A Steady Diet of Film

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posted by Erin @ Monday, October 09, 2006 0 comments

Edward Norton, you were supposed to bring sexy back!

Speaking of new releases, The Illusionist is not worth seeing even for masturbation fodder.

The story is pointless, the characters are silly and if we're somehow supposed to believe that Edward Norton (37) and Jessica Biel (24) are childhood sweethearts than the post-production team really should have abra-cadabra'd the lines off his face.

Also and WOW, is that ending even supposed to be a twist? The "discovery" scene is lifted straight from The Usual Suspects except it feels like it's a half hour long and puts Paul Giamatti's police inspector in the uncomfortable position of being functionally retarded.

posted by Erin @ Sunday, September 10, 2006 1 comments

New releases by lady-filmmakers

Here are some new release blurbs occasional contributor Cathy DLC recently wrote:


FRIENDS WITH MONEY is another interesting film by Nicole Holofcener. Holofcener's films often get disregarded as "chick flicks" because of their mostly all-women casts and storylines centered around women's lives; this is unfair because Holofcener's films are for everyone. Rarely do I see cinematic portraits of people done in a way that is both unflatteringly realistic and yet completely respectful to the complexities of people's lifestyles and emotions. FRIENDS WITH MONEY is a film I regret not seeing on the big screen when it first came out as I would have liked to have told my friends to go out and see it so we could discuss it afterwards. (Now on DVD.)

The first time I tried to see LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, it was sold out. Luckily, I arrived early during my second attempt to see the heartwarming and surprisingly superb film. I expected the film was just going to be another quirky buzzworthy-but-forgetful indie film, but fortunately I was very wrong. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE was a million times better than I expected. I actually laughed and cried repeatedly. It is rare that I see a new film in the theater that warrants such emotions from people, but the friend who I saw the film with was crying too and the amazing thing is they were tears of joy. I can't think of many films that get that kind of reaction these days. Definitely the surprise feel good film of the summer.


THE QUIET by Jamie Babbit might have started a new genre, the Riot Grrrl Film Noir. I expected the film to be an exploitational B-movie-esque romp through its very serious themes of incest, drug abuse, and physical disability with no odes to its predecessor, Babbit's wonderful BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER, but the movie was surprisingly adept at playing out its own schemes. Babbit did excellent casting with the Hal Hartley team of Martin Donovan and Edie Falco as the misguided parents to their daughters played by Elisha Cuthbert and Camilla Belle who's characters change their on-screen personalities at the drop of a hat, as if Babbit's directing is so effortless she is just flipping a switch. I would lump this film with cult classics TIMES SQUARE and DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN since both those films are about girls who normally wouldn't find refuge in one another but due to circumstances beyond their control, find escape through one another. Be forewarned, THE QUIET is a lot darker than the films I have just named, but maybe that is just a sign of the times.


And on that note: Heidi Ewing's and Rachel Grady's film The Boys of Baraka will be airing this Tuesday as part of the PBS series POV. The film-makers are interviewed here.

posted by Erin @ Sunday, September 10, 2006 0 comments

Aisha Tyler fangirl love

While Roger Ebert recovers from emergency surgery (hella love, Ebert!) Richard Roeper has been joined by a range of guest reviewers including Jay Leno, Kevin Smith (who without a hint of humor plugged An Evening With Kevin Smith for the DVD Picks segment), John Ridley and Toni Senecal.



This week's guest is the luminous Aisha Tyler known best for her role on Friends and Ghost Whisperer but earned a cement block in my heart back when she was hosting the dating reality game show the 5th Wheel. It was announced at the top of the show that she's prepping for her directorial debut (no listing yet on imdb). And why all this love for this random B-Lister? Because on this week's ep she calls the CMT movie stupid, plugs Sunday Bloody Sunday, Old Boy and Chunking Express as her DVD picks and compels Roeper to admit that Neil LaBute's new film Wicker Man "re-draws the lines of misogyny".

Ebert & Roeper is podcasted here.

posted by Erin @ Friday, September 08, 2006 0 comments

From the Adventures of Peter and Peter

While Peter Guber and Peter Bart go on summer vacation AMC is airing greatest moments of Sunday Morning Shootout. This morning's "Icons" episode included interviews with Peter Jackson, Peter Bogdanovich, Sydney Pollack and Francis Ford Coppola.

We here at SDoF are ever so grateful that even after FFC spent a good 20 minutes berating the Hollywood system for everything that is wrong with American film-making and called the studio set "a bunch of accountants" the editors still included Guber's effusive "You're my HERO!" send off as they closed down the segment. To which FFC demurely responded: "thanks."


See also: Sofia mini ad.

posted by Erin @ Sunday, August 27, 2006 1 comments

there are no Snakes on a Plane puns left to make

Okay, like many of you (or least, everyone in SF) I went to a late night screening of Snakes on a Plane this week (in case you've been wondering "why does anyone care about these damn snakes or how they got on that plane?!" Neva Chonin is here to help).

In the ensuing coverage I was a little surprised no one addressed a very gross scene towards the end when a black passenger is called upon to fly the plane after both pilots have been killed or incapacitated. He radios down to the flight control tower for landing instructions interjected with a lot "we's about to fly this plane, dawg" jargon that seems to be assigned to any black character who's suddenly had some monumental responsibility thrust upon them. Which was pretty jarring since all the absurdity of the story and its characters are otherwise played straight. I was reminded of the, uhm, awful Soul Plane.

The NY Observer's Choire Sicha has a much more positive view of the racial make up of SoaP's body count (she also perfectly sums up the joy many of us share about critics being forced to watch movies with the hoi polloi when studios abstain from industry screenings).

I enjoyed Snakes on a Plane a lot, it was a ton of fun and it would probably hold up seeing it again without a crowd of drunk people. But it's obvious that when Ronny Yu (Bride with White Hair) left due to "creative differences" with Samuel L. Jackson attached that new director David Ellis (Final Destination 2) ceded a lot of creative control to his bona fide movie star. If only because the director's imdb profile lists professional surfing as one of his past professions and the surfer character in SoaP is one of the least convincing aspects of the story (yes, moreso than the underlying concept of the film).

posted by Erin @ Saturday, August 19, 2006 0 comments

Snakes on a Plane is already tired, time for some teensploitation

posted by Erin @ Thursday, August 10, 2006 0 comments

My low-rent excitement for Marie Antoinette, installment 7

posted by Erin @ Thursday, August 03, 2006 0 comments

My low-rent excitement for Marie Antoinette, installment 6

posted by Erin @ Tuesday, August 01, 2006 0 comments

Hey Lindsay, let's get loaded!

Lohan gets publicly called out by an especially catty producer from her new film Georgia Rule. We here at SDoF tend to think, "don't you people read tabloids before you ask tweeked out starlets to be in your films?" Lohan acqueisces but her mom, Dina Lohan, continues her own shame spiral.

On that note, check out this awesome stop-motion animated baking demonstration (55mb, Quicktime)

posted by Erin @ Sunday, July 30, 2006 0 comments

The end is nye

SDoF has been getting an inappropriate giggle from the new advertising campaign for Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Of course, we can laugh because it's never hotter than 75 degrees in San Francisco, they must be thinking of San Jose.

Film Critic decides the 50 Greatest Endings of All Time. #47 is a SDoF favorite All That Jazz, watch the final scene here.

Slate launches new Spoiler Specials podcast where their movie reviewer Dana Stevens discusses films -- specifically the endings. We're holding off on listening to the Pirates of the Carribean 2: Dead Man's Chest podcast, we would hate to ruin anything!

Son of a Nazi and all-around douchebag, Mel Gibson is arrested for DUI, spews anti-semitic epithets at arresting officers and apologizes the next day. Meanwhile Danny Glover continues his zen.

Iconic black dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's is being auctioned off for charity. Proceeds will go to a group that provides aid to impoverished children in India.

Scarlett Johansson will also be helping India's children (well, the ones that can sew anyway). She will be designing a collection of apparel and footwear for Reebook called "Scarlett ‘Hearts’ Rbk" for their Spring 2007 line. This year Johansson stars in Woody Allen's Scoop, Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and the movie adapatation of the chick-lit mega hit the Nanny Diaries.

posted by Erin @ Sunday, July 30, 2006 0 comments

Comic Con and other fan delights

At least Hollywood's source material for remakes it getting slightly less treaded. Sequel to Danny Boyle's zombie thriller (hee) 28 Days Later announced at San Diego Comic Con, working title: 28 Weeks Later. Slay me!

Other ComicCon dish: Angelina Jolie may appear in Sin City 2. Fourth installments of both the Mission Impossible and Spiderman franchises are more or less confirmed. And actor turned director David Arquette let's his freak flag fly.

But we're most excited for the epic-in-the-making ping pong saga Balls of Fury (starring Christopher Walken, duh). Poster revealed:




Elisha "complicated and elusive?" Cuthbert signed to American re-make of Korean rom-com My Sassy Girl with original screenwriter Jae-young Kwak at the helm.


Beyonce fans petition for a re-shoot of her video Deja Vu. We here at Steady Diet don't blame them! See the making-of featurette of Beyonce's forthcoming Dream Girls.

posted by Erin @ Tuesday, July 25, 2006 0 comments

Beverly Hills 90210 S1 to be released Nov. 7th.

I actually salivated a little when I read this:

Although the pilot episodes came to DVD two years ago, fans have been clamoring for season sets of this landmark primetime soap opera! Shannen Doherty (Charmed), Jason Priestley (Tru Calling), Luke Perry (Windfall), Gabrielle Carteris (Palmetto Pointe), Tori Spelling (So NoTORIous), Ian Ziering (upcoming Biker Mice From Mars), Brian Austin Green (Freddie), Jennie Garth (What I Like About You), James Eckhouse (upcoming 2006 film Half-Life), Carol Potter, Douglas Emerson and Joe E. Tata star in the initial season of the series, where the action mainly takes place at West Beverly Hills High School with new kids Brandon and Brenda Walsh moving into the upscale neighborhood, and making lots of new friends.

You would think with that zip code, there would be a ton of guest stars in the first season of this show. But really there weren't. But you will be able to spot upcoming Friends star Matthew Perry, singer Debbie Gibson, and even '80s Playboy playmate Julie McCullough among these 22 episodes.

Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Complete 1st Season will be a 6-DVD set that runs 17 hours and 48 minutes. Please stand by for extras (if any) and box art! Melrose Place - The Complete 1st Season has been announced for the same release date of November 7th, and we've heard that the long-awaited Twin Peaks - Season 2 will hit US shores a couple of weeks after that. Stay tuned!

Source: TVShowsonDVD.com


I like how they couldn't be bothered to reach into the vaults to list what the parent figure-actors have been up to since 90210 (meanwhile digging up Palmetto Pointe and Biker Mice from Mars for Carteris and Zeiring respectively).

posted by Erin @ Sunday, July 23, 2006 3 comments

My low-rent excitement for Marie Antoinette, installment 5

posted by Erin @ Monday, July 17, 2006 0 comments

My low-rent excitement for Marie Antoinette, installment 4

posted by Erin @ Monday, July 10, 2006 0 comments