A Wednesday clip show, with the Swell Season, J. Edgar and more

Actually, before we get into any of that, there's a bit of news out there this morning, starting off with an "Arrested Development" reunion of sorts ... but no, of course not the one fans have been waiting for.

I'd certainly advise not, if you ever were, holding your breath for any kind of "Arrested Development" movie any time, well, ever, but the entire cast is apparently coming together at the New Yorker Festival for "A Bluth Family Reunion."

If you're lucky enough to be in in NYC, definitely try and snag a ticket for this Oct. 2 event (they go on sale at noon today at the New Yorker's website) that will indeed feature Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter and series creator Mitchell Hurwitz. Color me jealous.

And along with an "Arrested Development" movie, another thing that I'd like to see that now probably won't happen, or at least not in any form worth watching, is a "Bad Santa 2." I'd think more antics involving Billy Bob Thornton's truly foul Father Christmas, the even funnier Tony Cox and hopefully Lorelai Gilmore too would be an easy sell, but writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have apparently spurned an offer to do that for something else that could be a lot of fun.

Jumping on an idea from Steve Carell, they've apparently, according to Moviehole, already written the script for "one of these three friends from college, but now they’re in their 40s, movies. They’re going on a European backpacking trip that they never did. And it’s filled with all this middle-aged fun.”

Actually, sounds like exactly the dreadful kind of dreck that would star John Travolta and Tim Allen, but these are some seriously funny writers, so I'll keep an open mind. Stay tuned ...

And in the last bit of news, you can always sell me on Jeremy Renner in a good heist movie, so here's hoping this will be another one. In "King of Heists" (the movie's got to be better than that title, at least), based on the nonfiction book by J. North Conway, he's set to star as the mastermind of "the greatest bank robbery in American history," which took place on October 27, 1878, when thieves broke into the Manhattan Savings Institution and stole nearly $3 million in cash and securities — around $50 million in today’s terms.

OK, now on to the clips, and there's certainly no better place to start than with the first and only trailer I know of for what should be a truly sweet little music documentary about the Swell Season, aka the duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. If those names sound at least vaguely familiar to you, they should, since they were the stars of John Carney's thoroughly charming little romance "Once," which you should rent immediately as soon as you can find it. The doco charts their own path from true-life romance to the Oscars and more, and it should be well worth watching if you're lucky enough to catch this when it comes out in October. Enjoy the trailer.



Next up indeed comes the first full trailer I know of for "J.Edgar," director Clint Eastwood's upcoming biopic on the first FBI director with the rather colorful personal life. I've made my distaste for many of Eastwood's directing efforts clear in this space before, so I can't help but thinking in watching this that it's going to be plenty broad, but not much more than skin deep. And besides, with that aging makeup, Leo DiCaprio just looks creepy. It does, however, have a script from "Milk" scribe Dustin Lance Black, so I'd love to be proved wrong when this comes out Nov. 9. Enjoy the trailer.



Coincidentally enough, I have "Rumble in the Bronx" sitting on my DVR, probably for watching tonight. That's the last Jackie Chan movie I can remember just loving unconditionally, and really the last one in which he hasn't seemed to play some silly form of spy/babysitter/supercop hybrid. The trailer below, on the other hand, for a movie titled "1911" which he apparently co-directed, promises something more serious and hopefully still fun, too. A historical epic about the founding of the Republic of China, it's set to open in at least some American cities on Oct. 12, so keep an eye out for it, and enjoy the trailer.



OK, shifting a bit to TV, the MTV Movies site has a short interview with "Games of Thrones" producers D.B. Weiss and David Benoiff from the Emmys red carpet, and while it doesn't reveal much about season two, I'm certainly jonesing for it, so I'll take what I can get. Since season one was so entirely, but still very entertainingly, by the first book by George R.R. Martin, I've avoided reading any more of the books so I can be surprised from here on out. When will we get a season two on HBO? All I know is next spring, but hopefully by March or so. Bring it on already!

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

And finally today, though I haven't watched "Today" in any form except on "The Soup" for about 25 years or so, I'm a sucker for any interview with the truly inspiring Roger Ebert, so enjoy this interview he did with Matt Lauer to promote his new memoir, "Life Itself." There's not much I can say about this that Roger himself doesn't say much better, so I'll just leave it at that. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

P.S.: If you really made it this far, you certainly deserve a reward, so here goes: NPR is streaming the new Wilco album "The Whole Love" here, and it's well worth a listen.

Details emerge about Roger Ebert's new show, plus the first look at "Water for Elephants"

As with many things that don't come immediately to my fairly little burg when it's promised to be "opening at a theater near you," we won't be getting the return of "Roger Ebert Presents At The Movies" in its first-run airings. Nards.

I'm still fairly certain that we'll still get it within a week or so of its initial airing in Atlanta, and with, according to Ebert at least, "81 percent" national coverage and the top 20 markets all getting this in first-run, most of the country will get to see this, and that can only be a great thing.

Before being resurrected from the ashes by Ebert and returned to its public TV beginnings, the "At the Movies" franchise was terminated by Disney after a rather impressive run. Now, with Ebert in charge and, of course, the show airing at truly God-awful times (more on that below), here's hoping it will at least find a limited audience for a five-year run or so.

When it makes its debut on some stations on Jan. 21, it will return to the simple thumbs up/thumbs down format, but seems to have lost one co-host. Christy Lemire of the AP, who likes odd movies and deplores by-the-numbers romantic comedies,which I can certainly appreciate, will still make up one half of the main duo of hosts. Elvis Mitchell, however, who starred on the pilot they released earlier this year, has apparently left, which is a real bummer.

As for who will step into that slot, you'll know when I do, and for a complete list of when and where "Roger Ebert Presents At The Movies" will makes its debut, check out this pdf.

And all I have after that today is the first trailer I know of for "Water for Elephants," which is based on one of my all-time favorite novels. Thankfully, the movie is coming out fairly soon, April 15, so definitely keep an eye out for it.

As you'll see from the trailer, I think they got the casting just about perfect. The story, a rather grand bit of historic and romantic fiction, tells the story of Jacob Jankowski, a veterinary student who leaves school and finds work tending to the animals of the Benzini Brothers Circus. There, he becomes involved in a rather steamy love triangle with the beautiful horse lady Marlena and her husband, the brutal head animal trainer August.

Already known was that one Robert Pattinson would play Jacob (fair enough), Reese Witherspoon plays Marlena (even better) and Christoph Waltz plays the often maniacal August (just about perfect). What I didn't know until this morning, however, is that, best of all, the truly great Hal Holbrook plays the narrator of this tale, the elder Jacob from his nursing home. I really can't see anyway this flick, being directed by Francis Lawrence ("I Am Legend," among other things), should be anything short of fantastic (at least if it is, I'll be rather sorely disappointed). Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Thumbs way up ... Ebert's "At the Movies" coming back to life!

I never should have believed that, having survived the cancer that robbed him of his natural voice, a simple cancellation by Disney would be enough to keep Roger Ebert or "At the Movies" down.

Indeed, as announced appropriately enough in the Chicago Sun Times, "Roger Ebert Presents At The Movies" will be coming to PBS - where Ebert and the late, great Gene Siskel got their TV start way back in 1975 - in January, and he's lined up two fantastic hosts. The show will be hosted chiefly by the Associated Press' Christy Lemire and NPR's Elvis Mitchell, with further contributions from Kim Morgan and Omar Moore.

Though by force we mostly run reviews by Roger Moore in the newspaper that still pays my bills (although he's a very good writer, the "by force" is that he's also very fast and we have an early deadline), I always try and wait to get my hands on Lemire's reviews, because she always delivers strong opinions with a hearty splash of wit. I also like that, as you'll see from the preview clip below, she's a woman who both rails against by-the-numbers romantic comedies but embraces great female directors like Nicole Holofcener, while at the same convincingly raving about odd choices like "Piranha 3D" and "The Last Exorcism."

As for Mitchell, I haven't kept up with his work like I should recently, but I used to love his writing for The New York Times. Together, as you'll again see in the preview below as they discuss Holofcener's "Please Give," which I haven't had the pleasure of seeing yet, they have a natural banter that, while not quite Siskel & Ebert caliber, should at least make them worthy successors.

Perhaps best of all, Ebert will be appearing with his computer voice in a weekly segment called "Roger's Office," most often, I'd have to guess, giving his thumb's up to movies that otherwise wouldn't get much play at all anywhere on TV. Here's what Roger himself had to say about the new endeavour:

"This is the rebirth of a dream. I believe that by returning to its public roots, our new show will win better and more consistent time slots in more markets. American television is swamped by mindless gossip about celebrities, and I'm happy this show will continue to tell viewers honestly if the critics think a new movie is worth seeing."

One definite advantage of returning to PBS (assuming the yarnheads at GPTV are smart enough to pick this up) is that it should have a set air time each week, something the show was often sorely lacking when it was handled by the Tribune company and then Disney.

Definitely keep an eye out for this starting in January. I know I will, because "Sneak Previews" with Siskel and Ebert debuted when I was 5 years old, and I've enjoyed Ebert's insightful and always entertaining reviews ever since (or at least since I was old enough to understand them.) Enjoy this preview for the new show, in which Lemire and Mitchell dish on "Iron Man 2" (solid thumbs down, and I heartily agree) and "Please Give" (a split decision), and then feel free to stick around for a couple more videos that caught my eye this morning.



OK, if something this mawkish-looking were coming from, say, M. Night Shyamalan, I'd probably just say no immediately, but I'd say Clint Eastwood has at least earned the benefit of the doubt by now. And besides, I've seen his last flick, "Gran Torino," three times now, and it just keeps getting better each time. As you'll see from this first trailer, Eastwood's next flick, "Hereafter," stars Matt Damon as some kind of reluctant psychic and deals with all kinds of weighty life-and-death issues (hey, it is fall, right?). Enjoy the clip and keep an eye out for "Hereafter" beginning in at least some cities Oct. 22.



And finally today, a dose of silliness that's just about right for a Saturday morning (even if it's a Saturday on which I have to work - nards.) I've said here plenty of times before that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor I'd watch do just about anything, and he certainly puts that to the test by performing Lady GaGa's "Bad Romance" for his Hitrecord.org cohorts. It's actually pretty darn good, and guaranteed to at least make you smile a little, which is really the right way to leave things today. Peace out.

A "new" Christopher Nolan flick before "Inception"? Bring it on!

There are many, many reasons to subscribe to Roger Ebert's seemingly more than monthly newsletter, but the two best are that it, after all, only costs $4.99 a year, and, even better, it's always chock full of goodies like the trailer teased above and found at the end of this post. To subscribe, click here.

But before I get to that, however, it's a fairly full day of good news, starting out with, if it comes together, what would have to make just about the funnest movie trilogy ever, although I'll concede far from the best (an argument for that one would have to be made for "Toy Story," because the third chapter is indeed just that good.)

There are few subgenres of movie I love more than the baseball flick, so it makes me nothing but giddy to hear writer/director David S. Ward talk about the possibility of another "Major League." He's told Moviehole.net that he's already written a "Major League 3" script and will be talking to the Morgan Creek movie company next week about how to proceed. Here's what he had to say about the story:

"It's 20 years later, and Wild Thing comes out of retirement to work with this 19-year-old player. We've actually got three new characters in the new film. And if the new film is popular, they could carry the franchise on."

Just thinking about that made me smile, and Ward added that he's already spoken to the "Wild Thing" himself, Charlie Sheen, about this. When and if he's on board, I can't imagine it would be to hard to get Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen and perhaps even Wesley "Willie Mays Hayes" Snipes too. Make this happen!

And in two other tidbits about directors I really like, Ruben Fleischer, who begins shooting his "Zombieland" follow-up, "30 Minutes or Less," next month, has now already set up the movie he plans to direct after that, and it comes from a great comedy source in scribe Mike White.

He's signed on with Columbia Pictures to direct "Babe in the Woods," which, from a script by White, will be an action-comedy centering on a female freshman from the Midwest who arrives at Yale and becomes a target of the New Jersey mob.

That sounds like it could be funny enough, but what he's doing before that should be better. "30 Minutes or Less" stars veryfunnyguys Aziz Ansari and Danny McBride, and will have to be a dark comedy, since it's about two fledgling criminals who kidnap a pizza delivery driver and strap a bomb to his chest to force him to rob a bank within 30 minutes.

Another director who I'm glad works very quickly of late is David Cronenberg, who is now shooting "The Dangerous Method" but has also already signed for the project that would follow that.

Pajiba is reporting he'll direct an adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel "As She Climbed Across the Table," and from the description I've seen of the story, it sounds twisted enough to be right up Cronenberg's alley. It centers on Professor Phillip Engstrand, who is in love with particle physicist Alice Coombs. Unfortunately for Phillip, Alice is in love with “The Lack” – a selective black hole (I hate it when that happens) – leaving Phillip to basically compete with nothingness for her affection.

As for what he's filming now, "A Dangerous Method" (formerly known as "The Talking Cure," which would have been better), it's about a feud that developed between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) over the treatment of a patient (Keira Knightley, though as far as I know it's not for anorexia - sorry, I couldn't resist.) That sounds like nothing but fascinating to me.

OK, as we get to the videos, it is indeed all about Christopher Nolan from here on out, starting with the best featurette I've seen yet for "Inception," which is finally set to come out July 16. Be warned, as it sort of introduces the characters, it contains more spoilers than what's come out before, so click it with that warning. Enjoy.



And finally, getting back to the lead, IFC On Demand, which I and probably you can get through your digital cable or whatever you subscribe to for TV, will be screening "Following," Christopher Nolan's first feature film, starting July 7. So, what's it about? Here goes, per the Ebert Club newsletter:

"Out of boredom and frustration, an unemployed writer (Jeremy Theobald) picks strangers at random from the crowded streets of London and then follows them to see where they go, and how they spend their days. Reasoning that he's gathering material for the fictional characters in his writing, he begins following the same people more than once, curious to learn more about them; a rule he'd promised himself not to break. That was his first mistake. But then he teams up with a burglar Cobb (Alex Hawk) and breaks into the apartment of a mysterious blonde (Lucy Russell), with whom he is fascinated. And slowly begins to find out that things may not be as they seem."

Sounds like a mindbender tailormade to Nolan to me, so I'll definitely be tuning in. Enjoy the trailer below, and if you'll excuse me now, the second half of U.S.A. v. Algeria really demands my undivided attention now. Peace out.

Reger Ebert's dead right: 3-D just sucks (insert your own funny noun here)

In case anyone's wondering, I'm well aware that there really is nothing that Roger Ebert - and much, much less me - can do to stop the extremely profitable plague that is 3-D, but the world is still just a little better place because he keeps trying.

In what I have to assume is the most recent issue of Newsweek, the estimable film critic for the Chicago Sun Times outlines extremely rational and convincing reasons why 3-D just sucks so hard (though he doesn't put it quite that way, of course.) It's very well worth reading his entire piece, which you can do here, but I've taken the liberty of reprinting his lead, which just about nails things very economically:

3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches. It is driven largely to sell expensive projection equipment and add a $5 to $7.50 surcharge on already expensive movie tickets. Its image is noticeably darker than standard 2-D. It is unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness. It limits the freedom of directors to make films as they choose. For moviegoers in the PG-13 and R ranges, it only rarely provides an experience worth paying a premium for.

He pretty much states his entire case there, but it's still worth reading his full explanation. I'd just like to mention the two aspects of 3-D that just drive me batty, even more than the fact that it arbitrarily costs more (and more, just wait.)

The main point, which Ebert elaborates on, is that 3-D is indeed just an imagination slaughterer. Movies are meant to take you away, if only for a little while, from whatever is upsetting in your actual life. You, or at least I, can dive completely into the world unveiled in front of you, and further create it in your mind as a fully fleshed-out universe. Given that, why in the world would you want a computer to artificially do this for you? It just robs you of much of the moviegoing experience, so in my mind, it should cost less, not more, to watch. 'Nuff said.

A second point that Ebert addresses and I agree with wholeheartedly is that 3-D movies are indeed more than a bit "dim," especially the animated ones. The perfect case in point is "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," just about the very last animated movie I'll ever see in 3-D for this reason. I watched it in 3-D first, and while it was very funny and still entertaining, it appeared to be filled with giant scoops of gray ice cream and beige pizza. Who wants that? Fully aware that it makes the first viewing a waste of money, I went back a week later and watched the movie in glorious 2-D, and the colors really just exploded off the screen. It was just a much more enjoyable experience. For that reason, I'm through with 3-D animation from anyone working now except for Henry Selick, who proved with "Coraline" that he knows how to use it to genuinely enhance the experience.

Ebert offered a technical reason for this a**-awful phenomenon:

Lenny Lipton is known as the father of the electronic stereoscopic-display industry. He knows how films made with his systems should look. Current digital projectors, he writes, are "intrinsically inefficient. Half the light goes to one eye and half to the other, which immediately results in a 50 percent reduction in illumination."

Why in the world would you pay MORE for that? OK, enough about that. Definitely take the time to read Ebert's essay, and I'll leave you with a very funny mashup of "Seinfeld" that reimagines George's life as a seriously dramatic Hollywood movie. Just about perfect. Peace out.

What's more fun, Jane Lynch voguing or hot chicks doing "On the Waterfont"? You decide

In the only thing even approaching news you'll find here this morning, it seems that HBO has already renewed David Simon's "Treme" for a second season after only one episode, and bully to that.

The premiere drew 1.4 million viewers in its combined airings, pretty far from sensational, but still better than the 890,000 or so viewers that the five season premieres of "The Wire" averaged (what in the world does everyone else watch on TV?)

Even so, this isn't much of a surprise. HBO has shown tremendous loyalty to Simon through the years, and if you watched the premiere of "Treme," he does indeed have something magical working here. I will say, though, that the premiere certainly moved at a leisurely pace as it introduced the large roster of characters. It was, however, great to see Kermit Ruffins on TV, and my favorite character so far has to be Kim Dickens' restaurateur, but Melissa Leo and John Goodman (man, does he just keep getting bigger and bigger?) will certainly have a lot to work with too.

And in a smidgen more of HBO news before we get to a trio of videos that are guaranteed to brighten up even the dreariest of Wednesdays, it seems that Diane Keaton has just signed on to play a character based on Nikki Finke for a new half-hour comedy titled "Tilda." And if you don't know who Nikki Finke is, congratulations, because that's probably a sign that you - unlike me - have better things to do with your lives than read her drivel on Deadline Hollyood Daily. She's a movie writer of sorts, but mostly just the most annoying kind of gadfly, and certainly a fun role for Keaton to play with.

OK, after that today it's all about funny videos. If you didn't watch the return of "Glee" last night, well, everyone makes mistakes, but it's not about judgment around here. If you did, you'll probably agree it was pretty great, but the musical numbers were the most underwhelming part. That shouldn't be a problem next seek with the "The Power of Madonna" episode. If you stuck around until the end last night, you got Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) doing Madonna's "Vogue," and when it comes to comedy, it just doesn't get much funnier than this. Enjoy.



Thanks to a heads up from Nell Minow, I now subscribe to Roger Ebert's slightly more than monthly newsletter, and I can recommend it to anyone who loves movies. He mostly posts videos that people send him, but they're also almost always very entertaining, as is the case here. Subscriptions cost just $4.99 a year, and without further ado, here indeed are hot chicks doing "On the Waterfront." Enjoy.



And finally today, the sound on this isn't great, but this handheld spy clip from the opening night of Conan O'Brien's "Prohibited From Being Funny" tour shows just how much of a misnomer that is. The opening video introduction is at least watchable, and is vintage CoCo, but unfortunately, once he takes the stage the audio just becomes atrocious. Still worth watching, however, especially now that we now O'Brien will be returning to late night this fall every Monday-Thursday on TBS. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly bearable Wednesday. Peace out.

At the Movies may be dead, but Roger Ebert's plotting TV comeback

Actually, before I get into any of that, there's at least one bit of actual movie news out there that just made me smile.

If there's one sequel I could get completely behind, it would certainly be an "Eastern Promises 2," especially since all the key components will be there for the second go-round.

Indeed, Deadline Hollywood is reporting it will be a reunion of star Viggo Mortensen, director David Cronenberg and scribe Steven Knight, who wrote the script for the engaging original. The only things missing so far are Naomi Watts and any mention of just what direction this new gangster tale from London's extremely seedy underbelly will take.

And in the meantime, Cronenberg and Mortensen are about to team up once again for "The Talking Cure," which will examine the intense relationship between Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) and Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), and how their treatment effected one particular patient played by Keira Knightley (and no, as far as I know, it's not a treatment for anorexia.)

The world is certainly a better place with David Cronenberg working steadily in it, so having this set to begin filming in May and hopefully an Eastern Promises sequel to begin shortly after is nothing but good news.

But beyond that, the very best news out there today is that Roger Ebert has announced on his always entertaining blog that he plans a return to reviewing movies on TV. When it was announced this week that "At the Movies" would be dying after this season, I kind of just shrugged, because admittedly I've tuned in only intermittently at best ever since Gene Siskel died (I just can't stand that damn Richard Roeper!) But a new show starring Ebert again is one I'll actively seek out every week once this comes together, no matter where it gets buried in the syndication schedule (my money's on fairly early Sunday morning or late Saturday night.)

Ebert said he's deep into negotiations for a show that would be called "Roger Ebert Presents at the Movies," the thumbs would (of course) return, and that he's held video tests with several potential hosts and knows who will fill the role (I'd certainly be more than willing to audition!) Unfortunately, given what cancer has done to his voice, I can't imagine Ebert will be a regular co-host himself, but he promised to have an active role, with "great movies segments or wrapups from Cannes or Toronto."

And, in the spirit for which I've always loved his writing, Ebert embraced the new endeavor with his usual enthusiasm:

We'll also go New Cinema. Not just the One Weekend Wonders, although you gotta have 'em, but indie films, foreign films, documentaries, restored classics, the new Herzog, the new Bahrani, the new Almodovar. What's new on Instant Streaming. What great movies should everyone see? Hey, Paramount just announced $1 million for ten $100,000 movies. Those kinds of films. What kind of a real movie lover cares who has the "exclusive" first trailer in the newest extrusion of the "Transformer" franchise? It's time to smarten up.

Stay tuned for details about just what shape this will take. I can still remember the moment I fell in love with Siskel and Ebert. It was when they - Ebert especially - so eagerly embraced "Hoop Dreams" at a time when I was just first starting to figure out for myself that it takes all kinds of movies to make the world a fun place. Amazingly, thanks to the power of YouTube, we can watch that again today. I'll leave you with a portion of that, and I'm off to go see "Hot Tub Time Machine" instead of "How to Train Your Dragon" because I'm so angry about them raising 3-D prices that I've decided to give those crooks as little of my money as I can manage to. Peace out.

See Roger Ebert speak - and I defy you not to weep

Roger Ebert has certainly issued some dubious reviews during his long career (I rented "Knowing" on his advice, and man are those two hours or so I'd desperately like to have back), but you certainly can't deny he has an irresistible passion for movies.

I first fell in love with his work when I saw him on TV with the late, great Gene Siskel reviewing "Hoop Dreams." I had never heard of the movie at the time, and neither had I then or since heard someone just get so incredibly amped up about a single movie (and this time, thankfully, he was dead right.)

Recently, of course, Ebert has been suffering from cancer that has left him unable to say much of anything. Leave it to Oprah, of course, to land his return to speaking - with the help of modern technology - as he did on yesterday's show about Sunday night's Oscars.

Below is a clip of him with his wife, Chaz, unveiling his new voice tool for the first time - followed by, at least until it gets pulled down, the first portion of his Oprah appearance. And, like I said, I defy you to not get at least a little choked up when watching this, as I surely did this morning. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.

Viva Aviva Kempner .. the 10 or so movies I want to see in Rehoboth

OK, so it may not be a terribly glamorous affair, but the upcoming Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival, returning from Nov. 11-15, are easily my favorite days of the whole year (sad, perhaps, but it's just a really fun time.)

As per usual, this year they're presenting about 100 films - features, documentaries and shorts - that cover all kinds of subjects. The marquee flicks are probably a certain documentary that I'll mention later (for a hint, I'm listening to the White Stripes in concert at Meriweather Post Pavilion right now courtesy of NPR, which you can too by clicking here) and "The Messenger," starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. I think I'll pass on the latter because I simply can't handle another Iraq war movie.

And the reason for the title of this post? They're showing an Aviva Kempner movie! Kempner is the director of my favorite baseball movie, making it one of my favorite movies overall too, "The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg." She's back with a new flick screening at Rehoboth, so I'm rather psyched to see it. Here are the 10 movies I think I'll try to squeeze into, in order only of the order I'll hopefully see them.

"United Red Army"
This one sounds like more than a bit of an endurance fest at just more than three hours, but the subject is simply fascinating. This docudrama in three chapters about the United Red Army student group that sprouted up in Japan to protest the war in Vietnam before turning on itself in increasingly sinister ways should be very compelling (and at three hours, it damn well better be.)

"Terribly Happy"
I know it's a publicist's job to set the bar high, but they've really done it by comparing this Danish thriller/dark comedy to the work of the Coen brothers. It probably won't reach those heights, but I guess it worked, because they've convinced me to take a chance on this flick about a police officer who - following a nervous breakdown - transfers to a small Danish town and becomes mixed up with a married femme fatale.

"Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg"
This is probably the movie I'm most looking forward to at Rehoboth, both because it's directed by Kempner and because of the fascinating subject matter. It's a documentary about Gertrude Berg, Jewish radio star of "The Goldbergs" and later one of the first TV sitcoms by the same name. I had never heard of her, but my parents can remember listening to her on the radio, so this should just be a delight.

"It Might Get Loud"
It's two music documentaries to close out Friday, and with this one, I can only say "I certainly hope so." Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge are the subject of this documentary by Davis Guggenheim ("An Inconvenient Truth"), and I have a feeling it may well sell out very quickly, but here's hoping I get to see it. I've always thought Jack White was Jimmy Page's son anyway.

"Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love"
I usually raise my eyebrows in disgust when pop stars try to be more than exactly that, but it's impossible to not be impressed with what Youssou Ndour has done in Senegal. With his "Egypt" album he created quite a stir in the Muslim world as he found new fans outside it, and this documentary chronicling that time should be great.

"Jury Duty"
The country focus at this year's festival is Japan, so I'll work in a couple more of those as I move into Saturday, but first comes this French psychological drama because, well, no one does that subgenre better than the French. In this Edouard Niermans flick, a French man rapes and kills a young woman and then finds himself picked to serve on the jury for the trial of the young Algerian man accused of the crime. As I read that plot description, I'd have to think this will be remade into an American thriller fairly soon.

"Still Walking"
Though I fully realize that "Yi Yi" is a Chinese film by the unfortunately late Edward Yang, that's the first movie I thought of when I heard the story of this little Japanese flick, which made me pick it out of the lineup. This "meditation on family" (according to the festival program) from director Hirokazu Kore-eda is about a Yokohama family gathering for their annual remembrance of the death of a son who died 15 years earlier while attempting to save a drowning child. Despite that rather morose storyline, there's apparently plenty of humor and heart too, so I'm in.

"Sita Sings the Blues"
It seems like more than a year ago when I saw an article in which Roger Ebert called this one of the most amazing animated movies he had ever seen, and that's enough to lure me in. Created by Nina Paley entirely on her home computer, it weaves together Indian stories with the tale of a breakup in San Francisco (I'm probably doing the story a horrible injustice with that summation) for what should be a wild mix.

"Departures"
A movie about death at 9 p.m. is really testing the ability of this clearly middle-aged dude to keep his eyes open, but this still intrigued me. The Japanese flick from director Yojiro Takita won the Oscar this year for Best Foreign Film, and it is about a man who enters the field of "encoffining," the ritual preparation of a corpse before cremation, after he loses his job. These Japanese really like cheery stuff, don't they?

"The Baader Meinhof Complex"
OK, were into Sunday morning, and it seems appropriate to frame the venture with two docudramas about political movements that went seriously awry, so I'll close out the weekend with this one (unless I squeeze in an "audience favorite" Sunday afternoon - entirely possible.) Also in reaction to what was seen as American imperialism, Baader and Meinhof launched a movement in Germany that had humane goals but used extremely inhumane means to achieve them.

And there you have it. Ten or 11 movies in four days? Yes, it's quite a bit, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Mi hermano and I are tentatively planning on going to the Toronto International Film Festival for a week or so next year, but for now, Rehoboth is as good as it gets for me. If you happen to know more about foreign and independent movies than I do (and I'm sure many, many people do), please feel free to peruse this pdf program for the festival and make any recommendations for movies I may have wrongly overlooked, and of course, please go see "Where the Wild Things Are" this weekend, as I will tomorrow morning. Peace out.

P.S.: Listening to it now once again, I really think The White Stripes' "We're Going to Be Friends" is just one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

"Express" aisle: My top 10 favorite sports flicks

Coincidentally enough, a look at the credits for last night's premiere of "Life on Mars" revealed it was directed by Gary Fleder, who also directed this week's "The Express," the inspiration for this list. I haven't bothered to tune in for any cop shows in the last 10 years or so except for "The Wire," but I think this one just might be a winner, based on both the rather remarkable cast (Harvey Keitel, Gretchen Mol and Michael Imperioli, among others) and fairly innovative story about a cop who does the time warp back to 1973.

And I'm fairly certain I've done a list of at least my favorite baseball movies before, which could certainly also go to more than 10. For this list encompassing all sports (and two flicks that arguably aren't about sports at all), I found I had to leave off a full four boxing movies that just missed the cut ("Requiem for a Heavyweight", "Someone Up There Likes Me" [in honor of Paul Newman], "The Hurricane" and "Raging Bull.") Given that caveat, here are my 10 favorite sports movies, and as always, please feel free to add any of your favorites among the many, many flicks I have snubbed.

"The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg"
Even more than boxing movies, I just love flicks about baseball, and this doco was directed with clear love for a great man by Aviva Kempner. Without taking away AT ALL from what Jackie Robinson accomplished, it will really open your eyes when you see what hammerin' Hank had to go through as the first great Jewish player to slug for the Detroit Tigers.

"Hoop Dreams"
I can still remember watching Roger Ebert just go gaga for this flick when it first came out, and it's almost as good as his orgasmic review made it sound. Spike Lee's fictionalized version "He Got Game" is pretty good too, but it just can't pack as much punch as this true story of two Chicago kids who dream of playing in the NBA.

"Bend it Like Beckham"
Silly? Sure, but also just a heck of a lot of fun. I had to check the IMDB to see what in the world ever happened to director Gurinder Chadha after she made this flick about two girls (Keira Knightley back when she used to eat and Parminder Nagra of "ER" fame) who just want to play soccer and the extremely fun "Bride and Prejudice." It turns out she did indeed manage to direct a feature film in 2008, called "Angus, Thongs and Snogging," which will be added to my Netflix queue at the first opportunity.

"Vision Quest"
Like Matthew Modine, I had visions of becoming a wrestler in high school, but I never took it nearly as serious as he did or got to have Linda Fiorentino hanging around to inspire me. Sure, this one might be an adolescent fantasy, but it's also just a very entertaining flick.

"Eight Men Out"
Granted, "Field of Dreams" (which was on this list before I cut it back to 10 titles) is a much sweeter take on the story of Joe Jackson, but the real story is also very compelling as told by director Jon Sayles with help from John Cusack, John Mahoney, Charlie Sheen, DB Sweeney (as shoeless Joe himself, David Strathairn and even Michael Rooker and Gordon Clapp of "NYPD Blue" (the only cop show I regularly tuned in for between "Homicide" and "The Wire.")

"The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings"
Ben "Cooter" Jones (yes, that Cooter) stopped by our office about two weeks ago to promote his new book about his time on Capitol Hill as a Democratic representative from the great state of Georgia. When he got to me and someone told him I write about movies, he very proudly said he had a small part in this odd little flick about a colorful crew of ballplayers including Richard Pryor and Billy Dee Williams who barnstorm across the Midwest (even though most of the flick was filmed right here in Macon.) I love this one almost as much as Cooter does.

"Breaking Away"
Having sat beside Renee Martinez, who is both a serious cyclist and rather fanatical fan of the Tour de France, at work for the past five years or so means I've been exposed to more cycling than any nonfan should ever have to sit through. Even though I still protest otherwise, I have come to both respect and enjoy the sport of cycling, but not as much as I do this silly little movie about an Indiana "cutter" who just wants to ride with the Italians.

"When We Were Kings"
This is the only boxing movie that made the final cut because it's about a whole lot more than boxing. This Leon Gast doco about the 1974 heavyweight "Rumble in the Jungle" between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire is also about the crazy concert featuring James Brown, B.B. King and others that Mobutu Sese Suko put on to go with it. Add it all up and you've got a whale of a tale well told.

"Searching for Bobby Fischer"
OK, these last two aren't about real "sports" per se, but I defy you to find a better movie about the nature of raw competition than this 1993 flick about a young boy thrust into in the world of competitive chess. Interestingly, this one is one of three flicks directed by Steven Zaillian ("A Civil Action" and "All the King's Men" are the others), who would go on to pen "American Gangster" and soon "I Heard You Paint Houses" for Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.

"Bring It On"
If you can actually look me in the eye and claim you don't enjoy this one as at least a guilty pleasure, I have to say you, sir or madam, are a liar. Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union and Eliza Dushku as high school cheerleaders? I'm there, and I usually am for at least a few minutes every time this inevitably shows up on TBS' afternoon movie slate.

So, there you have it. Like I said, please feel free to add any of your favorite sports flicks, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend.

World War II all around: Valkyrie, Miracle and Red Tails

I've been rather shocked at the mostly negative reviews that have piled up so far for Spike Lee's "Miracle at St. Anna" (30 percent positive at Rotten Tomatoes, and even those were only really lukewarm.)

The main complaint I've read is that Mr. Lee has just bitten off too much to deal with here and lets his movie sprawl over the place and never really focuses on a single story line. Even if that is the case, I'm perfectly willing to sacrifice a rather whopping 2 hours and 46 minutes of my life to see what he's cooked up, because the only Spike Lee movie I can think of that I just had no time for at all was "Crooklyn," and most of the rest of them are movies that I just love. I'm gonna see it this afternoon, so please feel free to check back either tomorrow or Sunday to find out what I thought of it.

(As an aside, there's one scene in "Crooklyn" that just makes me cringe more than just about anything else I've ever seen on the big screen [and I'm really not exaggerating]. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but the stretch comes when the kids get shipped to my Maryland for a while, and apparently to make some kind of swipe at my homeland, he films the whole thing with some kind of gauzy haze. I still have no idea what he was going for, but it was just bloody awful.)

OK, I'm back. Along with releasing his own movie this week, Mr. Lee made news earlier in the week when he apparently disclosed to Roger Ebert the name of the director for "Red Tails," the upcoming Tuskegee Airmen flick being produced by Georgia Lucas. Here's what he had to say:

It was like eight men at the roundtable. And two of ‘em, Lee Archer and Roscoe Brown, was the 8th pilots of the Tuskegee Airmen, which I might add, this spring George Lucas is finally doin’ his Tuskegee Airmen film, “Redtails." He’s gonna produce it and a young African-American director, Anthony Hemingway, is gonna direct it. He’s done several episodic TVs, and is a young director so I’m looking forward to that and hopefully “Miracle” with “Redtails” coming’ up will generate more films to show the untold story about the participation.

You can read the rest of Mr. Ebert's interview here, and it's well worth spending a couple of minutes on. Mr. Hemingway's TV work covers everything from a few episodes of shows I love, "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Wire," to scattered episodes of other blockbusters like "ER" and "CSI NY." Screenwriter John Ridley, who came up with the uneven but still very funny "Undercover Brother" among other films, is scripting the tale of the pioneering airman, so this is one well worth keeping your eyes on when it comes out next spring or so.

And, finally, out today is also the first trailer (that I know of) for Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie," which if I'm not mistaken will finally come out in January. Tom Cruise stars as the main agent in an operation to kill Adolph Hitler, and though the movie supports a rather astounding supporting cast (Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten, Stephen Fry, Terrence Stamp, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard, among others), I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that Cruise is the only name that appears in text in this rather kinetic trailer. Enjoy, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

I have a bone to pick with Jodie Foster ...

An alternative title for this post could be "threat level ludicrous."

Less a critique of the competely over-the-top new movie "The Brave One," this is instead an open letter to Jodie Foster (though, unlike John Hinckley, I'm relatively certain she will never read this.)

As for the movie itself, it has a few charms and far too many faults to make it more than slighty enjoyable. It's at its best at its quietest moments, when director Neil Jordan drops the rather awful music and just lets Terrence Howard and Foster act. Those moments, however, are completely overshadowed by a simply awful ending and many more pratfall along the way.

But, as I said, my main beef - relative to an interview she gave promoting this flick - is with Jodie Foster herself on this one.

The main question in my mind as I was leaving this flick was: What kind of New York does Foster's Erica Bain live in? As even people who haven't seen this yet probably know (and as you might be able to tell, I wouldn't really recommend rushing out to do so), her character is the victim of a very violent attack early on that kills her fiance and leaves her very badly injured. OK, fair enough.

From there, however, it just gets beyond silly. If you haven't seen the movie yet, please skip the rest of this paragraph so I don't ruin it for you. After buying a gun in a silly enough scene, Foster's Bain, in short order, encounters an enraged gunman in a bodega, gets accosted by two rather unpleasant black toughs on the subway and then encounters a wannabe pimp in Central Park.

Now, before I go any further, let me qualify this by saying I have never lived in New York, but I have probably visited there more than 50 times, and will do so again at the end of this year (and in my mind, I'm already there.) I did live in D.C. for a total of about five years, but the closest I ever came to being a victim of violent crime was when some dude walked up to my friend Jim Waddick during his first week in the city and, after asking him what time it was, then asked him for his watch. Jim, being a fairly rational guy from Edina Minn., promptly handed it over rather than pursue the matter any further.

But I digress. My point is this: Though I concede that New York is of course a very large city pulsing with all kinds of life, I've never had the displeasure of experiencing (or seeing, for that matter) any thing close to what happens in this movie. I've probably been to at least 100 bodegas and ridden the subways hundreds more times, and I've never felt terribly unsafe.

Now, this being a revenge movie and, of course, a fictional one, I'd be able to excuse this level of unreality if it were a better movie or if Jodie Foster hadn't raised the stakes in promoting it.

For anyone who may have missed it, here's what Ms. Foster had to say to the Associated Press about her view of the world we live in: "Post 9/11 is such a different beast. It's the safest big city in the world. There's a cop on every corner. And why is it that we're on Orange Alert? Why is it that we're a quarter-inch away from this rage and fear that has no basis in reality?"

Now, I don't like to dive into politics here too often, but I'm afraid this is nothing more than the worst kind of hypocrisy. If I can try and take the middle ground here, it's obvious that, yes, we have threats in this world that we were unaware of before 9/11. It's also clear, to me at least, that those color-coded threat levels do little more than foment fear, which is used by our government to many different ends.

But my point here is that Neil Jordan and Jodie Foster are also doing at least their fair share to try and make sure we live in a world where our fear level is higher than the reality around us with movies like this one. I concede that I'm taking this far too seriously, but it really got under my skin, so I had to let it out. Rant officially over.


"Juno" trailer is comic bliss

OK, anyone who stuck around through all that deserves a reward. Along with Ridley Scott's "American Gangster," the other movie I'm most looking forward to for the rest of this year is Jason Reitman's "Juno" (as anyone who's been here before probably already knew.)

Though David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises" edged it out to take the prestigious audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Roger Ebert at least walked away thoroughly smitten with "Juno" and young Ellen Page. You can read all of his review, which my brother first directed me to, here, but here's an excerpt:

"It’s the kind of movie you almost insult by describing the plot, because the plot sounds standard and this is a fresh, quirky, unusually intelligent comedy about a 16-year-old girl who wins our hearts in the first scene. Page plays Juno, who gets pregnant, and — no, that’s not it at all. Every element in the movie including her getting pregnant, and her non-boyfriend, and her parents, and the couple that wants to take the baby for adoption, is completely unlike any version of those characters I have ever seen before."

And here is the, as far as I can tell, new trailer for the flick, set to open hopefully everywhere Dec. 14. Everything in the trailer, from Rainn Wilson's use of the word "homeskillet" to the great J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney as Ellen Page's endearingly clueless parents, is extremely funny. You can tell that first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody, whose Pussy Ranch blog you can read here, is bound for many great things after this one. Enjoy the trailer, and have an entirely bearable Tuesday. Peace out.

The "Jackass" of romantic comedies?

Now, I can't take credit for that analogy, but I mention it as a defense of film critics, who are certainly a dying breed. Without it, I never would have given any time to "Hot Rod," and my weekend would have been all the worse for it.

The weekend box office, of course, was all about "Bourne," and why not? Greengrass' movie is a visceral experience and moviemaking much smarter than we usually get when the temperature hits 100 degrees (as it will today here in Macon.) I especially enjoyed the first big set piece in which he meets with the reporter played by Paddy Considine, but I have to confess, as it went on, I grew tired of Greengrass' constant need to shake the camera to boost his action sequences, simply leaving me with a headache.

But I'm not here to talk about Jason Bourne, who, with his record-setting $70 million opening certainly doesn't need my help. Instead, I'd like to do my small part to pitch Andy Samberg's thoroughly goofy "Hot Rod," which barely managed to beat out those "Bratz" to finish at ninth. As silly as this flick is, it certainly deserves better than this.

Now, I'm not saying this is a great movie. However, when we went to see it at 10:15 Sunday morning and ended up being the only two people there, we were able to laugh as loud as we wanted to, and often did.

I'm not sure because I can't find it now, but I think the critic who nailed the "Jackass" analogy was Colin Covert of McClatchy Newspapers. If so, he was dead right, and the movie never strives to be any more than that.

And, since apparently nobody saw this last weekend, I guess a bit of plot would be helpful. Samberg plays our hero, Rod Kimble, a goofball who just wants to be a stuntman, and his many disastrous attempts to become one give the movie most of its visual gags (even if, unlike the "Jackass" guys, he didn't do his own stunts.) In a plot twist that can kindly be called contrived, Rod's stepfather, played by the always-welcome Ian McShane, needs a heart transplant to stay alive, so Rod sets out to jump 15 buses and raise the $50,000 needed. Like I said, this movie had better be funny, because the premise is just about as dumb as it gets.

And how can I sell you on the funny? Well, most of the music is by Trevor Rabin, who with no apparent irony delivers the most gloriously bad Euro-metal you've heard in many years. Ian McShane, quickly becoming one of my favorite actors as I make my way through the first season of "Deadwood," is a bundle of beadied-eyed intensity as the stepfather who constantly batters our hero, to prove his love of course. And that scene in the commercial where the simply adorable Isla Fisher appears to eat Samberg's face also turns out to be as funny as it is sweet.

It's certainly uneven in stretches, but smartly keeping to 90 minutes, it manages to accomplish something few "Saturday Night Live" movies since the first "Wayne's World" have: It sustains its gag throughout the movie, and doesn't wear out its welcome. Samberg and his buds are more than a little geeky, and Akiva Shaffer directs the movie with little to no style at all. That's not a criticism, really. It gives the flick a deceptively raw appeal, pretty much the antithesis of Greengrass' flash.

In short, though this movie doesn't deserve much more than a rental, I'm hoping against hope for a week-two rebound. After all, it's got to be better than Ratboy's "Rush Hour 3" or, God forbid, "Daddy Day Camp" (which, by the way, was somehow directed by Fred Savage ... sheesh!)

A long-overdue tribute to Siskel

I wouldn't use the word hate, because that would imply I've actually thought about it enough to feel that strongly, but I just can't stand that dingbat Roeper (his first name escapes me at the moment) who has tried with no success to fill the big shoes of Gene Siskel. And now Ebert has finally offered proof of that to all who may have forgotten just how great his late partner in film criticism really was.

By visiting this site, you can find a video archive of Siskel and Ebert's best TV reviews, including "Hoop Dreams" and "Pulp Fiction," and if you really want to, watch some Ebert and Roeper too. This is a great tribute to one of my favorite critics, so please take some time out of your Monday to waste some time with this. Peace out.