We're well into August, and here in Austin it's hot and dry and the last thing most of us are thinking about is anything going on next March. But over at SXSW, they're ignoring the dog days of summer and preparing like crazy for next year's interactive, music, and (of course) film festival / conference. The 2009 South By Southwest Film Festival is scheduled for March 13-21, as you can see from the new site for next year's festivities, and you can start submitting your films now for consideration. You've got until December to get your short or feature film to the festival if you're dreaming of seeing your name in lights (or at least your film's title) at the Paramount next year.

A few films are already scheduled to be screened at the 2009 fest: the SXSWclick winners, which were recently announced. The Grand Jury award for the short-film contest went to Peter and Ben, by Pinny Grylls, which also won in the documentary shorts category. Little Pumpkin, directed by Tiffany Bartok, took home the Popularity Contest award. You can watch these films and the winning shorts from all categories on the SXSWclick site. In fact, you can watch all the finalists online if you like. So if you want to pretend it's March in Austin, crank up the air conditioning a bit, sit back in a comfy chair with a beer or milkshake (in tribute to Alamo Drafthouse, a favorite SXSW venue), and enjoy the SXSWclick shorts. Then hike a mile back to your car with Scott Weinberg or Will Goss next to you, scarfing down hot wings from a Sixth Street bar and speculating on how many screeners they can watch that night before they pass out from exhaustion. (Okay, maybe you do have to wait for March for that last experience.)

When the brilliant French horror flick Inside went straight to DVD, I thought "Well, yeah. It's hardcore horror and it's in French. It probably scared the arthouses and it would never play multiplexes. Bring on the DVD already." When I heard that the very awesome [REC] was going directly to home video, I thought "Yeah, Sony did an English-language remake, so no big shock there." But when I heard that Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead was not only going straight to video -- but it was also being released alongside seven other horror titles on the same damn day -- I got just a little bit irritated.

I mean no disrespect to the fine folks at Lionsgate, because they spend a lot more money on horror movies than I do (and I spend a lot), but Dance of the Dead is a whole lot better than just another "DVD drop" flick -- and it sure as hell doesn't deserve to be released buried next to seven other titles. The flick's all but guaranteed to earn a cult following in only a few years time (trust me, it will) -- so why shouldn't Lionsgate get the ball rolling now and give it some sort of miniature theatrical push? You market this movie to the teenagers well enough, and I'd bet it turns a tidy profit. You can thank me later.

By: James Rocchi

(With Baghead's limited release expanding this week, we at Cinematical are re-running our Sundance 2008 interview with Jay and Mark Duplass.)

In Baghead, the writing-directing team of Mark and Jay Duplass (The Puffy Chair) combine not two, but three separate traditions of American Indie Cinema: It revolves around two couples; it celebrates and mocks the world of indie film ... and it takes place in an isolated cabin in the woods where a masked stranger hovers outside in ominous silence. Cinematical spoke with the brothers at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival about delusions of adequacy, clumsy passes, awkward pauses and genre-melding on a minimal budget. Mark tries to sum it up: "Baghead is a movie about the funny, horrific, tragic, terrible life of being a desperate actor. ..."

This interview, like all of Cinematical's podcast offerings, is now available through iTunes; if you'd like, you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:

One of the best things about last March's South By Southwest Film Festival was that I got to hang out with a bunch of Cinematipals like Kim, Erik, Pete, Jette, Snider and Gene ... and one of the best times we had together was during the world premiere midnight screening of Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead. It certainly helped that we were chilling at the Alamo Drafthouse, but the flick should play well in traditional cinemas as well.

Which brings me to the point: According to a recent press release, Dance of the Dead is now co-owned by the horror-lovin' Lionsgate and Sam Raimi's Ghost House outfit. I'll leave the specifics for the after-the-jump press release, but suffice to say that Dance of the Dead is sort of like George Romero meets John Hughes. (Read Peter's review here and mine right here.) Congrats to the Dance gang for snagging a pair of partners who actually specialize in high-quality indie-style horror stuff. (And while you freaks are waiting for Dance of the Dead to hit your town, feel free to rent Bishop's first flick. It's called The Other Side and (after watching it) you wouldn't believe how much it cost to make.

(We're re-posting our SXSW review of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

"Is it as good as the first one?" That's the question I've been asked most since watching Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay last night. Short answer: Yes ... and no. The HIGHly-anticipated sequel to 2004's Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle comes just how you'd expect it: raunchy, wild, disgusting and completely absurd. This isn't -- and has never been -- a real-life comedy (all that went out the window after the boys rode a cheetah in the first installment); it's a fantasy/comedy, the kind you'd dream up while stoned out of your mind on a Saturday night. I tend to think that's how writer-directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg came up with this idea in the first place.

The Harold and Kumar films have always been about three things: drugs, sex and racial differences. Like with any sequel, all three of those are upped significantly. Instead of traveling across the state of New Jersey, Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) are now traveling across the United States. The stakes are also higher; this time, the boys are mistaken for terrorists while on a plane heading for Amsterdam after Kumar rigs up a bong that holds in the smoke -- a bong that looks and sounds like "bomb." After they're taken down to Guantanamo Bay, the first ridiculous homosexual joke plays itself out and the boys manage to escape. But where do they go and how do they clear their name? And, most importantly, will we care ... at all?

During the South by Southwest Film Festival, short filmmaker Behn Zeitlin was in a terrible car accident on the way to the screening of his film, Glory at Sea. Zeitlin shattered his hip, which had to be replaced, fractured his pelvis, and sprained both ankles. The director, who did not have medical insurance, now faces over $80,000 in medical bills.

Even in the midst of transitioning into a new gig, outgoing SXSW head Matt Dentler is on the ball with this. SXSW is trying to help Zeitlin out, by hosting two benefit screenings on April 29 at everyone's favorite Austin film venue, Alamo Drafthouse. The screenings will show shorts by Zeitlin and some of his friends. Austin's a great film town, so I hope all you Austinite film buffs and filmmakers will get out there on the 29th and give some support to Zeitlin. And hey, it's at the Drafthouse, so you can enjoy some great shorts, support a filmmaker, AND get yourself a yummy dinner and one of those awesome five-dollar milkshakes or brown-sugar lemonades. Check out the screening details here.

We at Cinematical wish Zeitlin well, and hope he has a speedy recovery.

Wow, this news threw me for a loop. According to indieWIRE, our mutual friend Matt Dentler, producer of the South By Southwest Film Festival since 2004, is leaving his post (and Austin) to move to New York City, where he will head the marketing and programming operations of Cinetic Media's new digital rights management unit. Replacing Dentler as SXSW producer will be Janet Pierson, long-time independent film producer and board member of the Austin Film Society.

I've never met Pierson (well, that I know of ... you do get introduced to so many people at film fests, it's hard to keep track of everyone sometimes ... ) but I feel like I know her, from watching the documentary Reel Paradise, which she made with her husband, John. That film documented the year the Piersons and their two children spent living on a remote island in Fiji running the only movie theater on the island. I also wrote last year about John Pierson smacking down on Michael Moore, whose film Roger & Me was sold by the Piersons to Warner Brothers for the then-unheard-of sum of $3 million.

Janet Pierson has fantastic indie street cred, she's a passionate lover of independent film, and I'm sure she'll do a stellar job heading up SXSW. We at Cinematical extend our warmest welcome to her, and wish our friend Matt great luck and joy in his new endeavor. Matt is one of our favorite indie-film-world people, and we hope that he'll come back to SXSW every year to just enjoy the fest for a change, rather than running to and fro introducing films and shepherding talent around. We'll save you a seat at the Alamo, Matt, and there's a five-dollar milkshake with your name on it when we see you there.

*Update: Check out indieWIRE's well-informed piece on Cinetic's plans for Dentler and Pierson on stepping into Dentler's shoes.

(Note: We're re-posting our 21 review from SXSW to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

In 21, an M.I.T. math whiz joins a secret cabal of card-counters who fly to Vegas on the weekends to make a killing at the blackjack tables. That's the hook, the part you may not have seen in a thousand other films. But the rest is as generic as the title (21? Really? That's the best you could come up with?), a story about a nobody who becomes a somebody, forsakes his friends, and learns What's Really Important.

Yawn is right. This is a prime example of a movie that isn't bad, per se, just unnecessary, a competently made but wholly unremarkable trifle. It trades exclusively in clichés and stock characters -- and yet, strangely, director Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) seems to believe he has made something compelling and original. And I have to think, if I've seen lots of movies exactly like this one, then shouldn't Luketic have as well?

(Note: We're re-posting our Stop-Loss review from SXSW to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

It's been almost nine years since Kimberly Peirce's breakout film Boys Don't Cry, so expectations for her new project were bound to run high. Alas, she doesn't do herself any favors with the self-serious, emotionally hollow Stop-Loss. Why would someone who's so selective about the films she makes choose something so uninspired?

The title refers to the U.S. Army's policy of renewing soldiers' enlistments against their wishes, a necessary step when new recruits are in short supply and there's a war going on. Technically, the war in Iraq ended years ago, but this hasn't stopped the military from hanging on to thousands of soldiers who were supposed to have gone home when their time was up.

Stop-Loss is a fictional story about a real crisis, written by Peirce and Mark Richard and starring Ryan Phillippe as the soldier who gets stop-lossed. His name is Brandon King, and he has just returned to his hometown of Brazos, Texas, after a firefight in Tikrit that left some of his men dead or wounded. Brandon is a model soldier and staff sergeant, even to the point that his saintliness strains credulity, but he snaps when he learns he's being sent back. He tells his commanding officer (Timothy Olyphant) that he refuses to go, then flees the Army base.

The recent U.S. involvement in Iraq has become one of the biggest subjects for documentaries in the past few years, and it's hard not to feel weary of watching the variety of movies on this topic, no matter how varied and original they might be. Phil Donahue has contributed to the genre with Body of War, a documentary he co-directed with Austin filmmaker Ellen Spiro (Troop 1500). The movie focuses on the effect that the U.S. conflict in Iraq has had on a single soldier.

Body of War combines two threads of narrative. The first thread follows Tomas Young, who enlisted in the U.S. Army on Sept. 13, 2001 as a reaction to the events of Sept. 11. He ends up being deployed to Iraq, and after only a few days in combat is injured -- a spinal injury. He's paralyzed below the chest and is confined to a wheelchair. Tomas, his bride-to-be and his mom all have to get used to dealing with his range of physical problems as a result of this injury: not only can't he walk, but he's on an ever-changing variety of medications, he can't control his body temperature, he vomits frequently, and experiences sexual difficulties. Meanwhile, his experiences have made him passionately anti-war, and he visits Cindy Sheehan's compound in Crawford, Texas, travels to the offices of several politicians, and speaks out frequently in public.