Results tagged “losangelesfilmfestival”

If you know who Justin Rice is, you probably know him as the lead singer of Bishop Allen or his appearance in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Very quietly, though -- working mostly with friends -- he's put together an interesting film career. I had the great pleasure of not only seeing Harmony & Me a few days ago at the LA Film Festival (review here), but also had a chance to speak with Justin about the film, his other films and his music. Have a listen and make plans to see Harmony & Me when it screens again later this week. If nothing else, there's a Q&A afterward with the radiantly smart (and hot) Kristen Tucker (and director Bob Byington).

       

It would be almost impossible to imagine someone as improbable as Martin Strel. He is one of the rare man on this earth who is utterly unique. Allow me the indulgence of summarizing him in a few sentences. Martin is an overweight Slovenian man in his mid-fifties. Martin is essentially an alcoholic, typically drinking two bottles of wine a day. And -- here's the kicker -- Martin has swam the entirety of the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze. At the beginning of Big River Man, Martin is preparing to become the first man to swim the Amazon.

One of the reasons I expect that I will never tire of going to the movies is that even when you think you know what you are going to get, you can still be surprised. I remember being dragged to see Galaxy Quest at the Cinerama Dome. Honestly, the only reason I went was because it was at the Cinerama Dome -- one of the great movie theaters on the planet. As for the film, I expected nothing. I mean, after all, it starred Tim Allen! Tim Allen? Pass. Naturally, I ended up loving the film and have seen it at least twenty times since.

Wednesday night's screening of American Teen at the Los Angeles Film Festival opened with a really fun, energetic set by Sunny Day Sets Fire, whose song "Lack of View", from upcoming July release Summer Palace, is included in the film's soundtrack. Sunny Day Sets Fire paid tribute to the night held at the Henry Ford Amphitheater by totally rocking out in front of the expectant movie screen, their shadows exaggerated on the walls around us, and framed by the trees in the back, all and all painting a very nice picture.

In actor Lori Petty slides into the director's chair and delivers a searing autobiographical portrait of three young sisters living on the margins. With a mother strung out on drugs, a father figure who is a pimp and a house filled with gamblers, crooks and johns, Agnes lives a tragic and turbulent life. The film explores one day in that life to see how--despite all the apparent difficulties--a family can remain bonded in love.

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week.

D.J. and producer Danger Mouse, a.k.a. Brian Burton, made musical waves two years ago when he layered music from the Beatles' White Album with vocals from rapper Jay-Z's Black Album — and then sent about 3,000 copies of the resulting Grey Album out as promos. Before long, critics were gushing, and collectively minded Web users had posted the album onto free-download sites. EMI, which owns the rights to the White Album, was less enthusiastic: The mixing Mouse had not asked, nor received, permission to use the Beatles' songs. But a few cease and desist orders only served to rally free-loading fans. They organized a event called Grey Tuesday during which 170 Web sites hosted a full copy of the album.

Ambitious-Outsiders has a more complete lineup than the official site (how'd that happen) but what jumped out at us on this year's Sunset Junction Street Fair lineup is all the old school soul showing up on the Edgecliffe Stage. Freda Payne, The Supremes not named Diana Ross and Richard Street all perform on Saturday while 80's R&B songstress Jody Watley shows up on Sunday. We might be most excited about Watley performing. She put out a surprisingly good (and very much unnoticed) neo-soul/downtempo-ish CD a few years ago called Midnight Lounge.

IndieWire has some great coverage of the Los Angeles Film Festival. We're especially enamored with Grace Lee's posts as a filmmaker getting screened here, her hometown. The Grace Lee Project is part of the documentary competition and is all about women named Grace Lee, an incredibly standard name for Asian women. If you didn't catch it last night, you can view it tomorrow night at the Sunset 5.