Cinema Hype

Do you find that you just can’t get enough CH goodness in your life? When it comes to movie news, are your eyes not cutting the mustard? For all you CH junkies out there–that would be you, Mom–I’ve got great news!

CH has been featured on the NPR show The Takeaway–you can hear it here, either by clicking “Listen” (a mishmash of all the featured reviews, heavily edited; I’m the first voice after they mention specific problems with the story), or by using the little player to listen to the whole thing. (If you click the link, you’ll find yourself…here.) For the truly obsessed, you can even download it as an mp3, but if you do that, I’m not sure I want to know about it.

Happy listening!

Update: It appears that the streaming audio may not be working (on a Mac, anyway). Avid listeners may need to download.

I get that it’s International Indiana Jones Week, and all, but it seems to me that everybody I know has the same song in their heads: not John Williams’s vine-swinging, triumphant Indy theme, but the hip-swinging, suggestive Sex and the City beat. (Oh, you’re singing it right now, aren’t you?) NBC just showed the series finale—so great!—and it looks like we’re all ready for just one more go with our favorite Ladies Who Brunch.

In the mean time, check out this awesome short film, written by Hanelle M. Culpepper, recommended by the fine folks at Cinematical and hosted by YouTube. I give you Six and the City:

The best thing is, they kind of sound like the Sex ladies, don’t they? Well played, all.

Sex and the City, SexandtheCity, Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, Samantha, YouTube, short film

I was talking the other day to a friend about the movie Baby Mama. The conversation went something like this:

Me: So, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have a new movie coming out.

Her: Oh, I heard about that. I wonder if it’ll be any good?

Me: I’m sorry. Did you hear what I said? Tina FEY and Amy POEHLER have a new movie coming out.

Her: Yeah, I heard. I said, I wonder if it’ll be any good.

Me: LISTEN TO YOURSELF. Have we met?

You see, the tendency around CHHQ is to lose the thread of the conversation somewhere after “Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.” Rule #4 of the CHHQ Constitution states clearly, and I quote, that “all movies written by and/or starring Tina Fey must be of higher-than-average quality and may, in fact, be cultural touchstones for girl nerds everywhere.” Combined with statute 7c of the same document (”Amy Poehler is like our crazy, not-right, bottle-blonde cousin, and we love her, so there”), things are looking up for Baby Mama, as far as Cinema Hype is concerned, sight unseen. Also, John Hodgman! He makes us giggle just by showing up. Wait ’til he actually has lines!

Except for one detail: neither Fey nor Poehler wrote Baby Mama. That honor goes to one Michael McCullers, the pen behind Undercover Brother and Austin Powers in Goldmember; he also wrote for SNL a decade ago. This all, frankly, gives us pause. We want to believe that anything starring Fey and Poehler must be sprinkled with the dust of smart, funny fairies. Still: Undercover Brother.

Judge for yourselves, CH readers.

Baby Mama, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, John Hodgman, Michael McCullers, Undercover Brother, Austin Powers, movie trailers, Youtube

Happy New Year, CHers! The confetti’s been tossed, the champagne’s dripped all over the floor, and we’re looking at a stormy, gray January as we stare down our lists of resolutions (or in my case, “suggestions”). But never fear: with a new year comes a whole new crop of movies to anticipate, and things are looking positively spring-like for 2008.

Here, to start things off, is the Cinema Hype Top Five Most-Anticipated Movies of 2008:

1. Leatherheads

There is no way, in my humble but accurate opinion, that this movie can be anything but awesome. Intern George directing and starring! Renee Zellweger unscrunching her face for the first time since “you had me at hello!” And look how dreamy John Krasinski is. In the uniform, with his hair all slicked? Also, uh, football. Sure. We like sports movies. Count us in.

2. The Time Traveler’s Wife (No trailer available)

If this movie isn’t good, expect an uprising: cranky bookworms of the world, unite! On the other hand, how can it be bad? This story about a man who time-travels involuntarily and the woman he falls in love with feels like a good movie. Kleenex required, though.

3. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Why does this trailer make me feel all fluttery inside? I’m not gonna lie: it might be Lee Pace with a tux and a British accent. But doesn’t it just look like fun? Snappy dialogue-ish, big-band, Amy Adams-as-ingenue fun? I want to hang out with this movie.

4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (no trailer available)

Another chrono-ambulatory love story, this time based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story of the same title. Brad Pitt stars as Benjamin Button, who’s born an old man and ages backwards. Unfortunately for everyone, he falls in love with a 30-year-old woman (Cate Blanchett). Sounds cool, no? And if all else fails, sign us up for a theme-DVD night (with The Time Traveler’s Wife and, I don’t know, Somewhere in Time? Oh, you know you love it. Don’t lie).

5. Get Smart

AHAHAHAHA. I’m so looking forward to this, to the point where I’m considering liking Anne Hathaway (as Agent 99). Strong words, no?

So that’s where we stand. What are your top movies for 2008?

Leatherheads, George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee Pace, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Get Smart, Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Top 5s, upcoming movies, trailers

Hey, you! Hollywood-itis got you down? Can’t handle another Christmas season full of The Santa Clause 3 and its minions? Does the plight of the WGA and its members make you want to curl into a ball in the corner (or could you just not care less, as long as your shows come back soon)?

Why not check out an alternative? Say…cinema that is truly independent, unaffiliated with The Man (unless YouTube is The Man, which: debatable), and often at the cutting edge of the creative impulse? This is rough time for big-screen movies, but it’s also a great time to seek out new talent, support filmmakers operating outside the studio system, and still get your movie fix.

To start, check out filmmaker and friend-of-the-blog (or, really, friend-of-the-blogger) Timothy Sloat and his collection of short films. Want a preview before you click alllll the way over to YouTube? Here’s Tim’s latest movie, Adopted, for your viewing pleasure:

Cool, no?

(Fun fact: The score to this film was derived from a recording of a single percussion concert recording made by Tim, then manipulated digitally. Even the crowd’s applause makes it in. Can you “spot” it? I dare you.)

For more filmic brilliance, check out the afore-linked YouTube page for Tim and his production company, Fidget Films. (If you like The Office, things that are funny, and/or have ever worked for, attended, or walked by a church, you have to watch his Church Office series. In a word: HEE!)

independent film, indie film, Tim Sloat, Adopted, YouTube

I’m going to make a wild, completely unscientific, totally unconfirmable statement, here: According to “experts” at CinemaHype.com, the relationship between being a fan of The Simpsons and being a fan of Star Wars correlates to…say…approximately 0.8. I’m not sure whether most Simpsons fans are Star Wars fans, or whether Star Wars fans are Simpsons fans, but either way, let’s say there’s a connection.

Given that (totally made-up) fact, we at CH are surprised that it took this long for this video to appear:

Say it with me now: “Hee!”

youtube, star wars, the simpsons

Want to see something cool?

Check this out. (I’d post it myself, but YouTube hates me. Don’t ask.)

It’s interesting–perceptions of beauty in nearly 100 years of filmmaking, yada yada–and kind of creepy all at the same time. Some of those women don’t look very much alike, and yet they morph with some kind of freakish ease. I’m willing to bet that they’ve got more in common physically than they have things….not in common.

Who’s with me?

YouTube, women in film, classics, videos

Mary Martin may be the woman most associated with the story of Peter Pan (and rightly so; I was pretty enamored of her as a kid), but she certainly isn’t alone. For all its man-heaviness, Peter Pan–in all its literary and especially filmed incarnations–offers two distinctive and telling portraits of what it is to be a woman. In Wendy Darling and the fairy (pixie? I should know this) Tinkerbell, we have the two Victorian proto-women (Mother and Danger Personified, and what a choice that is) sitting side by side. Or so posits one writer at Film Experience as part of the Action Heroine Blogathon, which took place recently. Wendy and Tink aren’t the only broads swaggering around the blogroll over at AHB, but they’re a start; check out lots of people’s thoughts on the best and most bad-ass of women in film.

And don’t forget to check out the Haiku for Heroines, which makes a) my heart flutter with joy, and b) me jealous of the author’s mad haiku skillzzzzz. Haiku for everyone!

Learn writers’ tips and
tricks when Jeff Goldsmith says, “That’s
how it all went down.”

There are two kinds of DVD watchers in this world: those that watch the movie, and those that watch the movie and everything else. Movie watchers like to see a good story play out on the screen. Movie-and-everything-else watchers like to see a good story play out on the screen, and then they want to know how it happened. They want to know why it happened. They want to know about costume issues, arguments with the studio, funny swearing incidents with the cast. Movie-and-everything-else watchers sometimes become writers. It’s for both of these groups of people that Creative Screenwriting magazine provides its free, fascinating, and thoroughly addictive weekly podcast. Want to know what it took to write and produce your favorite movies? It’s here. Curious about how actual, working writers and directors made it into the business? Check it out. Host Goldsmith is sure to ask the pertinent questions, and you’ll certainly learn a lot.

If there were a CH Seal of Approval, we’d give it, but we can’t find our wax.

screenwriting, creative screenwriting, podcast, haiku