Weekend shorts.

Jeffrey Wells has seen Superman Returns and writes that it "feels like a truly personal film that came from somebody's heart... It's a hell of an upgrade (it refines and deepens in the tradition of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins), an extremely reverent nostalgia piece, an above-average chick flick, an extremely sumptous and harmonious piece of work ([Bryan] Singer is a masterful technican and film 'composer') and, frequently enough, a solid action thriller."

More from the Boston Herald's Stephen Schaeffer: "What Singer’s done is a dandy trick: He's honored the tradition of Superman as a quintessentially 20th-century American myth and simultaneously given the Man of Steel a home (cinematically) in the 21st century.... Even better, Singer has transformed Superman, the alien from another planet with his extraordinary powers, into a majestic, awe-inspiring figure, not a kiddie comic book guy in tights."

"Ernest Hemingway once said that all of American literature could be traced back to one book, Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and something similar might be said of American cinema and The Searchers," writes AO Scott. "It has become one of those movies that you see, in part, through the movies that came after it and that show traces of its influence."

Also in the New York Times:

• Terrence Rafferty on Catherine Deneuve: "[F]ew actresses have borne the strain of being an object of desire for longer, or with better grace.... The five movies in which she has been directed by [André] Téchiné — Hôtel des Amériques (1981), Scene of the Crime (1986), My Favorite Season (1993), Thieves (1996) and Changing Times — explore her ordinary qualities as scrupulously as Buñuel and Mr Polanski (and, in his different way, Demy) explored her extraordinary ones in the 60s; Mr Téchiné's moving, determinedly low-key films about the complexities of everyday love are the defining achievements of Ms Deneuve's latter-day career." Related: Ed Gonzalez reviews Changing Times in Slant.

• For a piece on Edmond, Neil Amdur talks to David Mamet, William H Macy and Stuart Gordon.

• Anupama Chopra introduces us to Krrish, "a film that showcases Bollywood's first fully realized Superman-style hero."

• Charlotte Chandler's Bette Davis: The Girl Who Walked Home Alone "often makes for lively, if frustrating, reading," writes Stephanie Zacharek. "The story is told largely in Davis's own words, and her recollections of her early years... as well as of her adventures in Hollywood in the 30s, are sharp and affecting. But Chandler has organized Davis's reflections around plot synopses of every picture she ever made. And in a book about actors — as opposed to, say, writers — plot synopses mean next to nothing: it's the performances that give life to a film."

• More book reviews this week of probably interest: Claire Dederer on Matthew Pearl's The Poe Shadow, Daniel Swift on Richard Davenport-Hines's Proust at the Majestic: The Last Days of the Author Whose Book Changed Paris, Peter Keepnews on James Maguire's Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan and Garrison Keillor on Charles J Shields's Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Related: Stephen Metcalf asks in Slate, "Other wild-child staples, like Catcher in the Rye or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, have inspired shelves of highbrow sponsorship. Why hasn't To Kill a Mockingbird?"

More new Slant reviews: Nick Schager on Wordplay, The Blood of My Brother and Who Killed the Electric Car?; Ed Gonzalez on Lower City, Excellent Cadavers, Going Under and Room.

"[Robert] Aldrich died in 1983 but he'd be having a ball if he were alive now," writes John Patterson. "He wouldn't be churning out boring tracts like Syriana or incoherent tripe like V For Vendetta, he'd be working in a solidly populist vein, integrating his leftwing politics into all manner of raucous genre entertainment." Also in the Guardian, a bit of up-n-coming news featuring Peter Jackson and Uma Thurman and a non-film-related must-read comes from Pankaj Mishra: "The neo-orientalist reconceptualising of India and China ignores or suppresses large aspects of their recent history." Related: John Gray reviews Mishra's Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan and Beyond.

Predictably, An Inconvenient Truth has been attacked by the oil industry and Fox News - Ray Pride notes that even CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck remains sadly ignorant of Godwin's Law - but Salon's Katharine Mieszkowski asks around and finds: "Climate scientists who have seen Gore's film say on the whole it presents a scientifically valid view of global warming and does a good job of presenting what's likely to occur if human-induced greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated."

Kristin Hohenadel talks with Kenneth Branagh about his adaptation of Mozart's Magic Flute. Related: Magnificent and free Mozart downloads at the Guardian, which is also running one of Edward Said's last pieces, a consideration of Così fan tutte.

Also in the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Goldstein talks with Victor Salva about Peaceful Warrior - and about his own time behind bars.

The Oregonian's Shawn Levy has a good long talk with Garrison Keillor. More on A Prairie Home Companion: In Stop Smiling, Nick Pinkerton finds it a "lovely, funny surprise," and for Steve Erickson, writing in Gay City News, it's "one of the sweetest, most cheerful films Robert Altman has ever made"; or it's "a nearly plotless jumble of pure delight" (Greg at Lucid Screening); David Pratt-Robson notes at videoarcadia that it's "being pronounced as his most 'humanistic movie,' which amounts to congratulating a great movie for the wrong reason."

Besides that review, Nick Pinterton's got an interview with Altman in Reverse Shot, where Leah Churner reviews Agnes and His Brothers and Justin Stewart reviews Winter Soldier.

Michael Agger on Cars: "Lasseter and his team would naturally have affection for the local and unique. It's a mirror of the way Pixar works, with each animator perfecting his own small patch of brilliance.... It's impossible to find more joy in the dark at the moment." Also in Slate, Troy Patterson on the MTV Movie Awards.

Considering the number of people who've read the book, the fact that there were few Christian protests until Ron Howard's version of The Da Vinci Code came along speaks volumes about the power of film, notes Stanley Kauffmann in the New Republic. Related, and via Movie City News, Peter Howell's open letter to Howard on why he (Howard) screwed up by ignoring the advice he (Howell) offered two years ago.

"[W]ho would have expected the dark moody pleasures on offer from El Aura?" asks Kurt at Twitch. "El Aura riffs on Antonioni's The Passenger and Nolan's Memento (sans backward narrative) with liberal dashes of Lynch's Twin Peaks for good measure." Also, "Is Turkey's 3 Dev Adam the most cult of all cult films?" Todd asks. "It just might be."

Ben on The Last Seduction at the Whine Colored Sea: "I want my film noirs unapologetically mean and black as pitch, that's why [John] Dahl's exercise in evil will always warm my heart."

Designer Frank Kozik picks his top ten Criterion titles.

The AP reports that Entertainment Weekly has put The Passion of the Christ at the top of its list of the "25 Most Controversial Movies of All Time." Nikki Finke's got the full list - and comments.

Speaking of EW, Lisa Schwarzbaum's ten favorite Meryl Streep performances. Speaking of Meryl Streep, Nathaniel R declares June Meryl Streep Month.

Up-n-coming news, all via Cinematical:

• Smaller, indier films from Spielberg.

• An adaptation of Matthew Bogdanos and William Patrick's Thieves of Baghdad.

• Vadim Perelman's adaptation of Laura Kasischke's The Life Before Her Eyes, Bloom, with Uma Thurman.

• Grace is Gone, with John Cusack.

• An adaptation of Talent.

At Hollywood Bitchslap, Collin Souter talks with Jonathan Demme and Neil Young about Heart of Gold.

"I was Russell Crowe's stooge" is the title of the article by Jack Marx in the Sydney Morning Herald making the rounds out there. Little wonder.

Bradford Nordeen on Interview With the Vampire: "Neil Jordan has to be about the gayest heterosexual filmmaker the world has ever seen.... File this one under guilty pleasures with very few actual redeeming qualities."

Grady Hendrix: "The New York Asian Film Festival kicks off next week (June 16 - July 1) and we've added a truckload of events and special guests." Also: A roundup of Election reviews in the UK press.

Brian Brooks previews the Nantucket Film Festival (June 14 through 18) for indieWIRE.

The Reeler looks back on a year of blogging.

Brian Newman points to a face-off on the BBC between the MPAA's Dan Glickman and the EFF's John Perry Barlow and notes that the MPAA "is going to keep fighting this war, and keep losing, for quite some time. It would be interesting to see them take their collective heads out of the sand and think about the possibilities of addressing the changes due to the internet, instead of reacting in a manner that alienates their consumers."

Online viewing tip #1. Twitch's Todd has found nine minutes of Pavel Ruminov's Dead Daughters.

Online viewing tip #2. The trailer for Genuine Nerd.

Online viewing tip #3. Philip Giorgias talks with Pericles Hoursoglou about Matia Apa Nichta (Eyes of Night).

Online viewing tip #4. Dana Linssen interviews Peter Greenaway for SubmarineChannel. It's likely that you've heard his opening argument before, but this time it's spiced up with clips from the Tulse Luper project and his thoughts on what he feels he's actually doing about the crisis he perceives in cinemahh. Via ticklebooth.

Online viewing tip #5. Never Coming Home is a series at Slate on the families of five young men killed in Iraq.

Posted by dwhudson at June 10, 2006 3:36 PM