Xavier: Renegade Angel, the new show from Vernon Chatman and John Lee (of the Wonder Showzen fame), centers around Xavier, half-man, half-bird superhero with a snake for left arm, who travels the world “[f]acing rednecks, inflicting righteousness and preaching religiously about the ’strong, silent types’ and moralism.”
The premiere’s at 6 p.m. ET on [adult swim], which, of course, is not available in Canada.
I guess I’ll be watching it… umm… some other way that may or may not be entirely legal.
Impossibly cool, super-crazy director and eternal pessimist Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn, a dramatic adaptation of the 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, also by Herzog, is finally going to shown in theatres.
If the early reviews are any indication, it’s probably going to join the rank of Herzog masterpieces alongside Woyzeck and Fitzcarraldo.
Now, there are some people saying that this movie glorifies war and even has pro-Bush political motivation to it. Well, these people are complete retards, and if you know anyone who thinks this, you should put him or her on call-block immediately. The movie only tells the story of Dieter Dengler (played by Christian Bale), the only person to escape successfully from a Pathet Lao prison camp. It is not supposed to be and does not present itself to be a commentary on the war itself.
In summation: yay Rescue Dawn! yay Werner Herzog! go see the movie!
Update: Apple has the trailers up on its web site.
HBO needs to option Alexyss K. Tylor’s book immediately and produce a series about four skanky thirty-something black women living in Atlanta.
Can you imagine it: replays of each woman’s sexual encounter interspersed with the main character’s cute, funny remarks analyzing the situation in terms of “vagina power” and “penis power”?
Is Marie Antoinette the best movie of 2006? Not really. But, is it the most culturally significant? Definitely so. I’ll explain why.
Marie Antoinette is a wholly new kind of film: an autobiographical picture masquerading as a period drama. The aspects of the queen’s life that make it on the screen are the ones Sofia Coppola experienced herself (growing up in a celebrity family, having to carry the family’s aspirations on her shoulders, awkwardness caused by father’s extra-marital affairs, difficult marriage, her own extra-marital affairs, etc.) and the ones that are so significant she cannot possibly ignore without breaking the pretense of a historical picture (e.g. the storming of the Versailles).
In other words, the movie is about what Coppola felt about Marie Antoinette, not what the queen of France actually was. It is so true to the vision of the director to the point where historical accuracy, which the reigning period picture dogma dictates must come first in making of such movies, is respected only when it is not in conflict with the director’s vision.
Moreover, it is refreshing in that the film presents a revisionist and reactionary interpretation of history, but there is absolutely no political motivation or context to it. Breaking away from the notion that a serious movie is supposed to inform, inspire, or convince the audience, it is a total cinematic transgression.
While Marie Antoinette is not Coppola’s best work (Lost in Translation was a much better movie), it is her most daring and has the set the bar much, much higher for other daring directors.
It’s not yet being broadcast in Canada though. The homeless man in the clip is Zach Galifianakis who I honestly don’t find funny but like anyways because he seems to know all the right people (he’s kinda like a male version of Janeane Garofalo).
One can only hope Comedy Central won’t kill this show prematurely like it did previous attempts to break away from the traditional sitcom format such as Stella and Strangers With Candy.
