A Comedy Tonight

What am I amped for these days? Well, not much, really. But in the midst of all this catching up with old film noirs there are actually a few Hollywood (and not-so-Hollywood) pictures coming up or in the works that I wouldn't mind checking out in the near future.

Like, say...

Inglourious Basterds: Another derivative Tarantino outing? How could it not be, even though from the looks of the trailer this picture doesn't quite resemble the 1978 movie of a similar name. But as a film critic friend once pointed out, Tarantino movies are riddled with proverbial hyperlinks (click on this hat and it's the same hat worn by so-and-so in the 1972 blaxploitation film, yada yada) and the dialogue can be a little eye-rolling at times. But Tarantino still gets points in my book for stealing with love; love for the original subject matter that makes his projects more like homages than originals. But I'm cool with that. Whether this is gonna rock or blow, remains to be seen.

Ponyo: Hayao Miyazaki's latest endeavor about a goldfish who wants to live on dry land with the humans has the look and feel of Miyazaki's childlike yet wildly imaginative My Neighbor Tortoro, which could prove another under-appreciated children's classic, with English dubbing provided by Cloris Leachman, Tina Fey, Matt Damon, and Cate Blanchett, to name a few. I don't miss Miazaki movies, and I don't plan on missing this, either.

District 9: I was skeptical about the previews at first, being more often jaded by big budget sci-fi movies in the last twenty or so years. But reading up on first-time director Neil Blomkamp's project full of no big-name actors about humans sharing the earth with space aliens, dredging up old issues concerning apartheid in the film's location in Johannesburg, sounds considerably more cerebral fodder than your typical Independence Day good-guys-prevail summer silliness. A journalist friend of mine already attended a preview and loved it. I'm there.

I Need That Record: I had posted the trailer for this documentary about the decline of the American independent record store sometime last year, and it has probably already come and gone through the theater circuit (it was gong to play at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin a few weeks after I was set to leave), but given my, well, given profession, the subject matter is of obvious interest to me. Obligatory documentary talking heads include Lenny Kaye, Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, and Noam Chomsky, plus more.

Coco Avant Chanel: Audrey Tautou plays Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, the French fashion designer who went from poorhouse to creating the House Of Chanel by nearly single-handedly liberating the newly emancipated female form from hobbleskirts and corsets, with creations that are still in vogue today -- the classic Chanel suit, the "little black dress", Chanel No. 5 perfume... it's about time somebody told her story. And not on some Lifetime movie of the week. Her worldwide influence on the 20th century deserves slightly more reverence than that.

Toy Story 3: Still in production, I do believe. But if it lives up to the last two pictures, I can't see how I can afford to miss this. So long as Joan Cusack returns as Cowgirl Jessie, I'll be the first in line on opening night.

Lemmy: I just learned about this documentary on Motorhead's famously charismatic bassist/lead singer Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister just this morning, and the first thing I though was, "You mean they isn't already a movie out about this guy?" Because this guy's influence in the music as well as pop culture world is... well, wow. Joe got to meet him while playing pinball in a Virginia Beach bar. My best friend S. used to crack up parties by doing a frighteningly uncanny impression of his famous warty mug by placing a long strand of black hair over her upper lip and grimace. And he was on WWE! And the freakin' YOUNG ONES, for crying out loud! And the only funny moment in the entire movie Airheads. Yes, his time has come.

Taking Woodstock: Demetri Martin plays real-life Elliot Teichberg in Ang Lee's latest about the events that lead to the famous final musical hurrah at the end of the 1960's. Have heard really nice things about this one, and Ang Lee is sometimes hit (Sense And Sensibility) sometimes miss (Hulk) but always food for thought in the way he visualizes his initial ideas. And like Lemmy and I Need That Record, the subject matter is draw enough alone.

Plan 9 From Outer Space (With Rifftrax Commentary!): When Mystery Science Theatre 3000 ended its television run ten years ago, host and head writer Mike Nelson formed Rifftrax, an audio podcast of wisecracks overdubbing for home DVD use over selected bad films. Now Nelson has teamed up with former MST3K alumni Bill Corbett (Crow T. Robot) and Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo) to "Riff" a colorized version of the 1959 Ed Wood atrocity Plan 9 From Outer Space, which will be showing in various movie theaters across the country on August 20th, including my own (I was surprised, too). I already have the day off, and Joe is going to try and get off work early that night to attend. Looks like this is the only one on the above list that might actually get seen before anything else. Gads, I'm a nerd.