Secrets of the City

Locally lensed comedy Nobody opens soon, produced by local-boy-made-good Josh Hartnett, and l’etoil has an interview with the director: Co-writer Ryan Miller and I choose to set the story in the Twin Cities because the vibe of the film felt right here. The tone of Nobody is sweet and charming and this town has that feeling in spades. Coincidentally, Sam Rosen, my leading man is from here. Josh Hartnett, as everyone knows, is also from here. So as we started scouting locations, everything kept pointing us to the Twin Cities. Even after scouting a few other cities, there was no other place we could shoot the film but here.

The new Coen Brothers’ film A Serious Man, set in St. louis Park in the 60s, opens this weekend, and reviews, from those who don’t find them inscrutable, are already glowing: Watching the film, one gets the sense that they know every character that passes through the frame, from the self-important rabbi who tells longwinded stories with no point, to the seedy MILF-next-door with a penchant for nude sunbathing, to the kid who tokes up in the synagogue bathroom right before his bar mitzvah. Granted, all of these individuals arrive onscreen filtered through the duo’s cracked gaze, but this will probably be the closest we ever get to a Coen Brothers autobiography.

Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Star Tribune’s Colin Covert is not impressed by the second film from Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body, a film set in Minnesota: Fans of … Cody (and I count myself a big one) can only hope her followup to “Juno” will soon be forgotten, an awkward asterisk in a proud career.

He’s not alone. The film is currently at a miserable 34 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Here we are, at what looks to be the end of print publishing as we know it (whether it will survive or not is uncertainly, but newspapers, as we have known them, are certainly going through a massive transition.) This is an especially interesting time to look back on this documentary, Good Neighbors, produced by a Minnesota newspaper, the Star-Journal, at the start of the golden age of publishing, 1944. The documentary gives a fascinating overview of the then-extraordinarily labor-intensive process of putting out a daily newspaper. (Via.)

I09 introduces us to Serpent Lake, a film apparently set in Minnesota about a murderous lake monster. The trailer is pure cinema trash, but hilariously so.

The trailer for the new coen Brothers movie, A Serious Man, which is set in St. Louis Park in the 60s and was lensed around the suburbs of the Twin Cities (and also features a lot of local talent). I’ll send you to City Pages to watch it, as they also feature a breakdown of the film’s plot, which you’re not going to get from the trailer.

[via MPR NewsQ] The Walker Art Center announced today the Coen Brothers will return to their hometown for a retrospective to mark the 25th anniversary of their debut film “Blood Simple.” The Walker will show 13 Coen films: Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Miller’s Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Man Who Wasn’t There; The Ladykillers; Intolerable Cruelty; No Country for Old Men; and Burn After Reading. Joel and Ethan Coen will take part in a Regis Dialog on Friday September 25th. Tickets will cost $100.

Over the weekend, when no one was looking, we added this advance screening to our Deals page. Send in your email and have a chance to see the film and stars Charlyne Yi and Jake Johnson for Q&A post screening. More Deals come your way weekly by email, if you subscribe.

MPR does a story on an unusual new movie theater venture: The Trylon Microcinema, part of Take-Up Productions (not to be mistaken for the citizen journalism site; that’s the UpTake). Microcinema? It has only 50 seats. MPR quotes Barry Kryshka from Take-Up: “On one hand we wanted our own space just to have our own space,” he said. “But at the same time it’s nice to have a space where you can program things that might only draw 30 or 35 people at a time.” The Microcinema begins screenings tonight with a selection of Buster Keaton shorts.

MnDialogue interviews Theresa Purcell of Trash Film Debauchery, one of the Twin Cities reular bar-based screenings of genre films (another great one being JagerCon): I look for extremes when I’m planning films. Is it extremely bad? Is it extremely violent? Is it extremely funny? Is it extremely weird? If yes, it’s probably a good fit.

In related news, the much beloved Atomic Midnight shows are set to return, this time with beer. So where do you go to get your trash film on?