Wes Anderson and Brad Pitt Finally Make a Film Together

Actually, it's just a Japanese cell phone commercial, but Anderson uses the opportunity to pay tribute to great French director Jacques Tati and his M. Hulot character, specifically in Tati's Holiday (reserve it here!). Below are the commercial and the trailer for its inspiration.

And When the Cold Sets In, Stay Inside and Watch Movies, part 1

So it's been a weird, dead year for movies. Part of this is due to the Writer's Strike and the fact that studios simply rushed movies out with scripts that perhaps could have used a bit more work. Anyway, it's Fall turning into Winter now, which means Oscar rollout season. Funny enough, there's a ton of junk coming out soon, with only a small handful of films that I'm looking forward.

One of those is David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Adapted from a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the film deals with Benjamin Button, born an old child, who grows younger as time passes, and his encounters with Blanchett's Daisy. Fincher shot this New Orleans-set tale around his great Zodiac, which was released two years ago roughly.



I'm also really looking forward to Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt's follow-up to Old Joy. This stars a wandering and financially struggling Michelle Williams, who struggles through the most basic financial setbacks in a poor town.



Nacho Vilagondo's much-buzzed aboutTimecrimes (see earlier post for trailer) is finally seeing the light of day. Hopefully it reaches our city and we're able to catch it on the big screen before David Cronenberg's remake.

Another that I've already talked about is Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as a washed-up pro wrestler and his almost-girlfriend/over-the-hill stripper Marisa Tomei.

There are a few more to talk about...soon.

--co
www.citizen-video.com

Awesomeness on the way

It seemed like things were getting a little quiet in the future releases, which might be partly due to the Writer's Strike that went on for a while, which led to studios simply accepting whatever scripts they could to push them into production, which is just now leading to the release of even shittier Hollywood products than normal. But how much of that do we really give a shit about at Citizen Video? (Not much.) So here is some news on some American independent and Foreign titles to keep an eye out for.

First is Stingray Sam, Cory McAbee's quasi-sequel follow-up to his great debut, The American Astronaut, a Citizen favorite.



Here's a weird little movie out of Winnipeg, Heart of Karl, about a man and his brother, who happens to be a monster.

Red, starring Brian Cox, among others, didn't get much attention theatrically, but the trailer looks mighty nice.



--co

Some out of the way indie news first:

Dagur Kari, writer/director of the much-loved Noi Albinoi, has his first English-language film, starring Brian Cox and Paul Dano, entitled The Good Heart, and some pics and info have popped up.

Here's a nice trailer for a Russian film Morfiy, very Lynchian.

This looks pretty great, a Japanese trailer for a British psychological horror by the name of The Broken.

--co

And Let the Right One In I Did

So yesterday my special lady and I made the drive to LA to catch Let the Right One In, the Swedish vampire/preteen love story I keep talking about and which I've heard nothing but great things about. And guess what? It's fucking great. I can't readily compare to much else in terms of how it's handled. It opens here at Hillcrest Cinemas on the 7th, so be sure to catch it before the shitty remake by shitty Matt Reeves of shitty Cloverfield fame.

Among the film's opening this weekend are Kevin Smith's new one, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Buzz has been pretty good on it, but apparently it's finding a bit of trouble with theatrical distribution, considering it doesn't shy away from the subject matter.



One of my favorite filmmakers, Mike Leigh, (whose Naked I watched again the other night for the umpteenth time), has a new film, Happy-Go-Lucky.



Clint Eastwood's Changeling, starring Angelina Jolie, also premieres. See the post below for more info...

Recent divorcees Guy Ritchie and Madonna have competing new releases this week, Ritchie with RocknRolla and Madonna with Filth and Wisdom...

Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for Gus van Sant's Milk, about the assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician, starring Sean Penn in the title, with supporting roles by James Franco and Josh Brolin...

Film News for Film Nerds

Not a whole lot too exciting currently. I caught a press screening of Synedoche, New York, the directorial debut by acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame. It's great, it's insanely weird, and I'll be catching it again as soon as it opens here. Check a few posts down for a nice trailer for the film.

Next Friday, Nov. 7, sees the San Diego release of the Swedish film Let the Right One In (also see below), a film that has been garnering nothing but ecstatic reviews over the last few months as it's played various festivals. I'll be going up to LA tomorrow to catch it...

Clint Eastwood has a couple of films coming out in time for Oscar season, and they both look like total duds. The first is The Changeling, set in the late '20s and starring Angelina Jolie as a mother whose son disappears and is eventually found. The catch is that Jolie doesn't believe the boy to be her son, and nobody is willing to look into it.



The other Eastwood film is Gran Turino, in which Eastwood stars as a grumpy old tough guy who ends up helping the bullied teenage neighbor next door.



It appears that the great Crispin Glover has a role in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp.

Steven Soderbergh is following up his two-part Che film with a musical about Cleopatra, set in the 1920s, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as the Queen and Hugh Jackman as somebody else. Music by Guided by Voices.

The great little French thriller 13 Tzameti is being remade for an American audience by the original film's director, with Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, and 50 Cent.

Citizen favorite Todd Field, director of In the Bedroom and Little Children, is signed on to direct Buried for Paramount Vantage before he takes on Cormac McCarthy's epic Blood Meridian.

Another Citizen favorite, David Gordon Green, is putting off his remake of the Dario Argento classic Suspiria to film an adaptation of Freaks in the Heartland, the graphic novel by Steve Niles and Greg Ruth.

That's it for now. Try not to pee your pants on Halloween.

Tomorrow night!

Come out and have a few beers with us.



--co

Horror picks for the month!

Eyes Without a Face
The first time I saw this was with my best friend Brian. We’d both heard that the film was a classic but didn’t know much about it, and he’d just picked up a used copy for cheap, so on one of our many Friday Night Movie Nights we decided to give it a shot. A surgeon dumps a body alongside a river, and from there we learn about his lover who has been disfigured, and the trouble he’s going through to find the perfect face for her. This face, of course, has to come from another woman. Part of the film’s unsettling power hinges a reveal, and Brian and I were becoming tense, and then…we got a phone call about a party. So went and got drunk. But we both thought about the movie all week and where we’d left off, and the next Friday we started from that point, and that unsettling tension returned immediately. The film doesn’t play down its absurd trappings, and works on every level beyond its horror trappings. (If it seems Hitchcockian, that’s because the two writers on the film were also responsible for Vertigo, written two years previous.)



The Haunting
The late, great Robert Wise, director of classics such as West Side Story and The Day Earth Stood Still, decided to take a stab at the horror genre with this adaptation of the great Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House. One of the most effective ghost stories in film history, the film finds Dr. Markway investigating a house with paranormal activity, accompanied by Luke, who is in line to inherit the house, and Theodora and Eleanor, who both respond to an ad searching for volunteers with previous paranormal experience. Eleanor stands as the film’s central character, and as the house seemingly comes alive, we are left questioning whether or not the events are actually occurring or are simply in Eleanor’s head, a concept lifted straight from the great Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” published in 1892. Part of the magic of the film lies in the understated approach to the material and the fact that nothing is ever truly seen; we are only to privy to Eleanor’s experience, and with that, we experience her fright with her, only to watch this give way to the pleasure she feels in regards to the attention the house pays her. Still effective even now, as foreboding and atmospheric as one can hope for in their horror films.



Suspiria
An intense barrage of sound, shocking violence, and a great score by Italian prog band Goblin, Suspiria was a worldwide phenomenom upon its release in 1977, and its impact as a cinematic experience has not been lost over time. A young American ballet dancer, Suzy, travels to Germany to attend a ballet school in the woods, only to discover that it is run by a coven of witches. She watches as her schoolmates are viciously murdered in an attempt to open the gates of Hell, and Suzy has to do everything she can to escape. One of the most influential modern horror films, much of the film’s power comes from its elaborate murder set pieces, and the American slasher film would not exist were it not for the Italian giallos and horror films like Suspiria.



Repulsion
Intensely claustrophobic and unsettling, this film is a tough nightmare to wake up from. After first seeing this, I started telling my fellow film students to check it out if they have any interest in doing horror. Coincidentally, a teacher/friend of mine decided to show it to one of his classes, and everyone hated it because it was too much. Young Catherine Deneuve isolates herself in her sister’s apartment when the sister goes on vacation, and we watch her fears manifest themselves in the apartment, causing Deneuve’s mental deterioration. In the end she is completely broken, and so are we.



Evil Dead II
One of my all time favorites, and one of the biggest cult classics from the late 80s, seeing this at 14 was an absolute revelation for me. As much inspired from the low-budget horror and exploitation of the late 70s/early 80s as it was by writer/director Sam Raimi’s love for the slapstick of the Three Stooges, the film seemingly threw all the rules out the window and decided to just have fun. Bruce Campbell, a cult icon of his own because of this film, stars as Ash, who arrives at a cabin in the woods with his girlfriend, only to accidentally play back a recording of an archaeological who had found the Necronomicon that releases an evil spirit in the woods, possessing first his girlfriend and then him. And then his hand. Which he has to cut off and replace with a chainsaw to ward off the evil spirits. Then the daughter of the archaeologist arrives with her boyfriend and their white trash two truck driver. “All hell breaks loose,” you might say, as they try to avoid being sucked into a dark dimension, and as we laugh all the way.



--co

New in store this week!

We've got a few new DVDs coming to Citizen this week.

First up is Mongol, the Sergei Bodrov-directed, Tadanobu Asano-starring depiction of the ruler's young life. The 2007 Nominee for the Best Foreign Film Oscar is said to be the first part of a trilogy.



Next is The Edge of Heaven, the new film by Fatih Akin, the Turkish director of the great Head-On.


We also have in Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris's exploration into the incidents at the Abu Ghraib prison.


Feel free to reserve these online at www.citizen-video.com, or call us at
281-FILM (3456).

Ashes of Time Redux

So way back in the 90s, one of our favorite modern filmmakers, Wong Kar Wai, was long in production and struggling with a film called Ashes of Time, a strange, surreal wuxia. Halfway through he needed to reenergize and went and shot a little film called Chungking Express. Remember that one? It rules and is still my favorite of his. Anyway, he finally finished Ashes, except nobody really gave a shit when it came out, and we've been subjected to shoddily-transferred alternate versions of the film. Someone eventually decided, though, that it might be a good idea to create a new, director-approved transfer of the film, which played at this year's Cannes film festival under the title Ashes of Time Redux, and this time time it was received much better. The film should be making a small theatrical run soon, and in the meantime here's a nice little interview with Kar-Wai about the film.

The Right One In

Let the Right One In, from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, has been receiving some pretty great buzz the past few months during its festival run, and will have a limited run at the end of the month. Make sure to catch it before the shitty American remake in the works by Cloverfield director Matt Reeves.

The Current

This week is the 2008 San Diego Women's Film Festival.
You can find information about it at www. citizen-video. com, or at www. sandiegowomensff. com.
It is curated by Citizen Video owner Holly Jones and features some great theatrical premieres by the likes of Jonathan Demme as well a number of short films by women filmmakers.


New in the store recently we have the 2007 Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, Taxi to the Dark Side, chronicling the interrogation of an innocent Afghani taxi driver that ended in his torture and killing by American forces, without any accountability.




We also have OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, a French spy-spoof:



From Israel, we have the winner of the Camera d'Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Jellyfish:



Ira Glass, host of NPR's This American Life, brought his weekly show to Showtime, and we have the great first season, six episodes in total.


Dario Argento recently completed his The Three Mothers trilogy, which started with Suspiria and Inferno, with Mother of Tears, starring his daughter, Asia Argento:



Indie and Citizen Video fave David Gordon Green, director George Washington, All the Real Girls, and Undertow, had a one-two punch this year with Snow Angels and Pineapple Express, and we have the former here at the store, starring Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale about the death of a little girl that shakes up the family and the town.





Our shirts, designed by Holly, will be restocked soon, and we'll be sure to let you know when they're in.

Spike Lee Has a New Film (Didn't You Know?)

He may not be totally consistent, but when he's at his best, there's no arguing that Spike Lee is one of the greatest filmmakers of our generation. His new film, Miracle at St. Anna, chronicles four African-American soldiers in WWII who were part of the "Buffalo Soldier" division stationed in Tuscany, Italy. Here's a lengthy interview courtesy of Aintitcool.com, and below you'll find the trailer.

This week in stuff

Finally, a nifty trailer for Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche. Apparently the movie confounded a number of people over the last few months at festivals, but it looks like the studio has a good understanding of how to promote this.

It's nice to see Seth Rogen flexing his chops a little, andhis next project looks like a ton of fun. Hot off completion of Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno comes the announcement that Stephen Chow, actor/director the great Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, will direct the Rogen/Evan Goldberg-penned Green Hornet.

Charles Burns, author of the amazing Black Hole (a film version of which David Fincher is attached to), took part in this great looking animated horror-omnibus featuring five graphic novel artist/writers.

Heath Ledger's true last movie, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, is finally getting a little promotion here.

--co

Stuff!

So indie fave Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, the Fountain) has a new film, The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke. The film just won the Golden Lion at the recent Venice Film Festival (its highest honor), and was picked up by Fox Searchlight pictures at the Toronto Film Festival. The film follows an aging, washed up pro wrestler, Randy "The Ram" Robinson, who is reduced to cheap high school showcases and the such. He also wrestles with his estrangement from his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and an attempt to connect with the aging stripper he has long pined after (Marisa Tomei). The film has been garnering some extremely positive buzz, and here are a few clips and interviews with the star and director, in addition to a lengthy interview (part 1, part 2, part 3)with the director, in which he talks about his next project, a semi-remake of the classic Robocop, in addition to his project after that, a telling of the story of Noah's Ark.

George Clooney is starring in a film helmed by his Good Night and Good Luck co-writer, Grant Heslov, about a purported military program aimed training for psychic soldiers. Looks interesting...

Stephen Soderbergh, hot off his recently picked up for distribution Che, starring Benicio del Toro as the revolutionary, has announced that he has a film about Liberace in the works...

Wes Anderson is slated to write and direct a remake of Patrice Lecont's recent My Best Friend, following his snow-motion animation adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox...

That's it for now, suckers. Go see Burn After Reading this weekend, the new Coen Brothers film...

From the Diary of Woody Allen

In celebration of the release of his new film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, the New York Times posted this nice collection of diary entries Woody Allen did for the film.

Synecdoche

So the beloved Charlie Kaufman, he the writer of collaborations with Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and Michel Gondry (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), went off and directed his own movie after Spike Jonze decided to take on an adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are. It played at Cannes and confounded audiences, and it has yet to be picked up for distribution, but three clips from the film just popped up for our enjoyment.

The Heat is On

Man, it's been two months since the last post. We've all been caught up in the throes of summer, trying to keep up with our lives, and hunting in the wilderness of Africa. One of those things is not true. But enough with that. Let's talk movies.

What did you see the last couple of months? I caught a few things, still have to catch on some others. The Dark Knight was both riveting beyond expectations and also disappointing. Do the American masses need to be pandered to so much? Can you please prove to me that Bruce Wayne is a human being? Pineapple Express was a lot of fun, kind of a strange beast. Still haven't seen Iron Man, Wall-E, missed Baghead last week, dug the Wackness...what else? I'll remember later. There's a also a bunch of news I can share...

Zach Snyder's (Dawn of the Dead, 300) adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen, perhaps the great graphic novel of all time, was the big talk of this year's Comic-Con. The trailer definitely looks pretty, but will he pull it off? We'll find out next summer.

Did you know there's a new Terminator coming out? Directed by McG?

Woody Allen's new film comes out next weekend. Everyone was talking about the steamy three-way when it played Cannes a few months ago...

Fernando Meirelles, director of City of God and the Constant Gardener, has an adaptation of Blindless coming out soon.

Brad Anderson's Transsiberian is out soon...

I caught Tropic Thunder a few weeks ago at a screening and thought it was a lot of, and leading up to the film the studio's been releasing scenes from a fake documentary about the making of the movie within Tropic Thunder.

Rian Johnson, director of indie hit Brick, has a new film in the can, The Brothers Bloom. Also just revealed are details of his next month, a dark sci-fi flick...

Quentin Tarantino is officially rolling on his film, Inglorious Basterds, this fall, with some interesting casting taking place.

John Hillcoat, director of Australian western the Proposition, has an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's excellent The Road due in November.

David O'Russell's (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) Nailed finally finished shooting.


I'm gonna stop here, this post is long enough, but I'll leave you with this great GI Joe (corrected!) tribute to John Carpenter's The Thing (one of my favorite films).

--co

News for the Nerds

So for the last ten or eleven years I've been addicted to reading about upcoming movies. One of the biggest ways that I kill time is logging to a handful of the same sites frequently throughout the day to see if there's any news. Here are some of my favorite sites:

Twitchfilm

CHUD

Ain't It Cool News

Coming Soon

There's a few others, too, but those are the main ones. And because I'm such a nerd, I figured I might as well pass on some of the interesting info that I find and relate it to Citizen Video in the hopes that it might turn some of you viewers on to some stuff you might've never bothered to check out. So here's a few things from this week:

Kim Ji-Woon, one of the best directors out Korea and responsible for the Foul King, A Bittersweet Life, A Tale of Two Sisters (all of which we have in the store, all of which are great), and whose The Quiet Family (which we don't have) was remade by Japan's great Takashi Miike as Happiness of the Katakuris, has a new film that just played at Cannes entitled The Good, the Bad, the Weird. So far Ji-Woon has tackled a different genre with every picture, and it was just announced that he'll be making his English-language debut with a remake of the French Noir from 1971, Max et les Ferrailleurs, with John Woo producing. The original isn't available in the US, but going off of Jean-Pierre Melville's great Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge (which Woo has talked about remaking for quite a while), I'm guessing it's great. Here's a dubbed trailer for it.


Brad Anderson, director of Happy Accidents (in store!) among others, has a new thriller out soon. Transsiberian follows an American couple, Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer, on a train in Russia who come across a stash of molded heroin and are then suspected of being the dealers. Ben Kingsley stars as the investigator unwilling to let them off.

Darren Aronofsky of Pi, Requiem for a Dream and the Fountain has a new movie,
The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke as an aging wrestler reduced to low-rent, dignity-robbing entertainment work.

Jason Segel, of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, Knocked Up, and most recently Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is making a new Muppets movie with his co-conspirator Nicholas Stoller.

Did you know that Spike Jonze has been filming an adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are?, scripted by Dave Eggers? Well, apparently the studio isn't too happy with it because, supposedly, it's too dark and Max in the film is too much of a brat, so it looks like they're going to do massive reshoots. I suspect we could have another masterpiece on our hands if they were to just leave it be. Is this going to be Jonze's Brazil? Here's some test footage that leaked a while back.


I'll leave it at that for now, but I'll be sure to post again soon. Enjoy your weekends.

--co

Summer of Film Love--June

So, for better and for worse, we've seen the first group of summer releases invade our town and take all of our candy. June sees our first full month of bloated Hollywood behemoths overshadowing all the great small stuff we love, so I'll give a run-down of everything that'll be playing over the next month.

June 4th:

Bangkok Dangerous--The Pang Brothers remake their Thai film for an American audience, with Nicolas Cage in the lead as a guy who...I don't know. I'm sure there's a trailer somewhere, but I guarantee your brain and your eyes might be angry at you afterwards.

June 6th

Mother of Tears--Famed Italian horror director Dario Argento concludes the trilogy that started with Suspiria and Inferno. This time his daughter Asia stars as an art student who unleashes the power of an evil witch and must stop it. My prediction is something along the lines of Escape from Witch Mountain but way gorier.

Reprise--The debut film of Norwegian director Joachim Trier follows two friends who both aspire to become cult novelists. When finds success and subsequently falls apart, the other must deal with his wayward life. This one plays Hillcrest, and here's a trailer.


Jellyfish--This one's playing for a week at the Ken, and sometime last year the filmmakers were kind enough to send us a trailer. Possibly one of the only Israeli productions you'll in theaters this year, the film garnered some great praise when it made the festival circuit last year. Have a looksee here.

Kung Fu Panda--Dreamworks newest CG animation with Jack Black as the title character. Will it be as bad as the Shrek movies?

The Promotion--I didn't even know this movie existed until today. It has John C. Reilly and Sean William Scott as two rival supermarket employees. It looks like shit.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan--The new Adam Sandler comedy about a middle eastern special ops guy who comes to the US to become a hairdresser. It could be dumb, but the great ex-SNL writer Robert Smigel wrote the original version of the script, so maybe it'll be funny?

June 13th

One of the first big weekends, with three major releases competing for your dollar.

The Happening--M. Night Shyamalan's newest, with Marky Mark and Zooey Deschanel. I've read some early word and it's supposed to be laughably bad. We'll see.

The Incredible Hulk--The revamping of the character after most people were disappointed with Ang Lee's version a few years ago (which I liked). Stuff will get blowed up real good, at least.

The Dark Knight--One of the summer films I've been most looking forward to, this sequel to Batman Begins (which we have in the store) sees Bruce Wayne taking Heath Ledger's Joker and Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face, plus they kicked out Katie Holmes because she sucked and replaced her with Maggie Gyllenhaal, who does not suck. This one is again directed by Christopher Nolan, of Following/Memento/The Prestige, and written by his brother, who penned Memento and the Prestige. The movie's gonna rule the summer for a while.

June 20th

Two big comedies duke it out this weekend.

Get Smart--The modern take on the show stars the great Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway. I've actually read a few things that said it's pretty good.

The Love Guru--Will Mike Myers quit making bad comedies? Answer: no.

June 27th

Wanted--Russian director Timur Bekmambetov makes his first English-language film after the sucess of Night Watch and Day Watch. The American trailers for the James McAvoy/Angelina Jolie comic adaptation sell the movie short; check out this Russian version for a better idea of the dumb fun that might be had with this thing.


So that's June. I'm probably gonna see the Dark Knight three times because I'm a total nerd.

--co

David Fincher's masterpiece?

A friend of mine went to see the new Indy flick yesterday (he said it was terrible) and told me that this played in front of it. I had no idea the trailer was even due out, but I can safely put it near the very top of my list of things to look forward to this year. This one's in Spanish but I couldn't wait, and I'm sure the English-language version will pop up soon (which I'll gladly post when it does). For me he really proved himself with Zodiac, so we'll see about this one. He's also attached to adapt this, which would be amazing, as it's one of my very favorite books and I think he's perfect for it.

--co

Charlie Kaufman finally directed a movie.

And it's playing at Cannes right now. I haven't read any reviews yet, but I'm planning on doing a big Cannes-in-review pretty soon. But for, there's this.

--co

July isn't just a hot summer month

Miranda July is making a new movie.

Yes we Cannes

So there's a little film festival taking place in France with some great stuff playing throughout the event.

One film in particular that seems to be garnering a good deal of attention is the new one from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, director of Distant and Climates, both of which are available at Citizen. Here's a couple of links, one for a trailer with info and other for a great write up.

Trailer & Info

GreenCine Daily write up

Baghead

The Duplass Brothers have a new movie coming out soon:



Here are a few clips as well:



And another movie with the same name:



And another, this one by David Lynch (it's weird and scary, surprise surprise):

Summer of Film Love--May

So it's summer. And that means an insane amount of films are coming out, big and small. I was gonna do the big and then the small, but that's not really fair, so I'll try and guide everyone by date. (I'm pulling the releases dates from here, so if something changes send them a nasty letter, not me.)

Playing right now is The Fall, Tarsem Singh's follow-up to the Cell. While the Cell wasn't very big on story, script, or any of the other narrative constructs that we so enjoy, it did feature a series of beautifully shot dream sequences. The Fall promises more of the same visually, but I've a few things that say that this works in those "other" ways as well. I'm gonna see it. Are you?

Hopefully coming soon is Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow, his follow-up to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Word on this has been extremely high since it debuted at a few festivals last year. Here's a link with info.

May 16th brings us the second Chronicles of Narnia. Make of that what you will.

On May 22nd, the dried-up bones of Harrison Ford will be featured in a little movie about some guy named Indiana Jones. Word on this has been low. I'm in the who-gives-a-shit category on this one, but I know a lot of people who are looking forward to it. Just don't be surprised if George Lucas's grubby little paws screwed this up the way they did your beloved space opera franchise.

On the 30th the long-awaited Sex and the City movie, Sexer in the City, is coming out. I heard Sarah Jessica Parker goes on a drug-fueled killing spree in this one and even eats a kitten before finding love in the big city.

I'm a looking forward to two other films being released this day, one more than the other. The first is the Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, which looks like it might actually be a pretty effective throwback to creepy, atmospheric horror. Here's a LINK!

The second is The Foot Fist Way, which was finished way back in 2005 but is finally seeing a good release now. Don't let the delay fool you; the film was done for virtually nothing, but as buzz built on it, and as its star, Danny McBride, gained attention in Hot Rod and the upcoming Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express (whose directors, David Gordon Green, introduced the world to McBride in All the Real Girls), the Apatow/McKay/Ferrell camp decided to push this gem of a movie, and everyone's convinced that this one will really break McBride. I hope so. Check the glory here.

(Keep an eye for the follow-up by Jody Hill, director of the Foot Fist Way, entitled Observe and Report, about a mall security guard who "wages war on the cops." Seth Rogen vs. Ray Liotta.)

That's it for now. Next month is June, so that means I'll tell you soon about the June movies. Duh.

--co

Film Comment's Reader's Poll Best of 2007

Check out Film Comment's best of 2007 Reader's Poll here:

(Fixed it!)

We've got almost all of these and should have the rest very soon. We definitely can't help but agree with their choices...


And their rants and raves...

Tran Anh Hung's I Come With the Rain

Just watch.

mommie dearest

I don't know why but I'm all geared up for mother's day. Maybe it's because we have the cutest little mother's day cards available at citizen video. Or maybe it's because - what with easter in march this year - there are absolutely no good holidays in april. Only the irs deadline. And god does that suck (let me say personally, that this year's tax season sucked in particular) and so we need something to look forward to after that.

So how about films about mothers? Or even if they aren't about mothers, how about some films with great "mother" characters. I have a list going and I'll update as the big day approaches:

All About My Mother - for the life of me - despite the title - I can't remember anything about the mother in this film.

Secrets and Lies - a great Michael Leigh film about an adopted black woman who goes in search of her mother. wonderful cast and acting.

House of Yes - in which Geneviève Bujold plays one of my favorite mothers of all time. You definitely get a hint of why her children turned out the way they did

Rosemary's Baby - soooooooo much cooler than all the sweet romantic comedies about women and pregnancy lately. Mia Farrow as the vessel of the son of satan.

Paris, Texas - Natasha Kinkski, the mom who ditches her family to work at a curious peep show of sorts

Harold and Maude - hats off to Vivian Pickles who plays the most relentlessly match-making-meddler-mom of all time.

More to come.

The Latest Movie News of (Possible) Interest

Zooey Deschanel and Chloe Sevigny to star together in an indie comedy set
in WWII Nevada about quickie divorces called Divorce Ranch.



Beautiful Losers, a great looking doc about graffiti artists.



Bill Maher and Larry Charles make an anti-religion doc.


Great poster for the new Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed
stoner-action-comedy.



Redux of 14-year-old Wong Kar-Wai film to debut at Cannes.



Darren Aronofsky developing paranormal TV show for AMC.



Bong Joon-Ho, director of Memories of Murder and The Host, has more great
stuff on the way.

Start watching the Watchmen

Alan Moore, author of the much-lauded comics V for Vendetta and From Hell, among others, published his magnum opus Watchmen in 12 parts from 1986-87, and to this day it is still considered one of the finest works in the comics medium. Moore's approach was both more literary and more cinematic than any other popular comic, and it helped to redefine the entire superhero genre. Here's the wikipedia link--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen. For those who haven't read it, whether or not you read comics (or "graphic novels" as may hear them referred to by people who don't actually read them), I really recommend searching it out and giving it a shot. Hell, just buy it sight unseen, it's that good.

So why am I introducing this to you, besides the fact that it's a great piece of literature and one of my personal favorites? Because it's finally being made into a movie. Hollywood has been trying to get this one off the ground for some time, with a script by Sam Hamm, who penned the first Tim Burton-directed Batman, floating around and various directors, such as Terry Gilliam, attached to helm the film. However, because the film was guaranteed to cost a pretty penny and because the story wasn't a typical action-y superhero movie but rather a very meta- and allegorical take on the superhero genre, it has long languished in development hell. Enter young director Zach Snyder, who made his name with the Dawn of the Dead remake (which I'm actually rather fond of) and 300 (which I am definitely not fond of). After the success of those two films, Snyder had the clout to finally get the film off the ground, and like 300 he's sticking incredibly close to the source material and might, just might, fingers crossed, get it right. Here's the first of 12 video diaries, which just popped up today.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=43692

The film is due out next summer and will be a tentpole release, which, yes, goes against the films we look at here at Citizen, but that's only because big movies rarely have this much thought and work put into them, and because of Moore's book and the fact that pretty much every other one of his comic adaptations has been close to pure crap (From Hell by the Hughes Brothers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Stephen Norrigton/taken over by Sean Connery), I'm holding out hope that this one is rarity in many forms.

Go Blind later this year

Just thought I'd share this, the trailer for the adaptation of a (supposedly) great book (I haven't read it yet) from the director of City of God, which just popped online today and looks great:



--co

Renting Videos is Cheaper Than Paying Your Taxes

Chances are you may owe Uncle Sam more than the $2.50 rental price of movies at citizen video. And now is as good a time to rent as ever with There Will Be Blood coming out on April 8th.

What better way to celebrate the tax season than by watching character Daniel Plainview make his money the good-old, cut-throat American way... with blood, more blood and guts (in the form of oil and religion). Given his independent streak, I bet we can guess what Plainview would think about sharing his hard earned money with the government.

Gus Van Sant gets Paranoid at the Ken

Fresh off of his "death trilogy" of Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days, Gus Van Sant, who made his name with the great Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, continues to explore the theme of youth and death with this adaption of Blake Nelson's novel, Paranoid Park. Shot entirely in Van Sant's hometown of Portland, Oregon, the film focuses on Alex, played by Gabe Nevins, a non-actor Van Sant found while scouting, who is partly responsible for the death of security guard near the skate park he frequents. From there we see how Alex is unable to really deal with his involvement in the death as he tries to suppress his guilt and anguish in a world of adults who don't necessarily know how to deal with their own inner emotions. Lovingly shot by Christopher Doyle, Wong Kar-Wai's normal go-to DP and one of the best in the world, Paranoid Park has been getting rave reviews, such as this one:

http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/paranoid_park

Here's the trailer, and make sure to catch it at the Ken Cinema this week. There's a chance it might carry over for another week or so, but you never know.



And here's a clip:



--CO

Right Now!

So you've seen our posts about 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and David Gordon Green's Snow Angels. I was lucky enough to catch the former back in September at the amazing Telluride Film Festival in Colorado as part of a student symposium, which meant that we spent an hour in a small elementary classroom with the film's director, Cristian Mungiu, and picked his brain about the film. I'm a huge fan of Green, and read the novel of the same name which the film is adapted from, in anticipation of the film, which came out of last year's Sundance with glowing reviews. However, there's a few other things as well to check out worth your while.

One is The Band's Visit, about a band made up of members of the Egyptian police force, who become stranded in Israel on their way to a concert. While there they end up staying overnight, with the Captain and one of the younger members of the force shacking up with the owner of a small shop. Throughout the night the three learn about each other and themselves, and the film deftly balances a light, comedic, deadpan tone with a dramatic undercurrent. I highly recommend this.



Something that I was supposed to see but missed at Telluride was the Best Foreign Oscar Winner The Counterfeiters, set in WWII Germany. Word was high on this high, and apparently for good reason.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days

Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days opens this Friday the 22nd at the Ken Theater. If you get a chance, get out and show your support for this amazing Romanian film that got snubbed for Oscar recognition despite its superb cast and direction.

I have yet to see 4 Months, but from what I've read it is the answer to the glut of glib American films surrounding women and pregnancy. 4 Months seems to be a film of layers - yes, a film about a woman trying to get an illegal abortion, but also about life under communist regime, about life without choices, and the universal challenges of human existence. Just like that heartwarming little Landmark trailer they sometimes show before movies, 4 Months lives up its truth - the language of film is universal.

Pineapple Express. David Gordon Greene does a Stoner Movie.

We here at Citizen Video love David Gordon Green, who made his name with the ultra-indie George Washington, as well as All the Real Girls and Undertow and the upcoming Snow Angels. We also love Judd Apatow, responsible for Freaks and Geeks, Knocked Up, and Superbad, among others. So when we heard the Apatow had hand-picked Green for a big stoner-action-buddy-comedy to be released in summer 2008, we couldn't help but get a little excited. From a script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who wrote Superbad together (and we know Rogen from his starring turns as well), Pineapple involves a pothead, Rogen, and his dealer, James Franco, who are witnesses to a murder and must elude both the folks who would like to see them dead as well as the cops who think they're responsible, all because of the best pot ever, Pineapple Express. Here's the Red Band trailer that just popped up.

Citizen Does Love Differently

We're not ashamed to say it.... we love love. And - as your independent video store open to more than just mainstream movies - we're open to more than just mainstream ways of falling, being, finding, and experiencing love. So we're glad that there's a day in February dedicated to this topic, and we're going to do everything we can do to celebrate it in our own unique, citizen video way.

Our movie matinees at the Whistle Stop this month are a great back to back set up - True Romance and Badlands. Click here to read why we decided to screen these two movies together in the same month and why they particularly work with this month of love.

On on the day of amor, we have ways to help you celebrate that no executive at Hallmark or DeBeers could ever come close to. During the day we're combining our love and creative juices with Pixie's Salon, local crafters and the Children's Heart Institute. Get pampered in style and give to an organization with a lot of heart. We'll be having a craft fair over at Pixies Salon. All the proceeds from their services and 20% of the sales for Citizen Video will go to a family in the Children's Heart Institute. We're calling it Have a Heart, because it's all about a lot of little folk with a lot of heart.

In the evening, the fun and creativity doesn't stop. We've put together a reel called Get It On or Get the F**K Out and we're screening it over at the Whistle Stop at 9pm. Basically it consists of the best make-out scenes and best break-up scenes from movies and who can tell which will be the most entertaining. Come celebrate singlehood, couplehood, triplehood, relationships and whatever way love turns you on.

DANCE PARTY USA, release date Jan 29

Being San Diego's source for all things indie in film we are dedicated to bringing you the newest in the American indie scene - mumblecore. So, hitting the shelves this Tuesday, Jan 29th, citizen video will proudly sport 3 copies of Dance Party, USA the latest mumblecore release by Aaron Katz (it's a dual release with his film Quiet City).

It ain't French New Wave, but mumblecore is its own special little collective and you can read a great New York Times article about it here and then come into citizen video and rent Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation, LOL, Kissing on the Mouth. And after you've done that you can come to our cinema lounge series with Sushi next month Tuesday, February 26 and see an actual mumblecore filmmaker in the flesh, Andrew Bujalski.

Read Jeannette Catsoulis' review of Dance Party USA which she calls a "remarkably delicate construction," that "captures the way sex and assorted substances distract from the creeping terror of life after high school." And if you want more, click onto this interview with Aaron Katz.

Doing What a Video Store Owner Should Do

Yesterday I actually got to do something that I always had hoped my job title as video store owner would allow me to do - I watched a movie. A DVD actually. And I watched it twice through, one time right after the other just like I used to do in the good old days when I was in seventh grade and I had enough time to watch Breakfast Club six times in a row.

Except this time, I watched Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt, and media being a lot fancier than it was in say - oh 1984 - I was able to watch it the first time through just plain jane, and the second time through with audio commentary by film scholar Robert Stam.

So I can't even come close to downloading the wealth of information Stam did (you're just going to have to come in and rent it for yourself), but for the cliff notes versions, Contempt was filmed in 1963 and one of the big drawing powers for me pulling it off the shelf was that Bridget Bardot starred in it. And low and behold, if it weren't for that sex kitten, the whole film never would have even existed. It was Godard's first film in cinemascope and his first international film with a big budget funded big time producers. And Bardot was the caveat to getting the whole film produced. She had to be in it for the producers to sign on.

So here's where the fun begins because Contempt is one of those movies about the film making process. It is about a screenwriter (played by Michel Piccoli) torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by - wow - Fritz Lang) and an arrogant American director (played by - so hilarious - Jack Palance). So yes, it's one of those movies about the compromised sensibility of artist when thrust into the constraints of commerce. But rather than whine about it on screen Godard uses the movie as a vehicle to undermine the very people that funded it. He takes the producers demands and gives them what they want with a subtle twist, and he does it right from the beginning. Immediately after the credits role (which are spoken instead than written .... how brilliant), there it is Bridget Bardot's naked ass, exactly what those dang producers asked for. But instead of all hot and steamy, she and her husband (Piccoli) are talking about very erotic things in a very non-erotic way.

It all just gets better from here and its about time that I pay a small tribute to the fact that the great Fritz Lang also stars in the film. Don't know what more to say about that except it shows what a smutty little American I am to pick up the DVD to check out Bardot over Lang. But if the cast or the story line aren't a selling point for you, pick it up for the cinematography.

Having only dabbled in earlier "great" Godard films (Breathless, My Life to Live, Alphaville, Band of Outsiders) I was accustomed to the jerky hand held black and white style that was part of that French New Wave revolution. Here, Godard is using a new method of filming and you can tell he is so enjoying playing with the medium, just having fun doing the exact opposite of everything he has done before. The shots are long, with characters disappearing and reappearing in different parts of the frame as they negotiate their own disjointed relationships with one another. He shoots a 30 minute scene in Bardot and Piccoli's apartment and it's as if he's figured out 80 different ways to photograph two people against a white wall. And besides the apartment there are great locations like a famous film studio in Campania, Italy and a finale on the Isle of Capri.

Haven't even gotten to the second disc yet with great interviews, documentaries and short films, but I'm excited to do so. Personally, I love providing this kind of great "gems" for the South Park and Golden Hill community. I hope that this is what people turn to when all of our copies of Knocked-Up are out of stock.