Shorts, 11/24.

Nearly 30 years on, what will the remake of The Stepford Wives look like? Maybe more importantly, what ought the 2004 version address? Writing in the Atlantic Monthly, Margaret Talbot offers a few suggestions (focus on the kids, not the women) and, while she's at it, speculates as to why "the term 'Stepford wives,' which has enjoyed such a sturdy life in our culture, is so seldom used in the critique of sexism" and "why the reference has served more effectively as a dis of (overly domesticated) women than of (tyrannical) men."

Over at Alternet, Robert Redford tells Amanda Griscom:

From the moment Bush stepped into office, not only has he been leading a vast and disciplined campaign to cripple environmental protections and enforcement across the board, he's been manufacturing more immediate crises - war, for one - that have kept the American public distracted and completely in the dark. And what makes our Republican leadership, both in the White House and Congress, seem all the more stupendously ignorant is that they're implementing these backward policies at a time when they could be pushing forward a new era of solutions - tremendous technological advancements related to things like energy efficiency, renewables, sustainable building, and agriculture that are so incredibly exciting. It's as though they can't even see the historic opportunity they're passing up.

Doug Cummings listens to Agnes Varda talk about her new 12-minute short and "her acclaimed Jacquot (Jacquot de Nantes) (1991), a dramatization of the early years in the life of filmmaker Jacques Demy (1931-1990), her late husband." Do follow that link, too, to an earlier discussion of Varda that fans out to encompass the work of other filmmakers you might expect to be mentioned in the same breath.

I'd pull a quote from Jonathan Rosenbaum's very favorable review of Joe Dante's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but there aren't any flagging me down. It's simply a smart and sober appreciation and worth a few minutes of your time, that's all.

A little over three weeks to go and umpteen Oscar magnets left yet to open and here comes the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King PR juggernaut already: a Newsweek cover story. And yet, though I wouldn't bet money on it, I strongly suspect that there's not going to be any sense of Matrix-like overkill, at least unless there are too many widespread product tie-ins. Instead of the feeling of being pummelled into the theater for this third and final chapter, there's an air about Return of a triumphant homecoming parade.

So someone at the top of the Disney empire thinks Bad Santa "is just not in the spirit of Walt Disney"? Not so. "What is Drudge and his conservative ilk trying to do with a story like this? And what does the right wing have against Disney, anyway?" A lot, actually, outlines Sean Means in the Salt Lake Tribune. Via Movie City News.

Suzie Mackenzie makes the case in the Guardian that Holly Hunter is "the most erotic actress working on the Hollywood screen today."

And in the Observer, Sean Walsh tells Philip Watson why he's spent ten years making a film based on Ulysses, Joyce's novel "heralded around the world as the greatest novel of the twentieth century, and one of most important books in the English language, but the simple paradox is that we haven't read it, we've got no knowledge of it... My goal was to say this is bullshit and I'm going to change that. I'm going to open up these pages and show them to people, show them the story, show them all the humanity and humour of this masterpiece, and reveal some of its hidden tricks, links and connections."

Also: Amy Raphael meets Kelly Macdonald and Sanjiv Bhattacharya profiles Mickey Rourke.

In kamera.co.uk: Ann Lee talks to Sarah Polley, Antonio Pasolini catches Waiting for Happiness, the latest film from director Abderrahmane Sissako, "hailed as African cinema's next big thing," and three DVD reviews: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, The American Friend and Hulk.

Tom Carson reviews two biographies of Sammy Davis, Jr. for the Washington Post.

In the New York Times:

Caryn James on marketing "grim" movies.

Alejandro González Iñárritu gets around; this time he's talking to Karen Durbin.

Norm Alster on who's taking the Hollywood Stock Exchange seriously and why.

AO Scott has some fun with the Zagat Survey Movie Guide.

Josh Tyrangiel profiles Tim Burton for Time. No frozen turkey moment in this story, though.

Scott Green's weekly "AnimAICN" column.

April Fool's Day comes several times a year over at the Stranger. You might remember, for example, William Steven Humphrey's ode to Nell Carter following her death; now comes another obit, a big multi-story cover package of an obit for Courtney Love. Then, besides Sandeep Kaushik's report on Bumfights 2: Bumlife, there's this: Bradley Steinbacher: "It is a bold move, to be sure, but it is also a brilliant one; shedding the standard cinematic shackles, Solomon immediately announces Paris Hilton Sex Tape as an exercise in artistic embellishment, refusing to be bothered with such normally necessary structures as setting and, as we come to find out, story arc..."

Posted by dwhudson at November 24, 2003 7:25 AM