When I was growing up in Wisconsin I would often times kill time at my local video store. I would roam through the aisles, looking at the VHS boxes, searching for something interesting to watch. I was fascinated with genre mash-ups and Ralph Bakshi’s films and quickly immersed myself in them. But Waukesha wasn’t exactly stationed along the cutting edge of pop culture, so I had some rather sizable gaps in both my film knowledge and exposure.

It wasn’t until college that I began meeting people who were giving enough to introduce me to German Expressionism, Italian neorealism, and Turner Classic Movies. From then on I always have had great respect for people who introduce me to new and exciting things, especially when it comes to films.

Which brings me to my girlfriend, Anna. I found my first excuse to talk to her when she was reading Watership Down, which was one of my favorite books (as well as animated films) as a child. Much to my delight she had never read it before so it afforded me the perfect opportunity to lay down some serious knowledge, and from there we soon began introducing each other to all sorts of of new experiences. One interesting thing to note is she was far more open to trying out my recommendations early on then I was with hers. This is quite simply explained. She likes Bjork, Dogville, and Ayn Rand. I like cool crap.

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I always forget how much moving sucks until I do it again. It looks like a bomb has gone of in our apartment, and it’s going to be several more days before we can get everything organized, let alone put away. But hey, at least we have the Internet up and running.

This week’s update is a fairly short one, as most of the new DVD releases are relatively boring. The obvious recommendation is for There Will Be Blood, which is an outstanding film. Their is both a standard edition and a 2-disc Collector’s Edition and it is going to be tough for me to avoid the 2-disc set. If you haven’t seen it yet, and with its limited theatrical release that means plenty of you haven’t, it’s the one film you should make sure to watch this week.

The other DVD release I have is a smaller, lesser known film, but by no means less acclaimed documentary that was released last year and was in and out of theaters within a week. That film is Manda Bala. Because of its short release I never had time to go see it, but I had several friends who were able to find the time and came away very impressed. It’s won more then its fair share of awards, and being a bit of a documentary buff I know it is getting bumped up to the top of my queue.

As for theatrical new releases their isn’t much that really interests me. I know some people are jazzed about Leatherheads, but frankly I could care less about the movie. But the one movie I am excited for is a mockumentary about poker players called The Grand. With a stellar cast including Woody Harrelson, Dennis Farina, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Michael McKean, Chris Parnell, and the pitch-perfect casting of Werner Herzog I can’t help but be excited at the possibilities.

As always, trailers are after the break.

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If any of you have ever had the opportunity to attend a large film festival you may not know the hysteria going on behind the scenes. In 2006, my theater had the privilege of being part of the Minneapolis/St Paul International Film Festival. The festival lasted two weeks and our theater averaged showing 4 films a day. This meant we typically had 8 films a day that either had to be built up or broken down. Couple this with the fact that many of these films don’t arrive at the theater until an hour or two before they need to be on screen, resulting in less then ideal conditions for working with these prints. Hell is less stressful. (more…)