Lucas Makes Lord of the Rings!

George Lucas is remaking Lord of the Rings!

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv4Potdpjhw

The Film I Would've of Wrote.

500 Days of Summer

(My apologies if this has been reviewed.)
It's been approximately two months since I've seen the film. I haven't thought about it for just about that time, but I was in an IKEA and thought of the film again. When the film ended, there was this sense of awe and satisfaction that I was glad to have for a movie I was anticipating for nearly half a year. The first thing I said after the film was to Cassandra, "This is the film I would've wrote." Cassandra then replied that during the whole film she thought of me. About a couple of days ago I was Facebook chatting with my colleague Ryan Carroll. He told me how he just saw the film and I told him how that film was a story about my life. He disagreed and claimed it was about his life. We got into an argument which I let him win because I realized how stupid we sounded getting into an argument about who's life is 500 Days of Summer. This got me thinking though. Why did we both think this way? I realized what it was. 500 Days of Summer got down why you may think you are in love with someone who doesn't love you back.

(Spoiler Alert)
The film is about this character Tom(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his quagmire of a relationship with the beautiful Summer being portrayed by Zooey Deschanel. The film jumps around to different points of their relationship much like Woody Allen's Annie Hall(highly recommended). From the beginning we learn that the couple breaks up. Then the film jumps back and forth from the beginnings of their lush relationship to the depressing twilight of it. For anyone who has seen the film, Summer was a real heart breaker and everyone rooted for Tom, ultimately hoping for the two to have that happy ending. At the end of the film I really didn't like Summer and I felt for Tom.

As I said earlier after my argument with Ryan, I realized why many will feel for this film. The film's story structure is much like how the mind works when you are in love with someone who isn't in love back. The film flashes to these sweet moments between Summer and Tom and then flashes forward to the reality of the situation. People hold on to someone they think they love because they dwell on sweet moments and let it constantly replay in their minds. What is also overlooked is the fact that Summer was not the tease that viewers thought she was. Tom felt he loved her because she liked the same things as him and they had fun together. Joseph Gordon-Levitt says,"Tom falls in love with these superficial things, not really loving her in the moment but loving this goddess on a pedestal." Most people do this. I've been there, so mad at the girl thinking over and over again that she was leading me on. In reality I kept feeling there was something there between us. In Tom's defense, the kissing and love making certainly didn't help him think otherwise. The film is so whimsical and has these moments that are so out there. One moment in specific is the choreographed sequence with the Hall and Oates song "You Make My Dreams Come True."

It is human condition that make moments more bright and whimsical in our minds and that is why love can hurt so bad. 500 Days of Summer allows the audience to dwell on the good moments with Tom and allows us to feel depressed in the low points. The film is so easily relatable because essential this is a story written about everyone's encounter with love. As I sat in the theater and watched the film I had my own "Summer" in my mind and my movie was more along the lines 500 Days of Hell.

LOST

Sooo this is a really short film I did in the spring last year. I was thinking of sending off to colleges with my application.
I just thought I'd show it to you guys...hope you like it

Vampire this, Vampire that

just when you think vampires couldnt get anymore popularity the Spierig Brothers who you the film Undead come at ya' with the newest of new. The films called DayBreakers which is about a plague that has turned most of all humans into vampires and everything seems to be eutopia for those who were transformed except for ONE. little. thing.. the remaining Humans are hunted down and harvested for blood. sounds quite brutal if i do say so myself. my only question is; what are they going to do when they run out of humans to harvest? Oh hey! thats the plot in the movie. after figuring this out the vampires are on a desperate attempt to find a blood substitute before all humans become extinct. BUT HEY! dont fret, the remaining humans that hide from the vampires have formed a rebellion and a cure to turn all vampires back into humans. It's pretty obvious the vampires arn't going to accept this cure so easily and thus the battle begins. The movie sounds like a cheap knock off of Underworld mixed with I Am Legend but suprisingly The Spirig's have got me intrested on who will Conqure and who will fall. And wait! what's this!? Jurrasic Park's Sam Neill and Training Day's Ethan Hawke will be staring as vampires!?

.....this intrigue's me.

The film hits theatures January 8th 2k10

Check out the Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo

.......personally, im a warewolf fan.

The Weekenders

The summer musical project that turned to the new local new wave/punk/tropical/afro-beat band, The Weekenders.

The Story: On a Spring day in 2009 in Arizona State University, I, Armando Peralejo (Film Institute Alumni) received a call from Ryan Carroll (Honorary Film Institute Alumni...he was there more than others at times cough cough). We talked about going back to Mays Landing at the end of our college semesters and what we could do over the summer. I told him that I wanted to make a short film over the summer that we could co-write. (Look at past post for the film Quietus) He said he was down to do this but also wanted to work on music. I told him I that I would love to work on music over the summer. At the time we figured these songs would be projects which we can impress girls with later. I'm joking, or am I?

Well we got back home from college and began work. At first it was mostly Ryan Carroll(Guitar and vocals), Kristen Sereci(drums),Mikey Henry(Synth), and myself (bass and back up vocals) jamming in Ryan's basement. Finally Ryan came up with the bass riff for the "Does the Devil," it was catchy and when we all started playing it together it sounded awesome. Then all the other songs quickly came about. We felt that with these songs we should make up a band name, and after much brain storming we became The Weekenders. Ryan and I felt it was important to come out of the summer with a film and a demo. So August, became a really hectic month full of planning, filming, and long nights recording in Ryan's basement with Bill Smallwood. We were able to have a private listening party before we all left for the summer with friends and family. The demo made its way onto the internet approximately August 20th. Now we are all across America going to school but Ryan and I are currently writing tunes which we hope to work on in December. For my 20th birthday on December 30 we hope to have a show. You heard it first. To make a long story short we got back from college made a band, recorded some music, and the future is unwritten. Enjoy the tunes!


A couple songs from the demo.
Does the Devil.mp3
http://www.zshare.net/audio/66273467cb2eff14/ Alternate link just incase above is blocked
(2) Underwear.mp3

you may need to download before you can listen, still working out the audio kinks, but they can be heard at myspace or facebook.
Costal I emailed you a compressed folder with the songs.


check out the
facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Weekenders/125798396721?ref=ts
twitter
twitter.com/wkndrs
myspace
myspace.com/wkndrs
wkndrs.net

A Nightmare on Elm Street

my reaction:

oh great ANOTHER horror movie rema-

(Jackie Earl Haley is Freddy)

...okay, well, that's kind of cool, but still man there's no way this could possibly turn out any goo-

(from producer michael bay)

OH COME ON THIS IS RETARDED. god i am so sick of michael bay and his shenaniga-

(snippits of some iconic scenes from the original look almost identical to the ones in this remake, right down to the lighting and color-palette)

Wow. Okay, this is uh, wow.

(trailer ends with Haley's "Freddy Voice")

....I am okay with this.

Alittle late on the topic

District 9: i might just be alittle late on this but Let me be just another to say, AMAZING MOVIE! i can't give district 9 a single bad review because its amazingly put together. The movie was written by Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell and produced by Peter Jackson, the man we all know to bring the Lord Of The Rings trillogy to the box office. District 9 is about an Alien Race that's landed on planet earth (South Africa) but the twist is thier not here to conqure (it's actually more unknown as to why they showed up). To keep from giving up the film, we (humans) do our usual thing and Segregate the aliens and keep them confined from us. In a way it's a twenty-first century holocaust, just take out the Germans's and the Jew's and replace them with Prawns (aliens) and the MNU (Multi-National United). It's not just the plot and the storyline AND the GREAT performance by Sharlto Copley (who plays the main characher Wikus van de Merwe) in this movie that makes me fall head over heels for it, but the message that it carries and clearly puts out. The message that no matter what we do we are all capable of savage brutality, and it all starts out with being different from one another. So enough talk, go out and see this movie while you still can. Let me hear about what you think about the movie, everyone's opinion is different.

Why...!?

There have been several remakes in the history of film. Some have beeen good, while others have been disappointing. Some movies should just not be re-made. Ever. So, when i heard that they were re-making the movie The Karate Kid, all I could say was, " Ewwwww, why?!". They are getting Willl Smiths son to be the "karate kid", and Jackie Chan is going to play the role of "old lone wolf asian dude who knows karate", a.k.a Mr. Miyagi. ( I wonder if they are going to call him Mr. Chan in this movie..) This movie should just be left alone, atleast for another ten years, before they try and "Hollowoodize", with horrible slang, a predictable storyline, and really lame dialouge ( i.e Fame). While they are said to be changing the name to Kung-Fu kid, it still is the same movie, just with a lamer title. The sad part is I expect this movie to still do waaay better thna it should in the box office, and it will cause people to hate an american classic without even watching the original movie. *Sigh*, I don't know if I'm late about hearing this, but I'm still saddened by my knowledge of this new movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOFaSNMcVuw

AHH!

This movie looks awesome. i cant remember the last time a movie trailer scared me. I believe its supposed to be like The Blair Witch Project, like they "found the footage" of this couple. It looks awesome though!

Finally a New Bookshoppe Production

From the guy who brought you "The Guy in the Hat" and "The Never Ending Sadness of an Emo Boy." Quietus. for your viewing pleasure.
The film begins with 18 seconds of black, this is suppose to be like this. Your computer is not broken.
The vimeo link has the film in HD although the aspect ratio is 4:3.
The YouTube link is in its full widescreen format.
Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/6763653
YouTube

Hello from Harrisonburg

Finally have some time, yes at 2 am on a Friday morning, from beautiful Harrisonburg VA to introduce my alum status. I have been wondering for days, more like minutes what to post, since Zander and Cass have already contributed. I cam across an interesting combination on Pitchfork yesterday.
http://pitchfork.com/news/36577-watch-film-trailer-starring-shins-mercer-sleater-kinneys-brownstein/
It seems different. And boy do i like different.
So there is is, my inaugural post. More to come from JMU.

Disney and the Devil

Sun Devil that is, people say that the ASU sun devil was designed by Walt himself, but others say a Disney artist named Berk Anthony. All anybody knows is that Spark the Sun Devil was created by someone at Disney and was suppose to have a cartoon. Sparky kind of looks like Walt.

September 22, 2009 -- POSTPONED UNTIL WEDNESDAY!

Man oh Man!!! The alumni are REPRESENTING...and the current students are SNOOZIN!!! Where are you? Alumni get a gold star! None for current FIers...oh snap...no he didn't just call you out! Oh yes he did.

All right, well your assignment for this weekend...which five alumni will comment on...is to consider the archetypal references in Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope for the geeks in the audience). Widdy will review some more tomorrow like Man vs. Nature or Man vs. Machine. Do not forget the 7 standard character archetypes discussed today. Over the next few days, take good notes anytime you see evidence of an archetype at play in the film. Analyze it. Consider its importance. For Monday, write a one to two page paper identifying one or a few archetypes in the film. Define the archetype, reference its place and importance to the film. Then, in the body of the paper, discuss the thematic importance. What message is the filmmaker trying to send? Oh, and just to add further insult to injury...I am totally gonna collect notebooks tomorrow, but most of you are not reading this, and will be caught with incomplete journals. Then when you read this tomorrow (which will be today as you read it), you will feel bad because you could've saved yourself the pain of incompletion by reading the blog. Maybe, just maybe, however, you are reading this message tonight (which will be yesterday for those of you reading this tomorrow, which is today while you are reading this) and will be saved. You will run to your journals, complete them and sleep a blissful, comfortable sleep. Maybe someone has been saved from doom. So, you know...lesson learned...reading the blog as muy bueno for your constitution. Booya! 

'Twilight'...what have you done?!

...Thanks to Armando Peralejo for the important update!!

"Whoops, looks like two cultures just got shocked. Obviously that headline is a joke! Except that maybe it isn't? Rumors had been swirling about Thom Yorke and Bon Iver penning songs for the The Twilight Saga: Teen Vampires In Love Some More soundtrack, and those rumors are confirmed with today's OST tracklist, exclusively revealed by MySpace. But you already knew that because MySpace is your homepage. And hey, this thing looks good, like mini-Dark Was The Night good.

In addition to Thom's new tune "Hearing Damage," and Bon Iver's duet with St. Vincent's face on a song called "Rosyln," Twilight scored previously unreleased tracks from Grizzly Bear and the Killers. Atlantic, in conjunction with soundtrack curator Alexandra Patsavas's Chop Shop, will release the album, and so there's a correlatively strong showing of Atlantic-affiliated artists (Death Cab, Lykke Li, and Muse, the lone holdover from the first film's OST) and a Patsavas pet (her Chop Shop puts out Anya Marina who made the cut). You've heard Death Cab's "Meet Me On The Equinox." Here's a few more reasons you suddenly love vampires:

01 Death Cab For Cutie - "Meet Me On The Equinox"
02 Band Of Skulls - "Friends"
03 Thom Yorke- "Hearing Damage"
04 Lykke Li - "Possibility"
05 The Killers - "A White Demon Love Song"
06 Anya Marina - "Satellite Heart"
07 Muse - "I Belong To You (New Moon Remix)"
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent - "Rosyln"
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Done All Wrong"
10 Hurricane Bells - Monsters"
11 Sea Wolf - The Violet Hour"
12 Ok Go- Shooting The Moon"
13 Grizzly Bear - Slow Life" 
14 Editors - "No Sound But The Wind"
15 "Alexandre Desplat - New Moon (The Meadow)"

The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack is out 10/20 via Atlantic, and the soundtrack artists will tour Hot Topic outlets nationwide. As if you needed another reason to go there after school."

--Stereogum (http://stereogum.com/archives/album_art/is-the-new-moon-soundtrack-the-best-album-of-2009_091141.html)

And here is a link to Pitchfork's article, reassuring the fate of these wonderful artists: (http://pitchfork.com/news/36518-grizzly-bear-to-appear-on-ithe-twilight-saga-new-mooni-soundtrack/)

........so who's going to the Hot Topic Tour??! 

Box Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs

Box Office Weekend: Mighty Meatballs

Weekend Report: Moviegoers Feast on ‘Meatballs,’ Slim Pickings for ‘Jennifer’ - Box Office Mojo

Weekend Report: Moviegoers Feast on Meatballs...Slim Pickings for Jennifer - Box Office Mojo

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Game On!

Chicle and the Apostles hit the ground running, laying out $118 mil for CLOUDY...MEATBALLS (a Pixar-esq Sony fam jam) & LOVE HAPPENS (the new Rachel from FRIENDS rom-com vehicle).


Stanley Fishbein chases the teen boy market with the new Diablo Cody movie, a horror, Jennifer's Body for $15 mil. Be worth every penny if someone gets bludgeoned with a hamburger phone.

And probably the weekend's winner, PEACHES BLEED offers up a heaping helping of Matt Damon with The Informant for $22 mil. More on the opening weekend of the Game very soon

Sony hopes for clearer outlook with 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' -- latimes.com

Sony hopes for clearer outlook with 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' -- latimes.com

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The Flaming Lips on The Colbert Report

The Flaming Lips on The Colbert Report

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Everyday People in Extreme Situations

"In my films, I focus on pain and fear. The fear just before an act of violence and the pain after. This applies to the perpetrators as well as the victims." - Chan-wook Park

The Revenge Trilogy which consists of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance are films about revenge, kidnapping, pain, suffering, and everyday people. While considered a trilogy they are no more related to each other than Sergio Leone's Man Without a Name trilogy are. Chan-wook Park (writer/director) acts as a conductor who skillfully leads his characters through the worst part of their lives. The pain reverberates through the room leaving each viewer feeling it in their chest as the credits role.

Each person has great days and bad days, the characters within these films are pushed to their greatest extreme during one of those bad days, for some, a bad 15 years. Park builds suspense unlike any other director. Violence hovers over ever shot even when peaceful imagery fills the room. Tension builds as stomaches tighten and sweat pours down foreheads. Hammers, baseball bats, and pairs of scissors are the weapons of choice to exact harm against protagonists and antagonists alike. While the word "senseless" can be thrown around, the violence essentially makes sense. Characters are left with no life left to live except that of revenge, what would they turn to other than violence? (Religion?) In addition it is never glorified and always leaves a sense of disgust or anguish left in its wake.

Where most films involving violence focus on it alone, Chan-wook Park uses it but always focuses on human relations and qualities of being human. He cares about these characters and knows that they are not just violent soles. Great moments are hand crafted with no words exchanged to tell so much about each relationship. From a small smile to a brushing of hair out of another's face, a human quality is given to each character. It's because of these heart felt well constructed scenes that the film work. Tears role down faces and people yell and scream in anguish because love lost is one of the greatest pains in life.

Needless to say the acting with these films are top notch, proving that other countries do have actors to contribute to cinema. Every character is at their wits end and are hysterical at times, only the best actors could pull such scenes off and leave an audience speechless. Min-sik Choi in Oldboy eats a live octopus which he performed four times on set. He also lost 20 pounds for the part and has one of the most emotionally demanding roles in the trilogy. Where is his oscar? (A day late and a dollar short)

No one ever lives happily ever after in these films, but who ever does. Chan-wook Park makes the viewer actually feel something whether it is pain, sympathy, fear, or even disgust. His skill is measured in how much he effects his audience and in that case it is immeasurable. Just like Leone's trilogy there is no order which you have to watch these films, you just should watch them because they are what real movie magic is made of.

A Serious Man

Another black comedy coming from the strange, strange minds of the Coen brothers. I'd only heard about this a little previous to watching the trailer, and it didn't interest me. Upon actually seeing the trailer at the theater, however, I totally jumped on board. I really am easily swayed by a good preview.

I may be alone on this one, though. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who actually liked Burn After Reading.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL1I21zy3pw




also, I will give ten dollars to the first five people who comment on this post that are new students from the film institute.

September 15, 2009

Journal #3: React to the mixture of cinematic merit vs. extreme racism of Birth of a Nation. Should the movie be used in film schools to depict the merits of early cinema? Should organizations refrain from including it on lists of the top American movies of all time? Why or why not?

The Birth of a Nation :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies

The Birth of a Nation :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies

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Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

A movie adaptation of the hit indie comic series Scott Pilgrim, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and starring Michael Cera as Scott, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, and Jason Schwartzman (yessss) as Gideon Gordon Graves. The movie is set to release in 2010.

Synopsis for those who have never heard of SP (copy/pasted from IMDB):

"Everything is totally sweet.

Scott Pilgrim's life is so awesome. He's 23 years old, in a rock band, "between jobs," and dating a cute high school girl. Everything's fantastic until a seriously mind-blowing, dangerously fashionable, roller blading delivery girl named Ramona Flowers starts cruising through his dreams and sailing by him at parties. But the path to Ms. Flowers isn't covered in rose petals. Ramona's seven evil exes stand between Scott and true happiness. Can Scott beat the bad guys and get the girl without turning his precious little life upside-down?"


michael cera, i swear to you, if you mess this up, i will hunt you down. i will find you and make you wish you had never gotten type-casted as the "cute and innocent nerd" character. i will hurt you in more ways than you could have ever imagined possible. i will make sure you never have a pleasant thought for as long as you live.

god help you if you mess this up, michael cera. god help you.



But Edgar Wright and Jason Schwartzman give me hope, so maybe things will be okay. Maybe.

This is a Documentary! Not a Mocumentary!

All I have to say is...This is a must see documentary.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7N2Jz1en4w&feature=player_embedded

"We had such potential, such promise...but we squandered our gifts"

i just typed up a 7 or 8 paragraph review of Shane Acker's new movie 9

and then i went to publish it

and then firefox crashed




so someone talk about 9 while i hang myself

Review for the new movie 'Extract' by Mike Judge

This movie looks hilarious!!

Here's the NY Times review: http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/movies/04extract.html

Week of September 8th: Early Film History

This week:

Persistence of Vision

Major inventions in film history 1870-1900

Eadward Muybridge

Edison's first films (The Kiss, Fred Otts Sneeze)

Analysis of the films of the Lumiere Brothers

The works and contributions of George Melies

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

Works of Edwin S. Porter, including The Great Train Robbery (1903)

Readings on the three aspects of film: art, economics, and politics

Compare and contrast the works of Lumiere Brothers, Melies and Edison

Movies, Movies, Movies

Usually I do not sit on this blog and rave about movies I've watched because frankly I watch too many movies- too often to write for this site all the time. This still is not exactly one of those times. Since there some new people I want to give some advice and suggestions that would be helpful for all.

For those who truly want to become a director my suggestion is watch everything you can get your grubby little hands on. Do not ignore the present because film is always evolving, but the past holds some of the greatest treasures. Howard Hawk's His Girl Friday makes me laugh more than any comedy made in the past ten years. Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Samourai and Le Cercle Rouge embody the word "cool" and create something new out of old cliches. Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless taught me the true power of editing. Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly will forever be the first film that I noticed what a director could stylistically do with a film. These are only a handful of movies I've watched the past 2 1/2 years that have led me to understand all the powers cinema holds and let me discover what I wanted to do as a director.

If there was one thing I have learned is film cannot be taught. Not to say you shouldn't take classes, but these classes should spring board into your everyday life and lead to hundreds of hours of watching film and hundreds of hours in agony with a pen and paper, writing ideas and scripts. If you haven't bought a note pad yet, get one. This will be the best tool a director can have. You can write all the thoughts you ever had and always be able to go back to them. Never abandon a good idea because you don't know where it is going. It will lead you somewhere even if it is later in your life.

With all that said I am going to attempt to make movie suggests since too often I complain and not praise. I started my conquest into cinema with AFI's Top 100 movies list. I have not finished said list because I get side track by all the other films I have not yet watched, but it is a great starting place for anyone. Next I would suggest using Roger Ebert's Great Movie list because the list is composed of a large amount of foreign films which obviously will not appear on the American Film Institute's list. For me personally the works of Sidney Lumet, Martin Scorsese, John Huston, Jean-Pierre Melville (a director I feel is my little treasure since no one around me has seem to seen his films), Sergio Leone, Woody Allen, and Buster Keaton are the most influential around. I could go on for hours about individual movies but I'll restrain myself. What I'm trying to say is watch movies, watch a lot of them, and never lose the passion.

-On a side note I am open to talk on Fridays any time through out this semester and am more then willing to sit in front of a class and babble on about movies. My favorite subject is the movies of the 60's and 70's but I really am willing to talk about anything. -

This Should Be A Real Movie!

So, today after I got off work I came home and decided to play Minesweeper. I sucked really bad, so I figured maybe, there is a youtube video of how to be a wicked awesome minesweeper player guy. Unfortunately, I didn't find any good videos about how to play, but I did stumble upon this "movie trailer". I'd go see it if it was a movie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

New York, I Love You

I was on imdb.com and came across this, many well known actors and actresses are involved with this film. Some are Natalie Portman<3,>http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/imdb/vi1159856665/

New York, I Love You Trailer - A collaboration of storytelling from some of today's most imaginative filmmakers and creative actors who together create a kaleidoscope of the spontaneous, surprising, electrifying human connections that pump the city's heartbeat.

Don't be afraid to post something new kids, if you see something that looks amazing, questionable, horrible, funny, inspiring, just post it and I'm sure you'll get the feedback you hoped for =)

September 3, 2009: Film School & Paul Feig

Journal #1: React to the Paul Feig article. What did it reveal about the true nature of Hollywood. Share your opinions about Feig and his work.

Journal #2: React to film school episode. How did it either reinforce or contradict what you know or knew about a career in film. Would you ever go to film school, why or why not? Is there a disconnect in your future between what you WANT to do with your life and what you SHOULD do with your life? Explain.

Decent reviews on this new documentary - American Casino

By now, you may have heard about sub-prime mortgages, the housing market, and the global financial collapse. For those still scratching their heads, the simplified story goes something like this: until about 2008, financial titans amassed unprecedented amounts of wealth through a housing bubble fueled by too-good-to-be-true mortgage deals until the homeowners began defaulting en masse, causing a ripple effect through credit and lending markets that sent the system into a downward spiral. Or so I’ve heard. Journalist Leslie Cockburn, along with husband and co-writer Andrew Cockburn, is among the first filmmakers to tackle the subject in her feature documentary American Casino. Given Cockburn’s left-leaning politics, it should come as no surprise who the film finds culpable in this mess: the Bushes, Greenspans, and Paulsens of the world. This is not to say that the film is utter propaganda though — this would belie Cockburn’s legitimate credentials.