The Taxi Driver restored print is pretty exciting, looks great on BluRay so I can only imagine what it's like in the theater. Submarine seems like it could be good, but also could be overly twee. I'm kind of hoping they announce Attack the Block and Tree of Life soon. In terms of documentaries, Fire in Babylon and Bobby Fisher versus the world seem interesting.

When is the last time they actually ran a 70mm print through the 70mm projectors at The Civic?

Hyped strange picks that I'm hoping will play (although I'm away for 1 week of the festival so not sure how much I'll get to see this year)
Troll Hunter
Hobo With A Shotgun
13 Assassins
Man From Nowhere
I Saw The Devil

Hanging out for TROLL HUNTER.

I SAW THE DEVIL wouldn't go astray either.

Also: DRIVE; MELANCHOLIA; Miike's HARA-KIRI.

Michael Rapaport's A Tribe Called Quest doco!

HARA-KIRI sounds like it's nowhere near as good as 13 ASSASSINS, or as unhinged as NINJA KIDS.

My list, apart from previously mentioned titles: ATTENBERG, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, ELENA, THE SKIN I LIVE IN, TAKE SHELTER, KILL LIST, OKI'S MOVIE, THE DAY HE ARRIVES, THE YELLOW SEA, SOUND OF NOISE, BELLFLOWER, GENERAL ORDERS NO. 9, SEPTIEN, THE TURIN HORSE, MY JOY, THE FOUR TIMES, OUTRAGE, and the already confirmed SNOWTOWN.

But if I could only have one movie: TABLOID (the new Errol Morris).

would also like to see:
MY SON MY SON WHAT HAVE YE DONE, CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (in 3D!!), SMALL TOWN MURDER SONGS, FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL, HESHER, THE LADY FROM SOCKHOLM (sock-puppet noir!!), ELECTRA LUXX, ANOTHER EARTH, SOUND OF MY VOICE, CROPSEY, 45365.

and, yeah, I agree Doug: TABLOID looks great!

I had never heard of a few of those. SMALL TOWN MURDER SONGS looks great! FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL seems to have pretty naff reviews on Rotten Tomatoes - any reason it strikes your eye?

I think MY SON MY SON was passed over last year, though I could be wrong. CAVE would be great, as would Wim Wenders' 3D PINA. And I'm definitely psyched for ANOTHER EARTH, SOUND OF MY VOICE, and 45365.

in reply to fallback:

I've seen clips from FAQ and it looks like a lot of fun.

Aside from those already mentioned:

ATTACK THE BLOCK
SUPER

Just hope more decent stuff plays Palmerston North, or at least that they announce the line-ups for each festival at the same/similar time, so I know what I have to get down to Wellington for.

I don't know about SUPER, I watched it and felt a little cold towards it. I think James Gunn struck gold with SLITHER, but SUPER has an intensely weird indie combined with ultra-violence vibe that doesn't gel completely. But when it does work, SUPER is really goddamn funny.

in reply to Matt Typhoid:

*facepalm* I had forgotten about ATTACK THE BLOCK!! Almost a shoe-in for ISFF this year, I'd say.

if SUPER plays, it will mean I will have to renege on my oath of no more superhero movies after almost inflicting violence on myself after seeing X MEN: FIRST CLASS.

Wait, seven years ago someone shot a sock puppet film noir on 16mm, and I am only hearing about it now!!?!?!

DEVIL'S ROCK as new local feature?

and I'm almost certain the new Miranda July feature THE FUTURE will play.

I've got FAQ about time travel. I loved it. Its not "underground" in the classic "lots of nazi rape" sense, but its kinda the ultimate wannabe filmmaker movie for me. Using 48-hour style optimization techniques they milk a ton out of a skeleton budget and a single location. I often see movies and think "man, i'd love to see that film as it was in the director's head before it got a hollywood enema". FAQ is that. It is a couple of guys off the grid aiming high and trying to create a movie with high end production value that is also "exactly the movie they want to make. Its the first movie in a long time for me that had that "repo man" tingle in the air.

If your dream is to relive the 60s drug-cinema scene or DP a DIE HARD movie, then it might not appeal. My dream has always been to make the quirky movies in my head but up to the cinema standards of a major release... and to me thats what FAQ felt like i was watching. A humorous scifi geek film made by funny scifi geek filmmakers. CHOICE!

cool, sounds well worth a look ... I was basing my snap evaluation on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews, which were either negative or very reserved in their praise. (Some quotes from POSITIVE reviews: "feels like a stretched-out TV pilot", "it doesn't quite achieve the same standards as its recent forebears in British genre comedy", "hardly groundbreaking", "you can't help feeling they could have done a lot more with the premise".)

Fair enough. I mean, its *not* groundbreaking, and its rougher around the edges than most bbc projects. I suppose one perspective is that it aimed to be a hollywood film and failed. For some reason I saw it as a simple/quirky scifi fan flick that got a budget and used it to up the production value.

My perspective seemed to be reinforced when i checked out the imdb reviews and the filmmakers themselves were posting reactions to the praise and criticism - much like you'd see here.

If FAQ was shot on vhs and had cardboard cutouts for sfx, i think people would be able to "get" it more and it could have cult status. By adding production value it loses that "cred"... which is a shame because adding slick production value to my half-baked ideas is exactly my game plan. heh.

I think there is actually a valley, where adding production value at some point reduces the charm of one's film without giving it enough polish to make it feel truly professional.

(I could go into a long discussion here about the distinction between "production value" and having somebody behind the lens with a cinematic vision, but that would ultimately bore everybody.)

latest announcement...

Page One: Inside the New York Times
Tabloid
Miss Representation
Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure

in reply to Steve Austin:

FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL

Best opening scene I've seen for a long time.