Ghosts of the Past

Spoilers ahead.

The two first forays into the 2013 "summer" movie season, Iron Man III and Star Trek: Into Darkness may be the first of several films this year to feature villains who remind viewers that the sins of our past will always come back to haunt us.

In Iron Man III the film's major villain, Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), was slighted twenty three years ago by the self-absorbed, rich whiz kid Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). Killian masks his revenge against Stark with The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and a series of apparent terrorist attacks. Behind all the theatricality lay a simple tale of a man who was humiliated and wants his just desserts. Stark works to unravel the mystery of The Mandarin and Killian while saving everyone around him, including the President of the United States. More than Stark, however, it's his friend James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) who frequently has to question his allegiance. As "The Iron Patriot" (formerly "War Machine" -- a very telling change) he's done up in a garish red, white and blue suit. Throughout the film there's a recurring question as to who is really in the suit and what their motives are.

Similarly, in Star Trek: Into Darkness there are two villains: Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) and Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). Like The Mandarin, Khan serves Marcus (and with about the same amount of loyalty) as a pawn in a larger end game. Unlike The Mandarin, the threat of Khan is far more than what is initially promised. He's not just some random terrorist who saves a little girl in order to destroy a secret weapons lab. He is everything that The Mandarin might have been.

Khan led a crew of 72 genetically-modified men and women in the Earth's past. They were convicted of war crimes and exiled from Earth. Marcus uses the discovery of their derelict ship to his advantage by taking Khan out of cryo-sleep and employ's Khan's superior intellect and ruthlessness to create newer, better weapons. That's the stated reason, anyway. The audience never sees these weapons and why someone 300+ years old can come up with more advanced weapons seems to be a ruse. What Marcus really wants is a walking powderkeg to ignite a war with the Klingon empire.

Into this rather elaborate set-up steps James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) who needs to learn a lesson in humility and teach a lesson of friendship to Spock (Zachary Quinto). Much of Star Trek: Into Darkness bounces Kirk between lies as he tries to discern the truth of his situation. He's sent to kill Khan (who's using the alias John Harrison) "with extreme prejudice." Kirk wants revenge for the death of his mentor, Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) and Marcus arms him with weapons of mass destruction, 72 modified photon torpedoes. Marcus also provides Kirk with permission to go on a rogue mission to Kronos, the Klingon home world. There, Kirk is supposed to strike without warning in an attack that sounds a lot like a drone strike.

Both Iron Man III and Star Trek: Into Darkness attempt to explain terrorism and the hatred certain groups and people feel against the United States. Kirk and Stark share an arrogance that is dwarfed when compared to the overreaching dogmatism of what they represent: Kirk the Federation and Stark the United States.

The Federation is so cavalier that its offices are in high buildings with plenty of windows. No one would attack their headquarters. Not only does Khan attack it directly but he also attempts to lay the entire city of San Francisco to waste by crashing a starship into it. Of course, this is the moment where 9/11 metaphor should crystallize for every viewer.

Khan attacks three times on Earth. The third mirrors 9/11 while the first recalls the 2005 London bombings. It's the second that sets Kirk on his path of vengeance. It's his "now it's personal moment."

Kirk quotes Kautilya's "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" about Khan. This phrase was adopted too readily in U.S. foreign policy. Wars fought by the United States in the last two decades include former "friends" such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Like the American people, Kirk is duped into going into battle with an enemy while blinded by vengeance and sold a story by a madman. Just like past dirty dealings, the allegiance with Khan goes totally wrong.

Of course, everything is set seemingly correct by the end of each film though at what cost? Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) has been exposed to a terrible virus that threatens to consume her in Iron Man III while war with Klingon is still imminent in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

What will our next lesson about the past coming back to bite us in the ass be? It seems most natural that Man of Steel will fulfill this promise. General Zod embodies "the sins of the father" revisited upon the son.

Cinema Detours Arrives!

Cinema Detours is a collection of two-hundred twenty movie reviews written over a period of six years and published in a miscellany of media, including: Detour Magazine, Detroit's Metro Times, Mondo Film & Video Guide, Wild Side Cinema, Daily Grindhouse, and more. These reviews have been collected to preserve them in an archival physical form to rescue them from the ephemeral nature of the net.

Films in this collection are mostly off the beaten path, representing genres all over the map: Cult, Horror, Sci-Fi, Film Festival Flicks, Action Films, Superhero Movies and even a Czechoslovakian Musical Western. Get in, strap in, shut up, and hold on as we take a breakneck tour of the lesser traveled reaches of the cinematic landscape. Tighten your seat belt and read carefully because everything happens fast. You've never had a trip like this before.

Language	English
Pages	220
Binding	Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink	Black & white
Weight	1.49 lbs.
Dimensions (inches)	5.5 wide x 8.5 tall
Cover art	Dylan Santurri
Proofreading	Lori Hubbard & Christine Makepeace

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Movies Reviewed:

200 Pounds Beauty (Yong-hwa Kim, 2006, Korea)

20th Century Oz (Chris Löfvén, 1976, Australia)

Absurdistan (Veit Helmer, 2008, Germany)

Adam Resurrected (Paul Schrader, 2008, USA)

Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton, 2010, USA)

Alice Sweet Alice (Alfred Sole, 1976, USA)

Alien Trespass (R.W. Goodwin, 2009, USA)

American Cannibal: The Road to Reality (Perry Grebin and Michael Nigro, 2006, USA)

American Swing (Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman, 2007, USA)

Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi, The (Andrew Thomas and Toby Gleason, 2009, USA)

Andy Kaufman: World Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion (Lynne Margulies, 2010, USA)

Another State of Mind (Adam Small and Peter Stuart, 1984, USA)

Appaloosa (Ed Harris, 2008, USA)

AVPR: Aliens vs. Predator – Requiem (Colin Strause and Greg Strause, 2007, USA)

Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968, France)

Battle Beyond the Stars (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980, USA)

Baxter (Jérôme Boivin, 1989, France)

Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson, 2009, USA)

Big Gundown, The (Sergio Sollima, 1966, Italy)

Big Man Japan/Dai-Nipponjin (Hitoshi Matsumoto, 2007, Japan)

Big Risk / Classe Tous Risques, The (Claude Sautet, 1960, France)

Black Belt Jones (Robert Clouse, 1974, USA)

Black Cadillac (John Murlowski, 2002, USA)

Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009, USA)

Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961, USA)

Boy and His Dog, A (L.Q. Jones, 1975, USA)

Brain Smasher… A Love Story (Albert Pyun, 1993, USA)

Brand upon the Brand (Guy Maddin, 2006, USA)

Burning Plain (Guillermo Arriaga, 2008, USA)

Burrowers, The (J.T. Petty, 2008, USA)

Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (René Viénet, 1972, France)

Capricorn One (Peter Hyams, 1978, USA)

Captain Mike Across America (Michael Moore, 2007, USA)

Cars That Ate Paris, The (Peter Weir, 1974, Australia)

Celluloid Closet, The (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995, USA)

Chaos Experiment, The (Philippe Martinez, 2009, USA)

Choke (Clark Gregg, 2008, USA)

Chosen Survivors (Sutton Roley, 1974, USA)

Chrysalis (Julien Leclerq, 2007, France)

Cleaner, The (Renny Harlin, 2007, USA)

Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973, USA)

Cobra Woman (Robert Siodmak, 1944, USA)

Colossus: The Forbin Project (Joseph Sargent, 1970, USA)

Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007, UK) and Joy Division (Grant Gee, 2006, UK)

Creation of the Humanoids, The (Wesley Barry, 1962, USA)

Crime Wave (André de Toth, 1954, USA)

Crimson Kimono, The (Samuel Fuller, 1959, France)

Cyborg 2087 (Franklin Adreon, 1966, USA)

Damnation Alley (Jack Smight, 1977, USA)

Darktown Strutters (William Witney, 1975, USA)

Dasepo Naughty Girls (Je-yong Lee, 2006, Korea)

Day of the Triffids (Steve Sekely, 1962, UK)

Daybreakers (Michael and Peter Spierig, 2009, Australia)

Deadgirl (Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel, 2008, USA)

Death Car on the Freeway (Hal Needham, 1979, USA)

Death Game (Peter S. Traynor, 1977, USA)

Death Race (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2008, USA)

Decoy (Jack Bernhard, 1946, USA)

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (Tsui Hark, 2011, China)

Detroit Metal City (Toshio Lee, 2008, Japan)

Devil’s Chair, The (Adam Mason, 2006, UK)

Die Laughing (Jeff Werner, 1980, USA)

Dinah East (Gene Nash, 1970, USA)

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (John Hough, 1974, USA)

Dirty Money/Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972, France)

Dr. Plonk (Rolf De Heer, 2007, Australia)

Dune (David Lynch, 1984, USA)

Dungeon Masters (Kevin McAlester, 2008, USA)

Dynamite Warrior (Chalerm Wongpim, 2006, Thailand)

El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970, Mexico)

Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981, USA)

Ex Drummer (Koen Mortier, 2007, Belgium)

Fanboys (Kyle Newman, 2008, USA)

Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973, France)

Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Russ Meyer, 1965, USA)

Fido (Andrew Currie, Canada, 2006)

Five Deadly Venoms (Cheh Chang, 1978, Hong Kong)

Flash Point (Wilson Yip, 2007, Hong Kong)

For the Bible Tells Me So (Daniel G. Karslake, 2007, USA)

Forever Never Anywhere (Antonin Svoboda, 2007, Austria) and Stuck (Stuart Gordon, 2007, USA)

Frontière(s) (Xavier Gens, 2007, France)

Full Contact (Ringo Lam, 1993, Hong Kong)

Gentlemen Broncos (Jared Hess, 2009, USA)

George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead (George A. Romero, 2007, USA)

Get Lamp (Jason Scott Sadofsky, 2010, USA)

Ghost Town (David Koepp, 2008, USA)

God’s Cartoonist: The Comic Crusade of Jack Chick

Good The Bad The Weird, The (Ji-woon Kim, 2008, Korea)

Graphic Sexual Horror (Barbara Bell & Anna Lorentzon, 2009, USA)

Great Yokai War, The (Takashi Miike, 2005, Japan)

Halloween (Rob Zombie, 2007, USA)

Hancock (Peter Berg, 2008, USA)

Hell’s Ground (Omar Khan, 2007, Pakistan)

Hero and the Terror (William Tannen, 1988, USA)

Heroic Trio, The (Johnny To, 1993, Hong King)

Hidden, The (Jack Sholder, 1987, USA)

High & Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963, Japan)

High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973, USA)

Hollywood Chinese (Arthur Dong, 2007, USA)

Inferno (Roy Ward Baker, 1953, USA)

Inglorious Bastards (Enzo G. Castelleri, 1978, Italy)

Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

Iron Man (Jon Farveau, 2008, USA)

Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (Lee Gordon Demarbre, 2001, Canada)

Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo, 1994, USA)

Kenny (Clayton Jacobson, 2006, Australia)

Kiler (Juliusz Machulski, 1997, Poland)

Kill Zone – SPL / Saat po long (Wilson Yip, 2005, Hong Kong)

Killer, The (John Woo, 1989, Hong Kong)

Killers, The (Don Siegel, 1964, USA)

Knock Off (Tsui Hark, 1998, Hong Kong)

Lemonade Joe (Oldrich Lipsky, 1964, Czechoslovakia)

Lightning Salad Moving Picture (Kenneth Price, 2008, USA)

Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, The (Nicholas Gessner, 1976, USA)

Living Dead Girl (Jean Rollin, 1982, France)

Logan’s Run (Michael Anderson, 1976, USA)

Mack, The (Michael Campus, 1973, USA)

Mad Detective (Johnny To & Wai Ka-Fai, 2007, Hong Kong)

Mad Love (Karl Freund, 1935, USA)

Man, The (Joseph Sargent, 1972, USA)

Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008, France)

Max & The Junkmen (Claude Sautet, 1971, France)

Meet the Spartans (Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer, 2007, USA)

Megaforce (Hal Needham, 1982, USA)

Mermaids of Tiburon (John Lamb, 1962, USA)

Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen, & Jessica Joy Wise, 2005, Canada)

Microwave Massacre (Wayne Berwick, 1983, USA)

Mimesis (Douglas Schulze, 2011, USA)

Miracle Mile (Steve De Jarnatt, 1988, USA)

Mock Up on Mu (Craig Baldwin, 2008, USA)

Modern Love is Automatic (Zach Clark, 2009, USA)

Mr. Freedom (William Klein, 1969, France)

Mr. Vampire (Ricky Lau, 1985, Hong Kong)

Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944, USA)

Mutant Chronicles (Simon Hunter, 2008, US/UK)

My Enemy’s Enemy (Kevin Macdonald, 2007, France)

Myra Breckinridge (Michael Sarne, 1970, USA)

Night of the Lepus (William F. Claxton, 1972, USA)

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947, USA)

Nightmare City 2035 (Terence H. Winkless, 2007, USA)

Nightmare on Elm Street (Samual Bayer, 2010, USA)

Ninth Configuration, The (William Peter Blatty, 1980, USA)

Not Quite Hollywood (Mark Hartley, 2008, USA)

Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968, Italy)

Orgasm, Inc. (Elizabeth Canner, 2009, USA)

Orgy of the Dead (Stephen C. Apostolof, 1965, USA)

Orphanage, The (Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007, Mexico)

Osterman Weekend, The (Sam Peckinpah, 1983, USA)

Otto; or, Up with Dead People (Bruce LaBruce, 2008, Canada)

Outland (Peter Hyams, 1981, USA)

Outrage (Martin Ritt, 1964, USA)

Over the Top (Menahem Golan, 1987, USA)

Passion & Power: The Technology of Orgasm (Emiko Omori and Wendy Blair Slick, 2007, USA)

Perfect Creature (Glenn Standring, 2006, New Zealand)

Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 2007, France)

Pickup on South Street (Samuel Fuller, 1953, USA)

Plastic City (Nelson Yu Lik-wai, 2008, Brazil)

Policewomen (Lee Frost, 1974, USA)

Postal (Uwe Boll, 2007, USA)

Prayer of the Rollerboys (Rick King, 1990, USA)

Pretty Poison (Noel Black, 1968, USA)

Privilege (Peter Watkins, 1967, UK)

Psychomania (Don Sharp, 1971, UK)

Queen of Outer Space (Edward Bernds, 1958, USA)

Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979, USA)

Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007, USA)

Religulous (Larry Charles, 2008, USA)

Reptilicus (Poul Bang/Sidney Pink, 1961, Denmark/USA)

Resident Evil 3: Extinction (Russell Mulcahy, 2007, USA)

Return of the Demon (Ying Wong, 1987, Hong Kong)

Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955, France)

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959, USA)

Robotrix (Jamie Luk, 1991, Hong Kong)

RocknRolla (Guy Ritchie, 2008, UK)

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead (Jordan Galland, 2009, USA)

Runaway (Michael Crichton, 1984, USA)

Satan Bug, The (John Sturges, 1965, USA)

Satan’s Cheerleaders (Greydon Clark, 1977, USA)

Sauna (Antti-Jussi Annila, 2008, Finland)

Sex Mission (Juliusz Machulski, 1984, Poland)

Sexykiller (Miguel Marti, 2008, Spain)

Shooter (Antoine Fuqua, 2007, USA)

Skidoo (Otto Preminger, 1968, USA)

Snake Eyes (Brian De Palma, 1998, USA)

Sound of Thunder, A (Peter Hyams, 2005, USA)

Speed Racer (Andy Wachowski & Larry Wachowski, 2008, USA)

Spider-Man 3 (Sam Raimi, 2007, USA)

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Nicholas Meyer, 1991, USA)

Student Bodies (Mickey Rose, 1981, USA)

Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike, 2007, Japan)

Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007, UK)

Surveillance (Jennifer Chambers Lynch, 2008, USA)

Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The (Joseph Sargent, 1974, USA)

Tales from the Script (Peter Hanson, 2010, USA)

Tanya’s Island (Alfred Sole, 1980, Canada)

Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968, USA)

Telefon (Don Siegel, 1977, USA)

Teplitz: The Tyranny of Paradox (Sean Guinan, 2008, USA)

Tribulation 99: Alien Anomalies Under America (Craig Baldwin, 1992, USA)

Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The (Jacques Demy, 1964, France)

Viva (Anna Biller, 2007, USA)

WarGames: The Dead Code (Stuart Gillard, 2008, USA)

Warriors, The (Walter Hill, 1979, USA)

Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995, USA)

What’s Your Point, Honey? (Amy Sewell & Susan Toffler, 2008, USA)

White Dog (Samuel Fuller, 1982, USA)

Why We Fight (Eugene Jarecki, 2005, USA)

Wild Horse Redemption, The (John Zaritsky, 2007, Canada)

Wild in the Streets (Barry Shear, 1968, USA)

Willie Dynamite (Gilbert Moses, 1974, USA)

Witch Hunt (Dana Nachman & Don Hardy Jr., 2008, USA)

Wizard of Gore, The (Jeremy Kasten, 2007, USA)

Wonder Woman (Lauren Montgomery, 2009, USA)

WR: Mysteries of the Organism (Dušan Makavejev, 1971, Yugoslavia)

Wraith, The (Mike Marvin, 1986, USA)

X-Files: I Want to Believe, The (Chris Carter, 2008, USA)

Z.P.G. (Michael Campus, 1972, UK)

Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974, UK)

Zero Hour (Hall Bartlett, 1957, Canada)

To The Wonder: Movie Review

To the Wonder (Terrence Malick, 2012, USA)
It's a new Terrence Malick film. When I was going to film school I caught a few Malick movies, Days of Heaven and Badlands, and was hoping that To the Wonder might be a return to a more traditional narrative form after The Tree of Life.

Nope. To the Wonder is very much more of the same as Tree of Life to the point where (reading the credits) it seems that Malick even used footage from Tree of Life in To the Wonder. Malick continues to experiment with narrative form. The film flows along a meandering path; the camera ever-moving forward, dialogue buried or unnecessary, cuts happening more for rhythm than dramatic effect. The film skips along time and space, heedless of acts, scenes, or, some would argue, the audience.

There's some sort of plot and some characters but they don't really matter. They drop in for a few minutes and then go away again. It's all about the experience of the film itself. Take it or leave it.

While I respect what Malick is trying to do, I'm not that big a fan of it. It's pistachio when I'm looking for something more chocolate.

I don't think I was the only one who wasn't enjoying To the Wonder when I saw it. At one point the movie faded to black. When the picture returned, there was a collective groan from the audience and I was heard to utter an expletive that was similar to "Oh, duck."

And, just to set the record straight, this isn't a sequel to Get Him to the Greek.

CineKink Announces Award Winners at Tenth Annual Kinky Film Festival

NEW YORK, NY; March 6, 2013 - Rounding out multiple days of screenings and parties in its tenth anniversary appearance, organizers for CineKink NYC/2013 announced the recipients of awards in a range of categories during the film festival's closing celebrations held on Sunday, March 3, 2013

"When we set off on our first year of CineKink, little did we think that one day we’d be celebrating a 'decade of decadence,'" noted Lisa Vandever, CineKink co-founder and director, as she presented the awards. "It's because of amazing, quality films that we've reached this important milestone and it's a pleasure to honor just a few of those tonight."

Audience Choice Awards were given to "Remedy" (Cheyenne Picardo) for Best Narrative Feature, with "Betty Page Reveals All" (Mark Mori) winning for Best Documentary Feature. The CineKink Choice awards were determined by audience ballot just following each eligible film's screening during the festival.

In the shorts competition, juried festival awards went to "Pinecone" (Michael Markham) for Best Comedy Short, "Krutch" (Matthew Clark) for Best Dramatic Short, "Impact" (Mollena Williams) for Best Experimental Short, and to "Zucht und Ordnung" (Jan Soldat) and "Ritual" (Jörg Fockele), which tied for Best Documentary Short. Honorable Best Mention awards were presented to "50 Seconds of 50 Shades" (Bo Blaze), "Amber" (Aven Frey, Gala Vanting and Frank Ly) and "Rift" (Keith Hodder).

Determining the shorts awards, CineKink jurors this year included Viviane Tang, ring-leader of the sex blog "Viviane's Sex Carnival," Mike White, editor and publisher of the independent film-focused "Cashiers du Cinemart," and Bill Woods, a film festival programmer and curator of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives.

The fourth annual CineKink "Bring It!" award, determined by audience ballot during a presentation of excerpts showcasing current adult cinema, went to "Joy Club" (Petra Joy).

The CineKink Tribute, recognizing extraordinary depictions of kink and sex-positivity in mainstream film and television, was presented to "Sessions" (Ben Lewin/Fox Searchlight) for its "amiable and often humorous assertion that sexual pleasure is an essential human right." Honorable mentions for the CineKink Tribute went to the film "Hysteria" (Tanya Wexler/Sony Pictures Classics) and to the television show "Our America with Lisa Ling" (OWN), with a special "'Pokemon Polyamory' Farewell Tip of the Hat" presented to the outgoing series "30 Rock" for "introducing such terms as 'normaling' and 'sex idiot' in the American vernacular." Works eligible for consideration this year were those released or aired in the United States from January 1 until December 31, 2012.

Making its tenth anniversary run February 26-March 3, 2013, CineKink NYC featured a specially selected program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality. Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," the event is dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television. With offerings drawn from both Hollywood and beyond, works presented at CineKink NYC ranged from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit - and everything in between. Sponsors of CineKink NYC/2013 included Crystal Delights, KinkyMedical.net, njoy and TakeDown Piracy, along with ainsley-t, DistribPix, Feminist Porn Awards, FetishMovies, Leather Archives & Museum, Les Jeux du Marquis, National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, Pleasure Salon, Reload and The Eulenspiegel Society.

Selections from CineKink NYC will be featured in a traveling version of the festival, slated to appear in various cities throughout the coming year.

"CINEKINK CHOICE" - AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
CineKink Choice awards, which go to feature-length works in competition during the festival, were determined by audience balloting at the close of each eligible work's screening. The 2013 award winners are:

• CineKink Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature:
  "Remedy" (Cheyenne Picardo, 2013, USA, 120 minutes)
  A psychological drama based on writer/director Cheyenne Picardo’s personal experiences, REMEDY follows a woman into the dungeons of New York City and the world of professional domination and submission.
• CineKink Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature:
  "Bettie Page Reveals All" (Mark Mori, 2012, USA, 102 minutes)
  An intimate look at the rise, fall and rise again of one of the world’s most recognized and controversial sex symbols.

"CINEKINK BEST" - JURY AWARD FOR BEST SHORTS
CineKink Best awards, which go to short works in competition during the festival, were determined by jury deliberation and ranking. The 2013 award winners are:

• CineKink Best Comedy Short:
  "Pinecone" (Michael Markham, 2012, USA, 18 minutes)
  At the end of a first date, a young man and woman are desperate to surprise the other.
• CineKink Best Dramatic Short:
  "Krutch" (Matthew Clark, 2012, USA, 5 minutes)
  The perspective of one young woman lies bare any preconceptions of sexability.
• CineKink Best Documentary Short:
  "Zucht und Ordnung" (Jan Soldat, 2012, Germany, 9 minutes)
  Two naked, elderly men talk about their relationship, their predilections and the good old days.
  
  -tie-
  "Ritual" (Jörg Fockele, 2011, USA, 5 minutes)
  One man journeys to cope with his HIV infection through a hooking ritual.
• CineKink Best Experimental Short:
  "Impact" (Mollena Williams, 2012, USA, 7 minutes)
  The viewer becomes voyeur as this short explores the emotional impact of witnessing a series of consensual and kinky interactions.
• CineKink Honorable Best Mentions:
  "50 Seconds of 50 Shades" (Bo Blaze, 2012, USA, 2 minutes)
  An extremely abridged rendering of the literary classic.
• "Amber" (Aven Frey, Gala Vanting and Frank Ly, 2012, Australia, 15 minutes)
  A film about the push-pull of erotic edgeplay and the curious brutality of love.
• "Rift" (Keith Hodder, 2012, USA, 5 minutes)
  A family man has his devotion challenged by the unexpected arrival of his secret lover.

"BRING IT!" - Adult Industry Showcase Award
The CineKink "Bring It!" award is determined by audience ballot during a presentation of excerpts showcasing adult cinema.

• "Joy Club" (Petra Joy, 2012, United Kingdom, 16 minutes)
  A pool table sex scene? In a female take on the classic porn scenario, our heroines turn the tables on the cocky macho men and give as good as they get.

"CINEKINK TRIBUTE" - Festival Award for Extraordinary Depiction of Kink and Sex-Positivity in Mainstream Film/Television
Works eligible for consideration this year were those released or aired in the United States from January 1 through December 31, 2012.

• "Sessions"
  (Fox Searchlight; dir. Ben Lewin)
• Honorable Mentions:
  "Our America with Lisa Ling" (Oprah Winfrey Network)
  "Hysteria" (Sony Pictures Classics; dir. Tanya Wexler)
• Special "'Pokemon Polyamory' Farewell Tip of the Hat"
  "30 Rock" (Broadway Video; NBC)

For more information, visit http://cinekink.com

By the Numbers

These podcast episodes need some love. Please take a listen:

• Love and Death
• QWERTY
• The Haunting of Julia
• Mimesis
• Static
• Pastoral: To Die in Country
• Chicken Park
• Detroit 9000
• Score
• Shoot the Piano Player

CineKink Announces Kinky Line-Up for Tenth Annual Film Festival

NEW YORK, NY; February 12, 2013 - CineKink NYC returns for its tenth anniversary appearance on Tuesday, February 26th, bringing with it a specially-curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality. In addition to screenings, plans for the festival also include a short film competition, presentations, audience choice awards, a fund-raising kick-off gala and a concluding afterglow party.

Billing itself as "the kinky film festival," the event will run February 26-March 3, 2013. Presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex-positive and kink-friendly depictions in film and television, works presented at CineKink NYC will range from documentary to drama, comedy to experimental, mildly spicy to quite explicit - and everything in between.

The kink-filled festivities begin Tuesday, February 26th, at 8 PM, with a fundraising kick-off extravaganza to be held at Taj (48 W. 21st Street, NYC), a pansexual celebration that, in addition to music and sexy performances, offers several cinematic gems up on the screen.

The festival then moves to Anthology Film Archives (32 Second Avenue, NYC), Wednesday, February 27 through Saturday, March 2, with several different film and video programs scheduled for each day.

An awards celebration and an AfterGlow play party complete the festivities on Sunday, March 3.

WEDNESDAY
Among the headliners, first up on Wednesday, February 27 at 7:00 PM, the festival's CineKink Season Opener screening of REMEDY, based on writer/director Cheyenne Picardo’s personal experiences, follows a young woman into the dungeons of New York City and the world of professional domination and submission. Then, at 9:30 PM, MOTHER IS COMING is a raunchy, romantic sex comedy set in the edgy and gender-bending underground of Berlin.

THURSDAY
On Thursday, February 28 at 6:30 PM, a special sneak preview of BETTIE PAGE REVEALS ALL provides an intimate look at the rise, fall, and rise again of one of the world’s most recognized and controversial sex symbols. Then, at 9:30 PM, a collection of short works, STRANGE LIVE ACTS, explores the relationship between pain and pleasure, performance and transcendence.

FRIDAY
On Friday, March 1 at 6:30 PM, SEXING THE TRANSMAN explores the sexuality of transmen and the changes they experience as a result of their gender transitions from female to male. At 8:30 PM, in HOOKING UP, a hot mix of hot shorts looks at the magic of getting together and (maybe) getting it on. And at 10:30 PM, DAREDOLLS AND RUBBERSLUTS is a shiny collection of shiny works, all sharing a certain textile fixation.

SATURDAY
Kicking off Saturday, March 2 at 1:00 PM, feminist pornographer Tristan Taormino takes the stage in THE FEMINIST PORN SHOW, introducing the concept of feminist porn and playing a selection of short clips she has curated from filmmakers around the world.

At 2:30 PM the discussion continues, as THE FEMINIST PORN PANEL explores what feminist porn is, how it relates to the mainstream adult industry, and some personal experiences creating, performing, or studying it.

At 4:30 PM, a special industry showcase, BRING IT!, features a dazzling array of talent from today's adult cinema, each representing a wide range of genres and visual styles, all stepping up with a hot sampling of their recent creative endeavors.

At 7:15 PM, RELEASE is a taut and sexy collection of shorts that play with the dynamics found between build-up… and relief.

And at 9:30 PM, in the festival’s Closing Night Tribute, it’s a meticulously restored version of Radley Metzger’s THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN, widely considered to be the greatest adult film of all time and the apex of porno chic

SUNDAY
CineKink NYC concludes the evening of Sunday, March 3 at 6:00 PM, with an Awards Celebration, including presentation of the annual festival awards, to be followed at 9:00 PM by the CineKink Afterglow Party, one last chance to mingle with like-minded festival-goers and enjoy a few additional screenings, this time in a relaxed play party setting. The locations for both events will be announced at a later date.

For more information, visit http://cinekink.com.

Cashiers du Cinemart 18: Call for Articles

2013 should bring us the 18th issue of Cashiers du Cinemart. Want to contribute? We're always looking for strong, concise writing about films -- especially those that have a special place in your heart. What movies are you passionate about that more people should see?

Deadlines for the issue are as follows:

• February 28 - Get me your article ideas
• June 30 - Have rough drafts of your piece to me (word docs sent to my gmail)
• August 15 - Final drafts due

With any luck, the issue will be out by the end of September or middle of October.

Contact me for more details.

Detroit area filmmaker goes MAD with documentary

Pleasant Ridge, January 3, 2013 - When We Went MAD!, a documentary that explores the history and influence of MAD magazine is currently being filmed by Alan Bernstein and Potrzebie Pictures LLC, a Detroit area production company. With 20 key interviews already on film, the team is launching a Kickstarter campaign on January 10, 2013 to raise the funds necessary to complete this historic American project.

When We Went MAD! delves into America's longest running humor publication, MAD magazine. Interviews with MAD magazine's key players, including current and former artists, writers, and editors, When We Went MAD! pays tribute to the institution that has delivered a satiric view of American culture for over sixty years. This retrospective will include fascinating interviews with prominent figures who proudly cite MAD magazine as an influence. Who knew?

The story of MAD magazine is as irreverent as those who created it - from the landmark court case that pitted Irving Berlin against MAD (the case that assured the legality of satire in general) to MAD's maverick publisher, William M. Gaines, who once took his entire staff to Haiti to convince the sole Haitian subscriber to renew. MAD was mad, and we loved it.

Co-producer/director Alan Bernstein, remembers his first foray into Mad-ness. "I was six and found my first issue at a drugstore newsstand. I had no idea what I was looking at: Spy Vs. Spy, Don Martin, the Fold-In. I didn't always get the jokes, but I knew I was looking at the ticket into something special and I wanted in." Bernstein went from casual reader to collector. And from collector to producer.

An experienced filmmaker, Bernstein co-wrote, co-produced, and directed the feature film, One Half Gone. With co-producer Doug Gilford, twenty current and former artists, writers, and editors of MAD have been filmed including:

• Al Jaffee - the inventor of the Fold-In and the feature "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions"
• Dick Debartolo - the TV show Match Game writer whose work is in every issue of MAD since 1966
• Sergio Aragones - his miniature cartoons filled the margins of MAD for fifty years.

To continue production on the project, When We Went MAD! is raising capital with a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstarter on January 10, 2013, to raise funds to cover the cost of travel, equipment rental, and post production. Anyone can contribute to the success of the film with levels. Everyone who pledges will be acknowledged with a certificate of recognition and insider updates regarding the film's release. Larger contributions can include perks such as DVDs of the movie, T-shirts, posters, and the highest level includes an Executive Producer credit on the project.

Imagine being part of a project that preserves the voices of the great MAD magazine. Talk it up at parties. Ask your friends where they were when they first read MAD. The conversation (and the intangible benefit of participation in this project) can go on and on. And you can proudly claim, "What, Me Worry?"

Preview the When We Went MAD! Kickstarter site now: http://tinyurl.com/cxhv92s, but be sure to return starting January 10 to become part of the project.

For more information visit www.peebofilm.com/wwwm or www.facebook.com/WhenWeWentMAD

My Breakfast with Booger: An Interview with Curtis Armstrong

In the crisp autumn of 2012 I had breakfast with Curtis Armstrong. Best known for his roles in Revenge of the Nerds, Better Off Dead, Moonlighting, and Ray, the Michigan native was being honored at the Blue Water Film Festival. Still actively acting, Armstrong spent a lot of the year working on King of the Nerds, a reality show for TBS. Over eggs and coffee we discussed the new show and some of his past work.

Mike White: I imagine that a lot of the work in reality shows is the editing.

Curtis Armstrong: That's all it is. The work as far as cameramen is really astonishing in that the shooting period – in this case they're in this place and they're filming them all day and all night. Those people who were on the cameras, I mean, it's just amazing. They develop an instinct of knowing where to go and when and who to be watching. At the same time from a sociological perspective it's interesting to see how, after three days, these people stop seeing that there's a camera there. It's astonishing to me. I don't think that I had ever investigated that that much but the people we have as our executive producers who do things like Survivor told me, "You will see in three days that they will stop noticing." It becomes much less guarded and they start behaving.

And, on top of that, on something like Survivor which has been on for a long time – people have been addicted to that show for years – and so when they apply to be on [Survivor], they come in with certain preconceptions. But these nerds, being nerds, I don't know if they watch television. So, it's not like they're people who want a career in television (which you get sometimes from those other shows).

MW: Like a Johnny Fairplay or somebody.

CA: Right, you know that somebody's there for that reason. But we have people… one of our women works for the jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, and another of them writes calculus textbooks, and we've got one who's a professional gamer, and a guy who's kind of a hermit; he lives in Maine and he's just incredibly brilliant. You just have a lot of people who are… they're all up here [taps forehead].
So, you don't necessarily get quite the predicted responses.

MW: How long did it take to shoot?

CA: It all took a long time but the actual shooting took a month.

MW: Sometimes it's tough to tell with reality shows just how long the time periods are in real life between episodes.

CA: It's hard to really judge that except for the challenges which take place outside. Everything else takes place inside the house so you lose that sense of time. I mean, they tell you what the week is but you wouldn't have a sense of the time passing.
The shooting took a month but all the preparation for that; art direction of the nerd house which was very important to make up this place that was just a nerd heaven. We call it "Nerdvana" and it's just filled with the games and the pop culture and all this stuff – a lot of which I don't really understand. Getting all that stuff set up was just a huge amount of work. Then we shot for a month and now we're only up to episode four in editing. Episode four out of eight. We have the rest of them to go before the show premieres on [Thursday,] January [17, 2013].

MW: How much were you involved with the behind-the-scenes stuff? Did TBS bring you in just as a host?

CA: No, no. [Robert] Carradine and I created this show. We would not have come into this just to be hosts of a reality show. The idea from the beginning with Bobby and me was – we had been talking about it and saying how character actors work from paycheck to paycheck which is fine but when you start putting children in college you start thinking of something a little more substantial. We wanted some investment in something and the only way to do that is to be the creator of the show. We started thinking, "How do you do that?" And this came out of those conversations.

Like all actors we were utterly dismissive of reality television.

MW: For so many years it's been considered the bane of actors.

CA: It is. It absolutely is. And that has not changed. However, when it comes down to actually doing things like getting your children through college you learn to not be quite so harsh about it. You come up with excuses along the way like, "It's not like I'm doing a splatter film or something." You feel crappy about that. You have to make a deal with yourself about it. At least, that would have certainly been the case if we had been offered a hosting job but we decided that this would be something that we would try and they bought it.

As far as being involved, it was really interesting because in this mansion there's a room – the one room they couldn't go to – which was the control room with all the monitors.

MW: I'm picturing that room in The Matrix where The Architect sits.

CA: Yeah. When our job was done as hosts – normally, you're sort of conditioned, you go to your dressing room, you get into your clothes, you sign out, and you go home. Here, I would go to my dressing room and change and go right to the control room. I became obsessed with it. I was really in trouble towards the end. They call it "going down the rabbit hole." I went down the rabbit hole because, I'm telling you, it's just not an experience that I've had before and to see these people was just so compelling. I find them compelling characters. It came down to that; it came down to casting, if you will.

MW: It's funny to hear you say that they are "characters" rather than "people" or even "contestants" because people do fall into these "character" types. They start fulfilling roles. Tell me more about the people you partnered with from Survivor.

CA: It was two companies who came on board. One was Five x Five Media and the other was called Electus which is headed up by Ben Silverman who headed up NBC at one point and he did The Office.

MW: You're at the point now where you've seen all the footage and you know what went on overall. As you're editing these episodes you're already aware of who's going home when and all the things that have gone on up to those points. There are so many times in these shows where an audience thinks, "This guy is being a real shit. If only the host knew about it, he could call them out."

CA: It was a real education for me because I assumed like everyone else that with reality shows there are controllers who are just pulling all the strings.

Nope.

I was amazed. [The people running the show] can ask questions in the interviews to try to get to something but they can't force that and they have no control over the process at all. Once you release [the contestants] within that environment. With the structure of the challenges, they are on their own and it's amazing how dramatic it can be without that structure; without saying "We want to get rid of this one. This one's a problem, we want to get rid of him but we want to keep this one." When people approach it in a linear way – saying what happened from beginning to end – it would make sense in an Agatha Christie And Then There Were None kind of way which ones go first and all that. Well, reality shows don't do that. And yet, it's surprising how close to what you would expect the linear story to be it winds up being naturally.

MW: That's funny. I've always thought that with some reality shows that there's more going on in terms of keeping around characters just for the sake of conflict. I'm thinking of Santino Rice in Project Runway who was a terrific villain, provided great sound bites and great strife.

CA: The thing is, we don't have a system in our show of voting people off. We have challenges and people are eliminated when they lose those. The system is that there's a "Nerd War" and that's followed by a "Nerd Off." The "Nerd War" is between two camps and the "Nerd Off" is where two people are picked to do the second challenge.

MW: What kind of challenges does one give nerds?

CA: I can't go into details about them at this point but they are all over the map. They're all basically kind of nerd-centered. And that "Nerd Off" is what determines who leaves but people aren't voted out by everybody so the drama comes from how they pick the two people who go to the "Nerd Off". And that's something that they can do as a strategic move that everybody is involved with. So, you don't get into any of that deeply nasty stuff that you get one some of the other shows because of that.

MW: Were you a fan of any reality television before you did this?

CA: I had never seen any reality shows! Honestly, I was not that familiar with it. Obviously, I had seen the occasional ones but I don't have time to watch television much. I have a lot of other interests and I don't have that experience of watching a lot of reality TV.

MW: It's nice that you and Robert Carradine have been friends since Revenge of the Nerds.

CA: Yeah, we haven't worked together since then but that's just a matter of circumstance. I've worked with some of the others but Bobby and I have always managed to get together every couple of years and just hang out or have dinner. This idea of King of the Nerds we came up with seven years ago. We pitched it once back then to a company that does reality shows and they passed on it. So we went, "Okay, never mind." At that time they were doing Beauty and the Geek and I think the thought was that the nerd market was glutted.

MW: There was that one and there was one on Comedy Central called Beat the Geeks but that was more of a game show and these guys were more movie and comic book geeks than actual rocket scientists.

CA: We've got all of that. We've got some of both of those. We have comic book collectors. We have actual rocket scientists. We have Batman experts.

MW: In a normal week, how much are you involved in the editing of the show?

CA: I'm not involved in the editing. I come in and watch a screening of the initial cut. Sometimes there will be sound problems that need to be cleared up. You know, just basic sort of techie stuff. But that's just the rough cut. Then it goes to the network and the network has notes and our executives at Five x Five have notes. It's the typical thing when you're editing anything. The thing is for us that we've got so many hours of footage – not only is it twenty four hours a day but it's six cameramen working at once plus room cameras and you have to make decisions about all of that. Then there will be things that will come up and you'll think, "Oh, what a great thing," but then you realize in long term that it's not something great that you can focus on. Mainly because you don't know who's going to go home on an episode and that changes what you're going to focus on. It's confusing to me. I still don't understand how they do it.

MW: When it comes to the exit interviews that are being done with contestants, I can't begin to imagine the psychology that comes into play in getting the answers that are needed for narrative purposes. I imagine there are people on staff whose only job is the exit interviews.

CA: That's just what they do. I mean, Bobby and I had no contact with the nerds. It was all done by the people who know how to do that stuff. And, also, they didn't want relationships developing on the set.

MW: As for your host segments, I know that you've done some writing. Did you pen those yourself?

CA: No. There's not much you can improvise when you're presenting a challenge. You have to make it as clear as possible so that not only do they understand it but that it's clear to the viewer; what they're going to do and what the rules are. That can get complicated. I mean, these aren't potato sack races. You want to err on the side of clarity so everything stays above board.

MW: You spoke a little last night about trying to write for Tarzan [the 1999 animated film from Disney] and then I had seen that you have some credits for The Goofy Movie. What other things have you written or tried to write?

CA: [John Doolittle and I] sold a bunch of screenplays but they were never made. We ended up working with some interesting people. We would do polishes and things; just little things here and there.

Goofy Movie was never something that I loved. That all came about by a fluke. I was doing a movie with a guy and we were both fans of an English author, P.G. Wodehouse, and he had an idea of adapting a Wodehouse story and turning it into a movie. This was like in '84. We were on this movie for months and months before we wound up selling it to a company called Avenue Pictures. Chris Guest came on as the director. So, over a period of time we were doing all this stuff on it. We had gotten all the way up to casting when Avenue lost their foreign money and it all went to hell. But, then, Chris wound up taking us over to Castle Rock to work on a script of his there that he was writing for Rob Reiner and we ended up working on that for months. That went away and Avenue got their money back and they asked us to do some work on The Player, the Altman movie, so we did some rewrites on that.

In the meantime we were writing our own screenplays. When I think about it now I realize that they were kind of old fashioned and we were right on that cusp of where these things were not going to be made anymore. Our sensibility was really stuck in a world where language was really important to us and language was becoming less and less important, particularly in comedies. I was continuing to act during that time but after awhile I realized [writing screenplays] wasn't giving me any pleasure.

MW: Now, had you written before that? I know we were talking about Richard Matheson and you seem like an avid reader.

CA: Oh, no no. I mean, I like writing but I write for my own pleasure. I'll write papers on subjects that interest me for literary societies. I'm a member of the Baker Street Irregulars in New York and I've done papers for them a couple of times on Sherlock Holmes. And I've done a couple of things on Wodehouse. It's a form of geekiness that I do those things.

I mean, I'm the type of person to watch the DVD and then watches all of the extras. Reads books on the making of "such and such" or the writing of "such and such". Those are the things that interest me.

MW: I can relate to that. I read that you got really into Harry Nilsson a few years ago.

CA: That was another one. A few years ago I started doing the liner notes for his reissues. Again, not setting out like this was something I was going to do with my life. It's a long story about how that got started and how that went but, basically, I wound up talking to [RCA] in New York that I was really interested in Nilsson and talking to them on the phone at first they thought I was just a Nilsson nerd. They invited me to come in and I did. Here they recognized me as an actor. So, they thought I was a geek but now they thought of me as a celebrity geek. And, somehow, I think that made it easier for them to trust me with stuff. Because of that they asked me to start picking bonus tracks. I mean, talk about a nerd job; I would fly to New York two times a year and spend two or three days in the studio just saying, "Let's listen to this one." You know, and there were just these boxes of tapes; session tapes that I had ordered ahead of time that they had brought up on a palette! Huge boxes of tapes.

The idea was always that you focus on whatever the album is. Pussy Cats, the John Lennon one, was the first one. And then the Randy Newman one. And then starting to get into his own albums. But I would always, out of curiosity, pick a couple of tapes from some complete other session just because I had to hear whatever was on that box. It was fun and I did it for years. And I paid my way! This is the weird thing: that's how much of a geek I was, I would pay my own way to New York and put myself up in a hotel to write the liner notes and pick the bonus tracks. We wound up putting out seven CDs, I think. That was, again, at the end of that period of CDs – legacy CDs as they refer to them. Those Nilsson CDs sold well into the hundreds.

MW: What did you think about the documentary on Nilsson [Who is Harry Nilsson (and Why is Everybody Talking about Him)?] when that came out?

CA: No comment.

MW: It's always tough when you watch a documentary on a subject that you're so familiar with.

CA: It's a little more personal than that. There are still people contacting me to do projects about Nilsson but it all turned out to be really unpleasant.

MW: Ouch. Hey, what was the name of that show you were talking about last night with the android?

CA: Mann & Machine. I really had fun with that. It was a fun character. Yancy Butler, you know who Yancy Butler is?

MW: Oh, yeah! I'm a big fan of Hard Target. Wow, playing an android must almost be second nature to her.

CA: I think it was her first, well, it was her first significant job. She was a sweetie.

MW: Wasn't she in one with Wesley Snipes? Drop Zone? That was back in the two-word action title days.

CA: I remember she was in Witchblade.

MW: She was pretty good in that. I don't really see her around too much anymore. It seems like a lot of the actresses who were around at that time have kind of gone missing. Tiffani Amber Thiessen…

CA: Unfortunately, that's kind of a Hollywood thing. That's not unique to that generation either. They're hired when they're in their teens or twenties and by the time they're thirty the men who are doing the hiring are hiring new talent in their teens and twenties. There's no reflection on talent or personality, it becomes strictly a matter of age – or perceived age. I think that's one of the real tragedies. I know wonderful actors who are a victim of that. They didn't stop being able to act. They just don't look pre-pubescent enough anymore. When they stop looking like jail bait, people forget about them. I mean, it's a lot of work and for it to suddenly go away because you're too old or perceived to be too old, it's tragic.

MW: Tell me about being in Ray. Normally you play fictional characters, how was it portraying another person?

CA: It was great. Taylor Hackford had a very strong idea. He knew Ahmet [Ertegun] really well and knew Ray [Charles] really well, too. That film was a real labor of love for him, and he wanted it to be just right. I actually came in to read for [Jerry] Wexler. I read for it and it was one of those times where I could tell that [Taylor] wasn't paying attention and I thought, "I'm fucking this one up." I have no idea what I'm doing wrong but, obviously, he's not with me on this.

As soon as it was done he said, "Would you read for another role?" And, he gave me Ahmet. Of course, I knew Ahmet by reputation because I had all those records – all the Atlantic records, Ray's and others – that was all the music I loved. So I cold read for Ahmet and [Taylor] asked me if I'd consider having my head shaved. I said, "Yes," and that was it!

It was wonderful and he gave me a lot of material on Ahmet. Once I got to New Orleans, he arranged a phone call so I could talk to Ahmet and ask him anything I wanted. A half hour phone call. He was supposed to come down, as was Ray, to be on the set. Taylor wanted Ahmet there for the scene where he was talking to Ray about his heroin addiction. You know, "Your slip is hanging." That scene. But, Ahmet, I can't remember if it was his health or what was the reason but he didn't come down. I was greatly relieved to know that he wasn't going to be sitting there watching me play the scene.

I had just the one conversation with him but, interestingly, things came out during it about that scene. Was that an invention or was that the degree to which you actually intervened? He said, "Obviously I was aware of what was going on with his habit but, in fact, that scene happened not with Ray but with Eric Clapton." I thought that was pretty cool. I talked to Taylor about it and he said, "Yeah, I know but it's such a great line." Or Jimmy White, I guess, the screenwriter.

Yeah, it was great. I never get hired for those kinds of things.

MW: Why do you not get hired for those kinds of things?

CA: I'm not considered to be a dramatic actor. And, honestly, if Taylor had known anything about my work – which he didn't – I'm sure that he never would have cast me. All he knew was that I could physically do it and I read well.
But Ray was a great, great experience. One of the top five.

MW: What were the other four?

CA: Trick me, why don't you? No, okay, well, Revenge of the Nerds, The Closer, Route 30 which is my favorite movie, probably, and Moonlighting. I'm just guessing.

MW: Do you find that there are more opportunities in television to be something other than a comedic actor or are you always cast as, "Hey, we know what this guy's done before so we'll keep having him do it"?

CA: I don't think there's a difference.

MW: Okay. The reason why I asked is because of that role you did on The Closer. That was a more dramatic role.

CA: Yeah, and I did on Boston Legal as well. I did a run as an attorney on there as well. I get a lot of attorneys on television.

---

At this point in the conversation we were both pretty wired up from coffee, having it refilled at least six times. A patron of the diner came over to the table with his Blue Water Film Festival program in hand.

Dave: I've seen your movie, Animal? The Animal House?

CA: Revenge of the Nerds.

D: Revenge of the Nerds. The best part of that movie of that movie that I really enjoyed was the way that played that music; the violins and all that other stuff. And, every time we go camping, I have that movie, and I pop that movie in, and I set there and I watch it. I know just about every part in that movie. You know, what's coming up and who gets in trouble, and all that stuff like that.

CA: That's nice. I'm glad you liked it!

D: I'm glad to have met you and I can show my daughter. I can show my daughter that I've met the guy called "Booger."

CA: Okay, well, thank you.

---

That seemed like a great place to stop the interview, pay the bill, and head off into a fine and final day of the festival where Curtis Armstrong was due to be honored that night for being a Michigan native of which we can be proud.

King of the Nerds premieres on Thursday, January 17, 2013.