Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Dave Chappelle and Friends
Release: March 3, 2006
Synopsis: Dave Chappelle’s Block Party spotlights comedy superstar Dave Chappelle as he presents a Brooklyn neighborhood with its very own once-in-a-lifetime free block party. The unprecedented combination of comedy and music was shot on location. In addition to Mr. Chappelle performing all-new material, the stellar roster of artists includes Kanye West, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Common, Dead Prez, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, the Roots, Cody ChesnuTT, Big Daddy Kane, and – reunited for their first performance in over seven years – the Fugees. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michel Gondry and his Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind cinematographer Ellen Kuras capture all of the exclusive performances and crowd excitement on an unforgettable Saturday afternoon and night, as well as (earlier in the week) private rehearsals footage and Mr. Chappelle in the small Ohio town he calls home. In Ohio, Mr. Chappelle wandered through town handing out golden tickets to invite several dozen citizens to join the party, providing transportation and lodging for their first-time-ever visit to Brooklyn. Ohio’s Central State University marching band made the trip and helped kick off the festivities at the intersection of Quincy and Downing Streets. As a diverse crowd comes together, Mr. Chappelle’s freestyle wit guides them (and us) through a day-long, life-affirming celebration of music and comedy, history and community. The lineup of performers is distinguished not only by the caliber of their music but also by the strength and power that their art draws from keeping their creativity pure.

Prognosis: Positive With 10 lbs. Worth Of Crazy. Obfuscation.

Some of the things I took away from Dave Chappelle’s interview with Oprah a couple of weeks ago had nothing to do with me feeling enlightened by Dave’s actions in the past year but, rather, I took away the feeling that he either doesn’t know how to answer a direct question, wasn’t prepared to give answers to direct questions and that he is ill prepared to talk in an interview. Period.

“Why did you walk out on a $50 million dollar television show?”

Crickets might have well been playing an orchestral movement because Dave seemed lost.

One thing, though, which piqued my curiosity, was his concert film that he planned on releasing. Now, this is good. There is an energy that’s apparent as soon as this trailer opens up and I am delighted that Dave’s inability to communicate to other humans hasn’t interfered with his capacity to bring the funny. Also, with Michel Gondry helming the directorial duties you can be assured that it will be captured with the right amount of personality.

When the screen opens and you see two dudes who are residents of Dayton, Ohio, where Dave has made his home for quite some time, and explain that they don’t do a whole lot and one fine day Dave Chappelle, who is slightly off camera but gives these guys a couple of tickets to his concert, offers to take them away for the weekend. The manner in which Dave surrenders a couple of the tickets is a bit unsettling, it’s almost as if he’s trying to entreat them to get into his van to help move a couch, wink wink, but I get it.

Fast forward to Dave working the crowd, moments before the concert begins, and he’s on. He just knows how to flip that switch and get a group of people going. He lets fly a few Lil’ John “Whaaat?!”s and so, I take it, that it’s alright for him to appropriate his comedy when it suits him but when other people do it to him it sends him into a frenzy that can only be quieted with a trip to South Africa. Got it. Check.

The next few moments are just Dave armed with a bullhorn and traipsing through Brooklyn spouting off whatever comes to his mind. It’s honestly good stuff; his riffing here is on par with some of the best rehearsed material that’s being plied to audiences.

Then, we get the talent. Erykah Badu is all up in there, you’ve got the Roots ready to bring it and you even have the man who may or may not need Common to bitch slap him a few times on Lower Wacker in Chicago, Kanye West. The energy is bursting off the screen and you can feel that this is really something special.

2 things. One, when Mos Def, who has been exceptional in parlaying his music career into a filmic one, pops up, keep your ears open as the music is simply bumpin’ when you see the Fugees start working the crowd for themselves. Two, when Dave, shortly after this is talking to a pack of kids while holing a pool cue taunts these children to bring it for reals in a game of 8-ball and simultaneously slapping down a large bill. The kids’ expression alone is enough to say that while Dave may have some things to work out he can work a wide spectrum of age brackets.

Director: James Westby
Cast: Melik Malkasian, Matt Morris, Tyler Gannon
Release: Coming soon to a festival near you…Peep the release date information as supplied by Herr Westby below…
Synopsis: FILM GEEK is a hilarious new comedy about Scotty Pelk, a socially inept video store clerk with an encyclopedic knowledge of film. He runs a website, scottysfilmpage.com, which receives zero traffic. He annoys his customers. He annoys his co-workers. And when he is inevitably fired from his video store job, Scotty finds refuge in Niko, a downtown hipster who teaches him a thing or two about love and life. But Niko’s smarmy ex-boyfriend Brandon won’t go away quietly. As Scotty’s first love turns to obsession, his life begins to change in profound ways.

Prognosis: Solid. There’s this one guy, down the street, where I rent my videos. Yeah, I know about Netflix but I am slow when it comes to these kinds of things.

The guy always always asks me about the films I bring back when I check out more. It could be that I was renting SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS but he interjects with his own narrative about how he came to like or dislike the movie. It utterly fascinates me that I could be renting YOUNG EINSTEIN and this dude would lay it out as to how he felt about the movie. He amazes me. That’s why I think I responded so well to this trailer about a know-it-all video jockey.

Yes, the story of video clerks has been well-documented on celluloid in recent years and that’s why it puts a movie like this in the precarious position of having to prove that there is still something fresh to say about this genre, this segment of the population who do these jobs.

When we open up things a solid music track neither distracts nor overpowers what is happening on the screen. You’ve got some customer providing the comedic bait to our protagonist, she’s looking for a movie with the word “heaven” in it, and we’re launched into this rundown of movies by our man who rattles off all kinds of flicks that might fit the ladies’ query. It’s soft comedy but it is, nonetheless, viable.

The cards lay it all out for us. He annoys people, he’s going nowhere, etc…but the nice thing about the trailer is that expediency seems to be the thing on this trailer maker’s mind and that’s a great thing to see. The most common thing for someone who is doing this sort of thing on a shoestring is to really showcase the artists’ talent; trailers run in the opposite vein of that. You want your story to go in, go out and leave an impression. What you notice after we get a 1/3 of the way into this movie is that it’s doing just that.

Things do, however, take a strange turn when our clerk gets canned from the one job he, no doubt, can only do real well. His punting coincides with him meeting some girl who wants to bring him out of his nebbish shell. This is where I have an issue with the trailer. It seems awkward that we go from complete geek to all of a sudden having this strange new woman exposing him to a life which has completely passed him by. He looks strange in the role of a guy going to parties, drinking beer, schmoking a lil’ weed and I don’t know if I buy the rapid romance here. It’s forced or at least it feels like we’re rushing through something we shouldn’t be.

I warm up to it a little bit, though, when we see this guy surviving life beyond the video store as he makes his way through things other than always preparing for Tuesdays. The geek’s admission that he loves movies and that they let you be other people is poignant and that’s where the real emotional buy-in comes in for a movie like this.

I felt confused, at first, with trying to peg where we are going with this guy. Was he a hapless geek who deserved what he got, was this a movie about how he was never going to get what he wanted or was this about trying to establish something new when the one thing you’re good at is taken away? It is the latter and even though there are a few visual miscues that try and throw you off the mark in getting the right idea about this movie it is nonetheless a solid trailer for a movie that has a story worth following through to the end.

And those interested in knowing when, and if, this is coming close to you soon, Mr. Westby sent me this note:

Syracuse, NY
Palace Theatre
March 3, 2006

Orlando, FL
Downtown Media Arts Center
March 30 – April 9, 2006

Austin, TX
Alamo South Lamar
Opens May 1, 2006

Director:Jared Hess
Cast: Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, Héctor Jimenez, Richard Montoya, Peter Stormare
Release: June 2, 2006
Synopsis: Jack Black stars as Ignacio (friends call him Nacho), a Mexican priest who moonlights as a lucha libre wrestler to raise money for his orphanage in this comedy from the creators of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and the writer and star of THE SCHOOL OF ROCK.

Prognosis: You’re on your own with this one. I don’t know what the hell is going on but I feel fine.

One of the strangest predicaments to be in, I would imagine, is to create something so good that not only have you managed to spark an entire legion of fanatics that like to mimic moments from your film whilst toiling away at their cubicle jobs but you’ve also had the secondary effect of helping to make Q3’s financials for Suburban-Mom-Mall-Approved Hot Topic some of the best they’ve ever been by pimping everything from shirts that still admonish me to Vote For Pedro to a bobble head that can sit quietly on my desk.

How do you possibly follow that up? With all the adulation that was heaped on NAPOLEON DYNAMITE you’ve thought that the bigger budget second movie Jared and Jerusha Hess would’ve blown their load, as it were, on something safe yet solid. They chose, obviously, to go with the latter and ditch the former because this is all sorts of out there.

I can’t, for the life of me, understand where the nexus of this movie came from or why Jack Black was the obvious choice when choosing who would make the best luchador in a movie that has all the flavor of NAPOLEON’s former self. Jack opens this bad boy in all his girthy glory. His un-Godliness is spoiled, however, when he does and ankle grab that treats us to a full moon that’s Neptunian in diameter. The pace is perfect, though, as the music, the same kind of windy pipes usually reserved for those South American scenes from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, makes me feel there is a fire fight about to occur. Jack is getting his vinyl jack boots laced up and is compressing his head into his mask when he explains the method to his madness.

Before I feel comfortable in the explanation given as to why this is all happening, I am yanked precipitously to the back story involving Jack hustling business using his ped-taxi, probably whisking people to and from the Dream Palace, Skin Cabaret or Wide World of Hymens, and coming upon the greatest luchador he’s ever seen.

His story is involved as his awe turns to work. He wants that attention, that adulation, and will do anything to achieve it. His Spanish accent is amusing, sure, and his nun friend who explains that unless his cause is for something righteous God will not bless him.

The angles here are all sorts of odd but, again, there seems to be a reason and direction so instead of being frustrated I am left feeling that, fine, be weird for weird’s sake but keep the information flowing, you know?

The next scene, though, throws me for a loop-da-loop when Jack is slo-mo running, pushing his anemic looking partner out of the way while taking in a dusty jog on a dirt path and then tossing a freshly snapped off bee hive at the same man. Wha huh?

Some scenes later, the golden luchador that inspired Jack into this business of wrangling and tangling steps out into a packed house and is greeted with fireworks and hot chicks at his side. The image, while strange, is common enough when you’ve grown up on the WWF. Jack’s theatrics to counter balance the golden child are birdlike and I can’t get a handle over whether he means business or is trying to also play up to a crowd that’s looking forward to seeing Jack get all sorts of schooled.

I am then treated to Jack ripping off his shirt, with an accompanying explanation about how he could do such a thing, displays his skills for a couple of dudes who look high on glue, and then I get not one but two butt shots of Jack; in one he gives me a full clench and, the other, a butt that’s tightly secured in red tights.

The rest of this trailer is filled with multiple shots of wrestling, of Jack’s partner looking to get his groove on with a rather unsavory chica, and there’s a sweet shot of Jack taking flight out of the ring, getting some wicked air, as he tries to land on his golden hero.

The ending, though, leaves me scratching my brain. He invites the woman who is, ostensibly, the female love interest in this movie to his room at the monastery, I guess he’s a monk too, to have a piece of toast. I guess it’s supposed to be funny and I think there’ll be some people who will say this is all sorts of humorous but I don’t understand. Is toast eating the new hotness or did I just miss that memo?

I’ll probably see this movie simply to see how the sophomore outing ultimately goes but, damn, don’t make me feel that I may regret my loyalty.

Director: Adam McKay
Cast: Amy Adams, Sacha Baron Cohen, Leslie Bibb, William Boyer, Gary Cole, Elvis Costello, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Ferrell
Release: August 4, 2006
Synopsis: NASCAR stock car racing sensation Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is a national hero because of his “win at all costs” approach. He and his loyal racing partner, childhood friend Cal Naughton Jr. (John C. Reilly), are a fearless duo — “Thunder” and “Lightning” by their fans for their ability to finish so many races in the #1 and #2 positions, with Cal always in second place. When flamboyant French Formula One driver Jean Girard (Sacha Baron Cohen) challenges “Thunder” and “Lightning” for the supremacy of NASCAR, Ricky Bobby must face his own demons and fight Girard for the right to be known as racing’s top driver.

Prognosis: Negative. No.

I thought this was going to be, in the parlance that my English teachers would no doubt flunk me for, a slam-dunk.

This trailer has challenged me to really sit down and meditate on the reasons why this movie appears, on the surface, to suffer from the wrong kind of angle sell. An angle sell, as I have coined, stamped and now dispersed in the annals of conversational currency, is a phrase I’ve come to realize means how a piece of advertising like this trailer, as a whole, is packaged. If you’ve got the wrong angle to begin with, usually resulting in a marketing department being confused with how to pimp a product to the masses, you’re going to start, proceed and end being way off the mark. Classic examples of movies being marketed all sorts of wrong litter the conversations of many directors who get upset when the promotions people have the end-all be-all decision power to tell the public what a movie ultimately is. Is it a drama, a comedy, a dramedy? What this all means, ultimately, is that figuring out the angle of a movie is like having a loaded gun with only one bullet in it: you’ve got to know where to shoot it and when.

The trailer for TALLADEGA NIGHTS suffers from a poor execution. This should be the movie that brings the crazy ass Will Ferrell back from the schlock (i.e. KICKING AND SCREAMING and his part in giving us the color infused pastiche pap of CURIOUS GEORGE) that helped finance his summer home in Monaco and back into the fold of comedic icons. This is the movie that should be what ANCHORMAN really wasn’t: funny. It should pop off the screen with Ferrell’s brand of giddiness but what we’re served is an opening sequence packed with promise with ZZ Top’s “La Grange” only to be let down with a crazy child to crazy adult transition that’s as amusing as the first CARS trailer.

The arena for NASCAR should be a hotbed of funny but, as we progress even further to setting up what this movie is about, getting a funny moment when we hear that Will’s kids in this movie are named Walker and Texas Ranger, respectively, the jokes are taking a long time to get out there.

That’s the problem, I think. The next sequence when Will and John C. Reilly go back and forth about couplings that go together, Chinese Food and pudding being rebuked for peanut butter and jelly when involving a lady, isn’t as good as it should be because you’re making me work too damn hard to get the joke. Oh, and look at the time, half of the trailer is gone, wasted. These jokes necessitate a set-up and the momentum for this movie pays the price.

And, when we finally come upon Sacha Baron Cohen’s character we’re given just enough time to see him, hear him utter a few words and he’s quickly forgotten. What the fu$%? Yeah, not many people really like the whole Ali G thing but I am a fan and, dammit, this is Will’s nemesis in this movie and I want something witty. No, I get Will driving with a cougar and Will signing a baby’s forehead. Yeah, the explosion of comedy just doesn’t relent.

I will say that the angle for how you market this thing is found when Will puts on a blindfold, ostensibly to do a little Jedi driving, whilst behind the wheel. The subsequent sequence of him careening into parked cars, straight out BEVERLY HILLS COP, and then veering off the road into a house is what every moment of this trailer should have been. It’s obnoxious, irreverent, wacky and the kind of thing that dudes want to see.

PLUS, and this is important, the moment of Will running around after a crash on the track and he’s in his underwear, spouting all sorts of nonsensical bullshit, even managing to drag Tom Cruise’s good name into it? THAT’S it. THAT’S the ethos of this movie and every other moment of this film’s trailer should have been just as irreverent.

As it is, I’m not really looking forward to this movie as I am just hopeful that someone will get it together and give me a better trailer. Booyakasha.

Leave a Reply