Switchblade Comb

The Walker Art Center has announced their September & October line-up, which includes an Olivier Assayas series, focus on Allen Ginsberg, and an Alec Soth documentary to go along with their From Here To There: Alec Soth’s America exhibition.

08.31 – 10.10 – The Life & Times of Alan Ginsberg

Winner of the International Documentary Award’s top prize, this film goes beyond Ginsberg’s poetry to uncover an American cultural icon who championed human right, challenged political and social thought, and influenced culture for more than 60 years.

09.12 – Somewhere to Disappear

This documentary follows Alec Soth as he journeys through America in search of hermits, survivalists, and others seeking a retreat from civilization for his latest series of photographs. Introduced by the filmmakers.

09.15 – Charles Atlas’ Ocean

In September 2008, Merce Cunningham staged Ocean, one of the most ambitious works of his legendary 60-year career, within a massive Minnesota granite quarry. Renowned filmmaker and longtime Cunningham collaborator Charles Atlas was there, using five cameras to document this uniquely epic production.

09.30 - Howl

Allen Ginsberg biopic, preceding its Minneapolis run on October 15. Introduced by directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.

Olivier Assayas: Between Love & Terror

This daring filmmaker pioneered the globalist thriller genre, but catches many viewers by surprise with his quieter dramas. The core of his work is a celebration of everyday life’s intimate moments—a legacy of the French New Wave.

10.01 – Irma Vep
10.02 – Late August, Early September
10.08 - Les destinées
10.09 – Cold Water & demonlover
10.15 – Summer Hours
10.20 – Regis Dialogue w/ Olivier Assayas & Kent Jones
10.21 – Eldorado/Preljocaj
10.23 - Clean & Boarding Gate
10.28 - A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien
10.31 – Carlos

For tickets and more info, check HERE.

The first film of MFA’s upcoming Asian Film Festival has been announced: the world premiere of Hmong film The Legend of Chao Fa.

There will be 29 other films in the program, which will range from contemporary Indian films, animation from Japan and Korea, political & human rights films from Burma, Cambodia, North Korea, and Tibet, a series from Taiwan, an Asian-American program, and more from the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

The Asian Film Festival runs from November 3rd through the 13th at St. Anthony Main.

The Making of The Legend of Chao Fa (1/3, no English subs)

A double-dose of horror films have been announced as part of the Uptown Theatre‘s midnight series . . . though one of them is just missing Halloween. So it goes.

10.22 & 23 – The Lost Boys
11.05 & 06 – The Shining

Tickets are $9.00.

A nice, amusing little wrap-up that comes as a DVD extra on the Season 6 box set of LOST which, despite being the weakest of the series, is certainly still fantastic TV viewing.

OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES

- Part 2 of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
- Peter Fonda in The Gathering
- Stalker documentary I Think We’re Alone Now
- John Cassavettes & Peter Falk in Machine Gun McCain
- Season 7 of Red vs. Blue
- Abbas Kairostami’s Shirin
- Australian noir The Square
- George Romero’s Survival of the Dead
- Criterion’s 3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg
- 90s cartoon icons return in TMNT: Turtles Forever
- Sid & Nancy documentary Who Killed Nancy

LOST: New Man in Charge – Clip

A weekly look at the Minnesota concert calendar from your friends at Switchblade Comb. The full list can be viewed HERE.

Minnesota Shows List:

23 – Swingin’ Utters + The Menzingers + The Dirty Hits (Triple Rock)
23 – Mos Def (Guthrie)
24 – David Wm. Sims [Jesus Lizard] (400 Bar)
25 – Wye Oak + Lou Barlow [Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr.] (400 Bar)
25 – Kevin Seconds [7 Seconds] (Triple Rock)
25 – The Fontanelles (501 Club)
26 – G-Biz (Nomad)
26 – The Framed (501 Club)
27 – Rush (MN State Fairgrounds)
27 – Dave Alvin [The Blasters] (Bunker’s)
28 – Amrep Annivesary (Grumpy’s)
29 – Brandi Carlile + The Watson Twins (MN State Fairgrounds)

Well, it was technically yesterday. I tried.

Now somebody go read Death is a Lonely Business. That book doesn’t get nearly enough love.

Maybe you always knew about this one, boys and girls, but I sure as hell didn’t. Just in case . . .

This whole week, the only film I’ve had on my mind is one that popped up seemingly out of nowhere on Netflix: Play It Now – an animated film from 1982 called Plague Dogs, which is based on the book of Watership Down author Richard Adams and helmed by that adaptation’s director Martin Rosen.

Those who witnessed mass rabbit death in Watership Down as a child might know what they’re in for here – Plague Dogs is a shockingly dark story of two dogs who escape a research facility and try to survive in the wilderness while being hunted by pretty much everyone. The film only received a limited theatrical release and I don’t believe it’s been available in the U.S. for years, but even the old copies were cut down from the original version by 17 minutes. While I’m guessing that the Netflix version is the edited one, I just discovered that the original uncensored cut appears to be on YouTube in full. Way to go, internet!

This is a rather brilliant testament to what can be done when animation’s not just pigeonholed into family-friendly fare. Do yourself a favor and check out the U.S. version over at Netflix, or the original U.K. cut over HERE.

Plague Dogs – Trailer

Incredible first single from the upcoming Drawing Down the Moon full length. Seriously, I haven’t been able to stop listening to this since I got the pre-order download of it last week.

Azure Ray – “Don’t Leave My Mind”

While their fall line-up has yet to be announced, the final two films in Willow Creek 12‘s Midnight Retro summer series will be screening over the next two weekends. It’s a wonderful theater, so if you have yet to check the series out, now would be the time to do so.

08.27 – 28 – Superman
09.03 – 04 – Pulp Fiction

As usual, the films will also play on the Thursdays before at 9:30 PM and their respective Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10:30 AM.

Tickets are $6.50.

Season 2 of Children’s Hospital starts tomorrow. Also sweet.

Season 2 of Delocated starts tomorrow. Sweet.

My favorite music video of the year thus far.

From Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, out now via Gold Dust.