Thanks to the guys over at Film Junk I came across the trailer for the new mumblecore science fiction film Mars that will be debuting at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival. Combining its eye catching visual presentation with its misanthropic tone hopefully will result in an interesting romantic comedy, though the trailer certainly reminds me at times of Dark Star.
But what I might be most interested in for the film, is the involvement of James Kochalka, who is one of the best American independent comic creators currently working. I wouldn’t be surprised if he helped with some of the background animation, but that he is acting in this film gives me hope that some of his outstanding writing talent might be used to help sharpen up the dialogue. Please let it be true.
Pandorum has been rather quietly hovering under most people’s radar for several months now. not much has been known about the film other then the cast, the outer space setting and the perception that this might be a horror film of some kind. With clips of the “monsters” that are in the film being released today (anyone else think they look similar to Reavers), Pandorom should be quickly ramping up the pop culture consciousness. Which is a good thing since it opens theatrically in just a few weeks.
Hopefully Pandorum continues the rather solid string of science fiction films that are being released this year, and it would be nice to have a new space horror film to curl up with.
Well before I disappeared last week to go visit The Fam in the land that is round on the outside and high in the middle, James and I sat down to record the latest episode of our podcast High and Low (Brow). This episode the theme is Comas, meaning in each film at least one major character had to be in a coma at some point. The films we reviewed for this episode, The Mind of Mr Soames, a relatively unknown and very hard to find 70’s science fiction film starring Terrance Stamp, and Pedro Almodovar’s Talk to Her. Will we like them? Hate them? Or will we somehow get stuck discussing giant vaginas and public masturbation for far more time then is necessary. I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
Make sure to stick to the end, where James and I select the theme and films for the next episode, which hopefully will be just as enjoyable and disturbing as this one. Did I mention in this episode I read poetry?
Make no mistake, this is a very special episode of High and Low (Brow).
Thanks for listening, and be sure to leave your comments. And if you have any ideas for films or themes for future episodes, or simply want to berate us in private, be sure to email us at inbox at wherethelongtailends dot com. We appreciate any and all feedback.
I don’t put forth much effort to hide the fact that I love genre films. I do this for several reasons, though primarily it is simply to weed out those who do not like them. I have no problem personally if someone doesn’t enjoy them, far too frequently genre films rarely attempt to cross over and gain new fans, but if someone doesn’t like genre fare I immediately know whether or not we will have somewhat comparable taste in movies. Genre films are the anchor in which all of my film interests are held together by, and I am rather proud of that.
Now my particular kryptonite of which I am powerless to resist are science fiction films. While Star Wars is probably primarily to blame, their certainly were plenty of other science fiction franchises indoctrinating my toddler brain. Since that time, if your film had a hint of futuristic technology, machines dealing with their own developing Artificial Intelligence, or even alien populated cantina bands I have probably already watched the film at one point or another.
Being a child of the 1980’s meant I was able to gorge on these types of films on a weekly basis, as the only genre seemingly more numerous was the one involving one or both of the two Coreys. But as I watched these movies, it became increasingly easy to forget just which movies I had watched as I rocketed through the genre. And all too often, I would watch a film I loved and then lose it to antiquity because I wasn’t making any effort to record which films I loved and which I didn’t.
This is the tale of one such relic, lost to the celluloid aisles, seemingly, forevermore.
As much as I love MOON, with each new marketing material, production still and now trailer for District 9 I quiver with anticipation at a film that truly could revolutionize big screen blockbusters and heady science fiction films by amalgamating them into one pure package of perfection. Don’t believe me? Check out the first full trailer, which is beyond stunning.
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