Eccentrics, anarchists and shorts.

"You all know Columbia professor Robert Thurman as a Tibetan scholar and activist, friend of Richard Gere, father to Uma. But did you know that he was also a mentor of director David O Russell (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting With Disaster) and was the primary inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's character in the audacious and philosophically dense I ♥ Huckabees, which will be released Oct. 1? And now, the two men are collaborating on a new screenplay of their own.

And he's off. Meanwhile, low culture's Matt jots a note for bloggers who plan to mention the film and, over in the Village Voice, Dennis Lim talks to Russell about "his boldest" film yet, and about Soldier's Pay, the 35-minute documentary follow-up to Three Kings that's had such a troubled history; but then, it's back to Huckabees. Russell: "I think that's the most daring thing about this movie - its optimism and its joy."

Maybe that's why Armond White likes it? Reviewing Huckabees in the New York Press (as well as, briefly, John Waters's A Dirty Shame and Li Han-Hsiang's The Love Eterne), White places David O Russell within the context of his generation: If you start with the American filmmakers of the 70s, next come the indies, and now, Russell and "Wes and PT Anderson, Spike Jonze, Alexander Payne, Sofia Coppola and others" are the Eccentrics.

Not in Rex Reed's book, though. He's got another name for them: "The egomaniacal young director-producer-writer David O Russell is a member of the new group of anarchists that includes Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, Spike Jonze, freaky Todd Solondz and the dismally overrated non-writer Charlie Kaufman, who wins critical praise for writing incoherent movies about why he can't write coherent movies."

Well, anyway. According to White, what sets Russell apart from the rest of his set of Eccentrics is his "philosophical rigor." I dunno: "Of all the American Eccentrics, Russell seems to be the only one to realize the shift in moral positions that has occurred with [Ayn] Rand's popularity among recent collegiates." No, Rand has always been popular among recent collegiates. That can't be a determining factor of our contemporary "despair" because it's a constant: Tolkien in high school, Rand in college.

Besides, it's hard to imagine a dour Randian saying to Jake Brooks, as Robert Thurman does, "If you become less deranged and more integrated in your heart and mind and you live more from the heart and more lovingly, then you'll be happy and you'll have a good time. I think that's the message."

The Voice's J Hoberman sounds pretty upbeat as far as the prospects for a good time at the upcoming New York Film Festival (October 1 through 17) are concerned. With a few contributions from Michael Atkinson and Dennis Lim, he blurbs the highlights, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul to Jia Zhangke. Plus: Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry: "His 1971 testimony... is one of the most potent and plainspoken political speeches of the era. We could use something like it now."

Joe Leydon, who also sees that speech as a pivotal one, finds Going Upriver "an unabashedly admiring yet undeniably engrossing account of the presidential candidate's formative years." He talks with director George Butler; and so, too, does Matt Kelemen for Alternet.

By the way, it's a bit early in this batch of shorts for an online viewing tip, but this is truly nifty: Click here and scroll down until you see Joe Leydon's white-bearded visage and watch the four clips, nicely illustrated reminiscences of what moviegoing used to be.

It's certainly not like that now. Exhibit A: Filmmaker Jamie Stuart's filing a diary from the NYFF, one five-minute short a day. Via Movie City News.

Back to in the Village Voice:

• Michael Atkinson looks ahead to the NYFF's Shaw Brothers sidebar, then briefly reviews Vodka Lemon.
• Joy Press preps us for Tanner on Tanner, chatting with Cynthia Nixon and Robert Altman, who "crows," "Our whole comment is not as much about politics as about this glut of documentary filmmakers right now.... Everybody's a filmmaker - that's what our film's about! Pick up a camera and you're a filmmaker!"
• It's not often (or at least often enough) that a reviewer makes you laugh; but even if Ed Park is only half-right about Shark Tale, the review'll be a lot more entertaining than the movie.
• That Michael Musto sure gets around.
• Mark Halcomb warns that Prime Times: Writers on Their Favorite TV Shows is a hit-n-miss collection.
• Laura Sinagra recommends Dig! but definitely not The Last Shot.
• "Tracking Shots": Melissa Anderson on Tying the Knot; David Blaylock on The Cloud of Unknowing and Unconstitutional and Unprecedented; Ben Kenigsberg on Deadline and First Daughter; Ed Halter on The Whisper of the Whistling Water; and Kris Wilton on Woman, Thou Art Loosed.

Tom Hall writes an open letter to Jonathan Caouette. Earlier, a well-considered first impression of Godard's Notre Musique: "It will be difficult to find a more powerful indictment of the abuse of power anywhere, and Wellspring is to be given credit for distributing a great and difficult film this November."

More on 2046 in Time Asia: Richard Corliss pulls together and reshapes a slightly different set of components than Jaime Wolf did for his NYT Magazine piece to put together a somewhat different whole. Just as one small example, we find out what in the world Wong Kar-wai is thinking, planning a film with Nicole Kidman: "The only thing I want to say is I always conceive of Nicole Kidman as the woman in a Hitchcock film. I think the woman in Hitchcock is always very dangerous, or in danger. And Nicole is both."

But the real draw of the package, and the source of much of Corliss's story, is Bryan Walsh's interview with Wong: "A lot of people think that 2046 is like a sequel of In the Mood, but I don't think so. For me it's more like Mood is a chapter in 2046. It's like 2046 is a big symphony, and Mood is one of its movements." Later, he talks about how Days of Being Wild fits in as well.

Mack at Twitch notes that China Daily reports on 2046's opening over there, where all is going well except for Zhang Ziyi's appearance at a promo appearance for the film.

By the way, there are simply too many link-worthy stories posted at Twitch to pick just one more. Go. Browse.

Tim Carvell's "History's Notable Films, Reconsidered," at McSweeney's. Via Vince Keenan, who's still urging you to see Spartan.

For Offscreen, Colin Burnett interviews Jonathan Hourigan, who worked with Robert Bresson on L'Argent.

In Kamera, Ben McCann reviews The Pocket Essential: Martin Scorsese by Paul Duncan, another volume that proves "one of the assets" of the series: "they can be at once partisan and profound; a fan writing for fellow fans." Also: Hannah Patterson looks back on this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.

Sharon Waxman in the New York Times: "The layoffs of 55 employees at Miramax last week on the heels of similar layoffs last month leave the studio diminished just when it most needs muscle: on the eve of a frenzied Oscar season, with stars like Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio already lining up for support." Also: Dave Kehr on a few selected new releases on DVD.

Brigitte Bardot turned 70 yesterday and, as Charles Taylor notes in long appreciation in Salon ("She is my ultimate"), she's long since turned alarmingly right-wing: "Do I find this an ugly legacy? Yes. Does it affect my pleasure watching her? No." For what it's worth, Sophia Loren turned 70 last week; I mean, if you want to talk "ultimates"...

Fascinating case: Nicolas Philibert's To Be and To Have apparently made around two million euros when all was said and done. The teacher who, after all, was only one of its subjects (so, too, were the kids), sued for a piece of the profits, claiming Philibert capitalized on his intellectual property, namely, his teaching methods. Well, as Amelia Gentleman reports in the Guardian, he's lost his case but will appeal: "Had [Georges] Lopez won, French film unions warned, the case would 'spell the death of the documentary, undermining the crucial principle that subjects should not be paid to participate.'"

In the Independent:

• Fiona Sturges profiles that "emerald-eyed, tousled-haired demi-god," Hrithik Roshan.
• Another looker: "All flowing red hair, hazel green eyes and creamy skin, she might have stepped from a Titian painting." Bob Flynn flies to Galway to meet Maureen O'Hara who, 84 now, has a new book out: "[John] Ford haunts the pages of O'Hara's memoirs, an unpredictable ogre stalking her professional and private life."
• And David Thomson: "Maybe Russ Meyer deserved a medal. His biography is announced for next year - Big Bosoms and Square Jaws. It could be the subtitle to a history of America."

Amy Taubin's latest "Art & Industry" column focuses on Gillo Pontecorvo's Burn!, which features "one of Brando's most complicated performances."

"It takes a lot of skill to bring off something so deceptively simple." Dennis Harvey in the San Francisco Bay Guardian on The Motorcycle Diaries: "At heart, this multinationally financed, Robert Redford-produced enterprise is about the radicalization of individual thought. Which it enthusiastically supports. It's not quite Che: The Movie of the T-Shirt. Instead, it provides some valid reasons to wear that iconic red and black." Also: Johnny Ray Huston meets The Yes Men and Max Goldberg catches Tying the Knot, which "packs a wallop in its informed and impassioned defense of same-sex marriage."

Mark Rabinowitz: "I am ready to proclaim William Shatner's upcoming CD Has Been the magnum opus of a long misunderstood genius."

The Movie Marketing Blog spots a case gone awry: Francis Xavier's posters offering a fake reward for a fake murderer have most definitely not been well-received. Also via Cinema Minima: Cyndi Greening's top screenplay sites.

The cinetrix was rattled to read that Werner Herzog would be directing Ben Affleck and David Schwimmer in his next film, but someone's gone and helpfully posted the full story as a comment, and you know, it just might work.

Online mouse-twiddling tip. Paper's "Top 20." Cover outtakes, snapshots and interviewlettes.

Here's an online viewing tip to watch out for; it'll presumably be available at http://www.t-online.de/3minutes starting tomorrow: "[T]he Schirn asked ten international artists, Doug Aitken, Jonas Åkerlund, Hubbard/Birchler, Isaac Julien, Sarah Morris, Philippe Parreno, RothStauffenberg, Anri Sala, Markus Schinwald and Yang Fudong, to produce three-minute shorts that focus on condensed information and condensed narration as their issues."

Posted by dwhudson at September 29, 2004 9:20 AM