Tampa Film Fan

news and notes:victor nunez, wynkoop, campus movie fest speaker at ufva meeting at usf

• “Florida filmmaker Victor Nunez and the late sculptor Augusta Savage have been selected for induction into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. The induction will take place April 2, 2008, at the R.A. Gray Building in Tallahassee during the Florida Heritage Month awards ceremony. A writer, director, cinematographer and producer, Nunez is only the second honoree from the film industry. His films include Gal Young ‘Un, Ruby in Paradise, Ulee’s Gold and his most recent film Coastlines. His work has twice earned the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and three times has received the Director’s Fortnight Recognition at the Cannes Film Festival. Established by the Florida Legislature in 1986, the Florida Artists Hall of Fame recognizes persons, living or deceased, who have made significant contributions to the arts in Florida either as performing or practicing artists in their disciplines. These individuals contribute to Florida’s national and international reputation as a state with a strong and sustained commitment toward the development of cultural excellence. The Florida Artists Hall of Fame currently consists of over 30 inductees, including musicians and performers Ray Charles and Jimmy Buffet, actor and director Burt Reynolds, dancer Edward Villella, writers Zora Neale Hurston, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Tennessee Williams and Ernest Hemingway, and visual artists Duane Hanson, Robert Rauschenberg and James Rosenquist.” (hat/tip to the Florida Film Commission)
• Congratulations to local actor Joel Wynkoop on his recent media coverage, including this story that ran a few weeks ago in the Tampa Tribune. Wynkoop is energetic and hilarious on-screen (sometimes he’s the saving grace of a less-than-perfect film) and is a nice, non-scary guy in person (despite usually playing psychos and other assorted crazies in his films). If you have BrightHouse cable, check out the short film on Channel 340 called ScreamFest 2007, where Wynkoop successfully ad libs his way through a series of interviews with many of the classic horror actors and filmmakers at ScreamFest in Orlando last month. (h/t to Crazed Fan Boy)
• Campus Movie Fest’s Brandon Chong will be the guest speaker at USF’s University Film and Video Association’s next meeting on Thursday, November 29, “to discuss how USF can host the world’s largest student film festival. This festival has been held at many campuses successfully around the nation. If the festival is brought to USF, teams of students can sign up in advance to receive free equipment to make 5-minute movies for super prizes and a possibility of national recognition.” (Received via email.)

  The meeting is free and open to the public. 7 p.m., November 29, Communications and IS Bldg, Rm 1016, USF campus. The CMF website is www.campusmoviefest.com. I hope CMF and the UFVA are able to work out a partnership. I attended Campus Movie Fest’s Grand Florida Finale in Orlando this past April and had a chance to see some incredible short films, a couple of which were created by students at UT. Hopefully USF students will get to play on Campus Movie Fest’s playground next year.

giving away tickets to november 28 advance screening of the perfect holiday

I’ve got passes for two to an advance screening of The Perfect Holiday on Wednesday, November 28, at 7 p.m. at the AMC Veterans theater. Here’s a synopsis of the film:

An African-American take on the classic and beloved Christmas family film, The Perfect Holiday tells the story of Nancy (Gabrielle Union), a divorced mother of three who is so busy raising her children that she’s forgotten to take care of herself as well. With Christmas fast approaching, she decides to take her kids to the mall to meet Santa Claus, not knowing that her youngest daughter Emily (Khail Bryant) has sensed her mother’s sadness and is determined to use her time with Santa to make her mom happy again. Just a few days prior, Emily heard her mom say that all she wanted for Christmas was a compliment from a man, so that’s exactly what she tells Santa. Ironically, Santa, as it turns out, is office supply salesman and struggling songwriter Benjamin (Morris Chestnut), who ends up giving Nancy just what she wants for Christmas, and much, much more. Also stars Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard. In theaters December 12.

If you want a pass for two to the November 28 screening, send your mailing address to me at tampafilmfan(at)aol.com. First come, first served. Offer good while supplies last. The pass doesn’t guarantee admittance, so get to the theater early.

is thanksgiving over already?

We’ve all heard and read the stories about people getting sleepy after eating turkey. It seems that merely buying a turkey puts one to sleep as well. Either that or someone slipped something in my tea, ‘cos I’ve slept about fourteen hours a day since Tuesday. I’d be asleep right now if it wasn’t for pesky things like work, bills, laundry and email.

Friends and family were ignored, calls and emails went unreturned, deadlines were missed, pies from scratch became frozen pies from the grocery stores, and so on. I managed to read one book (Darkness Falls – liked it alot — review pending) and watched the Law and Order marathon on TV.

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too.

film fan finding:no country for old men

I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

– Sailing To Byzantium by William Butler Yeats (Online text © 1998-2007 Poetry X. All rights reserved. From The Tower, 1928)

No Country For Old Men is brutal. Mesmerizing. Stark. Bleak. Haunting. Depressing. Upsetting. Annoying. Thought-provoking. Confusing. Beautiful.

In other words, it’s a Coen brothers adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel.

The film opens with scenes of barren but beautiful Texas landscape, with a voice-over by Tommy Lee Jones as the world-weary Sheriff Bell. He recounts the case of a teenager who murdered someone just because he was curious. Bell’s monologue explores the main theme of this film: the nature of the human soul. McCarthy took the title for his book from the first line of Yeats’ poem Sailing to Byzantium, posted above. The poem never reveals the fate of the speaker’s soul and neither does the film. Like the speaker in the poem, Sheriff Bell is on an exploration for which there are no easy answers.

Josh Brolin is the self-reliant Llewellyn Moss who, during a routine hunting excursion, stumbles across the aftermath of a failed drug deal. Moss isn’t upset by the bloody bodies and deserted cars; instead he’s curious. His curiosity leads him to return to the scene, where he tracks the remaining victims and discovers a suitcase containing over $2 million dollars.

After Moss finds the money, the film turns into a slow, steady, suspenseful game of cat and mouse. He doesn’t know who or when or where, but Moss knows that sooner or later, someone is going to come after that money.

That someone is the relentless assassin Chigurh. Javier Bardem is incredible in this role and has created one of the creepiest villains of all time. Unlike Hannibal Lecter, Chigurh doesn’t revel in his wickedness or take delight in terrorizing his victims. He kills because he’s evil. Because it has to be done. Because people are in the way, or because he made a promise, or because of a coin toss.

Moss is on the run with the money. Chigurh is chasing Moss. Moss sends his wife away to hide. The businessman behind the drug deal hires another assassin, played by Woody Harrelson, to follow Moss. The Mexican drug dealers want their money back. Chigurh is stalking Harrelson’s character. Moss’s wife is looking for her husband. Throughout it all, Sheriff Bell is looking for all of them, even though he’s not sure how many people to look for. He knows that it won’t end well for most of them and there’s not much he can do to prevent it.

That’s the way the audience feels, too. There’s no musical score to the film, no aural cues that encourage a particular response or warn of impending doom. I watched this movie with one hand over my face — which is my standard viewing pose for horror movies, which this movie is not — because the suspenseful anticipation kept building and building. I knew things probably wouldn’t end well for most of the characters, but I had to see it through to the end. I had to find out what happened to these characters that I had become so invested in, no matter what happened or how painful it might be to watch (hence the hand over my face).

And then — poof! The movie is over. With key scenes taking place off screen. With storylines unresolved. With questions unanswered. With haunting dialogue by Sheriff Bell that bookends the opening monologue.

The Husband and I instantly and vigorously disagreed about the ending. He thinks it is brilliant to not spoon feed the audience every detail. He says that things don’t always wrap up neatly in real life, so this film’s ending is realistic. He likes being able to interpret the characters’ actions for himself.

Not me. I like my film endings neat and tidy, with everything resolved and all questions answered. I feel like I’ve been cheated by the jarring, abrupt ending. Where’s the last third of the movie? From what I’ve read, the movie is fairly faithful to McCarthy’s book, which also ended without tying things up neatly. Kudos to the Coen brothers for not changing the ending…and damn them for that as well. Perhaps the whole point is that there are no answers. Life is a jumbled mix of good and evil, smart decisions and bad ones, accidents and coincidences. I get that; really I do. I still want answers, though, especially at the end of such an intriguing movie.

We talked about the movie for days afterwards, dissecting every detail. The cinematography was beautiful, the omission of background music a stroke of genius, and the casting absolutely perfect. And the questions; always the questions. What really happened? Why was this particular action shown off-screen? Who ended up with the money? What would have happened if the characters had made different choices?

We plan to see it again over the holidays and will probably still be discussing and dissecting it come Christmas time. After you’ve seen No Country For Old Men, please join the discussion. We need a tie-breaker on some of our questions.

Film Fan Finding: A-

new website for the tampa bay film commission; new name, logo and website for the convention and visitors bureau

(h/t to the Tampa Bay Film Commission)

The Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau launched its new logo, name and web design a couple of months ago. I don’t care for the new look, but the fact that it’s taken me so long to notice — and to write about it — is a good thing. (If it hasn’t affected my life by now, it probably never will.)

Another good thing is that the Tampa Bay Film Commission finally has its own URL at www.FilmTampaBay.com. (You can still find it through the main website, just like before).

Now, on to the not-so-good things. The Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau is now known as Tampa Bay and Company. In addition to the new name, there’s a new logo and a redesigned website. I can’t remember what the previous logo for the Convention and Visitors Bureau looked like, but I don’t care much for the new one. It’s boring. Bland. Blah.

And I really don’t care much for the new name. Why the change from an easily-understood name to a vague, ambiguous one? If a name change was absolutely required, why not use Visit Tampa Bay? The website URL is still www.visittampabay.com. The staff email addresses still use visittampabay.com. (This name was considered and rejected.) The name “Tampa Bay and Company” doesn’t even hint at the organization’s purpose . Is it a new improv group? A restaurant like the Atlanta Bread Company? A new local blog?

Oh well. They didn’t ask my opinion. It’s a free country. It hasn’t disrupted my life so far. I don’t even have a logo at all, so who am I to judge? Plus, the whole Rays rename/redesign was much worse.

film fan fun for november 12-18

Here’s a brief look at some (certainly not all) of the local film-related events coming up in the next week:

• November 13 and 15 — Two episodes of Star Trek (The Original Series) will be shown on the big screen at participating theaters
• November 15 — Fable of the Beautiful Pigeon Fancier screening at the Salvador Dali Museum as part of the Dali and Beyond Film Series
• November 16 — Spanish film A Wonderful World (Un Mundo Maravilloso) screening at Eckerd College as part of their International Cinema Series. Filmmaker Luis Estrada will attend the screening to introduce and discuss his film.
• November 16 — The Blues Brothers screening at the St. Pete Beach Theatre as part of the Late Night Cult Flicks Series
• November 17 — Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe screening at the St. Pete Beach Theatre as part of the Free Kids Matinee Series
• November 18 — 2nd Annual Children’s Day (activities and classic film screening) at Hyde Park Village presented by the Gasparilla Film Festival

Visit http://tampafilmfan.com/blog/calendar-of-events for info on these and other local film screenings and events. Email your event info to me at tampafilmfan(at)aol.com.

(cross-posted at www.sticksoffire.com)

star trek:the original series is coming to a theater near you on tuesday (updated)

I stumbled across this event posting while looking through Creative Loafing’s online calendar:

Star Trek:The Original Series

Captain Kirk and his swashbuckling crew of space explorers are brought to theaters during this special single-night screening event, which features two digitally remastered, high-definition first season Star Trek episodes — The Menagerie, parts one and two. Participating theaters: Regency 20, 2496 W. Brandon Blvd., Brandon; Woodland Square 20, 3128 Tampa Road, Oldsmar; Park Place Stadium 16, 7200 U.S. 19 N., Pinellas Park; Hollywood 18, 6701 Cinema Drive, Port Richey; and Citrus Park Stadium 20, 7999 Citrus Park Town Center Mall, Tampa.

Tuesday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.
$12.50

———————–

UPDATE 11/12/07: There will also be screenings on November 15. Check theater listings for details. (h/t SyFy Portal)

———————–

How cool is that?

If I remember correctly, The Menagerie episodes are the Christopher Pike ones: A clever use of footage from the actual first pilot episode with Christopher Pike as the captain of the Enterprise instead of James T. Kirk. Interesting and well-done, but for some reason not really among my favorites. Plus, $12.50 is a little steep for me these days.

But the chance to watch two Star Trek episodes in a movie theater? How can I NOT go? I haven’t yet bought The Husband any birthday presents (and his birthday is Monday!) and he’s a much bigger Star Trek fan than I am, so I could pass this off as part of his birthday present that I’ve planned for all along. That settles it. I’m going.

Live long and prosper. And pass the popcorn.

———————

UPDATE 11/12/07: Here’s the description from the AMC Theatres website:

Fathom presents Star Trek:The Original Series–beamed onto the big screen in select movie theatres nationwide. This event features the original Season 1 episodes The Menagerie Part 1 and 2, digitally re-mastered in High-Definition and Cinema Surround Sound. Also included is greeting from creator Gene Roddenberry’s son, Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry and an exclusive 30-minute behind-the-scenes look at how the episodes were digitally re-mastered from the original negatives.

SyFyPortal has an interview with Gene Roddenberry, Jr. that all good Trekkers and Trekkies should read.

movie memories monday:veterans day edition

What war movies or war-related movies are your favorites and why? The first film that springs to mind for me is The Best Years of Our Lives.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is the story of three men returning home after World War II and their struggles to return to civilian life. The Frederic March character is a successful banker who discovers upon his return that his children are well on their way to becoming adults, his wife is more self-sufficient than ever before, and his previous loyalty to his bank position is weakened due to his new-found loyalty to other veterans.

After serving as an officer in the Air Force, the Dana Andrews character returns home to a dead-end, low-paying job as a soda jerk. His whirlwind romance and hasty marriage before the war has left him with a selfish wife uninterested in him or in really being married at all.

The character played by Harold Russell (not an actor, but a disabled veteran who did a marvelous job in this role and won an honorary Oscar and the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this role) reluctantly returns home to his family and fiancee terrified of what they will think of him now that he has prosthetics instead of hands due to a shipboard fire.

This is a beautiful film with a great cast and director that’s sad and thought-provoking, but also uplifting and hopeful. It acknowledges the sacrifices that veterans and their families make, sacrifices that continue long past the end of the war.

My other personal faves in this category include Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Joyeaux Noel and Das Boot. Comedy favorites include No Time For Sergeants, Operation Petticoat and Mister Roberts.

What are your favorite war or war-related movies?

2007 crystal reel award winners

(This is from the end of October, via the Florida Film Commission website.)

2007 CRYSTAL REEL AWARD WINNERS!

It’s a wrap! The 2007 Crystal Reel Awards (CRA) were fabulous! The Florida Motion Picture and Television Association (FMPTA), a trade association initiated in 1973 by professionals within the Florida film industry, maintains the primary objective to encourage and facilitate increased film, video and sound recording production within the state of Florida. Indoctrinated in the late 1980s by FMPTA, the Crystal Reel Awards (CRA) honors Florida filmmakers for their fine work in fields such as motion pictures, videos, screenwriting, acting, music, print models and numerous other categories. Winning a Crystal Reel Award is a unique distinction among Florida filmmakers. A great BIG thank you goes out to the Tampa Chapter for hosting this year’s terrific program. Plans are already underway for the 2008 CRA.

FMPTA is dedicated to the promotion of film, television, recording, print and digital media in Florida.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees! To learn more about the FMPTA, visit www.fmpta.org.

what movies are you watching tonight? i’m going to watch some cool stuff over at the tampa film review

Those of you who noticed that my last post said something along the lines of “check this blog every day” followed by several days of not blogging get a gold star.

Those of you who are brave or bored enough to keep checking this blog get two gold stars.

Those of you going to the Tampa Film Review tonight will have fun and see some interesting movies. 8 p.m. at International Bazaar in Ybor City. Be there or be square. (Actually, you can be both. I am. See you tonight!)