Shorts, 7/26.

The Reeler catches Winter Soldier, "which gets shown, like, never, because according to the filmmakers, neither the major networks nor even PBS are willing to touch something that so graphically addresses atrocities committed by Americans during the Vietnam War," and decides "it revealed an interesting phenomenon I do not think I have experienced in 25 years of moviegoing: The film is unreviewable. It unfolds in long, slow, terrifying fits; it hints at nothing; at its most symbolic, it represents a culture's repeated failure to learn from its own heinous historic mistakes."

Blake at Cinema Strikes Back: "I have never felt so much hope and heartbreak in the span of two hours as I have experiencing The Constant Gardner. I'll never be the same." Also: Charlie Prince on Alexei Balabanov's The War.

Geoffrey O'Brien in the New York Review of Books on War of the Worlds: "On one hand the movie is a game, a conscious display (if we needed it at this stage) of Spielberg's technical mastery; on the other it reaches toward what might be prophecy, or passionate allegory, or exhortation to mindfulness of real human suffering. This is where the unsettling part comes in, because for all his deliberateness as a filmmaker Spielberg cannot altogether control the undertones of despair and gnawing anxiety that his images elicit." Read the wonderful paragraph on the "aura of virtual historical reality" at least twice. Related: Mack at Twitch has found some photos snapped on the set of Spielberg's Munich.

Patrick Macias passes along word from Matt Alt: "However you want to translate the title, Hiroko and I just caught a sneak preview screening of [Takashi Miike's] Yokai Daisenso. The plot, in a nutshell: when elementary schooler Tadashi's pet yokai is kidnapped (by a beehived, whip-weilding Chiaki Kuriyama), he doesn't just get mad - he enlists his alcoholic, doddering grandfather (Bunta Sugawara, in his most challenging role yet) to school him about the yokai legends of the sleepy seaside town they live in." On a somewhat unrelated yet nevertheless interesting note, Brian Ruh drops a comment pointing to an item in Néomarxisme about film reviewing and censorship in Japan, an item Marxy follows up on today.

Filmbrain is quite impressed by Broken Flowers: "Jarmusch knows all too well what he's doing," while "Bill Murray gives the strongest performance of his career."

David Lowery likes the "obscure tricks" in Brad Mitchell's Asterion but is generally disappointed in Chris Cunningham's Rubber Johnny.

See Lila Says for Vahina Giocante, advises the cinetrix.

Reviews at Koreanfilm.org:

• Kyu Hyun Kim on Choe Ik-hwan's Voice and Kim Yong-gyun's The Red Shoes.

• Tom Giammarco on Byeon Jang-ho's Potato and Kwak Hyeok-jin's Space Monster Wangmagwi.

• Adam Hartzell on Song Hye-sung's Calla and Choi In-kyu's Hurrah! For Freedom!.

This week's angles from Reverse Shot at indieWIRE: Jun Ichikawa's Tony Takitani.

Today's Wellesian item: The Pop View on The Magnificent Ambersons.

At Movie City News, Gary Dretzka talks comedy, censorship and The Aristocrats with Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza.

The Great Slump of 2005 was actually not all that great, explains Edward Jay Epstein. But that doesn't mean Hollywood isn't staring down into a potential "Death Spiral"; after spelling out the problem, Epstein promises to spell out a possible solution next week. He'd probably have a bone or two to pick with Chris Lee's piece in today's Los Angeles Times.

Also in Slate: Seth Stevenson on "The Best Ad on Television" and Field Maloney asks, "What if Owen Wilson, America's resident goofy roué with the broken nose and the lazy nasal drawl, was the rudder keeping USS Anderson on course, steering its captain away from solipsism and ironic overload?"

Scott Kirsner is currently "working on a book about new technologies have changed (and are changing) Hollywood," and of course, he's blogging, at CinemaTech, where, most recently, he talks to Mark Cuban: "We're open to anything and everything. We'll try to learn and get smart about it." Via Cinema Minima.

Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing: "Of all the amazing and wonderful things I saw this weekend at London's OpenTech conference, none came close to the stupendous Promise TV box." Slashdotters comment.

Vince Keenan: "In a somewhat despairing introduction, John Updike wonders why a writer as gifted as [Daniel] Fuchs would abandon fiction for the movies. In one way or another, every piece in The Golden West is about that conundrum."

For Kamera, Tahir Latif revisits Jim Kitses's Horizons West.

Ben Slater has been in touch with just about everyone involved in the making of Saint Jack; now to begin writing that book in earnest.

Girish Shambu explains how he chooses "films that will 'hook' the uninitiated and begin the process of converting them to foreign film watchers."

Jodie Foster is set to direct again; Cyndi Greening has details.

David Ehrenstein remembers Gavin Lambert.

The Guardian: "A Dutch court today sentenced the self-confessed murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh to life imprisonment." Also, Jamie Wilson reports on Jane Fonda's plans to bus across America, protesting against the war in Iraq.

The Fantasy Filmfest opens in Munich tomorrow and rolls across Germany through August 24.

Online viewing tip. The trailer for Louis Malle's Elevator to the Gallows. Via Ben, awash in the Whine Colored Sea.

Online browsing tip #1. Slashstyle. Also via Coudal Partners: R Crumb's The Religious Experience of Philip K Dick.

Online browsing tip #2. The Metaphilm Movie Mapper, a guide to real locations in NYC, e.g., where Tracy (Mariel Hemingway) went to school.

Posted by dwhudson at July 26, 2005 9:54 AM