Right now you might be standing in line at your favorite retailer trying to beat throngs of other people to the deals that only come around once a year. You may also be one of those non-conformist anti-consumerists who are sitting on your couch, secretly participating in Black Friday sales on the web. Either way, we know one thing: you’re a person of taste, because somehow you ended up here. And if you are one of our neighbors in Austin, TX, you’re about to be glad you did, as we’ve got a sweet little giveaway for you. 

This coming Monday, November 29, writer/directors Adam Green (Hatchet, Frozen) and Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2, the upcoming awesome-o-rama Knights of Badassdom) will be taking over the Alamo Ritz theater for what they are calling A Very Green & Lynch Christmas, a relentless showing of horror shorts from the upcoming DVD release Chillerama (on Blu-ray and DVD 11/29), never before seen footage from various projects and even an exclusive clip from Knights of Badassdom. They will also be handing out a ton of gifts, getting you drunk and donating proceeds to the American Legion Hall in Austin. We’re also told that high fives will be involved and an auction for a date with film critic Scott Weinberg will be involved. There will truly be something for everyone.

To help make sure that proper film fans are in attendance, the Drafthouse has provided us with a pair of tickets to give away to one of our very lucky Austin readers. All we need from you is to complete the following task: jump into the comments area below and tell us what film you’d choose to play if Joe and Adam decided to let you pick a movie to run on Monday night.

The most inspired choice will be randomly chosen by our 80s robot intern and will earn you a pair of tickets, on us. For more information about the event, head over to the Alamo Drafthouse blog. If you don’t want to try and win tickets, you can also buy them at Drafthouse.com.

Steve McQueen is not the first established director to get the bug to direct a highly sexual film for adults, and he certainly won’t be the last. Sadly, most directors who have actually made bold films about sexuality ended up with sub-par movies. Verhoeven’s Showgirls is a punch-line, Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut is an interesting mess, and Cronenberg’s Crash is maybe the best example of these experiments. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Lars Von Trier do an adult film in the next few years; he’s already expressed interest in the subject. While McQueen’s Shame does a lot of things right, it stumbles just before the finish line.

Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a normal guy. He goes to work, goes out for drinks with co-workers, goes home. But every waking moment he has is devoted to sex. Thinking about it, watching it, paying for it, sex pervades his every thought. This goes beyond the normal human desire for and fascination with sex and actually consumes his life. When his sister, Cissy (Carey Mulligan), shows up for an unannounced and open-ended visit, it puts a cramp in his style. His normal evenings of watching porn, paying for webcams, and inviting prostitutes over don’t really work with his sister sleeping on the couch. Then he gets in hot water with his boss when IT checks his work computer and finds all kinds of pornography filling his hard drive. But he can’t stop. His is a true addiction and Brandon can’t stop himself.

McQueen crafts an incredible sequence that involves Fassbender attempting to woo a regular woman, a lady in his office that he’s had his eye on. But knowing that he can’t just take her home like a girl from a bar, he does what he sees other men do – he takes her to dinner and talks to her. He’s perhaps a bit too honest during their conversation, but you can tell that he’s trying as hard as he can to be normal. But when the relationship progresses and he finally gets to the point where he can have sex with her, he can’t perform. Nothing is explicitly stated, but it seems Brandon can’t fulfill his sexual desires if there’s any kind of emotion behind the sex. In fact, after she leaves, he calls a prostitute and has no problem screwing her.

McQueen has fashioned a disturbing and devastating character study. Brandon is trapped, unable to escape his own desires and helpless to save himself. His addiction will destroy him and he knows it and he knows that he’s powerless to stop it. Fassbender’s decline into madness is looming from the beginning. Once you realize that he truly can’t control himself, it’s only a matter of time before something happens that sends him over the edge. His fall to rock bottom is presented in a non-linear way that works, showing Fassbender on the subway with a black eye and then backing up to reveal how it occurred. Brandon has lost all control and is allowing his base impulses to make his decisions. It’s harrowing and bleak and tough to stomach.

McQueen favors long takes and there are two in particular that work incredibly well. The first is an extended scene of Mulligan singing Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.” It’s filmed in extreme close-up and Mulligan stretches the song out to an incredibly slow, methodical pace, almost as if she’s savoring every word before letting it fall from her beautiful lips. It’s an arresting scene despite the fact that it seemingly goes on forever. The second is a long tracking shot following Fassbender as he goes on a run. It highlights his solitude and only stops when he gets stopped at a red light on a street corner just down the street from Madison Square Garden. They’re both great shots that communicate wordlessly with the audience, creating a mood, a tone that’s felt more than explained.

Unfortunately, the third act is where things fall apart a bit. It’s obvious that Fassbender needs to hit bottom but the catalyst for that doesn’t seem to be enough of a spark to start a downward spiral, particularly not one as extreme as Fassbender goes on. On top of that, once Fassbender has hit bottom and is headed back home the next morning, another event occurs that would have made more sense as the catalyst event. Placed on the film’s timeline after his night of losing himself, this event is meant to be the thing that snaps him out of his addiction, that shows him that there are more important things in life, perhaps the moment he realizes that he needs help. And while it may very well work in that capacity, the event itself is simple and predictable. In a film that’s so well-shot and well-acted, this one plot point comes off as too easy and uncomplicated. It’s like finding a McDonald’s french fry under your steak at Peter Luger’s. It just feels at odds with the rest of the film and, frankly, drags it down a bit. Thankfully, the last scene is still brilliant, leaving a certain amount of ambiguity and food for thought.

Ultimately, Shame is a great film until the third act, where the issues drag it down to a good film. Fassbender throws himself into a difficult role and McQueen shows a sure hand in crafting a devastating portrait of a man consumed by his own desires. Despite the film’s flaws, it’s refreshing to see an accomplished director take on the subject of sexuality in a mature way. Make no mistake, this is a film about adult behavior made for adults, as the NC-17 rating indicates. It’s the maturity that sets it apart, there’s no snickering to be found here. There’s nothing funny about Brandon’s situation. It’s heartbreaking and it’s even more difficult to watch because some of it is relatable. Sexuality is a part of our lives that we all share and it’s rarely, if ever, treated in a respectful and intelligent way in cinema. It’s great to see a film that’s willing to tackle a difficult subject with class.

The Upside: The performances. Fassbender is fantastic as you would expect and Carey Mulligan holds her own.

The Downside: Third act issues and mediocrity prevent it from being a great film.

On the Side: Fassbender is already on board for Steve McQueen’s next film, Twelve Years a Slave. Brad Pitt has also signed on.

As the summer of 2011 creeps to a close, there are now just a handful of stand-outs waiting to earn your almighty dollars. And as the old saying goes, sometimes the best things are saved for last. Such is the possible case with Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens. It’s a concept that has been on our radar for a long time, complete with a cast assembled perfectly for maximum awesome. Our hopes are high and our hats are 12-gallon, and we’d like to bring you along for the ride. If you live in Austin, Texas, that is. We’re co-hosting an advance screening on the evening of July 26th, and we’ve got your chance to win yourself a pair of tickets. Just click on through, pardners…

To enter, simply send an email to screenings@filmschoolrejects.com with “Cowboys, Aliens and Rejects” in the subject line. Be sure to get your entry in by Sunday, July 24th, otherwise you run the risk of being left out in the cold, dark desert. Winners will be contacted on Monday, July 25 with all the relevant details.

You can find more information about Cowboys & Aliens below, including the poster and official synopsis. Also, don’t forget to keep a bookmark on our Cowboys & Aliens hub for our review, as well as interviews and articles from the set of the film and the press junket in Montana.

Blockbuster filmmaker Jon Favreau directs Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in an event film for summer 2011 that crosses the classic Western with the alien-invasion movie in a blazingly original way: Cowboys & Aliens.  Joined by an arsenal of top moviemakers—Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci—he brings an all-new action thriller that will take audiences into the Old West, where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror from beyond our world.

1875.  New Mexico Territory.  A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution.  The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist.  What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford).  It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky.  Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation.  As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force.  With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation.  United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

The screenplay for Cowboys & Aliens is by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby, from a screen story by Fergus & Ostby and Steve Oedekerk.  It is based on Platinum Studios’ “Cowboys & Aliens” by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.  Grazer, Howard, Kurtzman, Orci and Rosenberg produce.  Spielberg, Favreau, Denis L. Stewart, Bobby Cohen, Randy Greenberg and Ryan Kavanaugh executive produce.

Find out more at www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com

Like any relationship that includes some sex with Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, we’re going to make this easy. We’re co-hosting an advance screening of Friends with Benefits in Austin, TX on the night of Wednesday, July 20 at 7:30p CST. And we’d like to have you come along. We don’t require that you love us, we just want your friendship. We don’t even have to do the casual sex thing, unless you’re really interested. In order to get one of our coveted passes, you’ll need to follow a few simple directions, which I’ve conveniently located just after the jump.

The passes will be distributed at random, because that’s how we roll. Just drop an email to screenings@filmschoolrejects.com with “Lets Be Friends with Benefits” in the subject line. Be sure to do so no later than Sunday, July 17th. Winners will be contacted on Monday and Tuesday.

For more on Friends with Benefits, visit the film’s official website. I’ve included the (curse word-laden) trailer below for your reference. It opens in theaters nationwide on July 22, 2011.

We would like to take you to a movie. We see plenty of movies in advance so that we can review them for you, so why shouldn’t you get some early watching, as well? Next week we will be co-hosting an advance screening of Richard Ayoade’s Submarine in Austin, TX. It’s one of the most buzzed about films from this year’s Sundance Film Festival and it’s the directorial debut of the guy who played Moss on The IT Crowd. Those two factors led to it ending up on our list of the 15 must see films of summer 2011. So let’s go see it together, okay?

All you have to do is email screenings@filmschoolrejects.com with “Submarine” in the subject line and if you’re one of the lucky ones who gets to us before we run out of spots, we’ll put you on our list and send you a confirmation. The screening takes place on Wednesday, June 1 at 7:30p at the Regal Arbor Cinema in Austin.

Late yesterday evening I received a text from my loving girlfriend. Just walking out of an advance screening of Joe Wright’s Hanna, she was ecstatic. Great action, emotional depth, and a killer score from The Chemical Brothers were the order of the night. I was instantly resentful of the experience she’d had, as I too wanted to see Hanna badly. But I adore my girlfriend, so the feelings faded quickly. Later on, I vowed not to miss my opportunity to see this movie. And I shall do so next Thursday night in Austin.

Would you like to come along, as well? Here’s your chance.

We are giving away a limited number of passes for you and a guest to see Hanna next Thursday, April 7 at 7:30pm. All of the details will be revealed to those who follow this simple instruction:

1. Send an email to screenings@filmschoolrejects.com with ‘Hanna Kills Austin’ in the subject line.

2. In the body of the email, give us a quick reason why you’re excited about seeing this film.

That second part is more for fun. The passes will be handed out on a first come, first serve basis.

For those who need some inspiration, here is the trailer for Hanna followed by the official synopsis:

Official Synopsis: A teenage girl goes out into the world for the first time – and has to battle for her life. Director Joe Wright weaves elements of dark fairy tales into the adventure thriller Hanna, filmed on location in Europe and Morocco.

Hanna (played by Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan of Atonement, also directed by Joe Wright) is 16 years old. She is bright, inquisitive, and a devoted daughter. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a solider; these come from being raised by her widowed father Erik (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of North Finland. Erik has taught Hanna to hunt, put her through extreme self-defense workouts, and home-schooled her with only an encyclopedia and a book of fairy tales. Hanna has been living a life unlike any other teenager; her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. But out in the world there is unfinished business for Hanna’s family, and it is with a combination of pride and apprehension that Erik realizes his daughter can no longer be held back.

This turning point in Hanna’s adolescence is a sharp one; she is separated from Erik and embarks on the mission that she was always destined for. Before she and her father can reunite as planned in Berlin, Hanna is captured by agents dispatched by ruthless intelligence operative Marissa Wiegler (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett). Marissa, a career agent, has long been harboring secrets that tie her to Hanna and Erik.

Detained for observation and held beneath the Moroccan desert, Hanna soon turns the tables on her captors. Her daring escape to above-ground thrusts her into an unfamiliar landscape and world which she must quickly learn to comprehend and navigate. Marissa secretly sends a team of agents after Hanna, and joins the deadly pursuit herself. As Hanna journeys across Europe and nears her ultimate target, she faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

Hanna is in theaters Friday, April 8th. It is rated PG-13 with a running time of approximately 105 minutes.

Here’s some exciting local news for our readers in our home city of Austin, TX. One of my more praised, but lesser known Sundance 2009 favorites is coming to town — and with it comes writer/director John Krasinski, who you may know as Jim from The Office. The film is Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, based on the David Foster Wallace novel of the same name.

When I reviewed it at Sundance in January of this year, I said that the source material — a favorite book of mine — is on par with Watchmen in its level of difficulty for adaptation. It has long been thought to be a near-impossible work to adapt. And what Krasinski has done with this star-studded affair is nothing short of immaculate, especially for a first time director. It is a fresh new voice telling an ambitious story that delivers dramatic moments that are poignant and deeply affecting, and comedic moments that are true to life.

It’s not the most accessible movie in the world (which I explained in my review), but it is a quality piece of filmmaking. And it’s your chance to do a little meet-and-greet with Krasinski, who will be in attendance for select shows on November 13th and 14th, says the Original Alamo blog. For more information and to buy tickets, head over to the Alamo Drafthouse site.

For more on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, check out the trailer and official synopsis below.

John Krasinski makes his debut as a screenwriter and director with Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. The film also marks the first big-screen project ever derived from the literary library of the late David Foster Wallace. When her boyfriend leaves her with little explanation, Sara Quinn (Julianne Nicholson) is left looking for answers as to what went wrong. Directing all her energies into her anthropological dissertation, Sara conducts a series of interviews with men in an effort to uncover the secret thoughts that drive their behavior. She thinks she can remedy both her heartache and her academic challenges with a new research project and begins conducting a series of interviews with men. As she records the astonishing and disquieting experiences of various subjects, Sara discovers much more about men and herself than she bargained for. Krasinski also co-stars in this dark comedy.

If you’re not going to come to Fantastic Fest, you’re only lucky because you’ll still have your eyeballs by the end of the month. We here at FSR on the other hand will definitely lose the damned things along with most of our spinal column and our sanity.

While we can’t prepare for going blind, we can practice losing our minds, so we’re taking a look at the 20 film we’re most excited to see this year at Fantastic Fest. Blood, boobs, gore, nonsensical plots from the Far East, more blood, A.D.D. children’s toys, zombie attacks, strange and unexplained occurrences, and more blood. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It was tough narrowing down the field, and we probably did a crap job of it, but it’s the best we can do when faced with the intensity of a film festival such as this.

Looking forward to seeing you on the other side:

NOTE: CLICK ANY OF THE TITLES BELOW TO READ OUR REVIEWS

Daybreakers

It’s ten years from now and a plague has swept through mankind… only instead of killing us it’s turned 95% of humanity into vampires. The world goes on only now the last humans on Earth have become a primary food source. Ethan Hawke plays a vampire scientist who joins forces with a group of human survivors in the hopes of finding a cure and saving the human species before it’s too late. Michael and Peter Spierig (the writers/directors) have taken the extremely over-done vampire genre and given it an awesome-looking action twist… with a little bit of ethical debate thrown in for good measure. And Hollywood had nothing to do with it. – Rob Hunter

Mandrill

At Fantastic Fest III I saw an incredible film called Mirage Man about a man working as a bouncer who wanted nothing more than to become a super hero. Marko Zaror, the lead, is an amazing martial artist with the fastest kick I have ever seen. But beyond the kick-ass action sequences, this low-budget Chilean superhero flick has so much heart it became one of my absolute favorites of that year. I am therefore ecstatic to see the new Ernesto Diaz Espinoza/Marko Zaror vehicle that has been described as doing for spy films what Mirage Man did for superhero films. Marko will be in attendance, as he was for Mirage Man two years ago, and I am interested to see if he will kick over the top of a man’s head……again. – Brian Salisbury

Bronson

Danish filmmaker (I see a trend) Nicolas Winding Refn switches gears from the shaky camera realism of his drug-themed Pusher trilogy to a gloriously haphazard, allegedly Clockwork Orange-esque biopic of larger-than-life British prisoner Michael Gordon Peterson (aka Charles Bronson). Bronson’s trailer makes the film look like it brings substance back to style-heavy cinema, and rumors of excellence surround Tom Hardy’s method performance as the title character. Even if the film turns out to be lacking on any of these levels, the chaotic stylization and unremitting violence are more than enough to compel me to see Bronson. – Landon Palmer

Solomon Kane

Armed with a rapier and flintlock pistols, Solomon Kane sets out on a mission of pillage and plunder in war-torn North Africa… Okay, stop right there. You had us at flintlock pistols. Director Michael J. Bassett brings to life the story of sword-and-sorcery from the legendary Robert E. Howard, and we’re going to be there. From the looks of things, Solomon Kane is a dark, bloody affair full of action and adventure. And not to sound cliche, but sign me up — dark, dirty and full of death and destruction? That’s why we come to Fantastic Fest in the first place. – Neil Miller

REC 2

I’m still looking for the pants that were scared off of me when I saw REC. Even the American remake, Quarantine, was pretty solid. Now directors Jaume Balaguero and Paca Plaza return with something that promises to be even scarier. The story picks up immediately after the first, so we’re still dealing with the same creepy building, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that the two filmmakers have a few tricks hidden up their sleeves and around some dark corners. – Cole Abaius

Paranormal Activity

Love them or hate them, ‘shakey cam’ movies (think Blair Witch) are here to stay. This is actually the second of two such pics at this year’s fest (the other is [Rec]2 (see above)), and both are reportedly shit-your-pants-cry-for-your-mama scary. Paranormal Activity finds a troubled young couple who set up security cameras in an attempt to see what’s happening around their house after they’ve gone to sleep. What they find is an invisible spirit moving things around, crawling under their sheets, and getting a taste of the lady’s thigh meat. Time to call the Realtor… – Rob Hunter

Zombieland

I love zombie movies. If you haven’t gleaned my cinematic taste yet, I’m the type of guy that enjoys B-movies just as much as insightful, arthouse fare. I relish watching cult cinema and I’m very forgiving of less-than-stellar filmmaking when it falls back on unbridled entertainment value; enter Zombieland. Like Shaun of the Dead, this is a horror comedy, which always seems remarkably hard to market to audiences. If it’s too comedic, the hard-core horror fans will pitch a fit over it while if it is too horrific, it will fail to be funny. I think Zombieland‘s marketing is spot-on as the trailers suggest a balls-out action film dotted with moments of Harrelson hilarity and undead irony. Woody will actually be in attendance along with various other members of the cast so the Q & A should be a riot. – Brian Salisbury

Fish Story

As with many movies playing at Fantastic Fest, I had heard nothing about Fish Story until I read the synopsis and watched the trailer on the fest’s site. Fish Story concerns a mosaic of interwoven narratives spanning across time and space, centered on a pre-apocalyptic moment in 2012 Tokyo and all thematically based around a 1975 punk song that the film’s title is based off of. So far this movie reads like the Japanese moving image equivalent of a Vonnegut novel, and I’m intrigued to see if the film comes across anywhere near as delightfully absurd as its compelling description. – Landon Palmer

A Town Called Panic

If there’s one thing we look for at Fantastic Fest, it is not only the good, certainly not the bad (because that doesn’t show up there), but also the weird — because the weird can and undoubtedly will appear in the festival line-up. In this year’s weird category, we would like to insert A Town Called Panic. It’s almost impossible to describe — animated in stop-motion with clay models of children’s toys, namely Cowboys, Indians and farmyard animals. It is full of silly jokes and bizarre visuals. It is completely manic and way over the top. It is also Belgian and has a cult following based on a short film from 2001. We are completely sold. Bring on that first screening. – Neil Miller

The Children

One of my biggest pet peeves about movies is the inclusion of children. They are either unbelievable because they survive things they shouldn’t or they are realistic and pose a major liability. A very puntable liability. But The Children looks different – it takes a beloved member of the family and grows a sinister murder inside of him or her. Three families all vacationing in a winter wonderland are confronted with their own offspring turning into blood thirsty killers. I’m gearing up for tiny little hands shoving knives into the torsos of confused, frightened adults. Yes, friends, this time the menace wears OshKosh B’Gosh. – Cole Abaius

Editor’s Note: This list was lovingly put together by the Fantastic Fest Death Squad of Rob Hunter, Brian Salisbury, Neil Miller, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius. For more information on Fantastic Fest, the films, or the debauchery that will inevitably take place, check out the official website.

Trick ‘r Treat is a film of various, entwined Halloween-related vignettes that unfold into one small town’s ultimate nightmare.  Unlike John Carpenter’s Halloween, wherein the eerie holiday serves as merely the setting, Trick ‘r Treat seeks to explore the autumnal celebration as an inevitable, and mythic catalyst for evil and terror.  If you haven’t seen this trailer yet, stop reading these words and click to experience it.

I am terrified of this film, and not because the trailer is uber creepy; nor that I think I will have to sleep with the lights on until Christmas.  I have been waiting to see this film for over two years.  I first became cognizant of its existence in late summer 2007 when it was announced it would play Fantastic Fest III.  I was living in Baton Rouge at the time and Fantastic Fest was to be only my second excursion to the land of cinematic milk and genre honey known as Austin.  But then, as if fate were playing that titular, festive game with me, I was tricked out of seeing it when the film was pulled from the roster.  It got a screening at Butt-Numb-a-thon that year, another Austin film fest of sorts, and then vanished like a ghost into the ether.  It was enough however for every respectable, and even the hack, geek-elite critic to laud it with full fervor.  It was then apparently swallowed by some immeasurable chasm in the Earth’s crust and no one had any idea whether it would ever be seen again.

Advance two years to the “treat” portion of this ordeal as it was nearly simultaneously announced that the film would be released directly to video and would be among the films slated for this year’s Fantastic Fest.  The trailer we present to you, more expansive than any I had seen prior, does little to quench my desire to see it.  But the truth is, with the insane roller-coaster the release of this film has maneuvered, I am terrified by my own anticipation and what it may do to color my enjoyment of it.  Trick-r-Treat now faces the dilemma for me, and I expect many others who have followed its volatile journey, that it cannot fail to be completely spectacular or I will be entirely disappointed with it.

It’s really not fair at all that a small film must shoulder this much hype, and I hope that most people do not have the kind of time to chart horror projects the way I do, but the simple fact is that Trick ‘r Treat’s daunting voyage to release is the stuff of legends.  As such, the film will incur a backlash of horror geek angst if it fails to deliver in even the smallest of areas.   When I see this film at Fantastic Fest, I am going to try with all my might to not expect one of the greatest horror films ever made.  I am going to fight against my expectations and all the hype in order to give Trick ‘r Treat a fair shake.  Until that day, less than two weeks hence, I will keep drooling over the trailer.  Sigh.

ATTENTION AUSTIN REJECTS:

If you’re at all in the loop, you obviously can’t wait for In The Loop. This political satire (a redundant term, to say the least), opens in Austin on August 14th, and is receiving high doses of early critical spooge. It’s a great little film about Britain/US relations and involvement in the Iraq war.

Here’s what you don’t know: In The Loop is based on this fantastic (and also highly critically, and personally, acclaimed) few episodes of a BBC series called “In the Thick of It”. So get hungry, thirsty, and ready to politically rumble. They’re screening these mothers, for freakin’ free, on August 10th and 13th at the Alamo Drafthouse at The Village. 10 PM.

Look, I realize it’s no Wag the Dog starring Willie Nelson, but the Shawshank Redemption is no Red Headed Stranger, either. And don’t act like you’re too busy for the Brits. We’re on to you.

Find out more at the Alamo Drafthouse’s official site: OriginalAlamo.com.

Whaddaya say?

The Austin Film Festival holds a special place in my heart because it’s the first festival that I covered for FSR. It’s always been an innovative festival that I’ve dug because of its focus on screenwriting and the craft of storytelling. I also plan on covering the hell out of it once it rolls around this year in late October.

And now there may be one more reason to be excited.

Apparently this year’s Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award is going to none other than the narrator from “Arrested Development,” Ron Howard. No touching!

All kidding aside, the guy has spent the last few years trying to erase the good will he earned with Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind and about a dozen other films with Dan Brown adaptations. However, the man’s legacy cannot be denied. He’s certainly one of the best storytellers in the business and unafraid to experiment and step outside genre lines. I’m sure anyone would be hard-pressed to think of another working director who has had such critical acclaim while being able to create dramas, character studies, action movies, fantasy epics, comedies and summer blockbusters. Or a working director who’s worked with Tom Hanks as much.

You’ve come a long way, Opie. It’ll be fun to celebrate that fact.

The Austin Film Festival runs from October 22-25 this year, and you can check out more information about it over at their official website.

What do you think?

I’ve got two questions for our readers that live in Austin. First, what are you wearing? And secondly, what are you doing Wednesday night around, say, 6ish? Wandering around aimlessly near the AT&T Conference Center, asking for loose change and doing your one-man version of “Who’s On First?” for whoever will listen?

Bad idea, friend.

Instead, you should bring yourself inside to listen to veteran filmmaker Kevin Reynolds discuss film, give some advice to budding filmmakers and hopefully explain his eerie attachment to using Kevin Costner in his films. As part of the Austin Film Festival’s Conversations in Film Series, Reynolds will be opening himself up to questions about craft and creativity, followed up by a screening of his debut feature film Fandango – a movie that made me desperately want to go on a college road trip and avoid Vietnam.

It’s all going down on Wednesday, May 13th, at 6:00pm at the AT&T Conference Center down on 1900 University Ave. (the conversation) and 7:30 at the Bob Bullock State History Museum on 1800 Congress (Fandango screening).

How much would you pay for such an event? Exactly $20? Excellent, because that’s the price. If you want to purchase tickets (and I suggest you do so ahead of time to avoid them selling out), you can go to This Website or you can call 1.800.310.3378.

If you just want to go to the screening, it’s $5. Also, there will be sign language interpretation provided for the Conversation with Kevin Reynolds.

So stop drooling all over yourself or foolishly trying to have a nice family dinner – come on down and have a few questions ready for the man who directed Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Waterworld, Tristan + Isolde and wrote the screenplay for Red Dawn.