Spooky shorts.

Besides reviewing three Halloweenish flicks, David Edelstein writes of the revitalization of left-leaning pop culture, "Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us back our energy, our passion, our creativity, and our sense of humor - which we've needed to keep from going insane at what you've done to this country and the world. Your political legacy, alas, will live long - but so will the vital counterculture you have spawned. May we never, never forget you."

Also in Slate: Meghan O'Rourke on Eminem's "Mosh": "The video is a brilliant piece of agitprop. Of course, it's also slyly designed to needle the very liberals who love it so much."

Prog Girl 68 is keeping a diary at Daily Kos, following news and coverage of The World According to Bush: "Hopefully this film will become standard viewing for anyone studying the Bush Administration down through history."

Tom Hall: "You know that something is wrong in America when Hollywood studios begin self-censoring bonus footage on a re-released DVD." Related online viewing tip, via the cinetrix: Clips from David O Russell's Soldiers Pay at IFC.

In the New York Times:

• The horror genre's been derailed, argues Terrence Rafferty by "an awful lot of expensive, heavily promoted action pictures that use horror elements but don't have the decency to honor the genre's sworn mission: to scare the wits out of us."
• Andréa R Vaucher's found a terrific subject for a profile: Screenwriter Naomi Foner, who's not only staging a comeback 16 years after her career peak, Running on Empty, but has also taken a new name: Naomi Gyllenhaal.
• AO Scott on Michael Apted's unique Up series, "a partial portrait of British society during the last four decades, a kind of longitudinal study of mores, attitudes and life chances conducted with a small, sometimes reluctant population sample."
• Recently discovered short works by Tennessee Williams - sketches, really - should be made available to readers, yes, but should they be cobbled together and performed? Jesse Green rounds up conflicting opinions.

Michael Tully lists half a dozen films to "Watch for Inspiration/Guidance."

"While Sideways is my pick for this month's film for the ages, Birth is still the most compelling: an unforgettably ambitious folly." For Movie City News, Ray Pride reviews that pair, talks to Alexander Payne and Virginia Madsen, reviews some more movies and more than a few DVDs as well.

The Viennale "invited two young critics to attend the event and to be engaged in a writing program tutored by experienced critics (members of the FIPRESCI jury)." The result is the Talent Press Project, capturing a wide range of moments from the fest. Via filmfilter.

In the Observer:

• Miranda Sawyer profiles that "brilliant actor," Bill Nighy. The piece wraps with Nighy's wonderful description of one of his favorite performances.
• The Boondocks is headed for TV. Phil Hoad asks Aaron McGruder about Huey, Riley - and Condi.
• Gaby Wood has a long heart-to-heart with Nicole Kidman.

In the Guardian:

• Did an Israeli colonel stage a surrender of Palestinian fighters based on his recollections of The Battle of Algiers? If so, argue Ron Dudai and Daphna Baram, "Israel, sinking ever deeper in its own colonial adventure in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, could learn some vital lessons from the Algerian experience."
• Richard Christiansen on Arthur Miller's Finishing the Picture.
• J Hoberman on both Frankenheimer's and Demme's versions of The Manchurian Candidate; this is not simply a rerun of his Voice review; it's a much longer historical contextualization of the two films.
• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders.
• Though she never really went away, John Patterson is glad to see Sissy Spacek on the screen again.
• Dan Glaister reports that Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif are off to Arabia together again.

For Film-Philosophy, Maria Walsh reviews Jane and Louise Wilson, "a useful mini-guide to the Wilsons' film and video installation work, with interesting contrasts between the accompanying essays that make one consider the stakes involved in art criticism."

Fresh at Koreanfilm.org: Boris Trbic: "Park Chan-wook's World of Personal Introspection: The Subtext of Cinematic Space in Old Boy." Also, two heads-ups ("heads-ups"?): Wallflower Press has just released a new addition to their 24 Frames series, The Cinema of Japan and Korea; and at the Walter Reade in NYC, November 12 through December 7: The Newest Tiger: 60 Years of South Korean Cinema."

If you're in New York on Friday, you might want to catch the premiere of Hikiomori: Tokyo Plastic at the Imaginasian.

New interviews in the Independent:

• Leslie Felperin with Kate Winslet.
• Kaleem Aftab with Yo Hitoto.
• And for those with a penchant for Hollywood history, Geoffrey Macnab with Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.

Offline viewing tip. When Francine Taylor interviewed Kirby Dick for us recently, they talked quite a bit about his other work, but it was thought all around that it would be best to keep the focus on Derrida and its subject (and by the way, Judith Butler has quite an appreciation in the current issue of the London Review of Books). But if Cinemax happens to be part of your televisual menu, do keep an eye out for Kirby's latest, The End.

Online viewing tip. There's Something About W. Watch all 40 minutes or bits and pieces. Via Steve Rhodes, who points at The Regular to audio interviews with former Marines press officer Captain Josh Rushing, a featured interviewee in Control Room.

Posted by dwhudson at October 31, 2004 6:17 AM