birth. movies. death. july 2015 issue 25

BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH. / JUNE 2015

HUMPHREY BOGART INTHANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943)

GEE, I HOPE NONE OF MY MOVIE FANS HEAR ABOUT THIS...

YOU SAYING ITS ALREADY OUT ON BLU-RAY?

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A Little Note From The Editor

CONTENTSBring It On: Peyton Reed Is Excited For The Small Stakes Of ANT-MAN

Time-Travel Paradoxes in Cinema

Mondo Gallery Presents: WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH

TRAINWRECK:Amy Schumer Is Not Ready To Commit To You, No Matter How Much You Love Her

The Language Of Film: An Interview With THE TRIBE Director Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy

drafthouse.com birthmoviesdeath.com drafthousefilms.com fantasticfest.com mondotees.com

BMD Q&A: THE TRIBEs Yana Novikova On Her Impressive And Brave Film Debut

Your Guide To Drinking This Summer: Bucks, Mules And Their Ilk

Editor-in-ChiefDevin Faraci Managing EditorMeredith Borders Associate PublisherHenri Mazza Art DirectorJoseph A. Ziemba Graphic DesignersZach Short, Stephen Sosa, Kelsey Spencer Copy EditorGeorge Bragdon Contributing WritersJoseph A. Ziemba, Ray Wagner, Justin Brookhart, Meredith Borders, Sumyi Antonson, Britt Hayes, Devin Faraci, Bill Norris, Evan Saathoff, Andrew Todd, Scott Wampler, Mandy Curtis, Jennifer Keyser Advertising and SponsorshipsCorey Wilson | [email protected] Public Relations InquiriesBrandy Fons | [email protected] All content 2015 Alamo Drafthouse | drafthouse.com | birthmoviesdeath.comPromotional images and artwork are reproduced in this magazine in the spirit of publicity and as historical illustrations to the text. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the respective filmmakers, actors, and studios.

The Frightening Heroics Of CONAN THE BARBARIAN

A Celebration Of The Cinematic Iliac Crest

PAPER TOWNS vs. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Video Vortex: The Exquisite Plagiarism Of TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK

The Last Word With TANGERINE Director Sean Baker

Drinking With THE HUSTLER: The Alamo Drafthouse Guest Bartender On A Drink Worthy Of Paul Newman

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DEVIN FARACIBadass Digest Editor-in-Chief

Read more at birthmoviesdeath.com

@devincf

A Little Note From The Editor

Its the little things. Thats the premise of A SOUND OF THUNDER, Ray Bradburys time travel short story where a chrononaut changes history forever simply by stepping on a butterfly in the distant past.

This month we look at some of the little things -- like Marvels ANT-MAN, a superhero who can shrink to tiny sizes. Hes our coverboy, and were proud to have a report from the set.

Also little in this issue: a little bit of a mans body. This month MAGIC MIKE XXL hits (not a little thing in sight in that film), so we asked our writers to focus on one little piece of the male anatomy that pelvic V muscle. Although, since my own pelvic muscle is nowhere near as defined as some of these guys, maybe it isnt such a little thing after all.

THE TRIBE is a big movie told in a little way -- theres no music or dialogue, and the whole story is told through sign language. The tiniest of gestures and most subtle facial expressions allow director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky to tell a brutal, moving and amazing story. Were excited to feature that film in this issue.

Maybe TERMINATOR: GENISYS isnt so much a little thing, but thats why I mentioned SOUND OF THUNDER -- the famous killer robot series takes a turn as our heroes travel back in time to stop the other guys who were trying to travel back in time to well, it gets complicated, so we decided to spend a little time asking our resident scientist to explain to us just how a little time works. Paradoxes ahoy.

There is a smaller side to TERMINATOR, and thats in the form of TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK, an Italian rip-off/fake sequel to THE TERMINATOR that has become a big holy grail for lovers of the weird, wild and unruly side of the movies.

And theres more! This issue is no little thing after all -- we have big star in the making Amy Schumers TRAINWRECK featured, and theres some little-known movie called CONAN THE BARBARIAN we like to talk about. Plus: a little bit of booze and a bit of books and a bit of dinosaurs. We hope you like this one -- even a little bit. 6


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Bring It On: Peyton Reed Is Excited For The Small Stakes Of ANT-MAN

DEVIN FARACIBirth.Movies.Death Editor-in-Chief


@devincf


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They made an Ant-Man movie. Seriously. And they got the guy who directed the (underrated and excellent) cheerleader comedy BRING IT ON to do it. Again, seriously.

And it was probably a very good choice. When original director Edgar Wright left the project, Marvel Studios had to find a filmmaker, fast. They could have gone with any number of Hollywood shooters who just get the footage in the can, but they went with Peyton Reed, whose career spans Superchunk music videos and TVs MR. SHOW and the crazy underappreciated period romcom DOWN WITH LOVE.

Wait, youre saying. Thats a good thing? Wheres the action in his resume? Has he ever even worked with an explosion?

Reed knows that youre skeptical -- of him and his movie. And it turns out thats just the way he likes it.

Q: If people look at your IMDB theyre going to see a lot of comedies, and not just comedies but comedies like BRING IT ON -- nothing close to the action or superhero genre.

A: A lot of my movies have been comedic, but its long been a goal of mine to do a science fiction or superhero movie -- thats what I grew up on. Thats what I love. Those are the movies that made me want to get into movies -- PLANET OF THE APES, STAR WARS.

There are guys who are strictly comedy directors, but there are also guys who love comedy but want to do more kinetic stuff. Comedy can be sort of all talking heads and it can be non-cinematic, but from the beginning melding those two has been important to me. BRING IT ON is a low budget movie, but its a very kinetic movie. Its almost a musical without technically being a musical. DOWN WITH LOVE, my second movie, was very pre-planned and the visuals were very much at the forefront. When we were doing stuff like THE BREAKUP, which is more a straightforward comedy, there isnt as much an opportunity in a movie like that to have fun with the visuals, and it was something I really missed and wanted to get back to.

Q: A lot of filmmakers who direct these superhero movies will say theyre a nerd, theyre fans of the material, and I have started rolling my eyes at this, because I think its just a standard thing they say in interviews. But I know you, and I know that you actually grew up a nerd.

A: In the cinematic world theres always this Marvel versus DC thing happening on the internet, and I have a dog in that fight: I grew up a Marvel kid. There were a handful of DC titles I read, and

I certainly read BATMAN and I read stuff like KAMANDI: LAST BOY ON EARTH, but I was die-hard Marvel. Theres a reason for that: as a kid my critical faculties led me to Marvel, I enjoyed them more. I like the world, I liked the interconnectiveness of the world. I love the Stan Lee editorial attitude. When it came time for the FANTASTIC FOUR radio show in '74/'75 and Stan Lee narrated that? I loved that sensibility, and that was long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So when ANT-MAN came up, I felt like I had a relationship with these characters. I had very specific ideas about Ant-Man, and I brought those ideas to the movie.

But it was PLANET OF THE APES that sucked me in. Everybody talks about world building and all that, and PLANET OF THE APES was the best world building for me. The only one I saw in theaters was BATTLE, but I was watching the show on TV, watching the movies on TV. I came of age at a time when PLANET OF THE APES was being heavily merchandized. I was fixated on the TV series that ran for like 16 episodes. I remember being an annoying kid who, on Fridays, when we would go visit my grandmother -- she was a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Raleigh, North Carolina, where I grew up -- I would calculate that we had to leave home by 5:30 so we could drive and make it to my grandparents house and say hi to them and then race to the TV at 8 oclock and see PLANET OF THE APES. If my kid grows up to be like that itll be the most horrible, annoying thing in the world but I was that kid!


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Q: We have this vision of what a Marvel movie is, and that vision gets bigger and bigger -- AGE OF ULTRON has a floating city that is about to destroy the Earth. Do you see ANT-MAN as another giant spectacle, or is this a palette-cleanser?

A: I think in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe it feels more like a palette-cleanser, and thats by design. The idea for this movie was always something smaller, more street-level. It takes place in a grounded world, which gives us a new perspective. The structure of the movie was always a heist movie. These movies get bigger and bigger and bigger, theres talk about superhero fatigue, but ANT-MAN, at its core, is a science fiction movie. Its a shrinking movie with the structure of a heist movie. It also has this dual redemption story between fathers and daughters, but it also has a comedic heart. And I like that better than something with massive, gigantic world-ending stakes.

Q: Im glad you have a vision for Ant-Man as a character, because a lot of people are asking the question: Why Ant-Man?

A: I just wrote the forward for the ART OF ANT-MAN book, and thats what I led with -- he has to be the most challenging character in the history of Marvel. Hes never even supported his own comic magazine! The writers, Stan Lee in particular, never seemed to know what to do with that character, and as a result he was Ant-Man, he was Giant Man, he was Goliath, he was Yellowjacket he was just schizophrenic.

But I like that. To me people will come into this movie thinking maybe its silly -- What can he do, he can shrink and he can control ants? -- but I also think theyre coming in with less solid ideas of who he is or isnt. It gives me more leeway to create that character, in terms of the movie version.

And I like that hes an underdog. My first movie, BRING IT ON, was a ten million dollar cheerleader movie. It was absolutely an underdog, and before it came out we had no idea how it would do and I like having that experience again, being an underdog and pulling something out that is unexpected. ANT-MAN brings me back there and, perversely or not, I like that feeling. 6

ANT-MAN arrives in theaters July 17. Check drafthouse.com for listings.


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Time-Travel Paradoxes in Cinema

RAY WAGNERBirth.Movies.Death. Science Editor@ray_wagnerRead more at birthmoviesdeath.com

RAY WAGNERBirth.Movies.Death. Science Editor


@ray_wagner


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Viral pandemics; zombie apocalypses; nuclear armageddon; alien invasions; machine uprisings. That such tropes surface again and again in science fiction and fantasy cinema shouldnt really surprise us -- they are lenses through which we can wrestle with some of our more existential fears, examining our place in an overwhelmingly large universe and trying to shake loose some solace in the attempt. And is there anything crueler, more central to the human narrative than the relentless march of time? Is there anything more tantalizing than the possibility that we, creatures who analyze, learn and adapt, could reach back across time to our younger selves, nudging our more naive counterparts around obstacles, whispering of upcoming tragedies, and slyly pointing the right way at the forks in lifes roads?

Again and again, we find our science fiction films going back to the well of time travel. But, despite this brief glimmer of hope, theres always an undercurrent of resignation. Even if we were allowed to move freely in time the way we do in space, the overwhelming complexity of causality seems to guarantee that wed birth all manner of unintended consequences or that, despite our best efforts, we'd find that the broad strokes of our future were immutable no matter how we changed the smaller details. Either way, the future to which we'd like to return is no longer in the cards, due to our meddling, giving us that classic corollary of time-travel yarns: the temporal paradox.

Time-travel paradoxes in film tend to fall in two main camps. The first is the grandfather paradox, whereby a time traveler, in the course of fiddling with the past, accidentally alters events central to her present -- say, preventing her grandfather from ever meeting her grandmother and erasing herself from their future in the process. Only by existing in the first place was she able to travel into the past, but while there she screws things up so badly that theres no longer a future with her in it. The BACK TO THE FUTURE series tackles this trope literally, with accidental time traveler Marty McFly so badly mucking up the beginning of his parents romance that he literally starts fading out of existence. Not learning to leave well enough alone, Marty then tries to fiddle with his future self's life, only to trigger another grandfather paradox whose consequences are far worse than a simple McFly-less timeline. The Hugo award-winning episode of the original STAR TREK series, The City on the Edge of Forever, provides another great, poignant, example. Dr. McCoy of the starship Enterprise is accidentally thrown back in time to the New York slums of the Great Depression, where he saves the life of social worker Edith Keeler, fated to die young in a traffic accident. Keeler's example of tolerance so influences the subsequent national conversation that the United States never enters the second World War until its

too late, and fascism spreads unchecked for the next 300-plus years. The utopian Federation of McCoys time is never formed, and its only when the Enterprises Captain Kirk follows McCoy back and allows Keelers death, despite having fallen in love with her in the meantime, that the proper future is restored.

The other main time-travel conundrum we tend to find in cinema is the predestination paradox. Here, a time traveler is motivated by some earlier event to take a trip into the past, only to find that he ends up causing the event that prompted the trip in the first place. No matter how he'd like to change events in the past to tweak his future, he's fated to make the same, circular journey. The film INTERSTELLAR provides a recent example of this paradox. Amid a severe climate crisis, ghostly messages begin appearing to Astronaut-turned-farmer Joseph Cooper and his young daughter, pointing the two of them to a secret NASA installation where Cooper is recruited to travel through a wormhole to a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. In the course of his mission to find a better home for the remainder of humanity, Cooper falls into the black hole, only to encounter an advanced intelligence that protects him from the black hole's singularity. Encased inside a tesseract built by the hyper-dimensional beings, Cooper is moved through both space and time back to Earth, where he realizes that he is now the ghostly presence who was communicating with his younger self. Cooper finds that he can pass the solution to humanity's crisis, learned during his painful journey, along to his future


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adult daughter, but he also realizes that he must close the loop of the paradox and send younger Cooper the messages that propel him toward the answers his daughter is seeking.

Perhaps the best known example of the predestination paradox in film is found in THE TERMINATOR -- a film by director James Cameron which shares enough similarities with a short story by "The City on the Edge of Forever" scribe Harlan Ellison that it prompted an out-of-court settlement with the notoriously litigious author. THE TERMINATOR opens in an apocalyptic future where machine intelligence Skynet, tasked with protecting humanity, has decided that the most efficient solution involves eradicating the biggest threat to the species -- humanity itself. The nuclear strike launched by Skynet was largely successful, and it is now in the process of mopping up the few surviving humans using killer robots called Terminators. Resistance leader John Connor and his fighters are proving particularly troublesome, and Skynet, which has been tinkering with time travel in its spare time, decides to send a Terminator in the past to kill

Connor's mother Sarah before he's ever born. Connor catches wind of this and sends soldier Kyle Reese into the past to stop the Terminator. Reese succeeds, falling in love with Sarah in the process and fathering the young John Connor, catching Skynet in a classic predestination paradox: in trying to rub out Connor before his birth, Skynet actually incites the conception of its greatest enemy.

This month at the Alamo Drafthouse, we'll see the next chapter of the TERMINATOR saga, which promises an alternate take on Skynet's time-travel hijinks. Will the machines manage to squash the human resistance before it starts this time, or will the future, through its sneaky paradoxes, still manage to find a way for the survivors to hold together? Will the humans be able to stop the apocalypse now, or are they just as fated to take the journey to a future war with Skynet? Given the abundance of evidence in the cinematic canon, it seems unwise to bet against the future... 6

TERMINATOR: GENISYS arrives in theaters July 1. Check drafthouse.com for listings.


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Mondo Gallery Presents: WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH

JURASSIC PARK is the first movie I ever saw in a theater. I was five years old and my family brought me to a giant, megaplex cinema. I got popcorn, soda and candy and sat second row for one of the biggest blockbuster movies ever. Watching the film I was overcome with excitement, fear, wonder and a lot of confusion. As a child I understood that movies werent real. My parents had explained to me that men and women created them to tell stories. What I couldnt understand after watching JURASSIC PARK is how the men and women who made this movie were able to get real dinosaurs to act in it. I was convinced that they must have used some sort of magic. How else could I have watched a triceratops take breaths so deep they moved a grown man? It was that scene, in which Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant scrutinizing the beauty of the sick animal, which stuck with me long after leaving the theater. That moment, more so than the famous first sighting of the brachiosauruses, allowed me to connect with the characters in a deeply emotional way. We shared in the awe-inspiring sight of a real dinosaur. Not in fear, but in total amazement. To them it was just as much of a spectacle as what I was witnessing seated in the darkened room. It wasnt until I was gifted a copy of the book, THE MAKING OF JURASSIC PARK, that I began to understand that the magic I believed in was called filmmaking. Talented artists and craftsmen used practical and digital effects to bring to life the amazing creatures that appeared on screen in front

of me. They were the real wizards. I pored over the pages of the book, reading every line, examining every photo and illustration. This obsession sparked a love of movies and art that still inspires me to this day. Now, over twenty years after John Hammond first appeared on screen to capture the imagination of the entire planet, a new chapter in the JURASSIC PARK franchise, JURASSIC WORLD, is opening in theaters. To celebrate the release of the new movie, Mondo is hosting an entire gallery exhibit dedicated to the franchise, titled WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH. With over thirty pieces of new artwork we aim to honor the iconic world created by Stephen Spielberg and his team. Each artist in the show is utilizing their unique talent and skills to reinterpret imagery from the films. Some are depictions of famous scenes and characters while others are images befitting the walls of the famous park gift shop. All of the artwork is rich with love and produced by people with stories similar to mine. Our hope is to create a new JURASSIC PARK experience for old fans and new, just as JURASSIC WORLD seeks to do the same. Please join us on June 12th for the opening reception, or view the artwork online after at mondotees.com. 6 Mondo Gallery Presents: WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTHOpening Reception June 12th 7-10pmOn Display June 12th June 27th4115 Guadalupe St. Austin, TX

JUSTIN BROOKHARTMondo Gallery Director

@JustinBrookhart


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TRAINWRECK: Amy Schumer Is Not Ready To Commit To You, No Matter How Much You Love Her

@xymarla

MEREDITH BORDERSBadass Digest Managing Editor



Heres the thing about TRAINWRECK: its a romantic comedy. Its not a subversive take on the rom-com, either. Its a romantic comedy in the vein of the big, mainstream, wildly successful romantic comedies of the 90s and early 2000s. It hits the beats you think its going to hit, and it hits them well.

Theres a good chance most people arent going to call it a romantic comedy, though. Theyll call it a Judd Apatow movie; theyll call it an Amy Schumer movie. Theyll call it a sex comedy or just a comedy. Thats because TRAINWRECK is very good and very funny and very cool, and most people dont want to admit that rom-coms can be good, funny and cool.

This is the magic of Amy Schumer. She makes everything seem cooler just by virtue of her association. But the fact is, there was never anything inherently wrong with romantic comedies as a genre. There have been great romantic comedies, and there have been terrible romantic comedies. TRAINWRECK is a great romantic comedy.

Schumer plays Amy, a writer at an obnoxious mens magazine titled SNUFF. At a young, impressionable age, her father, the crotchety Colin Quinn, teaches her and her sister, Kim (Brie Larson) that monogamy is a fruitless endeavor. With Kim -- happily married, pregnant and mother to a weirdly precocious step-son whom Amy openly despises -- that lesson did not take. With Amy, it caught on like gangbusters. Shes living a free-wheeling singles life filled with booze, bud and many, many men. Lots of men. An incredibly impressive assortment of men. And then she meets sports surgeon Aaron (Bill Hader).

So yeah, this goes where you think its going to go. Despite her most abiding instincts, Amy falls for Aaron. Their relationship is perfect, until it isnt, and then Amy must learn to overcome her deep-seated inclination to flee at the first sign of adult obligation. And, of course, everything works out at the end with a grand, implausible gesture by Amy. I mean, seriously: you have seen this movie.

And yet, TRAINWRECK still manages to surprise in how profoundly funny it is, and in the wonderful realism and recognizability of her character. Here is a woman whos a bit of a mess laid bare, and its a beautiful, hilarious, interesting mess of which youd like to see much, much more. So, at the end, when Amy realizes she must abandon childish pursuits and get her act together to keep the man that she loves, a man who is kind and funny and intelligent, its kind of a bummer, frankly. We like irresponsible Amy. But if Amy doesnt like irresponsible Amy, well, thats really her business.

These performances are perfect. Screenwriter Schumer -- who admitted in the SXSW Q&A following the films world premiere screening that all of this mess is truly her, just Amy Schumer as she is in reality -- is as hilarious and cool as you know shes going to be, but what might surprise you is how poignant and deeply sad she can be. There are a few moments in TRAINWRECK in which Schumer will bring you to tears. Shes honest and true, and never more so than in her relationship with her sister, played warmly here by Larson. Schumers sister Kim Caramele produced TRAINWRECK with Schumer and the two are writing partners, and the relationship onscreen is so plain and genuine that we feel like we know something of Caramele, and of the love and mutual support she and Schumer share despite their very different personalities. Hader is a much dreamier romantic lead than one might expect of the comedian, and the most surprising standout of TRAINWRECK is without a doubt LeBron James, playing a very sweet, strange version of himself as Aarons patient and friend. Oh yeah: and Tilda Swinton is in this movie! Shes the posh, mildly evil editor of SNUFF whom Amy must go to great lengths to impress. TRAINWRECK is a thoughtful, compelling, relatable and wildly hilarious comedy that will win over audiences male and female. Of course, at least half of that audience wont admit that its a romantic comedy that theyre loving, but they will love it just the same. 6

TRAINWRECK arrives in theaters July 17. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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The Language Of Film: An Interview With THE TRIBE Director Myroslav SlaboshpytskiySUMYI KHONG ANTONSONDrafthouse Films VP of Marketing and Distribution, IIRC

@drafthousefilms


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Q: Can you talk more about your inspiration for making a film in sign language without subtitles or voice-over?

A: I wanted to make a modern silent film. When I was starting the work on THE TRIBE, I knew that it would be a universal story in sign language, easy to understand by any audience in all corners of the globe, without voice-over or subtitles. It was my principal challenge -- to make a film in film language.

Making a film with the deaf using subtitles never even occurred to me. For me it would have been like having a man on stage who would be reading aloud the libretto of the ballet while it is performed.

The film has been sold in forty countries and each country is playing the exact same film without any alterations whatsoever; every studio who buys the film signs a contract that has a clause forbidding subtitles, voice-over and other attempts to modify the film so they can see the film as I intended.

Q: The cast of THE TRIBE are all deaf, non-professional actors. Can you talk more about the casting process?

A: I never considered the idea of shooting non-deaf people. From the very beginning I knew that my actors should be people for whom sign language is their mother tongue. The idea of teaching non-deaf actors sign language was excluded at the very beginning. The deaf communicate in sign language with their whole bodies and each individual has his or her particular and unique manner of speaking, connected with their physical characteristics: mobility of features, temperament, degree of animation and physicality. Their style of communication influences

the performance of a role more than the manner of a speaking actor so I was interested in personalities, naturalness and vibes.

Q: How did you communicate with your cast while directing? Did you learn any signing?

A: We had a sign language interpreter who was always on set to help interpret for me and to make sure that the actors would stick exactly to the script. I know a couple of gestures -- of course, the actors taught me how to swear straight away. So I can swear in the Ukrainian sign language brilliantly. Sometimes it was quite useful during the filming!

Q: Were there any films that you showed the cast in preparation of making THE TRIBE?

A: Actually we showed a lot of films to the cast since they werent professional actors. It was like a brief cinema class of my most loved and preferred films to help open their minds and give them reference points for me to describe what I do and why.

To prepare for the sex scenes, I had the leads, Grigoriy and Yana, watch LAST TANGO IN PARIS, LA VIE DADEL, 9 SONGS, SHORTBUS and several films from Lars von Trier, Larry Clark and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Q: What made you want to tell the story of a confrontation between an individual and the group which he is also a part of?

A: I think that upon considering the narrative construction of THE TRIBE, youll find a classical Western. The protagonist comes to a town where theres a gang, he falls in love with the

gang leaders girl, and so on and so forth. And a hero is the hero only when he stands out against the whole world alone.

Q: Why did you decide to set this film in a boarding school?

A: I chose a boarding school setting because it is a closed system, which -- like a prison -- can be perceived to be a metaphor of the state even if that isnt the intention. THE TRIBE is, to a certain extent, a metaphor of the arrangement of the Ukrainian state, at least the pre-revolutionary Ukraine. And the arrangement of the state of Ukraine was based on the principle of a Mafiosi group. However, I think this problem can be understood by audiences outside of Ukraine as well; when anti-drug police units are the main drug dealers, and the anti-prostitution units control brothels, these are the signs of the rotten Mafiosi system. When representatives of social institutions perform the functions contrary to their duties.

Q: Was there one scene in particular that you found most challenging to film?

A: Technically speaking, the most difficult scene to shoot was of one of the deaf actors being harmed by a truck since we didnt use a stuntman. The deaf actor truly couldnt hear the truck approaching so we worked with the best stunt director of Ukraine. No computer

effects were used for this scene, everything was filmed in the honest, old-school way. Theoretically everything was very safe but it was still nerve-wracking. We did seven takes and when everything was finished safely, we felt a wild relief. Most of the people involved in shooting that particular scene celebrated by getting drunk right after we successfully completed it!

Q: You were a crime reporter before becoming a filmmaker. Can you talk more about that and if that helped influenced your film?

A: The events in the film did not happen with particular people in reality. However, all these stories came either from my own experience or were told to me from my time as a crime reporter. As to the tribal system, there exists a certain parallel world in which deaf and voiceless people live; from time to time they have communication problems with the non-deaf. In some particularly insular cases, there is a system of their own court of arbitration and supervision outside of our speaking world which some have dubbed the deaf mafia. My exposure to that world came through my time as a crime reporter and I thought it was a dramatic perspective to explore. 6

Drafthouse Films presents THE TRIBE this month at theaters all over the country. Check drafthousefilms.com/film/the-tribe for listings.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 15CHILLER PREMIERE


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BMD Q&A: THE TRIBEs Yana Novikova On Her Impressive And Brave Film Debut

BRITT HAYESBadass Digest Contributor

@missbritthayes


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THE TRIBE is a truly exceptional, singular film -- the story of a Ukrainian boarding school for the deaf, where director Miroslav Slaboshpitsky employs real deaf actors and utilizes no spoken dialogue or music, providing a fully immersive and (pardon the pun) disquieting experience for the viewer. One of the many highlights of THE TRIBE is Yana Novikovas bold and brave performance as Anya, a girl who -- along with her friend, Svetka -- is pimped out by a group of her rowdy male peers, resulting in an unnerving dramatic arc for Anya. Novikovas performance is even more impressive when you discover that this was her first time acting professionally. I had a chance to interview Novikova to discuss her inspirations and the challenges of playing Anya.

Q: THE TRIBE was the first time you acted in front of a camera, and the film demands a lot from you both emotionally and physically. Can you discuss what that experience was like?

A: Yes. At first I had no experience as I was not a professional working actress. In rehearsals, we discussed each scene and more about my role with the director and I worked very hard. It got less difficult to fall into her role as we continued shooting. I knew I had to put a lot of emotion and authentic feeling so the audience can believe in her character. I thank the movie for giving me experiences to work on my qualities as an actress.

Q: What was the audition process like?

A: There were many auditions held with several deaf schools and communities during the casting. At first, I was not chosen for the role and I was very upset, but then they contacted me for another audition and I thank destiny that they changed their mind and Myroslav gave me this role in his movie.

Q: Going in, I imagine you already had a strong connection to the material and the world created in the film, but what were some of the other meaningful moments or connections you discovered while making the film?

A: After I viewed the movie LIFE ADELE (which

Myroslav recommended) [note: shes referring to LA VIE dADELE aka BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR), I felt a connection and it is the moment I was sure that I could do a powerful performance and I set my objectives for the film. Myroslav told me that the movie received awards at the Cannes film festival. I didnt know about the Cannes film festival. I asked him, will THE TRIBE play at Cannes film festival? And he replied I dont know, it depends from the movie and us. I was living in an apartment in Kiev during production and I decided to write on my bathroom mirror in red lipstick, THE TRIBE will receive the Palme dOr. Later, THE TRIBE got in Cannes and received four awards, it is improbable!

Q: What was the most challenging moment for you as an actress?

A: It was heaviest to play the emotional scenes and also the abortion scene. I imagined going through all the powerful emotions and pain and tried to show those feelings.

Q: How did you approach playing the role of Anya? Were you able to connect with her on a personal level?

A: Anya sees prostitution as a means to an end, it earns her money so she can achieve her goal to go abroad and dream of a new life in Italy so she can separate herself from what she is doing. I tried to immerse myself into Anyas character and how she thought even when not shooting so even my own personality was under construction while I played this role.

Q: The abortion scene is a really tough moment, but the emotions in that scene speak to many women on a universal level. Does that scene speak to a reality for some women in the Ukraine?

A: After a premiere screening of our movie, one woman who was deaf came up to me and told me she felt it was very realistic to her experience. I felt that meant I was not mistaken with how I portrayed this scene.

Q: Are there any similarities between the fictional boarding school in this film and schools youve attended?

A: I studied in a boarding school and so I have seen how children can fight, demand money, etc. Of course, not all schools are like this or that extreme, but I was able to experience a little of it.

Q: What do you feel is the most powerful takeaway in the film, for you personally, or for the audience?

A: In our movie, although there are not proper words like in a silent cinema, when the deaf communicate -- in addition to gestures through sign language -- there is even more to understand. I would say it is because communication -- in any form -- is important. I also think it is a wider window for us all and THE TRIBE forces the viewer to forget he or she is sitting in a cinema. 6

Drafthouse Films presents THE TRIBE this month at theaters all over the country. Check drafthousefilms.com/film/the-tribe for listings.


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Your Guide To Drinking This Summer: Bucks, Mules And Their Ilk

This is a drink that nearly everyone will enjoy. It knows no gender or cultural boundaries; indeed, it started out as something of an ambassador in a highball glass. It does, however, have a kick to it (thanks to the ginger) and it's most certainly not a drink to be scoffed at by your single malt-sipping brethren. Your grandfather probably had a few of these when he came home from World War II. -- Brad Miles

Sometimes you dont want all the fuss and circumstance of seeking out obscure liqueurs. Sometimes you dont want to muck around with separating eggs or carefully measuring drops of flower water.

Sometimes you just want a drink, and, when the weekends are hot and lazy, you want that drink to be long, to be refreshing and to be quick to put together. Sometimes you just want a Buck, or a Mule, or a Dark and Stormy, all drinks cut from the same cloth and built around a formula that works with almost any spirit at all.

NomenclatureThere are those that hold that a Buck is made from a mixture of spirit, sour citrus and ginger ale, while a Mule will take that formula and sub in spicier ginger beer for the more mellow ginger ale. There are those who insist you can use either soft drink as your mixer and call it a Buck, and there are those who just know that the formula just works and you should just call for it when youre thirsty and the sun is over the yardarm. Oh, and that ginger beer is always better than ginger ale, but either will do in a pinch.

Origin of the SpeciesClaims abound that the Buck takes its name from The Buck's Club a London social club founded in 1919, which did indeed feature a drink called The Bucks Fizz, created by a bartender who worked there by the name of McGarry. Unfortunately, the Bucks Fizz contains neither spirit, nor sour citrus, nor ginger beer. Instead it consists of Brut Champagne and fresh orange juice, and if made to the standards of McGarry, a touch of good grenadine.

In other words, a Bucks Fizz is what we know as a Mimosa, something decidedly not a Buck in the liquor, ginger and citrus vein.

From 1890 or so, there was The Horses Neck, a drink that started life as ginger ale with a very long strip of lemon peel inside, and evolved into the Horses Neck With a Stick (or a Kick), the above fitted out with a slug of whiskey, or more commonly brandy. American in origin, the Horses Neck (kick version) became a staple of British Navy wardrooms by the 1960s, and was notorious enough that Ian Fleming, in Octopussy, called The Horses Neck the drunkards drink. Fleming is alleged to have been quite partial to them himself.

There is nothing wrong with a nice spicy ginger ale topped up with a snort of whiskey or brandy, but it is not quite balanced enough for serious tippling and it lacks a certain panache. Enter Ginger Beer and Citrus.

Ginger Beer v. Ginger AleThe difference between modern ginger beer and ginger ale is usually to do with sweetness and spice. Contemporary ginger beer is generally less sweet than ginger ale and packs more of a spicy ginger kick. Both began life in a different form, as a brewed, fermented beverage, and its still worthwhile to brew your own ginger beer if you have a little time on your hands. The flavor will be better than any that you can buy, and the alcohol levels will be negligible, hovering in the same range as kombucha. (NB -- Follow the directions carefully. Anytime bottle fermentation takes place, there is a risk of explosion, in this case, a very sticky risk.)

Historically, though ginger beer was produced in much the same manner as sourdough bread, from a starter euphemistically called a "Ginger Beer Plant. Ginger Beer Plant is not a leafy green, but rather a toxic looking white mass, a mixture of microorganisms, fungi and yeast that was fed with sugar and grew, with the starter periodically halved and passed off to friends. Its certainly worth trying if you can get your hands on some, but sugar, yeast and

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time will yield roughly the same results, with a whole lot more control of the finished product.

Early mass-produced ginger based soft drinks began to appear in the United States by the mid- 1800s, and early brands like Vernors Ginger Ale moved into what came to be called a Golden Style, with a flavoring extract aged in oak barrels for four years before use. Ginger Ale was so popular (it was the most popular soft drink in the United States until the 1930s) that many unscrupulous companies failed to use ginger at all, instead relying on Capsaicin to spice up their products. These early ginger ales were most likely closer to what we now call ginger beer; accounts refer to them as both sweet and powerfully spicy.

The modern, Dry style of ginger ale took off around the time of prohibition, particularly in the hands of John McLaughlin, who first brewed up Canada Dry in 1907. This style has a more mellow ginger flavor, is arguably easier drinking, and is most definitely dominate in todays soda aisles.

For our purposes here, particularly with strong spirits, Id go with ginger beer, relying on homemade, or the

excellent products from Maine Root, Fentimans, Barritts, Fever Tree, and myriad other, smaller, mostly local options. Reeds is a pioneer in returning true ginger beer to American shelves, and their Extra Ginger Brew is a nice option with a lot of bite.

A Brief Note on ExecutionBucks are forgiving drinks, designed to be made quickly and go down easy. They are essentially a highball, or what some bartenders call one and ones, dressed up with a squeeze of citrus. You can trust your eye on these more than you can with most. Dont fuss with them, just enjoy them.

A Further Note on IngredientsAs long as your spirits are of decent quality, your citrus juice is fresh, and youve got a nice, spicy ginger beer on hand, you really cant go wrong. Pair your citrus with the spirit: rum, tequila, and gin tend to have an affinity for limes; brown liqueurs like lemon; and vodka, well vodka can work with anything, giving its legally mandated neutrality -- though the Moscow Mule version of the Buck, using vodka, lime and ginger beer, has had an enduring run of popularity.

A Whole Mess of Recipes

Your Basic Buck1 -2 oz. of Good Spirit oz. or juice of half a lemon or limeGinger Beer

Fill a glass with ice. Add spirit and citrus juice, top with ginger beer, stir gently and serve.

Barbados Buck Adapted from Charles Baker, Jr.

oz. aged, dark rum oz. light rum oz. fresh lime juice4-5 oz. ginger beer

Fill a tall glass with ice. Add your rum and lime and top with ginger beer. Give it a gentle stir, garnish with a lime wedge or wheel if you wish and serve.

Kentucky BuckErick Castro

2 oz. Bourbon2 Dashes Angostura Bitters oz. Fresh Lemon Juice oz. Simple Syrup1 Medium StrawberryGinger Beer

Place lemon juice and strawberry into a mixing glass and muddle strawberry vigorously. Pour in bourbon, bitters and simple syrup. Add ice and shake. Strain over ice into a collins glass and top with ginger beer. Garnish with finely sliced strawberry and lemon wheel.

Gin-Gin MuleAudrey Saunders

1 oz. Tanqueray Gin oz. lime juice1 oz. simple syrup (or 1 teaspoon superfine granulated sugar)8 to 10 mint leaves, chopped2 oz. ginger beer plus more for topping up.

Muddle the lime juice, simple syrup, and mint leaves together in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add ginger beer and gin. Shake well. Pour into a highball glass filled with ice, and top with additional ginger beer and a sprig of mint.

Dark & Stormy(Goslings Black Seal Rum has a trademark on the Dark & Stormy, and they are litigious bastards, who have been known to sue bars, writers and others who recommend a Dark & Stormy be made with any other sort of rum. Fortunately, Goslings Black Seal rum is excellent in the drink. Unfortunately, the trademarked recipe does not include any lime juice, which I think enlivens the drink and elevates it. The absence of lime also, of course, makes the Dark & Stormy not a buck at all. Anyway.)

2 oz. Goslings Black Seal RumGinger Beer

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Fill with ginger beer, leaving two-three fingers of head space at the top of the glass. Top with the black seal rum. To make a better drink, something we could call a Black Seal Buck, squeeze in a bit of lime juice. 6

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The Frightening Heroics Of CONAN THE BARBARIAN

A look at one of cinemas roughest heroes.

Weve had movie characters that set golden standards for heroism. Weve also had likable protagonists who are awful people. Our cinematic palate has grown durable enough to handle cads, losers, conmen, rogues and a whole host of other negative adjectives when it comes to central characters. Regardless of their weaknesses, we typically want them to succeed if the movie works. When it comes to CONAN THE

BARBARIAN, however, things get a bit trickier -- because while hes definitely the films protagonist, he is also somewhat terrifying.

Filtered through the mind of John Milius, a guy defined by such strongly averred machismo that he could provide a safe-for-work emoji for testicles, Robert E. Howards Conan the Cimmerian, as portrayed by Arnold Swarzenegger, is very much a heroic figure. He transforms himself from a slave into


EVAN SAATHOFFBirth.Movies.Death. Senior Editor

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an eventual king. He avenges his parents and people. He rids the world of an evil and powerful wizard. He also looks super cool, which is important.

But Milius Conan is not a nice or friendly figure. Hes a brutal, blunt and remorseless expression of alpha male ideals sent on a quest of personal vengeance that just happens to take out someone even more evil. Like Achilles before him, he wields a combination of power and emotional disposition that makes him both awesome and awful. As good guys go, this is one you might want to avoid.

This is especially true during the films first half, where an enslaved Conan explores his talent for violence without the benefit of his own agency. Doomed to spend his life as a pit fighter for the entertainment of others, Conan takes only a moment during his initial fight to understand what the stakes are and whats expected of him. After he puts that first fighter down, were treated to a montage of Conans gladiator career, in which he kills guy after guy with the dumb glee of a dog pouncing on a wounded squirrel. This animal metaphor isnt as off-base as it sounds since we also learn that Conans keepers feed him women for breeding. He is literally a stud.

Right off the bat, Conan supplies an interesting central figure because, while we might expect a typical hero to fight against his or her own slavery, Conan does not appear to mind. Rather than represent weakness, this passive resignation tells us how much Conan enjoys all this killing and free sex. This is part of who he is, and hes into the power it grants him.

Once set free upon the world, Conan indulges in the hedonistic revelry befitting a guy restrained by captivity for most of his life. This includes expected treats such as alcohol, exotic food and drugs, but it also involves punching a camel in the face. Actually, Conan is especially rough on animals. Along with the camel assault, we see him kill wolves, a vulture and a gigantic snake.

But it makes sense that Conan inflicts so much violence on animals, as well as on men. Even his natural world (or supernatural when it comes to the snake) is a dark, unforgiving place that preys upon the weak at every turn, a fictional setting that seems very much a predecessor for GAME OF THRONES brutal kingdoms. Conan himself is a product of this brutality, a point that does not escape his nemesis, Thulsa Doom. The film offers a glorious montage of Conans rough upbringing, in which he is forced to endlessly turn the Wheel of Pain. As a child, he is just one of many. By the time hes fully grown, we see a gigantic, lonely beast pushing the wheel, as though he absorbed the strength of all those who fell through the years. He also witnessed his mothers decapitation just after seeing his father getting eaten by dogs. If you need an origin story for someone who grows up to be a psychopath, this one should suffice.

Once Conan finally embarks upon his quest to find and kill Thulsa Doom, he softens a bit. He gets a pal, and he falls in love. He has a drive to actually do something, which makes his character more recognizably heroic. But he is still Conan, out there worshipping the power of steel and killing like crazy. Even when crucified, hes badass enough to bite a vulture to death. And when he does kill Doom, he does not just behead him quickly -- he lops it off in three ugly and painful-looking blows.

Conan is a barbarian. It says so right there in the title. And its a testament to John Milius that he actually lives up to that label. Conan isnt a thinker (his attempt at subterfuge gets him caught in about two minutes), hes not all that spiritual, hes mostly unfriendly and hes really fond of killing things. Barbarians arent supposed to be cuddly gentlemen who ponder the existential price of life and death. A barbarian is supposed to be a big dumb meathead who will punch a camel in the face for no reason at all. And thats our Conan. Youd do well to give him wide berth. 6

The Alamo Drafthouse is screening CONAN THE BARBARIAN this month. Check drafthouse.com for listings.


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The crest of the ilium, Apollos belt, athletes girdle, the Jesus muscle, the iliac furrow: call it what you will, its the same thing: the shallow grooves on either side of the superolateral margin of the greater pelvis. In more relevant terms, its that little pelvic V that only the most extraordinary of muscular men have to offer. In honor of this months MAGIC MIKE XXL, we pay tribute to that little V on the big screen. Heres to the cinematic iliac crest.

Brad Pitt, FIGHT CLUBTyler Durden: the man, the myth, the legend. He must be a figment of our imagination to boast a bod like that. And yet Brad Pitt, the actor who portrays him, is flesh and bone, a real living human who somehow crafted his body into a totem of toned.

He can wear a pink fluffy robe decorated with teacups or nothing more than a yellow kitchen glove and hes still the most stylish man in the room. Because his style goes beyond fashion into something more molecular -- or, at the very least, muscular.

He may tell us to stop being perfect, he may claim that self-improvement is masturbation, but that physique tells a different story. Id like to go into his cave, because Tyler Durden is my power animal. (Meredith Borders)

Christian Bale, AMERICAN PSYCHOPatrick Bateman may be a psychopathic serial killer and complete douchebag, but hes right about one thing: he makes it look good. His meticulous daily hygiene and workout routine pay off, demonstrating the power of believing in yourself to the point of psychosis. The worlds biggest Phil Collins fan may not be likeable, but hes definitely lustable.

Batemans body looks great whether banging two ladies at once or running around with a chainsaw coated in their blood. Its completely understandable that hed stare at himself in the mirror while having sex -- his powerful biceps and torso would be the envy of any cocaine-fueled Wall Street testosterone junkie. The start of Christian Bales Yo-Yo-ing Muscle Mass Period is a high point indeed. (Andrew Todd)

Dan Stevens, THE GUESTAny fan of DOWNTON ABBEY expects a certain softness out of their beloved Cousin Matthew. Genteel, romantic, amiable and, if were being honest, a little doughy.

A Celebration Of The Cinematic Iliac Crest

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And then we meet David in Adam Wingards THE GUEST. Dan Stevens whittled, sculpted, crafted and whipped Cousin Matthews pasty British torso into the robust, powerhouse shape of a supersoldier. The moment David walks out of the shower with a towel just barely wrapped around his waist -- who are we kidding, that towel was at least four inches below his waist -- Cousin Matthew was dead all over again. And this time, women celebrated.

This is a man who easily carries two full kegs of beer, one under each arm, while taking the time to smile roguishly at every woman in the room. This is the man who can make a hoodie and a backpack look like fetish wear. And this is the man so dangerously charming, so intensely seductive, so pelvically blessed, that I would be totally okay if he were forced to kill my entire family. (Meredith Borders)

Harrison Ford, INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOMI don't spend a lot of time considering the male form -- it's simply not how I'm wired -- but if called upon to identify my idealized form of red-hot masculinity, I've got an immediate answer for you: Harrison Ford in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.

From where I'm standing, this is about as perfect a package as you can get. Indy's chiseled yet vulnerable (a dichotomy perfectly captured in his chin: impossibly strong, but with a little scar, just in case you think this God-amongst-men can't bleed). He's brawny yet brilliant (when he's not eradicating the notorious Thuggee cult one uppercut at a time, he's studying up on the Jin Dynasty). He looks just as good wearing a crisp tux in a nightclub as he does rocking a sweaty bare chest while drinking blood out of a mummified skull. He's fearless, he's funny, he's good with a whip, and he is literally the only dude who should ever be allowed to wear a fedora.

Your gyrating male strippers are nice, I guess. But if I'm gonna get with a dude, it's gonna be with Indiana Jones: badass masculinity personified. (Scott Wampler)

Jeff Goldblum, THE FLYWhen is the last time you appreciated Jeff Goldblum's hot bod? Maybe when you saw JURASSIC PARK, you found yourself pleasantly delighted at the sight of him, shirt unbuttoned as he casually reclined, looking like he

knows what's up but doesn't care. I could write an entire essay on this dork-hunk's handsome body -- fit but not ripped, modestly glistening with sweat, with just the right amount of hair on his chest, promising your fingers will never get lost in a coarse forest. And those hips -- not too bony, not too cushiony, but a polite amount of suggestion to inspire serious consideration.

Maybe you were surprised at Goldblum's nerd-hot-bod in JURASSIC PARK because you've never seen David Cronenberg's THE FLY, in which Goldblum's bod reached peak levels of Damn, Son. WHERE JURASSIC PARK doles out those smooth hips in moderation, Goldblum was far from reserved in THE FLY, in which his hips were not so much a courteous insinuation as they were an explicit assertion. And that's not even considering his hair.

Whether gently hinting at a glorious truth we are -- and remain -- unready to accept, or aggressively commanding attention, Jeff Goldblum's hips are a monument to his nerdy perfection, the cradle of his sexy life, and the pinnacle of all human achievements (sorry, The Rock's oily biceps). (Britt Hayes)

The Spartans, 300When talking about dude-ity, its hard to go past 300. Taking both a quality and quantity approach, Zack Snyders swords-and-sandals movie delivers as much literal fetishism as it does figurative. While most movies are content to serve up a single piece of man-candy (if that), 300 dumps the whole box on you at once, with literal hundreds (three of them) of toned, muscular male bodies.

That its an ancient Greek war movie only improves matters. As our Spartan warriors become sweatier, greasier and bloodier, the additional fluids intensify the lusty male flesh on display. Sadly, high-waisted Spartan battle underwear conceals any furtive glimpses we might get of the warriors iliac crests, but the improbable six-packs sported by Gerard Butler and co. make up for it. Tonight, we perve in hell. (Andrew Todd) 6

MAGIC MIKE XXL arrives in theaters July 1. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

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PAPER TOWNS vs. The Manic Pixie Dream GirlMANDY CURTISForever Young Adult Contributor

@mandyannecurtis



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You know the type. Shes quirky, mysterious and often aloof, but also kind, funny, and can hold her own in a battle of wits. Shes pretty, but not in a supermodel kind of way. She easily achieves the extraordinary, be it through her actions, words, or the batting of her eyelashes. Those who know her either want to date her or want to be her. Shes Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) and shes a figment of pop culture's imagination brought to life.

Although she wasnt given a name until 20071, the MPDG has been flitting through pop culture for a long time. According to writer Nathan Rabin, who coined the term in a review of ELIZABETHTOWN: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.

After something is given a name, it often takes on a life of its own. And since 2007, the MPDG trope has grown and changed. (See: genderbent versions, Young Adult novels, Zooey Deschanels career.) But there comes a time in the life of every trope when people begin to rebel against the idea; in fact, Rabin has even apologized2 for his part in popularizing the term. John Green goes a step further with his portrayal and subsequent tear down of the MPDG in his YA novel PAPER TOWNS (and its film adaptation, which opens this month).

PAPER TOWNS tells the story of a teenager, Quentin Q Jacobsen (played by Nat Wolff in the film), whos in love with (the idea of ) his next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne). Margo -- according to Q -- is perfection. Shes not exactly pretty, but never wants for the attentions of admirers. She does well in school, even though she occasionally disappears on adventures that, when she returns, spread through their high schools halls like wildfire and are accompanied by admiring statements of disbelief in her moxie. Q sees the fact that he lives next door as to Margo as a miracle along the lines of setting foot on Mars or surviving being shipwrecked at sea. Hes certainly smitten, but its unclear at first if his interest in her goes deeper than her surface-level characteristics, the characteristics that make her appear to be, well, a trope.

At the start of their story, Margo ropes Q into an all-night adventure filled with pranks and mischief; basically, the best night of young Qs life. The next day, she disappears, off on what most people think is yet another of her infamous adventures. When the days shes gone start adding up, however, Q begins to worry. And when he finds what he believes to be a clue Margo left just for him, he ropes his friends into an adventure that rises to Margos level.

Throughout the journey to find Margo, Q and his friends discover things about her that only heighten her mystique. She becomes larger than life and all the more perfect for it. But when they find her, and most of these traits theyve discovered turn out to be incorrect, they realize they didnt know her at all. Q and his friends might think that theyre learning about Margo while on their quest, but they end up learning more about themselves and what it really means to know someone. (It is a YA novel, after all.)

At first glance, Margo is a quintessential MPDG. But Green has gone on the record more than once asserting that PAPER TOWNS isnt a MPGD story:

PAPER TOWNS is devoted IN ITS ENTIRETY to destroying the lie of the manic pixie dream girl; the novel ends (this is not really a spoiler) with a young woman essentially saying, Do you really still live in this fantasy land where boys can save girls by being romantically interested in them? I do not know how I could have been less ambiguous about this without calling the novel THE PATRIARCHAL LIE OF THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL MUST BE STABBED IN THE HEART AND KILLED.3

Does PAPER TOWNS manage the subversion Green wants it to? Like with nearly everything in life, thats a matter of opinion. But its clear that he at least tried. In the end, Margos not the ideal that Q thought she was. Shes a whole -- and flawed -- person. Shes not always upbeat, nor is she magical. But she remains Qs dream girl, even as he comes to the realization that dreams are open to interpretation. 6

1 AV Club: The Bataan Death March Of Whimsy, Case File 1: ELIZABETHTOWN

2 Salon: Im Sorry For Coining The Phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl

3 John Greens Tumblr Post 57820644828

PAPER TOWNS arrives in theatres July 24. Check drafthouse.com for listings.


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Video Vortex: The Exquisite Plagiarism Of TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK

@JosephAZiemba

JOSEPH A. ZIEMBAAlamo Drafthouse Art Director and Programmer



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Life is full of mysteries that I will never understand. Like automobile engines, sports and the musical genre known as vegan straight edge. But the biggest mystery of all is the existence of TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK.

At one time, the act of plagiarism was a legitimate way to earn a living. Especially if you made movies in Turkey, Indonesia or Italy. For nearly three decades beginning in the late 1960s, Asian and European movie producers forged a new wave from the delicate art of copyright infringement. From Lucio Fulci's "interpretation" of George Romero's zombie mythology in ZOMBIE to the appearance of undead rapists during Rambo's fight for freedom in VAHSI KAN, aka TURKISH FIRST BLOOD, these movies were chaotic, fearless and a bazillion times more outrageous the their source material. For instance, no one in Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS had a conversation with their own penis while sitting in a jacuzzi. But that happens in BEAKS: THE MOVIE.

Every cultural movement needs a focal point. In this case, that honor belongs to Bruno Mattei. More than any other filmmaker, Italian sleaze merchant Mattei built a legacy by re-envisioning other people's ideas. In HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, Mattei one-upped Fulci by actually stealing music cues from George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD. With CRUEL JAWS, Mattei proved that JAWS would have been way better if it contained footage from JAWS 3-D. In ROBOWAR, Mattei grabbed the most successful elements of PREDATOR (the Predator) and ROBOCOP (Robocop) by combining them into one character who spoke like Shemp Howard during a seizure. This still doesn't explain how Bruno Mattei managed to release his own sequel to THE TERMINATOR, called TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK, a full year before James Cameron's TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY was made. But it does explain that the world is insane.

After Venice is decimated by chemical warfare, citizens are forced to find refuge in tunnels beneath the streets. A man enters a control room in one of the tunnels. He says:

"I'm Samuel Fuller from the Tubular Corporation. And I'm looking for Megaforce."

Megaforce is a team of mercenaries who protect the world from harm. The team spends their time walking around the tunnels, screaming at each other and shooting machine guns. Then the underground fortresses are besieged by aliens. The aliens look like a combination of Marvel Comics's Man-Thing and papier mch dinosaurs that were made by children,

which is to say, they look incredible. These monsters are our reward for paying attention while everyone hangs out and talks.

The first hour of this movie follows a group of warriors and scientists as they battle aliens within a maze-like structure. If that sounds like ALIENS, it should. Because that's exactly what it is. Except in TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK, the part of Ripley is played by Sarah Conner from James Cameron's TERMINATOR. Soon enough, The Terminator shows up to battle Sarah for the fate of the galaxy. The main difference between Cameron's Terminator and Mattei's Terminator is that Cameron's creation can't be destroyed by the foam from a fire extinguisher.

TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK was made by adults, but you'd never know that from watching it. In fact, the movie feels a lot like what happens in RUSHMORE when tenth-grader Max Fisher and his pals reenact SERPICO as a school play. In that scene, the novelty of seeing kids impersonate an R-rated Al Pacino is hilarious on its own. But beyond that, it captures how we process passion and creativity as children. It's like happiness unfolding before our eyes. That's why TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK is so endearing. Mattei's choices suggest the same feeling. But in this case, the awe of childhood is replaced by the cynicism of adulthood. Mattei and his friends -- including screenwriter Claudio Fragasso, who would go on to make TROLL 2 -- made this movie because they were dreaming of dollar signs. In this case, those dreams came true.

While it was a huge hit overseas, TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK was never released in North America on any format for obvious reasons. That's why discovering this movie via an uncut Japanese VHS tape -- in English and with Japanese subtitles (!!) -- is so much fun. It's like we're witnessing an urban legend coming to life before our eyes, something that exists despite its contention with all forms of logic. But because it exists, life on our planet becomes even more satisfying. And inexplicable.

It should come as a surprise to no one that this movie is also known as ALIENATOR. 6

TERMINATOR 2: SHOCKING DARK plays as part of the Video Vortex series this month at the Alamo Drafthouse. Check drafthouse.com for listings.


Drinking With THE HUSTLER: The Alamo Drafthouse Guest Bartender On A Drink Worthy Of Paul Newman

THE HUSTLER: a great movie about a pool player who can't catch a break. Seems like the story of many. Interchange the job title and it could apply to just about any of us.

This movie is a great character study. I wanted to craft cocktails that also seemed to focus on the character. In this instance, bourbon is the star.

The Corner Pocket is a nice, boozy cocktail starring Maker's Mark bourbon. It fits Paul Newman's character profile exactly: sharp, spicy with some sweetness shining through. The addition of Cardamaro (an Italian wine-based digestif amaro) tames the cocktail and fresh citrus brightens it up. It's a juxtaposition, much like Newman's character in

the film, and its surprising, like comedic actor Jackie Gleason's serious role as Minnesota Fats.

The Corner Pocket is not what you expect, and that's what I like about it.

Corner Pocket1.5 oz Maker's Mark1 oz Cardamaro.5 oz orange juice2 oz soda

Shaken, served tall. 6

The Alamo Drafthouse is programming THE HUSTLER as part of our Cinema Cocktails series. Check drafthouse.com for listings.

JENNIFER KEYSERBar Manager of Contigo Austin


The Last Word With TANGERINE Director Sean Baker

Q: What is your earliest movie memory? A: According to my parents, the first film I ever saw

was a Disney film, however my earliest memory of watching a film was in first grade. My mother took me to the local library where they were screening classic scenes from the Universal Monster films on 16mm. I remember there being scenes from THE MUMMY, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and DRACULA.

But the one that had a major impact on me was the

climactic burning mill scene from James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN. I was in awe and, from that moment, I knew I wanted to make movies.

Q: What was the first movie you saw that made you

understand that movies can be art? A: That's a difficult one. I probably recognized films

as creative visions from a very early age without ever applying the word "art" to them until my college years. I do however remember being conscious and intrigued by the directing style of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. That film had more of an impact on me than STAR WARS.

Q: What is your guilty pleasure movie? A: BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA. It's actually only

one scene from it -- When Papi gazes off into the night sky as Enrique Iglesias' Hero plays. Brings a tear to my eye.

Q: What movie do you want to make before you die?

A: I just want to make another movie. In 2015, with the state of the industry being what it is, a filmmaker is lucky just to be able to keep working.

Q: What was your most magical cinema experience? A: Anytime I've shed a tear in a cinema... Lars Von

Trier's THE IDIOTS. Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE. Lukas Moodysson's TOGETHER and a handful of others.

Q: What is the one movie you believe everyone should see? A: Lar Von Trier's THE IDIOTS. Q: Only one of your movies can continue to exist after

you're gone -- which one is it? A: I'm still not satisfied enough with any of my films

to be the permanent representation of my work. Hopefully my next.

Q: If you weren't born to direct, what else would you

be doing? A: A barista. Seriously, making a decent latte is my only

other skill. Q: Why do you make movies? A: To attempt to create a film that gives me the feeling

of awe I felt when I was 6 years old, watching that climactic scene from FRANKENSTEIN.

Unfortunately, it's a doomed mission. I understand

the mechanics of filmmaking and will never be able to suspend disbelief with my own films. 6


MICHAELPENA

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DOUGLASDOUGLASANDANDANDAS DR. HANK PYMAS AS DR. HANK PYMDR. HANK PYM

birth. movies. death. july 2015 issue 25

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