61revised.com

In case you missed last week’s screening from the 48 Hour Film Project, here’s a chance to redeem yourself.  According to our friends in the Film & Video Society, a “best of” screening of films in the project will take place this Thursday, June 21st from 7-10 pm @ the Tivoli Theater.  Films & ongoings are described thusly:

One great thing about the Best Of screening: they all don’t suck as much!  So please, come on down and check out what we made–apparently it’s really good!! Buy your tickets now! They WILL sell out.

And if that time doesn’t work out, don’t despair: there is an encore presentation @ 9:30 pm that same night.  A comprehensive list of finalist films can be found on the project’s blog, alonside some firsthand accounts of filming from contributers. 

And as our friends are careful to remind you, you might want to purchase tickets beforehand.

Last weekend St. Louis held its own in 48 Hour Film Project. In case you weren’t involved in the actual filmmaking scrambles, you can still reap the entertainment value from the Project.

Each of the 71 participating teams that submitted their films last Sunday night have had the opportunity to screen at the Tivoli theatre through this week. As of today, there are still two screening groups left - that’s 23 groups with 23 different local film screenings to be entertained with. (Screenings 5 & 6: 7:00 and 9:15, respectively). There’s also a 48HFP Blog where filmmakers and spectators can talk about their experiences with the program as well as submit screening reviews.

In case you’re not familiar with the event, filmmaking teams are given different aspects of the basic movie. The team’s task is to bring these together to create a final short film. As the name implies, the 48 hour time limit makes the task a bit more daunting.

(more…)

Meet El Topo, he roams the countryside on horseback, fighting bandits with his trusty six-shooter and naked child. Then, he roams the desert on horseback with his ex-nun girlfriend, dueling with gunslingers that have Godlike powers. Then, he shaves and becomes a street performer to help lead inbred cave-dwellers to a town of money and misdeeds.

That’s El Topo in a nutshell. I saw it Saturday at the Webster Film Series and still have no idea what it was about. All I can say is that if you haven’t seen it, add it to your Netflix queue this instant. Even if you don’t know what anything in the film means, it’s a trip to watch and you’ll soon know why John Lennon and Yoko Ono cited it as their favorite movie.

Also, there’s a bit of homo-eroticism and lesbian tension, so send the kids to bed early with their copy of Plastic Ono Band.

Considering the recent dearth of blog entries this week about films in town, it might seem like overkill to introduce a weekly feature.  Yet we couldn’t help but think we somehow contributed to the continuation of “Chalk” being screened at the Tivoli this weekend. 

Far be it for me to be judge of good or bad cinema (the internet has enough of those sots), I’d like to think my undergraduate’s degree in Film Studies might steer your attention to the kind of films that might impress your date with your sophistication (or sense of irony).  So if you’ll go along with my ruse, I’d be happy to refer you (thumbs free) to a few films playing in town this weekend that you might find a little out of the ordinary this blockbuster film season.

(more…)

Expect Star Wars length lines @ the Regal St. Louis Mills Stadium theater Wednesday, June 6th as “Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow” plays for the first and last time staring around 7 pm.  As one of the only 160movie screen nationwide showing the film (that’s one per metro area by my count), this screening will be the last chance for any fans in St. Louis to watch the film.  And while longtime fans of this popular manga and TV anime series should probably already be aware of the one day only premiere, casual fans of this bestselling manga series might do well to wait until the film’s DVD release this September 4th.

While I must confess my ignorance generally towards the world of manga/anime, Naruto has been a favorite in my circle of friends for years now.  It’s characters are full of such youthful enthusiasm to make me cheer them on like a five-year old on a Saturday morning, and yet their challenges are full of all the twists and strategy of a classic martial arts film.  That being said, while I’m sure my friends will have already watched the original untranslated version through some matter of file sharing networks already, any other initiates into the series (a la Cartoon Network’s American adaptation) would have the wisdom of a Hokage to see the film as intended this only time.

A friend of mine is wrapping up her first year teaching Spanish in an inner-city school. She’s the one who told met about Chalk, a movie about first, second and third year teachers in a Texas public high school. Never one to disobey an educator, I made haste to see Chalk on opening night (last Friday, June 1st) at the Tivoli.

Fans of The Office (UK or US) might be drawn in or turned off by Chalk’s documentary style, but this is no imitator. Shot in the summer of 2004 (before Gervais and co. became a hit stateside) Chalk stays footed in reality, with only one dream sequence breaking the fly-on-the-wall style.

Co-writer, former teacher and star Chris Mass used his own class as extras, who pull off some of the most believable child acting I’ve ever seen. The semi-improvised dialogue between teachers makes for believable acting and clever, awkward humor.

The movie has its flaws, but it’s a must-see. In fact, go out and see it now. According to the executive producer who was on hand for a Q&A last Friday, the movie needs large audiences to continue screening at the Tivoli.