Black Friday is a scary time for shoppers in any given year. The crowds, the lines, the difficulty finding parking — all these and more are common annoyances on the day after Thanksgiving, as millions upon millions of Americans begin the Christmas season by making a run for the shopping malls and department stores in hopes of finding the best bargains. This year, of course, the economic downturn will make the day even worse than usual. The stores may be desperately holding the biggest sales we’ll ever witness, but lowest prices aren’t quite low enough for those who are broke or bankrupt.

So, you may stay home this Friday. Perhaps you’ll at least make some minor online purchases, because you’re a patriotic, consuming American and it’s kind of like an unofficial holiday in our capitalist democracy. But don’t not go out to the mall simply because of the craziness potentially happening on its many floors of fashion and furnishings. You mustn’t be frightened of the crowds. Just recall any or all of the following ten movie scenes and by comparison you’ll think your Black Friday errands are like a stroll in the park.

…Read more

We can thank Christopher Guest for pulling her out of obscurity and casting her as a lesbian dog trainer in Best in Show. Or we can just thank her incredible talent for stealing scenes by way of riotous awkward comedy. Either way, this week we should remember to be thankful for Jane Lynch. You may have seen her recently in Role Models as the formerly coke-addicted founder of a mentoring organization. Or maybe you’ve seen her in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights or Guest’s A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration. In most of her roles, she plays opposite the best comedians in the business, yet she still supplies her films with some of their most memorable moments. I can’t wait to see how she does against Meryl Streep in next year’s Julie & Julia, when she plays the Oscar-winner’s sister.

…Read more

When you gather with your loved ones this week, be sure to give extra thanks for that turkey or soy-based equivalent on which you’re about to dine. Times are hard, but for most of us, we’re still able to eat. Nevertheless, we need to prepare for the even tougher times that inevitably lay ahead. As countless movies attest, desperate times call for desperate measures at the dinner table. Like cannibalism.

The circumstances under which “eat or be eaten” becomes the rule vary widely. Plenty of films have taken on this ancient taboo; in fact, a search for the tag “cannibal” on Spout.com yields eleven pages of results. For your holiday viewing pleasure, I’ve narrowed the list down to ten.

…Read more

The appeal of the food movie is perhaps best summed up by YouTube user Zenophobius: “Watching people feasting is like watching them ****ing - you can’t help but watch them indulging their primal pleasures. So yes, I guess I love porn and I love a good foodie movie.” Who doesn’t? So, in honor of America’s annual salute to gluttony Thanksgiving, here are our picks for five of the most delicious (yes, we said it) food films of all time.

Big Night

Stanley Tucci co-wrote and co-directed this 1996 film that features one of the most sumptuous meals ever prepared on camera. If your salivary glands aren’t going into overdrive by the time they start taking the cover off of the timpano, then you have no soul. And no stomach. This is by far Stanley Tucci’s finest film, and if you want any performance from him that comes close to touching it, you’ll have to rent the audiobook version of The Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. Tucci does a terrific job of reading that. Oh, and who could forget his wonderful acting in The Impostors?

…Read more

I saw Christmas decorations in a storefront Sunday, so I guess it’s already time to break out the holiday movies. And it’s evidently time for distributors to release holiday fare to theaters, even if Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), which hits theaters this Friday, isn’t exactly the latest crowd-pleasing installment of the Santa Clause franchise. In fact, with such ingredients as estrangement, mental illness, alcoholism and cancer, it doesn’t seem like a very happy holidays kind of film. Even if it is actually a comedy.

But then how many holiday movies are completely void of depressing themes and scenes? I’m sure to have grown up thinking more about the homeless, suicide and family dysfunction from films set at Christmas and Thanksgiving than I did thinking about the happiness that comes with these holidays. One of the most tearjerking moments for me as a kid was certainly seeing Mickey Mouse crying over his dead son in Mickey’s Christmas Carol. It’s no wonder so many people get sad this time of year. Movies are influential, and for every bit of slapstick we see this season, there’s potentially room for thoughts of abandoned children to go along with it.

Worse for our tearducts are the films that aren’t necessarily thought of as “holiday movies,” which are typically more honest about how much of a bummer holidays can truly be. So get out your hanky and check out our list of ten most depressing holidays in movies:

…Read more

Well, I’m back from my glamorous and exciting vacation. I have too many RSS feeds to catch up on to bore you with details, but suffice it to say, my Thanksgiving adventures looked a lot like the above scene from Punch-Drunk Love, except I fortunately managed to make an escape before damaging any property. I want to thank Pamela Cohn and Chris Campbell for filling in while I was gone; if you missed their posts, you can check out Pamela’s here and Chris’ here.

Next week, Karina’s boyfriend is putting a padlock on her laptop and dragging her on vacation. Two fine guest bloggers will be sitting at her virtual desk while she’s gone. On Monday, you’ll enjoy the text stylings of Ms. Pamela Cohn. Pamela’s blog Still in Motion is an excellent resource for in-depth conversations with documentary filmmakers; she’s also a filmmaker and a contributor to a number of sites. And on Tuesday, drop by and spend some time with Christopher Campbell, who you may recognize from his bylines on The Reeler and Cinematical. Posting will be light on Wednesday-Friday due to the holiday, but we’ll be back on our regular schedule Monday the 26th.

On my very first day as a SpoutBlogger, I wrote about a whiny blog post on MySpace by Eli Roth, in which the Hostel auteur blamed both film critics and piracy for the relative failure of Hostel 2, and ultimately declared that he was taking a year off from filmmaking. But don’t worry, he was just joshing! His next project already has an August 2008 release date.

Trailer Trash, according to an email sent by Roth to Bloody-Disgusting, will be a comedy consisting entirely of spoofy movie trailers. Roth says the project is “inspired” by the making of Thanksgiving, his MPAA-baiting contribution to Grindhouse, which Roth describes as “the most fun I’ve ever had filming anything.”

You can watch Thanksgiving above. Keep in mind, it’s not safe for work. Or, like, anywhere.

So we went a little nuts at the Denver Film Festival–just shy of 50 podcasts went up on SpoutBlog and the Denver sitelet. But unless you’re really bored this Thanksgiving weekend, we realize you won’t have time to sit down and listen to them one by one. We thought we would help out by highlighting a handful of our favorites. Like all greatest hits albums, it’s not going to provide the full experience, but it at least gives you a good sense for what was going on in Denver. Listen in…

- Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella talking about his newest film, Breaking and Entering.

- Angie Avarez discussing her mockumentary about high school teachers, Chalk.

- Brothers and ultimate collaborators Aaron and Adam Nee talking about their film The Last Romantic.

- Filmmaker David Gow and the two impressive male leads in Steel Toes.

- Sister team Amy and Andrea Doe talking about making Saucy Flyer UFO P.I..

- Filmmaker Matthew Porterfield discussing being a kindergarten teacher and how he made his documentary Hamilton.

- Samira Goetschel and her controversial film Our Own Private Bin Laden.

- The November 15 Roundtable Recap with Bill, Kevin and Dave, talking about nine or so films they had just watched.

- The unexpected interview with Will Ferrell and his wife Viveca Paulin, focusing on Paulin’s work on the film Nail Polish.

- Richard Berge and his documentary The Rape of Europa, which explores the plunder of Europe’s art treasures during WWII.

- Our first conversation with Canadian cinema verite treasure Allan King.

- One amazing question and one amazing answer from Tim Robbins.

- The November 17 Roundtable Recap with Dave, Paul, Kristin and Kevin, who shares a great story about the Tim Robbins event.

- Another great director with an impressive list of films, Michael Apted, discussing the inspirational aspects of his new historical film Amazing Grace.