>> The Dark Knight
>> Hellboy II: The Golden Army
>> WALL-E
>> Get Smart
>> The Incredible Hulk
>> Sex and the City
>> Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
>> Speed Racer
>> Iron Man
>> Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Opening 7.23.08
>> Boy A (Limited) (R) [trailer]

Opening 7.25.08
>> Step Brothers (R) [trailer]
>> The X-Files: I Want To Believe (PG-13) [trailer]
>> American Teen (Limited) (PG-13) [trailer]
>> Brideshead Revisited (Limited) (PG-13) [trailer]

Coming To DVD 7.22.08
>> 21 [buy]
>> Spaced: The Complete Series [buy]
>> Robot Chicken: Star Wars [buy]
>> Las Vegas: Season 5 [buy]
>> Kiss of the Spider Woman [buy]

Friday. June 9, 2006 was the opening night of the eighth annual CineVegas International Film Festival in Las Vegas.

The Palms Casino Resort has given the 2006 CineVegas International Film Festival a plush banquet-size room as headquarters with food, internet access, manicures, pedicures, and massages. There are private areas for doing interviews and ample lounges for just hanging out (but you have to have a special pass to enter CV HQ.)

Opening Night was the over-sold 7:30 PM screening of “Strangers With Candy” directed by Paul Dinello (pictured) and starring Amy Sedaris. “Strangers” is a prequel to the critically acclaimed Comedy Central series featuring Jerri Blank (Sedaris), a 46 year-old ex-junkie, ex-con, ex-hooker, maybe lesbian, who returns to high school in a bid to start her life over and bring her father out of his coma. Jerri is golden.

“Strangers” is this year’s “Napoleon Dynamite,” but much more raunchy. In fact, it is a sensation. I loved it. Jerri is a terrific, sexually inappropriate character. If only Paul (who cast himself as Stephen Colbert’s gay lover) had kept in more of the “Jerri-in-prison stuff that he said they filmed! Oh, what a tease! I hope this footage makes it into the uncut DVD.

Most of the members of the perfect cast – not Sarah Jessica Parker, Stephen Colbert, or Mathew Broderick - were at the screening and the after-party at the Palms Rain nightclub.

Saturday. I saw “Running Stumbled,” director John Maringouin’s harrowing documentary look at his dreadful relationship with his father, a prescription drug addicted ex-painter, who, Maringouin was told, tried to kill him when he was an infant, along with his mother and grandmother.

“Running Stumbled” is a home movie and looks it (the red-colored enhancement and foggy photography gets frustrating); but it is a dramatic, forceful showcase for Maringouin. These people – John’s father Johnny Roe, Jr. (pictured below) and his companion, Virgie Marie Pennoui, and friend Uncle Stanley, are raw. They do not care they are being filmed. Johnny and Virgie have nothing to hide in their garbage-filled, filthy shack. Neighbor Uncle Stanley, who lives with his ailing, bed-ridden (in the “living room”) mother, keeps trying to figure out The Holy Rosary. He’s got The Mysteries all wrong.

This is a “feel-good” movie. It makes you “feel good” about your own family. Thank God Johnny Roe Jr. and Virgie didn’t raise you. Maringouin, who introduced the film and took questions after the screening, called his father at the instigation of the audience.

Even though Maringouin had told his father he had actually made the movie about him, it was being screened in Las Vegas, and he might call him, Johnny Roe, Jr. didn’t seem too impressed enough to be at home. But Uncle Stanley, who has disillusions of being in movies, is going to be very pleased when he finds out he is now a Las Vegas star.

Perhaps Johnny Roe, Jr. was a pimp “back in the day” and even may have killed a friend. He’s vulgar and loveless, but no more than Virgie. Regardless of their cruelty to each other and their slurred speech (the entire movie has subtitles), they are sympathetic characters. Their pain is self-inflicted. Even though we often do not see people like them, there are plenty of them living in a stupor of alcohol and drugs. I don’t know if this was Maringouin’s intention, but they were so real, it was hard not to be fascinated by them – from afar, of course. And, if you don’t have to live near them. If this was Maringouin’s idea of payback, Johnny Roe, Jr., Virgie, and Uncle Stanley come across as sympathetic characters.

Maringouin told us there is a happy ending to the story of Johnny Roe, Jr., Virgie, and Uncle Stanley. But who likes happy endings?

I ended the night with director Ariel Vromen’s “Danika,” a film about a devoted wife and mother (played by Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei, pictured) who begins experiencing terrifying delusions that may be visions of future events, or, she might be going crazy. Directed by Ariel Vromen, who introduced his film, “Danika” also stars Craig Bierko (wasn’t he terrific in “Cinderella Man”?), Regina Hall (at the screening), Kyle Gallner, Nicki Prian, Ridge Canipe, and Bailey Hughes. While I understand the muted colors are supposed to reflect Danika’s frail state of mind, “Danika” was so washed-out it was distracting. However, Vromen shows a strong directorial hand and a sharp sense about depicting real family life. “Danika” is a chilling tale that reminded me of the great classic of insane depravity - “Repulsion.”

The after-party was set to begin at 10P.M. at the Venus Pool at Caesar’s Palace (pictured). However, I got lost (yes, I have lived in Las Vegas for over eleven years) but without my husband driving, I made a few wrong turns while inside Caesars Palace parking city and found myself on Frank Sinatra Drive headed out of town.

A friend called, complaining she was getting hungry and anyhow, there already was a 20 minute wait to get in. I woke up my husband in Utah for help getting myself home (he is used to these calls). Another call came from friends at the party wondering where I was. I was trying to find my way home. Good idea they said since there was no food and drinks cost $10. I hope they were trying to make me feel better since the last CineVegas party I attended at the Venus Pool was sensational. There were celebrities everywhere, free drinks flowing, and a feast worthy of Nero himself.