Weekend shorts.

Also in the San Francisco Chronicle: Ruthe Stein talks to Ivy Meeropol about Heir to an Execution, the doc she's made about her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

At the Movie Blog, Bubba has good long chat with Colin Geddes, who programs the Midnight Madness series at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Coincidentally, the New York Times has also given the title "The Resurrection of Donnie Darko" to its piece on the director's cut, which sees limited release this coming Friday. And Robert Levine also talks to that director, Richard Kelly, but we've given Sean Axmaker a little more space, a little more time.

Also in the NYT:

• An editorial chastises Hollywood for taking the easy way out in movies like I, Robot: technophobia.
• Ilias Yocaris on Harry Potter: "The underlying message to young fans is this: You can imagine as many fictional worlds, parallel universes or educational systems as you want, they will still all be regulated by the laws of the market."
• "Six months after the Super Bowl, writers, producers and network executives are in a state of confusion about what they are allowed to say and show on television." And the cost of crossing the line that hasn't yet been defined could rise to $3 million a day, reports Scott Robson. Related: Kate Aurthur on TV's "most persistent taboo," abortion.
• Caryn James is betting that Colin Farrell, already large, is about to become huge.
• Frank Rich: "No sooner do we rejoice at the demise of much of the 70's cultural detritus lampooned in Anchorman, from polyester leisure suits to unembarrassed on-camera sexism, than we start wondering if TV news may be even more farcical now than it was then."
• Sylviane Gold, briefly, on Free Radicals.

Ray Pride's review at Movie City News of Outfoxed mentions David Brock's site, Media Matters for America, and heavens, if you're following coverage of Robert Greenwald's doc, there's quite a collection.

Then, via MCN, Claudia Eller and Richard Verrier's update in the Los Angeles Times on the Miramax-Disney rumble.

Does buying a pirated DVD help fund terrorism? Not exactly, reports Duncan Campbell. Also in the Guardian: John Patterson on Richard Linklater and bloated running times as a metaphor for contemporary America; and Andrew Pulver's adapation of the week: Jean Renoir's Une partie de campagne.

In the Observer:

• John Harris tries to find out why Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci hasn't been released yet.
• Sheila Whitaker was a member of the jury led by Elia Suleiman at this year's Ramallah International Film Festival.
• Liz Hoggard profiles Emilia Fox.
• Anne Thompson speculates that Jeff Bridges's performance in The Door in the Floor might score him an Oscar.
• Stephanie Merritt reviews the novel Anthony Minghella will be adapting, Liz Jensen's The Ninth Life of Louis Drax,

Michael Chabon picks his ten best comic book adaptations. Also in the Independent, profiles: Ian Burrell on Kiera Knightley, Nick Duerden on Juliette Lewis and Vanessa Grigoriadis on Ethan Hawke.

Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay points to a report from the AP: That whole Buried Secret thing with M Night Shyamalan was a hoax. And Steve Gallagher notes that Project Greenlight has selected a winning director: John Gulager. Fortunately, though, fellow contender Scott Smith will carry on blogging.

Posted by dwhudson at July 18, 2004 6:01 AM