Daily Screens - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

This Week's Waste of Time

Rube Goldberg Spins in Grave, Invents Coolest Coffin Ever

Let's get one thing straight: We love, love, love Rube Goldberg. The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, author, engineer, and inventor is probably best remembered to a certain age group for his ingenious drawings of maniacally complicated labor-saving devices such as this self-operating napkin which was appropriated by fan Tim Burton for Pee Wee's Big Adventure (variations on similar rude, meal-time mechanicals appeared in Charles Chaplin's Modern Times and Woody Allen's Sleeper.Goldberg also invented the über-cool board game Mouse Trap and, as if that weren't enough to ensure his permanent position in the pantheon of people who, thank god, never bothered to grow up, he also scripted the great Three Stooges feature Soup to Nuts, and deeply influenced both Chuck Jones's Wile E. Coyote 'toons and Antonio Prohias's classic Mad Magazine comic series Spy vs. Spy. It's like Goldberg cornered the cool market and then redesigned it to fit his own wonderfully complex worldview. The guy even had his own United States postage stamp, for Chrissakes!

'Amy Cook: The Spaces In Between'

Dish Network subscribers will be able to catch Amy Cook: The Spaces In Between, featuring local musician Amy Cook, starting July 22.The new film, directed by Todd Robinson, follows Cook on tour across the Southwest and includes live performances, in-depth interviews, a glance at the recording process, off-stage antics, and even an explosion or two.Linked to hotelier Liz Lambert, Cook is making a name for herself with music that is a combination of folk, pop, and alt country. Her newest CD, Let the Light In was produced by Alejandro Escovedo and features guest artist Patti Griffin, among others. Cook was among the handful of musicians featured in Out Magazine's Top 100 of 2008.

This Week's Waste of Time

Opie on Top

If the Austin Film Festival is playing six degrees of separation with this year’s honorees, it’s going to have to try a little harder: director/prodcuer Ron Howard, the just-announced recipient of the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award, is just one lousy degree removed from Mitchell Hurwitz, who was revealed last week as the 2009 Outstanding Television Writer Award recipient. Howard of course produced Hurwitz’s show Arrested Development, and narrated, too: That alone earns our most warm-hearted congratulations. But wait – there’s more!A lot more –and no, we’re not referring to Howard the actor’s lasting cultural contributions via his pint-sized scamp Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and his more recent, third-billed turn in Jamie Foxx’s music video “Blame It” (but seriously: what range). Nope, we’re thinking of the astonishingly varied and consistently good work Howard’s done behind the camera: children’s fantasy (Willow) and romantic comedy (Splash), summer blockbuster (the Da Vinci movies) and fall Oscar bait (Frost/Nixon). But the sentimental fave has to be Parenthood: Steve Martin and Mary Steenburgen, so funny and believable as exhausted parents; Jason Robards as the gravel-voiced grandpa from hell; high-school-aged Keanu Reeves sexing up Martha Plimpton and Joaquin Phoenix locked in his room with a bag of p*rn.AFF runs 16th Annual Austin Film Festival & Conference, October 22-29, 2009. For more info, see austinfilmfestival.com Full press release after the jump.

Fantastic Fest First Wave Films Announced (Finally)

It may be hotter than hades outside but the news from Fantastic Fest 2009 is cool, chilling, and guaranteed to make your blood run cold. (And didn't Fantastic Fest 2007 feature The Last Winter, like, totally predict what's now happening in the real, hot world? Oh hell yeah it did.)At the top of the list of films that have just been announced for this year's festival (Sept. 24 - Oct. 1 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar) is Jared Hess's (Napoleon Dynamite) Gentleman Broncos, a promising slice of sci-fi nerd weirdness (with heart, natch) featuring jet-pack-wearing stags and the longhairs that love them. Yes! Read that last sentence again: "jet-pack-wearing stags!" Our minds are all squirmy in anticipation.Also of major note are Tom Shankland's creepy kid-flick The Children ("Jabs an icicle in your eye!") and a lifetime achievement award will be presented to legendary Spanish director Jess Franco! If you haven't seen a Franco flick, well, you've got over 200 to choose from, but we'd recommend the hypercolorful Eugenie...the Story of her Journey into Perversion as a nifty starting point. (We're also big fans of Vampyros Lesbos, but you probably already figured that out for yourself.)The complete, unexpurgated, titillating bombshell gore-o-tronic master list of first-wave Fantastic Fest films (and all relevant tickets/badges info) can be found here. Full press release after the jump.

This Week's Waste of Time

Michael Jackson Memorial Simulcasts Today in Austin at High Noon

Disappointed that you were shut out of the lottery for free tix to MJ's funeral? Sad that you don't live in L.A. and have no huddled masses to join with in your outpouring of sorrow? Frustrated that you're deep in the heart of Texas when all the public display of grief is centered in L.A.? Well then, get thee right now to the cinema – specifically the Galaxy Highland or the Alamo Drafthouse South where the memorial service will be simulcast live. Both locations have a limited number of free tickets to the simulcast, which begins at 12 noon (CST). Doors at the Highland open at 11:30am and at 11am at the Alamo. Tickets will be deciminated on a first come, first serve basis, but you may reserve a seat in advance at the Alamo by purchasing a $5 food/beverage voucher online.

Ghostbusters Game Review (Xbox 360 / Playstation 3)

Ghostbusters is a delightful little one-off. It's the sort of game that's desperately welcome during the dog-days of gaming summer, particularly if your platform of choice hasn't had copious amounts of Fallout 3 DLC to pass the time. Unfortunately, it's also the sort of game you get about a third of the way through before understanding how it wants to be played.