The Screengrab : winnebago man

Screengrab Gush: Every Little Step

Andrew Osborne — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Back in April, I offered a first quarter wrap-up of my favorite movies from the first three months of 2009, and -- but for the impending demise of the Screengrab -- I would have returned on July 1 with my second quarter wrap-up, which surely would have included the ridiculously entertaining Star Trek reboot, the moving biopic Grey Gardens (which counts towards my film list since I saw it on the big screen and also because it’s HBO, which is apparently not TV) and the festival favorite Winnebago Man, all of which have been previously reviewed and justly praised on this blog.

The other Q2 movie I’ve seen with a good chance of winding up on my year-end Top Ten is the documentary Every Little Step, a chronicle of the 1975 origin and 2006 revival of A Chorus Line built around the stories of the young hopefuls and veteran gypsies involved in the real-life audition process for Broadway’s classic musical about the audition process.

And yet, as noted in the title of this post, I’m so firmly ensconced in the film’s target demographic that I can’t even really review it: I can only gush how much I, personally, was moved by its depiction of people bound to and by their often cruel and sometimes exhilarating (but always risky and generally low-paying) creative arts vocations in a world that cares a helluva lot more about science, math and the bottom line: you know, the whole “What I Did For Love” thing...

...but maybe you’re NOT familiar with the show biz anthem “What I Did For Love” or any of the other characters or songs associated with A Chorus Line. Maybe you don’t already have fond memories of the musical’s spunky 4’ 10” Asian chorus girl Connie, and so you won’t be inherently fascinated by the revelation that the character was based on Baayork Lee, Broadway’s original Connie (and a member of the revival’s creative team), one of the real-life dancers whose stories Michael Bennett and his collaborators incorporated into the book and lyrics of their Tony-sweeping production. And maybe, if you don’t know about Bennett’s early death from AIDS-related lymphoma in 1987, you’ll miss the melancholy undertow of the documentary’s otherwise jubilant razzle-dazzle.

Still, even with no foreknowledge of the show in question, the “God I hope I get it!” reality show suspense of the audition structure, where we ultimately get to know two candidates for each of several roles (knowing in the end there can be only one, Highlander-style) may be enough to entertain audiences who don’t know “Dance Ten, Looks Three” from “Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen” and haven’t been to a theater since their high school talent show. (Me, I was rooting for the cute little Asian girl who was down to her last unemployment check.) So go ahead, add it to that Netflix queue: even if you're not a flaming theater geek, at least it'll tide you over 'til the next season of So You Think You Can Dance With The Stars of American Idol's Got Talent!

The Screengrab Highlight Reel: April 25-May 1, 2009

Scott Von Doviak — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Hi, it’s Vince with Screengrab and you’re gonna be in a great mood all day cuz you’ll be grabbin’ your troubles away with Screengrab. Ya like lists? We got lists. How about Great Beginnings: Screengrab’s Favorite Opening Scenes of All Time? We got Parts One, Two and Three. But come on, that’s not good enough. Tell ya what, we’ll throw in Parts Four and Five, no extra charge. Now you’re cookin’ with gas.

How about reviews? Everyone likes movie reviews, right? We got Winnebago Man. We got The Limits of Control, how ‘bout that? You throw your Eldorado in there, you mix it with your Perestroika – come on, you’re not gonna get this at Ain’t It Cool News, am I right?

I’m just getting started here, folks. Watch this – you’re gonna love my posts:

25 Years Ago in the Screengrab: Better Zmed Than Red

Precursors: Dead Man (1995)

Screengrab Death Watch: Day One

Getting Darrined: When the Sequel Doesn’t Need You

Forgotten Films: "Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson" (1993)

Robert De Niro’s Pantyhose and Other Treasures

The Rep Report (May 1 -- 6)

Phil Nugent — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:30:00 GMT

NEW YORK: Those of you who've been meaning to catch up with your Stalin-era Russian light entertainments won't want to miss "Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova: First Lady of the Soviet Screen" at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (May 1-4). A celebrated stage performer who would eventually marry the director Grigori Aleksandrov, who, with Eisenstein, worked on the script of Strike, acted in Potemkin and assisted with the direction on October, Orlova was the sweetheart of the Soviet Union in such pictures as The Circus (1936), Jolly Fellows (1934), and Volga Volga. She died in 1975, but not before a small planet discovered by a Soviet astronomer had been named after her. Top that, Ginger Rogers!

If that's not enough to satisfy your pinko tastes, you can ride your hog over to Film Forum and stick it to the man by checking out the new restored 35-mm. print of Easy Rider. The critic David Thomson once ranked the blockbuster commercial success of Dennis Hopper's hippie dream among the greatest tragedies ever to befall the movies, and God knows that, from Peter Fonda's stoic Mr. Cool performance as Captain America to what may be the most overwrought trip sequence in the history of cinematic psychedelia (filmed in a New Orleans graveyard, where dead people were trying to sleep), it does not lack for sources of embarrassment for those who made it and anyone trying to watch it with their eyes uncrossed. Yet, as our own Sarah Clyne Sundberg noted here recently, it remains an excellent source of prime-period Jack Nicholson. And when Saint Nich's not onscreen, you can just close your eyes and listen to the best collection of counterculture-era rock that K-Tel never produced.

The Museum of Modern Art's Julien Duvivier retrospective begins today and runs though May 25. Duvivier may be best remembered here for the 1937 Pépé le Moko, starring Jean Gabin (and remade by Hollywood as Algiers, with Charles Boyer), and for good reason: it's a masterpiece of the genre that it helped to create, the poetic French melodrama. But the opening night selection, Poil de carotte (1932), is an unusual, beautiful childhood reverie that very different in some ways from most of the director's later work.

TORONTO: Hot Docs, the Canadian International Documentary Festival, opened last night and runs through May 10. The filma generating buzz include the boxing film Big John, Ashes of American Flags starring the band Wilco, the behind-the-scenes Asian stunt work film Action Boys, Winnebago Man, and Best Worst Movie, which nobody in Austin has been able to shut up about since last month's SXSW Festival.

PORTLAND: The Portland Documentary & eXperimental Film Festival, or "PDX Fest" for short, runs May 6 through the 10th. It kicks off with a loving memorial tribute to the late Bruce Connor.

Independent Film Festival Boston Review: Winnebago Man

Andrew Osborne — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:05:00 GMT

My Screengrab colleague Scott Von Doviak and I tried to see Ben Steinbauer’s hot ticket documentary Winnebago Man three times during the 2009 South-By-Southwest festival in Austin, TX and were thwarted each time: once by sold-out crowds, once by SXSW traffic combined with sold-out crowds and once by a scheduling conflict.

Thus, I was happy to finally catch up with the movie at this year’s IFFB (which, curiously, stands for just “Independent Film Festival Boston,” rather than the presumably too mainstream-sounding “Independent Film Festival OF Boston”) -- and, I’m happy to report, the experience was nearly as rewarding and worth the wait as Steinbauer’s own three year pursuit of his elusive subject, Jack “Winnebago Man” Rebney, a.k.a. the Angriest R.V. Salesman in the World.

My wife had never seen the infamous YouTube clip that spawned Steinbauer’s project (a fact that, when spoken aloud at yesterday’s screening, brought astonished cries of disbelief from several audience members surrounding us at the Somerville Theater) -- so for those of you similarly unfamiliar, “Winnebago Man” was among the earliest generation of viral video superstars, back when “viral videos” were actually bootleg VHS tapes passed from one found footage enthusiast to another. Later, with the advent of YouTube’s paradigm-shifting time-suck technology, the montage of expletive-laden outtakes from some long-ago industrial film “blew up” (as the young people say), inspiring dozens of online parodies and spreading the Winnebago Man’s Daffy Duck-esque exasperation to millions around the world:

Austin documentarian Steinbauer, no stranger to on-set frustration and stress, became obsessed with the man in the clip (who’d inevitably become, among other things, a kind of patron saint to independent filmmakers everywhere) and set out to discover what the Winnebago Man himself thought of his new-fangled digital age fame (if, indeed, he was aware of it, or even still alive).

And so begins a funny and thought-provoking investigation into the nature of overnight on-line notoriety (featuring several hilarious and wince-inducing clips of comparable interweb superstars like the Star Wars kid and Aleksey “Impossible Is Nothing” Vayner), followed by a search for Rebney, the mysterious, reclusive Winnebago Man (whose Kurtz-like enigma is pieced together in the first reel of the film via intriguing clues like a telling string of P.O. boxes and off-the-grid identity erasure, the purple prose of a lone online classified ad attributed to Rebney and, eventually, first-hand accounts of actual encounters with the angriest RV salesman in the world).

Then one day, in a comically thrilling moment, the voice of the actual Winnebago Man finally issues from Steinbauer’s answering machine, luring the filmmaker on a journey that snakes through the rest of the film like a main circuit cable, plugged straight into Rebney. Since the filmmaker’s multi-faceted encounter with the real-life man behind the ranting is part of the fun and suspense of Winnebago Man, I won’t reveal more, except to say the results are funny, unpredictable and satisfying, resulting in a foul-mouthed, misanthropic (yet deeply human) examination of privacy and community in the internet age -- ideally suited for a double-feature screening with the somewhat sunnier, thematically-linked and equally enjoyable Best Worst Movie on your Netflix queue and/or at a savvy art-house near you.

Related Articles:
SXSW: The Final Round-Up
SXSW Review: Best Worst Movie

SXSW: The Final Roundup

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:30:00 GMT

The whirlwind of SXSW often takes on a life of its own, and that was certainly true this year for me and the rest of the Screengrab contingent. There are movies we fully intended to see and cover for you here, but fate decreed otherwise. (Winnebago Man proved particularly elusive for various reasons; my worst SXSW memory this year involves sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 5th Street with no hope of finding a parking space before a screening began. In my anger, I cursed the Winnebago Man, but I now understand it wasn’t his fault.) There are also movies I saw and never found the time to review during the festival. And they are:

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism . How does a film critic review a movie about film critics made by a film critic? It’s a tough question for me, which is probably why I kept putting off a review of Gerald Peary’s years-in-the-making documentary. With the help of interviewees ranging from the old guard (Andrew Sarris, Richard Schickel) to the increasingly endangered critics of today (Owen Gleiberman, Wesley Morris), Boston Phoenix mainstay Peary does an admirable (if a bit square and PBS-ready) job of tracing the history of film criticism and revealing the ways in which it mirrors the history of cinema itself. One thing I learned: most film critics were not meant to be seen in extreme close-up from the front row of the Alamo Ritz.

Modern Love is Automatic. Writer/director Zach Clark’s second feature has attitude to spare, but for the most part, it left me cold. It’s the story of two women who become roommates – nurse Lorraine (Melodie Sisk) and would-be model Adrian (Maggie Ross). The lovely but robotic Lorraine is so bored and jaded with everyone and everything that she launches a side business as a dominatrix, while deluded Adrian can only find work at a unique mattress store where the customers cuddle with the hired help. There’s no denying that Sisk makes the most of her leather bondage-wear, but her monotonous performance wore on me, as did the ‘80s MTV color scheme, jarring bursts of heavy metal on the soundtack, and a couple of dark developments that don’t really feel earned.

Monsters from the Id. Here we have another group of film buffs, although most of the ones featured in David Gargani’s documentary are actually professional scientists. They just happen to share a love of the sci-fi movies of the 1950s, which helped inspire them to pursue careers in their chosen field. The interview subjects, including Rocket Boys author and retired NASA engineer Homer Hickam and physics professor Dr. Leroy Dubeck, bemoan the loss of the scientist heroes of the golden age, worrying that the kids of today have no role models in the field, and therefore are not pursuing careers in science. Whether or not their fears are legitimate, the doc is worth seeing for the copious clips from ‘50s sci-fi classics both renowned and forgotten, which will have you racing home to your Netflix queue.

Related:
SXSW Review: Along Came Kinky
SXSW Review: The Slammin' Salmon

SXSW Explosion!

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

What, more preview? Well, the Film Issue of the Austin Chronicle is now out, and it’s chock full of goodies, whether you’re planning to be here for the fun or you just want to experience it vicariously from your igloo. Highlights include:

- A roundtable discussion with three documentary filmmakers now living in Austin: Bradley Beesley (Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo), Ben Steinbauer (Winnebago Man) and Alex Karpovsky (Trust Us, This is All Made Up).

- A preview of Tobe Hooper’s long-lost first film. “Eggshells makes explicit what many have long assumed – that Hooper's sense of cinema is the defining characteristic that makes Chainsaw great. Eggshells is a true 1968 film, psychedelic and political; it seems clear that Hooper had watched more than a film or two by Jean-Luc Godard. The film celebrates alternative lifestyles and politics and people and an odd, kinky semimysticism that is grounded more in humor than the supernatural. It captures what Austin looked like in the Sixties as well as the political sensibility shared by so many at the time.”

- An interview with Beeswax director Andrew Bujalski. “I needed a wheelchair-accessible vintage-clothing store. My whole script depended on that ... and they're really hard to come by. Vintage stores are usually very cramped places, and that's part of their charm, but I started to panic a little bit, because I thought I had written something that doesn't exist. ...So I spent a week driving around Austin. I went to every vintage store you could find. And the last place I walked in the door was Storyville on 51st and Duval, and it was eerily right on. It was so much how I had written it, down to there being this sort of back room behind the counter, which is what I had written. And the counters were low, so it also made sense that someone in a wheelchair would be back there. ... So that more than anything seemed like a sign from God that we should be here.”

- A look at the new wave of Australian films well-represented at this year’s festival. Could this be Ozsploitation: The Sequel? “Australia has given us tales of crazy villages in the outback (Welcome to Woop Woop), cross-dressers on the rampage (The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert), and, of course, hard men with big hearts (Crocodile Dundee), but this year at South by Southwest, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wants us to know it's not all about kangaroos and costumes anymore. The filmmakers of seven Down Under films, which range from slashers to piss-your-pants drollery, will attend SXSW 09, the result of a government grant for the Australia International Cultural Council through film body Screen Australia.”

- A visit to the editing room of Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions), as he works around the clock to finish The 2 Bobs in time for its SXSW screening. “For two days, McCanlies and Reisch have been going through the film with a fine-tooth comb and a digital equalizer, raising and lowering volumes so that vital bits of plot information come through and less vital bits recede into the background, and cutting frequencies in the tone of certain actors' voices so they don't sound like they're speaking from inside a well. They watch and rewatch shots over and over again until the untrained ear becomes completely numb to the experience.”

SXSW Preview: Ten Must-See Documentaries (Part Two)

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Continuing our weeklong SXSW Film preview, here are five more documentaries for your viewing consideration:

IT CAME FROM KUCHAR

Kuchar is not a Middle Eastern country you’ve never heard of; it’s the surname of twin brothers from the Bronx who have been making no-budget underground films together since the 1950s. The Kuchar filmography is more than 200 titles strong, including I Was a Teenage Rumpot, Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof and Fill Thy Crack with Whiteness. Jennifer Kroot’s documentary “interweaves the brother's lives, their admirers, a history of underground film and a 'greatest hits' of Kuchar clips into a hilarious and touching stream of consciousness tale.”

(Screens March 14th at 5 pm, Alamo South, March 19th at 1:30 pm, Alamo Ritz, March 20th at 11:30 am, Convention Center)

MONSTERS FROM THE ID

Did the sci-fi cinema of the 1950s inspire a generation of scientists? And now that Hollywood no longer glorifies the scientist in quite the same way it did during the Atomic Age, what will inspire the American youth of today to pursue science as a career? “Monsters From The Id weaves the intersecting themes of over 30 films in order to tell the untold story of the Modern Scientist and his role in inspiring a nation.”

(Screens March 13th at 9:45 pm, Alamo South, March 18th at 11:30 am, Convention Center, March 21st at 2 pm, Alamo South)

NEW WORLD ORDER

In the late 90s, I used to fall asleep watching Alex Jones ranting on late night cable access television in Austin, never dreaming that one day he would be hero to Conspiracy Theory Nation. This documentary from Darkon director Luke Meyer focuses on Jones and the conspiracy movement, from anti-globalization to the “9/11 was an inside job” crowd.

(Screens March 13th at 7 pm, Alamo South, March 17th at 11:30 am, Convention Center)

THE WAY WE GET BY

This may not be of interest to everyone, but as someone who grew up near the tiny Bangor International Airport, I’m intrigued by this look at the troop greeters – senior citizens who meet soldiers returning from Iraq at their port of entry on the way home (or their last stop on their way out).

(Screens March 15 at 11:30 am, Convention Center, March 16th at 12 pm, Alamo South, March 19th at 7 pm, Convention Center)

WINNEBAGO MAN

Jack Rebney became a YouTube sensation when the outtakes from his Winnebago sales video hit the internets. Now he’s a recluse, but filmmaker Ben Steinbauer has tracked him down to find out the shocking secret origin of…Winnebago Man.

(Screens March 14th at 7 pm, Alamo South, March 18th at 6 pm, Alamo Ritz, March 20th at 1:30 pm, Paramount Theater)

Part One

SXSW Lineup Announced

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:45:00 GMT

I don’t know if the groundhog saw his shadow or not, but either way it’s six weeks until the happiest time of the year, SXSW. The full film festival lineup has been announced, and highlights include:

American Prince – Remember Martin Scorsese’s documentary American Boy? No? Well, surely you remember the guy who sells Travis Bickle his guns in Taxi Driver. That’s Steven Prince, who director Tommy Pallotta catches up with in this new documentary. (I must admit, this is a brilliant way to ensure Martin Scorsese watches your movie. I’d follow up on his other documentary subjects, Charles and Catherine Scorsese, but sadly they’re no longer with us.)

Best Worst Movie – “When an Italian filmmaker, an Alabama dentist and fledgling Utah actors filmed the low-budget horror movie, Troll 2, they'd no idea that twenty years later they would be celebrated for making the worst movie ever made.” Troll 2 is coming soon to Unwatchable, so I’ll be the judge of that.

Beeswax – Last year’s Baghead was the first mumblecore horror movie, and this appears to be the first mumblecore legal thriller. Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha) writes and directs.

Winnebago Man – A movie about this guy:

For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism – A documentary about film critics? Brilliant! I predict this will get no bad reviews.

Check out the full roster here.