Charity preview of Dying Laughing, the stand-up comedy documentary, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. at Hilarities in Cleveland

Watch some recent documentaries about stand-up comedy - especially COMEDIAN and I AM COMIC - and the takeaway is that comics are miserable neurotics from ghastly families with tortured outlooks. So much so that Lewis Black, in I AM COMIC, takes to carrying an oversized lollipop to remind people that, hey, isn't all this supposed to be about being funny?

DYING LAUGHING is the title of the latest nonfiction feature that probes the psyches of big-name comics, especiallyi with tales of being on the road on grueling tour circuits. How do these miserable bastards do it every night?

GCFC Welcomes "My Friend Dahmer" to Cleveland

[Press release from the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.]

CLEVELAND, OH - (August 23, 2016) - The Greater Cleveland Film Commission (GCFC) is excited to announce that the feature film "My Friend Dahmer" has been shooting at locations throughout Northeast Ohio.

Based on the book by Derf Backderf, "My Friend Dahmer" tells the story of the Ohio high school years of notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The film stars Vincent Kartheiser ("Mad Men", "Casual"), Anne Heche ("Donnie Brasco", "Six Days Seven Nights") and as young Jeffrey Dahmer, Ross Lynch ("Austin & Ally", "Muppets Most Wanted"). Marc Meyers ("How He Fell In Love", "Harvest") is directing from his own screenplay. Aperture Entertainment and Ibid Filmworks are producing the film.

"More and more films are shooting in greater Cleveland," said GCFC President Ivan Schwarz, "and we attribute that not only to our amazing variety of locations and our local production professionals, but to the community spirit that productions experience when they arrive."

GCFC is the only nonprofit dedicated to bringing jobs and economic impact to Northeast Ohio by supporting a thriving and adaptive local media industry. Since 2009, the State of Ohio has seen over $400 million in economic impact and created more than 1,700 full-time equivalent jobs thanks to media production. With the news last spring of state funding for a standalone film school at Cleveland State University, and a bill in the Ohio House of Representatives that increased the Ohio Motion Picture Tax Credit to $40 million annually (up from $20 million), 2016 has been an exciting year for Northeast Ohio's burgeoning media industry.

 

GCFC presents exclusive BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE screening

[Press release from the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.]

 

 

 

The Greater Cleveland Film Commission (GCFC) is excited to announce that its next exclusive fundraiser screening event will be an opening night showing of Warner Brothers' "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" Thursday, March 24, at 7:30pm at Atlas Cinemas' Eastgate 10, 1345 Som Center Road, Mayfield Heights, OH 44124.

Tickets are available for a donation of $30, and will go on sale Monday, February 29 at noon, through a link on the GCFC website. All attendees will receive an exclusive T-shirt, designed for the event. Those who wish to be among the first to order tickets to the screening may RSVP with this form, and will receive an email with the link the morning of February 29 to purchase tickets before general sales begin at noon.

Join GCFC and cheer on the iconic "Big Blue Boy Scout" (Henry Cavill), created by Cleveland's own Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as he takes on not only his superheroic rival from Gotham City (Ben Affleck), but also his long-time nemesis, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). "Dawn of Justice" will also feature the big screen debut of Wonder Woman (Gal Godot), along with rumored appearances from other members of the Justice League.

"We want to make sure that Superman gets the hero's welcome he deserves, in the city where he was truly born," said GCFC President Ivan Schwarz. "These screenings are a great way for us to connect with the community by bringing them a unique movie going experience. At the same time, we will raise money to continue growing Northeast Ohio's media industry, and provide our workforce with the skills and experience necessary to thrive in this business, or what we like to call 'REEL Education For REAL Jobs.'"

Cleveland's superhero Apama to get movie adaptation

[Press release from Ted Sikora.]

Local creators of Apama The Undiscovered Animal, a nationally distributed comic book series, announce new feature film in development for Cleveland’s resident superhero at this year’s Wizard World.

Apama is the story of Cleveland-born Hungarian ice cream truck driver Ilyia Zjarsky who discovers an ancient scroll that allows him to gain the powers of the most savage beast man has never known. C-town’s own streets, landmarks and citizens are woven into the fabric of this offbeat series. The story is written and produced by longtime residents Ted Sikora and Milo Miller.

Cleveland ConCoction returns, March 13-15

[Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.]

This is traditionally the time of year for an "anime" convention, Shinboku-Con, out west near Lorain-Sandusky. But something went wrong and it got cancelled for 2015. Just like the Browns fans hopes. And I'm having a sinking feeling that the Republican convention will cancel at the last minute as well. They'll probably back out due to rumors that the CAPTAIN AMERICA sequel is STILL shooting and has all the Cleveland-area streets blocked off.

Point is, with Shinboku-Con gone the way of so many good things around here (meaning, "gone"), where can local movie/cartoon/fantasy/sci-fi fans get their fix this weekend of dressing up in "cosplay" as film-TV-comics characters, or similar vices?

That's where the Cleveland ConCoction comes in. This is a fantasy/sci-fi and gaming convention, a celebration of science-fiction and fantasy art, dramatizations, role-playing gaming (a la Dungeons & Dragons), comics, cosplay/fashion, stop-motion filmmaking lessons, film screenings, VIP celebrities, and just about everything that fan conventions are about.

Howard the Duck (February 21st at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[HOWARD THE DUCK screens Saturday February 21st at 9:20 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

This happens to be the weekend of the inaugrual Cleveland Comic Con, bringing lots of celebrities from the world of film, fantasy and comics to downtown. Oh joy, right? Okay, now for a responsible opposing viewpoint.

Imagine a kind of incredible alternative universe, like Counter-Earth from DC's Infinite Crises, or the What-If universe of Marvel. An alternate universe in which superhero comic books are actually pretty dumb and nerdy. Sort of second-rate magazines that nobody but children and geeks took seriously. And movies made from those selfsame superhero comics are even junkier. Like...really stupid. And grownups' time would be spent wisely doing something else rather than paying attention to them.

Now imagine a movie that somehow happened to hail from that Bizarro Universe. A really crummy, big-budget superhero movie that bombed and nobody liked. Amazing premise, right? Remember, this is comic-book fantasy scenario, so anything can happen.

Oh, and that movie is set in Cleveland.

Welcome to my nightmare, as Alice Cooper said. Welcome to 1986's HOWARD THE DUCK.

BAM! POW! ZAP! Cleveland Comic Con is here, Feb. 20-22

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

You've all probably heard of the mighty San Diego Comic Con, which started as a small-scale comic-books collectors' convention/swap meet in southern California in the early 1970s. A surprise success beyond its organizers' dreams, it mushroomed into a star-studded, fan-interactive multimedia-entertainment pop-culture showcase, celebrating (and previewing) blockbuster movies, television, home-entertainment and video games for the treasured 18 to 24-year old demographic. 

So much has San Diego Comic Con become Hollywoodized that comic books and graphic novels themselves are now downgraded to a minor sideline in San Diego. Check out Morgan Spurlock's documentary COMIC CON PART IV: A FAN'S HOPE for details. And if you are Clevelanders, on minimum wage (if employed at all) and too impoverished to even afford the phone call for info on flights to San Diego, Spurlock's movie is about as close as you're ever going to get.

Or...it was. But look! Up in the sky! Well, no, down on the lakefront, at the newly refurbished Cleveland Convention Center, the first Wizard World Cleveland Comic Con convenes this weekend.

Will LeBron be there? GeekFest, returns to the Akron Public Library, July 26

Event preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.

By now you all know I have this thing about people who manage to leave Cleveland. Those brave souls who journey at last to the outside world, where, even in today's death-spiral Recession, there are more opportunities to make their fortunes, to seek glory, good relationships and personal fulfillment...But you know something? I notice then, a few years later, they all come crawling back to Cleveland. Muttering brokenly something about how they missed the Flats. Or that life isn't the same without The Plain Dealer society page/"Mary Mary." column. Or that, while Paris and London have certain charms, they're nothing compared to Cleveland!

I've seen it happen with filmmakers (too often); I've seen it happen with writers and journos (hi, Michael Heaton. How did you ever survive in that dull cowtown that is San Francisco?). Now the latest boomerang Clevelander? LeBron James.

Alois Nebel (now on video)

[ALOIS NEBEL is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

I've lately been seeing a lot of intriguing animated features fill the direct-to-video ghetto, such as TATSUMI and A LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Or have I just been looking for an excuse to miss all these lousy summer CARS, SMURFS and DESPICABLE ME computer-cartoon sequels in theaters?

In any case, the latest is ALOIS NEBEL, which is not a title with any of the Pixar corporate propaganda behind it, but one which still of interest in scoping out, for those interested in offbeat, grownup animation style. Technically, the high-contrast, noirish motion-capture CGI technique here isn't revolutionary - the European science-fiction thriller of a few years back called RENAISSANCE used it to good effect.

Tatsumi (now on video)

[TATSUMI is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

For a sister site of this blog I was doing Blu-Ray reviews of Japanese "anime," but they haven't been running my material lately. I think it's because the webmaster moved to Austin to take a job-of-the-kind-they-don't-have-in-Cleveland (in other words...a job). And being an Austinite, he's now too cool to deal with the likes of me now.

(Hey, I understand, no problem. If our positions were reversed I'd do the same. Yes, call me `Tex' Cassady; I helped co-found the SXSW Festival. I've lived in this beautiful state capital for ages; remember my funny cameo in SLACKER? No, never heard of Cleveland. Isn't it that awful town in Iowa that some ballplayer named Jim LeBron left behind?)

GeekFest tries to bring a touch of class (okay, more like Starfleet Academy) to the Akron Public Library, July 27

[Event Preview by Charles Cassady, Jr.]

You've all probably heard of the mighty San Diego Comic Con, which started as a surprise-hit comics collectors' convention/swap in southern California in the early 1970s. It mushroomed into a Marvel of a star-studded, fan-interactive multimedia-entertainment showcase in recent years, celebrating (and previewing) blockbuster movies, television, home-entertainment and video games for the treasured 18 to 24-year old demographic.

So much has San Diego Comic Con become Hollywoodized that comic books and graphic novels themselves are now downgraded to a minor sideline there in San Diego. Check out Morgan Spurlock's documentary COMIC CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE for details. And if you are Clevelanders, on minimum wage (if employed at all) and too impoverished to even afford the phone call for info on flights to San Diego, Spurlock's movie is about as close as you're ever going to get.

The Amazing Spider-Man

A Review in Retconned* Tweets by Charles Cassady, Jr.
*It is sad that I even know what “retconned” means.

Okay, the studio security protocols in my being able to see THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN in advance were only slightly less strict that those at Los Alamos. I wasn't allowed to FaceBook about Spider-Man, blog about Spider-Man, Tweet about Spider-Man, until the release. Hey, I barely even wanted to SEE another damn superhero movie, let alone write about it.

Furthermore I'm not all that keen on social media. I do it because, as a book author (which I am, but don't be too impressed - it was a fallback career after newspapers all laid me off), word in the trades is that it was the way to go to connect with a potential readership. Social media is also considered a potential job skill - likely an urban myth perniciously circulated by ISPs, device manufacturers and Mark Zuckerberg - and boy do I need employment.

Flash Gordon (February 18 at midnight at the Capitol Theatre)

[FLASH GORDON screens Saturday February 18th at Midnight at the Capitol Theatre.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Premiering as it did in an era when merciless emperors of Hollywood were copycatting STAR WARS in every way, Dino De Laurentiis-produced FLASH GORDON of 1980 remains daringly offbeat. To compete with the white-hot Skywalker saga every studio in la-la land dusted off every sci-fi product they owned the rights to, for computer-age remakes emphasizing gear-encrusted starships and cute little robots. Universal just happened to have the old Alex Raymond comic title in their deep pockets and this truly daffy retro-revival resulted. Though a box-office dud, it's gotten even better - depending on your definition of "better," anyway - over the years. I only rediscovered the sumptuous guilty pleasure on video, having, like so many others, ignored it in the theaters at the time. Mike Hodges' feature got mostly thumbs down from critics who Just Didn't Get It. At least there were no lousy sequels (ditto ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI: ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION, whose end credits literally promised a lousy sequel).

Superheroes (now on video)

[SUPERHEROES is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Just as Andrew Sarris considered the entire western genre as intrinsically childish, I just don't have much enthusiasm for movies based on comic books. Superhero comics especially...

(collective gasp of horror and disbelief goes up from the internet generation. Some faint; others make the Sign of the Cross at their screens)

...I don't care how many megamillions of dollars or terrabytes of CGI get thrown into the mix, I don't care if it's got the best actors of New York/Paris/London/Rome, I don't care if Michael Chabon or Jodi Picoult or David Mamet or the great Brian Michael Bendis himself writes the script, or if it gets away from the campy, silly Plastic Man of the 1960s and back to the original dark, brooding, psychotic Plastic Man of the 30s and 40s, the movie superhero trend is just lame already. And you wanna know something else? The same goes for movies based on videogames. Even Halo!

(collective screams of anguish, outrage. Millions of users douse their computers with Holy Oil in desperate attempt to make the scary words go away)

Dope Island: O Captain O My Captain! Remembering the other Captain America

By Charles Cassady, Jr.

This summer's new CAPTAIN AMERICA motion-picture blockbuster epic gives countless millions their long-awaited bigscreen adaptation of a classic comic-book superhero - as though we haven't seen one of those in less than a month or so. And I'm given to believe that Captain America is a character in a Marvel-authorized "Avengers" feature-film blockbuster comics epic shooting even as these MIGHTY words are being written, somewhere in downtown Cleveland. Lots of empty buildings and recession-shut business, after all, offer major opportunities to film artistes, not just drug-dealing criminals (assuming there's a difference).