{The Great Gatsby opens in Seattle on Friday, 5/10, and is playing at the Landmark Guild 45^th, The Big Picture, and Thornton Place IMAX®. In both 2D and 3D! Check listings for 3D screenings.}

Ah, Baz Luhrmann. The Director people love to hate. I’m actually in the “love to love” category (with the exception of Australia. That fucking movie. Unnnnnngggghh.), but this guy’s work certainly divides film fans. So what happens when Baz gets ahold of beloved F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby? Pretty much what you’d expect: A novel about excess adapted by a guy who specializes in excess. Including the application of another excessive thing—3D.

Set in the roaring ‘20s, the story starts with aspiring Wall Street mogul Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire. Ugh.) recalling how he moved into a quaint Long Island cottage that happened to be right next door to the mysterious GIGANTOR mansion of Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio). In which the reclusive zillionaire stares out the windows broodingly while throwing lavish parties full of beautiful people, confetti, fireworks, and of course, enough illegal hooch to fill six Olympic swimming pools with.

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I know, I know. ANOTHER Kickstarter post, Amie? Don't worry, this one isn't for Zach Braff. Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the trailer for The Glamour & the Squalor? It's a documentary about Marco Collins, and covers a huge, important part of his huge, important life -- as well as the local music scene.

Anyway! They're in the home stretch and trying to raise at least $50,000 in order to finish the film up (and if they get to $125,000, the music they score the film with will be AWESOME). Anything helps, and you can score a digital download of the film, signed DVDs, bragging rights -- hell, even a DJ set with Marco himself if you put up enough cheddar.

I dare you to watch the trailer and not tear up just a little. And, you know, if you have some money to give, giving it to locally-created film about a local guy who's pretty damn cool seems like a boss idea.

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{The Source Family opens Friday, May 3 at 9 PM at the SIFF Cinema at the Film Center in Seattle Center, 305 Harrison Street, and runs through May 9, 2013. Source Family members Makushla, Omne, and Rain Aquarian will be at the premier in person.}

For underground music fans of the god-jam variety (namely, psyche heads) the names Father Yod and Ya Ho Wa 13 can evoke mystical states of I want I want I want. Most fans of even just some of the hundreds of releases these often free-form musicians put out since the late 60s are aware there is a wild cultural backstory to their creation; and some of those LPs feature pivotal artists such as Sky Saxon of The Seeds, who converted to the unabashed cult which formed the bands which made their sounds. 

That's right, FY and YHW 13 are actual cult artists, the former once known as Jim Baker, a Judo master and Marine and miracle-magus who underwent a Yogic conversion in the 60s and charismatically collected together something called The Source Family at the height of the West Coast New Age wampum.

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Hello, Imaginaries! This year's Face the Music program at the Seattle International Film Festival contains some music documentaries I AM SUPER EXCITED ABOUT!!! You can buy passes to SIFF now, and inividual tickets go on sale this week on Thursday, 5/2. And so, let us (stage) dive in: 

First up: a few special events put together by Ms. Hannah Levin of KEXP! The Maldives are doing their thing at The Triple Door this year, performing music for The Wind, a 1928 Lillian Gish film. And the documentary Muscle Shoals will also have a tribute evening at The Triple Door, with music provided by Patterson and Dave Hood with Jeff Fielder and friends. {The Maldives & The Wind, June 7 at The Triple Door, two shows: 7pm & 9:30pm; A Muscle Shoals Tribute, May 30 at The Triple Door, 7pm}  

Speaking of Muscle Shoals, in case you didn't know, it's the studio where "legendary musicians including Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett gathered to create music that would later inspire the likes of Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and many more." I'm not gonna lie, the trailer makes me drool a little bit. {Screens 5/29, 7pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown, and again 5/30, 7pm at the Egyptian} 

Power Pop fans rejoice! Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me is coming to SIFF!!! Promising never-before-seen footage, rousing musical tributes, and in-depth interviews with members of the band and the musicians they’ve inspired. Yes, yes, yes, and YES. I was hoping this would make it to SIFF. Hooray! {Screens 5/21, 9pm, and again 5/26, 8:30pm at SIFF Cinema Uptown} 

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SIFF 2013 kicks off on Thursday, May 16 -- that's a little less than FOUR WEEKS AWAY. Our imaginary movie team has started pouring through the list of films, dividing up review assignments, and cage-matching for interview ops. Watch for previews/reviews/interviews/ALLTHEVIEWS on our SIFF 2013 page starting this week.

And! We love this beautiful SIFFcurious trailer put together by longtime SIFF collaborators WDCW (Wong, Doody, Crandall, Weiner) and World Famous. Don't you?

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There are Kickstarter campaigns galore, but I want to bring your attention to one that I think is MORE than worthy of your donations: the Northwest Film Forum needs to make the leap to DCP conversion, because eventually, whether we like it or not, 35mm is going to be gone for good. So, to help make sure NWFF can show as many new films as possible, and keep this amazing piece of Seattle film community going, they need to raise $50,000 to get new technology, as well as modernize a few other things. 

Where will your money go? 

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Weekend movie time! There are a few Indies screening at The Grand Illusion and SIFF this weekend that I wanted to share with our imaginaries.

First up, Antiviral: screening at Grand Illusion Cinema , 4/19-4/25.

Antiviral is about an evolution in the way people view celebrity. Placed in a future bathed in clean white, the film centers on Syd, a salesman at a popular clinic where the commodity is live infections taken from celebs. A celeb gets infected or sick with something—herpes, the flu, etc.—and sells their virus to the clinic for a price, who in turn sells it back to super fans who want to be as close to that famous person as possible.

Gross, right? Imagine someone paying to get injected with Kim Kardashian's ... whatever.

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The trailer for The Glamour & The Squalor has finally been released! (And there was much rejoicing) Warning: I got a little choked up around the 1:43 mark. I’m super excited for this documentary about the amazing Marco Collins to hurry up and come out—although I know we have kind of a long road ahead of us. From the Facebook page:

The Glamour and the Squalor is a feature-length documentary film project about the rise, fall and reemergence of Hall of Fame radio personality Marco Collins, the creation of Seattle’s 107.7 The End, and how together they shaped the future of music – launching the careers of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Beck, Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie, Foo Fighters, Garbage and others. The film will also explore Marco’s current battle to stay clean after a decade of drug abuse, his return to breaking contemporary music, as well as his role in the heated and historic marriage equality vote in Washington state.

Oh man I CANNOT WAIT. Coincidentally, I found a 107.77 The End sticker that I had saved from my community college days while spring cleaning yesterday. I loved listening to Marco on the radio during his heyday and I’m so, so, so pleased he’s still around and doing his thing on Jet City Stream, and that I’ll be able to see him sharing his story (and his struggles) on the big screen soon.

Who else is excited for this?!?!?!

{My Amityville Horror is screening at Grand Illusion Cinema on Friday 4/12 & Saturday 4/13 at 11pm, and again on Monday 4/14 at 9pm}

When I was a preteen, I saw the 1979 version of The Amityville Horror, which kicked off an obsession with spirits and demon possession, and learning everything about the family that had lived in the real house and what they had experienced. So I was pretty psyched when I saw that Daniel Lutz, one of the kids who lived through the actual thing, was the subject of this new documentary, My Amityville Horror.

But whoa. WHOA. This guy, who is now in his mid-40s, is clearly messed up about whatever went down in that house. Whether is was actually poltergeists causing the scares, or the active imaginations of the children (via patriarch George Lutz), is left up to you to decide. Regardless, it’s clear that the scars Danny bears from it will never heal completely. 

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{Evil Dead opens in Seattle on Friday, 4/5 and is screening at the Regal Meridian 16, the Landmark Varsity, and Thornton Place}

Holy shit you guys. Holy. Shit. I was really hoping the Evil Dead reboot would be awesome, but I had no expectations that it would be as fantastically amazing as it turned out to be. As a horror fan, I gotta tell you that this is one of the finest examples of the genre that I’ve ever seen. Ever.

Fans of the original don’t need to be worried—it’s not a straight-up remake. It’s more of a reboot that uses the basics of The Evil Dead story as a starting point to create a new legend, combined with some really clever nods to Raimi’s work. Which include a new take on his signature camera moves and some great twists on everything you loved about the 1981 flick.

The opening sequence sets you up for the glorious splatter that follows in a surprisingly original way. And you probably know the rest, more or less: five friends head to a cabin in order to help their heroin-addicted friend Mia (Jane Levy, I will never be able to look at you on Suburgatory the same way again) dry out. The group includes Mia’s somewhat estranged brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez); his blonde girlfriend, Natalie; dark-haired nurse Olivia, and bespectacled hipster-nerd Eric.

Unfortunately, the group soon stumbles onto a creepy basement filled with ominous ritualistic items, like strung-up rotting cats (so many rotting cats), and The Book of the Dead (not yet named as such), and Eric, the genius (!!!)  brings it upstairs and starts reading the words contained within. AND WE ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

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