ToDo: The Independent Film Fest of Boston
Posted on April 19, 2006 at 11:02 am | No Comments
Tonight brings us the fourth annual Independent Film Festival of Boston, by far the best yearly film fest this area has to offer. Since the first one, I’ve never been let down by the lineup, always finding at least a film or two that end up on my favorites list.
While I have to miss the opening night event, I’ll be seeing one or two movies every day until the final screening on Monday. As a total film freak, I’m a bit giddy about what’s ahead.
So here’s what I’ve got tickets for…
Thursday night:
loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
directed by Steven Cantor & Matthew Galkin
Chronicling the 2004 return of one of my favorite bands. Can’t wait to see this, as I just devoured the new book ‘Fool The World: An Oral History of a band called Pixies’. It was a fantastic read, especially for someone as obsessed with them as I was (and am again). Documentary directors Cantor and Galkin were quoted quite a few times within the book, and they’ll also be attending the screening.
Thursday 4/20/06, 7:30pm at the Somerville Theatre
also on Thursday Night:
Great New Wonderful
directed by Danny Leiner
Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Edie Falco, Tony Shalhoub, Jim Gaffigan, Olympia Dukakis, Judy Greer, Will Arnett, & Stephen Colbert.
How about that cast? I bought tickets to this one before the Pixies flick got added to the lineup on the same night. Since it’ll undoubtedly get released to theaters at some point, I’m forced to skip it. I’m guessing it’ll sell out, so if you miss out on tickets, drop me an email.
Synopsis: “The Great New Wonderful weaves five stories against the backdrop of an anxious and uncertain post-9-11 New York City.”
Thursday 4/20/06, 7:45pm at the MFA Boston.
Friday night:
Edmond
directed by Stuart Gordon from the David Mamet play
Cast: William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ling Bai, & (the geek in me is excited to see) Jeffrey Combs.
Can’t go wrong with Mamet’s words in Macy’s mouth.
Synopsis: “The dark, picaresque tale of an everyman (Macy) who, after realizing his life is boring and meaningless, leaves it all behind to embark on his own quest for truth and fulfillment.”
Friday 4/21/06, 8pm at the Somerville Theatre
Friday late-night:
Death Trance
directed by Yuji Shimomura
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi (from Versus / Battlefield Baseball) & Y�ko Fujita.
A near-midnight screening from the action director and star of Versus? Yes, please.
Friday 4/21/06, 11:30pm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre
Saturday afternoon:
Down In The Valley
directed by David Jacobson
Cast: Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, David Morse, Bruce Dern, Rory Culkin, & Ellen Burstyn.
Synopsis: “Set in the present-day San Fernando Valley, the project revolves around a delusional man who believes he’s a cowboy and the relationship that he starts with a rebellious young woman.”
Saturday 4/22/06, 4:30pm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre
Saturday night:
Not A Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story
directed by David Kleiler, Jr. and Jeff Iwanicki
Clint Conley & Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma, along with executive producer Eran Lobel, will be in attendance.
*World Premiere*
Another beloved Boston band reunites, and this film tells the tale. Trailer here.
Saturday 4/22/06, 9pm at the Somerville Theatre
Sunday afternoon:
A conversation with Chris Cooper
One of my favorite actors since I first saw him in Lone Star, a film that still sits squarely in my top ten of all time.
Sunday 4/23/06, 4:30pm at the Jimmy Tingle Theater
Sunday evening:
The Legend of Lucy Keyes
directed by John Stimpson, who will be in attendance along with producer Mark Donadio and cinematographer Gary Henoch
Cast: Julie Delpy, Justin Theroux, Brooke Adams, Mark Boone Junior
Synopsis: “An urban family leaves city life behind for the confines of rural New England. Little do they know that their new home once belonged to the Keyes family, a clan who experienced the tragic loss of their daughter some 250 years ago.”
Sunday 4/23/06, 6:30pm at the Somerville Theatre
Monday night:
The Proposition
*Closing Night Film*
directed by John Hillcoat
written by Nick Cave (yes, THAT Nick Cave)
Cast: Tom Budge, Guy Pearce, Emily Watson, Ray Winstone, David Wenham, & John Hurt.
Synopsis: “Set at the end of the bushranger era, the epic Australian story concerns family, loyalty and betrayal.” More info here and here.
Monday 4/24/06, 8pm at the Somerville Theatre
Had I not seen her do a Q&A a couple years back at the Brattle, I’d probably be checking out A Conversation with Lili Taylor on Monday night as well.
For the complete schedule by day, head here. For a list by title, over here. You can buy tickets straight from those listings, but do it quickly. Looks like the server is pretty overwhelmed this morning, so have patience.
A couple of notes: Michael Cera (aka George Michael from Arrested Development) will be in town for the fest, introducing a short film he stars in called ‘Darling Darling‘, which is part of the ‘Comic Avengers‘ short package. And rumor is that Justin Theroux (Six Feet Under / Mulholland Drive) may appear at a screening of The Legend of Lucy Keyes, but scheduling conflicts could keep him away. Here’s hoping.
This year the fest added a podcast, so give that a listen, and head over to Boston.com for some exclusive content, including a trailer for the Pixies film.
Mp3s: New Pornographers in Boston
Posted on April 18, 2006 at 6:37 am | No Comments
The New Pornographers came to town last week for a strange little show at the Paradise, a night whose primary purpose was to extol the virtues of Jack Daniels to a bunch of random contest winners. Whatever the reason, I’m just glad I got a chance to see ’em after having missed their shows with Belle & Sebastian a couple months back. The New Porno’s last two albums both wound up in my year-end top ten, but this show took me to a slightly higher level of fan-love.
The songs from ‘Twin Cinema‘ sounded great, but it was the improved energy of the older stuff that really struck me. In a live setting, I dug the stuff from ‘Mass Romantic‘ and ‘Electric Version‘ even more. Just a great set start to finish, excepting a very rough mix during the first song (and despite a lack of ‘All For Swinging You Around‘, my favorite NP song for a long while). Anyone who worried about a lack of Neko Case (out promoting her own solo album) on recent tours had absolutely nothing to fear… Kathryn Calder (A.C. Newman’s neice, and she also appears on ‘Twin Cinema’) is an excellent replacement on vocals and keyboard.
Here’s their set, and as I mentioned, don’t let the dodgy, keyboard-heavy mix of the first song scare you off, the soundguy fixes it soon enough. If you look at the setlist photo below, they skipped ‘Stacked Crooked‘, and the encore was made up of requests…
Live at The Paradise
Boston, MA
Monday, April 10th, 2006
(note: mp3 files removed on 10/1/2006)
01. Twin Cinema
02. Use It
03. banter 1
04. July Jones
05. The Laws Have Changed
06. Jackie, Dressed In Cobras
07. The Bleeding Heart Show
08. Testament To Youth In Verse
09. The Jessica Numbers
10. banter 2
11. Mass Romantic
12. From Blown Speakers
13. The Body Says No
14. The Bones Of An Idol
15. It’s Only Divine Right
16. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism
17. Sing Me Spanich Techno
encore…
18. The Fake Headlines
19. Jackie
20. Miss Teen Wordpower
The inherent cheeziness of the promotional event was not lost on Mr. Newman, who dedicated ‘The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism‘ to Jack Daniels (“both the cause and the solution to man’s problems“), and set up his guitars while donning full promo-gear, decked out in a cheap black J.D. hat and t-shirt combo. Apparently couldn’t bring himself to wear it during the set, maybe realizing there was a chance many in the possibly unfamiliar crowd would think he was as serious as all the JD girls working the room.
A comment to the JD marketing team: If you’re holding an event to promote a particular brand of alcohol, it might be a good idea to actually provide those in attendance with said beverage. Don’t know if it’s a legal thing, but discounted shots, samples, or even coupons would make more some kind of sense. I’m not sure the free hors d’ouevres (all meat, ‘boo‘ said Amie) and the iTunes coupons made me wanna drink more Jack. I suppose they figure that putting a ton of banners and a great band in front of us might secure our purchasing allegiance. Or maybe it’s not about the people there, but all about the advertising and tie-ins (with both WBCN and the Weekly Dig) leading up to the event. I mean, hell, how many times have I mentioned Jack Daniels in this post already? Feeling thirsty yet?
Footnotes: If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just lemme know (email link on left). Recorded with a Sony Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. And keep in mind, sets are made available for a few weeks, and are not reposted once removed.