What were the big films at SXSW? What buzzword's rapidly becoming synonymous with lazy film journalism? And what happens when an alternative to the Oscars documentary nomination process follows close in the Academy's wake? Joining us this week on The Rocchi Review to talk abot SXSW and the Cinema Eye Honors is Karina Longworth of SpoutBlog (and Cinematical's founding Editor) to answer all those questions and more, after the jump. ...

If you weren't in Austin for South by Southwest -- or even if you were, and your schedule, like mine, was so incredibly packed with films and parties, that you missed out on catching some of the many panels there, you're in luck. For your listening convenience, the SXSW website has podcasts of the panels up. There were panels on just about every topic imaginable at the fest, from "Animation and Digital Effects on a Budget," to "The Porn Police: Know the Rules" (that one featured the never-shy-about-baring-his-all Joe Swanberg), to journalist Sarah Lacy's "controversial" interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's, which just about descended into all-out chaos.

I've heard the entire interview, watched parts of it on YouTube, and read heaps of blog comments ripping Lacy to shreds, and I gotta say, I don't see what people were so riled up about in that room, or why the audience turned on her so harshly there toward the end. Yes, it was a conversational-style interview, not a hard-hitting smackdown.

Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won nine Oscars out of nine nominations, sweeping every category except acting (stars John Lone, Peter O'Toole and Joan Chen weren't nominated). It was chosen as one of the year's ten best films by Cahiers du Cinema, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Roger Ebert, Richard Corliss, and even the National Board of Review. Gene Siskel voted it the year's best film, as did Judy Stone of the San Francisco Chronicle. Filmmaker Samuel Fuller chose it as one of his ten favorite films of all time. In 1998, it received a major theatrical re-release, supervised by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, with nearly an hour's worth of footage edited back into the film, bringing the total from 160 to 219 minutes. Yet, it has somehow fallen into the list of hard-to-find films. For years, it has only been available on VHS or import DVDs. Now the Criterion Collection has come along and corrected this oversight by delivering perhaps 2008's most spectacular DVD release so far. (Blu-Ray be damned!)

Criterion's four-disc release includes both cuts, as well as two more discs full of extras. (Many are from 1987 and some were created more recently; the bonus is a series of "video postcards" shot by Bertolucci in China while preparing for the film.) Personally, I like getting to decide which version to watch, rather than having someone else choose the definitive version for me. The 160-minute version is the one that garnered all that praise, but the longer version -- here called the "television version" -- is great, too. The extra scenes don't particularly work to "drive" the movie forward, but they give a richer understanding of Pu Yi and the emptiness of his life.

Up With Me is proof that you can make a good film out of old ideas. All it takes is a different approach, some reinvention to give the familiar themes a new twist. In fact, the only real shortcomings in "Up With Me" occur when the film tries too hard to be creative. As backward as it may sound, the film is at its best when it sticks to the situation that we've seen a thousand times before, for the simple reason that its technique gives it new life.

The film was created by the East Harlem Tutorial Program, with non-actors filling the roles and a do-it-yourself mentality governing every aspect of it. Written by Maeve McQuillan and Greg Takoudes (with help from some of the kids) and directed by Takoudes, it's about a kid from Spanish Harlem named Francisco (Francisco Vicioso) whose academic excellence has earned him a scholarship to a fancy upstate prep school. His girlfriend, Erika (Erika Rivera), misses him, knows it will be good for him, and frets that they will be divided by his new education. His best friend, Brandon (Brandon Thorpe), on the other hand, is openly bitter about Francisco's departure, seeing it as a betrayal in the immature way that teenagers see everything as a betrayal.

A few months back I came across a rather amusing trailer for a flick called Zombie Strippers. (As if you'd need a trailer to convince you / dissuade you from seeing a movie with a title like "Zombie Strippers.") Written and directed by Jay "The Slaughter" Lee, the flick looked to be locked in for an exclusively digital debut. But get this! Beginning on April 18, you'll be able to see Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson share the screen with gooey go-go gore-girls in Zombie Strippers, provided you live in New York, Boston, L.A., Frisco, Vegas, Phoenix, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami or ... Madison, Wisconsin? OK then. (Atlanta, Seattle and Philly (woo!) will get their print on April 25.) And yes fellas, I did say "Jenna Jameson."

But the burning question remains: What is Zombie Strippers about? Well, according to an interview with Mr. Lee over at Horror-Movies.ca, it goes a little like this: "A corporation is developing a chemo-virus to re-animate soldiers killed in combat so they can keep on fighting. The tests prove dying and re-animating can make these soldiers fearless, and thus they become super-zombie soldiers. The virus gets loose in the lab, an elite squad comes in to clean it up, one gets bitten, runs and hides in a dark building that happens to be an illegal strip club." Boom. That's what you call high concept, as in someone was definitely high when they came up with the concept. Random trivia: Apparently the film called Zombie Strippers is loosely based on Eugene Ionesco's play Rhinoceros, but lots of zombie-merchants could also make that claim ... if they studied literature, that is.

Check out the whole interview over at HM.ca and/or check out Sony's official Zombie Strippers website right here. I just think it's hilariously awesome that Philadelphia's rather prestigious Ritz at the Bourse theather will be playing a Jenna Jameson movie called Zombie Strippers. I'll want a snapshot of that marquee. (Bonus: Zombie Strippers trailer ... after the jump!)

I can't believe I saw two movies about racial politics in Alabama at SXSW this year -- not what I would have expected. Both approached the issues in different ways, and both films were good. While The Order of Myths (which I reviewed already) focused on Mardi Gras in the Gulf Coast city of Mobile, the documentary Bama Girl takes us further north to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa to examine a tradition popular at many American universities: the selection and crowning of the Homecoming Queen.

Bama Girl focuses primarily on Jessica Thomas, a senior at the university who is determined to win Homecoming Queen. The problem is that a number of the white fraternities and sororities plus other unnamed organizations have formed a covert group known on campus as The Machine. The way in which the Homecoming Queen is elected on campus favors The Machine, which is why no African-American woman has won the crown since the rules change. This all sounds like paranoid fantasy and crazy student rumors, but when you see a staff member in the Dean of Students office talking seriously about The Machine, you start to wonder. Anyway, Jessica isn't going to let any secret society keep her from what she wants. She and her sorority sisters get to work to get her elected.

Oh man, this one is like an indie hipster's dream come true. According to EW, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and my future wife (in an alternate universe) Zooey Deschanel have signed on to star opposite one another in 500 Days of Summer, for Fox Searchlight. The film, which is said to be going into production this spring, tells the story of a woman who doesn't believe in love and the man who falls hopelessly in love with her. Sounds kinda like the opposite of every relationship I've ever seen. Kidding! I kid. We all love everything.

Music video director Marc Webb will direct the indie, which means a cool, hip soundtrack is all but certain. I love both these kids, so I'm sure we'll get some adorable moments out of this one. Only possible downside: It was written by the guys behind The Pink Panther 2, which may or may not be a bad thing seeing as the Panther sequel hasn't come out yet. Zooey can next be seen opposite Mark Wahlberg in M. Night's upcoming end-of-the-world flick, The Happening. Meanwhile, you can catch Gordon-Levitt in that new Iraq drama Stop-Loss.

(But seriously now -- how can you not love a girl named Zooey?)

Has anyone kept track of all the remakes of Asian horror films? It fairly numbs the mind to even begin counting, as soulless and derivative as they are. I know I've had to slog out to the Cineplex many an opening Friday to catch the latest one that was withheld from press screenings. Even the originals begin to blur together, following the same formula of a wronged spirit -- usually a ghostly girl with stringy black hair and hollow eyes -- entering into the lives of unsuspecting people, often through technology. Usually the heroes think they've solved the riddle at some point, but there's always one more overlooked step at the climax. Very often in the middle the heroes find themselves someplace like a library or an office building that's supposed to be brightly lit, but instead is illuminated only by a few buzzing gray lights. The original Shutter (2004) is different only because it originated in Thailand -- and is set in Bangkok -- rather than Japan. The new American remake squashes even that one unique factor by turning right around and setting the story among Americans in Tokyo.

Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) is a professional photographer newly married to blonde hottie Jane (Rachael Taylor), who apparently works as a 6th grade teacher and not a photographer's model. (Um... yeah. How did they meet again?) Just after their honeymoon, they land in Tokyo so that Ben can start his amazing new job, shooting colorful layouts of geisha girls. On the road, their car strikes a girl, though no evidence of her body is ever found. More strange things begin happening. White streaks appear in Ben's photos and Jane begins seeing the girl all over the place. With a little detective work, Jane discovers that Ben actually knew her. She was Megumi Tanaka (Megumi Okina), a shy, uncertain translator. Ben may have been her first love, but he didn't love her quite the same and things ended badly. So why, then, are Ben's buddies Bruno (David Denman) and Adam (John Hensley) suddenly dying?

Let's start off with a little bit of trivia: Did you know that High School Musical and its sequels have had the working titles Grease 3, Grease 4, and Grease 5? That would make it seem as though Zac Efron and his super-cute co-stars were some new generation possibly bred from the loins of Sandy and Danny. Not quite. It's got the whole differing social group angle, and how friends can get in the way of love, but it's definitely not that dirty, classic family movie we all know.

As a tot, I liked Grease, but I loved Grease 2 -- this is probably because Maxwell Caulfield was much easier on the eyes than John Travolta. But after watching the original a few times and devouring the second much more often, there was a long hiatus until a close cousin of mine got a little older and Grease got re-released in theaters. I took her to see it, and my jaw sagged through the entire film. How dirty! How could I not have realized this? I looked over at her; she was smiling, happy, and oblivious, so obviously the "don't-see-the-raunchiness" spell was working all these years later. It skillfully rides that fine line between raunch and respectability.

So, in the sea of a new musicals, equipped with myriads of fangirls, I give you my generation's High School Musicals: Grease and Grease 2.

Are films political? Do they fall into left-wing and right-wing camps? I would imagine that not all films have an agenda. Some films can be considered "great uniters," in that they bring together agreeing audiences from all over, films like the $200 million hits I Am Legend (264 screens) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (177 screens) or a critical favorite like There Will Be Blood (339 screens) that has pleased nearly everyone who has seen it. Of course, There Will Be Blood is about a snaky, sinister, blustery oil baron willing to sacrifice his family, country and humanity for the allure of black gold, which may or may not have a little something to do with current events. (Not to mention that director Paul Thomas Anderson dropped the word "Oil" from the title of the source novel and replaced it with the word "Blood.")

In recent years it has been determined that film critics are a liberal bunch, educated, well-read men and women of letters, who can see and comprehend the human condition in films from different cultures all over the world. Or, they're sometimes known as pompous, ponderous, pretentious, conceited, snooty know-it-alls, lacking in good old-fashioned horse sense. "Why can't you just enjoy the movie," is a question very often asked of critics. Rambo (201 screens) is a fascinating case. It's impressively violent, but very grim and not much fun. Rambo debuted and reigned during the Reagan era (Rambo: First Blood Part II grossed three times the amount of the new film, even with 1985 ticket prices). Bringing him back in a decidedly different political atmosphere didn't seem to work, though the film was screened for the press and earned a few good reviews. It's now starting a downslide, and it's still shy of breaking even on its $50 million budget.

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting piece up on the disappearing space in print publications for reviews of independent films. The loss of print film critics in numerous outlets, coupled with the increasing number of independent films being released each year, is making it more of a challenge for indie films to get reviews of their films in print pubs. Online critics have taken up some of the slack -- we here at Cinematical still review as many indies as we can, in addition to the more mainstream fare, but there's still a perception out there among some that an online review carries less weight than a review printed on paper.

The article has some interesting dueling quotes; THINKfilm's Mark Urman notes, "We're not at a point where Internet writers have the credibility of established media with proven records and editors." Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells begs to differ, saying in part, "... there are maybe eight or 10 online critics who genuinely matter and are, in the parlance of the trade, 'conversation starters.' Due respect, but insisting that review quotes are still about print critics is generational hubris."

Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies!

Yeah, I must admit that part of the reason for doing a handful of bunny-related Stars in Rewind posts was to go back to some of my favorite fluffy ones, AND to be able to use that Buffy musical quote. To gush about Anya is a bit of a divergence from movie themes, but luckily there is a worthy killer bunny on film to prove her point. Any talk of cinematic bunnies would be an absolute sham without Monty Python and the Holy Grail's killer bunny.

This is no ordinary rabbit. This is "the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you've ever set eyes on," and he doesn't just nibble your bum. Oh man, this scene makes me laugh every time. There's nothing quite like the beauty of the perfectly-performed ludicrous scene. Granted, the whole movie is full of them, but it's almost Easter, so this is the one that applies.

And for you Buffy fans out there, hit the jump.

Did you ever notice how Beavis and Butthead was often a TV show about two guys watching TV? The videos they were watching became the stories within the story. That's the theme we're shooting for this week. We're peeling back the layers of a handful of recent trailers to get at the story within the story.

Tropic Thunder
During the production of an extremely troubled Vietnam movie, a handful of actors are sent into the jungles of southeast Asia to inject realism into the flick. Things don't go quite as planned and our heroes, including Ben Stiller (who also directs), Jack Black and Robert Downey, Jr., find themselves in actual combat with guerrilla forces. Basically, this is the plot of Three Amigos as seen through an Apocalypse Now lens, but this looks like it could be really funny. I can't decide whether or not Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance as a white actor pretending to be black is going to be hilarious or just embarrassing, but it being Downey I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Elisabeth posted about this one as well as the age-restricted teaser trailer, and like her I want to know what the heck Stiller is doing with those baby pandas, though he does appear to be channeling Zoolander in that shot.

It's been almost a year since I saw Zak Penn's poker mockumentary The Grand when it first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and I seriously cannot wait to see it again. You won't hear much about it because it's a smaller flick, but it packs one heckuva cast and it seriously rivals the films of Christopher Guest -- in fact, I'd go as far as saying The Grand is better than anything Guest has put out in awhile. I will admit, though, that The Grand is not for everyone.

It's tough to sell a mock, since some people just don't get the humor in it. Put it this way: If you dig shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld, you'll certainly enjoy The Grand. It stars Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross (who's hysterical), Ray Romano (in his greatest role ever), Dennis Farina, Werner Herzog ... and so many more. This flick boasts an all-star team of funny folks -- and the entire story is set in the world of high-stakes poker.

I haven't seen one commercial or advertisement for The Grand, so since it was one of my favorite comedies last year (since that's when I saw it), I felt a post like this was necessary. I really want this film to get some love, because it's seriously a real comedic gem. Wanna laugh this weekend? Go see The Grand. Odds are you'll love it.

Check out a clip from the film after the jump ...

(For more, here's my review of The Grand from last year's Tribeca fest, as well as my interview with director Zak Penn.)

Like our own Scott Weinberg, I'm a fan of the Scott B. Smith novel that is the basis for the upcoming horror flick The Ruins, though I'm hoping the filmmakers cut out certain risible elements -- not the scenes that made me wince, but ones that were so stupid they made me want to throw the book across the room. As a whole, though, the book is very good in setting up a scenario that slowly morphs from perfectly ordinary to horrifying beyond belief.

Scott pointed to posters and a "red-band" trailer last month and now two new clips have been released. They're both available on the restricted portion of the official site, where you'll need to provide your name and date of birth to gain entry. If the trailer left horror fans wondering how far they would push things in the gore department, the clips -- especially the one titled "Get It Out" -- make it clear. They're blood-soaked, but more in the vein of excruciating rather than exploitative.

For a story like The Ruins, featuring a small group of characters dealing with a terrifying situation, it needs to be grounded in reality, and I'm hoping for the best. Carter Smith makes his directorial debut; the film stars Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore and Jena Malone, all of whom look up to the task of screaming and grimacing, at least in the trailer and clips. The Ruins creeps into theaters on April 4.

[ Via Dread Central ]