Politics and shorts.

Five years ago, Mark Cousins argued that, no matter how liberal Hollywood enjoyed perceiving itself, its films delivered an essentially right-wing point of view. In the current issue of Prospect, he explains why he sees that changing, as Hollywood's narratives move away from loners and toward collectives.

Steve Ramos at indieWIRE: "Non-fiction filmmakers Steven Bognar and partner and co-director Julia Reichert spent years filming inside and around Cincinnati Children's Hospital for their film A Lion in the House and the result is an epic, engaging journey and a rare opportunity to experience what families undergo when one of their children is facing death."

"Given that Secuestro Express delivers a forceful message about the corrosive effects of social inequality, it is difficult to understand why a left-wing government would object to it so strongly," writes Alice O'Keefe in the New Statesman. In fact, Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz voted for Hugo Chávez, he tells her: "But all this has shown me that his revolution is based on social hatred. Secuestro Express promotes social evolution, based on dialogue and understanding between social classes. Chávez knows that the moment the rich and the poor get together to work for a better Venezuela, that's the day the revolution is dead."

Girish on Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie), also known as Every Man for Himself: "Late Godard is often referred to as his 'transcendental period' and this movie is where that period begins."

It's Jacques Tati Day at Dennis Cooper's place. Via Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker.

Michael Tully: "Werckmeister Harmonies is, objectively speaking, a towering work of art, a portrait of humanity so tender, so striking, so profound, that I had to watch it again the very next day in order to prove that I hadn't hallucinated it."

Tom Huddleston at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "Nightmare Alley is an obscure post-war thriller, a noirish tale of circus fakes and con men every bit as crafty and exploitative as the characters it depicts, and just as much fun." Also, Teddy Blanks on Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty.

"No word on what it means for the unreleased product from Miramax days such as Tears of the Black Tiger, or the recent acquisition of distrib rights to the Tartan USA Asian-themed catalog, but Weinsteinco's introduced at Cannes a whole new pile-up of a label they're dubbing 'Dragon Dynasty,' 'the dynamic new label under which all The Weinstein Company's Asian titles will be released,'" writes Ray Pride at Movie City Indie before running the release with the details, most prominent of which is Quentin Tarantino. And at Movie City News, Ray reviews The Proposition, "simply the most astonishing released film I've seen so far this year" (related: James Parker talks to Nick Cave for the Boston Phoenix), The Da Vinci Code, Lady Vengeance and X-Men: The Last Stand.

More on X-Men from Armond White in the New York Press, Michael Agger at Slate, Nathan Rabin at the AV Club, Ryan Stewart at Cinematical and Nick Schager at Slant, where you'll also find Ed Gonzalez on Cavite, Stagedoor, Shem and La Moustache.

"If L.I.E. was about the warping of children's love for their parents, 12 and Holding is a form of child abuse all its own," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly. "It may reek of contrivance and that irrepressible urge to shock for shock's sake, but 12 and Holding is downright deep compared to the reflexive sadism of Dead Man's Shoes, a putative black comedy with lofty pretensions to Greek tragedy by British director Shane Meadows."

"In one year's time, the number of Austin-based production companies listed in the Texas Film Commission's indispensable 2006 Texas Production Manual has more than doubled," notes Marc Savlov in the Austin Chronicle, where he goes on to profile several, "all, by definition, production companies, but they're also each as unique in their aim and approach as the films and filmmakers they seek out or who seek out them. In a very real sense, they're the backbone of Austin's burgeoning film community, as essential - and as essentially varied - as the medium itself."

Also, Toddy Burton: "Once upon a time, the economy collapsed. Laid off from his tech job in 2001, [Jeffrey] Travis decided to try his hand at filmmaking." Maybe you've heard of Flatland?

And Raoul Hernandez enjoys Criterion's release of Dazed and Confused.

Meanwhile, Richard Linklater's saying his next project will be "a small jazz movie" about Chet Baker, notes Cinematical's Martha Fischer. She's also got news of Spike Lee's next one.

In what ways is 4 an inversion of Hostel? Johnny Ray Huston, writing in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, can think of a few.

Jim Ridley in the Nashville Scene: "'In August 2003, a group of hairdressers from America opened a beauty school in Kabul.' That's the kind of opening line that makes you lean forward in your chair, and Liz Mermin's documentary The Beauty Academy of Kabul doesn't disappoint."

"What's a good laugh worth in Hollywood these days?" asks Sharon Waxman in the New York Times. "Apparently, less than $112 million." A report on the demise of Used Guys. Commentary: David Poland and Nikki Finke.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan? Michael Billington looks back on a plethora of actors messin' round with gender roles in film and theater history. Also in the Guardian: "The Da Vinci Code raises the question of whether printed and broadcast opinion matters at all." From a slightly different angle, Mark Lawson asks once again: "Has our culture now created a sort of genetically modified turkey - the critic-proof product?"

Nick Rombes wonders what Walter Benjamin would have had to say about YouTube.

David Poland compares and contrasts the domestic and international trailers for Ghost Rider.

Speaking of trailers, at Back of the Trailer, Aaron Goranson reviews, yes, trailers.

And speaking of new blogs, New Guy director Bilge Ebiri is now blogging at Nerve: ScreenGrab, it's called.

If you're in LA, Kevin Crust's got a recommendation for you in the Los Angeles Times: "The New Bev has gotten a bad rap in recent years for its unabashedly down-market decor, but the theater's sound and projection have been upgraded and it retains much of its uniqueness as the city's only true revival theater."

Online browsing tip. The site for Bret Wood's Psychopathia Sexualis. Via Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker.

Online listening tip. At Slate, Andy Bowers and Mark Jordan Legan talk about the so-bad-they're-good movies in which animals run amok.

Online viewing tip. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Foutaises (Rubbish) at ticklebooth and No Fat Clips!!!

Posted by dwhudson at May 25, 2006 4:28 PM