Festivals o’ Film

This year, the Florida Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, and Sunscreen Film Festival all overlap, which is a great big barrel of SUCK!!! As of yet, only the Florida Film Festival has announced a preliminary lineup, so it remains to be seen if I’ll be saying “Dammit! [INSERT FILM HERE] is playing at the Sarasota Film Festival the same time [INSERT OTHER FILM HERE] is playing at the Sunscreen Film Festival!”

But two of the announced films at the Florida Film Festival are movies I’d already wanted to see: Best Worst Movie and Punching the Clown. Best Worst Movie is a documentary about the enduring popularity of Troll 2 (which I haven’t seen–the original Troll was sufficiently poor) and Punching the Clown stars Dr. Demento Show favorite Henry Phillips.

The Gasparilla Film Festival here in Tampa March 18-21 fortunately does NOT conflict with the other three. I’ll definitely be there for Brainjacked on Saturday the 20th. I’ve already seen the movie…but is one viewing of Brainjacked enough? I think not.

There’s also a thriller called Endure which I will probably see, except that the the plot description on the ticket-buying page seems to offer one big frickin’ doozy of a spoiler.

And a comedy called Friends With Benefits, notable to me because it’s written and directed by Gorman Berchard, who made Psychos in Love in the 80’s. C’mon, how can I not go see a movie made by the director of Psychos in Love, with the director in attendance? That would be madness!

5 Oscar Nominees In A Row…

As usual, I’ve seen very few of the Best Picture nominees, but as with last year, AMC Theatres is letting me play catch-up by watching 5 in a row. (Of course, this year there are 10 nominees, forcing them to split it up between two weekends, but I’d already seen Avatar, Up, and District 9 from last weekend.) So tomorrow, starting at 10:30 AM, I’ll be seeing An Education, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, The Blind Side, and Inglourious Basterds. I’ve already seen Inglourious Basterds, but the plan is to watch it again. Whether that plan will remain intact after four movies in a row remains to be seen.

Plus, unlimited popcorn and soda!!!