When it's playing again: 10 p.m. Wednesday at the NorthPark AMC
Stars: Creative geniuses of the modern advertising industry.
Subject matter: This documentary explores the brilliant minds behind some of the most innovative and successful advertising campaigns.
Snap judgment: Where can we sign up to be an ad copywriter? All the industry veterans in the film seemed to love their work with an intensity that jumped off the screen. Funny moments included the stories behind the hatching of ad catchphrases and ad folks talking about nervous clients who nearly squashed some of the most iconic spots in advertising. It was a joy going behind the scenes of such a creative and passionate field, though the movie could've been 20 minutes shorter.
Target audience: Anyone interested in the stories behind their favorite commercials, billboards and ads.
FYI: The advertising team behind "Got Milk?" nearly overthought the catchphrase. Somehow, "Do You Have Milk?" doesn't have the same zing.
Stars: Crystal Chiu, Michael Chen (above), and Cindy Cheung. Directed by Tze Chun.
Plot: Struggling single mom Elaine (Cheung) tries to make a decent living but keeps getting duped in pyramid sales schemes. Living with her in an illegal apartment, her two kids are left to fend for themselves when Elaine gets ensnared in a sting operation.
Snap judgment: What should be a depressing story considering the plight of the kids is brightened by the time we get to spend watching precocious young Tina (Chiu) interact with her serious older brother Raymond (Chen). The kids are naturals at imbuing their characters with life -- Chiu in walking the fine line between curiosity and brattiness, and Chen in turning every frown into a glimpse of his young, troubled soul. Although the siblings band together to survive while their mother sits in jail, unable to reach them, their respective demeanors toward her indicate their opinion of her. Tina still has hope that Mom will save the day despite her many failures, but Raymond is starting to get wise to the fact that she never will. Searing portrayal of a family in crisis that manages to wring warmth and genuine laughs from a tough situation.
Target audience: Anyone who wants to witness a documentary of the working poor come to life as a (very timely) drama.
FYI: Chen made his acting debut on Sesame Street and has also appeared on HBO's Flight of the Conchords.
On the Web: Check out the movie's trailer and learn more about the cast and crew here.
Dallas native Keven McAlester, once an editor at The Met and a co-host of KDGE's indie-rock show The Adventure Club, arrives at home this week a respected filmmaker.
His Rocky Erickson documentary, You're Gonna Miss Me, was nominated for a 2007 Independent Spirit award, and now he's on the festival circuit with The Dungeon Masters, a doc about folks who eat, sleep and breathe "Dungeons & Dragons." Well, not exactly. They also have real lives and problems, which prove just as compelling as their gaming hobby for McAlester.
He says it wasn't much of a hard sell to convince his subjects to let him follow them with his cameras.
"Gamers more than anyone understand implicitly that you need not have been a champion boxer to make Raging Bull or a pedophile to write Lolita," McAlester told us in an e-mail interview. "You only need have some emotional, intuitive, personal connection to the material and a good sense of how to tell a story. Hopefully both those things emerge in the final film."
The Dungeon Masters screens today at 4:30 p.m. and Thursday at 10:15 p.m. at the Magnolia. Here's more from McAlester (I should mention that I hate the guy for being so insanely smart):
You've said you didn't play Dungeons & Dragons growing up. How did you approach the subjects of the film in a way that showed them you were committed to learning everything you could?
I actually did the opposite; I found subjects whose knowledge I could never attain, admitted complete ignorance, and asked them to educate me. I wasn't interested in making a film about the particulars of gaming. I wanted to learn about gamers, about their fantasy lives and how those relate to their real ones; I wanted people who were passionate, articulate, and highly dedicated. They could tell me what I needed to know about the rules or whatever. I ended up playing only once--with Scott Corum, the dungeon master from Torrance. The game involved a Twinkie-throwing anthropomorphic badger and a magical refrigerator that ate my arm. The best word to describe my skills would be "hopeless." And of course the smart gamers weren't concerned with whether or not I could play; they were concerned with whether or not I could make a good film, and what kind I wanted to make.
Who were the "nerds" during your upbringing in Dallas? What were they into? Were you one of them?
The words "nerd" and "geek" mean something quite different today than when I was a kid. Today, mainstream culture IS geek culture -- computers, comics, video games -- and many former nerds are celebrities, CEOs, billionaires. The patina of geekdom has currency, in the same way that the patinas of previous marginalized subcultures (skaters, punks, men who can dance) eventually become mass-culture badges of honor.
Before I got to high school, a nerd was a socially awkward loner with esoteric science-based interests and no friends; he or she also desperately wished otherwise. By that definition, to paraphrase Louis XIV: the nerd, it's me. I have no idea what other "nerds" were doing because, until 7th grade, I was too uncool to even play D&D; I did stuff like bird-watching. As you can imagine, there was not a line of 10-year-olds in front of my house to wake up at 6 a.m. and look for the elusive Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.
I tried to mitigate this by playing sports, but my dad hates sports and I never knew any of the rules. I can remember joining an intramural football team and being asked to play defense. The ball got snapped and, seeing the entire offense run one way, I assumed this was what I should do and just ran alongside them. No tackling, no blocking. Just running.
----- Original Message -----
From: chris@goodrecordsrecordings.com
To: Hauk, Hunter
Sent: Wed Apr 01 10:24:56 2009
Subject: Revolution 9-Record Store Day
http://www.goodrecords.com/images/instores/revolution9.png
Saturday April 18, 2009-Revolution 9 & Record Store Day-10am to 2am
Good Records is celebrating its ninth birthday to coincide with the 2nd
Annual Record Store Day. There will be two stages filled with pleasant
sounds. There will be sustenance and libations to satisfy your hunger and
quench your thirst respectively. There will be a plethora of special
releases that you can't live without created specifically for this new
treasured national holiday. Good Records will be your oasis for smooth
sailing and good times on Saturday April 18th. Oh yeah...it is free and
all ages!
INDOOR
11:30am School Of Rock House Band
12:30pm Greg Schroeder
1:30pm Tre Orsi
2:30pm Shiny Around The Edges
3:30pm Chameleon Chamber Group
4:30pm Jack With One Eye
5:30pm True Widow
6:30pm Colossal Yes
7:30pm White Denim
8:30pm The Crash That Took Me
10pm Starlight Mints
Midnight The Hooded Deer
OUTDOOR
11am Rockestra (Rock N Roll Youth Orchestra)
NOON Florene
1pm The Happy Bullets
2pm Binary Sunrise
3pm Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights
4pm Boom Boom Box
5pm Blixaboy
5:30pm Farah
6pm Stumptone
7pm Dove Hunter
8pm DSFZ
9pm The Cannabinoids
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