Shorts, 7/14.

Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival ignited the first spark of buzz yesterday, opening the site, presenting the poster and announcing a number of titles that'll be screening September 9 through 18. Eugene Hernandez scans those titles at indieWIRE.

"Despite mutual admiration and occasional crossovers, independent film and art inhabit parallel universes," laments Dominic Eichler in Frieze. And that's why it's taken Matthias Müller so long to get properly exhibited.

After an all but hopeless attempt to treat soldiers to a free showing of Fahrenheit 9/11, Bill Warhop finally manages to get four to take up his offer. Says one: "Toward the end he was saying don't let our soldiers die there while the richer people don't send their kids to the military. At the end he wants you to think, 'These are our kids.' He started off with us as crazy killers ... What are we? I didn't understand what we are."

Also in Salon, Andrew Exum, who's been deployed himself to Afghanistan and Iraq, leaves the film with similar questions, but concludes, "Moore stumbles into a revelation here, albeit clumsily and unwittingly: Soldiers aren't so easily stereotyped. The reality is, they are complex, just like you and me, with both strengths and weaknesses." Definitely a recommended read.

Two takes on what's up with Bill Cosby these days: In Slate, Debra Dickerson tries to comprehend the "darkness in the Cos' light"; in the Village Voice, Ta-Nehisi Coates argues he's simply out of touch.

Back to Slate: For anyone who's seen Andrew Jarecki's Capturing the Friedmans, can Just a Clown be just a movie, wonders Dana Stevens

John Irving's been talking to the press, promoting The Door in the Floor, based on the first third of his novel, A Widow for One Year. It's quite an endorsement for the film. The best of these pieces so far, via Movie City News, is Simon Haupt's in the Globe and Mail.

Matthew Sweet discovers why Gerry Anderson is furious at the makers of the Thunderbirds movie. Also in the Independent, another story on the two German films in which Hitler is an actual character rather than the usual ominous shadow; but Steve Crawshaw's piece delves far deeper than previous articles.

Online viewing tip. "Bad Fellas," a "glowing tribute to the genius of Martin Scorsese's screenwriting," as Fraser calls it, and not at all safe for work (unless you're wearing headphones).

Posted by dwhudson at July 14, 2004 6:44 AM