The Movie Club Podcast is a monthly roundtable podcast where we select two movies to dissect, analyze and discuss with a group of fellow movie bloggers and film fans.

After four long months of scheduling difficulties, Jay and I finally managed to sit down with Kurt and Andrew from Row Three to record the latest episode of The Movie Club Podcast. This time around, we engage in a pretty lengthy discussion about Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, two movies that aren’t really related in any way, aside from the fact that they’re both a lot of fun to talk about!

In order to listen, head over to The Movie Club Podcast website (linked below) to grab the MP3, or simply update your feed in iTunes. Don’t forget to join in the conversation by leaving your thoughts in the comments over there, and also cast a vote for other movies to feature an upcoming episode. The next episode will be Walter Hill’s The Warriors and Martin Scorsese’s After Hours.

Alright folks, it’s time to settle this once and for all! In recent years it has become almost too easy to hate on Nicolas Cage, and I’ll be the first to admit that he’s starred in some pretty spectacular crap lately. But let’s not forget, the man won an Oscar back in ‘96, and as Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans proves, he can turn in a great performance under the right circumstances. One thing’s for sure: he’s certainly not afraid to take risks. Below I have selected a list of some of his most noteworthy films, and I pose this question to you: which one is his best work to date? Cast your vote and then feel free to discuss the merits of these and other Nic Cage films in the comments.

I was lucky enough to get an invite from my friend Mike to go check out a special event with Stephen King last night in Toronto where David Cronenberg was conducting an informal interview with him on stage. The event was to promote King’s new book Under The Dome, but they talked about plenty of other things including King’s upcoming comic book series American Vampire, a screenplay he just wrote for Cell, and the fact that he’s thinking about writing a sequel to The Shining (no, really). Although I can’t really call myself a hardcore Stephen King fan, I have to admit that it’s pretty crazy that he’s written as many books as he has, and he’s still coming up with interesting new material today.

Under The Dome is about all the madness that ensues when an invisible force field suddenly materializes around a small town in Maine, cutting them off from the outside world. Considering its length, it seems more well-suited for adaptation to a TV series and that’s exactly what King is going to do… with the help of Steven Spielberg! Dreamworks TV have picked up the rights to Under The Dome, and will be developing it as an “event series”, probably for cable. I guess that means HBO might still be the ones to broadcast it, as had been previously reported. I don’t know if I’ll get around to reading the book anytime soon, but I think the concept is great and I’m definitely looking forward to this. Anyone out there reading the book right now? Will it make for a great HBO series?

Good Hair
Directed by: Jeff Stilson
Starring: Chris Rock, Nia Long, Ice-T, Al Sharpton, Maya Angelou, Eve, Tracie Thoms

I have more rap albums than I have black friends on Facebook, and I don’t have that many rap albums. There is and has always been a lot of black culture that I can only understand so much, but I never really thought about hair’s role. It seems so simple – you grow it, you dye it, you straighten it, you comb it – hair just happens, and I had never bothered to think about dreadlocks or cornrows or even afros beyond the stylistic choice. With this in mind, I was confused about who Good Hair is targeted to. Is it an expose of controversial issues to spur change within the black community, or is it just opening the door into a world someone like me knows nothing about?

The premise of this documentary involves Chris Rock investigating a question from his daughter: “Why don’t I have good (read: Farrah Fawcett-ish, flowing, not nappy) hair?”. This leads him on a Michael Moore-ish journey through the $9 billion black hair industry, from relaxers to weaves to the doc’s stability device: a ridiculous hair expo stage event in Atlanta that puts pageantry and pomp over pure skill. A better reference than Moore may be Chris Bell’s 2008 steroid culture documentary Bigger Stronger Faster*, where the issues of vanity are also relevant beyond its specific subjects. While Stilson’s film doesn’t have (or need) the same personal punch, the light-hearted yet serious tone and editing style will seem familiar. Chris Rock as the catalyst for discovery makes for a very entertaining and amusing watch. Rock’s quips and reactions serve as a gateway for pasty white Canadians like me who without a guide may have no idea what the fuck they’re watching, and could not fathom why people would subject themselves to the activities involved in achieving “good hair”.

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Twilight mania takes theatres by storm once again this weekend as the second installment of the vampire love story has finally arrived. If you decide to fight your way through crowds of teenage girls, you could also check out the animated flick Planet 51 or sappy sports drama The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock. In select theatres we have Werner Herzog’s wacky cop flick Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Pedro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces and John Woo’s epic Red Cliff, plus Swedish drama Mammoth starring Michelle Williams, from the director of Fucking Amal. Will you be taking part in the Twilight madness? If not, do you plan to see anything else this weekend?

• Twilight: New Moon
• Planet 51
• The Blind Side
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (limited)
• Broken Embraces (limited)
• Red Cliff (limited)
• Fix (limited)
• Kurbaan (limited)
• Mammoth (limited)
• The Missing Person (limited)

Although documentaries have gained a fair bit of mainstream acceptance over the past decade, the average moviegoer is still highly unlikely to know or care about most of the films that are being released in the realm of non-fiction. And considering the kinds of docs typically recognized by the Academy Awards, it’s easy to see why people might be turned off from the genre. Year after year, they seem to place higher value on “important” subjects, rather than deft storytelling and artistic merit.

Once again this year, the short list of movies nominated for Best Documentary Feature seem to be lacking in not only imagination but also accessibility. Which is not to say that there aren’t some great movies on this list, but to be honest, I’ve only seen 1 out of the 15 titles — and that’s coming from someone who actually cares about docs. So it’s only natural for people to point out all kinds of glaring omissions from the movies that actually got any sort of theatrical release this year… some deserving, and others not so much.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil is one of the major flicks missing here, and although I can’t say I ever expected to see it get nominated, let’s not forget, we’re not even talking nominations here… this is just the short list! On the other hand, Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story is one of his weakest films to date, and its omission is totally fine by me. Still, there are all kinds of other critically acclaimed films that were shunned including: We Live in Public, The September Issue, Tyson, Good Hair, Not Quite Hollywood, Crude, and No Impact Man. What do you think, did any of these movies get robbed? Check out the 15 potential finalists for Best Documentary Feature after the jump.

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