March 12, 2006

Shorts, 3/12.

"Film buffs may find more to chew over than other viewers, but they won't necessarily come away with more." Jonathan Rosenbaum on Godard's Moments Choisis des Histoire(s) du Cinema in the Chicago Reader.

Inside Man Michael Guillen's caught an advance screening of Spike Lee's Inside Man and points to Emanuel Levy's rave.

"Santa [Inoue]'s urban revenge comic, Neighbor No. 13, has been turned into a limp horror movie by Yasuo [Inoue], a first-time director with no gift for suspense," writes Bill White in the Northwest Asian Weekly.

"So what happens if you take elements of that traditional Thai folklore and fuse it with the Japanese kaiju giant monster tradition?" asks Todd at Twitch. Answer: Garuda. Also: Seijun Suzuki's Zigeunerweisen.

At Koreanfilm.org, Duncan Mitchel on Madame Freedom (1956) and Adam Hartzell on The Hand of Fate (1954).

Philip Horne lauds Ingrid Bergman in the Telegraph.

In the Nation: Gilberto Perez on Colin McGinn's The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact and Stuart Klawans on Thank You for Smoking and Duck Season.

The Sundance Kids Annie Proulx, author, of course, of the story Brokeback Mountain is based on: "We should have known conservative heffalump academy voters would have rather different ideas of what was stirring contemporary culture." Also in the Guardian and Observer: Eamonn McCabe remembers Gordon Parks, Mark Kermode on disaster movies, Barbara Ellen interviews John Hurt, Gareth McLean interviews Felicity Huffman and Philip French reviews James Mottram's The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood.

Mottram, by the way, meets Susan Sarandon for the Independent, where Kaleem Aftab considers the Wachowskis.

In the New York Times, Dave Itzkoff has a backgrounder on V for Vendetta and Steven Farber's got one on Don't Come Knocking. Also: Jeff Koons shoots Gretchen Mol and "Amazon Considering Downloads," reports Richard Siklos.

Rosie Millard interviews Kathleen Turner for the New Statesman; Robert Newton interviews Wes Craven for Cinematical; Michael Hodges interviews Nick Cave for Time Out.

Dave Kehr, Matt Zoller Seitz (currently featuring oodles of Sopranos linkage) and NP Thompson discuss The New World. Related: Nelhydrea Paupér on Matt's Home at Flickhead, where Ray Young reviews the Screening Room series.

Craig Phillips: "Scott Coffey's Ellie Parker is not only a tour de force for Naomi Watts but is quite likely a more realistic depiction of life in Los Angeles than Crash."

Online viewing tip. Cult Classics. Via filmtagebuch.



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Posted by dwhudson at March 12, 2006 12:34 AM

Comments

In reference to; "Scott Coffey's Ellie Parker is not only a tour de force for Naomi Watts but is quite likely a more realistic depiction of life in Los Angeles than Crash."

At the recent Oscar party that I attended, it was discovered after much drinking, soul-searching... the walls came down and everyone admitted that Crash was not good.

I wondered if it was because we all live in Los Angeles? But then so don't the Academy voters?

Someone suggested that maybe we were racists for liking Ellie Parker more than Crash.

During the beating that that person received, he said he meant, "gay" not racist...

Posted by: Jerry Lentz at March 12, 2006 9:45 AM

Glad I'm not the only one! Of course, I don't know if Ellie Parker is a higher-quality film than Crash, per se, if we're talking acting throughout, the direction, editing, etc. But as far as which one sums up my time in LA more accurately, at least, Ellie Parker is it. (And it's far less contrived.)

Constant Gardener, meanwhile, which I just re-watched last night, is better than Crash, too, in fact, would have been a more worthy best picture. Wasn't even nominated for best picture. As for your party - it's probably still true that the majority of Oscar voters who voted for Crash live in LA and found resonance in its themes. Good for them. As for me, I just found contrivance.

C

Posted by: Craig P at March 12, 2006 2:01 PM

Regarding the whole "New World" cult -- who really are getting themselves all twisted up in little knots on Dave Kehr's site -- the Voice's J. Hoberman has a neat and properly sober examination of the cult's take on the film: love it or die!

http://villagevoice.com/film/0610,hoberman,72427,20.html

Posted by: Chris Barsanti at March 14, 2006 10:52 AM