At Fantastic Fest this year, I was pleased to see that one of the animated shorts was from a local filmmaker -- Lucas Martell's Pigeon: Impossible. I was even more pleased that it turned out to be one of the funniest shorts in the collection.
The [...]
Two of Austin's most-loved theaters are showing their support for the community with special screenings during Edible Austin Eat Local Week. Kicking off December 5, this week provides opportunities for Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food by eating out and shopping' [...]
Why, yes, we are doing Movies This Week early. But it's also the start of the holidaze, with movies opening today and Thanksgiving feasts tomorrow, so Wednesday is the new Friday.
Fantastic Mr. Fox -- Wes Anderson's love child with the spirit of Roald [...]
V For Vendetta director James McTeigue and producers Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers join forces again to splatter the screen with gore galore in Ninja Assassin. This film is not for the weak of heart or stomach -- be prepared [...]
Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson's love child with the spirit of Roald Dahl, is destined to top quite a few Best Of lists this year. There's really no other way to start a review of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Fox (George Clooney) and Felicity (Meryl Streep) are living in [...]
As we head into Thanksgiving week, Austin-area filmmakers and film fans have a lot to be thankful for. Here are a few reasons:
The Academy Award shortlist for Best Documentary Feature nominees was released last week. One of the 15 films was SXSW 2009 selection [...]
It actually feels like fall, doesn't it? More Oscar hopefuls are starting to crowd the theaters. In case you need to take a break from watching your Blu-Rays of Up and Star Trek, there are several new movie options out there in theaters.
Antichrist -- Chaos Reigns!' [...]
Probably the most anxiously awaited sequel of the year, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is breaking records for pre-sold sellouts as Twilight fans prepare for the second installment in the series. Director Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, About a Boy) takes the helm of [...]
Sandra Bullock hasn't had the most consistent track record in recent years. For every Infamous, she's got an All About Steve and The Proposal. It's frustrating, because she has it in her to be an impressive actress. Thankfully, she did The Blind Side with John Lee Hancock' [...]
One of the most anticipated films at Austin Film Festival this year was Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, a movie that is both a condemnation of "the system"and a tribute to the human spirit.
It's set in 1987, when the AIDS scare is [...]
Here are a few news items related to Austin films and filmmaking from this week. Well, I say "a few," but once I started digging them up, it's actually been a pretty busy week! The news [...]
The documentary The Eyes of Me, which screened at the Cinema Touching Disability Festival earlier this month, presents an extraordinary look at four blind teenagers living in Austin. Their stories unfold [...]
New for 2010, the SXSW Film Conference and Festival has established the annual SXSW Film Design Awards, including a new competition for the "Excellence in Title Design" Award that will feature the best in contemporary title sequence design. All title sequences that exist [...]
The documentary feature Hockey Night in Texas follows two Austin teams through an entire season as they compete for the championship. The 400 members of this recreational adult hockey league come from all walks [...]
Tonight the four-day Austin Asian American Film Festival ended its 2009 run with two documentaries: the short My Mother Said (Kuna ni nanang) and the feature Old Partner (Wonangsori).
My Mother Said, by filmmaker Jessica Sison, is the highly personal musings of her 99-year-old [...]
Austin filmmaker Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions, The Iron Giant) premiered his latest family-friendly film Alabama Moon during Austin Film Festival at the Paramount. Based on the coming-of-age novel by Watt Key, this film's plot tugs at the' [...]
What a great day at Austin Asian American Film Festival. I managed to see four features despite a migraine, because the last film was the one film I absolutely had to see (and it didn't disappoint). ' [...]
When I saw Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men at the 1997 SXSW Film Festival, I was unsettled by the brutal portrayal of misogynistic behavior of its main characters. Though I originally intensely disliked the film, I realize [...]
The Austin Asian American Film Festival's second night has ended. The only film on Opening Night, The Speed of Life by UT's Ed Radtke was sold out. I didn't make it to the opening party because I had to get up in the morning. I did get' [...]
Happy Friday the 13th! Walk under a ladder, hang out with a black cat, and see some movies. It's a very British heavy release week; three British films are opening in town (two with Emma Thompson in them). Two films new to Austin are directed [...]
As a kid growing up in the late Sixties, my secret late-night habit was to listen in the dark to pop music on my tabletop Hi-Fi transistor radio, glowing on the lightstand next to my bed. As I listened to the DJ, I imagined that the [...]
John Krasinski (Away We Go, The Office) will be in Austin this weekend to premiere his directorial debut of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men as part of the [...]
The premise of An Education sounds icky, quite frankly: an older man dating a high-school girl with the permission of her parents. Even in the Sixties ... creepy. Distasteful. But when the older man is Peter Sarsgaard, the young woman is Carey Mulligan, and the [...]
Herpes Boy won the Austin Film Festival Audience Award in the Comedy Vanguard category, which should come as no surprise to anyone fortunate enough to catch either of the sold-out AFF screenings. The filmmakers and stars [...]
So much news this week, we had to post two rounds of Slackery News.
Fantastic Fest fave A Town Called Panic, is not only opening at the Alamo in January, but is among the 20 Animated Features Line Up for 2009 Oscar® Race. The absurd tale of [...]
Everything changes, cities as well as relationships. That theme is underscored in Erik Mauck's latest film, Straight to the Bone, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival. Mauck's previous film, the Austin based documentary Zombie Girl: The Movie, played Fantastic Fest last year.
Living in Austin for any [...]
Range Life and the Onion's AV Club are bringing a week's worth of special engagement screenings to Austin starting on the 14th. All are independent comedies, with the first film, White on Rice, is screening as part of the Austin Asian American Film Festival at the [...]
I knew Todd Berger as a filmmaker who'd grown up in New Orleans and made the 2007 documentary Don't Eat the Baby about post-Katrina Mardi Gras, a movie that I quite liked. But since that was the only film of his I'd seen, I' [...]
Here are a few of the Austin-related, movie-related news items that have been floating around recently:
Nancy Schiesari's documentary Tattooed Under Fire (pictured at right) airs on KLRU on Tuesday, November 10 at 9 pm. Tattooed Under Fire is about the stories and secrets that [...]
Love movies and want to make a short road trip this weekend? Head to Fort Worth for the Lone Star International Film Festival (LSIFF), which runs from Wednesday, November 11 through Sunday, November 14. LSIFF kicks off on Sunday night with The Scenesters, which [...]
It's a little strange that I'm writing a review for Harmony and Me immediately after reviewing (Untitled) -- both movies are about music, and use music to explain their characters' state of mind. Harmony and Me is more subtle and uses music in a' [...]
When I moved to Austin in 1993, I was stunned by the overwhelming and fairly open marijuana use, especially amongst my fellow UT classmates. Apparently that hasn't changed much, as evidenced in UT graduate Michael Greene's first feature film about his college experiences in the [...]
"What is art?" is one of those eternal questions that you have to be at a certain kind of party to discuss without feeling totally pretentious. Lots of people use the question to denigrate certain types of art -- the "my kid can paint that" school of [...]
Thanks to everyone who came out forThe Men Who Stare at Goats last night; it was a great turnout. It was so full we had to turn people away, even with two theaters (and two other sponsors, but still, Slackerwood fans represented). Keep following us [...]
After the phenomenal success of Paranormal Activity, audiences are hungering for the next sensational film experience, and by the trailers, The Fourth Kind wants to be it. Unfortunately, it's an incoherent mess that overreaches its potential.
The pretense is that a newly widowed psychologist, Abbey Tyler, is continuing with [...]
I'm one of those people who screw up Netflix's "Movies You'll Love" programming: I can't stand Napoleon Dynamite. It's too sitcom-y, the characters' quirks have no basis in character depth or complexity, and it's just plain annoying. Gentlemen Broncos, the latest comedy from the same [...]
I've watched The Men Who Stare at Goats twice at this point -- once at the Fantastic Fest screening where the film lacked credits and color correction, and once in its final release-ready version. And here's the thing: I enjoyed watching' [...]
Austin Film Festival (AFF) has announced the 2009 Audience Award winners, and I'm happy to report that among the winners were a few Texas films as well as some of our favorites from the fest. AFF also announced the dates for next year's film festival and conference:' [...]
Next Thursday, the sixth annual Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF) begins for four days of films, panels and special events celebrating the best in Asian and Asian American independent film. Like other niche festivals, it's got a lot more to offer than the title [...]
We held a couple of giveaways on Twitter last night and this morning for passes to a preview screening of The Men Who Stare at Goats on Thursday night, and had a great response. Thanks to everyone who helped retweet and promote [...]
At first glance, writer/director Gary Lundgren's Calvin Marshall could be mistaken for just another "baseball movie," but this poignant and humorous film delivers much more. Baseball is the focus of the main character, yet the heart of this film, which had [...]
As I mentioned earlier, Slackerwood is sponsoring a preview screening of The Men Who Stare at Goats on Thursday night (Nov. 5) here in Austin. This comedy about secret U.S. psychic military operations stars George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and [...]
I've got plenty of Austin film news to share today, from premieres to DVD news to some articles you won't want to miss. Here we go:
Slackerwood is sponsoring a special preview screening of The Men Who Stare at Goats (pictured at right) on [...]
Funny things happen on the way to an orgy. Three young couples, in various levels of committment, decide to have an orgy over a weekend getaway at Cummings Farm. Why, it's not clear, but what what happens up to the moment of truth reveals more about [...]
If it's a weekend in the fall, that must mean there's a film festival going on in Austin. This weekend, we have the Austin Polish Film Festival, which runs from Thursday, November 5 through Sunday, Nov. 8. Sponsored by the Austin Polish Society, [...]
Jette Kernion, Debbie Cerda, Jenn Brown, Contributors
