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Under discussion:

Varsity Blues  (1999)

• Naked pictures of a stripper? Not news. Naked pictures of a stripper-turned-Oscar-winning-screenwriter? Eh. Pictures of a stripper-turned-Oscar-winning-screenwriter emulating the naked-but-for-whipped-cream scene from the classic James Van Der Beek vehicle Varsity Blues? News enough!
• Meanwhile, proving that no good-intentioned attempt to bridge the cultural-political divide goes unpunished, some people are mad that soldiers presented Oscars. Interestingly, most of the complaints conflate the two documentary awards into the claim that the Academy implicitly mocked the soldiers by forcing them to give an award to the anti-Iraq war film Taxi to the Darkside. In fact, the soldiers presented the Best Documentary Short award, which went to Freeheld. Debbie Schlussel, probably the most hateful of the Hollywood haters, gets that part right, but she also repeatedly insists that Diablo Cody is fat, which, as the above pictures of her ribcage should show, is definitely wrong.
• David Bordwell credits “piracy” for ensuring the classic status of His Girl Friday. “If Columbia had renewed its copyright on schedule, would this film be so widely admired today?” Jason Mittel agrees in theory, but takes issue with Bordwell’s use of the p-word. “Once the film lapsed into the public domain, all of the resulting shoddy copies were legal and licit, not pirated. A more accurate term would be ‘unauthorized’…”
• I guess WIRED bloggers aren’t allowed to say “****.”

Under discussion:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin  (2005)

Knocked Up  (2007)

Zack & Miri Make a Porno  (2008)

Here’s proof that Kevin Smith is the old and busted comedy filmmaker and Judd Apatow is the new hotness. Smith is totally biting Apatow’s meta, viral-marketing shtick with this video starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, which is meant to promote Smith’s upcoming movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno. It is also meant to parody the continuing string of “I’m Fucking So and So” videos (Sarah Silverman fucking Matt Damon, Jimmy Kimmel fucking Ben Affleck, Karina Longworth fucking Diablo Cody — oh wait, that last one hasn’t happened yet).

First of all, just casting Rogen and Banks makes Zack and Miri appear like an Apatow-movie wannabe. Then referencing Apatow’s films — the very premise of the video mocks the premise of Knocked Up and obviously it literally references The 40 Year Old Virgin and Apatow himself — builds up that appearance more. Mind you, I’ve never been a big fan of Smith’s work, but he has been around longer and should be more original than this. Right?

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Judging by its trailer alone, Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie seems to approach its mythic subject from an angle that sounds, well, atypical. A documentary portrait of Bigfoot hunters in Applachian Ohio, the doc ties the pursuit of these probably fictional creatures to the area’s decaying economy and a shared desire to transcend the everyday. You can watch that trailer above; director Jay Delaney answers the 4 Questions We’re Asking Everybody below.

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.
It’s like American Movie meets Grizzly Man! As the title hints, it’s about more than just Bigfoot. Through the experiences of two amateur Bigfoot researchers in southern Ohio, Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie provides a look at how the power of a dream can bring two men together and provide a source of hope and meaning that transcend the harsh realities of life. The feature doc grew out of a short doc I made back in 2001 ??? American Dream ??? about these two local Bigfoot researchers in my hometown. The short haunted me for years thereafter, and I always wanted to revisit the project in greater depth.

I see a tremendous amount of honesty in Dallas and Wayne’s story, and it raises so many questions in my mind. My connection to the story stems largely from its ability to capture the contemporary state of the American Dream in old Appalachian steel towns like Portsmouth, Ohio. Although the economies there face some real challenges, people like Dallas and Wayne find a way to hold onto their dreams and keep hope and faith alive.

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