Victoria Television Group
3808 N. Navarro
Victoria, TX 77901
Phone: 361 575-2500
Fax: 361 575-2255 |
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Entertainment
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SXSW Review-Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?" |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
I’d like to buy the world a beer….
“Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?”
Weinstein Co. Films
Directed by Morgan Spurlock
2 ½ Stars
AUSTIN/SXSW –
In the SXSW post show commentary, director Morgan Spurlock was asked
about his particular style of film-journalism, currently on display in
“Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” Spurlock suggested that while
he loves traditional documentary filmmaking, he finds them bland “like
spinach,” quipping that “It’s good for you, but it’s still spinach,
man.” Asked for an alternative, he suggests “Docu-fun.”
“Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?” certainly qualifies as
docu-fun, or perhaps fun-docu because the light-and-breezy nature of
the film does tend to overwhelm the journalism. That’s not necessarily
a bad thing, and the film is certainly a lot of fun to watch, but I
seriously doubt if anybody is going to leave the theater having learned
anything about the Middle East that they didn’t already know.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
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SXSW Review-"Super High Me." |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
A comedian goes to pot for thirty days.
“Super High Me
Directed by Michael Blieden
Starring Doug Benson (and his stoner buddies)
2 ½ Stars
“High Times Magazine” named Doug Benson as the second-ranked pot comic in the nation a few years ago. Benson must have decided not to settle for anything less than the top spot, because although the magazine hasn’t since repeated their ranking, the frequently-stoned funnyman has gone out and made an entire movie about his life-long love affair with marijuana.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
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SXSW Announces 2008 Winners. |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
South-by-Southwest announced its 2008 winning film roster, as the
festival transitions from movies to music. The festival is known for
being a showcase for emerging documentaries, so perhaps this year’s big
winner is “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” Daniel Junge’s complex look at
the politics and emotions that led to the murder of an American nun
living in Brasil. The film won both the jury award and the audience
favorite award.
Among the narrative features, the jury prize went to Jake Mahaffey’s
“Wellness,” the experimental tale of a door-to-door salesman selling a
seminar that promotes wellness. SXSW audiences were impressed by
“Explicit Ills,” a tale of poverty and hope set in Philadelphia,
starring Paul Dano and Rosario Dawson. The film also received a
special jury award for cinematography.
Among the Texas High School Competition, Wesley Bronez took the grand
prize for “Picnic,” while the Jury award went to “Inflections,” by
Matthew Campbell from Cedar Park.
The full list of this year’s winning films is as follows:
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
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SXSW Review-"Some Assembly Required" |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
“Some Assembly Required”
Directed by Dori Berinstein
3 Stars
AUSTIN/SXSW –
Perhaps my favorite competition film from this year’s SXSW Film
Festival, “Some Assembly Required” was almost ruined for me because I
was sitting next to a pack of teenage girls who were giggling and
talking throughout the entire movie. I was just about to ask them to be
quiet when I realized that these unruly teens sitting next to me were
the exact same ones giggling and behaving like typical teenagers up on
the screen in front of me.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
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SXSW Review-"American Teen" |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
“American Teen”
Directed by Nanette Burstein
With Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich and Jake Tusing.
2 ½ Stars
AUSTIN/SXSW –
I do not watch “The Hills” or “Laguna Beach” or any of MTV’s real-life
(wink-wink) docu-dramas. It’s not that I think there’s anything
particularly wrong with youth culture programming, it’s just that I’m
too old to care about a bunch of self-absorbed teenage nitwits. I
simply don’t relate to their issues.
So I was a bit surprised by my reaction to “American Teen,” Nanette
Burstein’s slick new documentary about a quartet of average kids
growing up in Warsaw, Indiana. It’s engrossing to watch these four
Senior high school students and their friends preparing to strike out
into the real world. More importantly, unlike their MTV and VH1
counterparts, these kids really do seem like average teenagers, which
makes it a whole lot easier to relate to what’s going on in their lives.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 April 2008 )
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SXSW Review-"At the Death House Door" |
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Written by Sean McBride
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
“At the Death House Door”
Directed by Steve James and Peter Gilbert
3 Stars
AUSTIN/SXSW –
You might expect a film dealing with the death penalty to quickly
become an exercise in propaganda where emotions run rampant in support
of the filmmaker’s particular point of view. Certainly most
contemporary documentaries tend to embrace polemics over journalistic
examinations, but “At the Death House Door” bucks that trend, due in
large part to a measured series of interviews with Rev. Carroll Pickett
who served as the Death Row chaplain in Huntsville for thirteen years.
In a conversion story that would have made the apostle Paul proud, “At
the Death House Door” begins with Rev. Pickett staunchly supporting the
resumptions of executions in Texas in 1982. Two of his parishioners
were killed in a prison riot, and due to his influence in the
community, the warden asked Pickett to come work inside the prison
walls. Pickett’s task was to council the condemned prisoners, gain
their trust and to make sure that they went quietly to the execution
chamber.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 06 April 2008 )
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