Thursday, January 22, 2009

Welcome to the 2009 Phoenix Film Festival

The 2009 Phoenix Film Festival will be held April 2 to April 9, 2009

The submission period for films and screenplays has ended. Selections will be announed in February.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

The Art of Travel

It appears this is last film that I'm writing about. Oddly enough it was the first film I saw.

The Art of Travel has one of the my favorite scenes of the Festival. It's the shocking wedding scene at the beginning. Maybe shocking is a horrible word. Let's go with surprising. Either way, the surprise is hilarious. I do love me some good comedy.

But this movie then turns into a little bit of everything as we follow Conner Layne through South America. It's got some drama, adventure, comedy, romance, etc. Christopher Masterson (Malcolm in the Middle) plays Conner and is very good. I love it when the main character in the film is somebody I'm rooting for.

Director, Tom Whelan got this film right. Well that's good because he can't get my name right, he keeps calling me James. I'll find a way to get past that because his style and the feel of this picture made me really enjoy it. Although I may call him Steve just to even the score a little. In fact, anyone that runs into Tom at the Festival, call him Steve for me and tell him that it's from James.

Go check out this film. It's a beautiful picture with a good story and good cast. That's reason enough for me. Count me in!

Take

You may notice the multiple posts this morning. Well you see the Festival starts tomorrow and I still had to talk about a few more films. I was going to give you a whole speech about how I'm not a procrastinator, but I don't feel up to it now, I'll do it later. (I hope you enjoyed that bit. That's the best I've got at 6:30 in the am). So last minute homework is my style.

ANYWAY. Take is a incredibly strong drama starring Minnie Driver. Yes, that Minnie Driver. She is great in this film. It also has a great concept that works incredibly with the film being set in one day in the present and one day in the past. The film also features Jeremy Renner who is also very good.

Fun fact; the movie has David Denman. Roy from The Office. I'm a little obsessed with The Office. It's kind of an issue how many times I've seen each episode. So for me it's really cool to see David Denman in this film.

Charles Oliver has done an incredible job of telling his story on screen. This film is the kind of drama that makes you go "Whoa. Did that movie just happen?". Yea, it just happened, so go tell someone else to see it now. This movie is that good, so just tell your friends ahead of time to come see this movie.

You'll thank me later. After all it's the polite thing to do.

Hell on Wheels

This is the third documentary in our Feature Film Competition. Now looking back we've got a crazy variety of dccumentary and none of them are really your typical doc. I'm not sure what a typical documentary is, but I'm pretty sure none of ours are.

Hell on Wheels is all about women's roller derby. Seriously. How many more reasons do you need to go see this movie?

I'll give you a couple of more, just to make sure. Bob Ray's picture gives you an inside look at the world of roller derby. You get to see who these Texas women are that knock each other down and put on one hell of a show for the fans. These film also puts on a hell of a show.

The film played at South by Southwest in Austin last year which another pretty good reason to check it out.

It'll be playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the Festival. So do you really have an excuse to miss it? I'm gonna need to see a doctor's note.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Remarkable Power!

Remarkable Power! is a comedy with a very strong cast. It features Kevin Nealon, Tom Arnold. Christopher Titis, Kip Pardue and Dule Hill.

The film simply put is about a late night talk show host's plan to deal with his wife's infidelity, but this comedy is much more complex than that. There are tons of twists and turns and it's truly an ensemble cast. The film takes roughly 10 characters or so and ....

Well damn. I almost gave away a couple of key plot points. Good thing for the delete key or I would have been the Despised Festival Director. I can't quite figure out how to describe the fun about this film without giving away stuff.

While the film isn't the type of knee-slapping comedy, it's a more consistent comedy with funny business throughout and a great build to it. I can say there's a murder or two in it. I don't think that gives anything away. My favorite part of this film is a character named Moses in it that really cracked me up. He uses my favorite word of an Festival film, but I can't say what it is!!

Fun Festival fact. Evan Peters who is in the film won a Phx Film Fest Copper Wing Award back in 2004 for Breakthrough Performance in Clipping Adam.

So if you want to relax and have a good laugh check this one out. Who doesn't like to laugh? Well I suppose really angry people don't like to laugh. Well I'm not a fan of really angry people, so screw 'em.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Dirty Country

Yes. This movie is raunchy.
Yes. It's a who's who of dirty music over the years.
Yes .The songs that are in it are filthy.
Yes. It's mostly about Dirty Country Legend Larry Pierce.
Yes. You must leave the kids at home for this one.
Yes. It shows Larry's impact on a rock band called Itis who cover his songs.
Yes. Some may get offended.
Yes. I think this film is hilarious.
Yes. My grandparents would pass out if they heard these songs.
Yes. This movie has some heartwarming moments.
Yes. I meant to type that last thing. It's true.
Yes. Go see this movie if you want to laugh your backside off. At least this blog is clean.