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Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

​So, you say you wanna meet Drew Barrymore -- have ever since E.T. or maybe since she gave Dave Letterman a birthday surprise? Well, this week you get your chance: She's doing a meet-and-greet at Urban Outfitters in Mockingbird Station on Wednesday. But, of course, it's first come, first served, so how to get served. Well ... wristbands for the how-do will be handed out beginning at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday; Barrymore will stroll the, um, red carpet 'round 7ish. At that time, the folks behind the visit have wrangled quite the perfect li'l stunt: Barrymore, who's in town to promote her directorial debut, the shot-in-Austin roller-grrrl Whip It, will be made an "official" Dallas Derby Devil. Then, at 7:15, the autograph free-for-all will ensure. You've been warned: Bring your own helmet.Incidentally, one of the best things about Whip It is Andrew Wilson -- right, Bottle Rocket's Future Man. Turns out, he may be the most talented of the Wilson brothers after all.

​The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association just released its tops-o'-2009 list; it follows in full after the jump. But, first, this teaser: Dodging critical conventional wisdom that has put Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker at the top of most critics' polls, the DFWCA instead opted to follow the National Board of Review and go with Jason Reitman's adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel Up in the Air. The American Airlines informercial wouldn't have been my first choice, even though I quite liked it; my personal-faves list features only four of the DFWCA's Top 10, matter of fact, which isn't why I don't vote in this poll. (Mostly, I just get busy with year-end stuff for the paper version of Unfair Park, which runs next week, and just forget.)The DFWCA also voted Clooney as Best Actor (sorry, but the failure to even list A Serious Man's Michael Stuhlbarg among the top four favorites is just wrong). And, surprise, the DFWCA tapped Reitman as best director. Now jump. But mind the minefield.

Katie ScullanPrimer director Shane Carruth with Brick-layer Rian Johnson at the Magnolia in May​Speaking of best-of film lists ...A Friend of Unfair Park forwards along this Irish Times piece, in which critic Donald Clarke lists his Top 20 Films of the Noughties. And right there, at No. 20, is Shane Carruth's masterful mindfuck Primer, winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Drama Prize way back in January 2004. Writes Clarke of Primer, for which some viewers might want to consult this handy-dandy time line, "Astonishingly knotty time-travel drama made for next to nothing. Director Shane Carruth has yet to reappear."Course, the Friends of Unfair Park will recall that we did, in fact, spend the night with the recently moved-to-Frisco Carruth at the Magnolia in May, where he spoke at great length about his follow-up. (If it ever gets made, and it absolutely should, his sophomore effort has to potential to make Primer look like a sitcom pilot.) Primer, incidentally, also appears on this list of The Best Science Fiction Films of the Decade: "The hard edged reality of Primer lends itself to intense personal drama and as the situation escalates in ways that will be criminal to spoil for those who haven't seen it. We feel the pain of our protagonists in a real and horrible way."Bonus: Here's Friend of Unfair Park Mark Allen's guide to Primer's filming locations. And, for those who forgot Primer's power, the trailer follows.

Up writer-director Pete Docter will be honored during the Dallas International Film Festival.​I just returned from a South by Southwest screening to find in the in-box the latest batch of films from the Dallas International Film Festival, which you'll find after the jump and we'll get to in a second. But first thing's first.The Film Festival Formerly Known as AFI Dallas International also sent word that Pete Docter has been named this year's recipient of the Tex Avery Award, so named, of course, for the North Dallas High School grad and animation legend. Good timing too, what with Toy Story 3 opening later this year -- Docter was among the writers of the first Toy Story (and is often considered Buzz Lightyear's "alter-ego") -- and Up, which he wrote and directed, the Best Animated Feature favorite going into this weekend's Oscars. (As a personal aside, Docter's also responsible for my favorite Pixar film: Monsters Inc.)So, now, to the films, which include the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition A Surprise in Texas, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Winter's Bone, local filmmaker Clay Liford's Earthling and The Dry Land starring Ugly Betty's America Ferrera. Unfair Park has learned that Ferrera will attend the fest -- which makes her the first confirmed guest a month away from the Dallas International Film Festival's April 8 kick-off. The full list of films announced today follows; here as well are the first 10 titles announced last month.

Back in August 2007 we directed your attention to a doc-in-progress about Robert Crawford -- or, right, Bob as he's known in East Dallas and 'round downtown. (Schutze knows him as "Bob with the keyboard.") Looks like the movie about the New Hampshire native and "spiritual savant" is finally finished: Though we've yet to get a list of movies playing in the USA Film Festival, which kicks off at the end of April at the Angelika, Christina Hughes Babb notes that it's been accepted into the fest. Here, then, the most recent trailer.

Back in August 2007 we directed your attention to a doc-in-progress about Robert Crawford -- or, right, Bob as he's known in East Dallas and 'round downtown. (Schutze knows him as "Bob with the keyboard.") Looks like the movie about the New Hampshire native and "spiritual savant" is finally finished: Though we've yet to get a list of movies playing in the USA Film Festival, which kicks off at the end of April at the Angelika, Christina Hughes Babb notes that it's been accepted into the fest. Here, then, the most recent trailer.