The opening night selection in the ‘Round Midnight category at SXSW was Tony Krantz’ Otis, a darkly comic twist on the torture porn genre. Dear readers, I must admit: the film was not my cup of tea, satisfying neither my taste for horror nor my penchant for finely tuned wit. Nevertheless, I was curious to hear Krantz discuss the picture, and to hear him explain it from an artistic perspective. Also of interest: hearing the tale of his meteoric 20-year rise through the echelons of Hollywood, from the mail rooms of CAA to the position of superagent extrordinaire, all the way to the directors’ chair he now occupies. So tune in to the podcast below, and if you’re a fan of Otis, feel free to chime in and let other horror fans know whatever I might have missed. The film will be released on DVD through Warner Home Video in June.
In addition to the afore-mentioned, long-awaited Wristcutters, this weekend marks the expansion of a films that we’ve covered in depth here on SpoutBlog, Sean Penn’sInto the Wild. A refresher:
In this interview, snagged by Kevin at Telluride, Sean Penn talks about securing the rights to the book, transitioning to working behind the camera, and why shooting Into the Wild was “a filmmaker’s dream.”
In this episode of FilmCouch from last month, Kevin and Paul talk about Into the Wild and other films about jumping off the gird.
In preparation for this week’s episode of FilmCouch (which, as always, will premiere Friday morning here on SpoutBlog), I gave myself a bit of re-education on the life and career of Peter Bogdanovich. In the podcast, I reference a number of interviews. Because I can’t (yet) insert hyperlinks directly into the podcast, below the jump I’ve put together a basic glossary of the stuff I read in preparation for the segment. Past episodes of FilmCouch can be found at our Podcasts page.
Over the next week, I’ll be appearing on several Toronto Film Festival-centric episodes of ReelerTV, which Stu VanAirsdale and friends are producing in collaboration with Spout. In the episode embedded above, Stu hits the red carpet for the premiere of The Brave One, and I recap a batch of Toronto films that I saw in Telluride, including Juno, Margot at the Wedding, and Redacted.
With the Toronto Film Festival beginning tomorrow, we’ve just about concluded our Telluride coverage. Here are some highlights. You’ll find a full guide to our Telluride reportage, minus Friday’s upcoming all-Telluride episode of FilmCouch, after the jump.
“In Superbad, Michael Cera fantasizes about a world in which ‘girls weren’t weirded out by our boners, but actually wanted to look at them.’ Juno takes place in that world.” Karina reviews the Festival’s biggest buzz-getter, and Paul interviews director Jason Reitman.
We love People on Sunday. Paul says the 1929 silent film “contains the most seductive first kiss I’ve ever seen on film. No joke.” Karina looks at the historical context.
“It’s true that I was in a rather fragile, sleep-deprived state at the time, but even now, the morning after, as it were, I still love this film.” Kevin’s talking about I’m Not There. He also talked to that film’s director, Todd Haynes.
“When I was 20 years old, I moved from Chicago to San Francisco, and I did it for George Kuchar.” Karina offers some thoughts on the experimental legend/Telluride honoree.
I’m well aware that Uwe Boll has a reputation for being one of the worst filmmakers of our generation, but I have to admit that I’ve never seen any of his films (in part because distributors like to withhold pictures like Bloodrayne from critics).
I did, however, get a huge kick out of reading about (and watching — see above) the boxing matches to which Boll challenged the internet film critics who had been the most vocal opponents of his work. Boll easily won all four fights, with each of his opponents, as WIRED’s Chris Baker phrased it, “crash[ing] faster than an overloaded server.” The night of the fight, Boll allegedly made the following victory speech: “The lesson is: So bad prepared are the critics in the rings, they are also at writing. Fucking critics!” I can’t speak on the subject of his movies, but in terms of sheer quotability, this guy is clearly the new Werner Herzog.
Now Michael Guillen has an extremely entertaining interview with Boll, cross-posted at Twitch and The Evening Class. In it, Boll makes grand pronouncements on topics as varied as 9/11, Oliver Stone, his upcoming partnership with South Park, and why he was sued by the New York Post. You’ll find those and other highlights after the jump.
CinematicalIndie has a lengthy interview with Arin Crumley of Four Eyed Monsters fame, and in an unusual twist, Arin has made a video of his side of the conversation, which Cinematical’s Erik Davis has posted alongside a partial transcription.
Arin and Erik cover a lot of ground–an explanation of how Arin and Susan racked up so much debt, the pros and cons of putting your feature film up on YouTube, the dynamic between Arin and Susan’s business relationship and thier personal relationship–but I was particularly interested in this segment, where Arin talks about the potential role for social networking sites in the distribution/exhibition process. (I swear, I’m not excerpting this just because Arin has a lot of nice things to say about Spout):
If you look at Spout and the way their site works … one of the ways I use is I kind of organize the films I plan to see…Netflix is no good because that’s just if the film is available on DVD, and some are not available yet. So what I do on Spout, there’s a button next to every film, you search that film, you find it, you hit the button that says I want to see this film. So if you project ahead to either their site, or other sites, or who knows who might build this tool…but the concept of being able to store and publicly share your interest in movies–and if you can also be publicly sharing your location, which of course changes from time to time–there could be an intelligent system that knows what people want to see. And because of digital projection, you could really be showing anything on a screen, you’re not limited to what film prints were mailed to you…theoretically, you should be able to have a theatrical jukebox, where anything can be shown there. It’s just a matter of, “Well, what do people want to see?”
Transcribing from YouTube is no fun, and the whole interview is really worth ingesting, so just watch it yourself (or, as Arin suggests, listen while you work–it is, after all, about 49 minutes longer than your average YouTube clip). And if for whatever reason you still haven’t signed up for Spout, go here, start a free account, and Arin and Susan will be able to subtract one more dollar from their mountain of debt.
Origins of story: Interviewing Justin Evans about his new book soon to be a film, A Good and Happy Child. Rescue Dawn, Werner Herzog’s new movie opened this week starring Christian Bale. We interview actor Jeremy Davies and producer Harry Knapp. It’s the fictional portrayal of Dieter Dengler, the only man to escape a POW camp and be rescued during Vietnam. Herzog made a documentary on Dengler in 1997, Little Dieter Needs to Fly.
Beginning with the premise that “the whole truth is the best truth, AJ Schnack and Michael Azerrad made the film Kurt Cobain About A Son. Schnack directed, using the audio from 25 hours of interviews Azerrad did with Cobain for the book Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. I had a chance to talk to them about how they used the film to show Cobain as a real person seperate from the superstar icon, and how one of their goals was to break the “rockumentary” mold.
Aaron and I sat back for a few minutes to talk about the films we watched and the people we talked to today at the Starz Denver Film Festival. Films we discussed include Cine Manifest, Sensation of Sight, Kurt Cobain About a Son, and Pan’s Labrynth.
Starz Denver Film Festival, Spout podcast, Rountable Recap, Friday November 10, 2006, Kevin, Aaron
The Denver Film Festival is right around the corner (Nov. 9 - 19), and I’m super excited. I’ve never been to this festival before, but I’m looking forward to it and to being back in Denver–such a great city. From what we’ve heard, the festival has been growing every year. There will be no shortage of great films to see, with over 100 to chose from.
As festival sponsors and the official festival podcasters, Spout will be there in full form. There will be plenty of reviews, conversations, and interviews for you to listen in on. It’s a good way to get more out of the festival if you’re there, and to live vicariously through us if you’re not. Check out spout.com/denver for the latest and greatest as well as the Spout Denver Film Festival group. The festival schedule is also up, so check it out and let us know who you think we should talk with.
The 51 Birch Street event last night was a success, even though we sweated through some technical difficulties. (Paul handled the situation perfectly, putting everyone at ease. I have almost convinced him that it made the event more human and created a sense of comaraderie in the audience.)
There’s really no better place to highlight our imperfect, human condition than at a screening of 51 Birch Street. The filmmaker, Doug Block, has created a documentary around his journey to understand his parents as people, not just parents, and to understand their marriage in that light. In addition to many conversations with family members, the film includes insight drawn from years of his mother’s journals, which were discovered after her death. (The journals include all kinds of information most adults would rather not know about their mothers).
I think the most moving part of the film, for me, is an interview Doug has with his mother’s best friend of many years, Natasha. He asks her if she thinks his mother would have wanted him to read her journals. Natasha goes through a long process of thinking and making a string of “difficult thinking” expressions before she answers emphatically “Yes!” I love how sure she is after taking the time to think about the issue from many different angles. I also love what she says to back up her response: What a relief for someone to really know us, and still love us.
The film held many similar moments for me–moments of articulation that left me feeling that I was understood, not alone. When I talked after the show to several of the 125 people in attendance, it became clear that I was not the only one to be moved in that way. We all have our own, unique stories, yet we are all connected. Films like this simply bring that connection into the light.
That’s why we love filmmakers who realize they have a story, right under their nose, and decide to tell it. If you have your own story about making a breakthrough with your parents, Doug Block wants you to share it at the 51 Birch Street website. (You can also see where the film is scheduled to play in October and November.)
The opening night selection in the ‘Round Midnight category at SXSW was Tony Krantz’ Otis, a darkly comic twist on the torture porn genre. Dear readers, I must admit: the film was not my cup of tea, satisfying neither my taste for horror nor my penchant for finely tuned wit. Nevertheless, I was curious to hear Krantz discuss the picture, and to hear him explain it from an artistic perspective. Also of interest: hearing the tale of his meteoric 20-year rise through the echelons of Hollywood, from the mail rooms of CAA to the position of superagent extrordinaire, all the way to the directors’ chair he now occupies. So tune in to the podcast below, and if you’re a fan of Otis, feel free to chime in and let other horror fans know whatever I might have missed. The film will be released on DVD through Warner Home Video in June.
In addition to the 
