In December, Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof were sentenced to six years in prison, and Panahi was banned from making movies in and leaving Iran for 20 years. via Protest of Jafar Panahi’s imprisonment at Facets – Time Out Chicago. My first article for Time Out Chicago is about Facets’ response to the … [Read more…]
It’s been a stellar year for bad movies. As in so-bad-they’re-good bad movies. The phenomenon of crap cinema, or rather the appreciation of crap cinema, has existed for decades, but 2010 saw a newfound interest in good-bad film. via Arts in Review: The Year in Good-Bad Movies – Arts Desk – Washington City Paper. See … [Read more…]
The 46th Chicago International Film Festival is packed to the gills with films, fans and critics. For two weeks, many folks will be lining up to see some of the most anticipated cinematic releases of the year: there’s Black Swan, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, 127 Hours, Certified Copy, Hereafter, The Tempest … [Read more…]
Cinefile‘s Nelson Carvajal read my Newcity piece on bad movies and thought I’d be a good interviewee for a video on cult cinema. Here’s the video: B-Movies & Cult Cinema from Cinefile.com on Vimeo.
This week, Newcity published an article I wrote on Chicago’s bad movie scene. “So-bad-it’s-good” movies have been getting a lot of press lately. There’s “Birdemic: Shock and Terror,” “The Room” and “Troll 2,” which is finding even more approval due to the recent documentary on the B-movie,”Best Worst Movie,” making the rounds on the critical … [Read more…]
Iraqi metal quartet Acrassicauda announced their first EP, Only The Dead See The End Of War, will come out in March 2010 on Vice Records. Back in 2007, Vice produced a documentary on the band, Heavy Metal in Baghdad. Though condescending at times, the film managed to provide a fairly human element to the consistent parade … [Read more…]
The Daily Swarm tossed a quick story about a “Mobler,” aka a Lloyd Dobler-themed flash mob that went down in NYC on Tuesday. Apparently Twentieth Century Fox put together a little gimmick to point people in the direction of the 20th Anniversary re-release of Cameron Crowe’s 80s teen rom-com Say Anything…. Mobler members dressed like … [Read more…]
Kanye West is back, back to being an artiste of merit, back from the depths of hell he was cast in after a disastrous VMAs appearance, back from South Park cracks and autotune-haters’ smacks. Or something like that. MTV reported that the short-film collaboration between Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze and West, … [Read more…]
Caught a preview screening of Jennifer’s Body. It wasn’t as awful as I’d read, but I can say that there’s going to be a cadre of folks who are interested in seeing the thing just for Megan Fox’s body. And they’ll be disappointed, because though some of the billboard adverts have given it that bro-skin-flick … [Read more…]
I stumbled upon this article on DVICE, thinking it would be some tepid piece on some bland fashion statement associated with emo. But I hardly expected this: “First there was smell-o-vision. Now we have the Emo Jacket with feel-o-vision. The folks at Philips Electronics are bringing out a jacket that lets you really feel what’s going … [Read more…]