Getting Stripped

Very excited to share the news that my good friend John Wildman, formerly director of PR for the Dallas Independent Film Fest and current Senior Publicist at Film Society Lincoln Center, is finally getting his long-gestating “post-feminist” horror-thriller project, Stripped, off the ground. Initially planned to film in 2010, the film stalled out for a while over funding concerns but is finally getting made. I read a version of the script, which was co-written by Justina Walford, a couple years ago, and I’ve been hoping ever since to finally see it get made. Stripped will film in and around Dallas in June; you can read the complete press release right here.

RIP Adam Yauch

I hate words like “gone” or “departed” or even “passed on” for someone who’s died. Adam Yauch’s physical body may have expired too damn young, but his spirit and legacy live on through his contributions to the worlds of music and film. And isn’t that sort of immortality, that desire to create something that will exist long after our physical bodies give out, at least a part of why we struggle and work to create art to begin with?

Yauch was an inspiration. Let’s not wallow in tears at his death, but celebrate the life he lived and what he did with it. And then get off our asses and go lay down that album or paint that canvas, or finish that script and shoot that film, because this physical life is short, and time’s wasting.

Review: The Avengers

Warning: Potentially minor spoilers here, but nothing that should ruin anything for you. Still, if you want to be totally blind going in, come back after you’ve seen it.

Comic geeks can collectively sigh with deep relief: Joss Whedon has taken their beloved Avengers and given them back a well-directed, action-packed, brilliantly written film. Note that I say “film” and not “movie,” a distinction I don’t always make with genre films, but it’s worth making the point here that The Avengers is not just action-explosion-capes-and-tights-and-muscles popcorn fare. If you are a Marvel fan, a fan of The Avengers, and a fan of Joss Whedon’s style of writing-directing, you are pretty much guaranteed to walk out of The Avengers feeling supremely satisfied. I don’t know that it’s definitively “the greatest superhero ever” but it comes pretty damn close for me, particularly for the Marvel properties.

This is a smart, well-crafted superhero fare that’s worthy of its source material, while taking advantage of adapting to film to enhance its storytelling. And you might argue that the superhero bar was never very high to begin with, but Whedon certainly raises it here. While he doesn’t frame his shots with quite the meticulous frame-by-frame, religiously adherent comic panel precision Zack Snyder used in The Watchmen, Whedon brings a crisp, brisk, graphic novel feel to The Avengers in the composition of shots and especially the use of light and shadow, while maintaining a flow and energy Watchmen sometimes lacked. And before any of you rabid Marvel fans jump down my throat, I’m not trying to piss anyone off here by comparing Avengers to a DC adaptation. It’s just a reference to the composition of shots, and Whedon’s obvious love of the comic genre, not a debate about Marvel vs DC. (But for the record? Marvel, of course. No contest.)
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Marvel-ous Nerd Words

Why couldn’t we have had vocabulary lists like this back when I was in school? In honor of this weekend’s opening of hotly-anticipated-by-comic-nerds-everywhere The Avengers, Wordnik has culled together a list of Marvel vocabulary words. The cool thing about homeschooling my kids is that they get to have cool spelling and vocabulary words like this because their mom is a geek. See how many of these you can work casually into your own conversations this week, and whether people who don’t know what they mean nod knowingly as if they do.

Here’s a sampling of Wordnik’s Marvel Vocabulary list, the full list can be found over here.

1. Adamantium

Use it in a sentence: “Hugh Jackman reprises the role that made him a superstar, as the fierce fighting machine who possesses amazing healing powers, adamantium claws, and a primal fury known as berserker rage.” (“Wolverine Movie Extended Synopsis,” Comic Book Movie, April 16, 2009)

Definition: Adamantium is, according to the Marvel Universe Wiki, “an artificially-created alloy of iron that is the most impervious substance known on Earth.” The term first appeared in July 1969 in Avengers #66, and may be a play on the noun form of adamant, “a name applied with more or less indefiniteness to various real or imaginary metals or minerals characterized by extreme hardness.” Adamant comes from the Greek adamas, “unconquerable, hard steel, diamond.”

2. flame on

Use it in a sentence: “Instead of giving them terrible illnesses [the cosmic radiation storm] of course turns them into Übermenschen of various sorts, though only Johnny’s new abilities are an unmixed blessing: by shouting “Flame on!” he converts himself into a flying ball of fire.” (Peter Bradshaw, “Fantastic Four,” The Guardian, July 21, 2005)

Definition: Flame on is the catchphrase of Johnny Storm, also known as the Human Torch. Storm first appeared in 1961 in The Fantastic Four #1.

3. Legacy Virus

Use it in a sentence: “In the well-established and often convoluted ‘X-Men’ lore found within the Marvel comic’s continuity, Pyro was a rambunctious villain with the ability to control fire who was a onetime ally of Mystique. He eventually succumbed to the Legacy Virus, a mutant-only disease that posed a danger to all of the series’ main characters.” (Ryan J. Downey, “New Mutants Added to X-Men 2,” MTV.com, May 30, 2002)

Definition: The Legacy Virus is “a deadly disease that attacked the mutant gene, causing its host’s powers to flare out of control before death.” The virus was “based on one that was used 2000 years in the future.”

4. mandroid

Use it in a sentence: “Hammer created the Mandroids with the assistance of the evil genius Ivan Vanko, aka Whiplash (Mickey Rourke), and plans to mass produce them for the military.” (“New Iron Man 2 Stills, Viral Mystery, and Interactive Content,” Reelz, May 4, 2010)

Definition: The mandroid is “battle armor designed by Tony Stark [Iron Man] for use by S.H.I.E.L.D.,” and is a blend of man and android. The mandroid first appeared in December 1971 in Avengers #94. The word android, “an automaton resembling a human being in shape and motions,” was coined in 1847, and comes from the Greek andro, “human,” and edies, “form, shape.” The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that android was “listed as ‘rare’ in [Oxford English Dictionary] 1st edition (1879),” and was popularized around 1951 by science fiction writers.

5. Spidey-sense

Use it in a sentence: “Spider-Man, you will recall, has a ‘spidey-sense‘, which alerts him to impending disaster and gives him time to react suitably.” (Giles Coren, “I had my Spider-Man moment. And I failed,” The Times, May 29, 2010)

Definition: Spidey-sense refers to Spider-Man’s ability to sense danger before it occurs. It “manifests in a tingling feeling at the base of his skull, alerting him to personal danger in proportion to the severity of that danger.” Spidey-sense also refers to intuition or instinct in general.

Adventures in Filmmaking: Bunker Goes to SIFF

I can finally announce that my short film, Bunker, will be premiering at the Seattle International Film Festival in their shorts competition. Can I get a huzzah?! I’m over the moon to have my film screening at SIFF. It’s a tough fest to get into, and it’s Oscar-eligible in the shorts categories. My cast and crew are mostly here in Seattle, so I’m hoping we’ll have a solid hometown turn-out when we screen as part of the SeaTown Stories section during Memorial weekend’s Shortsfest at SIFF.

Huge congrats to my terrific cast, Rachel Delmar and Stefan Hajek, my husband and business partner Mike Hodge, co-producer Melanie Addington, DP Sam Graydon, editor Joe Shapiro, sound wizard Vinny Smith, colorist John Davidson and composer Ken Stringfellow, and the entire, enormously talented crew who helped take my little script and make it into a little movie that we can all be proud to have our names on. You guys rock.

Who Was Amos Vogel?

Over on Film Comment, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Eugene Hernandez has a nice piece up about independent film vanguard Amos Vogel, who passed away today at the age of 91, and if you don’t know much about Vogel you should go read it. Eugene’s piece points to this excellent documentary about Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art, which you can watch in its entirety for free on Vimeo. It’s roughly 56 minutes long, and you’ll likely learn something about this amazing man to whom independent cinema owes a debt of eternal gratitude. Most of it is Vogel, just talking to the camera about his life and career. It’s pretty awesome. Check it out.

RIP, Amos Vogel.

Click here to view the video.

Catching Up

It’s been a busy couple weeks for me, with tech week for two casts of Grease gearing up for performances this past weekend (and one of my kids in each of the casts), watching a stack of screeners for the narratives jury for IFF Boston, and a busy trip down to Dallas to serve on the Texas Competition jury for the Dallas International Film Festival in the midst of that. So I’ve been a little swamped and thus not getting a whole lot else done around here.

So, Dallas. This year was the sixth year of this fest and the sixth I’ve trekked to Dallas to be there, and it’s always one of the most interesting and fun fests of the travel year for me. It feels a bit like going home since it’s so close to my hometown of Oklahoma City, and it certainly bears more in common with the Sooner state than it does with Seattle. I always pack much dressier for this trip, and even so I inevitably feel under-dressed at some point; this town dresses up for its events, whereas in Seattle “dressing up” mostly means, “I’m changing into my good/designer jeans and my spiffiest Chucks.”

One of the things I like most about hitting the regional fests is seeing how each of them painstakingly programs a schedule that covers an eclectic spectrum of what’s going around the fest circuit, drawing their particular audience in to see films they may have heard about, while also challenging them with films they otherwise wouldn’t get to see at all. James Faust and Sarah Harris do an exceptional job of knowing the Dallas audience their festival is there to serve, and I was impressed with the films we had to consider on the our jury. Ultimately, we gave a Special Jury Mention to David Zellner’s Kid-Thing and the Grand Jury Prize to Ya’Ke Smith’s Wolf, a searing portrait of the impact on a family when they learn their beloved and trusted pastor has been sexually abusing their teenage son for years. In certain ways, Wolf evoked Spike Lee’s Red Hook Summer, which I saw at Sundance this year, but Wolf is a much, much better film in pretty much every respect (sorry, ‘strue).
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Life in Time Lapse

God, I wish I’d done this with my kids. This guy took a video of his daughter every week from the time she was born until age 12 (with the rest of it to be continued, natch). The result is this awesome 2 minute 45 second time lapse video that captures the essence of what every parent knows: They grow up so damn fast. Enjoy.

Review: Goodbye First Love

Note: This review was originally published as a part of our TIFF 2011 coverage. I’m re-running to now in conjunction with the film’s opening this weekend. You should go see it.

With her latest film, Goodbye First Love, Mia Hansen-Løve handles her subject matter of adolescent love in a way that’s remarkably free of pretense and condescension, even as her youthful characters occasionally make choices that make you want to throttle them. The story is pretty simple: 15-year-old Camille (Lola Créton) and 18-year-old Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky) are in love. Madly, desperately, in love, with an exuberance declared in the italics with which adolescents abundantly litter their emotional lives.
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Okay, Who Let the Filmmakers Have a Rifle?

Well, this one creates an interesting ethical dilemma for Tribeca Film Festival attendees who are also animal lovers/vegans/card-carrying members of PETA. Apparently two deer were illegally shot (and skinned and cooked, although that bit probably wasn’t illegal once the deer were already dead) in the filming of Tribeca Film Fest entry First Winter, about a group of Brooklyn new-age hippies/hipsters stranded in a remote farmhouse in the dead of winter with the food supply running out. And by “shot” I don’t mean “filmed,” or even “inadvertently shot by some PA screwing around with a loaded rifle.” I mean “shot” as in, the script called for a real live deer to be really shot and killed and skinned and roasted. For authenticity, I guess.

I know what my veggie and vegan friends would have to say about that … what do you say? Killing a wild animal just so you can record the killing (and skinning and roasting) for your film: Okay? Not cool, but not necessarily morally wrong? Or just flat-out ewwww?

A Kids’ Band Covering German Industrial Metal? Yes, Please.

Happy Saturday, folks! I’m on vacation in lovely Port Townsend with my pack of kids and some friends, but I came across this little bit of awesomeness this morning and knew you’d appreciate it as much as I did. This is Children Medieval Band — Stefan (10) on guitar, violin, harmonica and vocals, Olga (8) on keys, and Cornelia (5) rocking out the drums, performing a cover of Rammstein’s Sonne. Enjoy a little German industrial metal with your weekend brunch. More cuteness, less pyrotechnics than the original. 100% awesome.

Review: The Cabin in the Woods (Spoiler-Free)

All you need to know at this point is this: You should absolutely go see The Cabin in the Woods. Yes, it’s been hyped so much that you’re probably thinking, “Oh, there’s no way it’s THAT good.” Whether you end up thinking it is that good or not, to miss this film is to render yourself mute at watercooler conversations and happy hours for at least the next couple weeks. You’ll just have to stand there nodding your head and trying to pretend you know what you’re talking about every time someone says, “Oh my God, Cabin in the Woods, right?!” and you’ll say something stupid about the movie you didn’t go see, and everyone will stop talking and give you that look. You don’t want to be that guy.

This is the kind of film you could watch over and over again and still find something you missed on the previous viewings, but the first time, you really should see it knowing as little as possible. The bare bones, so to speak: We have our requisite five good-looking kids who vaguely remind you of the Scooby Gang (coin toss on which of them is Scooby): Our players are The Sporto (Chris Hemsworth), The Beauty/Slut (Anna Hutchison), The Stoner (Fran Kranz, who brilliantly manages to simultaneously evoke Shaggy and be way cooler than Shaggy), The Nice Girl/Kinda-Sorta-Almost Virgin (Kristen Connolly) and The Handsome, Nice and Brainy Guy (Jesse Williams). We have our beat-up RV standing in for the Mystery Machine, the Creepy Old Guy Who Warns Those Darn Kids to Stay Away from the Mysterious Cabin. And of course, we have the titular Cabin itself, which you have no doubt seen on the movie posters flying in the air and turning itself into some kind of puzzle box. That, my friends, is absolutely all you should know, except for this:
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In Defense of Stay-at-Home Moms. Even Ann Romney.

God knows, I don’t want to say anything that could ever be construed as supporting Mitt Romney’s candidacy for president. But this Gawker story about Mitt’s wife Ann joining Twitter to rebut CNN commentator Hilary Rosen, who said of Ms. Romney that the mother of five has “never worked a day in her life” has too much potential to backfire on the Dems to let it slide.

Ms. Romney (or, to be fair, perhaps it’s someone Tweeting on her behalf) tweet-tweet-tweeted in response:

“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.”

and

“I’ll be with @marthamaccallum this morning at 10:40 discussing Hilary Rosen’s comments. All moms are entitled to choose their path.”

Well, on this issue at least, I have to agree with Ann Romney. As a mom of five myself who has both done time as a stay-at-home mom and balanced working with having a pack of kids, I fully support women who have kids in making the choice that’s right for them. The reality is, once you go down the pregnancy path there’s no going back, and if you are both a mom and a woman who loves her job, you’re screwed no matter which choice you make. Your choices pretty much boil down to:
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On the Loss of Childhood Freedom

I was having a conversation with another mom I don’t know too well when she said something that gave me pause. She was talking about this new family that had moved in on her street, and bemoaning that the parents let their kids “run wild” and that these new kids might be a bad influence on her own kids. Run wild? That sounded interesting. Were the kids committing acts of vandalism, bullying younger kids, terrorizing the neighborhood, running around naked with paintball guns? Nope. “Running wild” meant, to this woman, that these parents allowed their kids (all ages seven and older) to ride their bikes and scooters around the neighborhood, to play in their front yard, and — horror of horrors — to sometimes play outside wearing their pajamas and sneakers. For these transgressions, this woman was pondering calling CPS to report this family.

My mind was boggled.
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Trailering Goodbye First Love

Mia Hansen-Løve, introducing her latest film Goodbye First Love at TIFF last year, warned the audience that probably this film would not be what we expected it to be, that it was not sweet or soft or sentimental, but about the pain of learning that love doesn’t last. About that she was right … like her earlier film, Father of My Children, Goodbye First Love is often bleak and brooding and occasionally surprising; it’s also intimate and smart, honest and perceptive. The film opens April 20 in limited release, before becoming available nationwide through Sundance Selects VOD.

Here’s my review of the film from TIFF 2011.

And here’s the trailer.