The Pulpmovies Trailer Park

As a rule, I’m not too keen on musicians that think they can act - there are exceptions, but these are few and far between. That said, I’m hoping that Idlewild will turn out to be such an exception.

A musical set in the Prohibition-era American South, where a speakeasy performer and club manager Rooster (Big Boi) must contend with gangsters who have their eyes on the club while his piano player and partner Percival (André Benjamin) must choose between his love, Angel (Paula Patton) or his obligations to his father (Ben Vereen).

The Trailer

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Bettie Page was the most successful pin-up of the 1950s - if not all time.

Page challenged the conservative 1950s by posing in a series of fetish photographs, earning both a cult underground following and Senate Committee investigation on juvenile delinquency - essentially a witch-hunt orchestrated by a senator from her home state of Tennessee bent on exploiting her as a stepping stone to the White House.

At the height of her popularity, Bettie disappeared. The Notorious Bettie Page attempts to tell her story.

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Another one from A. Film A/S, The Ugly Duckling and Me, a very free interpretation of the world famous fairy tale “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen.

An adventure comedy for the whole family, with reference to H.C. Andersen’s wonderful fairy tale
”The Ugly Duckling”. But not much…

For this is the story of “me”, Ratso - Ugly’s best and only friend! And Ratso’s troubles are countless…

The Ugly Duckling and Me is currently in production and slated for an Autumn 2006 release in Denmark.

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The Devil and Daniel Johnston is “the story of talented and tormented Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/ songwriter/ artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.” Director Jeff Feuerzeig won the Best Director award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival for his work on the film.

Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.

The Devil and Daniel Joh: Dial Up Broadbandnston is a stunning portrait of a musical and artistic genius who nearly slipped away. Director Jeff Feuerzeig exquisitely depicts a perfect example of brilliance and madness going hand in hand with subject Daniel Johnston. As an artist suffering from manic depression with delusions of grandeur, Daniel Johnston’s wild fluctuations, numerous downward spirals, and periodic respites are exposed in this deeply moving documentary.

As a reclusive teenager growing up in New Cumberland, VA, Johnston began showing signs of unusual artistic ability at an early age. He religiously recorded his thoughts and stories onto cassette tapes, directed intuitive Super- 8 films starring himself in multiple roles ala Peter Sellers, and created expressive comic book-style drawings and animation in the basement of his family’s home. However, in the eyes of his fundamentalist Christian family, Daniel simply wasn’t contributing to society in a useful or productive way. After running off on a moped and joining a carnival, he landed in Austin, Texas, broke and alone. It was there he began to hone his musical career, recording folk songs on a series of homemade, lo-fi cassettes, which Daniel handed out free to fans, friends and journalists in the early 80s. With the help of a timely break and the thriving Austin music scene, Daniel managed to secure a brief spotlight on MTV making him a minor celebrity. But just as he was beginning
to make a name for himself, his inner demons began to surface and Daniel’s ongoing struggle with manic depression became more and more evident in his songs and drawings.

The Devil and Daniels Johnston artfully melds current footage, vintage performances, home movies, and dozens of recorded audiotapes from Daniel’s life. Testimony from supportive friends and a deeply committed family adds a rich layer to his personal history, but it is Daniel’s poetic songs interwoven through out the film, that tell their own passionate, haunting, and truly unforgettable story.

Now in his mid 40s, Daniel Johnston has grown into a prolific visual artist. His expressions have earned him worldwide recognition and critical praise, producing international exhibits where he continues to sell his vibrant and intimate sketches. He has recorded over ten full length albums, and his supporters have included Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, who was often seen wearing a Daniel Johnston t shirt, Matt Groening, The Butthole Suffers, Sonic Youth, noted Minutemen/FIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt, David Bowie, Tom Waits, Beck, The Flaming Lips, and an ever-growing international cult audience.

This is the story of talented and tormented Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/ songwriter/ artist, revealed in this portrait of madness, creativity and love.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston opens in the US on Friday March 31, 2006 in New York and Los Angeles.

The Trailer

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Disney may have jumped completely on the CGI bandwagon, but Danish animation studio, A. Film A/S is keeping the hand drawn spirit alive with Asterix and the Vikings, “Europe´s most ambitious and expensive animated feature film to date.”

According to the synopsis on Asterix NZ:

In the book Asterix and the Normans a group of fearless Viking Warriors travels to Asterix’s village in a quest to discover the meaning of fear, as they had heard that fear gives you wings. Unfortunately, it just so happened that the Gaulish Village fear only one thing, that the sky may fall on their heads, and the Vikings are out of luck. That is until they encounter Vitalstatistix’s cowardly young nephew, Justforkix….

This is where the film deviates from the book, specifically developing “the Nordic aspects of the storyline“. The Vikings abduct Justforkix and bring him back to their homeland. Asterix and Obelix must travel to the icy Norway to rescue him. At one point in the movie, Asterix and Obelix have to disguise themselves as Vikings (See Images).

There are also original characters created for this movie, such as Olaf Timandahaf’s wife and daughter Abba, who becomes a love interest for Justforkix!

The movie has been described as being “road movie-esque“.

The film rolls into Belgium, France and the Netherlands in April and then onto Germany and Finland in May and Denmark in June.

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It appears that the folks over at Cinema Eye have had enough of watching films and are currently busy making one.

Frank wakes up in a room full of dead bodies with a warm gun in his hand and no memory of who he is. To make matters worse, he has apparently been the victim of scientific experimentation gone awry which has left him with a body that is not entirely his own. One of Frank’s strange new features is a mysterious tattoo that reads “Sex Machine.” As Frank’s memory gradually returns, he manages to find his way back home where he reunites with his best friend and ex-girlfriend. His only desire is to lead a normal, quiet life, but he is haunted by the mystery of what happened to him. As he begins to unravel the mystery, it threatens to destroy the life that he holds dear.

Sex Machine is described as a retro-futuristic story of homocidal strippers, reanimated hitmen and drug addicted art-school students. And how can you not love a film like that?

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Norwegian director, Bent Hamer’s first English language film is based on a novel by punk novelist Charles Bukowski and stars Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski, a writer willing to risk everything to make sure his life is poetry. He goes through a series of dead end jobs, trying to support what he really wants to do - drink, gamble, chase women as rootless as he is and, above all, write stories no one wants to publish.

The film is being released across Europe now and has just been picked up by IFC films for a North American distribution.

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For those that are too young to remember, Glen Tilbrook was the lead singer of Squeeze - one of the best bands to come out of Britain in the late 1970s - who, with singer/guitarist Chris Difford, was briefly hailed as the new Lennon and McCartney.

Squeeze were resonsible for 21 UK hits and were able to headline New York’s 20,000-seat Madison Square Garden until they finally broke up in 1999.

But Tilbrook’s still going, although he now tours in a beat up camper van with a staff of one - his manager and wife, Suzanne Hunt.

Filmmaker, Amy Pickard was inspired. And in 2001 she joined him for his month long tour of the US. The result is Glenn Tilbrook - One For The Road which premiered at London’s Raindance film festival in 2004 and is now available on DVD.

Up The Junction

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Hourglass

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Compelling political documentary and 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, Why We Fight, opens in the US (New York and Los Angeles) on Friday January 20th.

“Why We Fight,” the new film by Eugene Jarecki which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a “who’s who” of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, Gore Vidal, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Richard Perle and others, “Why We Fight” launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire.

Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower’s legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase “military industrial complex”), filmmaker Jarecki (”The Trials of Henry Kissinger”) surveys the scorched landscape of a half-century’s military adventures, asking how – and telling why – a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.

The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why – why does America fight? What are the forces – political, economic, ideological – that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy?

“Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called ‘Why We Fight’ that explored America’s reasons for entering the war,” Jarecki notes. “Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it’s crucial to ask the questions: ‘Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?’”

The Trailer

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Ooh! Milla Jovovich, vampires, Milla Jovovich, ‘gun-kata’ and Milla Jovovich in a science-fiction action thriller from Kurt Wimmer, the man who gave us Equilibrium.

Set in the late 21st century, a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease (Hemophagia), giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence, and as they are set apart from “normal” and “healthy” humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war (a war between humans and hemophages) aimed at the destruction of the “diseased” population. In the middle of this crossed-fire is - an infected woman - Ultraviolet (Jovovich), who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans.

If Ultraviolet doesn’t blow up the box office this summer, I shall eat several items of headgear.

The Trailer

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