Like me, N.Y. Times columnist Maureen Dowd has come to feel that somehow, some way Barack Obama needs to strap on the shootin' irons like Gary Cooper and go out and face the cigar-chomping Ma Clinton and her gang of cutthroat spinners. In ten words, "You can't be elected president unless you prove you're tough."

Jotting #1...Read More

The Bank Job's somewhat disappointing showing this weekend reminded me again how people don't seem to support solid, commendable mid-range movies much anymore. 90% of the creme de la creme Rotten Tomatoes gang gave it a thumb's up, and the impact was negligible. For reasons that may seem to defy precise linkage, this reminded me this morning of Mike's Murder, a haunting James Bridges drama that didn't sell enough tickets either when it opened in March 1984.

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Boiled down, the theme of Peter Cowie's "The Medium is the Movie," a 3.5 Boston Phoenix piece that I stopped reading two thirds of the way through because I didn't feel a sense of gathering force, is that "reality and truth are fluid, and are dictated by whoever is behind the camera."

I think we all know that. A more interesting idea, to me, is how the constant streams of fluid media are taking over everything...how fewer and fewer of us seem to live or think or create in organic, three-dimensional, tactile ways or realms.

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For just a couple days more I’ll keep this posted: Click Here and Give it a Thumbs Up! - If we win it’ll go a long way to help support our filmmaking efforts.

Trailers

Romantico - A gorgeously shot documentary about a 60-year-old mariachi, who after years of playing restaurants in San Francisco, returns home to his family in Mexico.

The Prisoner: Or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair...Read More

Trailers – Myspace II

The Myspace trailers may turn into a permanent feature. The well for mainstream documentary releases has been a bit dry lately, and this way I feel like I’m giving these small, unknown films just a tiny bit more exposure.

blindsided - The trailer is a bit sappy, so I’m hoping that the movie isn’t this melodramatic, but it looks like a fascinating story. Told from the father’s point of view, a family learns how to live with their 12-year-old son going blind.

Heart of a Soul Surfer...Read More

Trailers - Myspace Edition

Things to do in Oklahoma when it's cold and icy: Watch The Illusionist and A Scanner Darkly, then see Idiocracy and wonder why on Earth that movie got dumped back in September. It's the smartest dumb comedy I've ever seen.

2007 Movies I'd Sell a Kidney to See Now (Or At Least a Few Pints of Blood)

300 (March 9)
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Racing on Empty

Director Dana Brown has sports documentaries in his blood, literally. His father is Bruce Brown director of eleven extreme sports films, including the infamous surfing documentary Endless Summer. This is where Dana got started, by co-writing and editing his father's Endless Summer 2. He went on to gain some attention for his own surfing documentary Step Into Liquid. He moves from the water to the dirt with Dust to Glory, a film about the 2003 Baja 1000 off-road race.

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New Trailers

Abduction: The Megumui Yokota Story - A nicely cut trailer for what looks to be a haunting documentary. It may give away too much plot, but I'm sure whatever the film's ending may be makes it all worthwhile.

God Grew Tired of Us - It's hard to tell how good this film really is from this extremely generic trailer, but the film has some high pedigree; narrated by Nicole Kidman and winning the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance. Though it looks extremely similar to the 2003 film The Lost Boys of Sudan.

51 Birch Street...Read More

2006 BNC Movie Awards

Because making a best/worst list is so 2005.

Best (Aesthetically) Movies
The Prestige
It's not often that every person I know calls me up and recommends I go catch a movie, but no fewer than five people from five different areas of the state let me know about The Prestige...Read More

Dragons Can't Save Everything

Spoilers ahead. Now my conscience is clear.

It wasn't the early reviews. It wasn't the trailers. It wasn't even the fact that I wasn't crazy about the book. The second I saw that the runtime for Eragon clocked in at an hour and 40 minutes, I knew it wasn't going to be a good movie. I don't think it's humanly possible to make a good epic fantasy movie in under two hours.

But then I went to watch the movie. I laughed. I cheered. I high-fived the guy behind me.

Legolas you are not.

Then the trailer for Read More

Devilishly Good

Near the beginning of The Devil and Daniel Johnston Daniel is brought to the stage by the announcer as “the best singer/songwriter in the world!” While the songwriter bit is at least somewhat debatable, he truly does have an incredible way with words, writing wonderful songs quite unlike anyone else, which have been covered by bands as well known as Nirvana and Beck. The singer part couldn't be more wrong.

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Well, NaNoWriMo has ended, and I managed to hit 50,220 words on November 29. The book didn't get finished, but it's about halfway there. Desperation to get it finished has kept me from updating as I should, but I'll try to get back on the ball this month. I promise.

Mini Reviews!

I did take the time to catch two vastly different movies over Thanksgiving: Casino Royale and The Fountain. Both were interesting, to say the least. Casino Royale...Read More

Giving Birth: Part 2

If you missed it: Part 1.

(We left off, with an error that had killed my previous day's work.)

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Giving Birth

(This post is becoming so long, I've decided to split it into two parts. Come back in a few days for part two.)

I've labored and labored through nearly four years of shooting and over two years of editing and after about a month of some highly intense technical post-production breaching; I've finally given birth to my documentary film The Turning Point...Read More

A Sad Day

Between Thanksgiving, The Buzz going to press, my new morning show gig, and the last 20,000 words of NaNoWriMo, I had no intention of even attempting to go see a movie this week, let alone write a column.

Then the news broke that New Line had told Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh that they were off the adaptation of The Hobbit. (Link opens in new window.)

My coworkers wondered why I was swearing at the computer at 7:15 this morning.

I've never made any secret of how much I love the Lord of the Rings...Read More

Mockumental Hilarity

I was never a fan of Da Ali G Show, so Borat: Insert Insanely Long Title That I Should Type Just to Make My Word Count Here was my first introduction to one of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's most beloved characters. (No, Jean Girard in Talladega Nights doesn't count.)

On the one hand, you had people saying that Borat was the funniest thing they'd ever seen, a brilliant comedic masterpiece. On the other, you had people getting pissed off or even suing because of the way they were portrayed in the movie.

Is Borat...Read More

Post Production Blues

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Well, ladies and gentlemen, this update isn't going to be as scintillating as you've come to expect from me. I've just become a fulltime member of The Buzz, which also means that I've gone on fulltime at the radio station that owns The Buzz. My new duties include not only providing roughly half the content (stories and ads) in The Buzz, but also radio production and getting up to help host the morning show every day. (Considering I spent my entire college career avoiding getting up before 9 a.m., having to be at work at 7 a.m. is a new and unpleasant sensation.) Read More

Abracadabra!

The Prestige is one hell of a movie. It's one of the extremely few movie this year that everybody I've spoken to has recommended. No exaggeration. Everybody has loved it.

And everybody should see it. With a cast of this pedigree, a wonderful story, and Christopher Nolan, The Prestige is my favorite movie to come out since July.

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Politically Incorrect

"Elections are important, okay? I'd rather not treat the whole political process like a spectacle to be laughed at. There should be a level of respect to it."
"What?! I don't know how they do politics in your old Fisher-Price country, but here in America this freak show is how our politicians make up for the next four years of f---ing us in the ass."
--Something Positive

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New Trailers

Shut Up and Sing - Looks like a pretty entertaining and well made documentary; about the backlash towards the Dixie Chicks after they made a discouraging remark about Bush during the height of the war.

So Much So Fast - An uplifting and inspiring documentary about a guy who finds out he has ALS and his brother who will stop at nothing to cure it.

...So Goes the Nation...Read More

Shoot 'Em Up

You know, my enjoyment of The Departed might have increased had I truly known what I was getting into. Yes, I knew it was a crime movie, but there are different kinds of crime movies. The kinds of crime movies where everybody gets shot by the end aren't exactly the kind I want to go out of my way to see. I'd like something that gives me a little more hope for humanity.

Ignoring personal preferences, The Departed...Read More

News Flash

I haven't had a chance to catch any movies since Fearless, which may not be as good as Hero (certainly not as pretty) but is nevertheless a good martial arts epic with a more thought-out storyline than most of them tend to have.

Honestly, right now the thought of spending money on just about any major movie in the theater makes me cringe, so I'm going to wait for The Departed and Employee of the Month...Read More

Fall Movie Spectacular!

I suppose this particular column would've been better suited for the end of August, but honestly, there wasn't a whole lot I was looking forward to in September, except maybe The Last Kiss (which I still haven't seen...bad movie nerd!). I'm sure there will be plenty of surprises over the next few months involving movies not on this list, and I'm equally sure some of these will turn out to disappoint, but for right now, here are 11 movies that have piqued my interest enough for me to skip a football game to write about them.

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Slamdance too

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Kiss Me Deadly

When watching a movie, if one of your friends falls asleep 10 minutes in, the other one is only staying awake so that she won't drop her Reese's Pieces on the floor, and you're checking your watch every 20 minutes, chances are good that movie isn't going to make the top ten of the year.

You'd think a movie titled The Black Dahlia might actually be...Read More

I know, I know. A column that's actually up on Friday? The world must be ending.

Not Exactly Happy World Land

Admittedly, I love summer movies. I love the big action and movies that are so bad they loop back around to being good just because you can laugh at them. But like any good junk food, eventually it starts to back up on you and you want something more.

That's why movies like Hollywoodland...Read More

The Summer BNC Awards

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Super Duper Uber Special Double Secret Probation Edition!

I'm a nerd. It's not something I'm ashamed of (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be posting it on the Internet for all to see), but I pity the people who have to put up with me on a daily basis. And it's to people like me that New Line is marketing its Lord of the Rings limited edition.

I'm going to buy it. Hell, by the time you read this, I've probably already got it and am watching the new production featurette that just demanded yet another release of the movies. They haven't quite hit Read More