Bannings, sackings, shorts.

You've got to be kidding. The MPAA has banned this poster for The Road to Guantanamo, reports Philip Kennicott in the Washington Post. Via Posterwire.com: "Like most forms of regulation and censorship, the guidelines the MPAA follows are not always clear, but big no-nos for one-sheets include 'depictions of violence, blood, people in jeopardy, drugs, nudity, profanity, people in frightening situations, disturbing or frightening scenes.' We're pretty sure that the actual Gitmo doesn't follow those same guidelines, however."

Many - most notably, Chris Barsanti and Anne Thompson - have pointed to and commented on Dave Kehr's entry on the dismissal of movie reviewer Jami Bernard by the Daily News, where he once worked alongside her, and the demotion of Michael Wilmington at the Chicago Tribune. In three fierce paragraphs, Kehr conjures a dire picture of the state of film criticism in US newspapers. Further down in this batch of "Shorts," you'll see evidence of a thinning out in the alternative weeklies as well. I suspect these developments are less a reflection of editorial ignorance, as Kehr and others suggest, than of the financial squeeze straining all print media. Peek over the cubicle barrier: are other departments really faring all that better? Readers looking for sharp, substantive, and yes, quick takes on the films now playing in local theaters, at festivals or just out on DVD are doing what sports fans, bookworms, political junkies, day traders, what have you, are doing: reaching for the mouse rather than trekking to the newsstand.

At the House Next Door, Jeremiah Kipp talks with Film Freak Central reviewer Walter Chaw. Chuck Tryon: "The wide-ranging inteview is particularly valuable in addressing some of institutional factors that shape film criticism as it is practiced on the internet by both professional and amateur critics. In particular, I found insightful Chaw's discussion of the process of screening films for critics, a process that he regards as 'undemocratic and essentially corrupted.'"

Do Armond White's "American Eccentrics" (Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, David O Russell, Alexander Payne, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola) really turn out movies more slowly than the "entertainment specialists" (Quentin Tarantino, M Night Shyamalan, Bryan Singer, Michael Bay, Brett Ratner, John Moore)? Do we really want them making more movies faster?

In the New York Observer, Jake Brooks reviews James Mottram's The Sundance Kids: How the Mavericks Took Back Hollywood, noting that he "pushes hard with his 70s/90s, New Hollywood/Sundance Kids parallel." Mottram is "certainly not the first person to make the connection," but he is "the first to make a sustained argument based on the content of the films. He mostly leaves out the morass of industry deals, behind-the-scenes tussles and box-office grosses, the insider dope expertly peddled by Peter Biskind in Down and Dirty Pictures (2004) - and again by Sharon Waxman in Rebels on the Backlot (2005)." But then Brooks goes on to point out two areas where the 70s- and 90s-era filmmakers diverge: money and courage.

Antonio Pasolini talks with François Ozon about Time to Leave. Also in Kamera: Michelle Le Blanc and Colin Odell begin telling the story of Coffin Joe.

One fell swoop: Ray Pride talks with Chen Kaige, Jeff Feuerzeig, Wim Wenders and Nicole Holofcener, plus takes on a full handful of movies. Also: 5 new DVDs.

Bravo: Kino's picked up Old Joy, reports indieWIRE. Also: Kim Adelman's "Shorts Monthly" column focuses on the Brothers Quay and their influence.

Girish catches a program of avant films at the George Eastman House: "[T]he revelation of the evening (of the year, even?) was the work of Austrian filmmaker Martin Arnold. No overstatement: An electrifying experience."

Perhaps you've seen the new trailer for World Trade Center and would concur with J Hoberman: Disaster movies are no fun anymore. In 2004, they took on "pretensions to responsibility" (The Day After Tomorrow. Now, "New disaster is experiential and communal. Explicit in its use of real time, United 93 is designed for audience participation."

Also in the Village Voice:

• Michael Atkinson: "Exhilaratingly anxious, Dominik Moll's new film Lemming charts familiar territory but does it with gravity and panache." More from Ed Gonzalez in Slant and Keith Phipps in the AV Club.

• Dennis Lim on 12 and Holding: "[Michael] Cuesta's new poisoned valentine to adolescence, a tragicomedy of pubertal acting out, is likewise premised on the clueless self-involvement of parents and the innate wisdom of children." More from Keith Uhlich in Slant and Noel Murray in the AV Club.

"Tracking Shots" and more from Slant and the AV Club:

• Nick Schager, Tasha Robinson and New Times reviewer Robert Wilonsky on Over the Hedge.

• Scott Tobias and the LA Weekly's Ella Taylor on Just My Luck.

• City Pages' Rob Nelson on A Lion in the House.

• Atkinson, Robinson and James Marsh on The King.

• Melissa Levine and Ed Gonzalez on Forgiving Dr Mengele.

• Luke Y Thompson and Schager on Mouth to Mouth.

Dennis Harvey wonders what a terrific actor like Ed Norton is doing in the "misguided" Down in the Valley (The Philadelphia Weekly's Sean Burns gives the film a "C-"). Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Cheryl Eddy prefers Somersault to Just My Luck, but really recommends The Fall of Fujimori.

Up-n-coming:

• Universal and Imagine have bought the rights to "The School," an Esquire article about the Beslan tragedy.

• Uma Thurman's bought the rights to the international bestseller, The Swarm.

• Catherine Keener and Ellen Page in An American Crime, with Christine Vachon listed among the producers.

"There is no degradation in digital duplication, no aging. Whereas analogue corresponded to human aging, getting worn out, getting blurry and ultimately useless, digital images always (theoretically) retain their youth, their sharpness, their brightly defined features." Nick Rombes considers David Lynch's DV experiment.

Hollywood is Talking interviews Sujuwa Ekanayake (scroll down a bit.. but slowly; there's fun stuff along the way).

David Austin at Cinema Strikes Back: "Day Watch, the sequel to the Russian sci-fi/fantasy blockbuster Night Watch, lives up to its billing."

Notably Not Coming to a Theater Near You: Tom Huddleston on Shoot the Piano Player and Rumsey Taylor on Days of Heaven.

Robert Avila profiles filmmaker William Farley for SF360.

Just launched: The Journal of Short Film blog.

Brent Schlender has a longish piece in Fortune on John Lasseter's story and his plans for Disney. Via Cartoon Brew. More in this issue of Fortune: Marc Gunther on forward thinking at Fox, Julia Boorstin on Ken Tsujihara, the new head of Warner Bros' Home Entertainment Division, and Stephanie N Mehta on crucial renegade financiers.

In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (and in German), a Buñuel package: Christiane Habermalz on the scandal in Franco's Spain when Viridiana won the Palme d'Or in 1961; Carlos Saura explains why Buñuel was so very important to his generation; László F. Földényi is still shaken by Las Hurdes (1932).

Pascal Mérigeau argues in Nouvel Observateur (and in French) that television is killing French cinema. Via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau."

Online browsing and viewing tip. New Frontiers in American Documentary Film. Focus: the 30s. Via Coudal Partners.

Online viewing tip #1. The trailer for Tom Tykwer's Perfume (in German).

Online viewing tip #2. Spike Priggen at Bedazzled: "I put together a little video podcast."

Online viewing tip #3. Clips from Lola, written and directed by Filmmaker managing editor Matthew Ross.

Online viewing tip #4. The Tale of How. Via The Crime in Your Coffee.

Online viewing tip #5. The trailer for Alison Chernick's Matthew Barney: No Restraint. Via Greg Allen.

Online viewing tips #6 and #7. Todd at Twitch has found a new trailer for György Pálfi's Taxidermia. Also, ABKCO Films has a showreel of the films by Alejandro Jodorowsky it's remastering with interjections from the cult director himself. As Todd says, "Not at all safe for work, but pretty much required viewing."

Posted by dwhudson at May 17, 2006 5:04 PM