Looking for a good movie to watch this week, friendo? You could flip a coin. Or you could just mosey on by the KiMo Theatre on Wednesday, Dec. 19, for the final New Mexico Centennial Film Series screening of 2012. They’ll be showing the Coen brothers’ Academy Award-winning 2007 pic, No Country For Old Men. The R-rated film—starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin—was shot in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Vegas. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., film starts at 7 p.m. Admission is free. And as a special bonus, I’ll be there offering an introduction to the whole shebang.
Reel World: Take Stock In Filmstock Take Stock In Filmstock
Short filmmakers (that is to say makers of short films), take note: The Filmstock Film Festival, founded in 2009, has just added Filmstock New Mexico. This is a prime opportunity for filmmakers in the Land of Enchantment to get their works in front of a wide audience. Films that win awards at Filmstock New Mexico are eligible to screen at Filmstock in the other three “Four Corners” states of Colorado, Utah and Arizona as part of the Four Corners Program. At the end of the year, the best entries from each state will become Official Selections of Filmstock. There, they’ll have the opportunity to be featured in a gala lineup of shorts from around the globe and be judged by industry professionals. The regular deadline for Filmstock New Mexico is Dec. 21. Until then, submission cost is $15 per film. The late deadline ($25) is to Jan. 15. All entries must be 45 minutes or less in length.
Reel World: Fassbender In The 505 Fassbender In The 505
Actor Mark Wahlberg just lensed a double-feature of films here in New Mexico—the undercover cop drama 2 Guns and the Afghan war saga Lone Survivor. Now it’s looking like acclaimed German / Irish actor Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Prometheus) may be doing the same. Local casting calls have gone out for two films linked to Fassbender. The first is Jane Got a Gun, an indie western helmed by Scottish director Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin). The film stars Natalie Portman as a woman who hires her ex-lover to hunt down the gang who shot up her outlaw husband. (Portman is no stranger to New Mexico having shot Thor and Brothers in the state.) The second film is Frank, a musical biopic loosely based on English musician, comedian and cult figure Frankie Sidebottom, who always performed wearing an oversized papier-mâché mask. Fassbender stars as a mysterious rock star mentoring a young musician played by Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films). Frank seems to be shooting mostly in Ireland but would presumably pick up a few stateside scenes while Fassbender is shooting Jane Got a Gun.
