Movie Make-out

Based on a novel by Michael Downing comes veteran TV director Laurie Lynd’s Breakfast with Scot, the story of two gay men — a former Toronto Maple Leaf turned sports commentator (Scrubs’ Tom Cavanagh) and his partner (Ben Shenkman) —  who become the temporary guardians of a “swishy” young kid (Noah Bernett).

Freaked out by Scot’s ‘joie de vivre,’ Eric and Sam gently nudge Scot away from scented hand cream and all things pink, towards a more ‘acceptable’ pastime – hockey. But after Scot’s disastrous first game, Eric begins to rethink the compromises he’s made in his own life in order to be accepted.

Apple has a new trailer up, although another, funnier trailer found its way online last year, which you can find on YouTube.

Sure, the premise is another “be true to yourself” family-friendly comedy — except with a gay couple — but it also look funny and sincere, and that’s the important thing. Released last year in Canada (it’s even out on DVD there already), Breakfast with Scot comes out in America on October 10.

The trailer for Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz with Bashir has been out for a while, apparently, but was just added to Apple’s movie trailer page, which is the first I’ve heard of it.

Here’s the synopsis:

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there is a connection between the dream and their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

The movie looks very visually innovative, but limited by the undoubtedly tiny budget. Still, it’s an intruiging approach to an interesting subject. Waltz with Bashir hits theaters in New York and LA on December 26, and will hopefully widen next year.

If you’re interested in learning a little more about the film, YouTube has a clip of Folman discussing it on France 24 (from the Cannes Film Festival).

Coming Soon has compiled a slew of reports on Johnny Depp’s slate: he’s returning as Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (which earlier reports — rumors, really — have said will be free of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley), he’s definitely playing the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (which we’ve already heard about, but it’s official now), and he’s signed on to play Tonto in a redo of The Lone Ranger — an origin story, scripted by Pirates screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.

Depp’s 1/4 Cherokee, but I sort of wish they’d gone full-blood on this. Ah well. The real question, then, is who’s the Lone Ranger?! Hopefully somebody who will have some real screen presence opposite Depp, unlike Bloom.

Related Posts: Tim Burton, you’re making me nervous. (updated)

Michael Moore’s latest film, Slacker Uprising, is available free, legally, online, and commercial-free. You can watch it above — or see it bigger various ways:

blip.tv is providing streaming right from slackeruprising.com, free of commercials and advertising.

Amazon Video on Demand is providing a higher resolution version of the above stream for people with lots of bandwidth.

iTunes will make it easy for you to download “Slacker Uprising” on your iTunes, iPod, or Apple TV, and view it there or transmit it to your television. This way, the film can be portable as well as for home viewing. This is not available yet, but will be soon!

Hypernia is providing bandwidth and servers to host MPEG4 and DivX versions of “Slacker Uprising” online, so you can burn a DVD or download the film to watch on your computer, XBOX, or PS3.

Lycos is providing free streaming of the film and an on-demand version.

For the love of Christ, vote.

As a former English major, I’m aware that there are only so many basic themes and plots to go around. As a (mostly) unpublished writer, I know that there are only so many ways you can tell the same story. However, as a movie fan, I’ve become pleasantly aware that with the visual medium, there are so many things you can do to make the commonplace absolutely extraordinary. Hell, Charlie Kaufman’s made a career of it—Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, anyone?

And with the official announcement of his next project Looper’s 2009 production start date, writer/director Rian Johnson seems to be adding his name to the list of those in the Newer and Spacier Hollywood. Looper is purportedly the tale of hitmen who get sent their targets from the future. So if Brick was the re-imagining of the noir film and The Brothers Bloom is the re-imagining of the conman film, I’m fully prepared to have my little mind’s conceptions of the suspense-thriller completely blown away.

Related Post: Trailer Watch: The Brothers Bloom