Trailers GALORE and MORE! (Big Thanks to Always Amazing Twitchfilm.net)

Doing some much needed news and trailer catch up today! Been bookmarking some of these for awhile now and meaning to get them, so today's the day. 

(Please forgive the site if it's slow to load, she just take a little patience)

• Teaming up once again with his muse and leading lady, Penelope Cruz, Pedro Almodovar bring us what will likely be another masterpiece, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces). The film, whose teaser trailer can be found below, is characterized as a "thriller/drama," but looks more like a spanish soap opera with better cinematography. Supposedly it will follow in the style of '50's American Noir. Sounds fancy. I'm all for it. Thanks to the Film Experience Blog for finding the poster!. It reminds me of the gorgeous one Almodovar did for Volver. This one will be the next to cover the walls of cinephiles. 
  

• God Joshua Jackson, first you go impressing me with Bobby and Fringe (which I can't believe is on ANOTHER frickin hiatus), and then a trailer like this comes out.... tisk tisk. One Week looks like it's trying to hard to be SO many things, it almost hurts to watch. And another movie about a terminally ill guy with a life changing road trip bites the dust. 

• Forgive the fact that unfortunately for now the Forest of Nemi promo has no audio, and focus on what's important. IT LOOKS AWESOME! Twitch always seems to find the best stuff. More to come from them below. 

• You've waited for it, and now here it is, the full trailer for 500 Days of Summer. Even though the new trailer gives a lot more insight into the movie and what it'll be like, I'm still fond of the original teaser. Something about the guy's constant narration stuck with me. Jeez Zooey, The Smiths? That was an easy one.  

• Tuesday DVD Release Rundown

• Australia
  
• Beverly Hills Chihuahua
  
• Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic
  
• Taken: Extended Harder Cut
  
• Wildfire: Season 3
  
• ER: The Complete 10th Season
  
• The Hills: The Complete 4th Season
  
• I've Loved You So Long
  

Yeah... there's not too much there this week unfortunately. 

• Sure the trailer for the crime noir film, Normal, is in a language you likely don't understand... but doesn't it look great anyway? Watching this made me want to rewatch Day Watch. 

• There's so much about this trailer that made me laugh. 1) It looks like one of those straight to DVD films about Jesus that they market to homeschooled evangelists. 2) It sounds like the voice actors didn't even try to remotely sound convincing. And finally 3) It sounds like Jan Jurgen (Justin Theroux) from Tropic Thunder: Rain of Madness is narrating. 

• I still have no idea what to make of this trailer for Memory of Bread, probably because there's not much to go on yet. except that it's a CG coming of age story set in the '60's. But I do know that the animation looks pretty amazing/a little freaky. Any knowledge or ideas on what this movie might have in store? 

• Last but definitely not least, Leonardo DiCaprio is the next big star set to team up with Christopher Nolan (hot off the success of Dark Knight) in a a film written by Nolan called Inception. The film is slated to be released in 2010, but of course it's too early to say. According to Variety, the studio is calling it a "contemporary sci-fi actioner set in the architecture of the mind." With Nolan, anything sounds promising. 
  

PLOT PUZZLE Winner and Runner-Up! Plus PLOT PUZZLE REVAMPED!

So here's the big news: I am totally going to be revamping PLOT PUZZLE. I realized that people just weren't into the whole "writing their own plots" idea, and are looking for something faster, and with a clearer winner. I hear ya' and I actually agree. The next PLOT PUZZLE (which will go up tomorrow) is going to be a nice simple, "guess that movie." I'll be taking stills from 1 film, collaging them together, and leaving it to you readers to guess what the film is.

But it won't be as easy as it sounds, I promise you. There won't be any "obvious" screenshots, so be prepared to get your thinking caps on (I think the last time I heard that phrase was in second grade). So this time, the only thing you'll need to do is guess the answer, and you're done! I'll still be giving you two weeks to send in your guesses, and there will be a link in the side bar again. More deets tomorrow!

AND NOW FOR THE WINNER OF THE FIRST AND LAST PLOT PUZZLE OF ITS KIND........

John Weir!

John's hilarious response to the first PLOT PUZZLE challenge kept me laughing for a good couple of minutes, and was by far the most outlandish/hilarious/creative of the group. Well done John!

John's Plot: A sequel to Dave Chappelle's Block Party goes horribly wrong when Maggie Gyllenhaal shows up with her fleet of zombie lovers. Quest Love and Mos Def join up with Hollywood rager Christian Bale, to fend off hordes of hip hop loving zombies. Special guest: Alec Baldwin. Highlight: Kanye West getting his heart ripped out and eaten while performing "Heartless."

First Runner-Up goes to Mark Grambau for his mythical sea creature featured plot!

Mark's Plot: High class hooker and con artist, Elaine (Maggie Gyllenhaal) has Leonard (Christian Bale) right where she wants him. Poised to make off with millions of the marine-turned banking executive's dollars, she is suddenly confronted by the demons of her past... literally. When Elaine was a child, she was possessed by the deranged soul of a mythical sea creature. Now her exorcism is wearing off. and she must fight to contain the beast within her. Now it seems it's up to Leonard to save the woman who was only after his fortune. Will he free her in time, or will Poseidon's feral beast consume her forever?

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the first PLOT PUZZLE! And I hope you'll check back tomorrow for a totally new, totally revamped PLOT PUZZLE 2!

HUMONGOUS SPOILER VID FOR TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

Turns out the new Terminator Salvation trailer isn't the most exciting Terminator news this week. If you've become a rabid T:TSCC fan like me, then today you're excited about two things:

1. We're a week away from what will obviously be the best ep of The Big Bang Theory to date because Summer Glau is guesting it up
   
2. Ask Ausiello released this (link below) amazing spoiler vid for the final six eps of the T:TSCC season which aired at Wondercon.
   

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Spoiler Vid!!!

I don't normally say omfg for anything but Gossip Girl, but, OMFG!

(had to watch it 3 times just to make sure I got everything)

Ignore the poster btw, the show now airs Fridays at 8pm on Fox

EYE CANDY MOVIE OF THE MONTH: Sita Sings The Blues (2008)

Sita Sings The Blues

Sita has been popping up everywhere these days. I first heard about the film through the JBFC when I found out we would be screening it next week. I saw the picture in our brochure, read the glowing praise, and thought that Sita Sings The Blues sounded like it could be interesting. Then I came across the blog entry Roger Ebert devoted to Sita. By this point I was already dying to see it, and the idea of waiting even another week seemed like too long. Then, low and Behold, Rope of Silicon alerted its readers that Sita was now available to watch in full through WNET's website. With a lovely Sunday afternoon free, awaiting the biggest snow storm of the season, it seemed like there was no better time than the present to give the movie a whirl. I imagined that I would like the film, but I never thought I would love it as much as I do. Sita is a completely original compilation of various animation techniques, an Indian folktale, and 1920's jazz music. And it's amazing.

Writer, Director, Animator and everything else-er Nina Paley found her inspiration for Sita in the most dire of circumstances. A few years ago, her husband took a "temporary" job in India leaving Nina behind, and eventually terminating their marriage while still abroad. Nina's existence became that of a refugee, couch hopping between friend's apartments and mourning the loss of her man. This story ends up being woven into the film, and while it may seem a little out of place at first, it's a great personal tie in to the fable from Nina's perspective, and humorous in a kind of terribly sad way. But somehow out of all this, came something wonderful. During her brief visit to India, Nina learned the story of Sita and Rama, a couple who began very much in love and devoted to each other, but who ultimately broke apart due to the Rama's pride, ignorance and stupidity. Who knew how close to home the story would ultimately hit.

The short synopsis is as follows: Sita Sings The Blues follows 3 story lines. First, Sita is a goddess who finds herself separated from her beloved husband and lord Rama. Second, Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India and dumps her via email (sound familiar?). Third, 3 hilarious shadow puppets narrate the ancient tragedy and modern humor of the original Indian folktale, Ramayana. All of this is set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw. The 3 interwoven tales rightfully earn the tag line of "the Greatest Break-up Story Ever Told."

What makes the film unique even more than the just the blending of 3 story lines with the ballads of little known jazz singer Hanshaw, is the blending of 3 different types of animation. You will see traditional hand drawn 2D animation, along with cut outs, collages, and even some tapestry inspired hand painted backgrounds. It could have easily all bled together in a mish mosh, overwhelming and incoherent, but somehow the 3 pieces work together, complimenting each other and making the whole film feel precious and intimate. This is clearly a painstaking labor of love, and worth every minute. It couldn't have been easy for Paley to revisit her husband's brutal departure over and over again, but then again, it was likely a catharisis. When the film was finished, it must have felt like she finally got that monkey off her back. You go girl! The rich colors that envelop Indian culture run rampant in Sita. They are dazzling, and one of the first things that drew me to the film. From the turquoise of Rama to the hot pink lotus blossoms that seem to pop up everywhere (one scene in particular, and you'll know what I mean when you see it), color was a massively addressed aspect of Sita, and I commend Paley for her keen color eye. Her comics background no doubt helped inform choices for character designs. Rama's look likely took a few ques from the Genie in Disney's Aladdin, while Sita is a ethnic take on the voluptuously iconic Betty Boop. Each character comes complete with big wide eyes and simple "cute" expressions, characteristics hailing from the anime world. In fact one of the first things this reminded me of was a show I'm 

quickly becoming addicted to called Pucca. Pucca is a simple, but vibrantly colorful animated show, following it's title character Pucca, a noodle delivery girl, who's madly in love with Garu, a ninja boy who's just not that into her. Most eps revolve around Pucca desperately trying to smooch Garu, and his increasingly odd travels to escape her clawing attention. It's too adorable for words as you can see on the left, and it very much resembles Sita, in it's alarmingly cute character drawings. "Alarmingly cute" accounts for just one third of the film though. Wobbly line drawings help represent Nina's marriage falling apart, while very simple paper cut outs are used for the three ridiculously funny shadow puppets who teach us about Sita and Rama (anyone else think of the muses from Hercules when they saw that? Just me... ok).

By the time I finished Sita, I was racking my brain trying to come up with reasons why the film wasn't bigger, why more people didn't know about it. That's when I came across Margy Rochlin's NYTimes article explaining that the film was being held back on account of violating copyright law. The lovely Hanshaw songs are owned by a variety of individuals that charge thousands of dollars for their use, making Nina's inclusion of them in the film illegal... that's a bitch considering they practically are the film and non-replaceable. But Paley charges on, making the film available

with a "creative commons attribution-share alike license" (what a mouthful). I don't know what this ultimately means for the film, but for now it doesn't matter because as I said at the beginning, you can currently watch the movie for free online here at WNET! You can also do as I plan to, and order the DVD direct from Paley starting sometime in April (hopefully). That's right, I liked it that much. So find 81 minutes somewhere in your busy schedules and watch March's Eye Candy Movie of the Month, Sita Sings The Blues. By the end you may be smiling from ear to ear just like Ebert!

New Terminator Salvation Trailer complete with Epic Soundtrack

I have to say this trailer got me a lot more excited than the first one. I love the idea of the robots becoming so advanced, they don't even know they're not human anymore. Brilliant, even though it's been done before. Anyone wanna guess what the now infamous freak out scene was? 

Another Brilliant Leibovitz

Well it sure beats the original! See below.
Keep it up Apatow crew.

Between The Aisles on Cut Print Review!

IT'S OFFICIAL! 

I'm now a contributing writer for Cut Print Review! Each Saturday I'll be posting a movie news column called Between The Aisles, which will cover the best/most interesting news and previews from the week. Here on Do You Have a Flag?, I try to post things every day, whether they're good or bad, but Between The Aisles will be a consolidated version of only the very best. As always, feedback and comments are appreciated! I hope you'll head over to Cut Print Review for your weekly movie news bulletin, and stay tuned because there will likely be more monthly columns coming from me soon. 

And make sure you check out the rest of the site! Anders, Katina, Elise and other various contributors do an amazing job with the site and write really incredible film reviews.