Shorts, 9/1.

"From 1957 until his death in 1986, [Yasuzo] Masumura turned out nearly 60 films, ranging in scope from erotic horror to colourful pop satire, wrenching melodrama and widescreen war movie," writes Steve Rose in the Guardian, previewing the Masumura season at the National Film Theatre (September 10 through 28). "They are by no means consistently brilliant, but judging by the eight about to tour the UK, Masumura was an underrated talent and an unacknowledged influence on his country's cinema, and perhaps its society."

"When Winter Soldier received its initial limited theatrical release, the great Amos Vogel wrote (in a Village Voice review) that it must be shown on prime-time, national television," writes Johnny Ray Huston. "It should go without saying that statement holds true today. Unfortunately, both the movie and the event that spawned it have been used for campaign purposes by right-wing figures with no sense of shame or decency."

Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Kimberly Chun explains the "esonance in effect when [Rie] Miyazawa enters the picture in Tony Takitani, looking like the mousy, tweedy bookstore beatnik [Audrey] Hepburn of Stanley Donen's iconic Funny Face (1957), the classic mother-and-daughter-bonding-ritual musical."

The Baxter and The 40-Year-Old Virgin get Matt Zoller Seitz thinking about the lack of evolution in comedy, the genre "most resistant to innovation... Take away color, slow motion and the music montage and you won't see a whole lot of difference between My Little Chickadee and Fever Pitch, or A Day at the Races and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle."

Also in the New York Press, Armond White: "We don't need another mere action-adventure film; Red Eye combines political-historical awareness with emotional need." And: "In The Constant Gardener, the photogenic exploitation of misery, in hand with Hollywood romanticism, illustrates the height of liberal arrogance."

In the SFBG, Dennis Harvey heartily disagrees: "This is a very good movie almost any post-teenage viewer could enjoy, and within its classic framework of life-love lost and avenged, excellent points are made about how the world really works." But for Anthony Kaufman, writing at Alternet, "It's just one more movie about white romance in black Africa."

David M Halbfinger reports on a script floating around Hollywood that'll probably never get shot: a comedy about terrorists. "They always want you to think outside the box, then when you do, they say, 'What the hell's the matter with you?'" says one of the writers. Also in the New York Times: Dana Stevens writes off 9/11/03: A Day in the Life of New York.

In the Boston Phoenix, Peter Koeugh previews two series, "The Complete Kubrick: A Retrospective" and "Too Human: The Films of Louis Malle." Kubrick's is "a compact body of work, one that can be analyzed, perhaps, as a single work of art, the grand tapestry of one of the 20th century’s most important film artists," while Malle "is too much of a dilettante to qualify for auteur status." Also, Gerald Peary on A State of Mind: "There's nothing in the film about the nuclear build-up, North Korean prisons, the lack of civil liberties, or the other obvious sore points in this hyper-Stalinist Communist state."

If you're in LA, Kevin Thomas has a few suggestions for your Labor Day weekend. Also in the Los Angeles Times: Merrill Balassone talks to John Pierson about Reel Paradise. More from Rachel Odes in the SFBG.

Noel Murray: "In the interest of preserving our television history - in formaldehyde, if necessary - The AV Club presents an annotated, step-by-step guide to constructing an After School Special."

In Die Zeit (and in German), Volker Schlöndorrf revisits On the Waterfront and Thomas Gross: "'Rhythm, rhythm, above all, rhythm,' read Eisenstein's instructions for new scores [for Battleship Potemkin], and he wanted a new one every ten years. It's not only on this point that the Pet Shop Boys happily accommodate."

Posted by dwhudson at September 1, 2005 12:03 PM