After a year of hard work, our good friend and host of Slashfilm’s podcast The /Filmcast, David Chen, completed his work on his directorial debut, The Primary Instinct, a storytelling film starring Stephen Tobolowsky (as himself), in a compilation of Stephen’s live performances in Seattle. These stories have even been featured on Public Radio International. The film features Tobolowsky speaking to a sold-out audience and telling riveting and moving stories about life, love, and Hollywood. Along the way, he just may answer one of the questions that’s dogged humanity since the beginning of time: why do we tell stories in the first place?

After launching a successful Kickstarter campaign, and having its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival, FilmBuff will now release The Primary Instinct later this fall. More on this story below.

Memento
Netflix Streaming
DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior, Jorja Fox, Stephen Tobolowsky
Summit Entertainment
Originally Released: September 5, 2000

Christopher Nolan has a magnetic touch for filmmaking. His resultant products as director are always compelling viewing and – perhaps the more important aspect – make for incredible rewatchability. His movie, Memento, written by Nolan and based on a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan, is no exception to this rule, and is conceivably one of the finest mystery and mindfuck movies ever made.

But where and how to start reviewing Memento…? I have lost count of the times I’ve watched this movie, but the convolutions throughout the plot make it exceptionally difficult to review without revealing key plot points, revelations, and, for lack of a better idiom, spoilers.

All I can really say at this point is that if you have not seen this movie before, cease reading right now and go and watch it. I mean it! Stop reading my drool here and get over to Netflix and watch the damn thing.

For those incredulous, read on, but be warned: there may be spoilers in these here waters…

Peep World
DIRECTED BY: Barry Blaustein
WRITTEN BY: Peter Himmelstein
STARRING: Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, Rainn Wilson, Ben Schwartz, Judy Greer, Kate Mara, Alicia Witt, Taraji P. Henson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ron Rifkin, Lewis Black
IFC Films
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2011 (limited)

Ah, family. That’s what it’s all about, right? Spending time with the ones that you love as often as possible; sharing life and memories and laughter with them in the short time we’re on this beautiful big rock.

OK, so that’s what it’s about for a lot of people — it’s not so true for others. Like the Meyerowitz family, for example. Every single year they gather on their father’s birthday to celebrate the man that made them who they are today. Unfortunately, on this particular birthday gathering, one of them has the others not so happy and emotions are running high and hot.

Peep World is a movie about one person’s success at the expense of their own family. Nathan Meyerowitz (Ben Schwartz), an author whose book has gone on to massive popularity, skyrocketing him to the top of the world, is living the good life. The only problem is that his book is a tell-all, and it does not shine a positive light on his mother, father, two brothers, and sister.

It’s Groundhog Day here in the United States, where supposedly if a groundhog sees its shadow on this day, it means six more weeks of Winter; no shadow means an early Spring. While tons of people today are buzzing about the predicted early Spring — courtesy of the most famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, who did not see his shadow — I love how there are loads of people wishing actor Stephen Tobolowsky a Happy Groundhog Day via his Twitter page.

Tobolowsky starred as Ned Ryerson in the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, which had Bill Murray as meteorologist Phil Connors, who begrudgingly goes to Punxsutawney, PA, to cover the Groundhog Day festivities, as he does every year. When a blizzard hits the town, Phil gets stuck there overnight and wakes up the next morning to discover that it’s February 2 all over again. This then happens every day, with Phil reliving the events of February 2. Thanks to the film, “Groundhog Day” has become associated with replaying the same events over and over again.

Buried
Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo
DIRECTED BY: Rodrigo Cortés
WRITTEN BY: Chris Sparling
STARRING: Ryan Reynolds, Samantha Mathis, José Luis García Pérez, Robert Paterson, Stephen Tobolowsky
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: January 18, 2011

What would you do if you awoke to total blackness, barely able to move or breathe, and completely unaware of your location? What would you do if you soon realized that you’re not only unaware of your location, but that you’re actually in a wooden coffin, buried within the earth, set to ponder your horrific fate until the moment the last bit of life drifts away from your tormented body?

If you’re anything like me, you’d likely slip into an uncontrollable panic wishing only that death would come as quickly as humanly possible. But for Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), who finds himself in this very position in director Rodrigo Cortés‘s new thriller, Buried, giving up is not an option…at first.

Paul is an American truck driver, who was working a contract job in Iraq delivering supplies to community centers and the like. But as he recalls soon after regaining consciousness, the convoy of trucks he was traveling with was attacked, first by children throwing rocks and then by much more deadly men with guns, who shoot most of the other drivers.