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I haven’t seen Gus Van Sant’s latest Paranoid Park, but for a director that has always been one of my favorites from Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, especially To Die For and certainly Good Will Hunting (actually caught them filming in Harvard Square as a kid and it was the first time I thought holy shit movies are actually made by people).  But lately he’s gone off the reservation with works like Gerry, Last Days and Elephant, though that trilogy of films is inherently more interesting that say Finding Forrester, I’m not sure they are rewatchable on any level.

Hopefully, Milk returns Van Sant to the filmmaker that was both daring and watchable, engaging on an emotional level.  We’ll see.  It’s certainly a story I can’t imagine anyone else telling and the cast including Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch is all top notch.

Harvey Milk was the first openly elected gay city official in the country when he was elected to the San Francsico Board of Supervisors in 1977.  The following year, both he and the city’s mayor, George Moscone (Victor Garber), were shot to death by former city supervisor, Dan White (Josh Brolin), who blamed his former colleagues for denying White’s attempt to rescind his resignation from the board.

Oddly enough, this bit of US history also gave birth to what is now known as the “twinkie defense.” During White’s trial it was ruled he was incapable of premeditation because the health food and fitness junkie had turned to a diet of twinkies and coca-cola which worsened his mood swings.  White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter instead, which set of the White Night Riots.  Basically though, the Twinkie Defense rules that a person should not be held accountable for their actions because some outside source interferes with their natural biology.  Crazy right?

But that should not be Harvey Milk’s legacy. We should remember him as the courageous civil rights fighter that he was, clearly ahead of his time. Running for office when homosexuality was still considered a “mental disease.”

Even watching the trailer and realizing, shit that’s 1978 not too long ago, the country has come a long way in that time; it is depressing that the country hasn’t come far enough.  Seriously.  It still amazes me that there is even a debate over same-sex marriage.  Okay, I’ll stop. 

The post is about the trailer after all, not my political stances when it comes to the cultural wars (one more point: by calling it a war aren’t we by definition creating a paradigm that something has to be defeated?  Words have power.  There is no “war” to speak of, just people not allowing certain individuals the same rights.  Listening to John McCain say “all people are created equal” during his acceptance speech, I kept waiting for him to essentially say “except the gays.”  No, buddy we are all equal so it’s about time we start acting like it. You can’t play it both ways.).

Milk comes out on December 5, 2008

I’ve so far been enjoying the different flicks, both long form and shorts here at the NW Film and Video Festival. It’s been a great mix of documentaries and offbeat fair. Last night was a particularly good night. Featuring a documentary, two shorts and a wonderful fish out of water comedy.

But the real reason is that Gus Van Sant showed a short feature he did, that was also part of larger movie. That movie, To Each His Own, took 33 directors and asked them to make a short film about why they love film. Van Sant’s short, First Kiss also debuted during Cannes.

Anyway, First Kiss is a simple movie. It’s about a teenage projectionist who puts on a film, becomes entranced by the blond beauty on screen and then proceeds to pull a Last Action Hero, albeit without his golden ticket. Once inside the movie he makes out with the blond beauty. Simple.

What’s so striking about the movie, however, is it’s juxtaposition against many of the other short films at the festival. Van Sant demonstrates that a good movie needs to have a good plot. Even in three minutes, First Kiss, manages to have a beginning, middle and end. It’s a simple story, but a story nonetheless.

Strange that the short is on YouTube, but I shouldn’t be surprised. This is without sound, but it doesn’t dampen the experience.

Background: According to this little story, Van Sant met the actor in the film, Paul Parson, at the legendary groupie Penny Trumball’s house, aka, “Pennie Lane.” Trumball, apparantly lives in the Portland area and Parson turned down a major role in Van Sant’s Paranoid Park for a bit part.

Hey everybody. I just got back from attending a press screening for the upcoming NW Film and Video Festival, here in Portland. It’s kind of a neat concept. Essentially, they show a few features and a ton of shorts with a big emphasis on lesser known film makers from the surrounding areas.

I’ll have some write ups real soon about what I saw this afternoon. And we’ll have some press coverage moving forward. The festival itself runs from Nov. 9-17; they’ll show about 25-30 shorts (including a new short from director Gus Van Sant!) and several features. One of the features I’m most excited about, being a Red Sox fan and all is a documentary about dope smoking, commie pitcher Bill “The Spaceman” Lee. That should be a good one.

We’re working on getting a complete schedule for you, including prices of admission, etc. We’re looking forward to covering this, and if the dozen or so films we screened this afternoon are any indication, then we should be expecting an eclectic mix of films, all with individual points of view, some sad, some darkly comic, some just bizarre meditations. But it’s a nice respite from the usual Hollywood flicks that we watch so much of.

We’ll keep you posted!

And that’s just a-okay with us! Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Drugstore Cowboy, Elephant) has signed on to direct the big screen adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s seminal new-journalism tome The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Wolfe’s story followed author Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranskters as they rambled in an old bus named “Further” from California to New York. The gang attended Grateful Dead shows and turned on a generation of kids to LSD.

Van Sant seems like an interesting choice, as his visual style doesn’t exactly bring to mind the psychedelic day-glow vibe of that era. His camera always seems still and muted, the exact opposite of what you’d like to see out of this movie. But curiously enough, he was good friends with Ken Kesey and cast Kesey in his movie Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Combine that with his dedicating Good Will Hunting to the deceased Allen Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs, and dedicating Gerry to Kesey himself and it’s safe to assume he has nothing but love for that generation of authors.

Can’t wait for casting to begin, especially to see who will play Kesey and the aging Neil Cassady (as well as the younger version of him in Walter Salles On The Road adaptation).

Shortly after the Wolfe book was published in 1967, its film rights were purchased by entrepreneur Alfred Roven. Not a film producer, Roven had some meetings over the years with filmmakers but was very protective. When he died, Roven left the rights to his children, Daryn and Alison Roven. FilmColony’s Gladstein was introduced to them by attorney Peter Grossman, and for the first time, the rights were entrusted to a producer.

Van Sant, whose latest film, “Paranoid Park,” was honored at Cannes, signed on quickly. The filmmaker cast Kesey in his 1993 film “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and dedicated his 2002 film “Gerry” to the author, who died in 2001. Van Sant enlisted Black, with whom he’s collaborating on a biopic of slain San Francisco pol Harvey Milk.

It’s likely Wolfe will not be a major character in the film, which will focus on Kesey and include events that occurred after the road trip.

Glad to hear Tom Wolfe won’t be a character in the movie, even though it could be argued that his writing and voice was one of the major facets of the book. Kesey wrote many awesome novels, but will always be remembered for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Hunter S. Thompson was also apart of the Pranksters, but hopefully they’ll leave him out of this affair since Johnny Depp won’t, in all likelyhood, being playing the good doctor in the production. And after Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas does anyone really want to see anyone other than Johnny Depp lasso the role of the good doctor?

It’ll soon be time to get on the bus. . .