Tag: south by southwest

SXSW Preview: TINY FURNITURE

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: 22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother’s TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who’s left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her trainwreck childhood best friend never left home, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner. Aura quickly throws away her liberal-arts clogs and careens into her old/new life: a dead-end hostess job, pathetic Brooklyn “art shows,” drinking all the wine in her mother’s neatly organized cabinets, competing with her prodigious teenage sister, and desperate sex in a giant metal pipe. Surrounded on all sides by what she could become, Aura just wants someone to tell her who she is.

Tiny Furniture Trailer from Lena Dunham on Vimeo.

SXSW Preview: MICMACS

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: Bazil was raised an orphan and has a bullet lodged in his brain from an accident years ago. A gentle natured dreamer, he is adopted by a motley crew of junkyard dealers living in a veritable Ali Baba’s cave, whose talents and aspirations are as surprising as they are diverse: Remington, Calculator, Buster, Slammer, Elastic Girl, Tiny Pete & Mama Chow. With the help of this faithful band of wacky friends, Bazil sets out to creatively take revenge on the weapons manufacturers that caused his accident. Underdogs battling heartless industrial giants, our gang relive the battle of David and Goliath, with imagination and fantasy reminiscent of Buster Keaton.

Official Website of MICMACS

SXSW Preview: LEAVES OF GRASS

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: When Ivy League professor Bill Kincaid receives news his estranged twin brother, Brady (both played by Edward Norton), has been murdered, he travels back home to Oklahoma to find that his brother’s death is greatly exaggerated, and he’s soon caught up in the dangerous, unpredictable drug world of the Oklahoma back waters. In the process, he reconnects with his eccentric mother (Susan Sarandon), meets a wise and educated woman who bypassed academia for a simpler life (Keri Russell), and helps his brother settle a score with a pernicious drug lord (Richard Dreyfuss) who uses Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Jewish community for a cover. Leaves of Grass follows a twisting path merging crime drama and drug comedy in pursuit of answering one of our oldest questions: What does it truly mean to be happy?

Official Website of LEAVES OF GRASS.

SXSW Preview: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her beloved uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and the tattooed and troubled but resourceful computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger’s are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Official Website of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

SXSW Preview: DOGTOOTH

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth is a darkly funny look at three teenagers confined to their parentsÕ isolated country estate and kept under strict rule and regimen. Terrorized into submission by their father, the children spend their days learning an invented vocabulary and living in an absurdist, nightmarish experiment – until a trusted outsider, brought in to satisfy the son’s libidinal urges, starts trading VHS tapes for sexual favors. A hyper-stylized mixture of physical violence and verbal comedy, Dogtooth’s ruthless satire of middle-class mores heralds the arrival of an important new voice in world cinema.

Official Website of DOGTOOTH.

‘Ong Bak 2: The Beginning’ Trailer Released

ong bak 2
Reactions to Tony Jaa’s latest martial arts, kick in your face were pretty mixed at the South by Southwest midnight series this year. It was the opening night, so some may have been kinder to it than others. Whether you thought it was an epic punch to the head or meaningless fight scenes after another, there was no doubting that it had some amazing choreography.

‘Ong Bak 2: The Beginning’ gets a limited release on October 23rd, so you can judge it for yourselves then. Until that day, though, you can gaze at the trailer, which was just released from Magnet Releasing.

Here’s the description of the film:

Martial arts superstar Tony Jaa stars in and directs this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. Featuring a huge cast and hordes of elephants, this prequel takes Jaa’s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial arts styles – while proving him to be a promising director as well.

You can check out the trailer right here:

Source: Apple

‘Bruno’ Footage to Show at SXSW

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As if I wasn’t excited enough to attend my first ever South by Southwest Film Festival this week and next, along comes even more news as to what we will be seeing in Austin. Â  This Sunday, March 15th, Universal Pictures will be showing a sneak peek at footage of the new Sacha Baron Cohen comedy ‘Bruno.’

The footage will be a part of Fantastic Fest and will show at 11:00 PM at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Â  There is no charge to see the footage and no badge is required. Â  Just show up (preferabely a couple of hours beforehand) and get your seat.

‘Bruno’ comes out in theaters on July 10th.

Source: Univeral Pictures

Two Very Similar yet Equally Cool ‘Observe and Report’ Posters

observe-and-report-poster1observe-and-report-poster21

“Right now, the world needs a hero.”

That is the kickass tagline found on the two kickass posters to this movie which will assuredly kick a little ass.   It proves, as has been proven before, that Seth Rogen just staring straight at you is hilarious, and the only thing funnier than that is if he’s wearing aviator sunglasses.

The two posters are equal parts funny and equal parts cool.   The fake creases and the worn-out edges give it a grindhouse feel, something I didn’t expect from the film.

Can’t wait to check this film out in SXSW.

‘Observe and Report’ comes out on April 10th.

Source: IMP Awards

‘I Love You, Man’ Restricted Trailer

DreamWorks Pictures has unveiled a redband trailer for their upcoming comedy ‘I Love You, Man’. Â  The film stars Paul Rudd as a man about to be married who realizes he has no best friend to stand next to him. Â  He begins screening potential guys to hang out with and runs into the wackness that is Jason Segel.

Check out the redband trailer here: Redband ‘I Love You, Man’ Trailer

‘I Love You, Man’ opens March 20th and it will be the opening film at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival.

Source: Official Site