Jun 26 2009 'Invention of Lying' Trailer: Prepare for ELO to Tell You to Feel Good

Hey, there's a trailer for the high concept, first-man-to-ever-lie comedy, The Invention of Lying. Something of a "We Are the World" of comedies, with appearances by all sort of people you don't expect to see all in one place--including Louis CK, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Jason Bateman, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hodgman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Merchant, Freaks & Geeks's weirdest geek, and more--the film stars Ricky Gervais as the first man to conceive of untruths in a world that's never thought to lie.

I really wanted to like this, but about halfway through, around the time I started wondering why Robin Williams wasn't the star, my worries began. Hopefully this is just a bad, really broad trailer:

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Mar 24 2009 'This Side of the Truth' Update: Release Date! Title Confirmation!

On Ricky Gervais's blog, the comedian has posted a new video with himself and This Side of the Truth co-writer/co-director Matt Robinson. The two clear up a couple things:

1. Contrary to reports otherwise, the title is still This Side of the Truth, not Truthy Truthness.

2. The tentative release date is September 25, 2009.

Apologies for previously reporting the title had been changed to The Invention of Lying, and that the film would be released in 2010. Sometimes I forget the internet is a liar.

In case you want to hear it yourself, having learned your lesson about trusting internet words, here's the video:

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Jan 6 2009 The Closest I'll Come to a Year-End List Thing

I don't really get into the whole end-of-year "top ten best/worst films" thing. It seems like a lot of pointless work to summarize the year into ten good or bad things when I've already spent the entire year telling you how there were probably ten good things and everything else bad things. Also, I'm a fool, so I'd definitely be wrong about most everything, and you don't need my fool opinion stacked on the thousands of others--particularly when there are "Most Insanely Apple-esque Silverhawk Vehicles" lists to get to.

But what I will do is point you to the "top ten best/worst film" list I've most enjoyed reading so far: this one, by Ricky Gervais's writing/directing collaborator on This Side of the Truth, Matt Robinson. Though I don't entirely agree with his rankings (that's what makes lists fun?), his arguments for them almost convince me. I wouldn't normally place Ghost Town as a top-ten movie, but when I'm told "the ending makes me well up with tears like a little girl-gay," I'll maybe reconsider, and start using that phrase.

So read it, and feel free to mention any other reasonable year-end movie lists in the comments.