Las Vegas Weekly

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06.22.08

7:23 p.m.

We’re tired, but it’s a good tired

By John Katsilometes

There is a feeling shared among high-level tennis players that the fifth set of a best-of-five match has nothing to do with tennis. It has everything to do with endurance. The same can be said of the last day of covering the sprawling CineVegas Film Festival. CineVegas is the quintessential symbiotic relationship among organizers, participants and media – we call work feverishly to keep each other busy with daylong screenings, red carpet events and onstage Q&A sessions; and nightlong parties. Sunday is the day of sleep, and if anyone who took part in the bulk of CineVegas events and screenings ... Read more...

06.22.08

2:05 p.m.

The key to a good interview? Knowing your subject.

As tabloids are so fond of proving, there’s an all-too-human side to everyone living in the spotlight. Yet most actors overwhelmingly prefer to talk about their “craft” in serious interview situations, forgetting that audiences may care far more about connecting with some semblance of humanity captured on the screen than about how working with so-and-so was, like, really cool and fun to do. Saturday’s conversation with Marquee Award winner and Choke star Anjelica Houston was an inspired balance of both, largely thanks to the questions of 82-year-old Lillian Ross, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of Picture, which ... Read more...

06.21.08

11:24 p.m.

All shook up over Elvis

After glimpses of (in descending order) Morgan Spurlock, Viggo Mortensen, Anjelica Houston and Rosario Dawson, the next celeb on my personal CineVegas Sighting Excite-o-meter was Elvis Mitchell. And he’s not even a real celeb, but the former film critic for the New York Times and idea-and-interview man behind The Black List: Volume One (which I didn’t manage to catch). The dude’s always exuded knowledgeable cool, especially for a writer of his distinction, with his cascading dreads, effortlessly laid-back suits and rebellious sneakers. The tipping point, however, was this afternoon’s conversation with Half-Life Award winner Sam Rockwell, during which Mitchell held ... Read more...

06.21.08

10:57 p.m.

Getting just weird enough

I wasn’t around for Hunter S. Thompson’s 2003 CineVegas appearance supporting the world premiere of Breakfast With Hunter, but Saturday’s sole 2008 showing of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson offered a certain party atmosphere in its own right. The theater was packed with an audience that leaned forward in anticipation and frequently broke into generous, applauding laughter, but it was the seemingly tipsy woman toward the back who shouted out in delight when the documentary triggered particularly fond memories and the dude sporting a white fishing hat and cigarette holder who solidified the gone-but-not-forgotten vibe. Read more...

Column

10.23.08

12 a.m.

They doth protest

By Xania Woodman

Poetry is doing brisk business with a queue snaking around its stanchions. Owner Mike Goodwin shakes hands with customers loyal since the hip-hop club’s 2003 opening as OPM. Read more...

News

10.23.08

12 a.m.

The Killers

By Spencer Patterson

An encore performance of “Home Means Nevada” earned The Killers ingenuity points Monday night, but their ungainly flub, and subsequent restart, of the state’s official song ultimately spoke louder about the Vegas-bred rock stars’ continued awkward relationship with their hometown and its fanbase. Read more...

Our Metropolis

06.26.08

12 a.m.

Don’t blurb me, bro

By John Katsilometes

This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by the Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with Las Vegas Weekly contributing editor and film critic Josh Bell: Read more...

News

06.22.08

8:41 p.m.

The Great Buck Howard

By Josh Bell

The Great Buck Howard is a movie that seems constantly on the verge of turning into something. Although its title character is a stage magician (a mentalist, really, he would insist), the movie is like a trick that’s all set-up and no payoff. You sit through the whole thing waiting for the magic, but it never comes. Read more...

News

06.22.08

8:31 p.m.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Hot on the heels of the oral biography Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson by Rolling Stone honcho Jann Wenner comes yet another project that exists precisely because the infamous journalist no longer does, having silenced his inner demons with a handgun at age 67. Read more...

News

06.22.08

8:23 p.m.

Help Me Eros

By Matthew Scott Hunter

Ah Jie lost his money in the stock market and calls a suicide hotline for consolation. His counselor is an overweight woman, but he imagines she’s the sexy betel-nut stall girl he’s become infatuated with. Read more...

News

06.22.08

8:17 p.m.

Goliath

By Matthew Scott Hunter

The nameless hero of Goliath is having a bad week. He’s getting divorced, a convicted sex offender just moved into his neighborhood, his job has reassigned him to a department where his co-workers call him “bitch tits,” and his cat (the film’s namesake) has run away. This is a man on the verge of a breakdown, but he’s not quite there yet. Read more...

News

06.22.08

8:10 p.m.

The Wackness

By Josh Bell

Set for no apparent reason in 1994, Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness at first comes off like a calculated exercise in nostalgia, full of forced period details (Nintendo Game Boys, Reebok Pumps, references to 90210) that add nothing to the story and serve only to remind viewers who were teens in 1994 that, hey, you used to think this stuff was cool. Read more...