After confirmation this week that Paolo Sorrentino’s first English-language film This Must Be the Place will premiere in the Cannes Film Festival next month, here’s something to whet your appetities. This Youtube video is a compilation of out-takes from the film, all neatly edited into a sort-of trailer.

The film stars Sean Penn as a Robert-Smith-like retired lead singer of a popular 80′s goth group. When the singer’s father passes away, he embarks on a journey to discover a Nazi hiding out in the US. If that sounds bizarre, wait until you see the photos of Penn in white make-up and lipstick. But what do you expect from the director of Il Divo. The film also features Frances McDormand, Eve Hewson (daughter of Bono, no less), and Judd Hirsch. It was shot in Ireland and in the US.

The footage also gives us a blast of the band’s music, which is appropriately dated. Alt-country singer Will Oldham joined up with Talking Heads frontman (the film gets its title from a Talking Heads song, and Byrne also makes an appearance in the movie) to add a few numbers to the soundtrack, although it’s unclear if this is one of their collaborations.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a hooker, and thought that Pretty Woman was a ridiculous farce, you’ll do quite a bit better with X. The folks out at IFC sent over a copy of X for us to review, and though, in the beginning, it’ll start a little weird and rocky, the main plot will get going soon enough.

X follows a couple of hookers–one a cynical veteran and the other a relative newcomer–who find themselves working a profitable threesome together one night when their john is abruptly shot in a business deal gone wrong. The rest of the night will be a downright disaster for these two women, and you’ll be there right along side them.

First off, folks, keep the kids way, way far away from this one unless you like the thought of having a whole lot of explaining to do. The first five minutes will be largely comprised of a bizarre sex performance to an audience of a roomful of well-heeled middle aged ladies. The poster alone shows you what’s going on here.

X isn’t the normal kind of thing we’ve seen from the IFC of late–this is no horror flick, in no uncertain terms–it’s a thriller with a few good elements of crime drama mixed in there. Though the content is deeply adult in nature, it’s still well worth the watch if for no other reason than it’s very deep and well put together. Gritty is this film’s second nature, and it’s going to put on the best gritty show it can. A movie so hard boiled it makes Easter eggs look like omelettes by comparison, X brings drama and thrills to the proceedings in a thoroughly believable–and thoroughly authentic–fashion. It’s believable, and that’s the best part about the whole thing. Can I say it’s absolutely authentic? No, I’ve never been a hooker. But I can believe this is what it would look like. I can believe this because X is a stark, but sharp, little thriller that will do a nice job of keeping your attention quite thoroughly riveted, and that’s quite good enough by me. It should be good enough for you too.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this gritty package of authentic thriller with just a pinch of crime drama thrown in an eight out of ten–this one is going to be terrific for anyone who likes your standard British crime drama, as well as most anyone else with a taste for action and thriller.

You ever been to a family reunion? They can be fun, but they can also be downright nerve wracking. And the family reunion we’ll get in The Inheritance, a copy of which the folks out at Image Entertainment sent for us to review, will be just plain old deadly.

The Inheritance follows a group of five cousins, out to have a family reunion. But this family reunion follows tragedy–the cousins are out to secure their legacy as well, a family fortune that goes back centuries. Their uncle Melvin welcomes them, but warns them that they must respect the family traditions. But what that means takes on a new and sinister life as the cousins vanish, one by one. Soon they learn the truth behind not only those “family traditions” uncle Melvin mentioned, but also the truth behind their entire family, as well as the inheritance they all so deeply prize.

The Inheritance isn’t exactly long on the comprehensible, but that’s almost okay given how they’ve set this up. The lack of much in the way of a coherent plotline plays into its hands nicely as we find that we’re just as confused as the flock of cousins who finds themselves neck deep in a horror they are as ill-prepared for as they are understanding of.  Something weird is going on, it’s probably going to kill them, and we’re not a hundred percent sure just why it’s going on.

The only real downside to this approach, though, is that they’re not going to do a whole lot to clear up the confusion, even up to the very end.  The Inheritance is somewhat puzzling in this sense, even though they’re reasonably straightforward about it, and the ending leaves a few more questions than it actually answers.

But still, taken as a whole, The Inheritance really isn’t half bad, and will do a decent job of putting on a worthwhile, scary show. Sure, if you look at it really close it’ll all kind of fall apart into some strange metaphysical mush, but if you leave it be and just accept what’s going on, well, it’ll still fall apart, especially at the end, but by then you’ll be reasonably satisfied anyway.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives The Inheritance a six out of ten. This decent effort didn’t succeed on every front, but managed to keep things interesting for the most part. There’s a difference between good and good enough, and The Inheritance shows that off plainly.

Take one part Rambo, one part Deliverance, and one part Hostel, and what do you get? Wait–don’t answer. Because I haven’t told you the weirdest part: the mixing bowl in which we blend our disparate ingredients is no less than the IFC, who sent out this baffling amalgam they’re calling Shadow for me to review.

Shadow follows David, a young Iraq War veteran who’s out biking in Europe following his successful return from duty. He’s having a nice time of it, cruising the trails, meeting attractive French girls, and so on. At least until a run-in at a bar with a couple of hunters makes him a couple of bad enemies. They tail David in a bid to get some revenge, and in the process, find themselves squarely in the clutches of an emaciated lunatic who embarks on a series of bizarre, clinical tortures on his newfound victims. Will David get out alive, with or without the hunters in tow?

There’s an old saying, and The Incredibles did it first–”when everybody’s super, no one is”–and that, oddly, actually applies here. We’ve got a combat veteran going up against a pair of gun-toting wackadoos who all find themselves in the clutches of a pure-on nightmare. This should all be quite awesome, but it ends up playing against itself, almost, and yielding a good first half, but a significantly slower second half that has a tendency to devolve into torture porn, complete with occasional toad licking sessions.

I never thought I’d be accusing the IFC, of all places, of putting out torture porn, but that’s a fair assessment of what we’re looking at here. I will, however, give them plenty of due credit for using that weak space as a great setup for a last half hour full of twists, betrayals and surprises, and call it a vast improvement.

There will even be a reasonably satisfying twist ending here, in the general hallmark of the IFC.  So yes, Shadow has its rough patches, but it will still do a very solid job in the end. If it weren’t for about the ten minutes or so in the middle of all this, it might have been even better.

Still though, I can allow for a misstep or two from otherwise top-notch IFC, and it just serves to remind us that no one wins them all, not even great companies like this.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Shadow a six out of ten. It’s a good idea, and it’s executed mostly well, but not without a few problems that get in the way of enjoying it. Still, it’s mostly a good time, and should make a worthwhile rental, if nothing else.

Screenhead ran a very exciting giveaway to promote Tom Shadyac’s upcoming documentary, I AM. We had an awesome prize pack available for the giveaway. Seven DVDs from Shadyac’s past movies, so you know that this guy can direct!

The lucky winner is Courtney S.  Congratulations Courtney!  We hope you enjoy your DVDs, all signed by Mr. Shadyac himself!

Accepted
Ace Ventura
Bruce Almighty
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Liar Liar
Nutty Professor
Patch Adams

His new movie is described as “a prismatic and probing exploration of our world, what’s wrong with it, and what we can do to make it better,” I AM recounts what happened to Tom after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good.  Though he ultimately recovered, he emerged a changed man.

Written and directed by Shadyac  and armed with nothing but his innate curiosity and a camera crew, Shadyac embarks upon a journey to discover how he as an individual, and we as a race, can improve the way we live.

Appearing on-screen as character, commentator, guide, and even, at times, guinea pig, Shadyac meets with a variety of thinkers and doers–remarkable men and women from the worlds of science, philosophy, and faith–including such luminaries as David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch.

An irrepressible Everyman who asks many questions but offers no easy answers, he takes the audience to places it has never been before, and presents even familiar phenomena in completely new and different ways.

Five directors engage in five short stories that are all tied together in one shady, twisted, humorous film about what goes on behind the door of room 316 while the “Do Not Disturb” sign hands outside the door.

Here are quick details for each movie:

Duccio’s Madonna: New film director Eric Balfour’s dark-drama about a lonely man who pushes a hooker too far, only to find an eager maid happy to help him finish the job.

Rocketman: Music video director Petro Papahadjopoulos spins a Twilight-Zone style and science fiction tale about an astronaut who comes home to spend one romantic night with his wife only to find her a bit of an alien.

Prom: Director Laura Henry lightens the mood with a sweet teenage romance between two boys visiting from the south, one in the closet and one out, both looking for “company” for the night.

Intrinsic: Another newcomer Jon Mann-Krieger’s noir thriller about a man, a woman, a maid and the mafia.

Death Takes a Holiday Inn: Director Brandon Nicholas finishes up the movie with a spooky horror about a hotel maid caught in a ghostly mess.

Each director was given a brief synopsis, eight rules to follow and one day on set to create their film.

Do Not Disturb will be available on VOD, iTunes, Amazon VOD, Blockbuster, Cinema Now and numerous others on demand movie sites May 1t, 201.

You know I love that sweet IFC horror, folks, and that’s exactly what I’m going to get a hot dose of today. They sent out a copy of Choose for me to review, and it’s a real doozy staring us in the face. See, I’ve heard about this one coming, a good while back, too…and it’s disturbing even for the IFC.

Choose follows a teenage girl who’s a lot like other teenage girls. At least, until one night, when a lunatic breaks into her house and takes her parents hostage. This is where the title comes in, as the lunatic insists she choose…which of her parents he’s going to kill. He means to kill just one of them, and she’ll choose which. Though if she won’t make the choice herself, he’ll make it for her. And his choice will be to kill them both. And that…is only the beginning. This isn’t the first time he’s set up a horrible choice for somebody, and he’s left plenty of victims behind. One of whom is now hot on the madman’s trail. But will he be found out? Or will he continue to afflict people with terrible choices?

See what I mean? Choose starts off horrible and carries on that way throughout the movie. It’s like Saw, only with less amateur mechanical engineering and more sheer cruelty. I know, not exactly the kind of thing you might see coming in a movie, and yet, there it is. And by “more sheer cruelty”, I mean lots more. It’s actually pretty disturbing stuff, but still, it’s definitely got the kind of edge you’d expect out of IFC horror. If anything, a little too much so.

Still though, for horror buffs who’ve found the larger releases to be a bit on the tepid side of late–and I really can’t blame you one bit–you’ll be very satisfied by what you get from this latest prize from the IFC. Some parts of it do stretch the believability a bit, but if you’re willing to play ball, it’ll be helpful. And the ending will even be a surprise on top of it, which is still more helpful.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives the IFC‘s Choose an eight out of ten for putting a nice scare into things, and perking up a relatively dull genre of late. IFC horror always packs in that little something extra, and you’ll see it in clear and brilliant detail right here.

Gary Costango and Dan Malenki are our winners for the giveaway to help promote an awesome new site called SundanceNOW. Gary and Dan are our lucky winners of a code that is good for one free movie on SundanceNOW.

Gary says, “I always watch Sundance on cable TV. It’s great.  Dan agrees, “[I'm] always willing to watch an indie flick.”

SundanceNOW offers you the choice to rent or own the best of independent cinema with the click of a mouse. The SundanceNOW library encompasses classic titles and the newest releases from around the globe.

I think this is an awesome opportunity for you to experience a new way to view independent and classic movies online.

The idea for SundanceNOW came from the lack of a single online destination where real independent film fans could find, watch instantly and discuss a broad range of independent, hard to find films from around the globe. We believe that SundanceNow fills that void by bringing hundreds of films to your computer screen. You can watch them immediately (and legally) and find several films from the same director or of the same genre quickly and easily. In addition, new films are constantly being added to the service so there’s always a reason to come back.

When Fantasy Meets Reality…is how Anchor Bay Films is promoting the new official trailer and Facebook application for Kim Cattrall’s upcoming comedy, Meet Monica Velour.

Facebook Application is now live. You can find out more about the PORN STAR NAME GENERATOR feature. Just enter your first and last name and reveal your inner porn star name with a detailed write up of your career. If you dare, you can share it with your friends.

The comedy is written and directed by Keith Bearden. The movie also stars Dustin Ingram, which I have heard wonderful things about his performance for a reader who left a post on my first blog about this movie.

The story is about an awkward teenager Tobe (Ingram) sets off on a road trip to meet Monica Velour (Cattrall), his favorite ’80s porn star, at a rare live appearance hundreds of miles away.

Instead of the glamorous sexpot portrayed on film, he finds a 49-year-old single mom living in a trailer in rural Indiana, performing at seedy strip clubs to make ends meet. A starry-eyed Tobe, still captivated by his crush, befriends Monica, further complicating her difficult life.

The movie opens in theaters on April 8, 2011.

First of all, I like this poster of Adrien Brody looking mighty beat and for forsaken. There is still a handsome quality about him, though. Directed by Michael Greenspan, Brody plays a man who awakens in a mangled car-wreck at the bottom of a steep cliff. Injured and trapped inside, with no memory of how he got there or who he is, he must rely on his most primal instincts to survive. But as he attempts to free himself from the carnage and escape an impossible situation, a darker side is revealed. Even if he manages to survive, the man may have to face the horrible consequences of an earlier, forgotten life.

The movie is being billed as horror-thriller, which also includes Caroline Dhavenas as the co-star. The film opens on April 1, 2011 in New York and April 8, 2011 in Los Angeles. The film is currently available on-demand.