Joe Swanberg’s BUTTERKNIFE Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

• Karina has a thing for strike beards.
• Chris ponders his diminishing interest in Adam Sandler.
• Breaking the awful truth that Juno is a studio film.
• More hand-wringing re: the death of the great film auteurs.
• David Cross defends his work in Alvin and the Chipmunks against an alleged attack from Patton Oswalt. Patton Oswalt is all, “Dude, it was a joke.”
• Karina’s picks for the best films of 2007.
• Butterknife gets a release date. If you haven’t already, check out the trailer above.
• Which character from the Todd Solondz canon grew up to look like Pee Wee Herman?
• 5 Great Actors. 5 Crap James Bond Films.
• On the podcast: the best of 2007, and the inaugural Boxing Helena Award.
• Why is Be Kind Rewind opening a month late? It could have something to do with this.
• The Prom Night trailer causes Chris to wonder, “Has the PG-13 rating become something of a teaser for R-rated content?”
• “What great filmmaker of today seems the least likely to make a sci-fi film?”
• Could Lionsgate be the next production company to negotiate directly with the WGA?
• Chris looks at the populist picks on a number of critic’s Ten Best lists. Also: is a given year’s Best Comedy necessarily the same year’s funniest film?
• Karina wants some of whatever Cary Grant used to take to “feel good all the time.”

Has the PG-13 rating become something of a teaser for R-rated content? I’ve had this suspicion for some time now, but I feel it’s confirmed with the new trailer for the Prom Night remake. The horror flick is another PG-13 redo of an R-rated movie, another example of the contrast between the marketing allowances of now and then. But wait, is it just me, or does the Prom Night trailer feature subject matter that is still inappropriate for kids aged 13 to 16 (and younger, since the rating requires no ID)? Maybe there’s none of the soft-core nudity of the original, but there’s still that idea that prom is time for getting it on in a hotel room. Sure, the idea is nothing new to most kids, but that doesn’t mean it has to be encouraged — even if a slasher film like this can be interpreted as a punishment to those sex-having teens.

Regardless, though, of whether or not this movie features anything graphically or thematically inappropriate (disclaimer: I am no puritan nor censor; I saw the original Prom Night when I was some single-digit age, and I came out just fine), the point is that it’s something of a lie to act as though kids under 17 are not going to be attracted to those graphics and themes that are being hinted at. Even if the kids don’t end up seeking out the real-deal, they’re likely to imagine their own interpretations of what falls between the lines. Plus, isn’t it possible that a movie can communicate or stimulate a falsely tame image of sex and violence by presenting tamed-down sexual and violent material?

…Read more