// Category Archive for: Movies

Top Five Movie Musicals

By Jemiah Jefferson

Find out how to win a copy of the soundtrack to Nine at the end of this article! The contest has now ended.

In light of the upcoming release of Nine (on December 18), starring everybody and Fergie, it’s time for a small countdown of my particular favorite movie musicals. Of course, this list probably won’t line up with yours (although you should remember to check the lists of runners-up at the bottom!), but these five films were instrumental in transforming me from a scowling punk who had nothing but contempt for movie song-and-dance to a glitter-afro-wearing, Twyla-Tharp-worshipping show tune queen.
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Entertainment News Is Neither Entertainment Nor News. Discuss.

By Less Lee Moore

Normally Popshifter does not immerse itself in the murky waters of celebrity gossip or political controversy, but since those two topics frequently converge with pop culture, in this case I’ll make an exception.
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High School Record DVD

By Noreen Sobczyk

File under “seemed like a really good idea.” This film, which played Sundance in 2005, was essentially promoted as a tale of awkward high school students and their escapades of embarrassment. But it came off more like indie hipsters trying hard to act like awkward geeks in situations the director/writer (Ben Wolfinsohn) thought were terribly clever. As it happens, the film features members of No Age, Mika Miko, and Lavender Diamond. There was also a short cameo by Mike Watt (Minutemen).

It’s a bare bones budget film inspired by a short which is included in the DVD bonus features. Unfortunately one of the most clever moments of the film was extremely similar. Also unfortunate: the film is cast with actors who seemingly never bothered to learn to act. And the viewer is therefore never drawn in enough to forget they are watching a film. Perhaps the director is a fan of the punk rock film Suburbia (cast with local punks), and was emulating the same vibe achieved there by Penelope Spheeris. Or he might have been aiming for the kitschiness of Dave Markey’s Desperate Teenage Lovedolls. Odds are it was a riff on Napoleon Dynamite and Freaks and Geeks. High School Record falls short on all accounts.

This mockumentary opens with a performance by a male/female guitar/drums duo who made me curse the existence of The White Stripes. This band decides to film their art school classmates for a documentary which focuses chiefly on four high school seniors and their clumsy attempts at popularity and sex. The strongest component of the film is the short lived relationship between Sabrina and Caleb. Their dynamic is unique, engaging, and simultaneously painful to watch. Sabrina isn’t interested in Caleb’s attempts to make a space age cooking show for kids, and is embarrassed when he sports tinfoil shorts to school. That moment might have been brilliant if its intended effect weren’t already perfectly achieved by the donning of an infamously ridiculous polyester jumpsuit by Sam on an episode of Freaks and Geeks.

Overall, the film had several eclectic and funny moments. The trouble is that they were stretched out over 89 minutes chock full of unsuccessful gags and slow periods. Had the film been limited to 60 minutes, and the participants been a bit less precious, it may have been more successful.

You may order High School Record directly from the Factory Twenty Five website. You can also check out images and a clip from the film there or watch a trailer on YouTube.

This Charming Man: Peter Cook in The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer

By Emily Carney

Before alcoholism, various drugs, loose women, and cigarettes took their toll, Peter Cook was perhaps one of the most gorgeous, sought-after men of his generation (oh yeah, he was also exceedingly witty).
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Cinema Wasteland Movie And Memorabilia Expo 2009: Cleveland

By Julie Finley

Cinema Wasteland Movie And Memorabilia Expo is a bi-annual film convention that typically takes place during April and October in the Cleveland, Ohio Metro area. It’s put on by Cinema Wasteland, a mail order video service. The event started in 2000 as a response to the banality of most film conventions and trade shows. The idea was to combine the more interesting elements of this niche circuit, which would be: film screenings (mainly horror, indie, B-movie, or newer and older cult films); industry “special guests” (typically actors and crew from various films); and vendors selling films and memorabilia. It also has a masquerade element to it (as in, costumes are definitely encouraged). The idea was to be more engaging than just table after table of people selling crap.
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It’s a Mod Mod World

By Noreen Sobczyk

I’ve always had a tradition of becoming obsessed with something. Not obsessed in the peeping-around-in-someone’s-bushes way, nor by writing famous people letters, or boiling some guy’s bunny, but becoming deeply engrossed in one particular thing. Be it music, film, or a book, there’s always something that strikes me and becomes my most prized form of entertainment.

When VCRs were first released I would rent the same videos over and over, never tiring of them. One of the first movies I watched ad nauseum was The Who documentary, The Kids Are Alright. Something about the movie had me hooked, and I particularly enjoyed the early clips, fast forwarding through the fringed Woodstock period.

One word kept getting tossed about: Mods.
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Star Wars: The Story Of Ben Kenobi

By Christian Lipski

My pride has had terrible consequences for the galaxy.
—Obi-Wan Kenobi, Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars saga was designed by George Lucas to have the two comical droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, act as consistent observers through the years that make up the tale. Having a constant thread run through the movies gives the audience a known framework through which to consider the story. The saga also depicts a story of good versus evil, the Empire against the Republic. Perhaps most famously, it’s the story of Darth Vader’s rise and eventual defeat by his son Luke Skywalker.

But there’s another story thread running through the six movies that gets overlooked, and that’s the journey of Ben Kenobi, which in some ways is equally as epic as any of the others.
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Sync Diary: Music, Movies, Madness!

By John Lane

Dark Side of the Rainbow (also known as Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd) refers to the pairing of the 1973 Pink Floyd music album The Dark Side of the Moon with the visual portion of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This produces moments where the film and the album appear to correspond with each other.
—“Dark Side of the Rainbow,” Wikipedia

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Character Actor In A Movie Star’s Body: Roger Livesey

By Michelle Patterson

Acting isn’t that hard to figure out; either you keep it simple or you make it seem simple without giving away your hand. While I’m not an actor, I do know that as a woman in day-to-day life, I have to be able to become a different woman to different people. This is something we all do; people can tell when we really believe in what we are saying and when we do not. Life is full of performances, which makes it that much easier to decide who is a good actor and who is not. The act itself is invisible and instead of seeing a character, we see a person.
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A Young Person’s Guide To: Powell & Pressburger*

By Chelsea Spear

Who They Are

In the late 1930s, Michael Powell had left banking to study film in the south of France, working his way from lowly production assistant to director of silent films and early talkies. Meanwhile, Emeric Pressburger—a Hungarian émigré—had written screenplays at the legendary Ufa Studio in Germany and in France before settling in London. The pair met as hired hands on Alexander Korda’s 1939 feature Contraband, and spent the following two decades crafting some of the best-loved features to come out of the UK, including The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.
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