Rent This, Beeyatch Dept.: Last Thursday's edition of the
Austin American-Statesman's
XL ent spotlighted local video stores but managed to give decidedly short shrift to a pair of "Short Cuts" favorites, by gum. First to be slighted was
Encore Movies and Music (8820 Burnet Rd.), which features the largest DVD rental/sale section in the Austin area and, thanks to a knowledgeable band of behind-the-counter cineastes, also sports a broad spectrum of foreign, psychotronic, and just plain badass films. Sure, they're up north, but as the city continues to radiate outward, they're fast becoming the best and most versatile video store in that elongated neck of the woods. And then there's Hyde Park's beloved
Movie Store (4301-A Guadalupe), a venerable, eclectic little neighborhood hub that's celebrating its 21st birthday this year. Under the guidance of owner
Murray Messelt since 1986, the Movie Store might be small if you can call 10,000 titles "small" but its staff knows film almost as well as we do, and they're never out of
Lenny Henry's brilliant
Chef! when we most need it, which is a lot of the time these days for some unaccountable reason. Expansion plans are in the works, but really, this place is such a Hyde Park fixture they could switch to renting only Amiga-era computer games and people would still wander in and hang out with
Neil the Wonder Guy while he stocks movies and sagely pontificates on the nature of the band Baboon vs. the killer baboons in
Raju Patel's 1986 blue-baboon-butts-amok potboiler
In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro. You tell 'em, Neil... The 2004 Texas Film Hall of Awards (Friday, March 12, at Austin Studios) is looking for volunteers to help manage the flood of Lone Star celebrities expected to clog the runways (
Forest Whitaker,
Robert Duvall,
Dennis Quaid, etc.). Potential volunteers must be able to attend the March 9, 7-10pm, training and bag-stuffing seminar. Interested parties can e-mail
christian@austinfilm.org for more info or give them a call at 322-0145... Ever feel like you've got too many choices? Us too. And now that it's Oscar party time, the possibilities are overwhelming. The
Alamo Drafthouse's Oscar Party will unspool at no less than three Alamo locations this Sun., Feb. 19, beginning 6pm. Their Downtown, Village, and Lake Creek theaters will all join in the revelry, with the Downtown 'do hosted by Owen Eggerton of Mr. Sinus Theater, and all three sporting insanely cool prizes, goofy past Oscar clips, and lotsa bubbly. Admission is $9.50. Check out for all other info. Then there's the
Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival's annual shindig, with doors at 6:30pm, Oscars at 7:30pm, at the Dell Jewish Community Campus in the JCAA Community Hall, 7300 Hart Lane. Expect a silent auction with over 75 filmic (filmy?) items and puddles of fabulousness all over the place. $30 general admission/$28 aGLIFF members. See for more info or call 302-9889. Finally, the glitzy
Austin Film Festival's Oscar Partyis "Austin's only Oscar Night party officially sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences," 6:30pm until the Best Picture Award, at Ranch 616, 616 Nueces St., with expected celebrity guests Billy Bob Thornton, Peter Berg, Derek Luke, and Turk Pipkin from the set of
Friday Night Lights. As if that weren't enough, expect a silent auction, mad cuisine from Ranch 616, and, you know,
more. Individual tickets are $100/person, four-top tables are $400. Act now they're going fast: call 478-4795 to reserve spots.