Tastemaker

From Hollywood Reporter

Hair High
5 Dec 2006 10:12am EST - By Frank Scheck
NEW YORK -- Animator Bill Plympton's unique brand of anarchic, gross-out humor is very much on display in his feature-length spoof of high school romances and gothic horror tales. The tale of a perfect teen couple -- a head cheerleader (Sarah Silverman) and star quarterback (Dermot Mulroney) -- whose romance becomes unglued thanks to the arrival of a geeky new student (Eric Gilliland) who comes between them, "Hair High" plays like a demented, animated cross between "Grease" and "Carrie".

Plympton's distinctive, hand-drawn style can be a little tough to take at feature length, and this film, like his previous full-length efforts, again demonstrates that narrative is not his strong suit.

But there's no denying the hilarity of the sight gags on display, from a sexually rampaging chicken mascot at a high school football game to a biology teacher literally throwing his guts up to an army of decomposing bodies rising from their watery graves.

As usual, Plympton's animation is definitely not for the kids, with a preponderance here of ribald and vulgar visuals that are not for the squeamish.

This effort features, for the first time in Plympton's oeuvre, a plethora of name performers providing the voices. Besides the aforementioned, other notables lending their aural talents include Keith and David Carradine, Martha Plimpton, Craig Bierko, Justin Long, Matt Groening and Ed Begley Jr.

- Congratulations Bill! - HCS

Congratulations to Choking Man and averyone at GhostRobot for winning the Gotham Award for Best Film Never Seen In a Theatre Near You. Granted, a bit of a sting comes with this award, but it's still a mark of being recognized for excellent work by the industry! -HCS

Short summary of Choking Man on IMDB - The social anxiety of a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner provides the psychological engine that powers this blend of drama and magical realism.

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.

Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of corporate greed in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private security companies making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

To learn more, or find another screening to attend, please visit:
http://iraqforsale.bravenewtheaters.com/

Screening of "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers"
Sunday, December 03 07:30 PM
Truth Film Series
32 Watts Street
NYC, New York 10013

HOSTED BY: greenback productions.
Tickets are FREE. RSVP required.

For more details and to RSVP, please visit: IraqForSale

The Sundance Film Festival Picks are in!!! Congratulations to Teeth (and producer Joyce Pierpoline and writer/director Mitchell Lictenstein) for their great work, we'll see Teeth in competition at the festival. Check out their pic and the article in NY Times You rock, you rock so hard.

For a full list of the 64 films accepted, go to Variety

Congratulations to Flannel Pajamas for extending its run at the Angelika in NYC! Three weeks (so far) instead of one. You go, team! Here's what someone on IMDB had to say:

Julianne Nicholson gives that brave and tortured performance that every actor dreams of. Despite spending half the film in the nude that is not the reason why it is "brave" as some critics like to throw in when someone does spend screen time like that. It's what she does when she's clothed and unclothed and her expression of words, her facial transformations in an instance, and even more, giving Nicole a sensitivity and humanity of sheer velocity. In the coming years, I have a feeling we could be hearing Nicholson's name at some award ceremonies.

I happen to agree. Both Julianne and Justin are talented, subtle actors. Julianne also has a great heart, and it shines thru. Luminous, I believe, is the word. -HCS

Shocking fans who had assumed that director Peter Jackson, who was responsible for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, would direct The Hobbit -- a kind of prequel to those films -- and another Lord of the Rings epic, Jackson said on theonering.net website Sunday that he had been advised by New Line that the studio "would no longer be requiring our services on The Hobbit ...[and] was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker." Jackson said that the studio cited the ongoing lawsuit that Jackson filed against New Line in June of 2005, charging that the studio had committed fraud in reporting the revenue for 2001's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which allegedly resulted in Jackson being underpaid millions of dollars. If the notice from New Line was a ploy to induce Jackson to drop or settle the lawsuit -- as Jackson seems to suggest in his message to "Ringers" -- it apparently failed to achieve its objective. In the message, Jackson said that he was "very sorry our involvement with The Hobbit has been ended in this way. ... This outcome is not what we anticipated or wanted, but neither do we see any positive value in bitterness and rancor. We now have no choice but to let the idea of a film of The Hobbit go and move forward with other projects." -IMDB News

It's finally here! Sundance programmers are finalizing their choices, and the calls are going out. Congratulations to - damn, I am not allowed to tell you who got accepted yet. I am biting my lip. I am dying to tell you guys who got the nod already!!! Ok, ok, I promise to reveal the lucky ones on Monday.

This just in from my friend Spyro at Tokion magazine:

TOKION and Dewar's White label are running an awesome contest for film makers with short (3-5) documentary style films. The prizes rock and you get your film screened in NY, Boston, Seatle, Portland and LA -
read on.

TOKION Magazine and Dewar's White Label present the KING OF DOC! Contest

Call for Entries
Send us your own 3-5 minute documentary inspired by the following themes:

MISTAKES
Some people are always looking for new kinds of mistakes to make.

CHEAP LOVE
Talk is cheap until it gets into love letters

INTEGRITY
A man's reputation is that which is not found out about him.

All submissions will be judged by TOKION editors as well as by a panel of our celebrity judges including:
Jonathan Caouette, Filmmaker - Tarnation
Ondi Timoner, Filmaker - "DiG!"
Bruce Sinofsky, Filmaker - Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

The Winners:
We will be flying the three winners to NYC to screen the winning films with us. We will screen your film, have a party in your honor, as well as give you the opportunity to be questioned by an audience of your peers regarding the creative process that was involved in creating your film.

The grand prize winner will be offered a $5000 contract with Dewar's White Label to produce Dewar's White Labels next brand-education film. We're also throwing in a new Apple MacBook Pro laptop and a copy of Apple's Final Cut Pro 5.1 production suite. The second and third prize winners will receive a complete software prize package from SONY worth over $1800 - including SONY Vegas Pro and Cinescore.

Eligibility and Details:
All entrants must submit at least three copies of their film on either DVD, Mini DV or VHS format.
You must be at least 25 years old to submit a film into the KING OF DOC contest.
All entrants must include return address and contact information including current phone number, email and photocopy of valid ID (driver's license, non-driver state ID, passport) stating age.

TOKION/Dewar's White Label is not responsible for returning any submissions.
Submissions must be postmarked no later than Dec 11th 2006.
Submissions should be sent to TOKION KING OF DOC contest C/O TOKION
Magazine 341 Lafayette Street, Suite 587, New York, NY 10012.
Winners will allow films to be screened by Dewar's White Label at Dewar's White Label events.
Winning films may also appear in additional future Dewar's promotional spots.
For all contest info log onto www.tokion.com/kingofdoccontest.

Highly Recommended. Some very INFORMED conspiracy theorists. The host Brian Michaels, has, on occasion, materialized in front of me with hot-off-the-declassified-list documents that have blown my mind - documents without outside commentary, documents straight out of the Dept. of Justice files that outline such outrageous plans as their 1950's program aimed at plowing a US airliner into a Miami buliding in an effort to win support against the Cubans. You get my drift.

Truth in SoHo on a Sunday afternoon.
WHAT: Screening of "9/11 Press For Truth"
WHEN: Sunday, November 26 02:00 PM
WHERE: Truth Film Series
32 Watts Street
NYC, New York 10013

HOSTED BY: brian michels.
Tickets are FREE. RSVP required.

For more details and to RSVP, please visit:
http://pressfortruth.bravenewtheaters.com/screening/show/...

So I (and many other people) have been working for days and days on the details involved with getting a film Premiere and Party off with a bang, and tonite is the nite!! Flannel Pajamas premieres at the Village East Cinemas on 2nd Ave and 12th St. at 7pm, so if you want to see Justin Kirk (Weeds, Angels in America) or Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order CI, Ally McBeal) stepping out, you know where to loiter! Premiere Party at undisclosed-location.

Flannel Pajamas opens to the general public on Wed. November 15th at Angelika (and other screens in other cities). If I see you at the party tonite, give me a kiss for ordering all the beer and wine!