ON FILM : Film festival is cause for hometown pride

PHILIP MARTIN

By now you should be aware that the second Little Rock Film Festival starts Thursday. You should probably go to the festival’s Web site (www.littlerockfilmfestival.org) and check out the schedule. There are some great tools on the site that’ll help you plan your long weekend. - Friday, May 9, 2008

REVIEW : Redbelt

BY PHILIP MARTIN

Redbelt 88 Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alica Braga, Emily Mortimer, Tim Allen, Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, Rodrigo Santoro, Jennifer Grey Director: David Mamet Rating: R for language Running time: 99 minutes Odd and kind of wonderful, David Mamet’s Redbelt, which recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, is, on first impression, a mash-up of Mamet’s familiar stylized stories of victims and con men with a conventional sports underdog movie set in the relatively novel world of mixed martial arts fighting, of which Mamet is apparently an aficionado. (He’s also a purple belt in Brazilian jujitsu. Who knew?) It’s only later, upon dangerous reflection, that a film critic might begin to connect Redbelt with names like Kurosawa and Jean-Pierre Melville — - Friday, May 9, 2008

REVIEW : Speed Racer

BY ROBERT W. BUTLER THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Speed Racer runs for two hours and nine minutes. Episodes of the animated ’60s TV series which inspired it ran for only 22 minutes. And that was too long. - Friday, May 9, 2008

Box office

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES — Fictional billionaire Tony Stark has made a fortune in Hollywood as the superhero adventure Iron Man pulled in $98.6 million domestically in its first weekend. - Friday, May 9, 2008

Home movies

— Karen Martin

Recent DVD releases: I’m Not There (R, 135 minutes) Director Todd Haynes weaves together a daring and complex narrative of elusive American icon Bob Dylan — not a Dylan for Dummies but a kind of filmic Dylan song, allusive and evocative and purposefully, poetically ambiguous — by casting six actors, from 10-year-old Marcus Carl Franklin to Cate Blanchett, as different aspects of the man. DVD features include nine deleted scenes, audio commentary with Haynes, a making-of featurette, a gag reel, a Dylan filmography and discography, and audition tapes. Grade: 93 Over Her Dead Body (PG-13, 95 minutes) Why did this go to theaters instead of going straight to DVD rental shelves? Shouldn’t Eva Longoria Parker be seeking movie roles that make her seem like more than a TV star, not less than one? In this second remake of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, the only deviation Parker makes from the self-centered caprice of her Desperate Housewives character is a strange coppery tint to her hair. The DVD includes wideand ful - Friday, May 9, 2008

Older, odd anime more than Speed Racer

BY CARY DARLING FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM

Speed Racer careens into theaters today, dragging with it a $120 million budget, the bruised reputation of its directors, the Wachowski brothers — whose careers need a shot of nitro after the flameouts of the last two Matrix debacles — and the summer hopes of a movie industry in need of a few winners. - Friday, May 9, 2008

Screen gems

Ozark Foothills FilmFest is accepting submissions for the eighth annual festival, set for March 26-29 in Batesville. Entries are accepted in two categories : Official selection: Narrative or documentary films an hour or longer in length. - Friday, May 9, 2008