Bob Ray needs dough to fund his newest documentary TOTAL BADASS! Help an Austinite out and take a look at his KICKSTARTER campaign to donate!

Also, check out their fundraiser screening of the film, Thursday, March 18th at Alamo South Lamar. You can purchase tickets HERE!

We celebrate a lot of things at the Alamo Drafthouse. Exploitation cinema, good food, great beer, dance parties, film festivals, but most importantly independent film. We’ve helped a lot of baby films (and I mean that in a very non-patronizing way – I’m talking “baby” versus “gigantor studio films”) get off the ground with screenings, and with our amazing customers and film-junkies spreading news via word-of-mouth. Right now, we’ve got a filmmaker that needs a boost so he can get his documentary off the ground, and we though you’d be the perfect audience to direct this call too.

Bob Ray is trying to launch his newest film, a documentary titled TOTAL BADASS that chronicles the hilarious, crazy-ass writer/publisher/singer/weed-dealer/sex addict/Guinea pig enthusiast/dad/pirate radio host/raconteur and general man-about-town, Chad Holt, as he rides out the last six months of felony probation and subsequently must change his ways when a financial crisis befalls his estranged family.

Here’s the skinny, Bob’s trying to raise $5,000 IN THREE DAYS! He sure as hell can’t do it alone. Take a look at his KICKSTARTER campaign where you can donate, receiver perks, and spread the word. Hell, if you throw in enough cash, you’ll be Bob’s new executive producer!

About the filmmaker: Austin-based filmmaker Bob Ray’s previous work includes the award winning stoner-comedy feature ROCK OPERA, the critically acclaimed roller derby documentary HELL ON WHEELS, music videos for Grammy™ nominees Nashville Pussy, Riverboat Gamblers, Golden Arm Trio, and many more, as well as short films and ‘toons for Playboy and Turner Networks.

About the funding: “At this point, I have received no outside funding for this documentary. I am doing all I can to keep the budget as low as possible and I have a strong history of completing films with limited funds. However, the biggest logistical hurdle in filmmaking is still the cost.

Funding for this type of film is scarce to non-existent. The money-baggers of the filmmaking world show little interest in funding stories off the beaten path, particularly stories about the subculture, the underground and the weirdoes and freaks that keep life interesting.

Over the course of the past two years, we have managed to shoot and edit the film and have spent $7,293 in doing so. We have locked the picture and are now approaching the unavoidable expenses related to finishing the film. We’re currently raising funds to foot the bill for the expenses necessary for preparing a film for exhibition and broadcast, including: color correction, music licensing, audio mixing, printing, shipping, promotion, master to tape and related tasks.”

THE GHOST WRITER opens this week at Lamar.

OK, yes, Roman Polanski has done some real bad stuff. Real, real bad.

He’s also a superlative master of this thing we call film. If he’s not the best around, he’s close. He also makes movies for that dying breed – grown-ups. Not perennial post-adolescents, not boring old farts – grown-ups. Literate people with mature priorities, a sense of irony and an appreciation for the finer aspects of film, writing and the other arts.

So, THE GHOST WRITER is not TRON, it’s not IRON MAN, OK? What it is is a spectacularly well directed entertainment, something we don’t see as often as we’d like to, with note-perfect casting, revelatory performances (Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan, Kim Cattrall), a solid striding pace full of tension, paranoia and perfectly played suspense; and that other thing we don’t get as much of as we’d like – if we’re honest about it – a great ending.

I feel a little protective of THE GHOST WRITER because a new Polanski film is bound to appear in the middle of a firestorm of controversy and this is an excellent, quietly compelling work – not a tortured man’s scream of desperation but an extremely solid, professional political thriller. It’s out of step with the tone of the cultural discourse about the man and his sins. We demand fire, he gives us ice.

This movie could never have been made by anyone but Polanski. When an artist reaches 76 years of age, each new work is a gift. We won’t have many more Polanski films, the fact that this one is so good is a tender blessing. (Lars)

If you like having a good time, your life has just been improved by 10,000%.

EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE! are the bona fide internet sensation video collective responsible for some of history’s most intriguing viral videos. From the yoga farmer teaching kids to stretch (creepily) to Cat Massage (just what you’d think), these guys are mining the VHS universe for all the best – and worst – bits. This isn’t some youtube compilation party. Every video is original, fantastic and fucked up beyond belief. A truly haunting look into America’s freakish past!!

Their daily postings of genuinely ridiculous videos and out-of-context movie scenes ripped from old VHS releases have been hailed by MTV, Fox, Time, BoingBoing, Buzzfeed, WFMU, Videogum, Best Week Ever, The Soup, and Jezebel, while the CBC deemed it simply “The best site ever.” But what separates EIT from the rest has to be their live show. The group will personally take you by the collective hands on a journey that asks: What if THE NEVERENDING STORY, THE HOLY MOUNTAIN and that weird sex cult scene from EYES WIDE SHUT all got together and made a baby? Now multiply that by a thousand and you’re still nowhere near the feeling of pleasure it brings. Your face will probably melt off, so come prepared with an extra face…

Tickets to this once-in-a-lifetime brain-fryer are CHEAP! Get ‘em HERE!

AND… while you’re at it, gird your loins for next Wednesday’s completely insane VIVA VHS!, a life-mangling celebration of the most impossibly outrageous slivers of VHS impossibility, all lost in the Great VHS/DVD War until now, where they’ll be uncovered in a blazing lazer tornado of ridiculously powerful entertainment! Don’t believe it? BELIEVE IT.

Cheap-as-dirt VIVA VHS tickets are HERE!

Our exclusive run of the new Werner Herzog/David Lynch film starts today. The Austin reviews are pouring in, and most are just as excited about this provocative film as we are.

John DeFore of The Austin American Statesman, in his review “‘My Son’ continues Herzog’s interest in bizarre,” writes:

“Herzog returns to cinema with a tale full of the mad, primal impulses and enigmatic directorial flourishes that since the ’70s have made him difficult for daring cinephiles to ignore.”

“In the end, Herzog refuses to suggest an explanation for the man’s breakdown, but he paints a picture of it in a way that perhaps only he can.”

Caitlin Moore of The Austinist writes in her review:

“Brad’s behavior in the film is deeply frightening, but there are other emotions swirling around as well. Brad seems to have absorbed the utter craziness that the world is so often capable of.”

“Creepily entertaining in that specific Lynchian/Herzogian way, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? will probably leave many audience members saying “So What?” to this tense, stylistic exploration of one man’s descent into madness, and others will love it in spite of (or because of) its dementedness.”

Stephen Jannise of Austin Cinephile writes in his review, “MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE proves that two head cases are better than one:”

“Herzog has essentially walked into one of Lynch’s mad-houses and emerged feeling concerned with how far adrift our civilization and all its trappings have taken us…This is a topic that you will likely not see discussed in any other film, a topic of challenging ideas that necessarily results in a challenging film. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to engage with these ideas and enjoy a beautiful, unique film from two of our most consistently inspiring filmmakers.”

Check out some of the national reviews of the film in our previous blog post.

Tickets are available here for the limited engagement of this new film. One week only! At the Ritz.

I’m a big fan of David Edelstein.  He’s smart, perceptive and usually steers me in the right direction.  I’m pleased with myself when my personal tastes align with his.  He just posted an article on some of the year-end releases with oscar potential and issued a rave about the Fantastic Fest Audience Award Winner A TOWN CALLED PANIC:

“The Belgian animated feature, A Town Called Panic, plays as if one day its directors, Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar, smoked very strong hashish and stumbled on a chest of old plastic toys—a little cowboy and an Indian in a headdress, a horse, some cows and pigs and a farmer (and his wife), and piles of other bric-a-brac—and free-associated a demented scenario against cutout scenery about roommates Cowboy and Indian wanting 50 bricks for a barbecue for Horse’s birthday and accidentally ordering 50 million and wrecking their house and rebuilding it but having the walls stolen every night by sea creatures and chasing them underwater and getting captured by mad scientists and on and on ad absurdum … and hilarium. The blurty voices and jerky animation recall South Park (which I mean as a high compliment), but the film has a transcendent silliness all its own. Kids might not go for it; all the subtitled French babble could be bewildering. The rest of us will want whatever Aubier and Patar were smoking.”

I assume they’re wearing tights, but the camera never holds on their legs long enough for me to see if these men are in tights or not…

Also, while we can clearly see arrows being let go in slow motion, the trailer for the new Ridley Scott ROBIN HOOD does not show any firey arrows flying at my face in slow motion AT ALL. What does that mean for the quality of the movie? Probably nothing, but I’m in my 30s, so I’ll always have a special place in my heart for PRINCE OF THIEVES (which is probably why I play Everything I Do at every Love Bites Sing-Along).

Other people on the web are making fun of the trailer because it looks pretty much exactly like GLADIATOR (except with a forest instead of Roman architecture), and yeah, most of what we see here is Russell Crowe yelling at things. But… There is that slow motion shot of the arrow being let go. And a wolf. And a really foggy forest. And I think the first time we see Crowe as Hood it’s during Medieval D-Day.

Do all of those elements equal an awesome movie? It’s too soon to tell. But let’s try to figure it out anyway:

With no Bryan Adams themesong, though, it’s hard to imagine what soundtrack high school kids will be awkwardly slow dancing to at their prom this spring. Maybe Oo-De-Lally can get a much needed comeback?

Also, have I ever confessed to you that my first celebrity crush was the animated Maid Marian fox? Because that’s true, and I’m not ashamed. When I finally graduated from preschool and first heard other kids calling a pretty girl “foxy” I naturally assumed that they were also comparing her to Maid Marian.

Last week I had the opportunity to check out the new opus ME AND ORSON WELLES by local film hero Richard Linklater. While I was rather disappointed to miss the chance to sing a High School Musical duet with Zac Efron at the Highball after-party (I had been practicing Start of Something New), I was elated to witness one of the greatest acting performances I’ve seen in a long time. Newcomer Christian McKay bursts on to the screen with an incredible tour-de-force performance as a very young Orson Welles in the throes of producing his now-legendary stage production of JULIUS CAESAR. Brash, bold, brilliant, arrogant and truly childish, the gigantic personality of one of cinema’s greatest auteurs was brought to life with such realism that I often lost the sense that I was watching a modern film and felt I was instead viewing archival footage of Welles holding court.

ME AND ORSON WELLES opens Friday at the Alamo South Lamar.  We’re hoping that this one falls into the category of “the little film that could.” There’s very little national-level promotion and the lead is a total unknown, but if you A) want to see one of the most electrifying performances of the year, B) love Shakespeare or Orson Welles or C) fantasize about singing duets with Zac Efron (the “me” of ORSON WELLES AND ME), then this is your sure-bet movie ticket this weekend.

Tickets and info here.

Our second annual New Year’s celebration of classic cinema, cocktails and cuisine at The Ritz!!

2008’s screening of AFTER THE THIN MAN was a true extravaganza, bringing together an incredible drinking/dining experience with one of the greatest film’s of Hollywood’s golden era. This year, we’re stepping it up with the flat-out greatest New Year’s film in the world: Billy Wilder’s 1960 masterpiece THE APARTMENT, a brilliantly written, fast-paced, heartbreakingly hilarious adventure of a poor schlub (a young, bumbling Jack Lemmon) who just can’t steer things right to fall into the good graces of the most wonderful woman in town (a young, unbelievably charming Shirley MacLaine). In his way are an innumerable number of comic obstacles, including the great Fred MacMurray and Ray Walston as self-serving high-rollers content to kick dirt in the face of anyone who crosses them.

It’s a gorgeously shot, perfectly constructed, fun-as-hell monument to filmmaking at its very best (in AFI’s Top 100 films!), and we’re pleased to bring it to you along with a very special menu with drink pairings to ring in the new decade, all prepared by our chefs John Bullington and Elijah Horgan, with accompanying beverages masterminded by bar wizard Amy Patton (drink list pending):

First course:
Club Sandwich (don’t forget to remove the toothpick)
Layers of smoked pheasant, jamon serrano, Pure Luck chevre, arugula, organic plum tomatoes and truffle aioli on ficelle

Second course:
Lobster Rickshaw Boy
Sweet and sour lobster with Maitake dumpling

Third course:
Victim’s Chicken Noodle Soup
Organic chicken with ginger noodles with local organic spring vegetables in saffron consomme

Fourth course:
Garlic and valpolicella braised lamb shank atop spaghetti in a fresh tomato sauce with gremolada

Dessert course:
Strawberry chocolate fruitcake with champagne sabayon and Lemmon cookie crumble

The Alamo New Year’s event of the decade! Tickets on sale HERE on Friday Dec 4 at 3:00 PM! It’ll be the best ticket in town…fun-wise!!

Ho. Ly. Smokes.

We’ll admit, we were initially merely amused at the prospect of the new BAD LIEUTENANT film. Mid-career action convert Nicolas Cage starring in a film from German renaissance wildman Werner Herzog? Sure, we’ll watch that. An advance screening rolled around about a week ago and the programmers gathered together to give the movie a fair viewing.

Two hours later, our faces were obliterated. It’s no joke: BAD LIEUTENANT is the BEST FILM OF 2009. I swear on my granny. It’s a perfectly assembled, harrowing, hilarious, one-of-a-kind film, and deserves to be seen by everyone between the ages of 16 and 3000. Nicolas Cage does things that no actor has ever done in a movie. Herzog takes chances that pay off without fail. There are invisible iguanas and breakdancing ghosts. And it all ties together in a tight, completely linear storyline. That’s some kinda miracle and these guys did it.

It’s everything you could want on a screen, and we’re not even the only ones who think so. Take a look at some of these rave reviews from normally respectable sources:

“An original, offbeat and rewarding cop story with Nicolas Cage in great form.” – Hollywood Reporter

“Here, Nicolas Cage is a fearless actor. He doesn’t care if you think he goes over the top…he will crawl to the top hand over hand with bleeding fingernails. ” – Roger Ebert

“Like a jumpy, coke-fueled Pied Piper, Cage takes viewers to the very precipice of depraved self-abasement, while preserving just enough self-conscious humor to keep from tumbling in.” – Washington Post

“A vividly acted and directed movie that stretches the boundaries of its genre and keeps you in its ever-unpredictable grip throughout.” -BoxOffice

…These are just the tip of the iceberg. This Nicolas Cage crime movie is the most outrageous, entertaining night at the movies you’ll have until the actual Mayan apocalypse.

Believe it.

Check out the show page HERE!