Considered the “great film” of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, an early indicator of its Oscar potential, Babel is a film which shares notable characteristics with recent successful indies capable of garnering the full attention of Hollywood. Looking like Syriana in its scope, feeling like an international version of Crash, Babel is the interweaving of stories about people in crisis – their crises arising from misunderstandings and failed communication – culminating in a...... [continue]

A billowing American flag against a pitch background opens this compelling story of a Seattle grandmother, Bev Harris, who started asking questions after presidential candidate Al Gore managed to get negative votes (-16,022, to be exact) in Volusia County, Florida in 2000. After a media distraction over "hanging chads" and other discrepancies, the overall results in Florida effectively lost the election for Gore. As simplistic as it sounds, Harris made a search engine find... [continue]

“In the movie about your life, are you the hero or the anti-hero?” It’s the question we’ve always wanted to ask prodigious screenwriter, Shane Black, and we finally got the opportunity. Not that Black is inaccessible, just. . . intimidating from a distance. His reputation precedes him. Known for “reinventing” the action flick as much as breaking with the stereotypical screenwriter persona of a bespectacled pipsqueak, Black prefers to shun the conventions of the movie...... [continue]

We’ve come to realize that the real measure of whether or not one is living in a film-lovin’ town just might be having two film festivals to choose from on a single weekday night. Tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse South, the Austin Polish Society and the Austin Polish Film Festival will present their final screening in the month-long celebration of cinema from the Polish perspective. Pulling from different decades since the Lodz School’s beginnings... [continue]

At one time or another, in a fit of nostalgia for our high school years, we have had the delusion of grandeur warm and fuzzy feeling that we could be a teacher. Yeah, and a really good one, too! Then we remember that one freshman civics teacher, whose name we can’t remember, but whose story became urban legend. Bit by bit – like a water torture technique – he lost control of the students under...... [continue]

In its month-long look at the finer points of the Polish film world, and under the banner of New Directions in Polish Film II, the Austin Polish Society and Austin Polish Film Festival proudly present another gem – one from the Lodz School film archives. Film school alumni Krzysztof Krause takes a critical look at the art world, examining a recognizable dichotomy as embodied by two artistically inclined characters in his 2004 film Moj... [continue]

We’ve underestimated them. For eons, we’ve thought receptionists were just pretty faces with good phone etiquette redirecting our calls. The sentinels of the company. The greeter of all guests. Sitting behind those fortress-like desks with only their eyes peering over the top, they’ve fooled everyone. We’ve always thought they were spending the time between phone calls creating the world’s biggest rubber band ball, or adding another yard to their paperclip chain. Maybe an occasional... [continue]

The Austin Polish Society kicks of its 50 Years of the Lodz School festivities tonight with the regional premiere of Jestem, with director Dorota Kedzierzawska in attendance. This inaugural Austin Polish Film Festival will feature a month-long salute to some of Poland’s greatest film artists. The Alamo on South Lamar will play host to the festival, screening a selection from an acclaimed director of the Lodz School each Thursday for the month of October.... [continue]

Tonight at 7:00 pm., Book People will host a reading and book signing by über-personal storyteller, Stephanie Klein. Her blog-turned-book, Straight Up & Dirty, is a tale of surviving, thriving and arriving, inspired by her well-read blog, Greek Tragedy. The outgoing and daring personality of Klein, coupled with her fearless honesty, has created a legion of fans who, having followed the writer’s adventures as a Manhattan singleton, have incorporated her vernacular into conversations. Her... [continue]

Out at the refurbished Del Valle High School football stadium, a staged homecoming football game was filmed last Friday night and into the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. The “game” was the backdrop for the Austin-based NBC series Friday Night Lights. The show’s pilot premieres tonight at 7:00 p.m. “We wrapped at 4:00 a.m.,” assistant director Michael Waxman said. “I’ve had about 3-1/2 hours of sleep at this point.” Waxman was talking by cell phone from...... [continue]

We are insatiable movie lovers. Because we just haven’t had our fill of summer sunshine; are kept awake at night wondering how Edward Norton made a tree grow out of an orange seed; and want to gross ourselves out one more time on that Austin-filmed worms in a blender flick, we won’t be missing out on tomorrow night’s Cans Film Festival. No, not the Cannes you find in far-away France. We’re talking about the cans...... [continue]

The second in the Francois Ozon trilogy of films on death, Time To Leave arrives at the Dobie today for a week-long engagement. Melvil Poupaud plays Romain, a young, handsome and successful fashion photographer living a big life when he is diagnosed with cancer. Refusing the recommended therapy -- due to his slim chance for survival and his personal experience watching someone die of the disease -- he opts for charting his own march... [continue]

The 2006 Green Screen series of environmentally-inspired documentaries wraps up this evening at the Alamo South with Judith Helfand’s “toxic comedy,” Blue Vinyl. While on a press tour for her Peabody award-winning, Healthy Baby Girls, Helfand was horrified by the staggering incidence of illness endured by the people working in plants producing polyvinyl chloride in neighboring Louisiana. As a cancer survivor, the gauntlet was cast. She went on to discover that PVC was everywhere... [continue]

With all of the controversy revolving around the belated announcement that McNeil High School administrators have decided to no longer sponsor an annual homecoming dance and the ensuing news coverage and snickering good fun on the interweb, we almost forgot to change our Mavericks muscle calendar from August to September. The Abercrombie & Fitch-style calendar features members of the football team in poses to make grandma proud. Reportedly during the planning stage, doting parents... [continue]

Some things skip a generation. Others round the bend, never to be heard from again. Still others seem to hop in and out of mode with consistent regularity. While some fads and fashions may fall out of style, one that seems to breath new life into the dance scene at regular intervals is the original Lindy Hop. This highly improvisational and interpretive dance style was born in Harlem during the Jazz Age. The same...... [continue]

Opening this weekend with a lack of fanfare is the flagship Burnt Orange Productions feature film, The Quiet. Seasoned film and television director Jamie Babbit (But I’m A Cheerleader, Gilmore Girls, Malcolm in the Middle, Nip/Tuck)directed the project as part of the Texas Film Institute’s program, which provides real-world training to University of Texas film students. The screenplay by writing team Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft was chosen by the Sundance Institute in 2003 for... [continue]

An old world stage illuminated only by lantern light. Armed guards standing post throughout. The audience, a sea of faces with mouths agape, except for one. The skeptic tilts his head away from the stage in a sidelong glance as the magician evokes his deception. The Illusionist is a gothic romance-mystery set in the surreal world of 19th century Vienna. Based on the short story, Eisenheim, The Illusionist by Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Steven Millhauser,...... [continue]

As part of a summer movie selection featuring all things that slither, live underground and otherwise make us go, “Eww,” is the Austin-filmed How To Eat Fried Worms, based on Thomas Rockwell’s timeless children’s book. Starring Austin, Texas, the production attempted to slip in and out of town last summer, but the L.A.-based group had no idea what they were in for when they put out a call for extras. Hoping for a few... [continue]

Before the Austin Film Society announces their Texas Film Production Fund grants tomorrow, they’ve got a gift for the rest of us: A screening of Gas Food Lodging with director Allison Anders in attendance at The Alamo. Anders brings a strong woman’s voice and vision to independents that have been praised for their unapologetic and gritty truth. Named a Nicholl Fellow in its inaugural year, she has written and directed standout indie features, Mi Vida...... [continue]

Kermit the Frog was right: It’s not easy being green. We find it extremely difficult to “think green” when the 100-degree heat is turning everything brown. The truth is, despite the current crisping of our landscape, Austin holds its own in its greenness as one of the most environmentally conscientious cities in the world. Some Austinites who have made this passion for green living their way of life are assembling tomorrow. Hosted by the... [continue]