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 imprisonment of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Enjoy.

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 the video below for a brief explanation:

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 and The Debt.

via CIFF 2010: ‘The Robber’ (Benjamin Heisenberg, 2010) < PopMatters.

I’m happy to announce I’ve joined the PopMatters team. I’ll mostly be covering music, but my first rush of work will be dedicated to the Chicago International Film Festival. There’s a host of interesting looking films this year, and it’s great to cover the fest for PopMatters. Check out my first piece on The Robber here.

Here’s the video:

B-Movies & Cult Cinema from Cinefile.com on Vimeo.

Image via Wikipedia

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 and national moviegoing scene.

I’ve been interested in “cult films” for sometime, and the ambiguous world of “good-bad” films factors quite well into that world. And I noticed a certain rousing interest in “good-bad” movies in Chicago. So I spent several months delving further into this world. I spent many midnights and an entire day watching movies at the Music Box, attended “Bad Meaning Good,” a bad movie screening series, the first Monday of every month, watched episodes of “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ online, got a membership to Chicago independent rental store and cinema, Facets.

And, of course, not everything made it into the final copy. One thing that didn’t was a brief explanation of part of the appeal of bad movies, and the similarities to certain kinds of music:

In many ways, those tiny failures are a reflection of reality we know all too well. In the same way that musicians like Daniel Johnston or The Moldy Peaches are beloved for their strange, childlike musical creations, the best bad movies can reveal something about the genuine human experience in those little, unintended mishaps.

It’s just one of many thoughts on the subject that popped into my head during the months I’d dedicated to dissecting the subject. And I must thank those who were happy to discuss bad, cult and b-movie culture with me: Tommy Wiseau (writer/director/producer/star of “The Room”), James Nguyen (writer/director/producer of “Birdemic”), Patrick Dowell (recent DePaul grad and bad movie fan), Brian Andreotti (the Music Box’s program director), Jason Deuchler (cinematographer, DJ and “Bad Meaning Good” coordinator), Jarrett Spiegel (DJ and “Bad Meaning Good” coordinator), Michael Rousselet (co-creator of “5-Second Films“), Peter Debruge (Variety writer), John Wilson (actor and “Bad Meaning Good” host), Joe Rubin (Odd Obsession volunteer manager and film historian) and John Aranza (owner of Horrorbles) all pitched in. They all had great things to say, and unfortunately not all of it made it into the article. There’s just too much to write about. Perhaps it could make for a good book someday.

If you’re curious about the scene in Chicago, head over to Newcity and read more. (Or grab a print copy if you’re in Chicago.) And if you want to see this scene in action, head to the Music Box this weekend for the Chicago premier of “Birdemic.”

Before that, enjoy the following videos of some key “good bad” movies:

“Birdemic” trailer:

[vimeovid id="9592175"]

“Best Worst Movie” trailer:

[youtubevid id="kcRyNY13Nnc"]

“Troll 2″ trailer:

[youtubevid id="9KCct4RwLNM"]

“The Room” trailer:

[youtubevid id="yCj8sPCWfUw"]

Now, the band are finally set to release their debut EP, something they’ve fought for before the Vice crew discovered the band. As the lead-off single “Garden Of Stones” shows, it’ll be real easy for any metal head to pick up. Entrenched in a menacing 80′s metal physique, the song emulates Metallica ’round every nook, cranny and second of sound. Singer Faisal Mustafa channels James Hetfield with every deep-throated vocal delivery. No wonder Metallica has taken such a shine to Acrassicauda. They may be from different countries, but they speak the same language.

Acrassicauda – “Garden Of Stones”

Heavy Metal in Baghdad:

[huluvid id="oUBK39NWAMQ5YO4nR9TD9g"]

*There is a way to be critical without demeaning your subjects, but there are moments in the film where the filmmakers decide to do away with a kind-hearted critique of the story’s subject.

What struck me about this event wasn’t the event itself or the re-release of Say Anything…. In fact, I had no idea the movie was re-released, so I guess the event did the trick. (Darn you Fox!) It’s my newfound knowledge of the film’s home video (or rather, DVD and Blu-Ray) release date. That being November 3.

What is the significance of that?

Well, it also happened to be the release date of the third full-length from California emo act Say Anything. The album’s title? Say Anything.

Odd right? Seems a bit too coincidental perhaps?

Say Anything frontman Max Bemis did, in fact, name his band after Crowe’s 1989 movie. There’s no coincidence there. It does seem a bit strange that these two entities – an album by a band of the same name inspired by a film of the same name – would all come out on the same day. It sounds like a brilliant marketing strategy that defies the logic of the Mobler: have a relatively-successful, Billboard-charting, critically-beloved band release their sure-fire hit third album the same day as a re-release for a relatively-successful, critically-beloved movie. If Fox and RCA, Say Anything’s record label, weren’t independent companies, I’d sense something fishy going on.

But, I’ll stop there… I fear becoming one of those paranoid, conspiracy theory-spinning music fans trying to listen to a backmasked version of The Beatles. That is, unless Save Ferris launch a reunion tour in time for the re-release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

A brief clip of the Mobler:

[youtubevid id="vY2v1um1zIg"]

Say Anything… trailer:

[youtubevid id="mFV7FnbhBRY"]

Say Anything – “Crush’d” (acoustic):

[youtubevid id="4q7mv2f48GE"]

MTV reported that the short-film collaboration between Where The Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze and West, We Were Once A Fairytale debuted on West’s blog last night. The video has since been taken down, perhaps because the video was reportedly supposed to go on iTunes in September.

Still, Fairytale is beginning to make the rounds online, and perhaps the timing is a little to perfect for Kanye. After a disastrous month that saw the president taking jabs at West, Fairytale is so meta it’d make your head spin. The timing is just too perfect, too coincidental. Videogum has called it Kanye’s own The Wrestler, but it might be a little something closer to JCVD. Still, West’s life is particularly more pleasant than the pains of the characters in The Wrestler and JCVD, and rather than a lifetime of mistakes and regrets, we see a night-time of mistakes and regrets.

Fortunately, Fairytale doesn’t try and make West’s life seem like a pit of despair and is saved thanks to Jonze’s sharp sense of surrealism.

I could go on, but, it’s better to experience it for yourself.

Warning: not safe for work.

We Were Once A Fairytale:

[youtubevid id="MikdIcnViJk"]

Sometimes. It’s still fairly entertaining, though I wish Cody would’ve explored certain aspects in greater depth (though I can see how it may have been overkill/distracting).

WARNING: Potential spoilers ahead. (Nothing too terrible, but if you’ve seen or read anything about the film, you won’t be caught terribly off-guard.)

At the crux of all the movement is a band called Low Shoulder, who end up performing in the backwoods town that Jennifer lives in and results in a massive Great White-like disaster. (As an aside, I thought the horror take on a club fire was kind of in bad taste… perhaps because it’s exploitative nature that’s eerily like an event that feels so recent/always feels close to home considering the countless teeny spaces I myself cram into for shows could always be a potential nightmare.) In any case, the town and nation are somehow deluded into thinking the band are heroes, with the entire local high school head over heels for the group. A conversation ensues where a Needy (Amanda Seyfried) gets in an argument with a classmate who worships the band based on facts she read over wikipedia and claims that “we need them now more than ever.” It’s this kind of stuff that makes me really respect Cody: she may write a kind of dialogue that goes to extremes of online banter as used in life, but her abilities to display how people react in the most insignificant of situations is uncanny. I found that one relatively sideline scene to be so endearing, the idea that people will seek anything as a source of hope and use the word “hero” for a person who may not well deserve it, a third rate entertainer no less. (It’s kind of funny seeing Adam Brody in another role outside of The Ten where his character is revered for no apparent reason.)

On another, more scrupulous note, Brody’s fake band reveals a certain way people perceive, well, certain kinds of bands, within the context of a film and out of it. Left Shoulder are basically billed as an “indie” band on several occasions in the film, and the watered down song that’s parlayed throughout the film is basically as bland as anything that can be passed off as such. And though the only mention of emo in the entire film is something of a “quirk line” (“puncture wound? That’s so emo.”), some folks are already calling Brody’s faux act an emo band. So sayeth Metromix’s Geoff Berkshire:

When rising emo band Low Shoulder come to town, Jennifer makes it a priority to meet the lead singer (Adam Brody), leading to a night that changes her forever.

The giveaway for the band being remotely “emo”? Probably Brody’s guyliner. As Brody told MTV about his role:

I play this guy named Nikolai Wolf, and he’s a singer in an emo band. He’s looking for fame and fortune and is basically a sociopath who came upon the idea that devil worship and sacrificing a girl is the surefire ticket to fame and fortune. And he has no problem doing that, whatsoever.

….

Yeah, there’s some Jared Leto in there. I threw in a bit of Brandon Flowers. There’s a little Maroon 5. There’s no nail polish, but there’s a little bit of eyeliner.

And there you have it. Gotta love how Brandon Flowers, though he’s previously been outspoken against emo, is probably a greater basis for Brody’s character than Leto: Brody’s stage manner resembles that of Flowers in that over-indulgent, I’m-so-great-look-at-me-slowly-sway kind of way.

What’s more interesting is the band’s supposed evil status. I realize the film is a mixture of comedy and horror, but this is where the mixture doesn’t really work. The ease with which Brody and his band-mates are compelled to commit some heinous act with barely any 2nd guessing (that being the whole “hey, it’s either this or be a barista” argument, which is fairly lame) just didn’t do it for me. Why? Because any band that would have such a brazenly vanilla sound probably wouldn’t be in the same room as anything occult. Nor would they think “that dude from Maroon 5″ is cool. Because no one thinks that guy is cool.

Now I’m just nitpicking…

Jennifer’s Body trailer:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYQ19JM_M1g]

“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 on in a movie. Using similar coding technology to D-box Motion Code chairs, the jacket will react to signals encoded on a DVD or Blu-ray.”

Well, perhaps I should have expected something of this nature considering DVICE is a technology site. In any case, the disconcerting thing here isn’t the (mis)use of the word emo, but rather the need for this device. Film, like music and any other form of art, should be able to elicit ones’ emotions with its own tools. The need for an absurd tool to manufacture some sentiment of what the characters on screen are feeling as to allow one to empathize with the characters, then, simply put, the movie isn’t doing any justice to the story. If you need this jacket to find the emotional gravitas of a certain film, chances are that movie isn’t very good.

That infernal jacket...