The Hurt Locker, 2009 - Movie Review

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, David Morse, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, Evangeline Lilly

This brilliant review is by Richard Bodsworth

It has been almost 18 years since Kathryn Bigelow brought us the 100% adrenaline thrill ride that was Point Break, and after a 7 year hiatus following K-19: The Widowmaker she is back with Iraq war set, THE HURT LOCKER.

Jeremy Renner stars as the maverick leader of the U.S Army's Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit, charged with the dangerous job of defusing bombs in the unpredictable war zone that is modern day Iraq. Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty play the other key members of the EOD, struggling to adapt to their leaders gung-ho attitude in an environment where it could all go wrong in a split second.

Hollywood war movies these days usually focus on the dangerous nature of the job, an Action Man figure, scar and all, overcoming ridiculous odds to defeat a stereotypical villain in emphatic fashion, accompanied with emphatic explosions and gore. Bigelow manages to turn this on its head and present us with a gripping, psychological character study into the minds of the men on the front line. But that is not to say the film is void of any action, the opposite in fact. Bigelow directs the many set pieces with outstanding flair and tension without the use of an instrumental score and it works to perfection. Filmed handheld style, this usually unnecessary and overused technique is perfect for the harsh unpredictable terrain of the war zone. This style, accompanied by the authenticity of Mark Boal’s script, you almost get the feeling you are there, perspiring, as Renner attempts to diffuse a rogue device. Even with several disposal scenes, they manage to seem original and fresh and sometimes bloody terrifying. A brilliant example of tension is a silent standoff, peppered only occasionally with the sound of a sniper rifle. Renner directs Mackie's aim to the enemy as they remain under fire themselves. Another one of my favourite scenes is as Renner attempts to disarm a car bomb, Mackie and Geraghty scour the surrounding buildings panicking over possible conspirators watching on. Here Bigelow teaches a master class in building tension without the need of an instrumental score to bump it up. The enemy here are the actual devices themselves as we very rarely see an actual living enemy attack, this makes it all the more terrifying and is a nice twist for the genre.

The cast themselves are perfect. Renner excels in the lead role, stepping out of his usual supporting roles in the likes of SWAT and 28 Weeks Later. His performance as adrenaline junkie, William James, goes much deeper than normal as we are revealed to deeper problems in his psyche. His scenes with a local Iraqi child and the films final ten minutes or so would usually be omitted from you usual fare, but work so well to build an understanding of a fragile soldier under pressure. Geraghty is also well cast as the nervous member of the group, continuing to build on his indie status and Mackie once again shows he has what it takes to be a great actor. Following on from his standout turn in Half Nelson, he makes the most of a character who could have most easily developed into the stereotypical ‘angry black man’ .

I felt the film could have trimmed a slither of fat from the middle, and I was also left confused by the cameo roles of Guy Pearce, David Morse and Ralph Fiennes. These however are only minor gripes in a almost flawless film.

Time and time again Kathryn Bigelow has taken the Hollywood big boys on at their own game, and she succeeds once again. You have to wonder what she has been up to in the past 7 years and what the future holds. For me the film drew comparisons with TV mini series Generation Kill, showing the army as human beings rather than sensationalised heroes. However of all films set during any Middle East conflict, The Hurt Locker is one of, if not the best depiction. It was a great film to start my film festival run, and it will be very hard to beat.

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I Spit On Your Rave - Zombies at The Big Chill

A press release from the people behind I Spit on Your Rave is inviting people to join the film as extras.

Do you ever find yourself feeling like a Zombie? Walking mindlessly towards some preordained destination, groaning, grunting and perfecting a dead eyed stare? Do you call it the ‘morning commute’? Well for this year Big Chill Festival, we’re giving you the chance to become a REAL ZOMBIE! Warp Films and Film4 are organising the world’s biggest mass participation zombie walk on the Thursday night of the Festival.

Check out the I Spit On Your Rave mini-site now!!

Warp Films (the people who brough you modern British classics such as Dead Man’s Shoes and This is England, not to mention the twisted artistic vision of Chris Cunningham) and Film Four and The Big Chill Festival are asking YOU to don all the undead garb, tilt your head, go slack jawed, stiff kneed, outstrech your arms and get yourself involved in the world biggest zombie walk ever.

Audience participation will be taken to a whole new level at this year’s Big Chill festival as fields full of revellers get a Zombie makeover – and are transported to the year 2018 where mankind is extinct after a virus is released at the 2012 Olympics. Zombies have taken over the world but, like their human ancestors, they are partial to a summer party…

The Big Chill festival is in the UK and the zombie goodness takes place on 6th August. Once the filming has been completed “a short clip of the main scene will then be shown at the end of the festival before being released online, giving people the chance to see whether they made it to the silver screen, or the cutting room floor.”

Make-up and costume will be available on location at the festival but they would like as many people to arrive in costume as possible, with filming beginning the moment people arrive at the box office, and continuing all over the site through the weekend.

Check out The Big Chill site for more info.

Sounds like a cool thing to be involved in. Are you going to The Big Chill this year? Will you be getting zombied up?

If you do go take lots of photos and send them my way and I'll post them on the site.

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Robert Pattinson says there will be a Twilight Episode 4!

Stephanie Meyer's vampire novel series will see a fourth film after all. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Twilight star Robert Pattinson confirmed to the site that the fourth novel in the series, Breaking Dawn, will be turned into a film as well.

Pattinson confirmed the fourth film adaptation at the Cannes Film Festival, and he also confirmed that he is attached to star in the fourth and final novel adaptation in the series.

The actor stopped by the festival on his way to Italy, where he was to finish filming the last days of The Twilight Saga's New Moon. The busy actor will also be shooting Remember Me, which will film for eight weeks before he heads up to Vancouver to film The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

It was said that a production start-date on Breaking Dawn was unclear as of yet, due to Pattinson's busy schedule.

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Pedro Almodóvar talks about Broken Embraces at Cannes Press Conference

Coppola talks about Tetro at Cannes

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Romeo & Juliet vs The Living Dead to premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival

My good friend Ryan Denmark, director of Romeo & Juliet vs the Living Dead has been in touch with some exciting news.

The film will have its world premiere at the 63rd International Edinburgh Film Festival

They join 22 other feature films making their world premiere. As Ryan says they "couldn't be happier that such a storied and high profile festival has honored us with inclusion in their competitive international lineup."

The film is booked for a Friday night time slot in Filmhouse 1 (their main venue) on 26th June. For more info check out their page at the festival site.

Tickets available 8 May £8.50/£7.50.

Let me know what you think of the film if you are heading up for the Film Festival.

I will be interviewing Ryan again after the Premiere to see how it all went. In the meantime you can check out my previous interview with him and watch the trailer below.

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American Casino - When you are in Wall Street's casino, you play by their rules

The trailer for American Casino which will debut at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.

“I don’t think most people really understood that they were in a casino” says award-winning financial reporter Mark Pittman. “When you’re in the Street’s casino, you’ve got to play by their rules.” This film finally explains how and why over $8 trillion of our money vanished into the American Casino.

Trader's Screen showing ForeclosureFor chips, the casino used real people, like the ones we meet in Baltimore. These are not the heedless spendthrifts of Wall Street legend, but a high school teacher, a therapist, a minister of the church. They were sold on the American Dream as a safe investment. Too late, they discovered the truth. Cruelly, as African – Americans, they and other minorities were the prime targets for the subprime loans that powered the casino. According to the Federal Reserve, African-Americans were four times more likely than whites to be sold subprime loans.

We meet the players. A banker explains that the complex securities he designed were “fourth dimensional” and sold to “idiots.” A senior Wall Street ratings agency executive describes being ordered to “guess” the worth of billion dollar securities. A mortgage loan salesman explains how borrowers’ incomes were inflated to justify a loan. A billionaire describes how he made a massive bet that people would lose their homes and has won $500 million, so far.

Finally, as the global financial system crumbles and outraged but impotent lawmakers fume at Wall Street titans, we see the casino’s endgame: Riverside, California a foreclosure wasteland given over to colonies of rats and methamphetamine labs, where disease-bearing mosquitoes breed in their millions on the stagnant swimming pools of yesterday’s dreams.

Filmed over twelve months in 2008, American Casino takes you inside a game that our grandchildren never wanted to play.

Directed by Leslie Cockburn.

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SXSW Film Festival - What's on

The next big festival is the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. It is on from 31st March 13th to 21st.

Here is the full list of what will be showing there. Many films I would like to see especially Monsters from the ID, Zift, Little Dizzle, For All Mankind, Over the Hills and Far Away and I'd love to see Moon.

Narrative Feature Competition:

Artois the Goat
Director: Kyle Bogart. Lab technician Virgil Gurdies embarks on an epic quest to craft the greatest goat cheese the world has ever known and reclaim the heart of his beloved Angie. Cast: Mark Scheibmeir, Sydney Andrews, Stephen Taylor Fry, Dan Braverman

Bomber
Director/Writer: Paul Cotter. A bittersweet comedy about love, family and dropping bombs on Germany. Cast: Shane Taylor, Benjamin Whitrow, Eileen Nicholas

Breaking Upwards
Director: Daryl Wein. A young New York couple who, desperate to escape their ennui, but fearful of life apart, decide to intricately strategize their own break up. Cast: Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones, Julie White, Peter Friedman, Andrea Martin, Pablo Schreiber, La Chanze, Olivia Thirlby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach

It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home
Director: Kris Swanberg. A woman tries to get over her recent breakup by backpacking in Costa Rica with her best friend, and through traveling together, the two women realize they may be on separate trips. Cast: Kris Swanberg, Jade Healy

Made in China
Director: Judi Krant. Lost in Shanghai, an inventor discovers that it takes more than a bright idea to succeed. Cast: Jackson Keuhn, Dan Sumpter

The Overbrook Brothers
Director: John Bryant. Jason brings his girlfriend home for Christmas… and bad things happen. Cast: Nathan Harlan, Mark Reeb, Laurel Whitsett, Steve Zissis, John Jones

That Evening Sun
Director/Writer: Scott Teems. A ruthless grudge match between two old foes. Lines are drawn, threats are made, and the simmering tension under the Tennessee sun erupts, inevitably, into savagery. Cast: Hal Holbrook, Mia Wasikowska, Ray McKinnon, Walton Goggins, Carrie Preston

True Adolescents
Director/Writer: Craig Johnson. Aging indie rocker Sam Bryant takes two teen boys on an ill-fated hiking trip that forces everyone to grow up, and fast. Cast: Mark Duplass, Melissa Leo, Bret Loehr, Carr Thompson

Documentary Feature Competition:

45356
Director: Bill Ross. An inquiring look at everyday life in middle America, the film explores the congruities of daily life in an American town Sidney, Ohio.

Garbage Dreams
Director: Mai Iskander. Filmed over four years, the film follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world's largest garbage village. Each boy chooses a different path when their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of their trade.

MINE: Taken By Katrina
Director: Geralyn Pezanoski. After Hurricane Katrina, thousands of pets were rescued and adopted by families around the country, leading to many custody battles. Through these stories, the film examines issues of race, class and animal welfare in the US.

Say My Name
Director: Nirit Peled. A story is built around the lives of entrepreneurs, mothers and artists fighting to be themselves in a society that offers few opportunities for women.

Severe Clear
Director: Kristian Fraga. Armed with the world's most lethal ordnance and his home video camera, First Lieutenant Michael T. Scotti captures the chaos and complexity of war.

Sons of a Gun
Director: Rivkah Beth Medow. A family of 3 schizophrenic men and their alcoholic caregiver/Dad get evicted, move into one motel room, argue, joke around, and find a new home.

The Way We Get By
Director: Aron Gaudet. On call 24/7 for the past 6 years, a group of senior citizens transform their lives by greeting nearly one million U.S. troops at a tiny airport in Maine.

Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Director: Peter Esmonde. A wild ride through the sonic world of an eccentric creative genius of Artist inventor/engineer/composer Trimpin.

Spotlight Premieres:

Adventureland
Director/Writer: Greg Mottola. In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Martin Starr

Alexander the Last
Director/Writer: Joe Swanberg. A sensual and intimate portrait of a young marriage. Focusing on an artistic young couple, the film illuminates the challenges of monogamy amidst myriad sexual and creative temptations. Cast: Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, Barlow Jacobs, Josh Hamilton, Jane Adams

Beeswax
Director/Writer: Andrew Bujalski. Something like a legal thriller for anyone who considers "legal thriller" an oxymoron, the film revolves around a pair of twin sisters, Jeannie and Lauren – "same face, different bodies" – and Jeannie's brewing conflict with business partner Amanda. Cast: Maggie Hatcher, Tilly Hatcher, Alex Karpovsky

Best Worst Movie
Director: Michael Paul Stephenson. When an Italian filmmaker, an Alabama dentist and fledgling Utah actors filmed the low-budget horror movie, Troll 2, they'd no idea that twenty years later they would be celebrated for making the worst movie ever made.

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism
Director: Gerald Peary. The first documentary to dramatize the rich, fascinating history of American film criticism.

Goodbye Solo
Director: Ramin Bahrani. On the lonely roads of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, two men from very different worlds forge an improbable friendship that will change both of their lives forever. Cast: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Carmen Leyva, Lane 'Roc' Williams

Humpday
Director/Writer: Lynn Shelton. A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far. Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard.

Hurt Locker
Director: Kathryn Bigelow. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb. Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce

I Love You, Man
Director/Writer: John Hamburg. The film centers on a man who, upon getting engaged, realizes he has no close male friends and must find someone to be the Best Man at his wedding. Cast: Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau and Jaime Pressly

The Last Beekeeper
Director: Jeremy Simmons. This documentary follows the lives of three commercial beekeepers over the course of one year as they struggle with Colony Collapse Disorder. As they all take their bees to California's enormous annual almond pollination, they are forced to ask the question "If all the bees die, what do you have to live for?"

Monsters from the ID
Director: David Gargani. The untold story of 1950's American Sci-Fi Cinema and the role of the Modern Scientist.

Moon
Director: Duncan Jones. Before returning to Earth after three years on the moon, things go horribly wrong for astronaut Sam Bell. Cast: Sam Rockwell

New World Order
Director Andrew Neel and Luke Meyer. Impassioned conspiracy theorists travel the globe trying to expose the group that they claim rules the world.

Objectified
Director: Gary Hustwit. A glimpse into our relationship to manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Observe and Report
Director/Writer: Jody Hill. This dark comedy follows the story of Ronnie Barnhardt, a deluded, self-important head of mall security who squares off in a turf war against the local cops. Cast: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Michael Peña and Ray Liotta

Passing Strange
Director: Spike Lee. A musical documentary about the international exploits of a young man from Los Angeles who leaves home to find himself and 'the real'. A theatrical stage production of the original Tony-Award winning book by Stew. Cast: De'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Stew.

Sin Nombre
Director/Writer: Cary Fukunaga. Writer/director Cary Fukunaga's firsthand experiences with Central American immigrants seeking the promise of the U.S. form the basis of this epic dramatic thriller. Cast: Edgar Flores, Paulina Gaitan, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch Huerta Mej'a, Luis Fernando Pe–a, Diana Garc'a.

The Square
Director: Nash Edgerton. Nash Edgerton's debut feature is a film-noir in a bleak Australian town where a simple crime goes horribly wrong and escalates into a nightmare of unforeseen events. Cast: David Roberts, Claire Van Der Boom, Joel Edgerton, Anthony Hayes, Peter Phelps and Bill Hunter

Three Blind Mice
Director/Writer: Matthew Newton. Three young Navy officers hit Sydney for one last night on land before being shipped over to the Gulf to fight. Throughout the night the boys lose each other, find themselves, and along the way discover courage, friendship and redemption. Cast: Ewen Leslie, Toby Schmitz, Matthew Newton, Tina Bursill

The Two Bobs
Director/Writer: Tim McCanlies. Just as they finish their groundbreaking violent video-game masterpiece, the two gaming legends known as "The Two Bobs” discover that their precious game-software has been stolen… and with it, their livelihoods, genius reputations, everything they own. Cast: Tyler Francavilla, Devin Ratray, Mika Boorem, Cody Kasch, Leonardo Nam

Winnebago Man
Director: Ben Steinbauer. Jack Rebney's outrageously funny outtakes from a Winnebago sales video became an underground phenomenon and made him an internet superstar. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer sets out to find him.

Women in Trouble
Director/Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez. One day in the lives of ten desperate women with one thing in common: trouble. Cast: Carla Gugino, Josh Brolin, Connie Britton, Adrianne Palicki, Simon Baker

Emerging Visions:

Awaydays
Director: Pat Holden. A blade-sharp rites-of-passage that buzzes with the post-punk energy of its late-70s Liverpool setting. Based on the classic novel by Kevin Sampson. Cast: Nicky Bell, Liam Boyle, Stephen Graham, Oliver Lee

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
Director: Jessica Oreck. Untangling the web of cultural and historical ties underlying Japan's deep fascination with insects… and what it says about the rest of us.

Brock Enright: Good Times Will Never Be The Same
Director: Jody Lee Lipes. Artist Brock Enright's unbridled creative force clashes with the confines of love, family, and industry, as he crafts the most significant show of his career.

Creative Nonfiction
Director/Writer: Lena Dunham. Reality and fiction are indistinguishable as a college student tries and fails to differentiate her creative writing screenplay from her increasingly awkward social life. Cast: Eleonore Endricks, David Unger, Audrey Gelman, Sam Lisenco, Lena Dunham

Crude Independence
Director: Noah Hutton. A rumination on the future of small town America through the lens of a humanistic tale of change at the hands of the global energy market and its unyielding thirst for oil.

Four Boxes
Director/Writer: Wyatt McDill. A snarky social thriller about three suburban nobodies watching a creep named Havoc on a website called fourboxes.tv – Rear Window on the internet. Cast: Justin Kirk, Terryn Westbrook, Sam Rosen

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle
Director: David Russo. When Dory's life seems like it's going down the drain, a strange "new life” takes shape inside him and he learns that sometimes you don't have to find meaning, it grows in you. Cast: Marshall Allman, Vince Vieluf, Natasha Lyonne, Tania Raymonde, Tygh Runyan.

Luckey
Director: Laura Longsworth. After sculptor Tom Luckey's devastating fall through a window, his family must cross delicate lines drawn long ago by divorce and remarriage while Tom, fully paralyzed and wacky personality intact, pursues building his biggest, most complicated sculpture ever.

Make-Out with Violence
Director: The Deagol Brothers. A rock musical wherein the living love the dead and break into silence instead of song. Cast: Eric Lehning, Cody DeVos, Leah High, Brett Miller, Shellie Marie Shartzer

Modern Love is Automatic
Director/Writer: Zach Clark. A story about an apathetic nurse who moonlights as a dominatrix, her aspiring model roommate and the sad, strange world they live in. Cast: Melodie Sisk, Maggie Ross

Motherland
Director: Jennifer Steinman. Six grieving mothers journey to Africa in order to test the theory that "giving is healing."

My Suicide
Director: David Lee Miller. An isolated, media obsessed teenager announces he's going to kill himself for his high school, video production class final project. Cast: Gabriel Sunday, David Carradine, Joe Mantegna, Nora Dunn, Mariel Hemingway

Pulling John
Director: Vassiliki Khonsari. The universal story of a champion arm wrestler's glory in an unsung sport, who after 25 years of success is now burdened with the inevitable transformation of aging.

RATS and CATS
Director: Tony Ayres. Ex-soap star Darren McWarren destroyed his career with a series of indiscretions. Now he's living the live away from the spotlight when a "Where are they now" journalist comes to call. Cast: Jason Gann, Adam Zwar, Anya Beyersdorf, Tony Rogers

Sissyboy
Director: Kate Turinski.A juncture in the lives of performance art revolutionaries, the film explores a Portland-based gender-bending drag troupe that has served up their audacity, ambivalence and social commentary throughout the Rose City for over 3 years before hundreds of devoted fans.

Sorry, Thanks
Director: Dia Sokol. Disaster looms when Kira (reeling from a brutal break-up) sleeps with Max (who already has a girlfriend) and Max takes up two new pursuits: an obsessive-tending interest in Kira, and the mystery of whether he may in fact be an ass. Cast: Wiley Wiggins, Kenya Miles, Andrew Bujalski, Ia Hernandez

Splinterheads
Director/Writer: Brant Sersen. For Justin Frost, a typical day is rolling out of bed at one, practicing improvised karate, and mowing grass for his best friend's landscaping business. But when a traveling carnival lands in his small town, Justin falls for a sexy con artist and wakes up to the life he has yet to begin living. Cast: Thomas Middleditch, Rachael Taylor, Christopher McDonald, Lea Thompson, Dean Winters

St. Nick
Director/Writer: David Lowery. A stark, haunting portrait of childhood following the adventures of a runaway brother and sister as they try to survive, all on their own, out on the wintry plains of the great southwest. Cast: Tucker Sears, Savanna Sears, Barlow Jacobs, Mara Lee Miller

The Time of Their Lives
Director: Jocelyn Cammack. With a combined age of almost 300, Hetty, Rose and Alison are still powerfully engaged in their individual forms of activism - from journalism, to public speaking to anti-war demonstrations - while quietly negotiating the final moments of their lives.

Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
Director: Alex Karpovsky. Immortalized in the world of improv comedy, Second City veterans TJ Jagodowksi and David Pasquesi explore the unique partnership and transcendental forces that govern their legendary performances.

Wake Up
Director: Jonas Elrod. An average 36-year old guy suddenly wakes up with the ability to see and hear angels, demons, auras and ghosts. With his girlfriend by his side, he goes on a journey to figure it all out, and his search becomes a guide to revealing larger truths about the world and everyone in it.

SX Global:

Calling E.T. (Netherlands)
Director: Prosper de Roos. A close-up look at a small group of people listening, watching, waiting and preparing for their perceived inevitable earthly encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence.

Favela on Blast (Brazil)
Director: Leandro HBL. Globe trotting taste-maker DJ Diplo presents a look at Brazil's Baile Funk music scene from directly inside the mountain ghettos where it spawned and thrives.

The Forgotten Tree (Mexico)
Director: Luis Rincon. A documentary that revisits the slums featured over fifty years ago in Los Olvidados, (Luis Buñuel), and reveals the current and similar conditions for the people in this area of Mexico City.

Journey to the End of Coal (France)
Director: Samuel Bollendorff. Millions of Chinese coal miners are making sacrifices everyday, risking their lives and spoiling their land to satisfy their country's appetite for economic growth. Meet them and learn more about how they live in this valley of death and pollution in the frozen winter of Northern China.

Love on Delivery (Denmark)
Director: Janus Metz. In a remote fishing village in Denmark, 575 Thai women are married to Danish men. An intimate look at the unique relationships between these Danish men and their Thai wives.

Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (Canada)
Director: Alan Kohl. Stencil artist Peter Gibson's personal and professional struggle to defend his work, define himself as an artist and address difficult questions about art and freedom of expression.

Snowblind (England)
Director: Vikram Jayanti. Rachael Scdoris, 23, and legally blind since birth, is racing in her third Iditarod, the grueling 1,100 mile dog sled race in Alaska that's the toughest race in the world.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit…a popumentary (England)
Director: Jamie Johnson. Behind the scenes look at of the world's premiere youth music spectacle: The Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

Ticket to Paradise (Denmark)
Director: Janus Metz. The sequel to Janus Metz' Love on Delivery' follows the story of a young Thai-girl's journey from peasant to sex worker.

24 Beats Per Second:

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Director: Sacha Gervasi. At 14, Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner made a pact to rock together forever. They meant it. Cast: Steve "Lips Kudlow," Robb Reiner.

All Tomorrow's Parties
A kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of cult music festival All Tomorrow's Parties.

Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love
Director: Chai Vasarhelyi. Youssou Ndour, one of Africa's most prominent musicians, returns home for the release of his highly controversial album, Egypt.

Intangible Assets Number 82
Director: Emma Franz. An Australian drummer searches for an enigmatic Korean shaman and is transformed by the journey.

Number One with A Bullet
Director: Jim Dziura. A feature-length documentary that pulls back the curtain on gun violence in Hip Hop.

The Promised Land – A Swamp Pop Journey
Director: Matthew Wilkinson. The story of South Louisiana super group Lil' Band o'Gold. 8 members, 25 egos, 6 livers - coming together to just play music.

RiP: A Remix Manifesto
Director: Brett Gaylor. A documentary feature exploring issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

Soul Power
Director: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte takes us on an epic trip back to 1974 when the most famous R & B acts in the world, including James Brown, B.B. King, and Bill Withers, put on 12 hour long concert to help promote Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's historic "Rumble in the Jungle" in Kinshasa, Zaire.

When You're Strange
Director: Tom DiCillo. Using only original footage shot between 1966 and 1971, When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors, attempts to disentangle truth from myth, depict Jim Morrison, artist and alcoholic/addict, and showcase the other members of the band: Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore, who together channeled the group's magic.

Lone Star States:

American Violet
Director: Tim Disney. The astonishing story of Dee Roberts, a young African American single mother, whose courageous fight against her unwarranted drug arrest forever changes her life and the Texas justice system. Cast: Nicole Beharie, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Michael O'Keefe, Xzibit, with Charles Dutton and Alfre Woodard.

Blaze Foley Inside
Director: Kevin Triplett. A documentary on the everyday man behind the legend, Blaze Foley. Born in a tree house, killed in a friend's living room and 86'ed from his own funeral, is now a bona fide country music legend whose songs are covered by Merle Haggard, John Prine, Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett.

Exterminators
Director: John Inwood. A dark comedy about a group of women who meet in court mandated rage therapy and decide to form a traditional business with very untraditional methods. Cast: Heather Graham, Jennifer Coolidge, Amber Heard, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew Settle

The Least of These
Director: Clark Lyda. Detention of immigrant children in a former medium-security prison leads to controversy when three activist attorneys discover troubling conditions at the facility.

Over the Hills and Far Away
Director: Michel Orion Scott. This documentary chronicles the journey of the Isaacson family as they travel through Mongolia in search of a mysterious shaman they believe can heal their autistic son.

Sunshine
Director: Karen Skloss. In 1975 rural Texas, the local mayor's daughter grapples with an unplanned pregnancy finally deciding to have her baby in secret before giving her away in a hidden adoption. Twenty-three years later, the adopted child also has an unplanned baby out of wedlock. The film tells the intimate story of these two single mothers, while exploring the times and circumstances that afforded them very different options.

Midnighters:

A Film With Me In It
Director: Ian Fitzgibbon. An actor hard on his luck ends up with a large number of dead bodies on his hands. Cast: Mark Doherty, Dylan Moran

The Ceremony
Director/Writer: James Palmer. After finding a bizarre book, a young man is plagued by unexplainable occurrences inside his home. Cast: Scott Seegmiller

Grace
Director/Writer: Paul Solet. After losing her unborn child, Madeline Matheson insists on carrying the baby to term. Following the delivery, the child miraculously returns to life, but when the baby develops a desperate appetite for human blood, Madeline is faced with a mother's ultimate decision. Cast: Jordan Ladd, Samantha Ferris, Gabrielle Rose, Malcom Stewart

Lake Mungo
Director/Writer: Joel Anderson. A supernatural drama about grief. Cast: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger

Trailers from Hell.com with Joe Dante – LIVE PRESENTATION
Joe Dante presents The Best of Trailers from Hell which showcases classic-era Previews of Coming Attractions - punctuated with humorous, passionate and insightful commentaries by contemporary filmmakers like John Landis, Eli Roth and Edgar Wright - with particular emphasis on the lurid, the extreme and the outrageous.

Zift
Director: Javor Gardev. A man freed after a wrongful murder conviction enters a diabolical city full of decaying neighborhoods, gloomy streets and bizarre characters. Cast: Zachary Baharov, Tanya Ilieva, Vladmir Penev, Mihail Mutafov

Special Screenings:

American Prince
Director: Tommy Palotta. After being forgotten for 30 years, filmmaker Tommy Pallotta revisits Scorcese's lost documentary "American Boy" and its raconteur subject, Steven Prince.

Berlin Calling
Director/Writer: Hannes Stoehr. Berlin Calling is an extraordinary story that starts in pre-war Berlin, spans three generations, and concludes in the dark and sweaty rock n' roll clubs that line the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Cast: Paul Kalkbrenner, Rita Lengyel, Corinna Harfouch, Araba Walton, Peter Schneider

Blood Trail
Director: Richard Parry. War photographer Robert King let a camera crew follow him for over 15 years. From his first assignment in Bosnia to his breakthrough work in Chechnya, and on to his recent coverage in Iraq, Blood Trail is an extraordinary look at this difficult and dangerous profession.

Burma VJ
Director: Anders Ostergaard. Armed with small handy cams, undercover Video Journalists in Burma risk their lives to keep up the flow of news from their closed country as in September 2007 thousands of monks take to the streets of Rangoon in a peaceful protest against the country's military rulers.

Daytime Drinking
Director/Writer: NOH Young-seok. A drinking road trip fable of a guy who just got dumped… Cast: SONG Sam-dong, YUK Sang-yeop, KIM Kang-hee.

For All Mankind
Director: Al Reinart. A trip to another world disguised as a documentary.

De Ofrivilliga (Involuntary)
Director: Ruben Östlund. A tragic comedy or comic tragedy about group pressure on the individual. Five separate episodes on everyday disasters. Cast: Maria Lundqvist, Leif Edlund, Olle Lijas, Vera Vitali, Cecilia Milocco

It Came From Kuchar
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot. The hilarious and touching story of the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, George and Mike Kuchar, and how their outrageous, no-budget movies inspired generations of filmmakers.

Know Your Mushrooms
Director: Ron Mann. Filmmaker Ron Mann puts the fun in fungus with his newest documentary.

Letters to the President
Director: Petr Lom. Exclusive access film about President Ahmadinejad of Iran, and what life is like under his regime. The film takes as its narrative thread the letters that supposedly ten million Iranians have written to the President.

Office Space – 10th Anniversary – LIVE PRESENTATION
Director Mike Judge will present a special screening of the cult phenomenon film on the occasion of its 10th Anniversary.

The Paranoids
Director: Gabriel Medina. An aspiring screenwriter who lives in constant state of paranoia, faces the return of his successful friend Manuel and his girlfriend in this off-beat romantic comedy.

Saint Misbehavin: The Life and Time of Wavy Gravy
Director: Michelle Esrick. The true story of cultural phenomenon Wavy Gravy – a man whose life proves that you can change the world and have fun doing it.

The Snake
Director/Writer: Adam Goldstein and Eric Kutner. The funniest movie about dating a bulimic… possibly ever. Cast: Adam Goldstein, Nina Braddock

Strongman
Director: Zachary Levy. Stainless Steel bills himself as the world's strongest man (at bending steel) and hopes to make it big despite his advancing age.

Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Director: Bradley Beesley. Amidst stories of murder, hardship, heartache and redemption, the film follows the convict cowgirls of the Eddie Warriors Correctional Center in their preparation for the only rodeo where female prisoners compete rough-stock and as equals against male prison teams.

We Live in Public
Director: Ondi Timor. The story of the Internet's revolutionary impact on human interaction as told through the eyes of Internet pioneer and visionary, Josh Harris.

The Yes Men Fix the World
Director: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno and Kurt Engfehr. A pair of notorious troublemakers sneaks into corporate events disguised as captains of industry, then use their momentary authority to expose the biggest criminals on the planet. Cast: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno

You Won't Miss Me
Director: Ry Russo-Young. A portrait of a modern day rebel, Shelly Brown, a twenty-three year-old alienated urban misfit recently released from a psychiatric hospital. Cast: Stella Schnabel, Rene Ricard

Which films take your fancy?

Discuss in the Forum

Free Humphrey Bogart films at the Bombed Out Church in Liverpool

Del pointed this out to me and it all sounds rather splendid.

The good folks over at Urban Strawberry Lunch have been running all sorts of things at St. Luke's Church in Liverpool (it's at the top of Bold Street). This week they start a run of movies leading up to Christmas and they are all free. The church was designed by John Foster, and construction of the building began on April 9, 1811, with consecration taking place on January 12, 1831.On Monday, May 5, 1941, St Luke's was hit and burned by an incendiary bomb. Today it still stands as a burnt out shell, commonly known locally as "the bombed-out church", and its churchyard is a public park.

This week is Humphrey Bogart week and they've got the following films on:

Tuesday 2nd December - 4pm
Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Wednesday 3rd December - 4pm
Key Largo

Thursday 4th December - 4pm & 6pm
To Have and Have Not

Friday 5th December - 4pm & 6pm
The Big Sleep

Saturday 5th December - 4pm & 6pm
Casablanca

Sunday 7th December - 4pm
The Maltese Falcon

If you get the chance go along to at least one of them and show your support by leaving a little donation, but as their flyer says don't forget to take your own chair, blanket and flask. For more info call 0151 709 7562 or check out their site.

Next week they are showing films made by Liverpool film makers and in the week before Christmas it will be Christmas movies such as It's A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street. Oh and they told me today that they may have Coffee Union going along so you may be able to get hot drinks there. Here's looking at you kid.
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Lebowski Fest

July 11th & 12th is the 7th Annual Louisville Lebowski Fest where all things Lebowski are celebrated. So raise your white russian, ensure the rug is placed correctly and abide with the Dude. For those that are going enjoy it, unfortunately I'm stuck in a rainy UK so won't be able to make it.

The Scottish Answer to Cannes

This sounds absolutely brilliant. I'm going to have to get baking. From The Guardian:

If you could imagine the opposite of Cannes, this would be it. A new film festival, which Oscar-winning actor Tilda Swinton is founding in her hometown of Nairn, north-east Scotland, is to have no red carpets, no ranks of paparazzi and no designer evening dresses. Entry to the films will cost you £3 or a tray of home-baked cakes; and the audience will sit on beanbags.

Needless to say, the festival will have its own kind of glamour. Aside from the presence of Swinton, Joel Coen, one half of the Coen brothers, will programme two evenings of films for the event. His choices are being kept secret at the moment but, according to co-organiser Mark Cousins: "They are as daft as a brush. If you went through 5,000 films, you would never guess them."

The idea for a festival on the Moray Firth came when Swinton, "on a quixotic whim", according to Cousins, decided to rent an old ballroom in the town, known as the Ballerina, where Pink Floyd and the Who once played.

She asked friends, including Cousins, a former director of the Edinburgh international film festival, to help. "We started making a list of films we wanted to show, and we clicked immediately," he said. "We were attracted to the wondrous, childlike qualities of certain films; films with highly coloured, dreamlike elements."

Though the programme has not been announced, the films of Powell and Pressburger are bound to be featured - "you can't talk to Tilda for more than half an hour without her mentioning Powell and Pressburger," said Cousins. "She started throwing out names and they were things like Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple; and I suggested a lot of African and Iranian films. It won't be what you expect: we will show a Bjork video before All About Eve, for example. It's very irrational."

What will draw the programme together, he said, is a certain fantastic, expressionist, anti-realist aesthetic. Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers will be shown and Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 will close the festival.

In contrast with more conventional film festivals, The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams (as it is to be called) will not centre around premieres.
Part of the impetus behind the festival is Swinton's and Cousins' idea that "money dictates the festival circuit too much, and fogs the pure, romantic obsession with film".
The festival will run from August 15-23, and screen three films a day in the 200-seat (or beanbag) ballroom. Some tickets will be available in advance, but most will be sold on the day.
If the festival is successful, the organisers hope to make it an annual event. Aside
from a small grant, costs have been so far met by Swinton.