Indieville : Kevin Smith

Critic wrangle: "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:23:07 GMT

I liked Kevin Smith's rom-com just fine when I caught it at Fantastic Fest last month, though I'm getting pretty tired of the Smith/Apatow tendency to obscure sappiness with poop jokes. Own it or get over it, boys. The critics are all over the place with "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," which is either heartfelt, tiresome or both. On the pro side: Roger Ebert, who compares Smith, favorable, to a line cook, and Robert Wilonsky at the Village Voice, who shrugs that "nothing about...(read more)

Fantastic Fest 2008: Opening Night, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:34:37 GMT

There's incredible (and welcome) cultural whiplash in sneaking away from the middle of the determinedly highbrow New York Film Festival to head to Austin for Fantastic Fest, an event that's most certainly not. Dedicated to horror, sci-fi, fantasy, cult and general genre fare, Fantastic Fest is the brainchild of Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League with support from Ain't It Cool News' Harry Knowles, with a line-up of international fanboy sprawl that this year includes everything from...(read more)

"I would simply go to the Internet and watch real people having real sex."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:52:21 GMT

"I was on a roll, so I kept going with it. I said, 'Look, if I were a 13-year-old boy, and I saw ['Zack and Miri'] on cable back in 1983? Yes, it would send me to the bathroom to jerk off. Now, as a 13-year-old boy, if I saw this movie? It would not titillate me. I would simply go to the Internet and watch real people having real sex. How can you possibly say this is too erotically charged when it's so obviously a comedy with people having over-the-top fake sex, when we can see...(read more)

Zack and Miri go to Austin.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:41:20 GMT

I've never been to the Toronto Film Festival. We've traditionally left it the realm of IFC Canada -- but this year I am headed to Fantastic Fest in Austin, and couldn't be more pleased. The country's fiercest genre festival has already announced two waves of films; among the selections the U.S. premieres of "Ong Bak" director Prachya Pinkaew's "Chocolat," meta Muscles from Brussels mockumentary "JCVD" and "Deadgirl." The most recent round...(read more)

Odds: "Porno" gets the R, ThinkFilm doesn't need your damn bills.

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:18:39 GMT

Kevin Smith gets "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," first rated NC-17, down to a more marketable R. As if there was ever any doubt. [Via the AP] ThinkFilm is so indie it doesn't even need to pay its bills! Bills just roll right off it! Alex Ben Block gets some fabulous quotes from company head David Bergstein at the Hollywood Reporter: "Some of what is out there is true. The vast majority is not true. And for the stuff that is true, my answer is, 'So what? So what if X, Y or Z might...(read more)

"It's not finished... It's finished."

IFC.com - Indie Eye — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:42:53 GMT

"Spaced," the grandly geeky British sitcom about two North London roommates and their friends that Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost created before moving on to "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz," is out on region one DVD today and is well worth convincing someone else to purchase for you. As Sam Adams writes at the LA Times: "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" are "Spaced" writ large, more elaborate homages crafted with more precision...(read more)