Shorts, 3/25.

"So I have this theory, pretty much untested, that all arty, indie-type films made in the last 15 years or so in America and Western Europe fall into one of two categories: Jim Jarmusch or David Lynch." Launching a new column in Salon, "Beyond the Multiplex," Andrew O'Hehir expands on his whimsical theory, then recommends Nói with some hesitation, The Return with less hesitation, Osama with gusto, and then, just for the hell of it, evidently, Dawn of the Dead. Also: Rebecca Traister asks Rory Kennedy about her HBO doc, A Boy's Life

Speaking of Jarmusch, though: Coffee and Cigarettes, where you'll find the trailer and days and days' worth of desktop wallpaper. That's via Movie City News, and so are these:

• Studios are trying to get serious about digital cinemas.
• Disney's new "environmentally friendly pure-dye cyan soundtracks."
• "Transvestites rescue Thai movies."

Gary Dretzka, writing for MCN sums up the speech in which Jack Valenti, at 82, has announced he'll finally be stepping down as head of the MPAA, and Leonard Klady takes a close look at the state-of-the-industry numbers Valenti rattled off and finds an "increased emphasis on ancillary revenues at the expense of theatrical exhibition."

"Lars Attacks!" reads the cover of the LA Weekly. Brendan Bernhard captures the atmo in Trollhättan, Sweden, where Von Trier is shooting Manderlay and then, tough as it must be at this point, comes up with fresh questions, sparking fresh replies: "Lauren Bacall said to me, 'You are one of the prominent anti-Americans!' Then she said something very good, which I would like you to quote if you can: 'But if you get all the anti-Americans in America to see the film, you'll be home free!'"

As for the review of Dogville, Scott Foundas does the honors. Also: John Powers on Millennium Mambo, James' Journey to Jerusalem and The Ladykillers; and Dave Shulman takes in a morning of sad surrealism: auditions for Gin and Tonic, "the story of Graham Chapman's rise from the depths of Cambridge medical school through the plateau of Monty Python's Flying Circus to the heights of death at age 48 from cancer."

Anthony Kaufman in indieWIRE: "Whether it's the United States' recent sober awakening to other cultures or simply the ever-shrinking world in which we live, a number of novice American independent filmmakers are looking abroad for inspiration."

The Austin Chronicle wraps up the SXSW Film Fest with 14 mini-reviews they didn't get around to last week; start here and click through the bunch (and there's more at PopMatters, by the way). Also: Samantha Paxton on a March 28 benefit screening of two docs on Bosnia and Rwanda at the Alamo Drafthouse; Anne S Lewis plugs a screenwriting seminar; the schedule for the Austin Jewish Film Festival (March 27 - April 3); and Marc Savlov wonders who went straight to McDonald's after a screening of Super Size Me.

Today - and, it seems, every Thursday from now on - Cinema Minima goes anything but minimal on festival news.

Via the cinetrix: The CineWomen Screening Series launches April 2 in Los Angeles. Also: Canuxploitation.

New Films / New Directors roundup: Out of Focus, the Cinecultist and Elvis Mitchell in the New York Times on Everyday People and Strong Shoulders.

"Like many people, I have often dreamed that the [Coen] brothers would one day be embraced by a massive audience," writes Bradley Steinbacher in the Stranger, "but that dream was pegged upon their not deviating from their talent." Those sentiments are echoed in his brief review of Kevin Smith's new movie as well. Also: Charles Mudede on a startling issue of Soy Source.

Via Metaphilm, a reminder that there is such a site as Being Charlie Kaufman.

Via Brian Flemming: 4th Wall Films.

"Why is it that we, as an audience, are much more willing to accept the unmotivated actions of society's upper-crust than we are those of its lower-depths?" asks Matt Clayfield, segueing into the observation that, "The greatest lessons I've learnt this semester have been taught by the masters of post-war European cinema – particularly Godard and Fellini, but also Antonioni, Buñuel, Truffaut, Bergman, De Sica and Tarkovsky."

New essay at A Girl and a Gun: "Three by Carol Reed."

Droogies, final round, at Milk Plus.

Scott Green's "AnimAICN" column is huge this week.

Books roundup:

• Darren Hughes on The Hidden God: Film and Faith.
• Back in print: Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius.
• In the NYT, Janet Maslin reviews David Freeman's It's All True: A Novel of Hollywood...
• And Lola Ogunnaike on Donald Goines, "one of the most popular black pulp-fiction writers of the 1970's," and author of Never Die Alone, the novel on which Ernest Dickerson's new film is based.

Also in the NYT: Sharon Waxman on Disney's Alamo troubles.

Sarfraz Manzoor in the Independent: "Everything I thought I knew about young America came from Hollywood films. In particular, it came from the work of one man and one film; John Hughes, director of arguably the greatest teen movie of its era, The Breakfast Club." The case is made and then followed by a melancholic where-are-they-now couple of paragraphs.

In the Guardian:

• Roman Polanski's next one will be Oliver Twist. "I was playing with my children and I realized that I would like to do a film for kids."
• Nick Broomfield on Monster: "At times I actually thought I was watching Wuornos."
• Dan Glaister: "The producers of The Life of Brian, Monty Python's celebrated 1979 film, are to rerelease it as a response to Gibson's movie."

For the Globe and Mail, Jason Anderson quotes Rue Morgue editor Rod Gudino: "[H]orror fans are incredibly indiscriminate in terms of their tastes. In other words, yes, they will do a lot of grumbling and go on and on about all the little things that Zack Snyder got wrong in his remake. But they will watch it... and watch it over and over. And they will always watch it."

Posted by dwhudson at March 25, 2004 10:34 AM