Karina on SpoutBlog

Under discussion:

Burn After Reading  (2008)

• Focus Features has set a 1000 screen-wide, September 12 release date for the George Clooney starring Coen Brothers film Burn After Reading. David Poland wonders is this is a thinly-veiled dump: “[H]ave The Coens asked to be pulled out of the Oscar race next year? Has the studio seen a first cut of the picture and decided that it wasn’t a racer? Or is Focus just going to pull out the stops for Harvey Milk and pushing this high profile distraction out of the way?”
• “It’s astonishing, not only to think about the challenges Paul [Sturtz] and David [Wilson] faced in creating a regional non-fiction festival that would take place in a small mid-western town during the winter, but also to consider how quickly the festival has earned the respect and goodwill of the international documentary film community—as well as the people of Columbia, Missouri.” Joel Heller introduces a podcast interview with the co-directors of the True/False Film Festival.
• Mental Floss quizes your knowledge of Universal’s classic 1930s monster movies.
• Lindsay Lohan has been replaced as the celebrity face of Jill Stuart by Hillary Swank. Yes, it’s exactly that kind of news day.

Under discussion:

8 1/2  (1963)

All That Jazz  (1979)

Hedwig and The Angry Inch  (2001)

Rainbow Around the Sun-Full Trailer

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Kevin Ely and Beau Leland’s Rainbow Around the Sun, a feature-length musical built around the songs of star Matthew Alvin Brown, is the rare non-doc to find a place on the 24 Beats Per Minute sidebar at the South By Southwest Film Festival. Kevin and Beau answer the 4 Questions We’re Asking Everyone below; as always, you can check out the trailer for the film above. Rainbow Around the Sun premieres this Saturday at 10pm at the Alamo South Lamar in Austin.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Rainbow Around the Sun is a rock musical chronicling the fall and rise of a burned-out young musician with an overactive imagination. Whenever he is faced with an unpleasant reality, he retreats into madcap musical fantasies where he can control the people around him, until the loss of a loved one forces him to face his demons. Basically it’s 8 1/2 meets All That Jazz meets Hedwig, with a dash of The Polka Dot Polka. The music sounds like a collaboration between Harry Nilsson and Ween.

It’s an adaptation of an autobiographical album by our friend, co-writer and star, Matthew Alvin Brown. The three of us have been making shorts together in Oklahoma City for the last couple of years, and this is our first feature.

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