It may be the coffee, it may be ADHD or it could just be our undeniable addiction to twitter but one thing is certain - Seattle loves its short films. MIFFF is about to burn short bursts of cinematic madness into our retinas. This short film fest will pepper you with more than 40 international films over a three day period focusing solely on action, animation, fantasy, horror, and sci-fi films. more ›

SIFF's first full week is underway, so here's glimpse at some of the films coming up this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. For all film screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which of course cost more. Here's what jumps out at us from the SIFF catalogue: more ›

On Thursday, we saw a final two films at Sundance before getting the hell out of Dodge Utah. First up was Adam, an unconventional love story that was flying way under the festival radar until it sold to Fox Searchlight late Monday night.

Writer-director Max Meyer has crafted a tender and wistful film about the title character, a cute, wide-eyed, outer-space-obsessed twenty-nine-year-old man who happens to have Asperger's. It's delicate in its treatment of the syndrome, as well as the romance that develops between Adam (Hugh Dancy) and his new neighbor, Beth (Rose Byrne). Adam is a charming, unexpectedly moving film, and Meyer pulls no punches. Just like all of us, Adam has a deep desire for connection and intimacy, independent of his condition.

Our last film of the fest was Unmade Beds, a British flick in the style of L'Auberge Espagnole.In a London art space/communal loft, young people move in and out, crashing on mattresses where they can. The film focuses on the storylines of two of the squatters: Axl, from Madrid who is trying to track down his absentee father (when he's not having drunken blackouts), and Vera, a French girl trying to get over her ex (when she's not still thinking about him). Alexis Dos Santos infuses the film with playful direction, and lots of music and energy, including several live performances by indie British bands. But ultimately, we were a lot more interested in Vera's story than Axl's. Hell, we were more interested in all the other goings-on in the apartment than poor, boring Axl.

As to the festival itself, it was delightfully more low-key than in previous years (last year in particular was ridiculously overcrowded). The economic downturn kept the yahoos away, the industry asshole numbers down, and the movie tickets relatively readily available. But it is more than a little disconcerting to see Main Street looking like something out of 28 Days Later--in past years, it was perpetually crowded, day or night. Thankfully we didn't run into Mike Tyson, nor the Real Housewives of Atlanta's Kim Zolciak (whom we find equally terrifying). This year really was about the movies, and for that we are grateful. Sundance, we love you, and we'll see you next year. more ›

The main event last night was billed as "An Evening with Steven Soderbergh," but everyone knew he'd be showing his new film, The Girlfriend Experience. Steven himself commented on this presumed fact, saying that he didn't know how these rumors got started...and then he showed the new movie. Unlike Che, Girlfriend Experience (or at least the work-in-progress version we saw) is only about eighty minutes long, and made for a little under $2M in just over two weeks last October. Like Bubble, it's another one of Soderbergh's digital films, and it's his most non-linear story-telling since The Limey. more ›

Of course everyone in Park City is excited about Obama. At every chance they get, the Sundance staff member announcing the film makes a comment about our new president and/or our ceremonial dumping of the old one, to great applause. The morning screenings today have been lightly attended, with folks staying in to catch the inauguration. Not us, though; we'll catch that shit on YouTube. We've got movies to watch! more ›

The stats geeks at Deconstructing Sundance aim to be the FiveThirtyEight of the film festival world by predicting the future box office success of Sundance films, using the words in their festival guide descriptions (and a Bayesian algorithm) alone. Example: 62% of Sundance competition films in the last 15 years whose descriptions included the words "gay," "gays," or "homosexual" went on to commercial success. So "gay" becomes a positive indicator of success, and so on and so forth. more ›

The end is near. Come Sunday night, this year's SIFF will come to a close. There are still plenty of great films showing, so if you haven't hit the fest yet, you've still got time to catch a flick or two before the movie fun is done. Saturday's closing night film selection is Bottle Shock, based on the true story of how the Napa Valley wine industry made a name for themselves: by beating out the French in a blinded Chardonnay tasting. The film (with Bill Pullman and Freddy Rodriguez in attendance) shows at the Cinerama, and the post-film gala takes place at the Pan Pacific Hotel. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: more ›

Here we are at Day 16 of the Festival. If by now you're long tired of SIFF, you're in luck: STIFF starts tonight. And if you're tired of our takes on this year's festival films, check out reviews by Blue Scholars' MC Geologic. In addition to everything below, this weekend also offers the last chance to hit up two great documentaries, both of which we've previously mentioned, and both of which deserve another shout-out. Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a crowd-pleaser on the "real-life Spinal Tap" (today, 4:30pm @ SIFF Cinema). Meanwhile, Man on Wire, an unexpectedly moving doc about the French tightrope walker (and his friends) who conquered the WTC's Twin Towers, is the best thing we've seen at the fest so far (tomorrow, 11am @ the Egyptian). more ›

Another weekend, another opportunity to check out the films at SIFF. If you're into the short film genre, SIFF Cinema hosts ShortsFest all weekend long, with short films packaged by theme in approximately ninety-minute blocks. For all SIFF screenings, the general/member ticket prices are $11/$9 (and matinees $8/$7), except for gala screenings and other special events, which cost more. Seattlest applies our well-honed knowledge of all things cinema to the SIFF catalogue in order to point out some notable films playing this weekend: more ›

After talking about it for what seems like forever, it's finally time to buy your SIFF tickets. The SIFF 2008 schedule of films, programs, and special events is now available at both the SIFF website and in the annual Seattle Times pullout guide. more ›

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Ah, those crazy Frenchies, at it again. This time, they're going to pull off a robbery. The gang that couldn't shoot straight, but with accents, The Band of Outsiders. The cute gal is Anna Karina, her boyfriends are Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey, and the director is the embodiment of French cinema's nouvelle vague, Jean-Luc Godard. more ›

The triple play kicks off at 7pm tonight at the Paramount Theatre: Chaplin's One A.M., The Count, more ›

One film you won't find on 2007's best-of lists is the first movie we caught on Saturday night, Nothing is Private, the debut feature from American Beauty-scribe/Six Feet Under-creator Alan Ball. It's not that his adaption of Alicia Erian's semi-autobiographical novel Towelhead--the coming-of-age story of a seriously messed-up thirteen-year-old girl living with her strict Lebanese father in early 90s suburban Texas -- is bad, just fundamentally flawed. We just didn't buy that an adolescent so used by nearly every person in her life would be so relatively undamaged, though we did appreciate Ball's restraint in not further abusing a victim via exploitative camerawork. Issues of post-traumatic stress disorder aside, big ups to the ensemble cast, including a hugely pregnant Toni Collette, a seriously conflicted army reservist/creepy racist Aaron Eckhart, and dynamic newcomer Summer Bishil as the young girl at the heart of this darkly comic, occasionally absurdist tale.
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In anticipation of French house DJs Daft Punk's show at WaMu Theatre this Sunday, head to Lower Level at the Capitol Hill Arts Center tonight for a screening of the first film directed by the electro duo: more ›

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N.P. Thompson went to SIFF, and we all benefit now that he's written about the best and worst films of the festival -- and launched a few broadsides at SIFF and select members of its audience:

The 33rd Seattle International Film Festival ended two weeks ago; it’s taken me this long to gain enough distance to sort and sift through all I might conceivably have to say on the subject. Even so, the movies under discussion here represent only a small fraction of what I took in. There were several screenings I walked out on, a few more I considered walking out on, and perhaps a baker's dozen of screener discs I couldn’t eject quickly enough. This year, as in other years, festival officials emphasized the sheer quantity of it all: 25 days, 600 screenings, X-number of North American premieres. They take this approach, because qualitatively, especially this time, there was almost nothing to point to. Which isn’t to say that weren’t some good films, but that they were in short supply.

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This weekend the National Weather service is calling for mid-70s to 80 degrees. You may want to recover from heatstroke by rehydrating in an air-conditioned theater with other bepinkenned Seattleites, and their melanin-endowed friends savoring their little moment of schadenfreude. (Here's the Seattle Times cheat sheet on the various venues.) more ›

At long last, after months and months of announcements and press releases, it's finally time to kick off the 33rd annual Seattle International Film Festival. Tonight's the opening gala event (7pm), held for the first time at SIFF's swanky new digs at McCaw Hall. This year's opening night film--Son of Rambow--much like last year's, falls somewhere in between previous year's selections, including the mawkish abomination that is The Notebook and the precious artsy genius of Me and You and Everyone We Know. Rambow won't be out in U.S. theaters until 2008, so this screening is way early, offering you the ability come next year to sigh and say to your lesser-connected friends, "Son of Rambow? Oh, I saw that last spring." more ›

National film festival correspondent Kyle Anderson on Seattle's other one more ›

The Seattle International Film Festival starts May 24. All 405 films. Tickets are on sale to members right now; hoi polloi, this Sunday. New this year is that if you buy a multi-ticket package, you can then order tickets online to the specific films you want to see. That is thanks to POP, who do SIFF's website. more ›

BOOKS: Like mysteries? The 17th Annual Western Mystery Fan convention continues through the 4th. For a group focused on clues and figuring things out, they spell things out incredibly well on their website. Where's the fun in that? more ›

It looks like the Seattle International Film Festival is going to pull back a bit from its traditional venues around town and get its very own digs at the Seattle Center. McCaw Hall is being turned into "the best screening facility in the Northwest and one of the top facilities on the West Coast." more ›

"I sent it to one organization, the Seattle True Independent Film Festival...and they declined by sending me an email form-letter," said Alex Mayer. We're sitting with Mayer in a coffeeshop down at Union Station--ironically in the same business park as Vulcan's glittering corporate office--talking about the delayed (by a year) Seattle debut of Mayer's new film, Paul Alien. more ›

We're pleased as punch to report that noted local filmmaker (and friend of ours) Brian McDonald was just down at the Austin Film Festival becoming an "award-winning screenwriter." Saturday, October 21, he won the Science Fiction category of the AFF 2006 Screenplay Competition with his screenplay "Graverobbers." more ›

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for? more ›

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? more ›

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. more ›

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. more ›