Sure, maybe it's not a great adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's novel. Hell, it's not even that great of a movie – but it is a perfect time capsule of the 80s, from Jamie Gertz's high bangs to Andrew McCarthy's giant shoulder pads, its heavy-handed "drugs are bad" message and The Bangle's cover of Hazy Shade of Winter...

more...

Tuesday = new release day, which is generally a happy day. So why have I been so disappointed the last few weeks? I guess the weak selection just proves what everyone already knows: Amie will watch anything.

more...

It’s probably stating the obvious to say that Lynn Shelton is the most celebrated filmmaker in the Northwest right now. Her latest film, Humpday, which received great acclaim from critics and filmgoers alike when it played at the Sundance Film Festival, is a story of two dear friends who find themselves in a dare to make a homemade gay porn film, even though both are straight (and one is married). It’s based on Hump, The Stranger’s annual, amateur porn contest. It’s a really great film that explores the boundaries of friendship. It’s both very funny and moving.

Her second feature, My Effortless Brilliance, played at SIFF in 2008. It also deals with a friendship of two men, who are played by musicians Sean Nelson (of Harvey Danger) and Basil Harris (of “Awesome”). It was also a great film that explored the egos and relationship of those characters. It also has several themes that lead into Humpday.

Lynn Shelton is one of those people you meet that no one has a negative thing to say about them, and it’s all true. When I interviewed The Stranger Genius Award winner a few days before Humpday screened as the Centerpiece film at SIFF, I wish I had let my tape recorder run for about five minutes longer because she had several very positive things to say about the cast and crew of all of her films and said she felt really lucky and fortunate to have worked with the people she has.

more...

Yikes. So, the list of DVD releases today is…well, even thinner than last week (Uwe Boll? Another Street Fighter movie?? And the Jonas Bros???). But I dug in and found three which will make it into my player at some point...

more...

The June 26th limited release date for Surveillance did not include any theaters in Seattle, but if you have Comcast, you can queue it up On Demand now for $6.99 in HD - which is exactly what I did on Saturday night.

more...

I'm almost positive none of you have any desire to see the sequel to the movie I most hated watching last year – and if for some reason you do, or you actually liked Transformers, I give you my response that always shuts everybody up once they start saying "It wasn’t that bad! I was entertained!" and that is...

more...

Bjork's Voltaic: The Volta Tour in Paris is, as far as live concert films go, is a dazzling experience to watch. It is screening this weekend, twice, at the Northwest Film Forum on Friday and Saturday night (June 26 and 27) at 11pm.

more...

I've got nothing against a fun romantic comedy, but the thought of watching Confessions of a Shopaholic makes me all twinge-y. Well, maybe not as twinge-y as The Pink Panther 2 (Hi Steve Martin! I used to love you!).

Fortunately, they released a ton of DVDs this Tuesday, and there are quite a few I want to see.

more...

I got wind of this through various sources on Twitter today – NY Post’s POPWRAP has a preview of Tim Burton’s latest: Alice in Wonderland.

These pics prove once again that Burton can’t resist turning brunettes into platinum blondes (Hitchcock, much???), making Johnny Depp look as terrifying as possible, and sticking his life partner/wife/insert-label-here in the silliest costume he can find (the Helena Bonham Red Queen photo is seriously giving me the wigs *shiver*).

Sorry for traumatizing everyone, but I have to share

more...

I can’t even pretend to recommend the newest Sandra Bullock disaster, no matter how much I love Ryan Reynold’s body. Nor can I point you to Year One, despite my undying devotion to Michael Cera.

That said, there is one mainstream(ish) flick playing this weekend that has my interest: The Sam Mendes "please forgive me for making Revolutionary Road so depressing" sweet romantic comedy Away We Go.

more...