Shorts, 1/26.

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir reviews Rebels on the Backlot, "Sharon Waxman's admirably reported chronicle of the 1990s' indie-film wars that changed the culture of Hollywood, at least temporarily." The book's subtitle stretches out to Biskindesque proportions: "Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System," but that's not the only reason it's nearly impossible not to freely associate right over to the author of Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film. Not only do both books treat the same recent chapter of American film history, more or less, both are also appearing right around the time of the year we tend to wonder, Whither American indies? That is, during the Sundance Film Festival.

Waxman's six "mavericks" are Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O Russell and Spike Jonze, about whom O'Hehir serves up one of Waxman's damning anecdotes right off the bat. In fact: "The only filmmaker in Waxman's book who seems to be a truly smart and likable guy (and yes, they're all guys) is Steven Soderbergh." But the bottom line, evidently, is that the book is "less the story of how Tarantino and those who followed him conquered Hollywood than of how Hollywood conquered them, or, perhaps more accurately, how the two forces fought each other to a stalemate."

Also in Salon: Charles Taylor anticipates the weeks of Oscar punditry coming down the pipe and David Poland presents a few ideas as to how in the world the Academy managed to ignore Paul Giamatti once again.

Speaking of whom. Sean Smith and David Ansen sit down around a big round table to talk shop with a few Oscar nominees - and poor Paul Giamatti, whom everyone naturally assumed would be one as well. It's become an annual tradition in Newsweek, and rounding out this year's table are Annette Bening, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Hilary Swank and Kate Winslet.

Meanwhile, Movie City News has collected initial reactions from a wide range of nominees.

A few more reactions:

• Jake Brooks in the New York Observer, where he also talks to... Sharon Waxman! Actually in Park City, too. Lovely.
• James Wolcott (plus a follow-up on John Ford. That's right, John Ford).
• Slate's David Edelstein.
• The Guardian's Xan Brooks.
• Aaron at Out of Focus.
• Craig Phillips.
• Vince Keenan.
• Matthew Ross for Filmmaker.
• drew.

Oscar's not alone, you know; César nominations have been announced as well.

There's a new type of dealmaker afoot at Sundance who "has injected tough Wall Street-style bargaining and sophisticated market research into the mix,"as Randy Kennedy writes. New York lawyer John Sloss, who was "larrgely responsible" for the success of Napoleon Dynamite and Super Size Me, has, "[p]erhaps more than any other dealmaker there... come to embody what some critics in the independent film world feel is the latest stage in the transformation of the festival... into an increasingly money-driven marketplace where the pressure for small movies to produce very big box-office returns has risen sharply."

Also in the New York Times:

• "A collective yawn has begun to rise," sighs Stephen Holden: "The glaring problem facing the Oscars is that when you have too many contests, one on top of the other, they begin to cancel each other out." Even so, a nomination or a win still brings cold hard cash; CNN's Krysten Crawford does the math.

• As online video approaches the ubiquity of online text, both Google and Yahoo are introducing services that'll allow us to search through the fog and noise, reports Saul Hansell. More from Chris Gaither in the Los Angeles Times and Dan Fost in the San Francisco Chronicle.

• Hamburger America, a doc celebrating a meal that's fallen out of favor over the past few years, premieres both theatrically and on DVD on February 1; Melena Ryzik talks to the director, George Motz.

• John Rockwell is deeply impressed with the winner of the top prize at the Dance on Camera Festival, the "extraordinary" Cost of Living.

• Dave Kehr on this week's new DVD releases, in particular on Warner's "Gangsters Collection."

Jeremy Mathews reviews Zola Maseko's Drum, "a solid work of classical storytelling that’s heartbreaking in its portrayal of Johannesburg at a time when its rulers had convinced many people that whites were born to command and blacks were born to obey and serve." More Film Threat reviews from Sundance? Check the upper right-hand corner of that page for links to over a dozen.

Sundance coverage reminder: indieWIRE; Movie City News and Movie City Indie; Cyndi Greening and Alec Hart.

The cinetrix has inadvertently discovered Richard Linklater talking about the five films that inspire him most.

CNET's John Borland reports on how the studios are teaming up with the music industry to fight file-sharing. Meanwhile, as Jo Best reports for Silicon.com (via the Movie Blog), Napster's thinking about opening up a few video channels.

Everyone's wondering what the iPod for video will be; are cell phones evolving in that direction? For Newsday, Richard J Dalton Jr follows the first baby steps. Along that line, Cingular has launched a Sundance-oriented campaign; consider that an online viewing tip of sorts.

In the Village Voice:

• J Hoberman: "Despite an absurdly melodramatic premise, Lost Embrace is an essentially plotless series of riffs and jokes." Also: "A great, great movie, as well as a personal favorite, Los Olvidados (The Forgotten Ones, 1950) is the means by which exiled Luis Buñuel re-established his international reputation." And this is where he and the New York Press's Armond White might find one precious patch of common ground.

• Michael Atkinson on Fear X, "a neurotic flake-out that could've only found distribution in January. But it's a real moviemaker's movie..." Marc Holcomb asks director Nicolas Winding Refn how he got Brian Eno involved.

• Leslie Camhi previews the series, "Our Man of the Hour: Sergio Castellitto," at the Walter Reade.

• "Tracking Shots" and "Scanners": Laura Sinagra on Army of One and Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet; and on Travellers and Magicians (more from Matt Zoller Seitz in the NYP); Joshua Land on Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land.

One more NYP pointer: Saul Austerlitz makes a probably wise move, ignoring the January releases and switching on TCM.

More reviews you'll want to know about:

• Twitch's Todd on Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Fun Bar Karaoke.

• Matt Clayfield on Hitchcock's Stage Fright.

• Filmbrain on Kim Ki-duk's 3-Iron and Kim In-sik's Hypnotized.

• Adam Hartzell on Kim Jong-hyun's Mr Gam's Victory at Koreanfilm.org, where Darcy Paquet has begun blogging right down the center of the "What's New" page.

Dennis Harvey considers John Travolta's career in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Also: Cheryl Eddy on Veer-Zaara.

Egyptian director Dawoud Abdel-Sayed is impressed by what the first Dubai International Film Festival accomplished last December and, in the Al-Ahram Weekly, recalls "the sight of Emirati boys and girls discussing the films on offer, their eyes glinting with the light of a new Arab cinema, culturally distinct, both willing and able to relate to the rest of the world." Via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau."

Not only was 2004 one of the best years for the German film industry in far too long, the papers this morning are happily reporting on the Oscar nomination for Der Untergang (The Downfall), even as Dani Levy's Alles auf Zucker! has become a surprise hit. For Spiegel Online, Jody K Biehl talks to the director of "the nation's first post-1945 Jewish-German comedy."

From script boy to In Good Company: Paul Weitz tells his story in the Guardian.

Now here's a lovely fold-out magazine cover.

Online listening tip. Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman at MoMA. Via Greg Allen.

Offline viewing tip for those in the Bay Area (and you darn well know which Bay). Broadway: The Golden Age screens at the Castro on February 4, 5 and 6.

Posted by dwhudson at January 26, 2005 4:23 PM