Thursday, October 16, 2008

What, Where, When this Weekend - W., What Just Happened, Good Dick, Sex Drive, Max Payne

What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters.

- Barbet Schroeder screenings and Q&A at BAM.

W., written by Stanley Weiser, dir. by Oliver Stone


Premise: A chronicle on the life and presidency of George W. Bush.

Oliver Stone + George W. Bush biopic = Train wreck? Genius? I'm really intrigued by this one. The buzz seems positive enough so far.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED, written by Art Linson, dir. by Barry Levinson


Premise: Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made.

Playing at: All over.

Say, what just happened in the production still? (Heh, heh, hehhhhhh... sorry.) It's got DeNiro. It's by Barry Levinson. I'm in.

GOOD DICK, written and directed by Marianna Palka



Premise: A look at the relationship between a lonely introverted girl and a young video store clerk vying for her attention.

Playing at: Landmark Sunshine

Director/writer/star Palka will be present after the 6:30 and 9:00 shows on Friday and Saturday, and the 11:15 AM and 1:30 PM Sunday matinees.

FILTH AND WISDOM, written by Dan Cadan, dir. by Madonna


Premise: The story revolves around a Ukrainian immigrant named A.K. who finances his dreams of rock glory by moonlighting as a cross-dressing dominatrix and his two female flatmates: Holly, a ballet dancer who works as a stripper and pole-dancer at a local club and Juliette, a pharmacy assistant who dreams of going to Africa to help starving children.

Starring Eugene Hutz? Music by Gogol Bordello? I'm interested. Directed by Madonna? Not so much.

SEX DRIVE, written by John Morris and Sean Anders, dir. by Sean Anders



Premise: A high school senior drives cross-country with his best friends to hook up with a babe he met online.

Playing at: All over.

Apparently this may actually be sorta decent...? (See: here and here.) Who'd have ever thunk?

MAX PAYNE, written by Beau Thorne, dir. by John Moore



Premise: Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a DEA agent whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation.

Playing at:
All over.

A video game movie NOT by Uwe Boll? Let's hope this fares better. Onyx - you're seeing this, right?

What are you seeing this weekend?

3 comments:

Onyx said...

I might check out Max Payne. I was fairly certain I was going to see it when I first saw the trailer, but then I saw the rating. PG-13. Crappo. If I go to watch somebody jump through the air and fire a gun in slow motion, I want it to be rated R. In a perfect world the character would fire three shots that cause four explosions and kill five guys. Think Hard Boiled.

DOA said...

also on the fence on seeing Max Payne here, although it's mainly because of it's lack of posters and ads that usually accompanies big budget films. Makes me feel that Hollywood doesn't have that much faith in it...

re: onyx's comment, I very much agree on the love for R rated, Hard Boiled type movies, although more and more, the quiet, realistic kills are the ones that send a shiver down my spine.

Joe said...

I will only see Max Payne if Onyx comes back with a report that the voice over narration used increasingly hyperbolic metaphors that, by the end of the film, leave you actually laughing at their absurdity.

A few excerpts of such grisly narration from the first Max Payne video game:

"He was trying to buy more sand for his hour glass. I wasn't selling any."

and

"When the darkness fell, New York City became something else, any old Sinatra song notwithstanding. Bad things happened in the night, on the streets of that other city. Noir York City."

and

"Punchinello wanted Payne? He'd see the pain."

and

"No minotaur lurked in this labyrinth, but somewhere out there, on the clanking deck of his cargo freighter, the skipper of the Charon was waiting, like the ferryman of the River Styx."

(actually, that was the line that made me laugh out loud when playing the game)

Anyway, you get my point. The camp is not completely jacked up for this movie, it earns only a spot on my Netflix queue, somewhere below Six Feet Under

"