Category: Cinematically Speaking…

Vantage Point (2008): "Both triumphs and tragedies are often a matter of perception."

Note: Screenwriter is Barry Levy, a friend from high school.

The San Francisco Independent Film Festival pulls into town this weekend and I’m quite excited. They’ll be over 75 films playing in an around the Mission this weekend which shorter lines and a lot less mishigas than the San Francisco International with lands a little further uptown in April.

I’ve been using Without a Box, a web-based tool on the festival’s site that lets you select which films you want to see and..I don’t quite understand what else. I’d like to be able to pick my movies and then view them in some sort of calendar interface. I’ve got a support request into WAB to ask if I can.

In the meantime, C-Dub and I are going to have a movie date on Saturday night, probably taking in Stuck. Sunday I’ve already bought tickets to Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation which, if you can believe it is this…

A shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the
Lost Ark produced and directed by three boys from the Mississippi Gulf
Coast – over 20 years ago. The trio of 12-year-olds – Eric Zala, Chris
Strompolos and Jayson Lamb – began shooting in the summer of 1982 and
wrapped seven years later. This remake has everything — the rolling
boulder, the live snakes, the heart-thudding truck sequence, and
everywhere flames, flames, flames. With a few inventive substitutions
— a puppy dog stands in for a monkey, a boat for a plane – they didn’t
skimp on production value by including a submarine, a truck on fire, a
melting face, the same copy of a 1936 Life magazine used in the
original.

Here’s the trailer:

Overall, the festival’s got a really solid lineup. I hope I can squeeze a bunch in while catching up from AWP.

I love me some documentary films but often miss the best ones because I’d forget my last name if my friends didn’t address me by it. So above is a wonderful video from my best friend David Dylan Thomas talking about the year in docs and what you shouldn’t miss.

Dave and I don’t always agree on movies (he has a weird Owen Wilson thing that I equate to eating rice pudding for a solid month) but our non-fiction tastes are as parallel as railroad tracks. As such, I’m gonna make a whole list from this little video.

Music and Lyrics (2007): "Has-beens are much more endearing that hot topics."

The Great Debaters (2007): "Opportunities are always available for those who know how to spot them."

Note: James Farmer Jr., a towering figure in America’s struggle for equality for all its citizens, was 15 years old and a Wiley College freshman debater when the true story which inspired this movie took place.

Escape From Alcatraz (1979): "When a movie is as literal as its title, your interest can be gauged entirely on how compelling you find that title."

The Savages (2007): "Even two of our finest actors actually need a movie to in which to be to of our finest actors."

In The Land of Women (2007): "Throw away and start over any screenplay where your characters speak entirely in words that would have earned a red-inked ‘be more descriptive’ in a junior high English class."

Notes: Regretfully seen as the first movie of a New Year’s Day Movie Marathon.

Word Wars (2004): "Competitive gaming brings out the best in a certain kind of very odd male, even if the game is something as congenial as Scrabble."

Notes: Thrilling documentary seen on New Year’s Day about competitive Scrabble. In a similar league with Word Play but more about personality and less about cultural significance. Highly recommended, especially if you loved Word Play.

Idiocracy (2006): "Luke Wilson playing an average nobody who becomes the world’s smartest man is one inspired (if obvious) bit of casting."

Notes: My buddy Dave tells me that this movie was hardly marketed and barely released by its studio 20th Century Fox. Rumor has it that the use of actual corporate logos in a less than flattering light (i.e. splattered on everything 500 years in the future when the entire human race has been turned into a legion of drooling imbeciles) had something to do with that decision.