Maybe all art is derivative. But sometimes, rarely, after what genius hath wrought filters down through a few generations of American culture, the inevitable spawn, so often a diluted bastard of its inspiration, actually beats the original at its own game. HBO's Grey Gardens, the anticipated bio pic of Edith "Big Edie" Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale, accomplishes just that rare feat. The source material in this case is the groundbreaking 1975 documentary of the same name by Albert and David Maysles, filmed during a particularly hot summer at Grey Gardens, the Beales' derelict family estate in East Hampton, New York. The release of the grainy film, which examines the once haute, now absent-mindedly squalid lives of an eccentric, but still bitingly observant mother and daughter, announced a brash new approach to what was then called cinéma vérité, and brought a cult following to the Edies, who were no less fascinating in 1975 for being the forgotten Bouvier relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy. After all these years, and all of the flies on the wall it inspired, we continue to rubberneck at the Maysleses' documentary …

After four days of sitting on the Senate intent calendar, House Bill 873, the film incentive reform bill, has passed through the Senate on a 27-1 vote. Chatting briefly with bill author Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, and she put it simply. "It finally passed," she said with a grin. She confirmed what Senate sponsor Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, said yesterday: That due to an administrative error, it had been put at the top of the Senate intent calendar, and a House bill at the top of the agenda is a blocking bill, so that had to be fixed. The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program was actually founded in 2005, but went unfunded until 2007, when the lege dropped $22 million into the kitty. But after criticism that applications were too complex for too little pay-out to be competitive, Dukes came back to clean up those problems. The new rules ups the biennial pay-out to $62 million, improves the pay-out, and does more to attract TV, adverts and video game production. The bill now heads to the governor for signing.

For a bill that everyone likes, House Bill 873, the film incentive reform package, seems to be taking a long time to get passed. It was supposed to come up for a vote in the Senate today, but that's been shoved back a day. Grabbing a quick word with Senate sponsor Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, and he explained that there's no real opposition. The problem is purely administrative: It had been put at the top of today's intent calendar this morning, but a House bill can't be top of the calendar. So that means it had to be pulled, and will be back tomorrow – in the correct part of the running order. On the positive side, Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, has now signed on as a co-sponsor. West had been unhappy with the earliest House draft of the bill because it excluded metropolitan Dallas from the definition of "underutilized and economically distressed area." With that section struck out, he's fully on-board. Bonus for Travis County: That also mean metropolitan Austin is included again.

Our love for X-Men was unceremoniously squashed by Brett Ratner's crap trilogy capper X-Men: The Last Stand, but as far as we can tell, the Ratman doesn't have anything to do with the new stand-alone feature X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It doesn't open in theatres until May 1, but Austin has a shot at hosting the premiere locally. Cities all over the country are vying for the rights (or so the 20th Century Fox press release tells us). Austin was right in the thick of the battle for a while there, but we've since dropped to #5. Would it help if we mentioned Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins from Friday Night Lights) is in the film? How about if we said that around noon on Wednesday, them's in the downtown and campus areas are urged to look to the sky, where there will be a message from Hugh Jackman? (We suspect it'll be along the lines of, "Get your shit together and vote, Austin. God knows I don't want to have to premiere this thing in Hastings, Nebraska" – maybe slightly abbreviated to fit on a banner trailing a plane, though). You can vote at a special mobile voting station at 7-Eleven (1814 Guadalupe) on Thursday. Or vote online here. Polls close this Friday.

Tickets are still available for tomorrow night’s world premiere of One Peace at a Time, Turk Pipkin’s followup to his doc Nobelity, which tracked down nine Nobel laureates to discuss the world’s biggest problems. One Peace at a Time is more answer-oriented, however; according to the film’s website, “While Nobelity deals with global problems, One Peace at a Time will focus on specific solutions. The goal is to create a virtual roadmap to a better future.” You can view the opening sequence (featuring the thematically apropriate Dylan song “Everything is Broken”) as well as a Willie Nelson P.S.A. for the picture up on The Nobelity blog. The screening takes place at the Paramount Theatre on Tuesday, April 14 at 8pm. Doors open at 7pm for live music by John Pointer and food from El Chilito, Mama Fu’s, and Amy’s Ice Cream. An afterparty follows at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. For more info, go here.

Fancy a good cry? Then watch this clip from Britain's Got Talent, in which a 48-year-old, never-been-kissed Scots lady named Susan Boyle sings Eponine's tearjerker "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misèrables and brings the house down. NSFW, if you're at all inclined toward weepiness. Happy Monday.

After we learned of the disturbing murder of beloved Austin character actor Lou Perryman last week, we solicited a few remembrances from several people who knew Lou best. First to respond was Watchmaker Films' founder and all-around filmmaker Mark Rance. Here's what he had to say about the late, great Lou: "Lou Perryman was one of the most generous men I have even known. He was generous to his friends and former-friends and not so good friends alike. I met Lou through Eagle Pennell back in 1980 working on Doug Holloway’s Fast Money. I had had just seen him in Eagle’s The Whole Shootin' Match, which was at the Berlin Film Festival that year. Lou and I stayed in touch off and on through the years, but really got back in touch when Eagle Pennell died in 2002.

Did last night really happen or was it just some mass geek hallucination? Were you there? Did you have a Spockgasm, too? Is the Alamo Drafthouse the coolest place in the universe, or what? (Seriously. It's official. The Alamo Drafthouse is the Coolest Place In the Universe.) When the Alamo announced recently that they'd be presenting a free screening of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, followed by a ten-minute clip from the opening of J.J. Abrams forthcoming Star Trek franchise re-boot, Trekkers and laypeople alike rejoiced. And why not? Apart from being a supercool sci-fi classic featuring space battles galore, Ricardo Montalban's rich, Corinthian pecs, and a story line ripped straight from the pages of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, it's also flat-out one of the greatest vengeance movies ever made. Quentin Tarantino, no stranger to the vendetta genre himself, proclaimed it so at his last Alamo appearance at the original Alamo Drafthouse on Fourth and Colorado. And we agree: Khan is a textbook example of badass cinema. So it was to an SRO packed house that Alamo founder Tim League introduced the film and the surprise arrival of the Abrams-Trek's screenwriters, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who duly noted that they were supposed to be at their own premiere down in Sydney, Australia, but had declined in favor of watching Khan-plus with the rabidly appreciative Alamo crowd.

The Alamo Ritz will screen selections tomorrow from the second annual G.I. Joe Fest, a stop-motion animation festival staring G.I Joes and other similarly sized action figures. In last year’s touring selections, Snake Eyes broke his life of silence and regaled partygoers at an impromptu dance party, while in another short a hodge-podge of super heroes and Joes found new uses for their coveted kung fu grip. The films screening tomorrow are special selections and award-winning submissions from the 2008 animation festival, originally founded by Gio Toninelo of the online series Pond Patrol. The screening will also include a collection of international shorts and a special preview of Austin-based animators Paul Hanley and Kieran Healy’s upcoming feature-length animated film. Gio Toninelo started the animation festival as a way to commemorate the conclusion of his online drama, Pond Patrol — a series of blogs, letters, and photographs cataloging the adventures of Corporal John U. Harris and his reconnaissance team, Pond Patrol Third Force Recon, as they surveyed the dangerously mutated Mulberry Ridge Pond (also known as the small turtle pond in Toninelo’s backyard.) Festival organizers are now accepting submissions in three categories (Stop-motion 3¾” Action Figures, Stop-motion 8” Action Figures, and Stop-motion 12” Action Figures) for the 3rd annual festival, the winners of which will tour in 2010. Deadline is July 20, 2009. For those making it out to Wednesday-night screening: costumes are encouraged. And I wouldn’t worry about anyone judging you for owning an adult-sized Cobra Commander costume. You’ll be among friends.