“A surprising, challenging, engrossing film, TONY MANERO marks Pablo Larraín as a serious talent.”
-Todd Brown, Twitch Film

“Holding it all together is an unnerving lead performance by Alfredo Castro, who looks nothing like Travolta, and a lot like Al Pacino marinaded in embalming fluid. I can recall few screen presences as off-puttingly ratty, but [Castro's] opaque, tight-lipped sullenness is hideously, inscrutably magnetic.”
-Johnathoan Romney, The Independent

4th of July weekend usually means huge 100 million dollar CGEye-sores that star Will Smith.  Luckily, we dodged the Big Willie bullet this year, but there are still plenty of no-expense-spared behemoths roaming the theaters to satiate even the most spray-on of appetites.   But I’d like to suggest an altogether different way to celebrate America this year.

With an independent film from Chile.

The title of Pablo Larrain’s darkly comic psycho-thriller references John Travolta’s disco-sick lead from SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and you can not get any more American than that.  In the hierarchy of Americana, it goes Tony Manero, bald eagles, 0% financing, apple pie and then that scene in RETURN OF THE JEDI when the speeder bikes are going through trees (sorry baseball).  The fact that our culture has spread so far as Santiago to be used as allegory for a foreign sociopolitical climate should be worn on all of us like a badge of goddamned pride.  I may be reaching, probably am, but just because this one doesn’t have robots doesn’t mean it should be sloughed off as un-American, okay McCarthy?  At the very least, we should celebrate the free society we live in where great films from around the globe are so readily available for our enjoyment.

TONY MANERO plays July 1st, 5th & 6th at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.  To read more about it and to get tickets, click here.

Happy 4th of July!

That’s right. The Thursday July 9 midnight show of Bruno at the Ritz is for sale. Get your tickets now!

The film opens for a full run at the Alamo Ritz on Friday, July 10.

Sacha Baron Cohen, who made you laugh till you puked as BORAT, returns to the big screen, this time as Bruno, the gay Austrian fashion show host on a mission to strike it rich in America. Just as Borat wandered America, making people everywhere feel uncomfortable, so does the unstoppable Bruno.

And get there early for a huge preshow of Bruno’s best TV clips and publicity whoredom.

Fantastic Fest and HorrorSquad present THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!!

Over the course of my non-stop flick-hoppings, I’ve become a small and unofficial cog in the Fantastic Fest machine. (Let’s say I’m half-consultant and half-cheerleader.) Tim League and his Alamo team scour the globe for the best in horror, sci-fi, action, etc., but I’ve been known to drop those guys a line when an interesting flick crosses my path. (Or when I’m just really bored. Curse you, caller ID!!) So here’s some exciting news for those who A) live in Austin, B) love new horror movies, and C) are sure they can tolerate my presence for two consecutive hours:

July 22nd! 10pm! Alamo Ritz! THE COLLECTOR with Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton in attendance!! And they’re nice guys! Yes, the guys who wrote FEAST, SAW 4, FEAST 2, SAW 5, FEAST 3, SAW 6 and THE COLLECTOR will be at the theater to A) eat cheese fries, B) drink beer, C) watch their movie on the big screen, and D) stand up for a Q$A thingy! It’s going to be fun. I decree it to be so.

THE COLLECTOR, as you may know, was recently known as MIDNIGHT MAN, but it switched titles when it jumped over from Dimension to Freestyle. The plan is for the film to hit theaters on July 31 (which is why they couldn’t just hold it for Fantastic Fest: September is after July), and I’ve already heard from the likes of Ryan “Rotten” Turek, Rodney Perkins, and (yes) Tim League that this is one kick-ass horror show! And now a few words from first-time director Marcus Dunstan: “Well, we just received our R rating after four trips to the MPAA, and I’m happy to say that none of the film’s impact has been lost. Matter of fact, their notes made some scenes hit even harder! We’re beyond lucky to be a part of Fantastic Fest again, even if it is a few months early this time. Austin welcomed FEAST with open arms, and I am over-the-moon excited to bring THE COLLECTOR to a city that loves movies so much.”

In response, Tim League had this to say: “This movie rocks.”

Important notes:

Admission to this screening is free. 2009 Fantastic Fest badge-holders can RSVP in advance by emailing brad@originalalamo.com with “THE COLLECTOR ROCKS” in the subject line. Badge-Holders who rsvp will be seated first come, first served. Non-badge-holders are welcome to attend subject to availability; simply arrive at the theater 45 minutes before the show. For more information on Fantastic Fest, please visit the official website at www.fantasticfest.com.

The first wave of content for Fantastic Fest will be posted there on July 13!
-Scott Weinberg, the Horror Squad

About two months ago, we worked with 2009 Fantastic Fest artist Jon Vermilyea to make a shirt for one of the best horror movies ever made, THE DEADLY SPAWN. Said shirt was a big success and sold out. Lately, we’ve been getting several emails asking, “When will you be doing more shirts with Jon?” To answer that question, I say soon. Jon has probably two or three more shirts coming up in the near future not counting the 2009 Fantastic Fest shirt and poster. To hold you over until then, we’ve decided to release this shirt in two more colorways…BLACK and SLIME.

We’re also super excited about our brand new Badass Cinema shirt. ZOMBIES! Not just ZOMBIES, but PUNK ZOMBIES! Zombies are wild to begin with, but add a punk rock soundtrack to the mayhem and forget about it!

These are available online or in-store now!

-Justin

Well it is time for our biennial reunion with our friends from Hogwarts and the Alamo is prepared with the goods to make your wizardly dreams come true.

This is one of my favorite times to be working for the Alamo.  Harry Potter was one of our first big feasts, selling out five  shows  way back when for the Goblet of Fire.

Now with the Half Blood Prince, our third Potter menu, I am given another opportunity to prove to all the doubters that all English food is not some sort of boiled meat or stuffed entrail.  We will be pairing each course with some tasty British ales and a

first

scallop-mushroom pie

Second

cauliflower and carrot terrine, mustard vinaigrette

third

chilled leek soup

fourth

roast pheasant supreme wrapped in house cured bacon, Cumberland sauce, potato-stilton gratin, fresh peas

fifth

bramble berry pudding, lavender cream

Our first feast is up and selling out quickly.  We will add more dates to meet your mugglish demand.

Way back in March, I announced that we had commissioned Jon Vermilyea to produce artwork for the 2009 Fantastic Fest poster. Every year, the Fantastic Fest programmers go all out attempting to bring you things that you’ve never seen before. To me, the poster should be no different. With monsters being the theme this year, we set out to do something we’ve never attempted before. Instead of having a poster with the normal 2 dimensions that you are all accustomed to, we thought, “Why not up the ante and make it 3?!” Here we are…the day has come…I can’t wait any longer…Behold! This year’s 3D FANTASTIC FEST POSTER!

What do you all think? I can tell you that when I first saw the linework for the poster I said “shit” really loud. When I saw this final with color, I said something much worse.

Many of you might be asking, “Well, if it’s 3D, where are all the red and blue lines?” You will find none of that here. We used a very special process called Chromadepth. With your poster you will receive a pair of glasses. The special specks react with the colors and stretch the image to make it 3 dimensional. You can read more about the process here, but essentially, warm colors shoot out at you and cooler colors fall back into the background. If you have 3D Chromadepth glasses with you right now, feel free to put them on and take a gander. If not, feel free to stop in at the Mondo shop anytime and ask to use ours.

Not only did Jon destroy the poster, he did an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT image for the shirt.

So there you have it. This is just a taste of what you can expect from Fantastic Fest this year. We will no doubt have more announcements and surprises for you soon, so stay tuned. The Fantastic Fest poster and shirt will be on sale at Mondo soon!

-Justin

P.S. If you can’t wait to get your hands on the Fantastic Fest shirt from Jon Vermilyea, you can order a DEADLY SPAWN shirt right now! The last run sold out quick so we brought it back in two new colorways…black and slime!

A great tradgedy struck us all yesterday as the undisputed King of Pop was taken from us at the age of 50.

We had a last minute tribute show to honor the King last night and to say the least…it was EPIC! We’ve scheduled more shows for tonight and this weekend and have also decided to bring out our commemorative Michael Jackson shirt one last time!

This shirt is going to be super limited and only available here at Mondo! Click on the shirt above to purchase!

Some of these are in the preshows for the Michael Jackson Tribute Sing-Along, and the others will be. But while we’re all thinking about MJ today, these are videos you probably aren’t cueing up in your playlist. But you should.

Thomas Humphreys clued me into the existence of this little beauty made with John Landis, in 1997, Michael Jackson’s Ghosts:

Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy, the pop duo the world DEMANDED:

That one will destroy your brain, so watch a your own risk.

But my personal favorite, and one that makes me sad to watch today, is Roberta Flack and teenaged MJ singing about who they’ll be when they grow up.

Alamo creative director Henri Mazza has been doing Michael Jackson Sing-Alongs for years now- not out of irony or spite, but from true respect and admiration for an artist many had written off. Henri was even the mastermind behind the record-breaking Thriller Dance where nearly 900 Thriller-trained dancers showed up to smash the previous record, as well as the Dia de Los Muertos Thriller parade. Jackson’s music has the power to unite the world in one big beautiful dance party, Henri knows this and the Michael Jackson Sing-Along is proof.

While we mourn the loss of Michael Jackson, a silent vigil doesn’t feel quite right for a man so steeped in the extreme. Instead, come join us  at the Alamo to celebrate the life of an American legend.

There are three shows left:

Alamo Village, Saturday, 6/27 10:45

Alamo Ritz, Friday, 7/3 midnight

Alamo Ritz, Saturday, 7/4 midnight

After that, we will be retiring the show until September when we start gearing up to break our own world record Thriller Dance in October.

FOOD, INC
Opening Friday, June 25, at the Alamo Ritz
Advance tix available here

How much do we really know about the food we buy at our local supermarkets and serve to our families?

In FOOD, INC., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA.

Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli–the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farm’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, FOOD, INC. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.