Shorts, 4/3.

DK Holm looks over the new issue of Film Quarterly: "The most potentially controversial essay in the paper is Jonathan Rosenbaum's meditations on Internet movie criticism. Good ol' J-Ro, he can't help but cause trouble!"

Also at ScreenGrab, Paul Clark:

While Privilege is the closest [Peter] Watkins ever came to making a mainstream feature - a rock 'n' roll drama bankrolled by Universal Pictures - it's nonetheless difficult to find. I finally caught up with the film last weekend at a "Secret Cinema" screening (basically, you buy a ticket not knowing what they'll show), and I'm ecstatic to report that it's one of the director's greatest films. And while the film's genre and studio funding might lead one to believe that it's somehow softer than his other classics, this isn't the case. Privilege is as corrosive a vision as any Watkins has ever put on the screen.

"I'm amazed by the obscurity, in America, of even the greatest figures of Quebecois film history: Michel Brault, Claude Jutra, Pierre Perrault, Gilles Groulx, etc," writes Girish. "So, what I've done here is throw together a small and highly personal collection of strong Quebecois cinema I've had the fortune to discover over the years." It is, of course, thrown together quite nicely.

"It's the kind of Canadian character study that takes its pacing queues from its wintry setting and its multicharacter miseries and sexual awakenings from the Atom Egoyan playbook (a Callum Keith Rennie cameo is requisite); for a while [director Amnon] Buchbinder balances it all with aplomb, allowing [Daniel] MacIvor's generous, giving acting to take center stage." Yes, Michael Koresky, writing for indieWIRE, lists a few objections, but "Whole New Thing remains a good-natured take on the idiosyncrasies of that baffling period before growth becomes commensurate with maturity."

"It's taken over two years for Police Beat to go from being one of the most praised films at Sundance to a theater near you," writes Dennis Harvey at SF360. "This is understandable enough, for largely the same reasons that director-coscenarist Robinson Devor is one of the most talented, distinctive and truly independent US filmmakers working today."

"Nobody came on to the movie camera - wrapped it in a bear hug and wrestled it to submission - like Betty Hutton," writes Richard Corliss for Time. "If there was one Hollywood figure who appreciated Hutton's talents, and who matched her drive with his, that would be Frank Loesser."

"Running out of ammo before its (myriad) conclusions are complete, and perhaps not as consistently funny as [Edgar] Wright and [Simon] Pegg's prior collaboration, the diligently silly Hot Fuzz still thrives on a type of irresistibly geeky fanboy cine-passion," writes Nick Schager at Slant, where Dan Callahan finds that Lonely Hearts "founders on hilarious miscasting all the way down the line."

"Neil Jordan is to write and direct an adaptation of bestselling horror novel Heart-Shaped Box for Warner Bros," reports Time Out's Chris Tilly.

At Cinematical, Jennifer DeFilippo has news of an adaptation of John Le Carré's The Mission Song.

"I wouldn't characterize The Namesake as an entirely successful film," writes Chiranjit Goswami at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "However, there is an endearing quality to The Namesake, simply because it's about the closest reflection of my life that I've watched on film."

"Bad Blood by Tiago Guedes and Frederico Serra has won Best Film at Portugal's Golden Globes (Globos de Ouro) ceremony," reports Vitor Pinto at Cineuropa.

"Admirers of the lost tradition of darkness and subversion in sci-fi movies - from Kubrick's 2001 through Tarkovsky's Solaris to Ridley Scott's Alien - will be chuffed to hear of any rotten egg being chucked at the Church of Star Wars. Serenity, though?" The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw responds to a poll of SFX readers.

Movie City News points out a Sydney Morning Herald interview with Audrey Tautou; the occasion is the release of Priceless.

"Could it be that opium is the perfect cinematic drug?" wonders Paul Matwychuk.

Harper's relaunches.

Online salivating tip. A Cakework Orange, via Coudal Partners.

Online viewing tip #1. David Poland chats with Richard Dreyfuss in Bermuda.

Online viewing tip #2. Faisal Qureshi at ScreenGrab: "[S]omeone has put an entire 13-part TV series interview with [John] Frankenheimer on the net."

Posted by dwhudson at April 3, 2007 6:37 AM