Jette Kernion
- http://www.cinematical.com/bloggers/jette-kernion/
Jette Kernion is a film critic and feature writer in Austin, Texas. She grew up in the New Orleans area, and has been writing online since 1998. While her high-school classmates were reading Seventeen and V.C. Andrews, Jette read Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, in which Harlan Ellison's "Watching" essays inspired her to see and write about non-John Hughes films. Some of her favorite movies (this week) are Holiday, Some Like It Hot, The Wild Bunch, Evil Dead 2, and Brazil. In her free time, Jette also edits the Austin film blog Slackerwood.
by Jette Kernion Dec 3rd 2009 // 10:15PM
Filed under: Cinematical Seven
The film
Up in the Air opens in theaters on Friday, and a large part of the film is about people leaving their jobs, usually involuntarily. George Clooney's character makes a living from laying off people, and the reactions of the dismissed employees in the film are often amazing. I must say, I was laid off from a day job a few months ago (and miraculously found a better one a month later, so no need for sympathy), and after seeing
Up in the Air, I wished it had been Clooney's character that did the deed. He really does have a knack.
Hollywood has given us so many examples of ways people are laid off, fired, and quit ... or do something spectacularly insane that they know will end their employment one way or another. There must be 50 ways to leave your employer, especially if Paul Simon is involved, but we have space for seven. I know I've left out some excellent scenes -- my original list had 14 films on it -- so don't hesitate to let us know which ones I forgot or was crazy not to include.
Warning: There may be a few spoilers below.
by Jette Kernion Dec 3rd 2009 // 12:15PM
Filed under: Comedy, Austin, Interviews, George Clooney
My interview with
Up in the Air director
Jason Reitman in October was one of the most meta interviews I've ever done. Before the interview started, Reitman took my photo with his iPhone. He told me only "I'm not sure if that's going to work, what I'm doing with that, but if it does, you'll be thrilled with the results." I'm still in suspense.
In addition, my interview took place right after a
Film School Rejects interview (check it out, Reitman name-checks
Cinematical) in which Cole Abaius spent 10 minutes discussing the pie charts the
Juno and
Thank You for Smoking director
had been posting to Twitter. Reitman kept track of which questions interviewers asked him most -- I caught him tallying things in a little notebook during our interview -- and posted the stats online frequently. Roger Ebert has also written
about the pie charts. Cole and I had been reading Reitman's Twitter feed before our interviews, and not only knew about the pie chart but found out that he had just been enjoying lunch at the Salt Lick, one of the best known BBQ joints in Central Texas.
So that may explain why Twitter, pie charts and barbecue keep creeping into the following
Cinematical interview with Jason Reitman. I hope it's as fun to read as it was to be there in person. The above photo is from the red carpet the evening after the interview, when
Up in the Air was the closing-night film for Austin Film Festival.
by Jette Kernion Nov 29th 2009 // 3:02PM
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Over at
Hacking Netflix, Peter Nelhaus started
a lively discussion about how long Netflix subscribers should get to keep DVDs without penalty. Peter feels that Netflix needs to establish some limits -- after you've hung on to a disc for, say, two months, you should be charged the purchase price for the DVD. His problem is that Netflix just doesn't have large quantities of more obscure foreign/indie titles, and if I'm procrastinating on watching one of those "smaller" titles, the rest of you are waiting on me. The two pages of comments offer a range of suggestions: Netflix sending a "nudge" email to subscribers every month, waiting until six months to charge a fee for holding a DVD, or simply buying more copies of that title.
The thread prompted me to look at our own Netflix account. It's not pretty. We've had one DVD for a month, and the other two for over two months. If you're in Austin and wondering why you can't get your hands on
Brothers of the Head, it's totally our fault. A "nudge" email would probably help; threatening us with a fee might be overkill, although we'd sure send them back ASAP. Admittedly we tend to use the Watch Instantly feature more than the physical discs, so even hanging onto the discs, we get our money's worth. However, I think I'll physically nudge my husband to watch 'em or send 'em back soon, just to avoid the wrath of Peter and others like him.
by Jette Kernion Nov 27th 2009 // 7:15PM
Filed under: Action, Warner Brothers, Interviews
Director
James McTeigue has been working on films since the late 1980s, back in his native Australia. He was second assistant director on
Dark City and first assistant director on
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. He started working with Andy and Larry Wachowski as an assistant director on
The Matrix, and they've been collaborating on projects together ever since. The Wachowskis wrote the first feature film helmed by McTeigue,
V for Vendetta, and he provided second-unit direction on their most recent film,
Speed Racer.
Ninja Assassin, which opened this week, is the latest movie McTeigue has directed, with the Wachowskis on board as producers. You can read William Goss's
review for more details about the action/fantasy film.
Cinematical sat down with the director in late September during Fantastic Fest, just after the movie played the festival. He was very pleased with the fest screening and happy to talk about the film.
by Jette Kernion Nov 20th 2009 // 9:03AM
Filed under: Sports, New Releases, Warner Brothers, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
The trailers for
The Blind Side triggered my "oh geez, another sports-related Triumph of the Human Spirit" cynicism, and I might not have seen the film at all if I hadn't been assigned to review it. That would have been my loss, and I experienced the lovely surprise of having a movie turn out far more enjoyable than I expected.
The Blind Side has no twists or gimmicks other than being a very good example of a sports-related family film, with quality performances and writing.
The movie's title is a football reference, which the voiceover of Leigh Anne Touhy (
Sandra Bullock) explains at the beginning. Michael Oher (
Quenton Aaron) is sweating out a tough but unspecified situation in an office, when we flash back a few years and meet him as Big Mike. An African-American staff member at a mostly white Christian private school is trying to get his athletic son into the school, and the school's coach also spots some athletic potential in Big Mike, granting him a scholarship. Big Mike has terrible trouble keeping up in school, and when his friend's family stops helping him out, he is virtually homeless -- sleeping in the school gym, eating popcorn left there after events, wearing the same thin clothes daily.
by Jette Kernion Nov 13th 2009 // 3:48PM
Filed under: Animation, Fandom, Exhibition
Dear Alamo Drafthouse or any other movie theater that serves food with movies,
I just saw
Fantastic Mr. Fox and afterwards I realized something that no one seems to have mentioned so far: This is totally a foodie movie. It's not foodie like
Julie & Julia, where the characters are baking desserts and decapitating ducks and invoking the spirit of Julia Child ... but food is a central part of the story . The three main bad guys each are rumored to only consume a single type of food or drink, and Mr. Fox is obsessed with getting his paws on some of these delicacies. There are feasts, there are large plates of French toast and desserts, there is a significant cider incident -- in short, this movie is awash in food and drink.
Therefore, I strongly suggest that you offer a feast to accompany some screenings of
Fantastic Mr. Fox. It took me days to recuperate from Alamo's feast for
The Simpsons Movie, but boy was it worthwhile. Alamo does feasts for all kinds of fancy foodie movies, and any other movie it likes ... this is one I hope is not forgotten, even though it is opening in Austin around Thanksgiving, when people have turkey feasts on the brain.
by Jette Kernion Nov 13th 2009 // 11:15AM
Filed under: Posters
Okay, maybe I'm crazy. Some people have suggested that, throughout my life. But I had a very strange moment earlier today, looking at the character posters for the upcoming
Sherlock Holmes movie as I left a theater. Maybe you've seen these posters -- I've cropped one in the image on the right. Before my inner Robert Downey Jr. fan could coo "oooh" at the image of the actor, my inner New Orleanian spoke up and said, "Holmes? As in D.H. Holmes?"
If you grew up in the New Orleans area and are a certain age, you may understand. D.H. Holmes was a popular department store when I was young -- in fact, it was a small chain that had stores in a number of Southern cities. The most famous D.H. Holmes was on Canal Street, where Ignatius Reilly waited under the Holmes clock in the novel
A Confederacy of Dunces. Dillard's bought the department-store chain awhile ago, and the store on Canal is now a swanky hotel (they kept the clock, though).
by Jette Kernion Nov 11th 2009 // 11:02PM
Filed under: Fandom, Lists
Yesterday, we posted a
very funny video from College Humor that resolved some classic ambiguous endings in film:
The Graduate, Lost in Translation, and so forth. But it reminded me that sometimes these vague endings can be truly irritating and frustrating. I hate sitting through what is shaping up into a good movie experience, then the end negates the whole film, makes no sense, or just plain ends without warning or closure.
Sometimes these ambiguous endings are great: I felt the ending of
The Wrestler was just right, and I also liked the way the recently released
A Serious Man concluded. Sometimes these unresolved endings are meant to pave the way for a sequel, which is great if you happen to have the sequel there with you, but when it's a new movie, you just want to throttle the filmmakers. Here are 10 movies with endings that make me want to throw a popcorn box at the screen, or find the filmmakers and demand an explanation. It goes without saying that I'm about to spoil the endings of 10 films, so you've been warned.
by Jette Kernion Nov 11th 2009 // 3:02PM
Filed under: Animation, Awards, Oscar Watch
I'm so pleased to learn
from IndieWIRE that five animated features will probably be in the running for a 2009 Academy Award. If fewer than 16 films are eligible, then only three films end up on the list of nominees. But the shortlist
released today by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences includes 20 films eligible for Oscar nominations, assuming that all films on the list have a qualifying run in Los Angeles before the end of the year. That means five films will be nominated for Best Animated Feature.
Of course the list includes lots of big animated films: Pixar's
Up, Disney's
The Princess and the Frog, Henry Selick's
Coraline, Wes Anderson's
Fantastic Mr. Fox and Dreamworks's
Monsters vs. Aliens, among others. But I may or may not have squealed and bounced in my seat to read one unexpected candidate:
A Town Called Panic, the Belgian animated film that won the Audience Award at Fantastic Fest this year, and which
I reviewed. I hope the film will hit L.A. for the required time, and although it is the world's biggest longshot, I'd love to see it get a nomination. The Best Animated Feature category needs something this bizarre, original and creative. We'll find out for sure when Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 2, 2010.
by Jette Kernion Nov 5th 2009 // 10:32PM
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Cinematical Seven
I think it's safe to tell you, without spoiling the movie, that
The Men Who Stare at Goats includes a couple of scenes with Jeff Bridges and George Clooney dancing around. The scenes are amusing and a little strange -- why are soldiers dancing? But they did fit consistently with the film as a whole. However, I was reminded of moments in movies that aren't musicals, but suddenly shift to some crazy kind of dance or musical number. I love these moments, and in fact I wish the dance scenes in
The Men Who Stare at Goats were a little less toned-down and a little more "WTF?"
Okay, I'm kind of BS'ing you here.
The Men Who Stare at Goats is a flimsy excuse. I really just wanted to write about surreal dance numbers in otherwise straightforward movies, because that can be so much fun. Last year's Adam Sandler vehicle
Bedtime Stories was an annoying dud ... except for one glorious, shining moment where Guy Pearce launched into a song-and-dance number. Sometimes these dance moments are the best part of a movie, sometimes they spoil the mood and sometimes they're just one more weird aspect of an altogether bizarre film. Here are seven of my favorites.
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