Film & TV
COMEDY TOUR: suprisingly... Wild
Director Ari Sandel wants you to cry. Whether you cry from laughing so hard that your abs feel like they've just been through Billy Blanks' Tae-Bo Boot Camp, or you're crying from the raw emotive power of each of the comedians' stories, there's no question that you'll find a little glisten on your cheeks after watching this film. Vince Vaughn's comedy tour took four amateur comedians and three professional ones on the road for a month in 2005 across the U.S.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Imagine that you're a film editor and a German director walks into your office and pitches this idea: "We're going to go into the middle of the Amazon, find a giant mountain straddling two rivers, blow it up and move a large boat across." Seriously. In Werner Herzog's 1982 film, Fitzcarraldo, one can watch roughly 1000 Amazon tribesmen move an actual steamboat over a mountain, a feat accomplished with no special effects.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT. Cinema's forgotten masterpieces: Landscape in the Mist (1988)
As Americans, we fancy ourselves as having monopolized postmodernist existential angst. But Theo Angelopoulos's 1988 masterpiece Landscape in the Mist plaintively reminds us that we are not alone in our search for meaning in a bleak universe.
Soviet-Style Abortion
I'll be honest: even though we put Juno on our Best Movies of 2007 list, I don't think it deserves half of the hype it's garnered.
SO DAMAGED
Neil McCormick and Brian Lackey of Mysterious Skin: Neil, a soulless teenage hustler + Brian, an introverted and coddled 18-year-old + alien abductions + repressed dark memories = a raw, graphic and seriously depressing and disturbing film with intense performances by its lead actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick) and Brady Corbet (Thirteen). Dawn Wiener of Welcome to the Dollhouse: Dawn, an unattractive, awkward and certified 7th grade loser + an adorable little sister + absent-minded parents + unrequited love for a cool guitar player + the "Special People Club" = a quotable, coming of age, dark comedy that makes you cower at the thought of middle school. Duncan Mudge of The Mudge Boy: Duncan, a quiet, sheltered farm boy + his unusual desire to mimic his dead mother + an unlikely friendship with a tough, neighborhood boy + a question of sexuality = a poignant film featuring a stunning performance by Emile Hirsch in the title role.
Web Video of the Week
Sometimes we wonder what our high school friends have been doing with their lives. Recently, I checked up on two pals of mine, Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, who were notorious comedians within our Atlantan community.
Stalin's Legacy
Street: How did you get involved with this film? Anamaria Marinca: I was already living in London, and Christian called me.
Move Over, Eve Ensler...
Street: Can you tell us a little about vagina dentata and how it originated? Persephone Braham: The vagina dentata has many manifestations, from the classical Greek figure Scylla (a beautiful woman from the waist up, with the slavering jaws of three dogs for genitals) to Eve and Mother Nature --- with her grottoes, caves, quicksand bogs and amphibious serpents.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT.
How many movies do you know that open with a title warning that none of the footage you are about to see is actual documentary footage?
The Sundance Rundown
This Sunday marked the conclusion of the Sundance Film Festival, the biggest event of the year for American independent film.
Teeth Interview
Recently, Street had the pleasure to interview the writer/director of Teeth, Mitchell Lichtenstein, and producer, Joyce Pierpoline, who graduated from Penn.
Biting Where Few Have Bitten Before
I'm all about vagina empowerment. In my vocabulary, the word "feminist" is neither dirty nor derogatory.
Five Movies to Overturn Your Carefully Cultivated Sense of Reality
5. Fight Club Tyler Durden: "Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just.
Web Video of the Week
Dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is acceptable only twice during the average person's lifetime: for the duration of 1983 and at your brother's bar mitzvah.
Best and Worst Movies of 2007
The best La Vie en Rose Persepolis 4 Months, 3 weeks, 2 Days Lars and the Real Girl Once No Country for Old Men The Diving Bell and the Butterfly There Will Be Blood I'm Not There Juno Control Charlie Wilson's War Lust, Caution the worst Norbit Hostel II Who's Your Caddy The Simpsons Movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End Mr. Woodcock I Know Who Killed Me Good Luck Chuck Revolver Wild Hogs The Number 23
THE LINEUP: 2008
So the Oscar nominations are out and Atonement didn't score as many nods as we would have liked. Nonetheless, we're optimistic about the upcoming year's crop of flicks.
One-Liners
Charlie Wilson's War: ? If only politics were still this entertaining. Sweeney Todd:? For anyone who hated Borat, you can watch Johnny Depp slit Sacha Baron Cohen's throat. There Will Be Blood: ? A movie about big oil screwing over the common man; in other words, every Whartonite's dream. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A blinking, quadrapalegic writer exhibits better tear-duct control than every audience member.
Of Profits and Prophets
We all get competitive. Whether it's GPAs, sports or the Academy Awards, there's always a fight to be won.
Web Video of the Week
In a world of metavisual consumption, it's fitting that one of the strongest television advertising campaigns is for... televisions.
