Tampa Film Fan

gasparilla film festival starts today

Today’s the day! The Gasparilla Film Festival starts today and runs through Sunday.  Have I got everything?  Am I ready to go?  Let’s see…

• Register with the festival website’s interactive section so I can read and post film reviews, track festival buzz in real-time and plan my film-going schedule.  Check.
• Take some vacation time from my Real Job to attend the festival.  Check.
• Read the movie descriptions and plot my agenda for the week to try and see as many movies as possible.  (I’m especially looking forward to seeing An American Opera, Say I Do, Dark Corners, 638 Ways To Kill Castro, The Host, The Immaculate Misconception, Draw 3! and Never Bet the Devil Your Head.)  Check.
• Give The Husband detailed instructions about taping my TV shows for me and not making too big of a mess (since I won’t be there to pick up after him) while I’m gone.  Check.
• Tell my friends and family that I’m disappearing into a movie theater for the next four days and that I’ll resurface next week.  Check.
• Buy Zone bars and Pop Tarts to sneak in my purse for my in-between-film snacks.  Check.

Yep, I think I’m five by five.  I’ll try to post throughout the festival, but I might not have time.  Off to the movies!

dvd review:crank

When you’ve had a hard day at work and you want to come home, plop down on the sofa with a big pile of junk food and watch a fun, mindless, fast-paced action/thriller that won’t hurt your brain, watch Crank.  Gravelly-voiced Jason Statham (of Transporter and Transporter 2) is a professional assassin who wakes up one day to discover that he’s been injected with a deadly toxin and has only about an hour to live.  The only way to prolong the effects of the poison is to keep his adrenaline levels up through whatever means necessary — caffeine, fast driving, running, sex, cocaine, ephenedrine, you name it.  He uses that hour to search for an antidote and to seek revenge against the Bad Guy who had him injected.

Crank is not socially redeeming in any way, nor is the plot intricate or particularly well-constructed.  But it’s a hell of a ride.

Film Fan Finding: B

DVD Extras:

• Crank’d out mode (commentary by the writers/directors in a pop-up box in the lower right-hand corner)
• family-friendly mode (no profanity)
• music video of song Adrenalina by David Rolas
• previews

film fan finding:drop box

Drop Box is a snarky, clever peek into one very unusual day at a videostore — a day when a spoiled pop star accidentally returns a home sex tape instead of her rented movie and tries desperately to get it back.  Tom (David Cormican) is a sarcastic but good-hearted videostore employee who one minute is mocking the Adult Room selection of a customer and the next is refusing to let kids rent R-rated movies.  As a former videostore employee myself, I loved seeing Tom spar with the high-maintenance customers and get revenge on an extremely rude customer by giving away the ending of the movie she’d just rented. 

Tom’s most unusual customer of the day is Mindy, a Britney Spears-type pop star who needs to retrieve the sex tape she accidentally returned to his videostore instead of the movie Glitter.  (And yes, Tom gives her a hard time for renting Glitter.)  Actress Rachel Sehl has a voice exactly like Alicia Witt’s and a smile reminiscent of Denise Richards, and plays the self-centered Mindy well.  Cormican is phenomenal as Tom; I look forward to seeing him in other films.  One of the minor characters — an older man who is a videostore regular — seems a bit over-acted, but it didn’t take away from the movie too much.

While there were a couple of moments in Drop Box that seemed slightly contrived (the character of Mindy had to have a reason to hang out in the videostore all day, I suppose), the interaction between Tom and Mindy was fun.  I wasn’t ready for the movie to end when it did; I wanted to keep watching these two heckle, befriend, counsel and tease each other.

Amateur filmmakers Anesty and Spiros Carasoulos have blended sharp-witted dialogue, good pacing and strong lead characters together successfully.  Drop Box is a delight.

Film Fan Finding: B+

Visit www.dropboxthemovie.com for more info on this film.  Also, The Film Chair has an interesting interview with the filmmakers here.

sunscreen film festival looking for volunteers

Received via email:

Greetings everyone, we are currently ramping up towards the 2nd Annual Sunscreen Film Festival.  The festival, held this year at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in downtown St. Petersburg, should be a great event.  We are about 5 weeks away and one of the things we need to do is line up volunteers for this year’s festival.  As a volunteer you would receive a weekend pass to all festival events (parties, films, etc.) and a t-shirt (Wow! everyone loves free t-shirts!) as well as my eternal gratitude (maybe not eternal but for a long time).  In addition, you would have the opportunity to mingle with film fans and loads of local independent filmmakers.  Not to mention the distributors and acquisition people we will have present.

We need people to work 4-6 hour shifts over the course of the weekend.  If you commit, you would only be committing to one shift but you are more than welcome to work more if possible.  If you’re interested, drop me an email with all of your contact info and t-shirt size.  I’ll start contacting everyone in a week or so to coordinate.  And even if you can’t volunteer we would love to see you at the festival so tell all your friends neighbors, cousins, aunts, uncles and that strange guy down the street no one talks to.  We will be announcing the line up of films next Monday on our website.

Thanks,

Tony Armer, Director, SunScreen Film Festival

Tony’s email address is sunscreenfilmfest(at)tampabay.rr.com.  Visit www.sunscreenfilmfestival.com for more info.

dvd review:wordplay

A documentary about crossword puzzles and the people who love them?  Sounds boring, doesn’t it?  W-R-O-N-G. Wordplay is fascinating.  In-depth interviews with New York Times puzzle creator Will Shortz give insight into what goes into editing and accepting the crossword puzzles that appear daily.  Puzzle creator Merl Reagle creates a crossword puzzle on camera.  Puzzle fans (puzzlers?) such as Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton answer questions about why they love crosswords so much, often while completing a puzzle at the same time.

I’m not good at crossword puzzles and avoid them whenever possible, but I found myself fascinated by the annual crossword puzzle competition.  Who knew that there were people so devoted to this hobby?  What a charming film.  Plus, the Wordplay DVD extras were just as good as the film itself.

Film Fan Finding: A

DVD Extras:

• commentary with director Patrick Creadon, New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz and puzzle constructor Merl Reagle
• deleted scenes of New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz’s interviews
• more deleted scenes
• deleted scenes from the Stamford competition
• interview gallery
• 5 unforgettable puzzles
• featurette Wordplay Goes To Sundance
• Every Word music video by Gary Louris
• And The Winner Is… — results from Stamford 2006
• Wordplay photo gallery
• Patricia Erens’ short film Waiting for the New York Times
• DVD-ROM stuff

actress janet blair has died

1940s actress Janet Blair has died.  Read the full obit here.

live blogging the oscars, part six

11:46 p.m.  Ah, the In Memorium montage.  I don’t like that the audience claps during the montage, because I always feel sorry for the lesser-known filmmakers and actors who don’t get much audience acknowledgement.

11:52 p.m.  Philip Seymour Hoffman needs a hairbrush!  I’m so glad that Helen Mirren won Best Actress.  She’s amazing.

12:03 a.m.  Forrest Whitaker wins Best Actor and gives a moving, heartfelt acceptance speech.

12:08 a.m.  Another standing ovation — Martin Scorsese wins Best Director!  Which leads us to five shots of Jack Nicholson.

12:13 a.m.  Final surprise of the night – The Departed wins Best Picture! Additional camera shots of Jack Nicholson, bringing the total for the evening to 22.

12:15 a.m.  Off to bed.  Good night!

we interrupt this live blogging for an important announcement

I’m tired, so I’m going to watch the rest of the Oscars lying in bed in a dark room.  Without typing.  And maybe while eating some Cheetos (which is hard to do while you’re typing).  So I’ll post the final live-blogging installment in the morning. *Yawn.*

live blogging the oscars, part five

10:09 p.m.  First standing ovation of the night, for Sherry Lansing.

10:11 p.m.  Either Ellen Degeneres is getting funnier or I’m getting sleepier.  Either way, I think she’s doing a good job as host.

10:32 p.m.  Second big surprise of the night — Germany’s The Lives of Others wins for Best Foreign Language Film instead of Pan’s Labyrinth.

10:45 p.m.  Oh, this is why Jerry Seinfeld is there.  He’s presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary.  I had forgotten how funny he is!

10:47 p.m.  Seventh shot of Jack Nicholson.

10:50 p.m.  An Inconvenient Truth wins Best Documentary.  Sigh.

11 p.m.  Second standing ovation of the night, for Enrio Morricone (honorary Oscar for scoring the music to over 400 films).  WTF was Celine Dion doing there, singing a song that as far as I could tell, had nothing to do with Morricone?

11:10 p.m.  Ellen Degeneres mentions Jack Nicholson.  Shots eight, nine and ten of him follow.

11:29 p.m.  This is the second time that Degeneres used the joke “I’d hate to follow that” after a strong musical performance, followed by her immediately introducing the next presenters.

live blogging the oscars, part four

9:27 p.m.  Ok, so the interpretive dancers are pretty good.  The dancing’s not as stupid as I thought it would be.

9:37 p.m.  Why is Jerry Seinfeld there?

9:39 p.m.  Al Gore has a good sense of humor.  After talking with Leonardo DiCaprio about the eco-friendly suggestions available at www.oscar.com, he pulled out a piece of paper from his vest pocket and said “I would like to take this opportunity…to announce my candidancy…” and then the music swelled up and cut him off.

9:43 p.m.  Third shot of the night of Jack Nicholson.

9:48 p.m.  Great montage of how writers are portrayed in the movies!

9:50 p.m.  Jack Nicholson again…fourth time of the night.

9:54 p.m.  Best Adapted Screenplay goes to The Departed.  Which means the fifth shot of Jack Nicholson.  And the sixth, as I write this.