The Circuit

With CineVegas behind him, artist director Trevor Groth finally finds some nod-time.  Until another drink comes...

Rolf Belgum's drama on Alzheimer’s disease and nature, "She Unfolds By Day" (pictured), and docu “Beautiful Losers,” Joshua Leonard and Aaron Rose’s portrait of an ‘80s art movement, cashed in CineVegas by pocketing Grand Jury prizes.

“We have seen a considerable amount of filmmaker talent at the Festival over the past decade, and this year is no exception,” said Artistic Director Trevor Groth at Saturday’s award ceremony. “In addition, CineVegas had a record number of attendees this year.”

Rachel Samuels stylish noir, "Dark Streets," got a Special Jury Award along with Bill Pullman for his role as a science fiction writer in Matthew Wilder's "You Name Here."  A Special Jury doc prize also went to Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose's "Hi My Name is Ryan" which chronicled the "Clown Prince" of the Phoenix art scene.

Crowds chose horse-racing docu "Lost in the Fog" and comedy "Visioneers" for audience awards.  Jonás Cuarón’s "Año uña" won the fest's Mexican-themed La Próxima Ola Jury Prize.

by Stuart Levine
Listening to the Q&A discussion following the Tuesday screening of “Wellness,” one might think director Jake Mahaffy feels the world is one big con.

Granted, the well-reviewed film that arrived at CineVegas covers a pyramid scheme from the p.o.v. of schlubby salesman Thomas Lindsey — the wonderful Jeff Clark, an actor with no formal training or background — but Mahaffy’s comments make the helmer sound like everyone’s out to get, well, everyone.

“We all get scammed in so many different ways,” he said. “Just go to the gas station. That’s a giant scam.”

Audiences aren’t sure whether to laugh or cry at Lindsey’s ill-fated attempts to gather enough suckers to move up the pyramid, but the saddest part of all is that Lindsey doesn’t even know he’s getting worked over.

by Stuart Levine
With horse racing all the buzz for the last few weeks, director John Corey's "Lost in the Fog" seems like a perfect fit for CineVegas, especially considering you could bet the ponies only a few yards away at the Palms sportsbook.

On the surface, the doc is about a blue-collar equine who went on to win a bunch of races with a fair amount of talent and a bunch of heart. But in reality, Corey's film is more about Fog's cantankerous owner, Harry Aleo, who never met a journalist he liked.

Aleo, a bastion of conservatism -- including a Ronald Reagan poster hanging on his wall -- in the middle of liberal San Francisco, took a liking to Corey because the two were practically neighbors.

"We hit it off right away," said Corey, who left a job at CBS to take on the project.

Like most good horse tales, there are lots of ups and downs for Fog, who took on the big boys of racing at storied tracks such as Churchill Downs and Belmont Park.

Corey would love to see "Fog" find a national audience and, in a perfect world, would see the film feed off the recent Big Brown news cycle.

"We'd like to put it on 3,500 screens next week," he joked at the post-screening and Q and A.

Alas, "Fog" won't reach "Indiana Jones"-type distribution, but positive word of mouth in the racing community should get this winner home to the finish line.

As CineVegas' big opening weekend came to a close - much of the industry folk leaves on Monday - The Circuit walked the floor of the Palms Casino Resort, shifting through the remains.

B-Side, the Austin-based company that builds websites and collects data for festivals, is keeping track of where the audience's heads are at CineVegas here.  As of Day 3, J.L. Vara's "South of Heaven" is doing well.

The highest rated films, in descending order, are:

"South of Heaven" (JL Vara)
"The End" (Nicola Collins)
"The Rocker" (Peter Cattaneo)
"Your Name Here" (Matthew Wilder)
"Año Uña" (Jonas Cuaron)

B-Side's Chris Holland also said, "Though 'South of Heaven' had an awkwardly quiet Q&A session after its premiere, it is by far the most-reviewed film on the audience participation site."

Here are three samples:

"Great film and creative team behind it. This is why I go to festivals." - brainwashentertainment

"While the film had it's flaws, I'm really glad to see an American artist trying to get an original voice out there. I do have to say, this was one of the best musical scores I've heard in a while. Certainly the most unique since I saw Brick at Sundance a few years back." - summit92

"South of Heaven is a pure example of why I go to film festivals. I want to see films that are fresh, unique and have REAL BALLS. This film is like a 100cc injection of taurine to the jugular. Shea Wigham is a beast, damn I loved this movie." - hueberzinho

The Tracksuit Mafia of Buyers, who debuted at SXSW here, returns - this time with new blood and for a cause.  They're raising money for Mercy Corps at mercycorps.org/vegasfilmfest.

Pictured are Focus' Peter Kujawski, Paramount Vantage's Ben Cotner, CineVegas' Rosie Wong, Sony's Scott Shooman, Red Envelope's Liesl Copland, and Cinetic's Matt Dentler.

The taxi driver wondered why we were headed to such a seedy part of town. "Men who want to be women hang around there," she said.  We asked if there were any other, more pressing dangers on the 900 block of East Sahara.  She shrugged.  Cross dressing was enough for her. 

Well away from the Palms and The Strip, enfolded inside a bleached strip-mall, the legendary Lotus of Siam is one of the best restaurants in the city.  Many here for CineVegas will go every day for Nam Kao Tod, duck curry, Rad Na curry noodle with beef, weeping tiger. 

Of all the dinner party stories one hears of finding incredible, moving food in the least likely of places, this may top it all.  Except it's already been well-discovered.  Plastered all over the walls are Lotus' reviews -- write-ups in most every major travel mag that read like fawning love letters.  My company thought the whole lead-up would oversell it.  It didn't. 

Fire dancers at the CineVegas 10th anniversary party at the Palms pool.  Britney Spears arrived, was quickly shoved into a poolside cabana and walled off by security guards.  And just as quickly, the cabana became a cage as every party-goer had to walk by for their Britney sighting.  Like a tiger, you could see her pacing inside.  Back and forth.

Buyers and execs are here in force.  Still stressed about last month's Cannes, they enjoy the fest as a summer working vacation -- Paramount Vantage, Miramax, Red Envelope, Cinetic Digital Rights (both John Sloss and Matt Dentler are here), SXSW's Janet Pierson, etc.  Submarine's Josh Braun is here selling "Hi My Name is Ryan." 

And former Searchlight and Sidney Kimmel exec Josh Deighton is repping the beer pong doc "Last Cup," which had a midnight party.  Pongers featured in the doc took on all comers.

Rainn Wilson with co-star Emma Stone at "The Rocker" preem on Friday, where he announced "Spoiler alert!  I DIE at the end!"

Little did we know he was predicting the Lakers' game, dying at that moment. 

Today, The Circuit drove the 15 to CineVegas, meeting 5 dollar gas, something called the Bun Boy Motel (offices in the rear), and 102 degrees at the Palm Casino, home of the fest.  Yes, everyone here dresses like that. 

Tonight, "The Rocker" opens the fest.

Premiering next week at CineVegas is Dan Lindsay's docu "Last Cup: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong." 

For those who haven't heard of beer pong - and lack the imagination to figure it out - the sport has over 6000 beer pong themed videos on YouTube and a page on Wikipedia which offers a helpful diagram and description:

When a ball lands in a cup, the defending team must consume all of the beer inside that cup. The game is won by eliminating all the other team's cups before one's own cups are eliminated. The losing team must then consume all the beer remaining in the winning team's cups.

At a party after the preem - on Friday the 13th - the beer pong champs will take on all comers. 

As per the trailer, it's probably not a game for mean drunks:

As CineVegas announces that Viggo Mortensen will get an honor, the NY Times has this profile of the just-completed "The Road."  The next Cormac McCarthy adaptation stars a post-apocalyptic Viggo.

For the crew that has just finished filming the movie version of "The Road" — a joint production of 2929 and Bob Weinstein's Dimension Films, set to open in November — that meant an upending of the usual rules of making a movie on location. Bad weather was good and good weather bad.

"A little fog, a little drizzle — those are the good days," Mark Forker, the movie's director of special effects, remarked one morning in late April while the crew was shooting some of the final scenes in the book on a stretch of scraggly duneland by the shore of Lake Erie here. "Today is a bad day," he added, shaking his head and squinting.

CineVegas will show a site-specific work by Takashi Murakami for one night only, June 16, at the Wynn Las Vegas. 

Called "Planting the Seeds" it'll fit right in among the boozing collegiates and oxygen-toting slot players.  Murakami's work is a fantastic swirl of hard color and character, accented with a unique kind of surreal horror.  The short film preemed at LA's MoCA.

"Planting the Seeds is my first animated work, and is a short episode that I made as part of a full-length animated film.   It is a short piece, but is the result of 3 years in my animation studio in Tokyo.  For me, animation is one of the important elements in my next stage as an artist," stated Murakami.

For those feeling charitable during CineVegas - and who don't want to bank on a gut shot straight - they'll be a charity screening of Peter Segal's comedy starring Steve Carrell, "Get Smart." 

Proceeds will go to co-star Dwayne Johnson's org, The Rock Foundation and its Project Knapsack, a program to assist students in developing countries.  Johnson will be on-hand to accept the Brenden Celebrity Star award, sponsored by Brenden Theatres.

CineVegas will open with the world preem of Peter Catteneo's comedy, "The Rocker" starring Rainn Wilson as a failed drummer who joins a high school rock band.  Sean McGinly's "The Great Buck Howard" will close the fest.

The Sin City fest is an industry favorite on the circuit.  Their annual lineup announcements are a study in how to keep audiences in the theaters and away from the tables.  Having it set within the Palm Casino doesn’t help. 

Yet having Sundance programmer Trevor Groth as the artistic director does.

Today Groth announced the fest's full lineup, including its world premiere section called "Jackpot Premieres," where Rachel Samuel's noir musical "Dark Streets" and Matthew Wilder's sci-fi pic starring Bill Pullman, "Your Name Here," will unspool.

Fest will also debut a new section for docs, "Pioneer Documentaries," and will include Aaron Rose's festival hit, "Beautiful Losers" and the US premiere of Abel Ferrara's "Chelsea on the Rocks" about New York's famed Chelsea Hotel.

Other sections include a sidebar highlighting Mexican filmmakers, docs on Vegas in "Vegas Uncovered," and "Diamond Discoveries" which screens indie films still available for distribs where Ferrara will screen another film, his strip club comedy "Go-Go Tales."

"Sure Bets" offers advanced screening indie studio pics such as Clark Gregg's "Choke" and Alex Gibney's doc, "Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson."

CineVegas midnight section, "Area 52," will unspool the world premiere of Giusepps Andrew's sci-fi "Schoof."

The tenth annual CineVegas will run June 12-21 at the Palms Casino.  Check them out here.

Full lineup is here.