4. I didn’t see this as a highpoint at the time, but it was FAILING to get a rush ticket at the SFIF for Le Quattro Volte. In retrospect, this delayed being subjected to the coughing goatherd for a precious three-and-a-half months.
5. Listening to writer/director Kyle Smith tell my film club about the making of Turkey Bowl.
6. Finding the 1980 Werner Herzog documentary God’s Angry Man on a Dr. Gene Scott fan site.
7. Attending a preview of Cars 2 at the Pixar studio.
This delightful indie comedy is set in a group of friends’ annual touch football game. Take a bunch of friends that haven’t seen each other for a while and put them in a competitive situation, and you’ve got a promising premise. Newcomer writer-director Kyle Smith pulls off a tight, well-paced 62 minutes of smart laughs.
The cast of relative unknowns is very good, especially Tom DiMenna and Bob Turton. At the screening that I attended, Smith said that the football game was tightly structured in the screenplay, but much of the dialogue was improvised by the cast.Smith financed the film with $25,000 that he earned from a reality TV show, and shot it over ten days in an East LA city park.
Smith is a native of Columbia, Missouri, and college football fans will note a very funny reference to an infamous Colorado-Missouri game.
After an earlier release on iTunes and VOD, Turkey Bowl is out on DVD. Reward this bright and enterprising filmmaker, and rent this film – you won’t be disappointed.
I am adding Turkey Bowl to my list of Best Sports Movies to represent touch football.
My top choice choice this week is still the Irish dark comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
There are three movies now in theaters from my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far, including Woody Allen’s sweet, funny and thoughtful comedy Midnight in Paris. Buck is an extraordinary documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. You might still be able to find Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid, the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave and, decades later, cloning her dog.
A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love. The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable French comedy about a flighty leftwinger who seeks to educate and convert conservatives by sleeping with them.
Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
Despite Rachel Weisz’s performance, The Whistleblower is a misfire – a potentially riveting story clumsily told. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
The best choice in theaters this week is the Irish dark comedy The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle.
There are three movies now in theaters from my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far, including Woody Allen’s sweet, funny and thoughtful comedy Midnight in Paris. Buck is an extraordinary documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. You might still be able to find Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid, the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave and, decades later, cloning her dog.
A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love. The Names of Love is an amusing but forgettable French comedy about a flighty leftwinger who seeks to educate and convert conservatives by sleeping with them.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread).
Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
Despite Rachel Weisz’s performance, The Whistleblower is a misfire – a potentially riveting story clumsily told. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
What a summer for documentaries! Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid delivers the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave. The riveting documentary Project Nim tells the story of a chimp taught human language and the humans who nurture, exploit, abuse and rescue him. Buck is another wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story.
The sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris are also on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
See the original and heartfelt teen misfit movie Terri if you can still find it. A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are excellent in the romcom Crazy Stupid Love.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen the dark Irish comedy The Guard (starring Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle) or the sexy French comedy The Names of Love, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
My DVD pick is The Music Never Stopped, with excellent performances by J.K. Simmons and Lou Taylor Pucci and lots of Grateful Dead.
Movies on TV this week include the classic noir The Third Manon TCM.
Watch for the original and heartfelt teen misfit movie Terri – it won’t remain in theaters very long.
Errol Morris’ documentary Tabloid delivers the hilarious story of Joyce McKinney, a beauty queen jailed for manacling a Mormon missionary as her sex slave.
Four movies on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far are still playing. The best movies are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. A Little Help is a funny Jenna Fischer vehicle about a sad sack mom. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen the stylish noir The Road to Nowhere by cult director Monte Hellman, which opens this weekend. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
Movies on TV this week include two mockable films on TCM: the 60s melodrama The Chase, which has earned a place in my Bad Movie Festival. Juarez contains one of my 10 Least Convincing Mexicans.
The cream of the crop are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. All four are on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes. Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times explores journalism’s evolution in an age of new media, and I recommend it for hard news junkies.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
I haven’t yet seen Sarah’s Key or Road to Nowhere, which open this weekend, or Tabloid, which opens widely. You can see trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
The cream of the crop are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful comedies Beginners and Midnight in Paris, along with the riveting documentary Project Nim. All three are on my list of Best Movies of 2011 – So Far.
Buck is a wonderful documentary about a real-life horse whisperer with a compelling human story. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes. Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times explores journalism’s evolution in an age of new media, and I recommend it for hard news junkies.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor in Beginners
This week, the best choices are still the sweet, funny and thoughtful Beginners and Midnight in Paris. This week’s Project Nim is one of the year’s best documentaries. If you have kids, Pixar’s Cars 2 is an excellent choice (adults will especially enjoy the James Bond spoof thread). So is Super 8, a wonderful coming of age story embedded in a sci fi action thriller. The Trip delivers some chuckles. Turkey Bowl is a delightful indie comedy available from iTunes.
In Bridesmaids, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose insecurities keep her from seeing the good and the possible in her life; it’s funny, but not one of the year’s best. The Hangover Part 2 is just not original enough, and, consequently, not funny enough. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life contains a good 90-minute family drama that is completely derailed by an additional hour of mind-numbingly self-important claptrap.
My DVD pick is Another Year. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) has brought us another brilliant observation of the human condition, and asks why some people find contentment and others just cannot. Another Year is one of Leigh’s best, and on my list of Best Movies of 2010.
This delightful indie comedy is set in a group of friends’ annual touch football game. Take a bunch of friends that haven’t seen each other for a while and put them in a competitive situation, and you’ve got a promising premise. Newcomer writer-director Kyle Smith pulls off a tight, well-paced 62 minutes of smart laughs.
The cast of relative unknowns is very good, especially Tom DiMenna and Bob Turton. At the screening that I attended, Smith said that the football game was tightly structured in the screenplay, but much of the dialogue was improvised by the cast.Smith financed the film with $25,000 that he earned from a reality TV show, and shot it over ten days in an East LA city park.
Smith is a native of Columbia, Missouri, and college football fans will note a very funny reference to an infamous Colorado-Missouri game.
Turkey Bowl just released on iTunes and VOD. Reward this bright and enterprising filmmaker and see this film – you won’t be disappointed.
I am adding Turkey Bowl to my list of Best Sports Movies to represent touch football.
