Top Stories Dallas

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.

​In the paper version of Unfair Park that hits stands today, you'll find a review of Leaves of Grass, written and directed by Oklahoma native Tim Blake Nelson and starring, in duel roles, Edward Norton. I liked it much more than our Jim Hoberman, who reviewed the movie about an Ivy League prof (Norton) lured home to tend to his twin bro's pot-growing business while he deals with bidness in Tulsa.  Me, I think it a clever cross between the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple and A Serious Man (or, in other words, A Seriously Bloody Man).But, forget all that: Leaves of Grass -- which was scheduled to open this week only in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York and Austin -- has just been shelved till later in the year, meaning it was too late to pull the review before the paper went to press. The reason for the delay: According to the film's local publicist, it's has been picked up by a so-far unnamed investor who wants to give it a bigger push than initially planned. More details are expected in a press release tomorrow.So, then, why was Dallas among the sole cities getting such a significant release? When I interviewed the two men at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin two weeks ago, Nelson and Norton said that, well, as a matter of fact Blockbuster had picked up the film for exclusive home-video distribution. And when they came to Dallas earlier this month to promote the film, they even stopped by the downtown HQ to visit with CEO Jim Keyes. But, said the two men, Blockbuster wasn't the only reason for the Dallas release date ...

​According to the Internet Movie Database, there are three movies named Spooked: This 2004 entry starring Cliff Curtis ("... about the mysterious death of a New Zealander who happened upon international banking records after purchasing a used computer"), a 2005 short (about a teenager "spooked by a vision of his doppelganger") and what appears to be a 2006 made-for-SciFi Channel docudrama about paranormal activity at something called Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Which didn't stop a California company called Cinema Solutions, Inc., an English investor named Roderick Michell from wanting to make yet another movie named Spooked in 2008 -- this one, they claim, with help from men in Dallas who would help them find investors.But in court documents filed in Dallas federal court yesterday, Cinema Solutions and Michell allege their money men took off with their money -- a total of $2 million, which the suit says was to be used to raise an additional $8 million. The suit, posted on Courthouse News, alleges that Joseph E. Ashmore Jr. and Allan Clark transferred the $2 mil to a Chase account, then claimed to have raised the $8 mil but refuse to turn over any of the dough. So now they want their money back. I've left a message for Ashmore -- whose name might sound familiar, as the attorney who currently offices across the street from Unfair Park HQ served as a "respected former probate judge" in Dallas County from 1975 till his retirment in '86.

​According to the Internet Movie Database, there are three movies named Spooked: This 2004 entry starring Cliff Curtis ("... about the mysterious death of a New Zealander who happened upon international banking records after purchasing a used computer"), a 2005 short (about a teenager "spooked by a vision of his doppelganger") and what appears to be a 2006 made-for-SciFi Channel docudrama about paranormal activity at something called Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Which didn't stop a California company called Cinema Solutions, Inc., an English investor named Roderick Michell from wanting to make yet another movie named Spooked in 2008 -- this one, they claim, with help from men in Dallas who would help them find investors.But in court documents filed in Dallas federal court yesterday, Cinema Solutions and Michell allege their money men took off with their money -- a total of $2 million, which the suit says was to be used to raise an additional $8 million. The suit, posted on Courthouse News, alleges that Joseph E. Ashmore Jr. and Allan Clark transferred the $2 mil to a Chase account, then claimed to have raised the $8 mil but refuse to turn over any of the dough. So now they want their money back. I've left a message for Ashmore -- whose name might sound familiar, as the attorney who currently offices across the street from Unfair Park HQ served as a "respected former probate judge" in Dallas County from 1975 till his retirment in '86.

From Chris Howell's Sweet Science, which screens again at the DIFF Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at the Angelika​Some news and notes while we wrap up some wrap-ups:On Sunday we noted that U.K. reports have Tom Hicks this close to becoming a sports-team owner without a sports team. Overseas papers insist that at any moment now, Hicks and Liverpool FC co-owner George Gillett will announce they've hired Barclays Capital to find new investors. But even before that happens, reports The Guardian today, the Royal Bank of Scotland -- to whom the twosome owe tons of pounds in debt due this summer -- is asserting its control over the club. Writes Andy Hunter, the bank, which is controlled for the most part by the government, "is to increase its control at Liverpool having insisted on the appointment of an independent chairman, Martin Broughton of British Airways, as part of its latest refinancing offer to the club's co-owners." ...And, speaking of international flights, IndieWire offers its summation of the Dallas International Film Festival so far. Seems we can agree on one thing: Despite the "international" in the title, the film's best entries thus far have been Texas-made. Writes Nigel Smith, The Dry Land -- by El Paso native Ryan Piers Williams -- was "arguably the biggest entry in this year's fest," and also one of the best. Among the homegrowns left on the schedule: repeat screenings of Thunder Soul, Earthling and Sweet Science, all must-attends ... ​So too is the first-ever World Balloon Convention coming to the downtown Sheraton this weekend, which culminates with the Festival of Balloons on Sunday. But this should be a highlight, from the press release that just landed in the in-box: "Wed., April 14 - Dee White, a United Kingdom balloon artist, will be building an enormous 'Dirk Nowitzki' in the American Airlines Plaza. By early afternoon, his creation should be taking shape." No doubt, we'll have a video ...And, speaking of, after the jump you'll find Dallas Police Department spokesperson Senior Corporal Janice Crowther in the latest episode of First Watch, which isn't as funny as The Good Guys. Course, that's not the point: Crowther here explains when you can and can't be fined for using your wireless device in a school zone. The signs have it.