Sunday, March 14, 2010
2010-03-13 11:32:07
ALICE IN WONDERLAND: Tim Burton Feeds Us Candy Mushrooms Of Love, And We Start To See Bandersnatches
JOHN MARKS We live in an age of design revolution, but it's easy to take for granted, because most of us don't spend a lot of time contemplating our teapots. If you rustle up a Target catalogue from 1990, though, you'll see the difference. Our teapots and much else have been transformed...More
2010-03-09 20:47:51
WINDRIDER - Now Playing: "Rocket Man"
Now Playing: "Rocket Man" “No longer a boy and yet still full of joy”…so states a narrator near the conclusion of Laurence Cohen’s ingenious, sci-fi-tinged short, The Rocket Man, whose title derives from lead character Benji’s favorite childhood book...More
2010-03-04 01:09:37
OSCARS 2010: Old School Storytelling
Plenty of Oscar prognosticators turn the nominations into a horserace. They assign odds to the various nominees based upon timing and the mood of the Academy voters. Will an Oscar win cap a career or launch a new star? Is it payback for a previous snub or an outstanding anomaly within an otherwise obscure body of work? I asked my sharp students at Pepperdine University to get behind the Oscars, to investigate how the ten nominees for Best Picture got a greenlight...More
2010-03-03 11:26:45
WINDRIDER - Now Playing: "Hearts of Darkness"
Humor Sheds Light into the Darkest Heart
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the next Windy Wednesday short film in our Windrider WinterFest film series: Hearts of Darkness, from Zac Streich. Zac Streich’s hilarious animated short Hearts of Darkness, an Angelus finalist, presents a pastiche-like send-up of epic movie references from Apocalypse Now to The Titanic, with a side of Steamboat Willie thrown in for good measure...More2010-02-26 12:36:25
CITY OF THE ANGELS FILM FEST: Hidden Gems
People are always asking me for film recommendations. Unfortunately, my favorite movies are often tough to find. I see so many amazing films at festivals that rarely (if ever) get the attention they deserve. They may win the Audience Award at South by Southwest (like THAT EVENING SUN) or screen at Sundance before slipping into obscurity (like LOURDES)...More
2010-02-24 01:58:19
WINDRIDER - Now Playing: "Weathered"
Now Playing: "Weathered"
by John Priddy
Co-written and co-directed by Matt Barber and Matthew Webb, graduates of San Jose State University film school and Fuller Theological Seminary’s Theology & Film program, respectively, WEATHERED, an Angelus Live Action semi-finalist, offers a perceptive, moving portrait of a woman immobilized by grief over losing her fiancé...More2010-02-21 09:55:04
SHUTTER ISLAND: Scorsese's Late Masterpiece Is A Puzzle Film About 20th Century Horror
by JOHN MARKS Film brats who make movies often fall into the trap of making movies that merely rehash other movies. Film brats who become critics often make the mistake of seeing only other movies in the movies they review. That may explain why so many smart reviewers missed the glory of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, a late period masterpiece from a director who loves movies more than life...More
2010-02-14 06:31:48
CRAZY HEART: The Best Valentine Day Movie Is A Country Western Heartbreaker
by JOHN MARKS Some movies are visual songs. You can almost hum them. But which song? While watching Jeff Bridges in his Oscar-nominated role as the broken but unbowed musician Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, a thousand tunes went through my mind...More
2010-02-11 14:58:06
MANDELA: Sweet Honey in the Rock! It's Black History Month!
by JOHN MARKS Most of the time, we Americans look at Africa and shake our heads. There but for the grace of god go we. This year, on the Twentieth Anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, we might want to reconsider our superiority complex...More
2010-02-10 01:10:45
WINDRIDER: Now Playing - "The Little Gorilla"
Tapping Into Your Inner Kong
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the next Windy Wednesday film in our Windrider WinterFest series: “The Little Gorilla,” from writer/director Harry Kellerman. This highly acclaimed 12 minute family friendly film has won numerous awards, and audiences everywhere just love it...More2010-02-04 00:12:01
WINDRIDER: Sometimes All We Can Do is Mind the Gap
Sometimes All We Can Do is Mind the Gap
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the next Windy Wednesday film in our Windrider WinterFest series: “Mind the Gap,” from director Kristal Williams-Rowley and writer Marcy Holland...More2010-02-03 19:03:17
by JOHN MARKS This past weekend, fans of Sunday morning talk shows were treated to a spectacle for the ages. Roger Ailes appeared, or rather there appeared a mountainous scoop of egg custard inhabited by the ghost of a 15-year-old bully calling himself Roger Ailes...More
2010-02-02 11:46:20
Sundance 2010 made a bold claim to spark a "renewed rebellion." Their call to arms appeared just before ads for Honda and Hewlett-Packard. So it felt a little disingenuous. But the films themselves were as relevant as ever. Documentaries offered potent and poignant portraits of injustice around the globe...More
2010-01-29 19:12:45
UP IN THE AIR: Sins of the Smart Set
by JOHN MARKS What does it mean to be smart in art? In the King's English, when a woman tells her date he looks smart, she isn't saying that his interpretation of Hamlet drives her mad. She's calling him handsome, and that's as good a definition as any for the American English definition of the word...More
2010-01-29 00:30:07
WINDRIDER: Relief for the Spiritually Parched
Relief for the Spiritually Parched
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the next Windy Wednesday film in our Windrider WinterFest series: "Dried Up," by Stuart Bury, Jeremy Casper and Isaiah Powers. We invite you to gaze through the artistic and creative lens of puppet animation in order to truly “see” this compelling story about perseverance, faith and character...More2010-01-27 02:04:39
My first full day at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival included a trio of intriguing premieres. While each has strengths, none would be characterized as a 'homerun'. Obselidia starts with a fascinating premise. George is a librarian compiling an "Encyclopedia of Obsolete Things...More
2010-01-25 07:21:37
GREG MOTTOLA: THE PURPLE INTERVIEW (A RERUN IN HONOR OF THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL)
BY JOHN MARKS Today the Purple State team goes to the Sundance Film Festival, and we start the excitement with an interview conducted last summer with Greg Mottola, one of Hollywood's smartest directors of comedy and a truly independent spirit in an industry that doesn't often reward independence...More
2010-01-09 09:43:49
DAYBREAKERS: Vampires In Our Future
If I know vampire fans, and I do, word of mouth on the new Ethan Hawke movie Daybreakers will be huge, and out of the shadows they will come, the disaffected and disillusioned, the lovers of the genre bored by the camp of True Blood and appalled by the treacle of Twilight, the dedicated but indefatigable legion whose last real feeding came as a cinematic gift basket from Sweden...More
2010-01-06 01:32:14
WINDRIDER: Hats, Headwear and Hearts
Hats, Headwear and Hearts
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the next Windy Wednesday film in our Windrider WinterFest series: “Topi” by Arjun Rihan, and, as an added treat: “American Made” by Sharat Raju. Both family friendly (FF) films feature “hats” as a key story theme; both use headwear to illustrate points of cultural friction...More2009-12-23 11:57:47
WINDRIDER: 1 Moment + 1 Twist = 1 Unforgettable Holiday
1 Moment + 1 Twist = 1 Unforgettable Holiday
by John Priddy
We are proud to present the third Windy Wednesday film in our "Windrider WinterFest" series: Christmas Wish List by Sean Overbeeke. With this highly acclaimed, 15-minute, family-friendly film (suitable for all ages), we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas...More
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