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Best Zombie Short Ever

paul — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:01:00 GMT

I don’t get to see a lot of shorts programs at festivals. So, when I went to the Independent Film Festival of Boston, I indulged in their delicious menu of shorts. One of the audience favorites was a surprising little piece from Australia. A zombie flick that–unlike most zombie movies–truly transcended its genre. In honor of our Presidential Zombie Photoshop Contest going on until May 25th, I ask you undead to dim the lights, put on your headphones and place your fingernails between your teeth.

I present to you, who have not had the pleasure yet, I Love Sarah Jane. (Watch the full screen version on YouTube.)

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #69 - Summer Movies

paul — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:01:03 GMT

Computer generated super machines run by conflicted heroes tethered to ladies who just can’t quit them–summer has arrived. And we’re loving it. Iron Man won the democratic primaries this week by staying away from controversy. The Marvel Universe will change how business gets done in Hollywood and Speed Racer is… different. Like Warhol making out with Walt Disney.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

filmcouch-69

Iron Man, Speed Racer

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #68 - Paranoia

paul — Fri, 02 May 2008 13:00:23 GMT

New developments in the case of an artist arrested for bioterrorism (from the doc Strange Culture), lead us into a web of noir (Murder, My Sweet) and an unexpected look at No Country for Old Men. All of which reveal the sinister culture of PARANOIA!

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch #68 - Paranoia

Strange Culture, Murder, My Sweet, No Country for Old Men

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #67 - Wisdom of Kumar

paul — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:00:37 GMT

Paul interviews Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, opening tonight), which inadvertently pushes Paul & Kevin on to a road trip–metaphoricaly speaking–from a Whites Only saloon in the old west to the ghettos of Canada where a mathematician is changing the world and a legendary filmmaker brings them to enlightenment.

(Also under discussion EMPz 4 Life)

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch #67 - Wisdom of Kumar

*Note: The phone number announced in the show has technical problems. If you want to leave a message, call:

1-800-749-0632
Channel: 8838
Password: 1111

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, EMPz 4 Life

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #66 - Care Bears and Iraq

paul — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:01:02 GMT

When a laugh is more powerful than a tear. The Care Bears Big Wish Movie, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? and, possibly, Iron Man share a common theme. A quiet–almost subliminal appeal–to an audience seeking a straight shot of entertainment asking them to drop apathy and get involved in a troubled world. A new subversive cinema (that I wrote about earlier this week), which isn’t a filmmaker sneaking a message past Hollywood executives, but past a message-weary audience.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

filmcouch-66
Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?, Iron Man, Care Bears Big Wish Movie

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

Iron Man and new subversive cinema

paul — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:00:33 GMT

After interviewing George Romero at Sundance 2008, Joe Swanberg and Ronald Bronstein (the interviewers) began to debate whether or not there’s even a place today for subversive directors (i.e. those who defy an institution–Hollywood–while pretending to support it). Romero’s Night of the Living Dead served as a blood and guts zombie vehicle carrying everything troubling him about the turbulent 60’s. The argument today is that subversion is unnecessary. No filmmaker is limited to studio controlled dollars, equipment or theaters to get their ideas out. Although you don’t have to take subversive tactics to get a film made anymore, I think there’s a new institution to game, that of a jaded movie watching audience.

For a generation who doesn’t know a world without premium cable channels and DVD shops on every corner, a trailer is shorthand (largely due to uncreative marketing) telling an audience to drop a film full of challenging ideas into the skip it bin. A lot of films buzzing through the festival circuit offer more of the same life-crashing drama Robert Downey Jr.’s characters are synonymous with. So, in a statement about his decision to play Tony Stark in Iron Man, a remark that there’s more room to build a character with a comic book hero than in most parts that come across his desk rings true. However, I think what he’s referring to is more than just the opportunity to enjoy his craft, it’s an opportunity to implant something in an audience that rolls their eyes at the “broccoli” dramas he’s expected to play in.

The new subversion is to get in front of a jaded audience that switches off interest the moment they hear of hot topics like Darfur or Iraq. By pretending to play to their sensationalist needs, directors like Jon Favreau engage a disaffected audience that has a thousand titillating stories to distract them from anything of substance. At least, that’s what I’m hoping he does (I haven’t seen Iron Man). Maybe comic book heroes are the perfect vehicles to reopen thoughts about Iraq and other box-office poison. To that end, I hope I’m right about Iron Man and I hope it succeeds.

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

Kanye gets Kar Wai and Herzog eats boot

paul — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:00:47 GMT

A post from Big Screen Little Screen turned me onto a music video created by Kanye West’s editor, Derrick Lee, using footage of 2046 for Kanye’s “Flashing Lights.”

It’s almost sacrilege to not watch this in High Definition, but the video remix still shames the original Spike Jonze helmed spot.

I couldn’t say it better myself. Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 is a long, visually indulgent meditation of love in bad timing, grief and the futility of anything else in life to play love’s substitute. In some way, Derrick Lee’s editing was able to grab the essence of love lost in what you might call a world of “affluent dystopia.” A hyper-realized city, like Tokyo or LA, where lives and opportunity are crammed together so tightly it would seem that making connections would be easy, but it’s only become harder. Human intimacy is the new luxury nobody can afford, but people spin their wheels faster. They collide but never connect. In short, repurposing footage from 2046 for “Flashing Lights” brought new meaning to a song I’d normally switch off.

Halfway through the video it was obvious Wong Kar Wai’s footage made the original Spike Jonze video–which Kanye and Co. probably paid a small fortune for–obsolete. I immediately tried to investigate whether or not the rights holders for 2046 had sanctioned the use of the footage, but I found nothing. If it was used “illegally,” that means an amazing music video cost Kanye the price of a smart editor’s day rate.

Considering slow, visually sumptuous work, like Kar Wai’s, is relegated to the art house, it would serve pop music to repurpose more artistically outstanding footage for their videos and expose their audience to a new visual language. In turn, directors like Kar Wai would reach new audiences and fulfill Werner Herzog’s directive laid down in Werner Herzog Eats his Boot (see below).

A civilization is doomed or going to die out like dinosaurs if it does not develop an adequate language or adequate images.

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #65 Indiewood mashup

paul — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:01:06 GMT

If you’re visiting a theater and tired of the same old movie clichés, conventional wisdom would point you to the independent movie selection. However, a string on indiewood flicks–most recently The Visitor (opening tonight)–are caving in on their own “indie” clichés. Like rogue environmentalists tracking an invasive species in an Appalachian creek bed, we digest their ways and spew out some indiewood movie pitches of our own.

As a palette cleanser, we talk to Carson Mell. We formed a crush on him last week watching Wholphin DVD No. 5. His sharp wit and creativity are on display in his short animation, Chonto.

filmcouch-65

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul Moore

FilmCouch #64

paul — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:00:30 GMT

Iraq fatigue: the conventional wisdom settled on in the last year that nobody wants to go to a movie theater for an Iraq war movie (most recently: Stop-Loss). Is it a new phenomenon or are all movies questioning war during wartime doomed to financial failure?

The new Wholphin quarterly DVD magazine is out. It’s probably the best curated source for short films outside a major festival and we give it the attention its due on FilmCouch.

FilmCouch 64

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul

FilmCouch #62

paul — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:00:38 GMT

Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) is probably the most bankable schlock-meister working. 10,000 B.C. is a snickerfest with some amazing woolly mammoths. On the evolutionary chain of movies, it’s a driect descendant of the campy Raquel Welch star vehicle, One Million Years B.C. (1967). Adam Forrest and I thought it would be fun to watch them both, but didn’t expect One Million to blow us away when it turned more Shakespeare than schlock.

Karina phones in to explain what makes a good musical and why Love Songs–opening tonight–and so many others from the last 30 years don’t make the cut.

FilmCouch 62

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday)
10,000 B.C., One Million Years B.C., Love Songs

Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Paul