Acquaintance of the blog Matthew Silver was just called an asshole by The Village Voice. It’s hard to imagine a purer assurance that you are indeed living a good and worthy life.

And in case you need assurance that Mr. Silver is worth your time, here’s the same example the Village Voice used:

…and watched other people work.

There’s a scene to be watched on the Wholpin DVD site today straight out of ‘The Guatemalan Handshake’ – if you haven’t seen the movie, this’ll give you a little more flavor than the trailers.

Here’s how Todd sets it up:

This is a story-within-the-story that serves as an uneven parallel to the film’s main story – the disappearance of a main character. It’s meant to give our characters some hope that, despite attempts to rid one’s self from the planet or remove yourself from the lives you’ve affected, you’re not in total control of other’s memories and thoughts – that no matter how badly one might want to disappear, they continue to live on. Cory McAbee, who wrote, directed and stars in one of my favorite movies, The American Astronaut, plays Spank Williams, the troubled children’s morning show host.

Giver ‘er a click right here for the scene and a short interview with Todd.

All the bad reviews of 2007′s ‘The Invasion’ stuck in my head for a while. They were so bad I wanted to see the movie immediately. Maybe it’s the urge to see a real train wreck. Not just a b-movie flop, but something with some real muscle behind it.

It’s from the WB, from Joel Silver, starring Kidman and Craig. Then there are the stories about the reshoots by McTeague and the Wachowski Bros. The whole story appealed to my basest appetites – I was going to watch these powerful folks fail like crazy. I wondered if it would feel like three different movies, would I be able pick out the parts that were from the different versions. It was disgusting – I was totally hoping for blood.

Man, was I disappointed. ‘The Invasion’ is pretty great. read more »

I can’t look at this image without laughing.

If this one image can be this funny, imagine the rest of the movie.

Watching ‘Pineapple Express’ last night with a full audience, I wondered why there hadn’t been a chorus of Apatow’s critics pointing out how different a movie this is from the usual Apatow thing – outside of the usual “Can you believe David Gordon Green directed a comedy? Clearly that’s impossible, as all human beings are one-dimensional!”. From ‘Anchorman’ through ‘Step Brothers’, these movies all have a similar feel, similar rhythm, similar dick jokes. It’s not that ‘Express’ is unrecognizable as an Apatow movie – there’s the usual male-bonding brotherhood thing going on. There’s Seth Rogen and James Franco. There’s naughty jokes and gross outs.

What’s so different – and so great about it – is the violence. read more »

Congratulations to Danny, Jody, Ben, Brian, Zene, Jeff, Dave, Randy, Jeff, Derek, Chris, Tyler, Pyramid and the other folks whom IMDb may have failed to list. It’s a major victory on top of a major victory that not only did this movie make it all the way, but that it did so (apparently) without much molestation. Even the title is the same!

I’ll be introducing the wife to it tomorrow.

Go see it, won’t you?

[Update: Oh, yeah - I live in a political town, not a movie town. So I'll be waiting another week.]

That is until May 30.

I told you. And now here it comes.

Tonight, a ton of talented folks are up for awards at the Independent Spirit Awards. Among them, Craig Zobel is up for best first feature for ‘Great World of Sound’ along with his producers Melissa Palmer, David Gordon Green, and Richard Wright. Actor Kene Holliday is up for Best Supporting Actor for the same movie. This movie deserves that and more. And Jeff Nichols is up for the John Cassevetes Award for writing and directing ‘Shotgun Stories’ along with his producers Lisa Muskat and David Green. I haven’t seen ‘Shotgun Stories’, but Jeff’s writing was some of my favorite back at school. I can’t wait to see this.

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Tuesday night on the Conan O’Brien show, Tae Kwon Do expert Fred Simmons will be demonstrating martial arts techniques. Simmons is from my hometown of Concord, NC and I can say, without a doubt, he is a master of the demo. Be sure to watch and/or record.

Friends who’ve seen this are walking around with their minds all blown by unbridled, unrelenting, unnecessary hilarity. But my first exposure to it was the scene included on the ‘Superbad’ DVD set and… well… it’s a fine scene, no doubt, but my gut remained unbusted, sadly.

But now Crane has pointed me in the direction of the red band trailer, a promo that seems cobbled together from a bunch of screeners. Maybe it’s official in some capacity and maybe it’s not. But it doesn’t matter as it’s hard to read “PROP OF COLUMBIA PICS” through your tears.

So click it.

That there is Henry Leo DeFraction, the latest concept-to-completion project from writers/human makers Matt Fraction and Kelly Sue DeConnick.

Congratulations, Henry! You just scored the coolest parents on the planet.

Sitting at home on a sick/work-at-home/snow day, I turn on the TV and find old friends all over the Sundance Channel. Dave Green and Craig Zobel both have movies at Sundance this year – “Snow Angels” and “Great World of Sound”, respectively.

And just when I thought that was all, I see that Marco Williams is showing his doc, Banished: How Whites Drove Blacks Out of Town in America, as well.

And so it got me to thinking about what I’m looking forward to this year. Is it possible to guesstimate how good a year it will be in the movie theater? Who cares? This ain’t a weather report, it’s a crappy blog.

Therefore, here are the 10 best movies of 2007:

Snow Angels
Halloween
Great World of Sound
There Will Be Blood
Hot Rod
Banished
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Grindhouse
Fay Grim
Fido
My Blueberry Nights
30 Days of Night

10 movies so good, there are actually 12 movies on the list.

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Also, after watching the Lie Free or Die Hard trailer, realized that when K and I were in LA at the end of October, we actually saw them filming the big stunt centerpiece (all those crashing cars and the helicopter). If you haven’t been to LA on a Sunday… holy crap is it dead. And obviously a fantastic place to shoot a gigantic pile up.

Hi, everybody! The National Geographic News Podcast for Friday, October 13th is up and running. Check out new host Peter Standring’s vocal stylings and hear all about Paul Salopek’s time in a Sudanese prison.

Listen, won’t you?

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Casanova #5 is on its way, ladies (that’s not it to the side there, incidentally. That’s just my go to image for all things Casanova). There’s a write up and short interview with Matt at Variety’s Bags and Boards blog.

As more and more folks jump on the Cassanova bandwagon, the story hits an interesting stride in this last issue. Previously, the storyline was so down-right whacked out that there seemed to be no cliches to subvert; no expectations to confound.

But as you read #5, you’ll find some lovely confoundings, some writerly subversions, and what is, so far, my favorite issue.

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What’s that you say? You always wanted to own Craig Moorhead’s The Problem W/ Troubles but didn’t want to deal with the hassle of CDs and jewel cases?

Well, stop cryin’, because that thing is so totally downloadable all over the place.

If you dig eMusic.com, then you can get it here.

Or maybe you’re more of an iTunes cat, in which case this is the link you’re looking for.

Either way, please enjoy.

And thanks for listening!

Jody, Danny, and Ben have signed up with HBO to make ‘P.E.’, a show about a failed baseball player who returns to his hometown to teach P.E. at his middle school.

I. Can. Not. Wait.

I also still can’t wait to see ‘The Foot-Fist Way’ and I’m not sure why Paramount feels the need to make us wait, as a nation.

Not cool, Hollywood.

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See that? The Waving Man Treatment is due tomorrow. I’m not done yet.

Crap.

Nothing is more disingenuous than an album review by a friend of the band. Maybe I shouldn’t admit to knowing anyone in the The Hard Tomorrows and so when I tell you that paying the $10 for their new CD, ‘Lights Out’, is worth it, you might not start looking around for grains of salt.

But here it is: ‘Lights Out’ is worth your $10. And whatever is added to that for shipping. It drops this Saturday, so grab your wallets.

I’ll put up a longer take on it soon (first I have to totally go to the Emmys), so in the meantime, take David Malitz’s word for it. Here’s a taste of his review from the Washington Post:

‘”Patterns,” …showcases a perfect combination of Rob Pierangeli’s impressive vocal abilities, simple keyboards and gently picked guitar. “Darling” is a short, charming dirge that shows the band is capable of diversity in its songwriting, and actually brings to mind one of the year’s most bluzzed-about bands, Beirut.

Also, if you don’t already have it, you need to investigate the EP these guys put out a year or so ago, which will run you only $6 and shipping. You can buy both directly from their site.

Attention:

Please join me in welcoming Olivia Claire Hines to the planet.

Congratulations, Hines’!

A quick note – The Guatemalan Handshake’s Todd Rohal (#24) is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2006. Sweet.

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Also, so is America’s Sweetheart, Mike Tully (#18).

Good luck in New York, Mike!

I’ve read the new installment of Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba’s Casanova and it’s completely rich and strange. The art is great and the plot is utterly mind-bending. As if you needed more, there’s a scantily clad lady on the front holding guns. And at the end, Matt delves into some of his notes and influences while writing this episode.

If you wanna get a look at the engine of a well written comic book, go get this sucker.

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Word on the street is that Dave Green’s next joint, ‘Snow Angels’, is his best so far. I think it comes out this year? I damn well hope so.

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Supes cost $260m to make. Pirates cost $225m. How? Why? Where does this money go? Sure, there are stars and effects. Probably also a lot of set building and travel, etc. But that’s nearly $2m a minute.

Jurassic Park is still pretty outstanding, effects-wise, right? With inflation, that movie would cost $83m today. The first Matrix cost $65m. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which had some of the best effects I’ve ever seen, cost $20m.

I guess Superman Returns is the biggest surprise — Who on that set was commanding huge fees? Spacey? He’s not a $20m actor, is he? Posey and Bosworth aren’t pulling down that much. And I think all Routh got was parking validation. Plus, they shot the whole thing on video (albeit a brand new Genesis camera), so it should be cheaper, right? Did it all go to effects? If so… where? There was nothing that I hadn’t seen before (though, after seeing Jurassic Park, have you felt that way about CGI since?)

Even MI3 cost $150m. Why? It was practically an episode of Alias.

You love Todd Rohal, you love Danny McBride and you love Holland. Yet you haven’t seen ‘The Sweaty Salesman’?

You better go here right now.

And don’t forget to vote for your favorite film.

EDIT: Your favorite film is ‘Tulips for Daisy’. That’s right. Todd is campaigning to keep his film in the 4% range.

First and foremost, yesterday Casanova hit the comic store shelves. If you need an excuse to go the comic store, to get back into comices, to read, to look at pictures, to hold paper, or to give someone money, I can think of few smarter ways to go about doing so than purchasing this book.

But don’t think I’m gonna beg you, because if you don’t buy it, it’ll be your loss. And when the movie comes out and everybody is all “I read Casanova from issue 1″, I don’t want to hear you say “Yeah, me, too.”

Don’t be a liar. Buy Casanova.

(Click on the image for a preview.)

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Last night, working on the rewrite, I was feeling discouraged because I got to a point – this goes back to what I was talking about before – where I knew I had lost the connection to the story and I needed to wrap things up, so I just wrote an ending. The ending wasn’t completely useless because what happened is what I wanted to have happen, but it just didn’t finish up believably. There was nothing surprising about it. In some places it even devolved into – gasp – exposition!

In these cases I do my best to throw all the rules out the window and just brainstorm situations that could happen, that the characters could be in, and try to expand their world a little, the possibilities and whatnot.

It doesn’t always immediately pay off. Sometimes it’ll be a week before something really hits me, sometimes longer. But last night there was a pay off, something that made sense and at the same time rearranged the world these characters were in. After being trapped in the old ending – which seemed like a lot of fuss and was over way too soon – this is like a breath of fresh air.

Good times. I wish I was at home writing right now.

How long has it been? Four years? Five? Less? More? Whatever… I just got an email from old friend and new father Kevin Keck, who is publishing books like somebody’s burning them and, knowing Kev’s affinity for subjects that tend toward the rude and/or the nude, somebody somewhere most definitely IS burning them.

But that doesn’t change the fact that his writing will hit you where you live, maybe make you think that someone has been watching you in your most private moments.

I haven’t read his published books (yet), though I’ve read stories that made their way into Oedipus Wrecked that were originally on Nerve.com and the like, and I can tell you it’s worth your time and money. The other book, My Summer Vacation, looks like a humdinger and I can’t wait to crack that one open, too.

I’m buyin’ ‘em now. Are you?

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The June 14th deadline will not be met for ‘The Third Half’ rewrite. The day job has pushed itself into the night job and screwed everything up. Still, after this week, everything should be back on track. I’m anxious to get back to it, because everything was just getting good. I’m interested to see how it all turns out.

Talking with Jim last night about the summer blockbusters and what needs to be seen and what needs to be left unseen. If nothing else, the summer movie season proves to me each and every year that, if I am a film snob, I’m not a very good one. I’m a sucker for the big action and the de-luxe sets and costumes.

Since the only important list is what needs to be seen, here’s what movies I’ll be making out with my wife during:

TO BE SEEN (in no particular order):
Mission Impossible 3
Superman Returns
X-Men 3
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Lady in the Water
A Scanner Darkly
Miami Vice
Flags of Our Fathers
Snakes on a Plane
The Proposition (best poster of the summer)
A Prairie Home Companion
The Science of Sleep

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot ‘The Descent’. I’m dying to see that, too.

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There is big news coming about ‘The Foot Fist Way‘. Big congratulations to those fellas. I missed yet another chance to see this movie in the theater this weekend, but apparently, in the not too distant future, it will become harder and harder NOT to see this movie.

Brace yourselves.

Matt is very very at it again. Here’s the write up:

True story: in 1899, Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla decided to end war forever. With Twain’s connections and Tesla’s inventions, they went into business, selling world peace.

It’s coming from Image Comics in May. For those who are comics savvy, the super secret order code is : MAR06 1824.

There is also this:

You can sign up to be a “Casanovanaut” here.

And seeing as I want to try to keep spreading info and inspiration as much as possible while sticking with the theme of this post, go pick up this earlier Fraction comic:

This book includes the scripts for all three issues of Rex Mantooth: Kung Fu Gorilla with the actual drawrings on each facing page and – the best part – Fraction’s commentary. It’s like a special edition DVD in convenient book form. This is some truly funny stuff. Enjoy.