HARTFORD — Lately American horror films have devolved into remaking (or re-imagining, as the studio publicists insist) the fright films of the ’70s and ’80s. It’s like we’ve run out of spooks. Luckily last spring there was a cinematic scare-fest that brought us a fresh set of chills with The Haunting In Connecticut.
A mother (Virginia Madsen) rents an ex-funeral home so her son (Kyle Gallner) can be close to the hospital where he undergoes radiation chemotherapy to combat Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The son sees strange things in the house. Seems a few of the former clients hadn’t left with their embalmed bodies. The film is based on a true story.
The Haunting In Connecticut is out on DVD and Blu-ray in both the PG-13 cut and the Unrated Special Edition from Lionsgate. To celebrate the release, the Party Favors hotline received calls from director Peter Cornwell and Carmen Reed, the mother whose ghostly encounters were the basis of the movie.
The DVD includes a documentary about the real incidents Carmen Reed experienced in the haunted house during the mid-80s. Not to spoil the flick, but the house in the movie looks like nothing like the actual haunted ex-funeral home. The real one is a regular neighborhood while the movie version is remote in the woods. Reed didn’t mind the alterations, but admitted that “it didn’t look like anything like the one I lived in.”
How involved was she in the fictionalized version of her supernatural experience?
“I talked to the director and the screenwriters for months before they started the production,” she said.
Did she demand any changes in their script?
“No,” she said. “They had a template idea of what they wanted when they went in.” She’s at ease with the dramatic liberties in the film. “I have to remind people that this is a movie that’s based on my story. It’s not a blow-by-blow. I’m not angry of anything. I think they did an excellent job on my movie.”
The film does not come close to ending like the actual event. How did things come to a head at the real house? “We ended with an exorcism,” she said. “Trying to push them back through the doors and close the doors and keep it that way.”
Did the exorcism work?
“Oh yeah. Only when I go into great detail about the story does anything ever happen.”
At this point in the interview I’m concerned about her ghosts coming through the telephone wire to spook me. Will the Party Favors headquarters need its own exorcism?
“No,” she said. “Not generally to you. It would be to me.”
Now I’m going to feel guilty if she upsets the spirits. Enough gabbing about the undead. How did she feel when she found out Virginia Madsen (Sideways) was playing her in the movie?
“I was thrilled,” Reed said. “She’s a beautiful, classy lady. I’m honored to have her play me.”
?Did they spend a lot of time together while the actress researched the role?
“No,” she said. “I’ve never spoken to Virginia Madsen. I’ve never met her. She must have watched the documentary. She had my hand mannerisms.”
Did she have contact with any of the actors wanting to research their roles? “No. I don’t know if they had time. They just never spoke with me.”
Does she suspect that the actors were afraid that making contact with her might upset the ghosts and get them haunted in process?
“Maybe,” she said. “I hope they wouldn’t be like that, but you never know. Anytime I talk to other people about it, for example I was talking to my sister in South Carolina. She started experiencing banging on her walls and things of that nature. I was afraid I would harm someone else.”
When the family moved into the ex-funeral house, what remained from the former occupants?
“When we moved in, there was still a gurney to hold the coffin, a lung nail, there was face putty, eyelashes, make up,” Reed said. “There was bloodstains on the wall. There was a blood tank. There was a body lift that went from the morgue up into the viewing area, which was my bedroom. There was a pad on my ceiling in my bedroom where the coffin would hit the ceiling. There was lots of personal paraphernalia, hats, coats, and some photos. There were toetags.”
Did the landlord clean it up much before her family moved in?
“He cleaned a lot of it out, but we had to repaint the rooms because their was blood splatter all over,” Reed said. “I had to pull an intestine out of the sink. It was pretty gory. But we got it all cleaned up.”
The movie compacts the amount of time the real family spent at the address. They had lived in the house for two years, but it everyone wasn’t haunted the entire time.
“The first time my son walked in there, he heard his name called,” she said. “He heard voices and saw apparitions on the very first day. (It was) the last nine weeks we lived in the house that we started experiencing things. It mostly bothered my oldest boy and then it gradually included my other children.
“We thought it was related to him receiving cobalt to the head and neck. You don’t know what kind of side effects those things are going to have. I don’t care what the doctors say. Cobalt is radioactive.” She was warned that if her son had knocked a vial out of the doctor’s hand and onto the floor, they’d have to shut down the unit and remodel. “I’m surprised he didn’t glow in the dark.”
What did she do when she realized that this wasn’t all a part of her son’s chemo?
“The next day after all that started happened to me, I called the Catholic church and had an interview with my local parish priest. He didn’t give me satisfaction so I went directly to the Archdiocese. They had five or six different people interview me. Finally one gentleman came out to the house and interviewed me at length. He told me that I needed a drug test, psychological test and lie detector. In the end I didn’t have to take those things. He determined I wasn’t crazy, on drugs or lying. He blessed the house. He determined to send an exorcist in. The first exorcist they sent in came under attack. He took us to another exorcist since he didn’t feel he could be effective.”
The movie only has one priest enter the house. Reverend Popescu is played by Elias Koteas (Exotica).
“Elias looks a lot like John Zaffis, who was the researcher in the house,” she admitted. “He has a lot of his mannerism, but he wasn’t the minister. He did help a lot in the house. He was there 9 1/2 weeks.”
How long afterward did the family stick around the funeral home?
“A week after the exorcism,” she said. “We waited to make sure everything was calm and we moved out.”
She’s seen the film four times. What scared her the most in the dark theater?
“I think the guy in the closet made me jump. It was more because everyone else screamed in the theater,” she admitted.
Did she ever catch herself yelling at her cinematic character to not open the door?
“No,” she said. “I cried through the whole thing. It was reliving my son’s cancer treatment. Some of the guilt I still carry from that. All four times I cried through the whole thing. I wasn’t so much scared.”
Does Reed get calls from people wanting to know if their house is really haunted by the dead?
“That’s what I do,” she said. “I counsel people who are going through it. Many times they want me to check their house out. I will find them someone if there in an area that I can get to them readily.”
Does she find herself being contacted by people who think they’re being haunted by dead family members or are these people who just bought a house without knowing former occupants haven’t checked out?
“Usually it’s a lot of people that have just got a haunting and they don’t care who it is,” Reed said. “They just want them gone. If the spirits are causing them distress, they want them gone.”
What event sets them off to want help removing the ghost?
“It’s generally when it starts frightening kids,” Reed said. “People are very protective of their children.”
How did her own children react to seeing their personal ghost story on the screen?
“I think they’re all thrilled with it,” she said. “It’s hard to sit and watch it with them because they’re saying, ‘That didn’t happen’ and ‘This happened this way.’ I had to warn them beforehand that this isn’t exactly blow by blow of our house, but they still have to critique it.”
When they finally moved out the haunted funeral home, did she get her security deposit back?
“You know, I don’t think we did,” Reed said. No one has ever asked me that. I really haven’t thought about it. But no, I don’t think so.”
A few minutes later director Peter Cornwell rang up the Party Favors hotline (which was hopefully ghost-free). The Australian director had made a name from himself with the short stop-motion film “Ward 13.” The Haunting In Connecticut was his first feature film. What attracted him to the project?
“I’d watched tons of haunted house films and there aren’t that many good ones so it didn’t take very long to see them,” Cornwell said. “When I read the script, I realized this is really original and different. I wanted for my first film to be in a contained environment. I liked the idea that you’re stuck in a pressure cooker environment. The house becomes a character in this film. The logic of the script made sense. The hardest thing in a haunted house story is coming up with something besides being built on an Indian burial ground. We get this intricate backstory that has layers that keeps you intrigued. The character stuff is great. Getting the opportunity to work with Virginia Madsen and Kyle Gallner.”
He was very proud to mention that Gallner is “now starring in A Nightmare on Elm Street playing Johnny Depp’s part.” After being attacked by ghosts, Gallner now will be chased by a razor glove wearing Jackie Earle Haley (Bad News Bears and The Watchmen).
One of the interesting pieces of casting is reuniting Elias Koteas and Virginia Madsen, the stars of The Prophecy. Did he realize what he was doing?
“I found that out. Virgina told me all about that,” he said. “I don’t think either of them had much fun making that film so they enjoyed being able to get back together and clean the slate. I really enjoyed The Prophecy. I watched it after I had directed them both. It was funny seeing two actors I’d directed in a scene in another film.”
How much time did he spend at the real haunted ex-funeral home?
“I remember looking it up on Google Earth and discovering it was really right near a graveyard,” he said. “But no. The budget didn’t allow me to fly out to Connecticut. Even though Connecticut had a tax break, I was thinking it made sense to make it to shoot it in Connecticut. But they were no. We shot it in Winnipeg.”
Does he think the cast avoided talking to the family to avoid any contact with any lingering ghosts?
“Maybe,” he said. “The writers worked with Carmen for two years on the script. I was talking to the writers a lot and they knew (the family’s) minds.”
The film differs a lot from the experiences of Carmen Reed and her family. How does he view leaving out certain elements of their testimony like the little kid in the Superman pajamas?
“Some of the stuff was creepy in real life, but might not really work in a movie,” he said.
Folks can get the Unrated Special Edition of the film. How did this cut come around?
“The Un-rated cut is more graphic,” he said. “Originally we submitted the film and got an R. We wanted to try and get it back down to a PG-13. Because it’s a ghost story, you’re not missing out in a gory death like you do in a slasher film. We managed to be as disturbing. We didn’t revert to the previous version. It’s more sort of the pumped up version of the PG-13 with close ups and stuff.
There’s already news that the film will spawn two sequels with The Haunting in New York and The Haunting in Georgia. Is he part of the upcoming productions?
“Gold Circle (the production company) are. I’m not,” Cornwell said. He can’t discuss what his next project will be.
How hard was it to make sure the frightening moments in the film worked? Did he have to drag in innocent eyes into the editing room to see them pop?
“I think I have a pretty good sense of how it works from how I storyboarded the scenes. For me it’s a big thing of how you reveal the monster. How do you create a scare? I’ve watched a lot of horror films and there’s reveals in this film that I’ve never seen in other films. I was thrilled when it worked. When we first screened it to random people off the street at the first big scare, people screamed their heads. People were jumping and screaming all through the film which was great. When you jump, that’s when it really gets scary. I don’t think you can have a really scary film that doesn’t make you jump. What makes it work is that you really care about the family. When the characters are in jeopardy, you worry for that person and you’re not worried about yourself jumping.”
Was The Haunting in Connecticut a play upon Christmas in Connecticut, most recently remade with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the director?
“I’ve never really thought about that,” Cornwell said. “That might be why they named the original documentary? We just called it that because of the documentary.”
AMERICAN DOUCHEBAGS
If there’s one industry that’s not hurting in America, it’s the production of douchebags. Turn on the TV see the bounty harvest of douchebags. It’s time for a Douchebag of the Year Award.
Originally this hardware was a lock for Spencer Pratt of The Hills on MTV. I don’t watch the show since Showtime still has OnDemand adult content. But the clips that make The Soup on E! have shown Spencer to be the biggest douchebag that hasn’t run for public office, played sports or done anything in his life other than attempt to grow a beard. His antics on NBC’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here really made me wish they had been stuck on Cannibal Island. Why didn’t he get an intestinal parasite during his jungle days? Because he is an intestinal parasite. However all of Spencer’s douche work was blown away when Bravo debuted NYC Prep.
The reality show follows a group of extremely rich white high schoolers in Manhattan. The girls are cute although a couple of them appear to be headed towards MTV’s 16 and Pregnant. The star of the show is PC (Peter Peterson), a senior who acts like he’s auditioning for the Broadway version of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. He’s not merely a teenage douchebag. He’s an adult size douchebag stuck in a child’s body. Kinda of like Danny Bonaduce. I find his smug antics to be precious simply because I have zero contact with this guy. Although I don’t blame him for being a douchebag since who the hell names their kid Peter Peterson? Is his cousin Michael Micheals?
But PC’s reign as America’s top Douchebag was incredibly short. Who could trump this privileged jerk? Would you believe a middle aged father of eight in the midst of an identity crisis?
When Jon & Kate Plus Eight turns splitsville, America blamed the break up of the marriage on Kate Gosselin. She had that horrible haircut, controlling attitude and dreams of being Octo-Oprah. She came off so cold and self-absorbed during the interview segments. When news of the divorce hit, people felt Jon needed to bolt. The world thought she’d ripped his balls off. With all the sympathy of the world, Jon proved us all wrong in one little photo.
There was Jon wearing a crummy Ed Hardy t-shirt, diamond studs in his ears, over-priced sunglasses. He was sharing cigarettes with his 22 year-old girlfriend in the south of France while waiting to hang out on designer Christian Audigier’s yacht. It was not the look of a man with 8 kids across the Atlantic and the ink still drying on his separation papers. This was a guy who cashed out on the family life for a world reserved for people with old money or talent. How much of his girlfriend’s vacation cash came out of his kids’ college fund?
Supposedly this trip to Saint Tropez was work. He’s going to help launch Ed Hardy For Kids. Do you really want your kids wearing that over-priced junk? Wouldn’t you be better off buying your kids t-shirts and Sharpie markers to create their own spastic designs? What’s his angle? Clothes dads can buy their kids when they’re ready to “upgrade” their wives? Is he really going to make yacht money from this deal? Jon priced an apartment in Trump Tower with his girlfriend. What sort of gravy train does he imagine he’s riding? Is the new girlfriend going to pump out nine puppies at once? Now that the Masche sextuplets are camera ready on We’s Raising Sextuplets, the Goselins days are numbered. There’s just too much creepy divorce drama to imagine the cameras need to be around the Goselin kids. Once the trainwreck appeal ends, Jon & Kate Plus Eight will be uncomfortable viewing on par with The Osbournes: The Rehab Days. But a douchebag thinks that they’ll always be superstars in the eyes of America. There’s no need to think of the day the cameras disappear.
When Jon returned from France, he told the reporters that he’d returned “to film” for the series Not that he needed to return for his kids. He needed to spend quality time in front of the cameras with those 8 kids as extras. Man has to keep up the career so he can keep his little girlfriend happy. It’s not about the kids, it’s about his toys. And that’s why Jon Gosselin is America’s Greatest Douchebag.
DVD SHELF
Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse: Season One presents Eliza Dushku as a woman who can be anything you want. While it seemed like this would be a woman on adventures, the series gets into the internal politics of maintaining such a business. There’s a reporter wanting to expose the whole operation. Olivia Williams (Rushmore) is the prig in charge of The Dollhouse (not to be confused with Thee Dollhouse). There’s a lot of gunfire and mind games. Above it all, there’s Eliza looking hot no matter what role her clients want. The first three DVDs contain the 12 episodes that ran last year on Fox. The 4th disc contains what fans of Whedon crave including the original cut of the pilot “Echo” and the unaired “Epitaph One.” The unaired episode is getting run at Comic-con for those heading out to San Diego. This is a first season boxset with plenty of surprises beside what Eliza will be doing.
Jim Breuer – Let’s Clear The Air lets the star of Half Baked admit that he’s not always high. He was just born with a face that makes him look stoned. The hour long special includes his tale of teaching Dave Chappelle to drive a car. His story of appearing in Half Baked involves him being fully baked when he went before the cameras after his role was upgraded. He was stoned while working against Clarence Williams III (Linc from The Mod Squad). Breuer reflects on what it’s like to be the father of three young girls. He swears the volume knob was busted on his daughter. His hatred of kiddie music is dead on. I’m up for the Metallica for the kiddies album. He reminds the couples thinking of having babies that they need to imagine a world without sleep. The bonus short of “Fireside Chat With Dad” shows where Jim learned to handle a rough crowd. Dad wants his money and food. Breuer proves he’s more than the guy who hosted The Joe Pesci Show on Saturday Night Live. He’s still funny even if you’re not stoned.
The Lucy Show: The Official First Season contains the continuation of I Love Lucy minus the men. Lucy (Lucille Ball) is now a widow with two kids. Instead of being Ethel, Vivian Vance plays Vivian, a divorcee with a young son. She’s not even dressed in Ethel’s frumpy clothes. The two single moms share a house in a quiet New York town. The lack of Desi Arnaz and William Frawley (Fred Mertz) allows Lucy and Vivian to get caught up in too many harebrained schemes. There’s nobody to truly put a stop to them – outside of cops. The most memorable episode of the season is “Lucy Visits The White House.” Lucy and Viv’s Cub Scouts build a White House out of sugar cubes before their big trip to Washington D.C. On a whim, Lucy calls the president’s office to see about giving it as a gift. JFK answers the phone and tells her to drop by with the kids. The trip turns out to be a disaster when the sugar cubes take a hit. Can she and Viv redo the project in time? The boxset is loaded with bonus features including the commercials featuring Lucy, Viv and their kids that ran during the shows. They even show off the vintage comic books and board games associated with Lucy’s new show. This is the perfect gift for the Lucy fanatic in your life.
Early Edition: The Second Season stars Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) as a guy who gets a newspaper with tomorrow’s news. He’s becomes a subscription superhero trying to undo bad headlines. “Angels and Demons” has Nia Peebles playing a nun. She was recently playing a dead beauty contestant on Matlock: The Third Season. “March of Time” has future Speed Racer star Emile Hirsch. The episode had Kyle discover a racist leader is going to be assassinated during a hate march. Should he really stop this headline from happening? He should have stopped Speed Racer from going into production. “A Regular Joe” has Kyle attempting to talk a quarterback into retiring since the next game will put him on the severally disabled list. The episode gets bonus points for starring Hall of Famer Dick Butkus. If only newspapers worked like this, the Boston Globe wouldn’t be slashing salaries.
Leverage: The 1st Season allows Timothy Hutton to put together a financial version of Mission: Impossible. He’s an ex-insurance company investigator who got screwed over by his employer when his son was sick. The kid died waiting for treatment. Now he’s out to get revenge on these folks with a crew made up of folks he nailed for fraud. They stage elaborate scams to set up their victims for the kill. “The Nigerian Job” has him him being tricked into stealing aviation secrets for the wrong guy. Hutton won’t be screwed. He comes up with a front that involves real Nigerians. “The Two-Horse Job” sounds like something that costs an extra C note at the Bunny Ranch. It’s just a guy killing off his underachieving race horses. Whatever happened to just sending them off to the Alpo factory. “The Miracle Job” has them save a church. It’s a mission oriented 12 episodes on the box set. Best bonus feature is the cast being told the series has been renewed. The second season of Leverage is about to kick off on TNT.
This American Life: Season Two continues the stellar Showtime TV adaptation of the radio show. Host Ira Glass brings another six episodes that explore the American experience. “Going Down In History” documents a jailbreak that involved dental floss. “Scenes From a Marriage” animates the tales of married couples. The husband and wife tell stories from their perspective. The wife swears the husband wasn’t there when she saw Jackie Kennedy. It’s cute. The second half has a marriage fall apart when the husband’s legal battle completely alienates his wife. It’s not cute. The most moving of the episodes is “John Smith” where the lives of numerous John Smiths at different ages are spliced together to create the life of one John Smith. It’s creative and inspiring. The newborn John Smith hasn’t done that much. The big bonus feature for this release is This American Life Live! The 77 minute event ran in theaters across America. Ira gets to mix the audio live on stage. They feature segments from the upcoming second season along with a few things that didn’t make the cut. If you couldn’t make it to the theater that day, you can now enjoy Ira Glass in your living room.
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XV brings another four titles of the award winning Comedy Central program from the Satellite of Love to your house. The folks at Best Brains worked hard on this batch since they include the most painful excuses for cinema. Racket Girls is about pro women’s wrestling in 1951. The women aren’t close to the hotties that grappled on GLOW. They spend most of their time in the ring swapping headlocks. The “action” in Racket Girls might cause you to pass out from a sleeper hold plot. Mike Nelson and the robots have to do three times the work to keep up the funny. “Zombie Nightmare” gets saved by the casting of Adam West and a really young Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World). A dead baseball player returns as a zombie to destroy Tia and her friends. They put him in the grave. West has to solve this supernatural thriller. The bonus features include a recent interview with the zombie actor and the actor who formed a lifelong bond with Adam West. “The Girl In Lover’s Lane” gives us riding the rails action. There’s not as much action as craved in a tale of drifters. Luckily Joel and the Robots bring the wisecracks that pep up the plot. “The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy” is a prime piece of goofiness from Mexico. Who knew robots could battle the undead? This was from the first season on Comedy Channel when Josh Weinstein played Tom Servo and Dr. Laurence Erhardt. The Satellite of Love gets invade by demon dogs. For folks who really want to go old school, there’s segments from their first season on KTMA in Minnesota. They were below Lo-Fi that season. The next installment will come out Dec. 1 with The Corpse Vanishes, Warrior of the Lost World, Santa Claus and Night of the Blood Beast.
Love Boat: Season Two, Volume Two allows your brain to take an ocean cruise vacation. The funniest moment of the dozen episodes is Sonny Bono playing Deacon Dark. With his face painted kabuki-style and a python around his shoulders, he’s a cross between Alice Cooper and Kiss. His lounge performance deserves to be played during any “Metal Years” documentary. Sonny drops his schtick when a deaf girl inspires him to become the next Paul Williams. Arte Johnson is his serious manager. What’s interesting is that both Bono and Gopher (Fred Grandy) would end up as Congressmen. Couldn’t their political opponents use this footage against them? Charo makes a return appearance, but now she a star of the Pacific Princess lounge. She sings the “Love Boat” theme as her show’s big highlight. Hollywood Squares‘ host Peter Marshall slinks on as a “swinger” who thinks he’s found a new lady to romance while his wife tans by the pool. Match Game host Gene Rayburn woos Fannie Flagg through her smuggled dog. Where was Charles Nelson Reilly? Abe Vigoda and Nancy Walker (director of Can’t Stop the Music) hook up. Who saw that coming? Raymond Burr stumbles aboard as a drunk high school drama teacher. Love Boat keeps up the mindless romantic fun. Don’t watch without a few Isaac (Ted Lange) level cocktails.
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose: The Complete First Season brings Corin Nemec’s dream to the shiny discs. Corin had told the Party Favors that he was working with Shout! Factory to get the series released. And now it’s here. The show has Parker Lewis as the coolest guy in school with the freshest of early ’90s fashions. He worked all the angles at a high school. He’s kinda like Damone from Fast Times At Ridgemont High except with high tech help. The pilot episode has Milla Jovovich as the girl of his dreams. Turns out she’s also in the dreams of Parker Lewis’ tight buds. Sadly enough she did not get the gig as a regular. “Operation Kubiac” lets the huge football stud (E.R.‘s Abraham Benrubi) getting recruited. Parker wants a piece of the action by becoming an agent. However his math makes him college poison. “Jerry: Portrait of a Video Junkie” brings back Jerry Mathers and Barbara Billingsley from Leave It To Beaver. Kids got hooked to video games before wii. Ozzy Osbourne and Donny Osmond appeared this season, but not on the same episodes. The pacing, action and effects seems to have set the stage for Scrubs. Parker Lewis is so much better a student and pal than Ferris Bueller. Parker Lewis Can’t Lose is too smart for homeroom. The 26 episodes are spread over 4 DVDs. There’s only two more season to go.
Peyton Place: Part Two has another 33 episodes from America’s favorite tawdry small town. With the death of Farrah Fawcett, we’ve seen a lot of Ryan O’Neal on TV. Peyton Place is where he got his start as the misguided lover who has a thing for Mia Farrow. His real wife has split for Manhattan where she’s about to take up a career as a hooker. Mia’s real father has been released from prison. Except she doesn’t know that Tim O’Connor is her biological dad. He’s promised her mother to keep it a secret. But he needs to unveil the real killer who sent him to prison. A local insurance salesman goes nuts when his business fails. He plans on making a few people cash in their policy with the Colt .45 clause. It’s not a peaceful town. No matter how simple you think things are, they always get complicated on this primetime soap opera from 1965.
TRIBBLES!
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with producer Julie Gardner.
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with writer, actor, and director David Wain.
Believe me, the irony of talking to Jeremy Renner of THE HURT LOCKER in a restaurant that was located right next to an armed forces recruiting station was not lost on me.
CS: Mark Boal helped write this film. He’s phenomenal at removing the political elements by simply focusing on characters. With the flood of war movies that have come out his have stood out because he’s able to separate that. When you first got the script and met with Mark, did he break it down and tell you that he wanted this film to be specifically about these guys and their job and not focus on the ancillary aspects?
CS: So what is it about your character? You see these movies where you have the maverick ““ the “You’re out of line, soldier!” cliche ““ it sort of begins that way because you want to sleep with unbarricaded windows where the mortars might come in, but there’s that moment, that sniper moment, which was not only genuine but it was heartfelt. How important was that to you to show that sort of swagger but then show that element of, “I’m here because I really want to make a difference and I want to protect my crew as well?” How hard was it to strike that balance?
CS: And I’m glad you fought for that little nuance with him collecting the little bomb parts. These were brilliant choices and if you had a say in keeping that in, I think it’s important. It’s who he is and who he wants to be.  And it’s interesting towards the end where you save the life of Owen and shoot him accidentally and he says are you doing it because it’s a thrill for you and it is hard to try and reconcile that it wasn’t.
CS:Â I would have figured the character for some Nine Inch Nails.
CAMP NOBEBOSCO, NJ — Critics enjoy mocking the Friday the 13th films as a mindless exercise in human slaughtering by the goalie masked wearing Jason. The body count was more important than the plot. But amongst the carnage of the dozen films was one that stood out. Friday 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives combined a ghoulish sense of humor without compromising the grotesque homicides. What’s even more astonishing is that it gave us Sheriff Michael Garris. He was a lawman that could handle the undead Jason Voorhees.
One of the things that instantly sprang to mind this past week when the first ever pictures of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick with their new brood hit the public hungry for celebrity photos wasn’t that here was a gorgeous family. No, my first reaction was, “When did Ferris Bueller start sporting mutton chops and a swooping, graying bob of a haircut that makes him look like an extra in a stage production of The Pirates of Penzance?”
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Where to begin? It’s probably best to start where you and everyone else came together to want to do this.
CS: When you first started rolling tape and you don’t have a real thesis in mind other than to find out the cultural impact of John Hughes, what were you finding in your dailies and going back finding out what people were saying, were there any surprises when you started to take a look at the footage?
CS: That aside, about whether or not you talk to him and whether or not you had any conversation with him, what were some of the thoughts and reflections on some of the people you talked to as to why he made all these really rock solid films and then just pulled a J.D. Salinger?
FACCIOLO: And you know, he was a writer. Before he was a director I think his true talent was in writing, and as director Howard Deutch said, he directed to protect the writing a lot of the time.
HOLLEND: It’s a combination ““ the setting, the costumes, the characters, the writing, the directing.
HELL, MICHIGAN – Sometimes even a deal with the devil isn’t a guarantee of network renewal. There was hope that Reaper would gain a third season. The series about Sam Oliver (Bret Harrison) forced by the devil (Ray Wise) to be a bounty hunter of demons had grown a loyal following. However Sam’s biggest evil spirit lurked in an office at the CW.
TALLADEGA — When a filmmaker wants to depict America’s legendary rugby coach in a film, only a legend actor can handle the job. Forever Strong shines a light on Highland High’s Coach Larry Gelwix. How good is he? His teams are 361-9 in the last three decades. He’s brought 18 of the last 24 National High School titles back to Salt Lake City. Who could dramatically play such an imposing figure behind such figures? Gary Cole took the whistle.
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with author, NPR commentator, Mystery Science Theater alumnus, member of The Film Crew, and 
Ed Helms brings a unique flavor to the funny served up in THE HANGOVER.
HELMS: OK, so the tooth is totally real in the movie. I actually have an implant here that I got when I was about 15. It’s been there for about 20 years and when we were discussing how to make the tooth look like it was gone, we tried to black it out, we did some camera tests and then they made a prosthetic for me but it made me look like a donkey so there was no way we were doing that. Then I just thought “Hey, why don’t I just ask my dentist what’s the deal with this?” and he said, “Yeah, I think we can actually do that safely.” So we took the tooth out for three months and I had a removable tooth for those three months and now that the movie wrapped it went right back in and this is the new one and it’s permanent again.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: I think the very last one. You mentioned it last night.
Like when we come back to the hotel after Mr. Chow beats us up with the crowbar and we get to the door of the hotel room and Zach goes what about the tiger? And Brad is like, “Oh yeah, the tiger.” And I say “I wonder why” or something like that and then Zach goes, “That’s one of the side effects of herpes, you forget things.” Brad says “I keep forgetting about the tiger, how did the tiger get in there” and I look at Zach and go, “I don’t know, I don’t remember. ” Doesn’t pick up on it, just “Yeah, one of the side effects of herpes” and I go “You are literally too stupid to insult” and he goes, “Thank you””¦just completely straight. We must have done that about 15 times and always different with different riffs and tangents but over a series of takes, Todd would say “Take that out” or “Do this” and our own discretion would filter in and we wound up with a really quick little exchange that has a couple of great beats in it. So, that’s a little bit about the process.
Q: In 100 words or less describe Heather Graham’s kiss.
It was really cool because in Chicago the impov and standup worlds are very competitive and separate. It’s a different world. In New York they just reinforced each other in a really cool way in a symbiotic kind of relationship between the improve world and the standup world. The UCB was hosting standup shows at their theatre and I just worked my way up and took all the classes and I joined a team there so I could perform regularly. The improve training, as great as UCB is I don’t think anyone has a monopoly on these ideas but I did happen to learn at UCB about being incredibly present in the scene or as an actor listening to the other actors in the scene because that’s what improve is all about. They hammer it into you. It’s almost like a weird ““ something bigger than the individual ““ an energy ““ a good energy ““ a good improve scene is bigger than anyone in it. Something happening that everyone is contributing to. It’s like jazz. People make that analogy a lot. Good jazz is everyone doing their own thing and putting a little spice and flavor in places and creating something that no one could have created by themselves.
CHINA GROVE — Wayne Wang has lived a double life as a director of studio film geared towards women (The Joy Luck Club and Maid In Manhattan) and low budget films aimed at the art house (Chan Is Missing and Center of the World). Now he has a double feature in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and Princess of Nebraska. The films have just been released as a double feature DVD set by Magnolia Home Entertainment.
In America, only A Thousand Years was given a theatrical release. However people who saw the film were informed that they could see The Princess of Nebraska on Youtube. This led to hundreds of thousands of viewers which is more eyeballs than the average art house release. The film is no longer on the site. The combo have played in theaters around the globe.
Faye Yu (who also goes by Feihong Yu) was introduced to American audiences in The Joy Luck Club. Nearly fifteen years later, she reunited with director Wayne Wang for the larger role of Yilan in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
KANSAS CITY – Jo Koy’s cellphone was calling me.
The DVD also includes Koy’s first half hour Comedy Central Presents that was done last year. What was the difference in making the step up to the big show? “When you’re doing an hour, you’re literally doing an hour and thirty minutes,” Koy said. “That way they have enough material to go to. I had to write a longer set. I had to do two tapings in one night. It was pretty much three hours that I did on stage. What’s crazy was we had a technical difficulty in the first show. We couldn’t even use any of the material from the first taping. The whole DVD is the performance I did that night.”
STATEN ISLAND – Fifteen years after making a major name for himself in A Bronx Tale, Chazz Palminteri has conquered another New York title in Yonkers Joe. He’s a hustler who lurks at low level gambling functions fixing Poker and dice games with his slimy crew. He doesn’t believe in chance when he can sneak a pair of loaded bones into his hands. His life gets complicated when he’s forced to take care of his teenage son, Joe Jr. (Tom Guiry). The son has Down Syndrome so he’s not as controllable as a marked deck of cards in Yonkers Joe’s hands. He’s got to make a big score to support the kid.
And now, you can follow me on Twitter under the name: 
Have any of you ever sat in wonderment at a cartoon?
One of the most strange and wonderfully enrapturing series to air this year has to be Modern Toss. The best way to explain this show to someone who has never before come near its beauty is imagine a live action and animated program that uses foul language in ways that are not only creative but wicked, toss in a British sensibility, some strange series regulars, weird premises and wrap it all in laughter. What you come up with is Modern Toss, a program, 
CS: Where did this begin? Where did the real genesis for Modern Toss come from?
CS: And then from there, one of my favorites is Alan, who doesn’t say hardly anything but where did he come from?
CS: And now you just released the newest comic, Volume 5?
I think people like him is because he does what he wants. He’s got a good attitude for work. It would take like an English plumber to get some of the jokes.
Let me queue you in, I have never been a documentary fan, although I have been more open-minded to them of late. I think I was originally turned off to any educational media at an early age with a combination of far too many viewings of “Mr. Wizard” (a kid’s science show in the late 50s and 60s) and Disney’s “Jiminy Cricket” children’s educational show, “I’m No Fool” ““ the 16mm reel still endlessly rattles in the back of my head. Much later in life I was to discover that documentaries could be as powerful and more effective than the average cinematic experience with my first viewing of 1978’s “Scared Straight!” a group of cocky juvenile delinquents (Are there any other kind?) spend a no holds barred day with actual convicts ““ “Oh Bubba, I’m too young to be somebody’s bitch.” Fast forward to this year’s crop of fine documentaries at PFF. What a pleasant surprise had by all. It was no easy feat picking “Best Documentary”. It eventually came down to a couple of emotionally powerful one-two punches, “The Way We Get By” and “Shooting Beauty”.
As mentioned before, I am not taking anything away from the winner, but the later film, “Shooting Beauty” goes beyond the call of duty as a documentary and as a film in general. There are few times in cinema history that one is swept away with a wave of emotions and taken on a journey that is so unique, the experience sets it apart from the rest. The films that come to mind; “Elephant Man” “Cinema Paradiso” “Life is Beautiful” and dare I say, “E.T.” (Set aside the crass commercialism that accompanied it) These are films that are to be experienced and not just seen with a bag of popcorn and soda. They put us through a meaningful emotional journey and that is exactly what “Shooting Beauty” does with one exception ““ it is not scripted. Director George Kachadorian and his partner/wife, Courtney Bent beautifully captures the human drama (and comedy) of their tale of triumph of the human spirit, unconquerable by adversity.
What was just a fleeting opportunity to promote another DVD turned into something of a curiosity to me.
After thinking about the highest compliment I can confer on this film it would be this: I want to see this movie again.
There’s this great Night Court episode that has always stayed with me ever since I saw it air decades ago. Harry, played by Harry Anderson, has to convince a very deranged woman who is brandishing a grenade in his court that what she sees on television is not reality. The blend of humor and the very not funny threat of someone dying was emblematic of a series that blurred the line of what a sitcom was. So, too, is my love affair of Lost.
CS: And you mentioned something about Lost having something close to a bible. The pantheon of fans out there…that there’s no detail that goes unnoticed with the people who really dig this show. How was that knowing that every tick, every peculiarity is poured over? I don’t know if you ever now gone back to see what people are talking about and see if people are really on the mark or off the mark with about what’s to come later on in the season?
CS: And one of the interesting things about the show itself too, for how many years it’s been on, you don’t hear anything about any petty sort of in-fighting or anything associated with some programs that are on a very long time that most succumb to. Any ideas of how they’ve managed to avoid needless drama? 
Director and writer Adam Rifkin may be best known for his whimsical late ’90s flick Detroit Rock City, or for that strange homage to side show freaks and bad stand-up comics, The Dark Backward, but don’t think of Rifkin as just a guy with quirky flicks under his belt, he’s also done script work on family fare like Underdog and Mousehunt. Rifkin’s most recent film, LOOK (out on DVD May 5th), is different from anything he’s done. LOOK is a frightening and funny take on the camera obsessed society we’ve become. Shot entirely by security cameras, the movie asks some serious questions about privacy and if we’re comfortable constantly living life on tape. I posed some serious (and not so serious) questions to the director about his latest project and some of his past ones.
SMATHERS: Were you surprised the reaction the film got when it hit the festival circuit? Who were some of the people who supported it?
PARIS – During the early ’90s, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet were the toast of French cinema with Delicatessen and City of Lost Children. They created a bizarre universe that was a step up in visual weirdness from Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. However the pair’s creative partnership split when Hollywood came calling with a shot at Alien Resurrection. Jeunet became sole director on the Winona Ryder meets the monster film. People wondered what happened to Caro while Jeunet released Amelie and A Very Long Engagement.
The music industry is dying a slow and protracted death. Note well that I am obviously not indicting the artists who are scraping by as their corporate overlords are wondering what ingenious scheme can wrest away more money from an audience that seems to be under the delusion that the $9.99 they’ve just spent at Best Buy for the latest Young Jeezy album is making its way back to young Jeez. What’s more is that their death is being expedited like a nurse smothering a patient looking to die by suffocation by 
Quick announcement for those readers living in Phoenix (surprisingly, there are a lot of you out there) there is a screening of Kevin MacDonald’s (ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND) solidly casted film, STATE OF PLAY. The movie boasts the talents of Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren and Robin Wright Penn so at the very least it’ll be pretty to look at.
As well, I’ve got a screening for SIN NOMBRE this week for Arizona dwellers.
Alan Moore writer, artist and performer is the world’s most critically acclaimed and widely admired creator of comic books and graphic novels. In The Mindscape of Alan Moore we see a portrait of the artist as contemporary shaman, someone with the power to transform consciousness by means of manipulating language, symbols and images. The film leads the audience through Moore’s world with the writer himself as guide, beginning with his childhood background, following the evolution of his career as he transformed the comics medium, through to his immersion in a magical worldview where science, spirituality and society are part of the same universe.
Featuring interviews with hundreds of fans, movie executives, and high profile celebrities, A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY delves into the franchise that has made household names of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, R2-D2 and C3PO. As a new wave of Star Wars mania was being induced in “˜99, Jalal brought his cameras to Star Wars conventions, to boisterous nationwide premieres, into the homes of devoted fans showing off their treasures and collectibles and captured those who spent 42 days on line, just to be first to see The Phantom Menace. 
Sometimes it’s just good to sit on something.
CHRISTOPHER STIPP: Tell me, what is it about this show ““ it’s one of those shows that has been shrouded in mystery with only a vague idea of what it’s about. What can you tell me?
CS: Are they shooting this cinema-style or doing it kind of vérité like a documentary?
In this episode, I’m having a another chat with writer/producer Graham Linehan. You can find our first chat 
Shawn has appeared in more than 125 movies and TV shows over the last 30 years. He was the face of Indie cinema in the early ’80s with My Dinner with Andre. Teenage girls knows him from The Princess Bride. Children recognize him from various Pixar films. Even geeks have experienced him from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He’s everywhere. Ultimately Shawn is a playwright who acts. Our phone call was in celebration of the release of Marie and Bruce on DVD from Genius Products/The Weinstein Company. He wrote the original play.
Before we get started with the interview I thought I would begin with giving away some free stuff.
SARA JEAN UNDERWOOD: He called me out and said I was rude at one point, so…
I think the big thing that was kind of the idea that made us think that maybe we could make this something that would be worthwhile for us to do, was the idea of instead of having both characters being obsessed with getting laid ““ which is in every road trip sex comedy, we thought we’d have it just be about putting sex on a pedestal and having an unhealthy viewpoint on sex. So it happens on both ends of the spectrum. The Eugene character is terrified of sex and he is put up as this thing that it starts to hurt his relationship with his girlfriend. Then he begins to hold past partners against her. Then on the other side of that coin, we have the Tucker character who has a good girl, a girl that is probably right for him but he can’t accept that because he doesn’t think he’s lived enough yet, or doesn’t have enough notches in his belt. So, it’s really about these two, completely opposite, but also, completely wrong viewpoints on sex and finding a middle ground in the middle of probably where they both should be.
CS: How did you know she was right?
CS: And that part, the moment in the movie when Hugh talks about the ugly girl next door, how many takes did that take because it looked, for a comedy, it looked very natural for him. I can see that if he delivered that it could seem kind of stilted, or awkward but it seemed very natural, very easy.
MOORE: We wrote it together so by the time that you are shooting, we already voiced the characters while we were writing it. Kind of like acting it out as we were writing it. So, there’s not a whole lot left up to discussion by the time we are on the set, except for angles and camera equipment and stuff like that. So the beginning of each day we just walk though and set that up and it was pretty good.
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with actor and musician Kate Micucci.
In this episode, I’m having a bit of a chat with comedian, actor, and musician Bo Burnham.
The hipsters of the world will have you believe that Comic-Con is a big bloated mess of a convention and that it’s better left to the overweight Chun-Li, Slave Leia, and Wonder Woman impersonators of the world who want to show off their well-deserved muffin tops and cottage cheese thighs. I say “pshaw!” to that as this convention, really, always ends up being the highlight of my summer. I get to go back and see the people who I identify with the most and it allows me to get the hell out of Arizona in order to get moments like this.
Alan Moore, from a recent interview which makes his take on the adaptation of his graphic novel
Okay, so I have been away for a while without a good excuse to bring something to the table.Never mind that I have been wowed by the likes of “Son of Rambow,” “Let the Right One In” and “Gran Torino”.If you have not seen them rush to the nearest video (when they are released) store (or NetFlix) and rent them because they are far more articulate, artistic and deeper than the choice for Oscar’s best picture, director or adapted screenplay, “Slumdog Millionaire”. Mind you, I did appreciate director Boyle’s picture and I was touched, but Oscar, once again, missed the big picture.They missed it by a mile, especially not recognizing Boyle’s efforts with a far better earlier picture, “Millions”.