying the Matrix. There he finds out that the Oracle and other entities in the Matrix are actually rogue programs created by the machines that inhabit the Matrix. He also finds that Agent Smith is no longer an official agent of the Matrix, but is now a also a rogue program that is intent in gaining revenge or power from Neo--his intentions are never made perfectly clear. In fact, the intentions of all the rogue programs are never made clear, and there are a bunch of them in this film.

There's a lot of things about this movie that don't make perfect sense. Do we even care about the people in Zion? What's so great about Zion, anyway? All they do is rave and bicker with each other, except when they are not worshipping Neo like the next messiah or having raves next to lava pools and shit. Morpheus is preachy in this one, really preachy. Hell, even the Architect of the Matrix is preachy. By this point you almost want the Matrix to be "reloaded" and Zion to be completely destroyed, fuck 'em.

There's absolutely no denouement--it is the first of two parts that will be continued when the next film, Matrix: Revolutions, is released in November. Reloaded is weaker than the first in storyline and frustratingly preachy in parts, but still a visual delight worth watching. It is a landmark film that must still be seen to be believed, but it falls short of capturing our imaginations as the first one did four years ago.

Update (5/19/2003): Be sure to read Larry O'Brien's review.

I was very skeptical about X2: X-Men United being better than the first. However, the opening sequence with Nightcrawler attacking the President in the Oval Office left me dumbfounded--it was then that I knew the hype was all true. Magneto's escape sequence is equally amazing and imaginative. Not surprisingly, he gets out with Mystique's assistance. The film is filled with almost non-stop action and is visually spectacular, and it isn't just Halle Berry's nipples showing through her top, I'm talking about the special effects. The struggles between mutants and a distrusting and fearful human society continue in this installment of the X-Men series. Unfortunately, this time it means the loss of one of their own. It is a must see film that marks the official start of the summer movie season. Next: Matrix Reloaded.

Bend It Like Beckham is a playful coming of age film that leaves you warm and fuzzy after you watch it. It deals with the cross-cultural tensions of a young Anglo-Indian soccer-playing girl in Britain. The casting for the film is excellent, especially the lead character, played by beautiful and talented newcomer Parminder Nagra. Although it has a simple storyline, the film has strong performances and thoughtful directing that take it to the next level. The cast and crew had fun making the film too, as we see in the closing credits. Check it out.