Help Kickstart Movies To Geaux

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I'm old enough to remember what going to a drive in movie was like. It was similar to watching a Fourth of July fireworks display; lots of people, lots of cars, lawn chairs, and snacks under a starry night.

You would think that watching a movie in a quiet setting and more enclosed environment would be preferable, but outdoor cinema provides an excellent communal / party like atmosphere, perfect for socializing.

Unfortunately, the State of Louisiana no longer has any operating drive in theaters. Can outdoor cinema make a comeback and thrive in the Pelican State? The New Orleans Film Society certainly hopes so:

"For the first time, in 2011, NOFS decided to offer movies al fresco and hosted the largest outdoor film events the city had ever seen (nearly 1,000 people gathered for our first event at NOMA's Besthoff Sculpture Garden!). In 2012, we're expanding in this arena and are eager to purchase equipment so we can essentially be "on the geaux" with our very own mobile cinema system. We want to bring together audiences for exciting free and low-cost film events in neighborhoods around the city. We see the potential to show a wide range of films as part of Movies To Geaux: classics, cult films, Louisiana favorites and more."

This is excellent news. Maybe it's not a "classic" drive in, but it is able to bring movies to any/every park, rooftop, neighborhood and side of building in the area, providing moviegoers with an extremely one of a kind event. Imagine a horror double feature in the abandoned Six Flags site, or watching a classic like "All The Kings Men" in Duncan Plaza (across from City Hall). Maybe "Steamboat Bill, Jr." by the lake? These are the type of events that NOFS can bring to life.

And outdoor cinema easily trumps 3D, in my opinion. Sure, in Southeast Louisiana, you'd be trading in air condition for humidity and maybe mosquitoes, but any film fan can live with that; watching Hal 9000 plot murder under a crystal clear night while discussing the movie with friends easily beats watching Nicolas Cage throwing an axe at the screen of a corporate multiplex while remaining absolutely quiet.   

To fund this project, NOFS need to raise $4,500 in 28 days (as of this posting). A modest investment would go a great way to providing a more social movie going experience for the NOLA community. Why not chip in?

The Joy Is Back! Let's Book A Movie...

Since posting my previous entry on The Joy, the theatre has re-opened and played host to musical acts and stage productions. It's great to know that the venue is up and running again, but one thing concerns me; no movie screenings have been scheduled.

With its' history as one of THE premiere movie palaces on Canal St., it surprises me that a screening hasn't at least been booked. It can't be a lack of interest from the local film community, can it? Whatever the reason, I have a few ideas for possible movie events at the revamped Joy: 

Movie Pitchers Revival

I never had the opportunity to visit when it was in operation, but from the stories I've listened to and read, Movie Pitchers was a house with character. From Mike Miley Online:

"Yes, Movie Pitchers was a complete dump, but it was a film lover’s dump. For $5, you could see all the foreign and arty indie films that didn’t play anywhere else in town other than the overpriced Canal Place in the French Quarter … and you could drink while you were there. Magnolia, The Big Lebowski, Deconstructing Harry,Hands on a Hardbody - I saw them all at least twice at Movie Pitchers. Plus, they showed Disco Dolls in Hot Skin, which, if you don’t know, is a 3-D porno starring John Holmes (remember what I said about the couches?). It was disappointing, but it has one of the most messed-up flashback structures ever put on film. How could a film lover not live at a place like this?"

Unfortunately, the theatre was demolished in the early 00's.

So, what am I proposing? Let Movie Pitchers take over The Joy for a night! Call it a revival of sorts; the original owners/fans, programming a series of films they used to show. Original ticket prices, original drink brands/prices (The Joy has a bar), maybe even decorate the screening room with original furniture (a longshot), all for one night of nostalgia. Currently, there is a Facebook group, set up by dedicated fans, calling for their return - they might have some ideas...

Film Festivals

The New Orleans Film Society presents, every fall, the New Orleans Film Festival, and books screenings at theatres across the city. Maybe this year, The Joy can play host to the opening/closing night events? 

Taking place soon after is the NOLA Horror Film Fest. To screen on Canal St. would bring plenty of attention to this young fest.

And, of course, there is this:

Our Worst Film Festival (which also played at Movie Pitchers) was revived a few years ago, and has since existed as gatherings held throughout the year. Why not give it a bigger venue? Maybe it could become a regular thing; showing bad movies once a month. People show up to Prytania's midnight movies, why not come to The Joy for notoriously bad/incredibly obscure films? And maybe this could merge with B Fest; 24 hours of bad movie programming. Consider that ticket bought.

Hollywood South Premieres 

New Orleans has seen many major film productions, but very few film premieres. Let's fix that. I call on all producers and distributors to world premiere your NOLA shot films IN NOLA. You did a red carpet type event for Sandra Bullock at The Prytania, you can do the same for Sylvester Stallone at The Joy.

However it happens, I'm sure a movie will eventually screen at The Joy. When it does, I'll be there. Unless it stars Dane Cook.

"...and it SUCKED!"

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OogieRah and I had been talking about making a movie together for years. Many a late night phone call would involve scenes with the intent of shocking/pissing off an audience, and how fun it would be to get away with it. Around mid September, word started to spread on Facebook and Twitter of a Super 8 film contest in New Orleans; one 3 minute reel of film, in camera edits, see the film for the 1st time with everybody else - very dangerous, very cool. Opportunity given, we signed up.

Now, the original idea for our short was a bit more our liking; a guy makes a sandwich, walks upstairs, opens a bedroom door to reveal a female's foot tied to the bed. The End. No explanation, no resolution. Not being able to cast a foot model in time, we went with a more lighthearted idea; me, setting up a movie screening at a college campus, alone. Not bad, as I had done this very task several times before. And so, without permission to shoot on SLU campus property, we went ahead with production on "Screen This!". It only took a few hours to shoot. Next door to a heavily occupied student government meeting, we risked getting kicked out, but it's not like we were doing anything REALLY wrong.

About a week or so later, we made our way to New Orleans. The film had already been dropped off, and supposedly developed without incident. Along with his girlfriend, we arrived on time, for what was called The Yeah Brah & Woah Dee Festival, The NOLA Underground Super 8 Film Festival, and The One Reel Super 8 Contest. Without a clear name, I turned to my friend and said, "I hate this already".

After a short assemblage of local shorts, we were treated to an obnoxiously long parade of DJ music, rap, and the stylings of MC Chris Lane. Not to say that the musicians were horrible - far from it. But excuse me for expecting FILMS at a FILM FESTIVAL (to be fair, the musical performances were announced in advance, but who knew they would last so long?). The three of us sat on our bench, uncomfortably, for several hours, waiting...

Finally, it was time for the screening we were waiting for. The super 8 shorts were shown on what I'm guessing was a DVD, and for the most part, were pretty clever. But one short in particular caught our attention; announced as Lori Tipton's. It was black. 3 minutes of black. A rough image here and there, but nothing distinguishable. Pure blackness. Part of what made the contest interesting was that if the filmmakers messed up, there was no going back; it would be shown, no matter what. Clearly, something didn't go right for this person. "Sorry, but that last film was not by Lori Tipton, but by Bill Arceneaux and Patrick Simmons. And IT SUCKED! IT SUCKED!"

We were shocked. Was that really our film? Sure we only spent a few hours making it, but it was ours. Nah. Maybe they made a mistake. We stayed until the last short of the screening to make sure - but it was, indeed, our film. Our mistake. We tried to figure out what happened; Did we load it in wrong? Did we remove the film incorrectly? Was it improperly developed? One of the festival promoters was just as surprised as we were. We left One Eyed Jacks not as entertained film enthusiasts or as trophy holders, but as self disappointed amateurs. I picked up a Mountain Dew Voltage, and they got some McDonalds afterwards. "We could always say we intended it to be all black. You know, to mess with people". That made us smile.

Note - please don't take this as a diss to the festival promoters TimeCode:NOLA. The comments made about the festival were just to describe how out of place we felt. When films were being shown, we had a blast (except for when ours was shown), and may show up again if another festival is planned for next year. Just leave Chris Lane at home.

Why Did Roger Ebert Spoil "Super"?

SPOILER ALERT: I reveal a spoiler originally spoiled elsewhere.

For film buffs, the decision to read a spoiler can be a difficult temptation to overcome. With high ticket prices for movies, and even higher anticipation for popular movies, spoilers can provide certain audience members with the insight they need to decide whether or not they'll be catching a flick. But for most moviegoers, having a film's ending revealed unsolicited can ruin their theatre experience. Knowing this, reviewers do their best to avoid making any startling revelations.
Image by rexb via Flickr

In his review of "Super", Roger Ebert let slip the fate of the character played by Ellen Page. In the first two paragraphs. Filmmaker James Gunn immediately took to twitter, and started hashtag jokes at Ebert's expense. While a spoiler notice has since been attached to the review, I wonder - why did Ebert write the spoiler in the first place?

Personally, I disagree with his take on the movie. At the end of the review, He writes "'Super is a film ending in narrative anarchy, exercising a destructive impulse to no greater purpose than to mess with us." To me, this is a positive and is what makes the film great - it being emotionally intense and challenging (a nice way of saying that it "fucks" with you). Ebert is no stranger to emotionally challenging films, but maybe this one scene went too far in his mind. 

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Ellen Page, as an actress, is easy to fall in love with. I can't say that I've disliked any of her performances, whether they're in low budgets like "Hard Candy" or big budgets like "Inception". And, judging from his reviews, I'd say that Ebert feels the same way. I think that when He witnessed what happened to Libby (Ellen Page) in "Super", He felt offended - how could they do such a thing to such an actress? He practically expresses this with SPOILER "when Ellen Page of 'Juno' stars in a movie, we don't much expect to see her brains dripping." END SPOILER This reminds me of the dust up He had with "Kick Ass" (another "real world" super hero flick) - how could they put that little girl in such extreme action scenes?

I don't want to suggest that He always disregards an entire movie because of one scene, but I have seen this happen before. I once showed "Storytelling" to fellow college students, and I'm convinced that if they hadn't witnessed a specific graphic sequence, they would've liked the film. I wonder if Ebert's thoughts on "Super" might change a little if graphic sequences were excised or rewritten. Seriously, one scene could make all the difference (kind of a compliment to the film, that one scene could make such an impression).  

Of course, Ebert's revelation didn't completely ruin the movie, nor did it ruin my opinion of him. Personally, I usually agree with him maybe 80% of the time (though I'm not sure how to accurately determine that). In this one case of disagreement, I find something to agree with - Ellen Page is wonderful, and seeing her in such a sequence is a shock.

Should critic's be so chivalrous in their reviews? Spoiling a movie in an effort to warn others? I dunno. That's a topic for a blogger more articulate and better disciplined that myself. Certainly, some audiences don't mind knowing a little extra about what they're gonna spend their money on. Just be sure to attach a notice BEFORE posting the review. Might save yourself from a nasty hashtag or two. 

Help Kickstart The Alamo Underground

Not too long ago, a friend and I drove from the northshore to catch a free movie screening at this run down, danky, humid garage - the kind that might host a kidnapping. And it was fun. 

The Alamo Underground, named for it's architectural similarity to The Alamo, was an ambitious, community driven venue for artists of all kinds. I only ever attended one event (a "Battle Royale" screening), but from what I observed, the people behind the operation were pretty serious about becoming an alternative space for creativity. I hadn't heard from the group for months, until the other day:

The Alamo Underground got it's start in 2006 (post Katrina) as an underground theater operated inside an old horse stable. It had to shut its doors in 2008. In 2010, I found the treasure and resurrected the space [with great help] for movie nights, live music, local events, and fundraisers. Movie nights were free and bands worked for tips. It was a lot of hard work, turning a swamp infested roach eaten space into an underground community, but it was done.
From August 2010 until April 2011, the Alamo greeted great New Orleans talent such as Aurora Nealand, Debauche, Tuba Skinny, Never Ever, Tom Worell, as well as visiting acts such as David Bazan and Zeina Mokaiesh.
Then the roof collapsed.

The people behind The Alamo Underground have just started a kickstarter page, and hope to re-open in November:

Now, I have the opportunity to re-open the Alamo on the up and coming Freret Street. The space is connected to La Nuit Theater- which got its start as a speakeasy theater for local comics.
New Orleans has a surge of amazing talent operating underground, in speakeasies and abandoned building. The idea is to have a collective venue for these like minded people. A bagel bar will be constructed courtesy of Sugerman's Bagel Speakeasy, and local artists will display their art for reasonable prices. Freret Street currently has little-to no live local music acts, even though the street is permitted for such use.

I haven't seen the new property, but I'm really excited about this. Aside from being a new performance space for bands like Tuba Skinny, Egg Yolk Jubilee and Arajay, we might also see unique film events, like a performance of "Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then" or Crispin Glover screening either of his "It" films. Along with Nola DriveIn, it looks like New Orleans might be seeing a slight surge in community/guerrilla film screenings.

As of this posting, $870 have been raised. Help them reach their $4,000 goal. Every little bit counts.

Appropriately Underrated: Quick "Skyline" Thoughts

When the word underrated is tossed around, it implies that something has had its quality overlooked. Sometimes, however, that somethings' quality has been underrated on purpose.

“Skyline” follows a group of characters that could've been extras in any of the “Fast and Furious” films, who wake up after a penthouse party and are forced to pretend that the city is being harvested by aliens. The rest of the movie features highlights such as Donald Faison producing a gun from nowhere, and Eric Balfour DEMANDING that the survivors go to the roof, despite the fact that the idea has been nixed several times.

When I first saw Balfour's character screaming at the sky in the trailer, I laughed myself to the conclusion that this would suck. I only ended up watching this on Netflix after I took a writing assignment for InvadeNola. And from what I understand, I am not alone in my thoughts regarding the movie.

The only two positives that I can think of are also negatives. One - Paul Walker was not in it. This is a positive for the obvious reason, and a negative because this is exactly the kind of movie that I'd expect him to be cast in(especially the first 15 minutes). Two - The special effects. The alien ships and the disaster they cause are quite impressive visually. Unfortunately, they are not used to serve the story. The whole movie comes off, to me, as an advertisement to get business for a visual effects company("look at what our computers can do!").

Indeed, this is underrated, and for good reason. But, I would still recommend this be viewed - Eric Balfour's tearful screaming will induce such wonderful laughter.

Salo-Thon on Storify

Recently, Oogie Rah and I held a live tweetathon of one of the most controversial films of all time. Mostly observations and riffing, it has all been compiled using Storify. Enjoy:

The Joy Is Coming Back! Please Show Movies...

Almost 9 years after having to board up its' doors, The Joy Theatre will finally re-open! I for one never had the pleasure of catching a screening at The Joy, but after driving past its' sign several times, and having viewed the documentary "No More Joy", I've yearned for that experience. Conflicting news articles, however, suggest that the theatre may become a multi-entertainment venue, specializing mostly in live performances. Of course, wanting to see a movie at The Joy(at least once), I would like to offer a scenario or two, in an effort to advocate on the side of film exhibition.

If it is restored as a full fledged movie theatre:

My favorite scenario, this would be an incredible addition to the New Orleans area movie theatres. As I listed in my MoviePass entry, there are only a handful of theatres within the city itself(I listed 9, but most were in metro areas), and only one on Canal St., which not only was home to booku theatres, but also hosted the first permanent movie house in the country. 

If fully restored, The Joy could become a place where old and new meet - Imagine buying a ticket from your smart phone minutes before showtime(I would recommend arriving earlier), then being greeted by an actual usher in a lobby as carefully decorated and structured as a Cathedral. You go to the concession stand, and order a bucket of popcorn and a medium daiquiri(yes, alcohol), before heading upstairs to the balcony. You take your seat, and enjoy a digital projection of "Fast Five 2" in a fantastic palatial setting - This would become my favorite place, by far.

If it becomes a multi-entertainment venue:

Probably the more likely scenario, this would open  New Orleans to being able to host even more live acts than it does now. However, movies can still have a seat at this table - "Rocky Horror Picture Show", anyone? Maybe a gala movie premiere for the latest Hollywood South blockbuster? Or perhaps a charity screening? - Multi-entertainment CAN include movies, too.

No matter what becomes of The Joy, it will finally be tearing down its' boards, and opening up for audiences once more. I just hope that audience includes a moviegoer or two.