C.S.A. Screening Dates

Hopefully, one of these theatres will be near where you live:

2/15 IFC Center / New York / NY

2/24 Screenland/ Kansas City/ MO

2/24 Village Arts / Chicago / IL

2/24 Coolidge Corner / Boston / MA

2/24 Harris / Pittsburgh / PA

2/24 Academy / Pasadena / CA

2/24 Cinema Palme d'Or / Palm Springs / CA

2/24 Roxie / San Francisco / CA

3/03 Nickelodeon / Santa Cruz / CA

3/07 Theatre N at Nemours / Scranton /PA

3/07 Scranton Community Center / Wilmington /DE

3/07 Market Arcade Film & Arts / Buffalo / NY

3/07 Cinema Paradiso / Ft. Lauderdale / FL

3/07 Palm / San Luis Obispo / CA

3/10 Liberty Hall / Lawrence / KS

3/10 Orpheum / Madison / WI

3/10 UICA / Grand Rapids / MI

3/10 Little Rochester / NY

3/10 Loft / Tucson /AZ

3/10 Starz / Denver /CO

3/17 Real Artways / Hartford / CT

3/17 Belcourt / Nashville /TN

3/17 Minor / Arcata /CA

3/30 Art Cinema / Salina / KS

5/02 Cinema 320 / Worchester / MA

TV or not-TV?

CSA will be opening in KC, MO and Pasdena, CA on Feb. 24th.

Watched OPEN HOUSE, the "real-estate musical" from director/Slamdance founder Dan Mirvish... I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but the off-kilter ones I tend to gravitate to (even to the point of working on one...) I have to say that in this particular case, I liked the concept and the performances (from Sally Kellerman, Kellie Martin, Ann Magnunsun, James Duval and Jerry Doyle) more than I liked the actual songs, which had some clever word-play but suffered from anemic arrangement - but it's definitely worth a look.

How successful is a cross-over from movies to television? Not very, unless you have some involvement with the characters and situations involved, as SERENITY proved in its theatrical release last year. Months of hype and buzz abruptly crashed and burned when it was presented to the general public. Watching it on DVD at home, it was pretty obvious why... if you were a follower of the show, FIREFLY, then SERENITY is a pretty good capper to that program, since you already knew everyone and how they related to one another. Coming into it cold, as a co-worker did to whom I lent SERENITY to - she knew about FIREFLY, but had never seen it - and one is less than amused and entertained.

After all, there has to be some ground retread for the benefit of newcomers to the party, who have no clue of what is going on, but the converse of that is alienating the fan base, who has to sit through boring introductions of characters before getting to the meat of the action. Which leads to the other thing about such projects; they seem to be less cinematically inspired, but rather pumped up 2 hour episodes, with added production value, sex and blood. The list of these abortions is long - most of the STAR TREK films, The X-FILES movie, THE NUDE BOMB (an attempt to resurrect GET SMART)... and for the most part, they're not very profitable, except in the cases of the STAR TREK films... and possibly THE NAKED GUN series.

The one's that do succeed artistically are the ones that are tied to their television predesessors and that attempt to actually do something out of the ordinary - they're not entirely successful as stand-alone films, but in context with the shows they spring from, they're masterpieces - in my view that's David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME and Bob Rafelson's HEAD.

SERENITY doesn't quite make that short list - it's not an outright failure when in context with the show (and I suspect that if people watch FIREFLY in its entirety, then the movie, SERENITY will be a more satisfying experience), but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table either.

Geeked!

Oprah Winfrey interrogating James Frey



A diet of poultry does wonders for the figure...

Not only the requisite dish of crow that got served up, but judging from the figurative blood & feathers around her mouth, several members of her staff were geeked... if headless bodies start turning up in the Chicago area, you now know why.

Now if only j.t. leroy could be served up... or better yet, the entire Bush Cadre.

Stirrings....

Some more CSA news... IFC Films should hopefully be releasing CSA into the larger arthouse markets during Feb. (AKA Black History Month -- it somehow seems a natural fit rather than BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2) It's currently scheduled to open Feb 15th at the IFC Center in NYC, no other dates/places are on the schedule as of yet... keep checking the IFC Films site.

If you're near the Topeka area, then you have another opportunity to see the film at Washburn University:

What if the South had won the war? Please join us (and announce to
classes, friends and family) for a screening of Kevin Willmott's
Confederate State of America (a hit at Sundance, and soon to be in general
release). This celebration of Kansas Day will take place on January 27,
2006, 7:00 p.m., Henderson 100. Commentary by Dr. Tom Prasch, History
chair, and Q & A with CSA director Kevin Willmott will follow the film, as
well as refreshments.

Owen Gleiberman called CSA, "Mind-bending! Scandalous, fearless and
hilarious." Kevin Willmott has recreated the USA as though the South has
won the Civil War, all seen through the eyes of a documentary film crew
sent from Great Britain to the Confederate States of America in the late
20th century. What do they find out? Please come and see.

Thanks,

Tom Averill
for the Center for Kansas Studies

I've been sick this past weekend, so it's been a good opportunity to catch up on DVD watching, the majority as of late, being dominated by TV season sets: am almost halfway through THE MONKEES Season 2 (for some reason, Netflix has the shows in hubs near the coasts rather than in the midwest, so they're taking the longest to get through); have started the TWILIGHT ZONE, 80's version (which had some outstanding episodes, and the set has some invaluable commentary tracks by Harlan Ellison) - don't confuse it with the misguided version with Forest Whitaker as Rod Serling; and surprisingly, SLEDGE HAMMER!, a show I remember fondly from the 80's, which is much funnier now, knowing a good portion of the films/shows they're parodying... all definitely recommended. After these, I'm taking a break from TV sets for awhile - the latest acquistion is NOWHERE MAN, a well-regarded show from the fledgling beginnings of UPN Network. The set is a staggering 9-disc collection, packed with extras... so it'll be awhile before tackling that monster.

Tried reading Chuck Palahniuk's HAUNTED... despite loving FIGHT CLUB and having read most of his other novels like CHOKE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY, I get the distinct feeling that I'm basically reading the same novel over and over again, just with slightly different characters and situations. It might be too much to call Palahniuk the 'Hanna-Barbara' of alternative lit, but HAUNTED definitely pushed me towards that concept...

Not a lot about films seen in the theater recently, you'll notice... not a lot of the interesting films tend to stick around in Topeka for long, and if it's between driving a half-hour/hour to either Lawrence or KC to see something, or scrounging in the pool of DVD's, it's a no-brainer as to which option I tend to lean towards.

Ramblings From the Back Row

Going through my mail, I found a message months ago from an acquaintance I met on a shoot a couple of years ago... he teaches at the local university and I stay in touch every so often about local film stuff. He had written me back in October about a friend of his in the area who also writes about film. I made a note to check out the link - then the job on REST E-Z came about and I forgot all about it.

Until today, when I find the message again while looking through my archives. I looked at the site, FilmGuru.Net - which looks to be a fairly competent review/essay site; then I found his blog, Ramblings From the Back Row .

Always nice to find that you're not alone in the area.

Glutton for punishment

As if attempting to keep up with one blog wasn't enough trouble, for the New Year, I create another blog to possibly neglect... If you look over to the sidebar under the LINKS, you'll see a new addition called MUSIC-SNOB, where all my thoughts about music will go to, for your enjoyment.

Happy New Year

Hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season…

It’s been a busy month, so busy that I couldn’t spare time to write up any account until now – most of it was finishing commitments I’d made earlier, and the rest of it was spending time with relatives and catching up with DVD watching.

Most of that watching has been of TV season sets, which has been the most addictive thing I’ve encountered, so far. They’ve made for a nice diversion when taking breaks from the work I had to do.

I remember seeing Gerry Anderson’s UFO series when it was first syndicated in the States in the early 70’s – I hadn’t seen the show since that time, so I wasn’t quite sure if the show was as good as I remembered it being, or if I was just seduced by the miniature effects and Moonbase chicks in silver suits and purple wigs. Surprisingly, the show holds up very well compared to genre shows of today – there are elements that date the show like the fashions, the attitude towards women (which is interesting – there are women in command positions, but there’s a strong smarmy vibe in how they’re treated, a vibe that’s very common in shows from the 60’s/early 70’s), and the drinking and smoking – but there’s a total commitment to the concept – no hint of smirking irony that seems to be a necessary component of today’s genre shows, and no fear of presenting unsympathetic characters.

Also took a look at the first season of DEADWOOD, when the discs were available at the library – not having HBO at home, means that I catch their shows later than most people, once the hype has passed – DEADWOOD certainly lives up to all the hype about it when it debuted (unlike CARNIVALE, which, though I’m looking forward to seeing the second year, I can see why it didn’t last any longer).

The big watching project for me has been Rhino’s THE MONKEES season sets… I’m finishing up with the first year and looking forward to the second season eps. THE MONKEES hold up extremely well, some 40 years later, and are a hell of a lot funnier than any contemporary sitcom… while some of the writing is too ‘wacky’ (wackiness being big in the 60’s), there’s a genuine sense of fun and anarchy that must have been bracing when audiences saw the first broadcasts… particularly in the musical romps and the unscripted verite interview segments that end some of the episodes. Whatever you may think about The Monkees being a ‘real’ band or not, it can’t be disputed that the foursome quickly proved their chops at handling the comedy.

Amongst all of this, there hasn’t been time to get out to the theaters to see stuff, but to be honest, there’s not a lot out this season that’s pulling me out to the theaters – well, to the first run theaters, except for GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, which lasted a whole week at the local cineplex before making way for KING KONG – more interesting things are in the second run theatres like WALLACE AND GROMIT, THE WEATHER MAN, so I’ll hit those before they get to disc hopefully – having seen 2 other versions of NARNIA (animated and BBC), I don’t feel the need to see the LOTR version, and frankly, a 3-hour KONG doesn’t really interest me… methinks the smell of hubris is in the air for Team Jackson, and I hope they take the hint. Fortunately, I’ve been able to sneak in better movies in between all the television viewing, like NIGHTMARE ALLEY, POINT BLANK, THE CORPORATION.

Part of what took a lot of time was finishing up the paperwork for REST E-Z; now that it’s finished, I have another project coming up in a few months – currently reading the script for it now and more about it to come… what I can say is that it’s a genre film and it’s being made by people that I’ve worked with before, so I’ve got a great feeling about it.