Shorts, 7/16.

When Millhouse was released, public frustration over a war gone bad was high. The president seeking re-election, despite having first run as "a unifier, not a divider" (Nixon's words), had turned out to be an intensely polarizing figure. And although the film never attracted the millions that have flocked to Fahrenheit, Time, Newsweek, and the leading newspapers did review Millhouse - mixing praise with observations that its "cheap shots" and "partisan zeal" would appeal mainly to Nixon haters - and the documentary drew big crowds in art houses.

Also in Slate: Chris Suellentrop: "[I]f Asimov is so easy, why do so many people - including Alex Proyas, the director of I, Robot, and the movie's screenwriters, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Vintar - keep getting him so wrong?" The latest attempt also leaves David Edelstein frustrated. Plus, Adam Sternbergh: "It's difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when the ironic cameo became an obligatory go-to joke, but surely Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's role in Airplane! (1980), as a pilot who insists he's not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was a seminal advance in the field. The watershed moment may have been Robert Altman's 1992 satire The Player."

Andreas Kilb in the FAZ Weekly on a low-budget domestic film scoring raves in Germany: "Once upon a time, when television thrillers were still in black and white, it was said that every German was a deputy sheriff. Muxmäuschenstill is the apotheosis of the deputy sheriff: both fantasy and nightmare in the German psyche." Also: Michael Hanfeld remembers Inge Meysel, whose death last weekend was Sunday's top story in countless German papers.

Honestly now, had you heard of Grigori Kozintsev before just now? I'll confess: Not me. But his is a fascinating story and it certainly comes as no surprise that Doug Cummings tells it well.

Via Movie City News:

• "With most movies, even great movies, there's usually The Scene. The one that defines it, encapsulates it, embodies its appeal or contains its signature moment." In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle presents a whopping list of capital-s Scenes.
• Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star: "I hate the rich." And he realizes the most popular movies play to his prejudice, even as their makers rake it in. (There is a flip side to this, of course; even movies that demonize the rich are usually perfectly unaware of the real concerns of those who aren't.)
• M Night Shyamalan was originally gung-ho about cooperating on a doc about him, but then he and its makers had a falling out. Now the doc is entitled The Buried Secret of M Night Shyamalan and will premiere Sunday on the Sci Fi Channel. The AP's David Bauder reports.

Juliette Lewis is on the cover of the Guardian's Friday Review; the piece itself is an edited extract from Chuck Palahniuk's forthcoming collection, Non-fiction.

In the New York Times, the usual Friday reviews, of course, but also Bill Carter, sifting through the list of Emmy nominations, analyzing HBO's "growing supremacy over the broadcast networks."

Filmbrain knows why Kubrick tried to ensure no one would ever see his 1953 feature debut, Fear and Desire.

In the Independent:

• Roger Clarke: "Everyone says the same thing about Karlovy Vary: 'It's like Cannes used to be.'"
• James Rampton handles today's Thunderbirds plug, an appointment with Anthony Edwards.
• And James Mottram asks Sam Raimi what he's going to do with all this power before it dissipates. Raimi: "It's probably a three-year window."

Via Greg Allen, Leander Kahney's report on a delightfully insane editing system built into a Lexus.

We're not usually product pushers, but this game looks fun: Kung Fu Samurai on Giant Robot Island.

Online fiddling around tip. The Virtual Flick Book. (This one only takes a few secs, Cynthia.) Via b3ta.

Posted by dwhudson at July 16, 2004 2:38 PM