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Under discussion:

Fight Club  (1999)

• The Underwire points to Barackula, “a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990.” The ten minute film is not online yet, but we’ll be first in line for its debut.
• Speaking musicals that plumb unlikely sources for kitsch, Chuck Palahniuk, David Fincher and Trent Reznor are apparently trying to put together a Broadway show based on Fight Club, to coincide with the film’s ten year anniversary in 2009. American Idol castoffs should start working out now, I guess…
• Whoops! According to Andy Baio via Steve Bryant, the slow closing of the theatrical to DVD window, of which one benefit is supposedly the reduction of piracy, is actually making piracy worse.
• Pitchfork’s offers a short review of Kurt Cobain: About A Son, sparked by news that the doc is soon coming to DVD. “So basically what I’m saying is if you want your childhood dreams shattered, go see About a Son. (Kidding.) But really, it’s an essential movie for Nirvana fans.”
• The apartment that Heath Ledger died in is already on the market??????and rent has been jacked up about 15%.
• This is probably the most horrifying celebrity glamour shot that I’ve ever seen. But this, this and this are all kind of amazing.

Under discussion:

Heathers  (1988)

Zapped!  (1982)

Sex and Death 101  (2008)

Never mind the fact that Sex and Death 101 reunites Heathers screenwriter Daniel Waters with that film’s star, Winona Ryder. After Ford Fairlane, Hudson Hawk, Batman Returns and Demolition Man (all movies I enjoy, yet on a much, much lower level), I’m not holding my breath. Heathers was a great, brilliant fluke or flash of genius, and I’m fine with its strengths not being repeated here or ever. The fact that it exists on its own makes it that much better. Instead, I’m more excited about seeing Mindy “Natalie from Facts of Life” Cohn in a supporting role, which, at least in the trailer, seems to be quite prominent (by the way, I never knew she voiced “Velma” in so many Scooby-Doo cartoons and video games).

As you can see, other than reuniting us with “Natalie”, Sex and Death 101, which Waters also directed, doesn’t appear to have much going for it. However, the film did play at Cannes last year and at the Seattle International Film Festival, where it picked up an award for best director. And Scott Weinberg, who saw the film at Fantastic Fest and reviewed it for Cinematical, wrote: “Unapologetically sexy, oddly unpredictable and ultimately kinda (yes) sweet, Sex and Death 101 is just a solid little comedy that snuck up on me and showed me a really good time.” SO, maybe it is just being sold as a crappy-looking magical sex comedy dealing with lustful male fantasies. But if the horny teens show up wanting Zapped!, will they be disappointed? Well, Winona Ryder does technically (though quickly and barely) appear partially naked in the film, so perhaps they won’t be. Of course, they could just watch the clip after the jump. Or see the freeze frame here.

According to ComingSoon.net, Sex and Death 101 will receive a limited release on April 4.

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Under discussion:

Gilda  (1946)

Fleshbot recently pointed to Vintage Girly Magazines, a blog which hosts nothing but vintage (apparently mostly from the 40s-60s) pin-ups and striptease videos, where I found a clip from a series called Hollywood Funtime! One particular clip, called “Red-Headed Riot,” features a dancer who looks a lot like Rita Hayworth, who even seems to be mimicking Hayworth’s famous hair flip from Gilda. Of course, in Gilda, Hayworth does a song and dance number at a club, during which she removes her gloves and tosses them to the crowd, and at the end of which she says, “I’m not very good at zippers,” and invites men in the audience to come help her out. This gets as far as two volunteers actually rushing the stage, before Gilda is ushered away. Maybe something like “Red-Headed Riot” is the wish fulfillment extension of that scene??????the fantasy of what Gilda/Hayworth would have shown/done of she hadn’t been stopped by the Production Code in the form of a narrative device.

I’ve tried and failed to find more information about Hollywood Funtime, but I wonder: was the series sort of a precursor to the contemporary trend of using Hollywood films as the takeoff point for quasi-narrative porn (ie: Pulp Friction, Lady Scarface)? If any of you vintage porn aficionados have an answer, let us know.

In the meantime, “Red-Headed Riot” (which is not explicit at all, but still probably not safe for work) lives here, and you can compare it to the above fan montage from Gilda. Vintage Girly Magazines also has at least one early short directed by Joe Sarno, Andrew Sarris’ favorite sexploitation auteur of the 60s and 70s.