FilmOut

A Four Letter Word opens this year's FilmOut.

FilmOut San Diego celebrates its tenth anniversary this month, expanding for the first time to a full week of films. The festival was created as a showcase for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender works. The event kicks off April 11 at Landmark's Ken Cinema with the San Diego premiere of A Four Letter Word.

The Signal

Do you have the crazy? That's the question The Signal asks. (Magnolia Pictures)

Calling TV a wasteland is old news. But suggesting that our televisions -- and also cell phones and radios -- could be the means by which people are transformed into homicidal maniacs, well that's a bit fresher. The Signal (opened on February 22 throughout San Diego) serves up a triptych of horror, with each segment helmed by a different filmmaker.

The Signal opens like a 70s low budget grindhouse picture, something American International could have produced. An obviously deranged killer brutalizes women on the screen. Is this the movie we've paid to see? At first we're not sure but then the image distorts and eventually degrades into mere noise on the screen, and we realize we were watching an image on a TV. We find ourselves in a dark, claustrophobic bedroom where the TV has gone on the fritz. We also discover a pair of young lovers in the room. It makes you wonder, though, was the slasher film meant to fuel their passion or was it just something that came on late at night without them noticing? It doesn't seem the type of thing either Ben (Justin Welborn) or Mya (Anessa Ramsey) would be interested in, so it makes you wonder if it was on for some other reason (more on that later). The apartment belongs to Ben and he's having an affair with Mya. He keeps trying to convince Mya to leave her husband Lewis (A.J. Bowen) but to no avail. She insists that she has to return to Lewis, or there might be bad consequences. She even tries to call Lewis from Ben's apartment to warn him that she'll be home late. But the phones, like the TV, don't work and are just transmitting some kind of static noise.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Anamaria Marinca and Laura Vasiliu in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (IFC Films)

When the Cannes Film Festival handed out its highest award last May, no one expected the Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (opening February 22 at Landmark’s Ken Cinema) to win. That’s because Romania has a small film industry that hasn't exported many movies. But the movies they have been exporting of late have been setting a high standard. In addition to 4 Months, there have been The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 12:08 East of Bucharest. Maybe not enough to constitute a full on new wave of Romanian cinema but it's definitely building a swell.

The title 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days refers to how far along Otilia's friend is in the pregnancy she wants to terminate. But it's 1987 and the two women are living in Communist Romania where abortion is illegal. Otilia's friend Gabita is so anxious about her situation that she seems almost incapacitated. So she asks Otilia to finalize the terms of a black market abortion. This includes extensive negotiations for a hotel room.

George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead

The dead are coming back to life... again. Diary of the Dead (The Weinstein Company)

Let me be upfront about this – I love zombie movies. I don’t know what it is about the lumbering undead that I find so endearing but they definitely charm me. And George A. Romero is THE master of zombie horror, having essentially created the genre with his 1968 black and white film, Night of the Living Dead. (There were some zombies before Romero but he defined them as we know them today, and anyone who saw him at his panel at last year's Comic-Con should be convinced of his master status in the horror genre.) This year, the 67-year-old Romero delivers his fifth zombie film, Diary of the Dead  (opening February 15 exclusively at the AMC Palm Promenade Theaters), so run, don’t “shamble,” over to catch the undead’s latest uprising.

The great thing about Romero’s zombies films is that you can enjoy them in any of a number of ways. If you just want a zombie gorefest, he delivers a bloody thrill ride of horror fun. But his films can also be appreciated as truly independent filmmaking in which Romero has complete control of everything; his films serve up primers on how to make a film on little or no money outside Hollywood. And finally, if you want something a little meatier, you can always find social commentary mixed in with all the blood and gore. Romero’s latest, Diary of the Dead, satisfies on all three levels.

George A. Romero Interview

George A. Romero reanimates the zombie genre with Diary of the Dead (Weinstein Company)

When George A. Romero made The Night of the Living Dead in 1968, he essentially invented a genre. But potential distributors were not initially impressed. In fact, they asked him to change the film's bleak ending. But he simply said, “F--k you.” That pretty much set the tone for Romero's relationship with the mainstream film industry. Like John Waters, he's a filmmaker who has remained outside the industry (Pittsburgh for Romero and Baltimore for Waters) making the films he wants. This year he delivers the much-anticipated zombie outing, Diary of the Dead (opening exclusively at the Palm Promenade Theaters).

“It's not a continuation, it's not sort of a fifth film in the series,” Romero explains, “It goes back to the first night when the dead are coming back. I sort of felt that I had gone far enough with Land of the Dead, and I was ready to get off of that train… There was a collection of short stories, actually two volumes, called Book of the Dead, and they were all stories about what happened on that first night. I came to realize that I could sort of keep doing stories about different people over those first two or three nights.”

Persepolis

Marjane with her uncle in Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics)

It's pretty rare to have a year in which two animated films make my top ten and another couple are worthy of mention. But in 2007, Japan's Paprika and France's Persepolis made my 10 Best List, and the American Ratatouille and Surf's Up got honorable mention. Those films not only represent the best of last year's animation but also its growing diversity. Persepolis (opening January 18 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) is based on the autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi.

Marjane Satrapi was born in Iran. She witnessed the fall of the Shah, the early regime of the Ayatollah Khomeni and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. Her parents sent her to Vienna to escape Iran's repressive regime. The film Persepolis takes the perspective of the older and exiled Marjane sitting in a French airport and contemplating returning home. As she waits in the airport she reflects back on her life, beginning in 1978 Teheran. Even at a young age, Marjane exhibits signs of independence and freethinking, both of which are encouraged by her family. Her parents are progressive and socially conscious, and some of her relatives were outspoken enough to be imprisoned for their beliefs. In addition, she has a strong-willed grandmother who tries to give Marjane a moral core and a sense of self-reliance.

Persepolis/Interview with Marjane Satrapi

Writer/filmmaker Marjane Satrapi and her self-portrait (Sony Pictures Classics)

Matjane Satrapi was born in Iran to progressive parents. She was educated from a young age at French schools. She currently lives in Paris. Her autobiographical and brilliant graphic novels Persepolis chronicle about sixteen years in her life beginning in 1978 Teheran. She has now brought the graphic novels to the screen as a black and white animated French feature. Vincent Paronnaud co-directs and co-writes the film. I had a chance to speak with Satrapi last year when she was promoting the film during its qualifying run for the Oscars. The film didn't make the short list for Best Foreign Film but it may nab an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film. Satrapi proved to be as engaging and animated as her film.

Persepolis (opening January 18 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) made my Ten Best list for 2007.

BETH ACCOMANDO: Tell me why you chose to call your graphic novels, Persepolis?

MARJANE SATRAPI: To understand the situation in any country of the world, you have to know a little about the history of that country. Unfortunately for Iran, everyone knows about after 1979, and everybody forgets this is this big country with 4000 years of history. So Persepolis is the name the Greeks gave to the ancient capitol of Persia, and in Greek it means the city of the Persians. So for me it gave a historical perspective to the story. Plus this one word is a nice word, easy to remember. So for all these reasons I chose this title.

Black Sheep

Ba ba Black Sheep (IFC)

Black Sheep (opening July 13 for one week at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) just seems to invite baaaad puns from critics and bloggers. Everything from are ewe ready for killer sheep to ba ba bad sheep to a film that's not sheepish about gore to violence of the lambs... Yikes! I'm not sure what's scarier the movie or the pull quotes.

While everyone else avoids Friday the 13th, horror films relish the opportunity to get a little extra oomph out of opening on such a superstitious day.This month Black Sheep, a black comedy about killer sheep, and Joshua, a creepy kid film, are battling for the horror/thriller fans this Friday the 13th. But these two indies stand little chance of scaring up much business in the wake of the latest Harry Potter.

Black Sheep joins Eagle vs. Shark as a comedy this summer from down under. But these two Kiwi films employ very different stlyes for their comedies. Black Sheep taps into the fact that New Zealand has a lot of sheep. One statistic states there are more than 15 sheep to every person. So with a ratio like that maybe New Zealanders have good reason to fear their farm stock.

Very Bad Things: Interview with Peter Berg

Very Bad Things are about to happen to these ordinary people.

From very early on you know that Very Bad Things is not going to be a very typical film. It starts with a lively, slightly nervous sequence of a prelude to a wedding. Then it flashes back to the groom's wild bachelor party in Las Vegas. There we witness these average suburban guys accidentally kill a prostitute and then murder a security guard to cover up the first death. What's unusual is the way first time director Peter Berg chooses to depict the murder. He shows the men outside the bathroom and blocking the door so that the fatally wounded security guard can't get out. Then we hear the pathetic pleadings of the guard, yet none of the men do anything to help. It's a disturbing scene and believe it or not it's in a film that can accurately be labeled a comedy (albeit a dark one). By shooting the scene in this manner, Berg reveals that he's not going to pull any punches or look for any easy ways out. And unlike most films that head down this dark path, Very Bad Things actually has the nerve to stay true to its dark nature and not cop out to any Hollywood pressure to make a feel good movie.