It was pretty cool. Prior to the screening, we ate pizza and drank champagne.

Lulu and Dmitry. In Love.

They screened cult-classic Harold and Maude.

As the night went by, it got chilly. Thank goodness for the blankets. Afterwards, hung out around the fire.

It was all fun times.

Link: Cinespia

Link: Born to Be Wild

Link: Review of the film from Los Angeles Times

In it, the bad guys are lured into this maze, where they are methodically massacred by the underdogs. Amazing cinematography.

Trailer.

Link: Red Cliff

the hamburglar honored us with his presence…

while waiting for the movie to start, noticed EM’s toe nails.. cool color.

Link: CGV Cinemas

Sunday night, checked out the IMAX version of Inception at Rave Motion Pictures 18. We had the best seats (back row).

Here’s a nifty graphic that someone else made.

Interacting with the exhibit? Sooj trying to watch the movie and some guy was doing some sort of performance art thing next to her.

We all appreciate weird shit, but this was disturbing to the nth degree. Couldn’t take it. I hope I don’t get nightmares.

A few of the videos they showed:

K-CoreaINC.K (section a) from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

Sibling Topics (section a) from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

P.opular S.ky (section ish) from Ryan Trecartin on Vimeo.

Here are a few photos that I took. Sooj chowing down on tacos.

Projection on the ceiling. They’re clay figures. The one lying down was being sewed up after a C-section.

photo of some part of some film.

Yep, the event itself was a bit over my head…. We didn’t stay too long. Still fun though.

I always wondered what happened to the film, Life Remote Control. I’ve been waiting for it. Now I know. =)

By the way, the caprese sandwich at Arclight is pretty good.

Link: Banksy Film

The above picture is from the story of Marco and Ciro, a couple of wanna-be gangster teens who quote Scarface and try to create their own little gang. Kind of funny.

Trailer.

Instead of providing a mediocre review, here’s a Copy+Paste of Frank DiGiacomo’s really good one from Vanity Fair:

Gomorra is a film about the Mafia, but unlike any of the American classics of the genre, such as Francis Ford Coppola’s first two Godfather films and Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas and Casino—it is devoid of any Hollywood romance. This might sound strange, but Gomorra reminded me of Ridley Scott’s science-fiction masterpiece Alien more than any of the aforementioned mob films, because it is a movie about a relentless, voracious, ever-morphing force that seems to have an almost omniscient capability of tracking down and dispatching its victims and adapting to its surrounding environment.

Garrone’s Gomorra is an adaptation of Roberto Saviano’s bestselling book, Gomorrah, and both are a pun on Camorra, the name of the Neapolitan Mafia, which, according to Saviano, has killed more people than the Sicilian Mafia and the Irish Republican Army. I read Gomorrah after I saw Garrone’s film, and I should say that, in its own way, the book is as compelling as the film. In one of my favorite passages, Saviano describes Hollywood’s influence on the Camorristi, members of this far-ranging mob that has its hands in fashion, narcotics, gambling, and the illegal dumping of toxic waste. One Neapolitan gangster dresses like Brandon Lee in his ill-fated role in The Crow, and Saviano writes that there are female bosses whose bodyguards wear vivid yellow bodysuits like the one Uma Thurman sported in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies. Tarantino’s influence on the Camorra extends beyond fashion, too, although with messy consequences. Saviano quotes a “veteran of the Naples Forensics Division” who complains: “Ever since Tarantino, these guys don’t know the right way to shoot! They don’t keep the barrel straight anymore. Now they hold it crooked, like in the movies, which makes for disaster. They hit the guts, groin, or legs, seriously wounding but not killing. And so they have to finish the victim off with a bullet to the nape of the neck. A pool of pointless blood, a barbarism completely superfluous to the goal of execution.” (Apparently, even the cops in Naples speak eloquently.)

The Camorra reportedly did not react kindly to Saviano’s inside look at their operations and he has since gone into hiding with round-the-clock police protection. Apparently, the Neapolitan mob is more forgiving of filmmakers because, as far as I know, the same fate has not befallen Garrone. In fact, when I first saw the film last fall, the director was in the audience, and Scorsese was introducing the picture, telling the crowd that one of the great strengths of Gomorra was that “there is no exit: forget exposition; traditional narrative: you don’t know what country you’re in, you don’t know what city; you don’t know what street it is. You never know that.” Scorsese, who knows a thing or two about stomach-turning realism and claustrophobic tension, continued, “You’re just dropped onto another planet, and you’re on your own. There’s no relief…. The only way out for the people in the film is going to be bad”.

A large part of Gomorra takes place in what appears to be a cookie-cutter apartment complex that is the essence of depressing. There are endless concrete stairwells and bleak landscapes that enable ambushes and gunplay, and the gritty sameness of the landscape underscores the fact that no one is to be trusted. The Camorra seems to infect everything it touches, even childhood, and, for me, one of the most memorable scenes in the movie depicts a small group of young boys who wait in line to don a crude bulletproof vest and brave a gunshot to the chest—what amounts to a rite of passage in a region where manhood is brutal and often brief.

The violence may be local, but both Saviano’s book and Garrone’s film show how the Camorra’s reach is increasingly global. Early in the book, there is a chapter titled “Angelina Jolie” that depicts the Camorra’s involvement in producing high-end clothing designed by Italian fashion houses in underground sweat shops. Near the end of the chapter, a particularly talented worker at one of these factories is at home channel-surfing his television when he sees Jolie walking the red carpet at the Oscars wearing a custom-made outfit that he had assembled. Garrone wanted to use Oscar footage of Jolie for a similar storyline in his film, but, at the screening I attended, he explained that the Academy wouldn’t release it to him. So, the filmmaker improvised and bought footage of actress Scarlett Johannson walking the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival in 2006. (Press reports indicate it was a vintage gown.) “I don’t know if Scarlett Johansson knows she is in the movie,” Garrone said at the time. A few days ago, I asked Johansson’s spokesman Marcel Pariseau if his client was aware of her appearance in Gomorra. Via e-mail, he replied that Johannson hadn’t seen the movie and, thus, didn’t have any comment.

She should see it. And so should you.

Links:
Gomorrah (Blu Ray)
Gomorrah (Regular DVD)
Gomorrah (book)
Oscar Crime: Gamorra Shoulda Been a Contender by Frank DiGiacomo, Vanity Fair, 2/26/09.

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS celebrates the spirit behind one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation

In the early 1990′s a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the “establishment” art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture.

Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories. It speaks to themes of what happens when the outside becomes “in” as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today’s youth.

Click Continue to see the rest…

Link: Beautiful Losers

This was the standout:

Sweet Dreams from Kirsten Lepore on Vimeo.

Created almost entirely with real food, Sweet Dreams is a stop-motion animation film about a stalwart cupcake yearning to find something beyond his world of sugar-cube skyscrapers and frosting-covered friends. When his makeshift boat crashes on foreign shores, he makes a shocking discovery that changes him forever. Director Kirsten Lepore’s immense talent for stop-motion storytelling shines in this endearing tale of friendship and community.

Despite the rain, the event was pretty fun. There was an eclectic crowd and open bar afterwards. Appropriately, the post-screening reception also featured Sprinkles cupcakes.

Links:
Kirsten Lepore
LACMA Muse

Link:
Aziz Ansari

Copy + Paste from Roberts + Tilton:

There is a scribble of asphalt and meandering ribbons of concrete tangled all over North America in a contiguous line of material that connects each of us to whomever else is also in contact. I sometimes marvel at this, walking from my front door and standing on the asphalt looking down at its grimy blackness, wishing I could rest my ear down on it and hear everything like the Indians in an old western film. The pavement I’m standing on is connected to other pavement, concrete, or steel to almost anywhere I can think of. Certainly everywhere you can drive to. Someone in Burnt Church, Tennessee is standing on gravel that is connected by touch to my street, just like someone is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I can be in New York City in 3 days from my home in the suburban sprawl of Orange County, California without ever touching the earth.

T h e S e co n ds Pa ss. . .

…Was the starting line of an old friend’s poem. The line was the seconds pass / like hands thru glass. I always loved those lines. In my head I always replaced hands with eyes. It puts a name on those moments when you stare into space, lapsing into a daydream, and the world is just spinning by. Sometimes I step out of those moments, only a little, just enough to think in my head those words – the seconds pass. Like an inner tick-tock, taking note that everything is slipping away, especially time.

In America the automobile is omnipresent, and in Southern California cars are life-blood. You are always in a car here. I came to driving late, not getting my license until I was 18. Before that I had my girlfriend, Deanna to chauffeur me around. As a young skateboarder I used cars to explore every last tendril of road I could find in search of skate spots and experienced much of my adolescent sex-life and adventures inside of a car. I like when I hear someone on the television call a busy street a major artery, like the roads are veins bringing life to the far reaches, with most of humanity lurking within reach of that life-giving connectivity. The tips of your toes are Fairbanks, the capillaries the Dalton Highway. For the preceding 22 years I have been a passenger all over the world, shooting pictures through the glass at those ephemeral winks, those trifles and curios that one races past, never enough time to stop.

And what better social study is there than driving and looking? It’s like taking a core samplefrom the social fabric, each layer exposing a new understanding of truth. My drive to Los Angeles takes me through streets lined with strip malls anchored with liquor stores and bail bond sellers, Colt 45 billboard sails, and 99-cent stores with brighter-than-daylight fluorescent lighting. Five minutes later I am passing high-end hipster sneaker shops and women in short dresses flittering about with a payload of shopping bags. A group of bearded Jewish men huddle on a corner in black suits and hats. You can look through the window right next to you at a person immersed in the enclosed world of their car, and secretly watch them live, rock out to music, talk on the phone, put on make-up or sit at a red light with thoughts elsewhere. The way people act depending on their various trips as they walk down the sidewalk or wait at a bench. The continuous remorseless traffic – each car bound for some purpose, going somewhere for some reason, all day long 24 hours a day in every city of the world. The section of street you happen to be on, the block, the intersection is a microcosm for all of humanity. All of this just rolls out perpetually in front you as you roll by the man-made scenery, colors, words, all coming into focus then fading back onto the horizon.

These photographs were all shot from inside a car, mostly a moving one. I never went out driving just to shoot pictures. Each one of these was shot going from point A to point B for some other reason, organically; they represent the in-between. Most of it is from my frequent visits to LA from my home in Huntington Beach, 1 hours’ drive south. But there is also a lot from taxi rides in Paris, Moscow, London, Barcelona, and St Petersburg. Cross-country tours of USA, Australia, Chile and Argentina. These photos have been collected from my archives and span back over 15 years.

Links:
Roberts + Tilton Gallery
Ed Templeton

Whole movie… with some commercials.

Link: Floored

Well, the ultra talented folks at Exosphere 3D created this cool reconstruction of the incident, using actual tape recordings and data of the flight from the National Transportation Safety Board.

Links:
Exosphere 3D – Cactus Flight 1549 Accident Reconstruction (US Airways)
Tracking US Airways Flight 1549, New York Times, 1/15/2009.

Here is my 2-sentences review: Acting wasn’t very good, some of the lines were pretty cheesy, it had a predictable storyline, but damn, lots of fighting. Mindless entertainment. =)

Here’s a cool fight scene from the movie. 

So, here then, is a list of things I will be picking up after Christmas, when 2 or none of the items pictured here will be on sale.

• Thermos Nissan 14 oz leak-proof tumbler
• Woodlore Cedar Shoe Trees for the additional shoes I purchased this last year
• KidRobot Krunk-a-Klaus 3″ Dunny designed by TADO
• Matcha Green Tea
• Tom Ford criss cross aviators
• Porsche key USB memory stick
• John W. Nordstrom cashmere-lined, black leather gloves
• Art of Shaving Power Razor and Stand for Gilette Fusion
• Kiehl’s Creme de Corps – KAWS limited, special edition bottle
• Top Gear Season 10 on DVD

Link:
The Last King of Scottland Official Page

Link: Gainsbourg vie heroique – le site officiel

“It’s not where you are that’s important, it’s what’s there.”

All of it can be viewed on Youtube in 10-minute segments, but due to some copyrights, not all have audio. In my opinion, it’s worth purchasing and viewing this properly on a big screen with the sound all the way up.

Link: The Spirit of Baraka

VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR is a feature-length film on the legendary designer Valentino Garavani in the wake of his exit in 2008 from the company he founded in Rome more than 45 years ago. Produced and directed by Matt Tyrnauer, Special Correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, the film is an intimate, engaging and very funny fly-on-the-wall exploration of the singular world of one of Italy’s richest and most famous men. The film documents the colorful and dramatic closing act of Valentino’s celebrated career, tells the story of his extraordinary life and work, and also explores the larger themes affecting the fashion business today. But at the heart of the film is the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti.

Link: Valentino Movie

Interesting Review (excerpt) from The Economist magazine:

…critics who have concluded that Mr Blomkamp’s satire is aimed at apartheid because his film is set in South Africa should brush up on the living conditions to which the world’s refugees, displaced people and other vulnerable groups are currently being subjected. The sight of soldiers roughing up and humiliating the alien prawns—who just want to be left alone to forage in the black-market for cat food, their favourite delicacy—may convey something sharp about the treatment of 42m uprooted terrestrials.

While searching for Youtube clips of the aliens talking (i think they sound cool), I came across this short film, which the movie is apparently based on. It’s also pretty entertaining.

Links:
Official Site of District 9
MNU Spreads Lies
Prawns and Other Illegal Aliens, The Economost, August 20th, 2009

Lt. Aldo Raine: My name is Lt. Aldo Raine and I’m putting together a special team, and I need me eight soldiers. Eight Jewish-American soldiers. Now, y’all might’ve heard rumors about the armada happening soon. Well, we’ll be leaving a little earlier. We’re gonna be dropped into France, dressed as civilians. And once we’re in enemy territory, as a bushwhackin’ guerrilla army, we’re gonna be doin’ one thing and one thing only… killin’ Nazis. Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I sure as hell didn’t come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of a fuckin’ air-o-plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a Jew-hatin’, mass murderin’ maniac and they need to be dee-stroyed. That’s why any and every every son of a bitch we find wearin’ a Nazi uniform, they’re gonna die. Now, I’m the direct descendant of the mountain man Jim Bridger. That means I got a little Injun in me. And our battle plan will be that of an Apache resistance. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty they will know who we are. And they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered, and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German won’t not be able to help themselves but to imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us. And when the German closes their eyes at night and they’re tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done, it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with. Sound good?
The Basterds: YES, SIR!
Lt. Aldo Raine: That’s what I like to hear. But I got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin’.

 Link: Official Site for Inglourious Basterds

The story line is a common one many of us experience, but has rarely been told with such honesty - how some people get confused between fantasy and reality (peppered throughout the movie, but for some of us slower folks, explicitly shown in one scene)  and why seemingly great relationships just abruptly end (at the moment, the lovestruck is focusing only on the good and not paying attention to the clues that forcast the relationship’s demise). 

I’ve been guilty of all of it, even had an ex-girlfriend named Summer. =P

Enough about me, 500 Days of Summer lives up to the hype. Awesome soundtrack, as well.

Cheeers!

Link: Official 500 Days of Summer website

Dir. Benny Zenga & Brian Vernor
Four months on a bicycle between Cairo, Egypt and Cape Town, South Africa en route with the Tour d’ Afrique, the world’s longest bicycle race and expedition. BFF Alumni the Zenga Bros. and Brian Vernor share a universal love of the bicycle with Africa’s roadside mechanics, sporting racers and curious strangers. Traveling more than 70 miles per day, 50 racers and expedition riders experienced the boundless Nubian desert of Sudan, the great majesty of Victoria Falls, and finally the cold rush of the Atlantic Ocean. The 7,000 mile expedition is a constant adventure full of playfulness and mysterious beauty, and is testament to the endurance of human curiosity.

Link: Bicycle Film Festival

..even has a Phoenix song.

Copy + Paste from the documentary’s website.

HERB & DOROTHY tells the extraordinary story of Herbert Vogel, a postal clerk, and Dorothy Vogel, a librarian, who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history with very modest means. In the early 1960s, when very little attention was paid to Minimalist and Conceptual Art, Herb and Dorothy Vogel quietly began purchasing the works of unknown artists. Devoting all of Herb’s salary to purchase art they liked, and living on Dorothy’s paycheck alone, they continued collecting artworks guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. Within these limitations, they proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists including Sol LeWitt, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Tuttle, Chuck Close, Robert Mangold, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, Robert Barry, Lucio Pozzi, and Lawrence Weiner.

After thirty years of meticulous collecting and buying, the Vogels managed to accumulate over 2,000 pieces, filling every corner of their tiny one bedroom apartment. “Not even a toothpick could be squeezed into the apartment,” recalls Dorothy. In 1992, the Vogels decided to move their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The vast majority of their collection was given as a gift to the institution. Many of the works they acquired appreciated so significantly over the years that their collection today is worth millions of dollars. Still, the Vogels never sold a single piece. Today Herb and Dorothy still live in the same apartment in New York with 19 turtles, lots of fish, and one cat. They’ve refilled it with piles of new art they’ve acquired.

HERB & DOROTHY is directed by first time filmmaker Megumi Sasaki. The film received the Golden Starfish Award for the Best Documentary Film and Audience Award from the 2008 Hamptons International Film Festival. It has also received Audience Awards from the 2008 SILVERDOCS Film Festival and the 2009 Philadelphia Cinefest. Palm Springs International Film Festival named HERB & DOROTHY one of their “Best of Fest” films in 2009. 

Links:
Herb and Dorothy
NPR Movie Review – Herb and Dorothy: A Portrain of The Collector, Eccentric and Essential

Right now, you can download the amazingly shot documentary, Truth in 24. The film follows the legendary Audi team (and their diesel-powered R10) as they prepare for and take part in one of the most famous races in the world, 24 hours of Le Mans. It is narrated by Jason “The Transporter” Statham, and has won many accolades around the world.

Peep the 60-second trailer of the documentary to get the testosterone flowing………. *RooOoAAAAR*:

Truth in 24 – 60 Second Trailer – These bloopers are hilarious

Click the picture below to be directed to Apple itunes:

Previously shown only at film festivals until last Friday when they aired this on ESPN. I was bummed because I missed it, and now it’s available for free?!!!

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!

Links:
Truth in 24 website
Movie Review
Back Story

Under The Sea 3D will transport moviegoers to some of the most exotic and isolated undersea locations on Earth, including Southern Australia, New Guinea and others in the Indo-Pacific region, allowing them to experience face-to-face encounters with some of the most mysterious and stunning creatures of the sea. It will offer a uniquely inspirational and entertaining way to explore the impact that global climate change has had on ocean wilderness.

check out the video clip.

 
Under the Sea 3D Trailer – Watch more funny videos here

.. now imagine it on a giganormous screen.

a kind of making-of featurette:

Under The Sea 3D HQ Official Trailer – The funniest videos clips are here

Link: Under the Sea, IMAX