Wow, this movie sounds intense. Also, Charlize Theron is in it and she's going to be at the opening night gala for the Seattle International Film Festival! Can't believe it's coming up again so soon, better get my membership card...

Quoted: "Battle in Seattle" is the story of a handful of characters who find themselves thrust into the chaos of the infamous anti-globalization protests against the WTO that shook Seattle in the fall of 1999.

I love Tina Fey (and Amy Poehler, for that matter). Looking forward to checking this movie out, and I'm especially curious how the gender politics play out!

Quoted: Former Saturday Night Live "Weekend Update" co-anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler co-star in this baby-fever comedy about a single, career-oriented woman who previously put parenthood on hold, and is forced to hire a surrogate mother when she discovers there is only a one-in-a-million chance that she will be able to get pregnant.

I want to see this movie for the cast alone... Ellen Page, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Hayden Church, Dennis Quaid. Also, on the poster for the movie, the title is spelled out with Scrabble tiles - I think that's rad:)

Quoted: Lawrence Wetherhold, the thoroughly unendearing hero of Smart People (Miramax), is an anti-intellectual's fantasy of what a college prof might be. Played with shaggy gusto by Dennis Quaid, Wetherhold is a widowed Victorian-literature scholar raising a teen daughter and son on his own.

I'm attending a screening of this film about post-9/11 anti-Skih violence on April 19th at the Northwest Film Forum for an article I'm working on. Click on the link about screening events to RSVP for the Seattle one... it's free and the filmmaker and one of the film's subjects will be attending.

Quoted: One of America’s first post 9/11 hate crime murders punctuated a growing wave of violence against Sikhs in retaliation for the terror attacks. Told from the perspective of the victim’s brother, A DREAM IN DOUBT travels to Mesa, Arizona to reveal a story of national tragedy, murder, community and the American dream.

The Wikipedia entry and some of the blogs are a bit misleading. Here's more on the '21' casting controversy. Apparently the issue is that the team was primarily Asian (as well as other ethnicities) and that the film throws in 2 tolken Asians in the background rather than featuring them prominently. Also, the characters' ethnicities supposedly figure into the story very clearly in the book. Now I almost want to read/watch it just to see how I feel about it this!

Quoted: The head of an Asian-American watchdog group yesterday lashed out at the made-in-Boston flick “21” and MIT card shark Jeff Ma, who he claims supported the “whitewashing” of the Sony Pictures flick. “It’s insulting and pathetic,” said Guy Aoki, head of the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans.

Scroll down to the section that's titled "Casting Controversy." This really pisses me off and should've gotten more media attention. I didn't realize that most of the blackjack team from MIT (represented in the movie '21') was actually composed of Asians, although that makes sense. It's not like there's a shortage of strong Asian actors out there right now who could've played the parts. What the hell?

Quoted: Though most of the actual blackjack team was composed of Asian males, a studio executive involved in the casting process said that most of the film’s actors would be white, with perhaps an Asian female.

I'm going to Central Cinema a bunch for the AAINA festival this weekend. I'd never been before - it's such a great space (cafe, viewing room where you can order pizza and beer) and I really like the movies they have coming up (Kissing Jessica Stein, Hitchcock)...

Quoted: Central Cinema - Your neighborhood movie joint!

Oh yay, this movie's finally coming out! I love this director - he really is an international force (looks like Abhishek & Aishwarya were at the premier). Plus, the cast sounds great - I'm curious to see how Norah Jones does in an acting role!

Quoted: Legendary filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai directs Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz, and Norah Jones in his first English-language feature film -- a romantic road movie detailing the cross-country journey of a woman who sets off across the United States in hopes of mending her broken heart.