This Saturday I drove up to Dallas for part of the Texas Frightmare Weekend, a (now) annual three-day horror convention that featured George Romero, Doug Bradley, Tom Savini and Clint Howard, among a whole bunch of other horror-type folks.

The show was a bit smaller than I’d expected–it basically occupied a large hallway and two mid-size conference rooms at the Omni hotel–but overall it was good. Listening to Doug Bradley talk about Hellraiser was a lot of fun; I’m a huge Clive Barker fan, and this show finally gave me a chance to gather some more autographs on my Hellraiser box set (nerdy…I know). Doug also confirmed something that I’d read earlier: that he hasn’t been asked to participate in the Hellraiser remake, and that Clive has pretty much only agreed to write it to prevent anybody else from screwing it up–which sort of makes it okay, I guess. But not really.

Clint Howard’s “Inside the B-Actor’s Studio” was surprisingly good too (and it added the most to my Netflix queue), but by far the most popular panel was the “Creepshow 25th Anniversary” featuring George Romero and Adrienne Barbeau. But of course, most of the audience questions were about Romero’s zombie films–including his upcoming Diary of the Dead, which he says is pretty much finished. Sure, Land of the Dead wasn’t very good, but it’s still hard not to be excited about a new Romero film.

Ahyhoo, I’ve got a few photos I’ll post as soon as I find my USB cable.

[Texas Frightmare Website]
[Fangoria Podcast Interviews Clint Howard]

Tonight’s program at the Alamo, “Why We’re Fat”, was a collection of hilarious old educational and promotional films focusing on food and nutrition–one of which was presented by the “International Potato Chip Council” and extolled the virtues of a chip-heavy diet (news I’ve been waiting to hear for years. Who knew I was so healthy?).

The show was presented by “A/V Geeks”, the brainchild of North Carolinan film aficionado Skip Elsheimer. Skip is an avid collector of educational films, and since the early 90s he’s amassed a personal library of more than 19,000 16mm films (!!). So now, he tours around the country exhibiting them as themed shows like this one–and they’re wicked fun.

The best part is, he’s put a decent cross-section of his collection up on Youtube, so you can check ’em out whenever you like. Head on over there, and say goodbye to the next couple hours.

[A/V Geeks Website]
[A/V Geeks Youtube Page]

According to the folks at Cinematical, Paul Reubens (er, Pee-Wee Herman, I mean) will appear in the new Todd Solondz film Life During Wartime, a follow-up to his ultra-dark 1998 comedy Happiness. In some weird way, this seems to make a lot of sense to me–not because Reubens is a “controversial” or bizarre figure, but because I think he’s been handed a bit of a raw deal since his original obscenity arrest more than 15 years ago. And I think that Solondz has been similarly misread by a lot of people (even some people who like him).

I personally can’t wait to see this, even though I may have to go alone since pretty much nobody I know even liked his last film Palindromes (which I thought was great in a lot of ways).

I think a lot of people get Solondz all wrong. I know the popular conception is that he’s a sadistic misanthrope, out to humiliate his “freakish” characters–but I just don’t think that’s true. If anything, I think most people react negatively to his films because of guilt over their own cruel inner-dialog. In other words, when he includes a scene with disabled children performing Christian rap songs, it’s not intended as a joke; the joke is that we think it’s a joke. The truly dark, sad comedy is that deep down in the back corners of our brains, we think that these people can’t exist but as some kind of pitiable mistake or ironic punchline, despite the fact that they’re some of the sweetest characters in the film. And we hate Solondz for revealing our own cruelties and preconceptions in that way, so we project that hate right back at him.

The more obvious, intentional comedy is along those lines as well. What’s supposed to be funny (I think, at least) is the relationship between the “freaks” and the so-called normal world–it’s satire about social norms. To me, that seems so obvious. I mean, if you’ve ever read an interview with Solondz (or even seen a photo of him), you can’t escape the feeling that most of his work comes from decades of personal experience with cruelty and insecurity. His characters aren’t cheap stereotypes; they’re living, breathing reflections of his own difficulties in life, and I always feel like his approach is much more compassionate and curious and realistic than it is exploitive. That’s not to say that his films don’t contain any intentional irony or pessimism–because they most certainly do–but I don’t think it’s aimed in the direction most people assume.

But, of course, not everyone agrees with me. Which is the great thing about a guy like Solondz; he’s one of the few current filmmakers who’s work inspires passionate, relevant debate. You know… something more significant than “should Optimus Prime have lips?” (which he most certainly should NOT, by the way.)

[Todd Solondz on Wikipedia]
[Todd Solondz Interviewed by The Believer]

On Monday I caught an early screening of the new Pixar movie Ratatouille at the Alamo Downtown.

First of all, it’s kind of awesome that Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofalo are starring in a Disney movie. If there was some kind of “who’s going to star in the next Pixar movie?” pool at my work, I’d give them both million-to-one odds. But somehow, two of the most hilarious, abrasive, unapologetically liberal comedians in the business slipped into what could very well be the biggest kids’ movie of the year. AND it doesn’t hurt that Ian Holm, Brian Dennehy, Peter O’Toole and Will Arnett (all of whom are awesome) lend their voices as well.

But besides the top-notch voice acting, Ratatouille really is a fantastic movie. It’s fun, it’s sweet, and, of course, it looks absolutely amazing. I might even like it more than The Incredibles, which is saying a lot for me. The whole thing just has a great vibe, and I sort of didn’t want it to end (which, I’ll admit, might have had a lot to do with all the animated food. This movie will make food lovers h-u-n-g-r-y).

Patton and Janeane were at the theatre for a post-screening Q&A, and a good chunk of it is now available on Youtube.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Jack Black, Harold Ramis, Michael Cera and Judd Apatow are teaming up with The Office writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg for a new comedy called Year One.

I could take or leave Apatow, but I don’t think it’s too soon to call this the best comedy ever made. Ever. Made. Harold Ramis is just plain awesome, and Michael Cera is easily the funniest 19 year-old in the world. And though Jack Black has been in more mediocre movies than great ones, I just can’t stop liking the guy–he’s like an adorable puppy that you can’t stay mad at.

No solid word on a plot just yet, but apparently it’s about a “lazy hunter-gatherer who becomes the first modern man”. Let’s hope this dream-team doesn’t pull a Congo on us.

Oh, hey… here’s a great Believer interview with Harold Ramis.