The Sundance Institute's 25th anniversary celebration continues at Enzian Halloween night with the special "Art House Project" presentation of Bill Condon's GODS AND MONSTERS (1998) at 9:30 PM. Based on Christopher Bram's novel, Father of Frankenstein, this spellbinding work features Sir Ian McKellen in a brilliant performance as director James Whale (FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, SHOWBOAT). Told with striking flashbacks to his film sets, the story finds the gay British filmmaker living out his final days in California in the late fifties in seclusion, with exception to his Hungarian maid (Lynn Redgrave) and the hunky gardener he befriends (Brendan Fraser in perhaps his finest role).

How much of this unique biographical drama is fiction we can only guess. But this is a moving and haunting work that deservedly earned Oscar nominations for both McKellen and Redgrave, and did in fact win the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. McKellen also won the Best Actor Award from the Florida Film Critics Circle that year for his performance in both this and APT PUPIL.

As the holiday season beckons and we await Bill Condon's big-buget movie adaptation of the smash-hit Broadway musical, DREAMGIRLS, don't miss this rare opportunity to see this indie gem from almost a decade ago. Get your trick or treating out of the way early--a more perfect "Art House Project" movie for Halloween night you'll be hard pressed to find!

Still to come: brand new 35mm prints of Quentin Tarantino's RESERVOIR DOGS (November 28) and Lisa Cholodenko's HIGH ART (December 26), so mark your calendars.

--Matthew

From the shameless plug and friendly reminder department...Two of Enzian's most venerable and longstanding special events have important deadlines today: the 16th annual Florida Film Festival and the 15th annual Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase. The Film Festival, which takes place March 23 - April 1, 2007, has its early entry deadline for features, both narrative and documentary, domestic and international. That is a "postmark" deadline, not a "received by" one, so submissions should be in transit by this weekend to avoid any late fees. But if your latest project is not quite ready for preview (we do look at a large percentage of rough cuts by the way), there is a second, "late entry" deadline of December 1. As always, entry info and a submission form are available at www.floridafilmfestival.com, so don't dawdle.

Today's other deadline is for Brouhaha (December 2 & 3), and again it is a "postmark" one. Brouhaha is Enzian's annual showcase for homegrown films of all kinds. Schools are invited to submit or curate their finest 20 minutes of work created by the students free of charge, and other independent filmmakers from throughout Florida can also submit their short work for a nominal fee. As was done last year for the first time, Brouhaha will once again be juried by local industry professionals, and the best 85 to 90 minutes of film will be honored in an "Emerging Florida Filmmakers" program in next year's Florida Film Festival. Entry forms are available at www.enzian.org or in the theater lobby. We look forward to screening your work!

-- Matthew

Wednesday, October 25 at 7:00 PM in Centennial Park marks another installment of the Cinema in the Park series--Sanford, Florida's own monthly version of Winter Park's "Popcorn Flicks" (north). After a record-breaking heat wave this past weekend (what global warming?), the weather has cooled considerably and it should be a jacket-worthy, crisp and clear night to watch a classic Universal Creature Feature under the stars. Just in time for Halloween and in keeping with the "Made in Florida" theme of the series thus far, Enzian is proud to present Jack Arnold's original CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954). Starring (who else?) Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, and Whit Bissell--three mainstays of many a 50's monster movie--this was one of the first films to feature such luminous and lyrical underwater photography. It spawned two sequels, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (1955) and THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956), but nothing tops the original (even in 2-D!).

Next up for November 22 (Thanksgiving eve) will be the great John Huston's KEY LARGO (1948), the excellent adaptation of Maxwell Anderson's hit play of the time about a ruthless mobster holding people captive in a Florida hotel during a violent storm. Check out the cast put together for this one: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, and Lionel Barrymore--not too shabby. Trevor ended up winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Robinson's pathetic, boozy moll. You don't use that phrase too often ("boozy moll"), and they don't make 'em like this anymore. Let's hope the weather cooperates.

--Matthew

Willie, Willie what were you thinking? All year long you've made shrewd moves, blowing away the rest of the National League with a limited starting rotation but great hitting and a terrific bullpen. The St. Louis Cardinals, a team that backed into the playoffs and finished some 14 games behind you in the standings, is suddenly playing excellent ball and getting mostly great starting pitching in the playoffs. They have taken your Mets to a seventh and deciding game, but you're home at Shea and have all the momentum behind you, including winning game 6 to even the series at 3 - 3. Home teams have won something like 11 games in a row in a similar position.

Your questionable starter has given you a tremendous 5+ innings, and your replacement left fielder has kept you in the game by robbing Scott Rolen of a 2-run go-ahead home run in the 6th with one of the greatest catches in playoff history. But you've fallen behind 3 - 1 in the 9th inning off a 2-run homer that does clear the wall, and now it's the bottom of the 9th. Your first two hitters both single off the young closer for the Cards (your team's first hits since the 1st inning by the way), and with no one out, the obvious move is to sacrifice the runners over to 2nd and 3rd and give the Mets two chances to tie it up with a base hit. So what do you do? After all those years as a New York Yankee player and coach, and with visions of Kirk Gibson dancing in your head, you pinch hit a gimpy Cliff Floyd to go for the win. With everything on the line, you elect not to bunt and play smart NL "small ball" and instead regress to the 3-run HR mentality of the Bronx Bombers and other teams in the AL. You're a classy guy and a fine manager, but that decision was so wrong it's incredible.

Game, set, match. Floyd doesn't adavance the runners, and with bases loaded and two outs, Carlos Beltran (who had a fine series) strikes out looking (ouch!) on a great breaking ball. So the two teams that finished the regular season with a thud by going 19 - 31 and 22 - 28 their last 50 games, the two teams that everyone wanted to play in the playoffs, are headed to the World Series. And the two NY teams that tied with the best record in baseball are now sitting at home to ponder what went wrong. Congratulations to the Tigers and the Cardinals--great starting pitching does seem to trump all else after all.

My pick (but don't bet on it, especially this year): Detroit in 6

--Matthew

What the hell happened to Wesley Snipes? The Orlando-born actor--who grew up in the Bronx but returned to Central Florida to graduate from Jones High School and later live in the ritzy Isleworth neighborhood (alongside the likes of Shaq, Tiger, etc.)--hasn't made a decent movie in years and is apparently in some deep shit with the IRS. A career that started out so promising with films like JUNGLE FEVER, THE WATERDANCE, WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP, NEW JACK CITY, and even the first BLADE movie (a fairly cool comic book adaptation by any standard), has deteriorated into formulaic genre crap that's not even worth checking out on cable. Wesley may still mean box office in certain parts of the world, but it seems like his body of work could've been so much more.

And now he's under indictment for eight counts of tax fraud for submitting bogus checks worth $14 million for his estimated tax liabilities in recent years. He also attempted to receive (unsuccessfully) refunds worth more than $11 million from taxes he already paid in 1996 and 1997. But wait, there's more--the action star and producer apparently failed to file tax returns for six years from 1999 to 2004, and all told, could face up to 16 years in prison. This is on top of the local nearly $2 million-dollar home he lost in a foreclosure auction, the paternity suit from a couple of years ago, and the recent lawsuit his former agents at UTA filed for unpaid commissions. Clearly a pattern has emerged.

Snipes hasn't been arrested yet because authorities cannot find him. What a waste of talent.

--Matthew

Congratulations are in order for Bay-area filmmaker Karina Epperlein and her beautiful and inspiring documentary short, PHOENIX DANCE. The 16-minute profile of professional dancer Homer Avila, undeterred by the loss of a leg (!), had its Southeast Premiere last March in the 2006 Florida Film Festival where it preceded Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan's equally moving SO MUCH SO FAST. Late last week it was announced that the doc short had officially made the "short list" of eight films under consideration for the 3-to-5 nominations to be chosen for the Academy Award in that category. The selections will be announced on January 23, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that this extraordinary work gets even further recognition from the Motion Picture Academy--I haven't seen the other films on the list but it's hard to imagine that there are five better.

--Matthew

Just a few blocks north from where I spent most of the 1980's as Sales Director for Corinth Films proved to be the unfortunate landmark for a tragic and frightening accident Wednesday. Unbelievably, veteran NY Yankee pitcher Cory Lidle crashed his private plane into the side of a 40-story condominium at York and 72nd St. on the Upper East Side. Both Lidle and his passenger (who was his friend and flight instructor) perished in the crash, which created an inferno inside the apartments the plane flew into. Sadly, Lidle leaves behind a wife and a 6-year-old son back in California.

As I watched the horrifying news footage on CNN on-line, my thoughts naturally drifted to not only 9/11, but the death of Yankee great Thurman Munson back in 1979. I don't know how many Yankees fly their own planes as a hobby, and two deaths in a span of over a quarter century may not seem that unlikely. But I would certainly think twice about recreational flying if I was a player donning the pinstripes. Two deaths is two too many, especially for the families and teammates that are left behind. And who knows if we'll ever learn what really happened up there. R.I P. Cory.

--Matthew

As we head into the opening night of the second round of the Major League Baseball playoffs, the insanity clearly continues. The St. Louis Cardinals, on the verge of the greatest collapse in history the last two weeks of the regular season, backed into the playoffs when Houston couldn't find a way to win every single game down the stretch. So what do the Cards proceed to do in the opening round? Win two in a row on the road at San Diego, get excellent starting pitching, and finish off the Padres in four games.

My Twins are the hottest team in baseball since the All-Star break, lead the league in hitting (.287), have the second best batting average with men in scoring position (.296), have the second best defensive fielding percentage in the AL, and the best home record in baseball. So what does Minnesota do against the pitching rich and almost equally hot Oakland A's? They play like dog crap, making physical and mental errors, execute poorly, and go 1-for-19 (!) with runners in scoring position. They also never had the lead in any of the three games for only the third time in playoff history, and of course they lost the first two at home (even with Santana pitching in Game 1) before going on to get swept in 3. Ouch!

But the upset heard round the world, and the series that will have the most off season repurcussions, is the incredible 3-games-to-1 beatdown that the slumping Detroit Tigers put on the best team money can buy, those powerhouse New York Yankees. Who could believe this? The Tigers lost their final 5 home games of the regular season, including 3 to lowly Kansas City, to allow the Twins to win the division. They got pummeled in game 1, giving up 8 runs and 18 hits, including 5 to Jeter alone. They were losing 3-to-1 in game 2, and then the roof caved in on the Bronx Bombers. The team with 13 All-Stars in the lineup and a batting order that could be flipped upside down without losing anything suddenly started sucking the tail pipe. These Yankees proceeded to go 20 innings in a row without scoring a single run, got blown away by 100+ MPH throwing pitchers the rest of game 2, got shut out by Kenny Rogers (who they've destroyed in the past) in game 3, and never had a chance with their lousy starting pitching in game 4. So where do they go from here?

Initial reaction from the press was that longtime Manager Joe Torre, he of the 9 (?) straight division titles and 4 World Series championships, must be fired. Since 2001 the Yankees were under .500 in the playoffs, and in the last three years they had perhaps the biggest choke in playoff history against the hated Red Sox and been eliminated in the first round by the Angels and now the Tigers. This despite the highest payroll in baseball (by a long shot) and a number of simply great ballplayers. But the fact is that this team is getting old and has lousy chemistry. Most fans are dying for them to get rid of A-Rod, who's been awful the last 2 + years in the playoffs and cannot hit in the clutch to save his life--NY even batted him 6th and 8th against Detroit to try and get his head straight. But it's really a lot more than just A-Rod, an inconsistent Randy Johnson, and a manager that juggles the egos of so many superstars. A new voice behind the bench would probably be a good idea (though I don't know how "new" Lou Piniella's would sound), but this team also needs to get some good young pitching and allow its young players like Cabrera, Phillips, and Cano to blossom alongside some veterans. Whatever it is, they have to shake it up and start getting a whole lot younger.

Too bad the Twins couldn't take advantage of the Yankees' collapse. It was all set up for them--they would've had home field advantage in both the AL Championship series and the World Series if they could've advanced. Oh well. C'est la vie. Sign Torii Hunter, get Liriano healthy again, and we'll see you in 2007.

--Matthew

With OPEN SEASON apparently the only children's film out there that's worth the price of admission (I wouldn't know since I haven't taken my kids yet, though local buzz has been positive), Columbia Pictures has decided to try and get a little more mileage out of a MONSTER HOUSE re-release before the DVD hits the racks on October 24. The good news is that it's the Imageworks 3-D version, which was so good the first time, I'd consider another trip to an inconvenient theater to see it again. In other words, if you missed it the first time around, don't blow this opportunity to truly experience this clever, funny, and scary animated feature that's one of the best films of the year. I believe the reissue of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS in Digital 3-D is up next.

Leave it to New Line Cinema to open a film this weekend with my favorite quote source. Not my favorite ad quote mind you, though "A grisly new masterpiece, one of the most terrifying horror films ever made." is fairly standard stuff you'd expect for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. No, the marketing gurus found this one from somebody named Brad Miska at a website called BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM That kind of says it all, doesn't it? Guess they wanted to disregard those quotes from the monthlies and weeklies (not to mention the dailies), who probably never had a chance to see it until the public did. Leatherface is back, and I'm sure the gorehounds are rejoicing (and counting the days until SAW 3).

--Matthew

Tuesday night marked the successful return of the Latin American Cultural Festival of Orlando to Enzian. A multi-week event throughout September and October involving many of the cultural arts, the festival is produced by the Latin American Studies Department at the University of Central Florida and features concerts, films, plays, art exhibits, dance recitals, poetry readings, and lectures.

Carlos Sorin's gently satirical road movie set in Argentina, INTIMATE STORIES, was Enzian's selection for the inaugural event in 2005, and this year we were thrilled to feature one of the recently struck 35mm prints of Marcel Camus' 1959 classic, BLACK ORPHEUS. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, this rich and lyrical updating of the Orpheus and Eurydice legend set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval time is one of the true classics in the Portuguese language to have an impact in the States. Even the soundtrack by Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim was influential, introducing much of America to the world of bossa nova music.

In fact, when I was a wee freshman in high school way back in early 70's Miami, BLACK ORPHEUS was certainly one of the films that I cut my arthouse teeth on at the Grove Cinema. The film was so exotic and wonderful that I always looked forward to that car trip from North Miami Beach down to Coral Gables, and without a doubt this Brazilian love story was instrumental in feeding my passion for foreign films and "alternative" cinema. Apparently I wasn't the only one...

--Matthew

Unbelievable! Simply unbelievable! In a turn of events no sane person could have predicted, the Minnesota Twins won their fourth AL Central division title in the last five years. To do so, they had to come from 12 1/2 games back and overtake the Detroit Tigers. Detroit was the best team in baseball for most of the year, and just had to win one game in their final home series against the Kansas City Royals, record-wise the worst team in baseball by a long shot. So what happens? The Royals proceed to sweep on the road, coming back from a 5-0 deficit on Friday and a 6-0 hole on Sunday, finally winning in 12 innings and sending the TIgers to the Bronx as the Wild Card to play the Yankees (the Twins will stay home and host the A's). And even though the Twins game against Chicago (which they had to win to have a chance at the division crown, and did so, 5-1) started an hour later than Detroit, the team and 35,000 fans that hung around got to watch the last couple of extra innings of the Tigers/Royals together on the Jumbotron at the Metrodome--what a fun (and nervewracking ) experience that had to be!

A couple of months ago John Pierson (an avid Orioles fan by the way) had admonished me for expressing the desire to just knock the White Sox out of the playoffs and having no faith that the Tigers could be caught. I should've listened to the man--he knew what he was talking about. After six months and 162 games, the Twins were in first place exactly one day--and they got there on the last day of the season.

To top it all off, Twins' catcher Joe Mauer went 2-for-4 to finish the year at .347 and win the AL batting title over the Yankees' Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano (I was actually getting bat-by-bat updates by phone from a devoted friend in NYC where the Yanks/Blue Jays game was being televised). Mauer not only led the majors in hitting, but he became the first catcher in American League history to lead the league. Only two other catchers (in the National League) had ever won a batting title, and it hadn't been done since 1942. That'll certainly earn him some MVP votes, but I still think first baseman Justin Morneau is the most deserving of the honor. But the Twins are still small market and Morneau won't be as sexy a pick as Jeter or Big Papi (David Ortiz) from the Red Sox, so I wouldn't be surprised to see either of them get it.

Major League Baseball--huge suckups that they are--want to show the Yankees in prime time for the first two playoff games Tuesday and Wednesday, so Minnesota vs. Oakland will be played at 12 noon (Central time) both days. What the hell is that? So my VCR will be crankin' away and I'll try to avoid sports radio and websites (and incriminating e-mails) to the best of my ability until I make it home to watch the games in the evening. So please--wait a day to call me or e-mail with your analysis or commentary. I really appreciate it. Playoff baseball...can it possibly top what's happened these last four months?

--Matthew