August 16, 2006

Sight & Sound. 09/06.

Night Moves The Edinburgh International Film Festival is off and running through August 27 and Sight & Sound spotlights ten top events while noting that the "jewel in the crown" of the fest's 60th anniversary is They Might Be Giants: Other Voices From the New American Cinema, "a fulsome program of great but now overlooked US films of the 1970s."

David Thomson scans the program: "You may realise already - even if your personal sense of cinema began in 1977 with the disastrous Star Wars - that there were fascinating things coming out nearly every month in the years beforehand. I'm not sure that anyone in Edinburgh wants that many masterpieces, but among the films that have impressed the selectors are Save the Tiger (1972), Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973), Karel Reisz's The Gambler (1974, screenplay by [James] Toback), Monte Hellman's Cockfighter (1974) and many others including one that does stand a chance in the masterpiece game: Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975)."

Reviews:

Sight & Sound: September 06

  • Tim Lucas: "Equal parts head and heart, densely textured with history, politics and love of cinema, Electric Shadows is perhaps most surprising in the right it earns to be approached simply as an endearing piece of popular entertainment."

  • Peter Matthews: "Though it may seem churlish to knock a film-maker whose only crime has been a naked desire to please audiences, Volver really is one of Pedro Almodóvar's weaker efforts."

  • Amy Taubin: "Like recent break-out documentaries such as Fahrenheit 9/11 or Super Size Me, An Inconvenient Truth ties a life-or-death social/political issue to a single crusading personality. The strategy has enormous audience appeal," but: "Only someone who wants to divert attention from the issue of global warming would tar An Inconvenient Truth as a presidential campaign film."

  • Mark Sinker: "Somewhere in the unresolved spaces between its best ingredients, Tideland pokes at the bogeys mired deep in any adult recreation of the child mind. Lewis Carroll unnerves us today far more than Hitchcock, but plenty of viewers won't thank Gilliam for going there."



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Posted by dwhudson at August 16, 2006 4:51 AM

Comments

The Tideland review is pretty cowardly - ascribing some very negative views to a phantom, hypothetical audience. Made me a little angry, of course - but then, that's Sight and Sound for you.

Posted by: Brendon Connelly at August 16, 2006 5:24 AM

A pretty strong list. Not much to quibble with, though I'm sure everyone can think of a few titles to add ("The Last Movie", "Citizens Band", "Between the Lines", "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", "Martin", a few more Blacksploitation and genre titles...) I'm surprised anyone shares my fond recollection for "Busting".., a buddy/cop movie featuring the unlikely pairing of Elliott Gould and Robert Blake... And I think "Night Moves" is overrated.

Posted by: Robert at August 16, 2006 7:03 AM