Weekend shorts.

Early estimates are showing Exorcist: The Beginning to be the winner at the box office this weekend. The film was not previewed for the press and Manohla Dargis, who's whipped up an immediate pan for the New York Times - it "may soon be known as Exorcist: The End" - knows why. The film "exists solely to rake in cash during its opening weekend and settle into a long shelf-life in the DVD hereafter."

But that doesn't mean the routine necessarily has to play out as dully as usual. By way of Movie City News comes a little surprise from Jason Pritchett, former Director of Development for Intertainment, who, back in November 2000, read and evaluated a screenplay by William Wisher for what was then being called "Exorcist: Dominion." Infuriated by Renny Harlin's version, he's sent his highly favorable coverage of Wisher's script to MCN where we can all have a look, wonder what might have been and if Paul Schrader and Caleb Carr's version will resemble it in any way.

Back to the NYT. Looking back on the summer, AO Scott finds several films, more this year than in many others, that, even if they aren't scary, "take fear as their subject." After wandering and sorting and remarking for a while, he comes to an odd conclusion: that The Terminal is "a necessary reminder that the true antidote to fear - most likely the only thing capable of counteracting both its immediate causes and its long-term effects - is decency."

Coincidentally, Craig S Smith has a piece on the man - the real one, the offscreen one - in Terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle Airport. He's still there: "But Mr. Nasseri's story is hardly the heartwarming tale of a stateless refugee who finds love in an airport terminal, as Mr. Hanks's character does in the movie. Nor is it the rags-to-riches story of a hapless homeless man who sells his story to Hollywood, as many news reports suggest. It is far more dismal and can be summed up in a few harsh words: mental illness, isolation, abandonment."

Also in the NYT, Sharon Waxman listens to Trey Parker and Matt Stone complain about how tough it was making Team America: World Police. Then:

It's hard not to wonder: are these guys just out to provoke? Or do they actually have something to say? Underneath all the kidding around, it seems possible they're angry. But if so, at whom? "We don't know," Mr. Parker said, hanging his head as if embarrassed. "People who go will be really confused about whose side we're on. That's because we're really confused."

Yep. Meanwhile, far, far away, in another land and another time, Evelyn Waugh. He, too, had a "snarling anarchic spirit," writes Charles McGrath, but at least he knew why and, equipped with "a withering satiric exactness that doesn't turn up again in English fiction until Martin Amis," what to do with it. But does Stephen Fry know what to do with Vile Bodies? McGrath appreciates Fry's adaption and notes that the few additions "are dead on and very funny," but overall, Bright Young Things is all a little too Masterpiece Theater. The more "daring" move would have been "to set the story, say, in 2010, when King Charles has already been dethroned (and perhaps beheaded, like his namesake, but in a tragic surfboard incident) and when Harry now rules with his consort Jenna (Bush or Jameson, take your pick). Sir Mick and Sir Elton could be models for the dotty peer, and the big party scene could take place at Windsor Castle, now of course a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton."

Bright Leaves is the latest film by Ross McElwee and as it begins, writes James Ryerson, he "clings to the idea that in Bright Leaf, the Gary Cooper picture, he has found a 'cinematic heirloom,' a home movie about his great-grandfather 'reenacted by Hollywood stars.'"

"Introducing Plato in a futurist kung-fu film is an amusing idea, but once you add Schopenhauer, Descartes, Buddha, Jesus, the Gnostics, and theoreticians of artificial intelligence, the atmosphere quickly becomes stifling." Left the NYT now. We're circling Film-Philosophy, where Duncan Chesney is reviewing Matrix, machine philosophique, a book with half a dozen editors.

Therefore, if the film is to be seriously studied, its interest must lie elsewhere. Should the film be seriously studied? Two things are certain: first, that the film was extremely successful, but in a somewhat unusual way - both a blockbuster and a cult classic, The Matrix is a generation-defining film like Star Wars, and one that has elicited youthful speculation (judging from chat rooms and web sites) of a much more proto-philosophical nature than the adventures of Luke Skywalker ever did. Second, and equally undeniable, is that the film is very useful for teaching philosophy.

To the Guardian. Richard Eyre notes that while many audiences "love films but hate the theatre," many filmmakers are drawn to the theater as a setting because it's an enclosed world. There's more of that before he turns his attention to Stage Beauty, set in the late 17th century and starring Billy Crudup. And Rupert Everett, interviewed in today's Independent by Liz Hoggard. It's "the story of the first female actor to appear legally in England and the last male actor to make his career by playing women."

Also in the Guardian:

• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: Roger Corman's The Fall of the House of Usher.
• Phelim O'Neill profiles Vince Vaughn.
• Joe Queenan "lives, breathes and eats bad movies," and therefore, must see Vin Diesel play Hannibal, elephants and all.
• The spoiler quiz. After all these years, the first 10 out of 10. "Sledge," by the way, is British for... oh, never mind.

Ghost World: "An irregular English-language blog-column on Bollywood noir films, past and present."

Via Movie City News:

• I was wondering if there was a story in English about this. Deutsche Welle reports on the Filmclub Berlin-Baghdad, which aims "to establish a film library and educational center in Baghdad, which will serve as inspiration for Iraqi film enthusiasts." To draw a crowd that would contribute DVDs, the founders hosted a conversation about prospects for cinema in Iraq between Tom Tykwer and Oday Rahseed, who's made the first film to be shot in the country since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
• Subhash K Jha has a long piece in the Times of India on all that's wrong with the Mumbai film industry these days: "Follywood the farcical filmdom."
• Johanna Schneller in the Globe and Mail on "geek chic" in Hollywood, a case of "the Pradas wooing the Pocket Protectors."

At MCN itself, Ray Pride turns in another full-to-bursting column with sharp takes on four movies and a good long chat with Richard Kelly - about Donnie Darko, of course, but also the state of the industry in general. Kelly is not bullish.

Cinemocracy: "We’re semi-suspicious that Dr. Strangelove is fast becoming the official film of Kerry-Edwards ’04."

Regular readers will note a recent, probably belated, but welcome trend around here: The Movie Blog is pretty damn great, an essential daily checkpoint:

• Phenomenal DVD packaging for Old Boy and other Korean releases.
• Joon Soh of the Korea Times reviews Three, Monster: "Park Chan-wook of South Korea, Takashi Miike of Japan and Fruit Chan of Hong Kong figure out ways to not as much terrify the audience as attempt to disturb them on a psychological level."
• Kevin Smith: "For a small fee (what - you thought it'd be free? It's View Askew, sir - we're money-grubbing whores), wanna-be filmmakers (and has-been's too; I'll be submitting Jersey Girl myself) will be able to submit their short films of thirty minutes or less to our distinguished panel of judges and a chance to secure one of five monthly spots at MoviesAskew.com."
• The Last Shot.

Posted by dwhudson at August 21, 2004 5:03 PM