Shorts, 12/1.

"The decline just keeps declining," Penelope Spheeris tells the SuicideGirls' Daniel Robert Epstein. What she's saying, essentially, is that our culture has evolved in such a way that co-opters can absorb the brunt of a movement like punk in the late 70s before it can begin to gather critical mass. At any rate, she's planning an adaptation of No Irish, No Dogs, No Blacks with Johnny Rotten, who wants, yes, Justin Timberlake to play him.

"[Y]ou created an open field for black filmmakers," Lee Siegel tells Spike Lee, who replies, "Yeah, but it morphed into something else. But no, you can't put Barbershop on me." Also in Slate, Grady Hendrix: "The 'apocalypse on a shoestring' aesthetic has become the hallmark of the Left Behind series."

"The purpose of this weblog is to talk about and to encourage the practice of making high-quality films at a low-cost and/or with small-labor systems. A good term for this practice is 'Self-Reliant Filmmaking,'" Paul Harrill (more) in his first post to the new blog of the same name - just the day before yesterday, actually.

At Twitch, X had a list of nominees for Korea's Blue Dragon Awards; and now, s/he's highlighted the winners. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance took Best Film; check X for more.

Andrew O'Hehir ends up reviewing three "heart-rending, sob-inducing social documentaries" for his "Beyond the Multiplex" column at Salon. "As far as I know, this is an accident." They are Little Man: "It's a brave and beautifully made film, but Jesus is it tough to watch." The Boys of Baraka, "reminding us that the so-called richest nation in the world remains plagued by the worst and most chronic disease known to humanity: poverty." And 39 Pounds of Love, with its "undertones of accidental profundity."

Peter Keough has a bit more on Boys in the Boston Phoenix, but what he really wants you to catch if you can is Darwin's Nightmare.

Jared Rapfogel at Stop Smiling: "Made at the height of [Kenji Mizoguchi's] powers, Ugetsu is perhaps the greatest of cinematic ghost stories, one of the most haunting, heartbreaking, and exquisite of films."

Behind-the-scenes and making-of stories are so often so alike, a nifty anecdote helps, and David M Halbfinger's got one to open with. The movie at hand is Emilio Estevez's Bobby, set on the night Robert F Kennedy was assassinated. Then there's the cast: Estevez, Martin Sheen, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, William H Macy, Harry Belafonte, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Nick Cannon, Heather Graham, Ashton Kutcher, Freddy Rodríguez and Christian Slater, "none of whom are receiving anything like a normal fee."

Also in the New York Times: Nathan Lee reviews Exist: Not a Protest Film, about "the personal and political struggles of young radical activists. By dramatizing their lives with candor, sympathy and a healthy strain of skepticism, the director, Esther Bell, offers an antidote to the whimsy and solipsism endemic to much of what passes for independent filmmaking." And the editors select the "10 Best Books of 2005."

Amitabh Bachchan fell ill on Sunday but is now in stable condition, reports the BBC. "Fans, Bollywood stars and several industrialist friends have been thronging the Mumbai hospital where Bachchan is recuperating."

Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect on Good Night, and Good Luck: "[George] Clooney's film finds the cool in the mainstream 50s, an epoch hitherto defined by its utter absence of cool."

The centerpiece of the new issue of LA Weekly is a section saluting "the rebels, the loners, the dreamers and the stoners of LA indie rock," but of course, there are films to see to as well. "Neil Jordan has more technical skill and imagination in his little finger than [Duncan] Tucker does in his entire being," and yet Ella Taylor is more moved by Transamerica than Breakfast on Pluto. (More on Transamerica from Karina Longworth at Cinematical.) Also: Robert Abele on Showtime's Sleeper Cell and Homecoming. More on that one, too, from Sam Adams in the Philadelphia City Paper.

Mike Russell has a good long talk with Judd Apatow for In Focus.

You already have your suspicions about Memoirs of Geisha, but maybe you can't put your finger on why, exactly. Ryan Wu can.

Richard Burnett meets Tab Hunter. Also in Vue Weekly: Josef Braun on Pickpocket (more from Jim Ridley in the Nashville Scene), I Am Cuba and King Kong.

"The critics have less power than they imagine." Take that! Stephen Woolley responds to reviews of his Stoned. Also in the Guardian: Lily White, burlesque performer, on Mrs Henderson Presents.

Dave Kehr: "I can't let the day go by without noting the passing of Wendie Jo Sperber..." More from Dennis Cozzalio and Stephen Macy.

Dennis McLellan remembers Marc Lawrence, 1910 - 2005. Also in the Los Angeles Times: Susan King meets Joan Plowright and Mary McNamara hears Vera Farmiga outline what all she owes to Down to the Bone.

Online browsing tip. Films in America: 1929 - 1969, drawings by Lady Lucy, via Ben Slater.

Online viewing tip. Bob Dylan and John Lennon in a taxi in 1966. According to Coudal Partners. I can't see it myself: "Currently, the playback feature of Google Video isn't available in your country."

Posted by dwhudson at December 1, 2005 1:19 PM