Cinematical

• AFF Review: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, HBO Films, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  Oh, what times we live in, that we can enjoy foul-mouthed documentaries like The Aristocrats and F**k. I grew up equating "documentary" with "National Geographic," so any nonfiction film that uses four-letter words or would shock my mom, automatically makes me smile a little. As a result, I was slightly biased toward Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project from the moment the film's subject uttered his first profanities during a stand-up routine.
  
  Rickles reportedly has been reluctant to have his live...
  



• AFF Panel: 'Harold and Kumar' Writers Share Tips, Discuss Sequel
  

  Filed under: Comedy, New Line, Scripts, Austin, Interviews, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  Austin Film Festival doesn't only show movies, but also includes a screenwriters' conference. This year, the lineup included Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, who wrote Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and have written and directed the upcoming sequel, currently known as Harold and Kumar 2. (First they were going to Amsterdam, then they were escaping from Guantanamo Bay. Maybe next they'll be searching for a crystal skull bong.)
  
  Hurwitz and Schlossberg sat down with moderator Josh...
  



• AFF Review: America Unchained
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  So if Borat Sagdiyev had been a British vegetarian who thought all chain stores were an embodiment of The Man -- nah, that's a totally unfair way to describe America Unchained, which screened at Austin Film Festival. The narrator of this documentary is far less over-the-top than Borat, but he's still engaging enough to save the film from terminal earnestness.
  
  British comedy writer/performer Dave Gorman is our tour guide on this film. He tells us that the last time he took a tour of the United States, he was booked in big-chain hotels...
  



• AFF Review: Under the Same Moon
  

  Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Theatrical Reviews, Fox Searchlight, The Weinstein Co., Austin, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  Earlier this year, Under the Same Moon (originally titled La Misma Luna) was bought at Sundance by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company for a surprisingly high amount of money. It's understandable because underneath the film's unsubtle messages about undocumented Mexican workers working to survive in the U.S., it's essentially an old-fashioned family melodrama. I caught the film at Austin Film Festival this year, and it's currently scheduled to hit theaters in March 2008.
  
  Rosario (Kate...
  



• AFF Review: Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  I grew up in the New Orleans area, so I can't resist movies set in that location, especially documentaries. The only problem is that I worry about seeing anything involving the term "post-Katrina" in a theater, because I'm always worried I'll end up in tears or enraged in public. Fortunately, Don't Eat the Baby: Adventures at Post-Katrina Mardi Gras kept me more amused than sad, but at the same time managed to accurately represent the problems that South Louisianians faced in the six months after the hurricane and ensuing floods.
  
  Don't Eat the...
  



• AFF Review: Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  I'm not a comic-book reader, so I didn't know much about the subject of Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist before seeing the documentary at Austin Film Festival. I knew he was the creator of The Spirit, a comic-book series that Frank Miller is adapting into a feature film ... and that's about all I knew. Fortunately, the documentary filled in many of the blanks for me about Eisner and provided some interesting details about the artist's life.
  
  Eisner is credited for being one of the pioneers in the...
  



• The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar: Festivals Big and Small, and Karen Black Live!
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Foreign Language, Gay & Lesbian, Independent, Austin, Other Festivals, Cinematical Indie, The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar

  Welcome to The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar, a weekly look at what's happening beyond the multiplexes all around North America. If you know of something indie-related happening near you -- a local festival, a series of classic restored films, lectures, workshops, etc. -- send the info to me at Eric.Snider(at)weblogsinc(dot)com and I'll add it to the list. (Please put "Cinematical" somewhere in the subject line so I can easily separate you from the spam.)
  
  
  Atlanta: The Urban Mediamakers Film...
  



• AFF Review: Chalk
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Independent, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  The screening of Chalk I attended was the only sold-out movie I encountered at Austin Film Festival, and it was on a Tuesday night after the conference had ended. I heard that the previous night's showing of the feature film sold out as well -- and this was at the Arbor's largest screen. Was it because the movie won AFF's narrative feature award? Or was there some sort of word-of-mouth building in town among Austin educators, since teachers were the focus of this film? Before the movie started, Animation, Disney, Scripts, Family Films, Austin, Interviews
  
  
  As I've mentioned before, Austin Film Festival has a screenwriters conference to accompany its weeklong program of films. In fact, the event used to be better known for its writing panels and sessions than for the films that screened. I'm not a screenwriter so I don't attend many panels anymore, but this year I decided to sit in on on the "Writing Family Films" panel.
  
  Why did I choose a panel on children's and family films? I could have gone with some friends to a session down the...
  



• AFF Review: Come Early Morning
  

  Filed under: Drama, Theatrical Reviews, Austin

  
  
  I don't normally see films with titles like Come Early Morning unless vampires are involved. However, I was intrigued about the feature directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams, who also wrote the script, and I liked Ashley Judd so well in Bug that I thought the movie might be worthwhile. Unfortunately, Come Early Morning suffered from an amateurish script, predictable characterizations, and a lack of vampires.
  
  Judd, as the main character Lucy, is playing almost the same exact character as in Bug, but with a little more...