Shorts, 8/19.

"A deeper look into the films of Takashi Miike reveals a plethora of unique themes hitching a ride in the vehicle of genre cinema." Matt Schley provides that deeper look and provides it well in his take on the Dead or Alive trilogy at his site, moskun.ninjarobot.

Meanwhile, the blogger behind Frank Booth maps Gozu: "The first third of the film could actually be considered Buñuelian, with its whimsical commentary of yakuza hierarchy.... The second act is closest to being considered Lynchian.... The last third can only be described as pure Miike."

She Hate Me has been slammed by critics and some lesbians, but Rebecca Walker, who's been highly critical of Spike Lee's movies in the past - to his face, mind you - finds the film "fascinating and entertaining." What's more, she writes in her excellent intro to her interview with Lee in Salon, "Lee has pushed some of the hottest buttons in the culture and asked some critical questions about what it means to be a man in America today. What happens to the men who can't stomach corporate America because their own integrity won't allow it? ... And perhaps most pressing, on what basis can men cultivate intimacy when the external configurations, like traditional marriage and implicit heterosexuality, seem to be in a state of open-ended flux?"

When news first broke that John Cameron Mitchell was planning to make a film about sex in which the sex depicted would be real, not simulated, it was, well, a bit newsier. Since then, besides the flurry stirred up by The Brown Bunny, Michael Winterbottom, keeping his regular rapid fire pace, dreamed up and shot Nine Songs. But Mitchell has been quietly rehearsing with his cast, as Dinitia Smith reports in the New York Times, and is now ready to round up financing for Shortbus: "He needs only $2 million." But finding it hasn't been easy.

Noy Thrupkaew in the American Prospect on If You Were Me: "Composed of six shorts by leading Korean directors, the movie chooses... to dwell on a supposition that is powerful and perhaps outrageous, especially in these postmodern days: that through film, viewers can see into lives that have been rattled by societal discrimination, lives that may be light years from their own experiences."

Yasmin premieres at the Edinburgh International Film Festival today. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) tells the Guardian's Audrey Gillan he suspects its controversial nature has kept it from being picked up by a distributor as yet. Director Kenneth Glenaan: "I wanted to make a film about the British Muslim community to dispel the myths and rampant Islamophobia that have grown out of the September 11 tragedy."

Also: Kevin Spacey is taking his Bobby Darin show on the road; and Mary O'Hara asks if disabled characters ought to be played by disabled actors.

John Berger, author of Ways of Seeing:

It's a movie that speaks of obstinate faraway desires in a period of disillusion. A movie that tells jokes whilst the band plays the Apocalypse. A movie in which millions of Americans recognise themselves and the precise ways in which they are being cheated. A movie about surprises, mostly bad but some good, being discussed together. Fahrenheit 9/11 reminds the spectator that when courage is shared one can fight against the odds.... It’s a film that deeply wants America to survive.

Also at openDemocracy: Todd Gitlin on Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate: "It turns out to be less nostalgic and more prophetic than anyone could have anticipated.... Today, the commander-in-chief of the present failed war - himself an artful dodger of military service in an earlier cause that he supported, if from a safe distance - finds it convenient to let his supporters carry out their own private war against Kerry, arguing something of a Manchurian thesis against the actual war hero."

Slate's William Saletan and Jacob Weisberg discuss the political ad wars. Saletan: "The negative phase of the general election started early this year, so the traditional late-summer moral descent is taking us one step deeper, to the personally nasty." Weisberg: "Let's get some things straight here. There is a right-wing slime machine. It has kicked into gear with this phony attack on Kerry's military record. Bush benefits from the ad and condones it. And if Kerry doesn't hit back harder, it could cost him the election."

You might remember bits of Australian filmmaker George Gittoes's Soundtrack to War popping up in Fahrenheit 9/11. For the Daily Telegraph, Jonathan Moran asks him why he's sold it to VH1 and gets a fairly reasonable answer: "A minimum estimated audience of 85 million people will see it." Via Movie City News. More on the film itself from Matthew Gilbert in the Boston Globe.

Zach Braff: "Some of you have been asking me about some of my DVD recommendations. Like all of you, I have tons. But I'll start with a couple of favorites that first come to mind..." Annie Hall and Manhattan are the first two to come to mind.

Braff has just won the Crystal Vision award for a debut filmmaker for Garden State at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, reports Adam Burnett at indieWIRE.

Among the other winners: Q Allen Brocka's Eating Out and Simon Denis's Iota.

Also in indieWIRE, Brian Brooks passes along word that has just handed out five grants of $10K each to five documentary projects and Erica Abeel has a leisurely and highly readable chat with Stephen Fry: "The fact is, there will only ever be one Vile Bodies, and that's the book by Waugh. And my take on it is called Bright Young Things. I wish more adapters would find a different title. Because it's actually a service to the book. We're just doing little vamps on it, little riffs on the original."

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains screens tonight through Saturday at the Alamo Drafthouse (click it, there's a trailer) in Austin, and it "more than stands the test of time," writes Kate X Messer. Also in the Austin Chronicle: Marc Savlov briefly tells the story behind Storie Productions and previews the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (August 26 - September 6).

Bart Sterling, 87, is one of more than 120,000 extras in Hollywood and he's appeared in about 200 films and TV shows. Khristian Leslie meets him. Also in the LA Weekly: Ella Taylor on Last Life in the Universe ("an endearing, tonally complex tale of love, sibling rivalry and the clumsy ways in which people try to rise above grievous loss - with, it goes without saying, some brutal yakuza business wedged in between") and Tim Appelo on Hero (Zhang Yimou "can wring as much drama from a falling bolt of dyed cloth as Milton did from Satan’s fall").

Shahid Khan at Planet Bollywood: "This month there are two Bollywood love stories releasing to big hype: Samir Karnik's Kyun! Ho Gaya Na... and Ken Ghosh's Fida. As part of the pre-release promotion, both of the movies are focusing on the fact that two celebrity couples, Vivek Oberoi-Aishwarya Rai (KHGN) and Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor (Fida) will be seen onscreen together for the first time."

What is going on with film criticism in the country's major papers, magazines and even the alternative press? If there's one simple answer to that question, MCN's Leonard Klady doesn't have it, but he does raise several notable issues looking for it.

Posted by dwhudson at August 19, 2004 1:45 PM