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Bookshelf to Screen: Eight New Classics Becoming Movies This Fall (And Beyond)
Last week, we took a look at seven old favorite books getting the film treatment this fall (and beyond—damn you, Alice in Wonderland, March is too long to wait!). A few readers piped up to ask inquire the absence of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men in that roundup, but never fear, it wasn't forgotten. David Foster Wallace's short story collection, like the other seven picks on this week's list, just aren't quite "old favorite" material yet—but check back in ten years or so. By then, we may know better which of these titles will stand the test of time, and... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayBookshelf to Screen: Seven Old Favorites Getting the Film Treatment This Fall (And Beyond)
Adapting literature into movies is nothing new, of course, but it sure feels like there's a lot of that going on this fall, doesn't it? Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers' Where The Wild Things Are is generating most of the buzz (check out Paste's September issue for more on that), but a slew of other much-beloved stories are getting the silver screen treatment, too—some for the first time, others not so much. Here's a look at the classics coming soon to a cinema near you, and check back soon for more peeps at upcoming book-to-film adaptations.... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the DayDates, Acts Announced for Lebowski Fest Speed of Sound Tour
Earlier this spring, we announced a few details on the eighth-annual Lebowski Fest that will be touring the county this summer. The first round of dates for the aptly-named Speed Of Sound Tour has been announced, bringing the much-loved fest to venues up and down the West Coast.... read more
Found in: Movies, NewsSXSW Film 2009: Documentaries
The casual, celebratory South by Southwest festival has come to a close. My colleague Tim Basham and I have been posting reactions to films throughout the fest, and to help wrap this burrito I'm going to recap the films I saw, starting with the documentaries and moving to narrative features in the next post. Favorites at the top. 45365: This lovely, well-organized slice of small town life is as strong an aural montage as it is a visual one. Walking silently among the residents of Sidney, Ohio, population 20,211, filmmaker Bill Ross offers us recordings of church congregations singing, radio... read more
Found in: Blogs, FestivusSXSW Film 2009: Don't Use the M-Word
For good reasons — like the fact that all of Joe Swanberg's features have played here — the annual South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, has a reputation as the adopted home of mumblecore. The dreaded M-word is used more and more negatively these days, but any term that labels films as diverse as Frownland, LOL, and Mutual Appreciation is a coinage looking for a definition. It was bound to fizzle at some point. The terminology may be disintegrating, but the filmmakers behind these movies are still collaborating and still growing. This year, Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha,... read more
Found in: Blogs, FestivusTrue/False Film Festival Wrap-Up
The thing about movies is that they keep making more of them. And the thing about festivals is that there's always another one around the corner. So before we kick off Paste's adventures through South by Southwest in Austin, I'd be remiss if I didn't let you know how the True/False festival in Columbia turned out. True/False annually screens nonfiction films in the center of the country, and the event has such a convivial atmosphere that it lends an agreeable aura to the movies on display, even the ones that might not generate much of a glow on their own.... read more
Found in: Blogs, FestivusTrue/False Film Festival 2009
Some people look askance at the prospect of a very good film festival popping up in Columbia, Missouri, but many of them are the same people who freeze their toes every January trudging between movies in Park City, Utah. Columbia makes perfect sense compared to that. The True/False Film Festival takes place in the middle of the country, just a short drive west from St. Louis, in what is arguably Missouri's hippest city (don't hurt me, Kansas City). The films screen within easy walking distance of one another in Columbia's lovely downtown, a strip of pre-sprawl America that sits on... read more
Found in: Blogs, FestivusHandmade Nation documentary begins screening this month
In 2006, Milkwaukee-based artist and entreprenuer Faythe Levine took up a camera and struck out to document what she calls "the new wave of art, craft and design" in America. What resulted is Handmade Nation, a documentary chronicling the work of a country-wide community of boutique owners, subversive stitchers, puckish printmakers and feisty knitters, which will see a number of feature-length screenings this winter.... read more
Found in: Culture, NewsRob's Favorite Films of 2008
Making a list of ten favorite films as the new year comes into view is a time-honored tradition for a film critic, and it lays your taste on the line for posterity and eventual ridicule. I'm told this builds character. But if you've seen hundreds of films in a calendar year, ten slots feels paltry, so in the spirit of the forthcoming awards season I offer my official list of favorite films, a few brief remarks, and then a batch of categories that try to make sense of the pile of remainders. My ten favorite films that were released theatrically... read more
Found in: Blogs, Ctrl-VTop 7 Worst Movie Birthdays Ever
[Above: Samantha Baker's birthday ended happily in Sixteen Candles, but overall was a classic mess.] Today is my birthday! Even though I plan on having a great day (The Everybodyfields last night, Of Montreal tonight, plus the church across the street from my apartment is having a huge yard sale today! I love yard sales!), I've had a few crappy birthdays in the past. But who hasn't? People who don't have birthdays, that's who. And those people are not alive people. So thank your lucky stars that you are an alive person having a birthday. Even if it's a crappy one,... read more
Found in: Blogs, List of the Day
The 20 Best Gadgets of the Decade…
The 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade
The 50 Best Albums of the Decade…
The 25 Best Movie Performances of the…
Blind Pilot - The Story I Heard
Kim Taylor - Days Like this
B.O.B. - Put Me On
Gregory Alan Isakov - The Moon Song
Punch Brothers - Punch Brothers at CMJ
Anya Marina - Whatever You Like
David Bazan - Hard To Be
