I drive a 2001 Honda Accord. It’s beige. And It’s hard to feel Super Cool TNT behind that wheel no matter how many Porkchop Express bumper stickers I plaster on its rear. No, if I want to feel the Days of Thunder I gotta pop in a DVD and live veraciously through the Bullit speed demon icons of the silver screen. If I had my choice I’d slap myself in the driver’s seat behind anyone of these lovely gas guzzlers. Cuz let’s face it, if I’m gonna be clunking down five dollars a gallon I want to make every mile count.
So my mom calls me the other day and says “I was a biker chick zombie in a movie.” Which a) shows how awesome my mom is and b) shows she knows exactly what I want to hear when I pick up the phone. Of course I get curious, how was my mom in a zombie movie? Well the answer lies with director/writer/actor Jeremy Gardner (the bearded one in the above cast/crew picture) who decided that he and his intrepid crew were going to take a DSLR, spend 15 days and only $6,000 and shoot what looks to me to be a fun zombie film. Normally I cringe at independent zombie films, but bolstered by my mom’s stories (I know I am a little biased here) of Gardner being nice to the extras on set and being a generally nice guy (always nice to see in a director) I decided to check out their newly released trailer. While really it is just a demo reel of film (set to an amazing soundtrack) I thought it was worth while enough to share here. This looks like a film that people put a lot of heart and soul into (much like my last Trailer Thursday pick) and I dig the creepy rural area vibe. Plus there is finally a zombie movie that was shot in the town I grew up in. The film follows two former baseball players Ben and Mickey on the road months after an outbreak. The film recently wrapped and is currently in post production and I am very excited to see what comes out, and not just because my mom is a flesh eating ghoul.
Also there are no fast zombies in sight.
You can check out their site here or follow them on twitter here. I will be keeping my eye on this as it develops and will share more with you as it comes! In the meantime check out the trailer!
We been spendin most our lives livin in a gangstas paradise! Hello again everyone and welcome to the back to school edition of Top 7 Tuesday, a cineAWESOME! special feature where the crazy minds (and we are growing like legion you could be our next victim writer) behind the site bring you 7 films in any random order from a list we just make up at the drop of the hat. It is totally scientific. Really. In honor of the ancient tradition of young minds being shackled to the same whitewashed easily digestible nuggets of state test approved learning we bring you top 7 school films! On to the list! Continue Reading…
What’s this? A new Top 7 Tuesday?!?! Yes it is, and hopefully we will be running these weekly, like they’re supposed to. This week’s topic, School Films, sounds like an easy one. But it isn’t, mainly because there’s so many ways to look at this topic and to make a top 7 list. Do you make a list of just 80′s high school films? Easily one can do that, listing films like Better Off Dead, Summer School, Porky’s, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and School Daze. We even have horror based ones, like Ginger Snaps, Heathers, Scream, Carrie and The Craft. Let alone all the 90′s ones that came about, like the American Pie films (before the straight to DVD drivel), Can’t Hardly Wait and 10 Things I Hate About You. They even went as far to make Not Another Teen Movie, a great little film making fun of all those stereotypical high school comedies. Of course we also had films such as To Sir With Love, Higher Learning, Stand And Deliver, Boyz N The Hood, Dangerous Minds and The Principal that dealt with the harsher side of schooling. One of my favorite trilogies, The Substitute series, isn’t on this list because, well, my list turned into something completely different. I think it’s a showcase of what you can do with the school theme, without making it only about the school. If that makes any sense.
One of the reasons James and I started cineAWESOME! was to talk about smaller films, the films made by blood sweat and tears (and lots of coffee) all over the world that get ignored or passed off as minor blurbs on other sites. All the better if they’re genre films. All the better if they look interesting or involve things that we think are awesome. Well I present to you the trailer for an upcoming Canadian (perhaps the grand capital of body horror?) flick about a girl and her tattoo: Comforting Skin (Derek Franson, 2011) An awkward, insecure girl named Koffie (played by Victoria Bidewell in her first starring role) is trying desperately to get her life together. However, it spirals ever further out of control (as life is wont to do) and she finds herself getting a new tattoo that comes to life as she tries to take her own. Tattoo (voiced by Bidewell) whispers and slithers all over her body and draws her into a world of skin and sensual desire, but how far down this rabbit hole will Koffie go? And how will it affect herself and those around her? I am a huge fan of body horror, tattoos, and self destructive spirals played out on celluloid. Shot on a budget of only $250,000 and featuring some rather virtuoso digital composting by Ollie Ranikin, this film is something we want to put on your radar. Produced by Justin James, Derek Franson, and Andrew Webber and lensed by Adam Sliwinski, this film looks amazing for the budget. I especially applaud the casting of Bidewell, who is beautiful in a way that is real. This is something that is missing in a lot of (okay almost all of) Hollywood Horror. I’m digging what I’m seeing so far and look forward to this film when it is done. This is a project that cineAWESOME! will keep on top of and support, and it would be really cool if our readers did as well.
So go check out their website, like them on Facebook, share this page, and support indie filmmaking. As a warning this trailer has a quick flash of some boob, so might be considered NSFW.
No, don’t worry. We’re not covering that animated abomination. At least no yet. It’s James, and I’m just here to make sure all of you know that we’re going to come back strong during this week. Due to a ton of crazy stuff going down behind the scenes, Rufus and I decided, instead of just rushing out episodes of the podcast and putting up subpar articles, we stepped back and thought it would be better to collect ourselves and come back strong.
This Wednesday we’re finally recording our big 1-0 episode of the cineAWESOME! podcast, this time covering the two biggest films yet. The Fountain and Zodiac. Excited about this episode, and it might be our longest one yet.
More Top 7 Tuesday’s, WTF Wednesday’s, Sunday Shorts and a ton more of original content are coming your way. We just didn’t want you to worry that we were out of the fight, especially since right now is a dire time to be in this business. But we’ll be here as long as you want us to be. Just keep commenting on our entries, keep listening to the podcast, comment and rate us, spread the word as best you can. Just remember, Rufus will rap. That’s a good prize, I think. And all it takes is less than a couple of minutes.
Thanks for your patience and please let us know what we can do better serve all of you. We’re listening.
Good news to our New York-based friends. Our friends over at VCinema, in conjunction with the Village East Cinema, are offering invitations to attend an advance screening of the Hong Kong box-office hit Sex and Zen 3D (2011). The screening will take place at the Village East Cinema on Thursday, August 18th at 9pm. Just send your email address over to VCinema (vcinema@variedcelluloid.net) by Wednesday, August 17th and an invitation will be sent for you and a guest to attend the event. Please keep in mind that, even though an invitation will be required to attend, seats are first-come-first-served so invitees are advised to get to the theater early to ensure a seat. Also, you must be 18 years or older to attend this screening. Sorry, we don’t write the laws.
Billed in its native Hong Kong as the “first 3D erotic film” (though the 2010 Korean film Natali might beg to differ on that claim), Sex and Zen 3D is somewhat of a reboot of the 1991 original Sex and Zen starring Lawrence Ng and Amy Yip. The film is a period piece based on The Carnal Prayer Mat, a classic Qing-era novel based about a scholar who devotes himself to a life of carnal pleasures. Sex and Zen 3D is a category III film (the Hong Kong equivalent of a hard R rating) and holds the distinction of beating the first day Hong Kong box office draws of both Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) with an earned 2.7 million Hong Kong dollars.
Sex and Zen 3D opens at the Village East Cinema and other select theaters around the U.S. on Friday, August 19th.
I’ve never been a huge “trailer” fan. In fact, I feel that most trailers are better than movie (in some cases) or only show the best parts of the film. However, a couple weeks ago a friend of mine showed me a trailer for David Cronenberg’s newest piece of art currently in production. Ever since watching this trailer I haven’t been able to get this film out of my mind.
Cronenberg’s new film, A Dangerous Method, takes a look at the two of the most influential minds in the world of psychology – Dr. Carl Jung and the infamous Sigmund Freud – as they dive head first into the dangerous world of the mind and body’s repressed desires ultimately forming the foundation for one of the most debatable approaches to psychology – psychoanalysis.
With an all-star cast including Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud, Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung, and Vincent Cassel and Keira Knightly filling the screen with their impeccable acting and Cronenberg behind the camera, I can’t foresee much going wrong in this film. Who better than Cronenberg to take the viewer on a journey into the depths of the complicated and enigmatic human psyche?
I have studied Freud’s highly debated and problematic psychoanalytic theory, and I for one cannot express how excited I am to have a film that has the potential to fully encompass the complexity of this theory and to put in visual form something that can barely be described in words.
Set for release in September 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival and Italy’s Venice Film Festival, this film has the potential to make waves in the international film community – waves that I truly hope are felt here in America.
Watch the trailer. Pass the word. And remember, never repress anything.
We’ve been going through a bit of a break (sort of) as of late, trying to figure some inner workings and schedules and just getting our own shit together, but when I saw it was Sunday I knew I had to bring everyone a great short documentary I saw recently. It will also be featured on The Criterion Cast as well, because they are trying to put out the full 90 minute cut of the documentary, but the reason it’s on this feature is because filmmakers Trent Babbington and Walker Warren have put up a 33 minute version as a means to sell this film to the public. I’m not sure if I should let you know what it’s about, but if you look up Iron Mic: Eli Porter Vs. Envy on Youtube, you’ll find out where the basis of this subject matter came from. Enjoy!
If you are a film fan then you most likely lamented the sequelitis that Hollywood has caught. Well not every sequel is horrible (in fact famously some are better than the originals), but what about all those movies that never got the chance to bring audiences back to the world that they loved so much? Well I plan on making an argument for the films I want to see more of, be it the world, the characters or the idea. I will try to stay away from things that I think are inevitable (sorry The Incredibles you are stuck to the banner this time around) and pick things that may not be forgotten but probably deemed unneeded by the same studios that are bringing you giant blockbusters based on boardgames. The list is after the break and as always please argue with me. Continue Reading…
