It may have been below freezing outside on Sunday morning (yes, in Orlando!), but the first FilmSlam of 2010 brought the heat to Enzian’s monthly Florida indie filmmaking showcase. A nice crowd of 100 or so braved the cold to come out and show their support for a diverse and exciting program of eight short works from Orlando, Longwood, Oviedo, Winter Park, and Gainesville. Taking 1st place in the Audience ballots and winning an automatic bye into the 2010 Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase in December was Carl Knickerbocker’s A DOG GOES FROM HERE TO THERE. The local “Suburban Primitive” artist and filmmaker has seemingly brought a children’s book to life, with its nonsense rhymes, puppets, painted sets, and jazzy score whimsically exploring transportation—well done!
Kudos also go out to 2nd Place winner Charles Sutter’s MARRIED TO THE BAND, about a 30-year-old rocker contemplating adulthood, and 3rd Place winner Stephen Wise for SLASHER: A DAY IN THE LIFE, about what a masked serial killer does in his “off” time.
While FilmSlam traditionally falls on the 2nd Sunday of every month, next month’s event will actually take place a week later than usual on February 21. This is due to the special Enzian 25th Anniversary kick-off event and Valentine’s Day Brunch featuring a screening of CASABLANCA, so be sure to circle your calendars for both.
It may have been below freezing outside on Sunday morning (yes, in Orlando!), but the first FilmSlam of 2010 brought the heat to Enzian’s monthly Florida indie filmmaking showcase. A nice crowd of 100 or so braved the cold to come out and show their support for a diverse and exciting program of eight short works from Orlando, Longwood, Oviedo, Winter Park, and Gainesville. Taking 1st place in the Audience ballots and winning an automatic bye into the 2010 Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase in December was Carl Knickerbocker’s A DOG GOES FROM HERE TO THERE. The local “Suburban Primitive” artist and filmmaker has seemingly brought a children’s book to life, with its nonsense rhymes, puppets, painted sets, and jazzy score whimsically exploring transportation—well done!
Kudos also go out to 2nd Place winner Charles Sutter’s MARRIED TO THE BAND, about a 30-year-old rocker contemplating adulthood, and 3rd Place winner Stephen Wise for SLASHER: A DAY IN THE LIFE, about what a masked serial killer does in his “off” time.
While FilmSlam traditionally falls on the 2nd Sunday of every month, next month’s event will actually take place a week later than usual on February 21. This is due to the special Enzian 25th Anniversary kick-off event and Valentine’s Day Brunch featuring a screening of CASABLANCA, so be sure to circle your calendars for both.
Heading into final selections for the Florida Film Festival over the next couple of weeks, the Wild Card opening round of the NFL Playoffs is not something that’s going to demand my attention. But what did catch my eye is the fact that 3 of the 4 contests are exact repeats of games played the final week of the regular season. How bizarre is that? What is this, do-over week? Granted, the stakes are much higher for most of the teams this weekend (though the Eagles and Cowboys had plenty to play for with the division title and a first round bye on the line). But the Packers vs. the Cardinals, Jets vs. Bengals, and Dallas vs. Philly all played in week 17, while the Patriots and Ravens will be the only “fresh” game.
I’ve been watching football for decades and don’t ever recall a similar situation. It got me thinking that maybe the NFL should shuffle the deck and instead of having teams play according to where they are seeded 3 - 6, if the same teams will end up playing two weeks in a row then just change it around so it works out differently. I believe they used to do that years ago to avoid two teams in the same division having to play each other for a 3rd time unless it was absolutely necessary and the AFC or NFC Championship game only. And by the way, the old bugaboo about how it’s virtually impossible to beat a team 3 times in one season is a lie—the last 18 times this has occurred, the team winning the first two is 11 - 7 in the third game. So with Dallas at home against Philly, the odds are in the Cowboys favor (though we always prefer to watch Jerry Jones squirm in that owner’s box). And should the Vikings have to play the Packers in the next round, I guess we’ll just have to see…
As we forge ahead into the new year and a 25th anniversary celebration like no other (that’s right—Enzian opened its doors in February of 1985!), 2010 promises to bring lots of surprises and unexpected developments to the big screen and in turn, the Central Florida film-loving community. And you can’t get started any quicker than this, opening a new film by one of our favorite directors, Werner Herzog, on New Year’s Day. To say this is unusual is an understatement—rarely does a film ever open on January 1, since most theaters are holding over their holiday fare and big Christmas blockbusters.
BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS is the latest mesmerizing slice of madness from the great Werner Herzog, the filmmaker responsible for such acclaimed works as AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD; FITZCARRALDO; GRIZZLY MAN; RESCUE DAWN; and ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD. It stars Nicolas Cage as an unbalanced, drug-fueled, corrupt cop in post-Katrina New Orleans, and co-stars Eva Mendes as his prostitute girlfriend and Val Kilmer as his sometime partner. We’ve been hearing the raves since it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and have been trying to bring it to Orlando ever since. From what I hear, fans of the original 1992 Abel Ferrara/Harvey Keitel cult classic won’t be disappointed, though this new film isn’t a sequel in any sense of the word. It just uses the title character, his profession, and an urban setting for its over-the-top crime drama laced with dark humor. As Justin Strout wrote in his 4-star review in the Orlando Weekly: “(Herzog’s) recent films have been disciplined and crafty. Knowing this frees the audience to enjoy his detour into Crazytown with no holds barred, and that makes THE BAD LIEUTENANT: POCNO a wonderfully trashy and participatory crowd-pleaser.”
Happy New Year everybody, and a happy 50th B-day to Paul Westerberg (when’s that TwinTone Replacements box set coming?)
There, now that that’s out of my system…last night’s 36 - 30 overtime loss to the previously awful 2009 Chicago Bears was particularly painful, and I’m begining to think the muscle pain on my lower left side of my back is stress-related to the Vikings’ woeful performance these past few weeks. Losing 3 straight on the road (and 3 out of 4 overall) is no way for a team to be peaking heading into the playoffs. It wasn’t that long ago that the media and pundits were talking about Minnesota as the # 1 seed in the NFC—oh, that’s right, it was just last night, since the Saints’ recent 2-game slide from the rarified air of the undefeated left the door wide open for the Vikes to capitalize. But after a totally inept first half against Chicago and brilliant offensive second half (especially by Favre), they just couldn’t get over the hump and find themselves in the precarious situation of losing the 2nd seed and a bye week and having to play an extra game by hosting a Wild Card against either Green Bay or Dallas (who are both playing much better than Minnesota these days).
Incredibly, it seems like they’ve had the # 2 seed locked up for weeks and the only question was whether or not they could overtake New Orleans for # 1 in the NFC. And now, after a whole lot of uninspired play on the road this month, they must beat the Giants and pray that the Cowboys can continue their winning ways against the Eagles in Dallas. Or else the meltdown will be complete…
All of this may be moot of course, since the Vikes can easily be a one and done team in the playoffs the way their offensive line, kick return coverage, and pass defense have been stinkin’ up the joint. Even the refs were catching the poor performance bug last night, with two blown pass interference calls that weren’t whistled on Chicago, and worst of all, completely missing the facemask on Adrian Peterson which occurred right before he fumbled the ball in OT (Chicago won the game on the next play). Inexcusable, but then so is the way this Super Bowl contender (supposedly) has been playing lately.
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