Shorts, 11/28.

"Lav Diaz's Kagadanan sa banwaan ning mga Engkanto (Death in the Land of Encantos, 2007) might be the possible result if you took Spike Lee's 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke, recast it in Andrei Tarkovsky mode, stretched it to Béla Tarr length, added a dash of Abbas Kiarostami-like meta-cinema, sprinkled it with a few ideas from Mario O'Hara, and set it in the Bicol region," writes Noel Vera. "Possible, though I wonder if said bastard offspring will be anywhere near as strange as this."

"[O]n a one-to-10 creep-o-meter scale, [Awake] gets a seven," writes Kent Sepkowitz, a physician, at Slate. But is there really such a thing as "anesthetic awareness"? "Yes, it happens, yes, it is awful, and while it doesn't happen as much as you might fear, it does so more often than the specialists think. But no, there is no vicious coverup. That part is all Hollywood."

"Writing about Laurel and Hardy comes easy. Finding previously unpublished photos is the challenge." But John McElwee's got a great batch at Greenbriar Picture Shows.

Hitchcock's I Confess is "actually an even stronger film than I remembered, one so claustrophobic that would be downright neurotic if it wasn't so tightly reigned in by a pious overlying Catholic sensibility," writes Jesse Ataide.

"Named after legendary flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla's groundbreaking record album (which, in turn, was inspired by the works of Andalusian poet, Federico García Lorca), Isaki Lacuesta's The Legend of Time melds the improvised encounters of Johan van der Keuken's ethnographic documentaries with the quotidian intimacy of Mercedes Álvarez's El cielo gira to create a understated, yet meticulously observed meditation on grief, identity, and self-expression," writes acquarello.

"He's the most visionary filmmaker of his generation, a genius toiling away in relative obscurity while others of his ilk milk the Internet and festival circuit for every last fame whoring morsel," writes Bill Gibron at PopMatters. "Yet when compared to their weak-minded (and -kneed) efforts, Damon Packard stands apart. Born in the 60s, reared in the 70s, and gifted with the amazing ability to channel post-modern moviemaking into a stream of savant-like subconsciousness, he is single-handedly reinventing the idiom of film."

In the Voice:

• The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard "reminisces on the era of the homegrown, working-class, day-jobbing pro athlete," notes Nick Pinkerton. "There's not much, finally, to lift this thing above its necessarily niche appeal." Also: "A strong performance at the Argentine box office confirming its national-historical import, Chronicle of an Escape dramatizes the testimony of escapees from General Jorge Rafael Videla's right-wing junta, in power during the long 'Dirty War' years of the late 70s and early 80s."

• Michael Fox finds Oswald's Ghost "riveting yet ultimately unsatisfying." More from Vadim Rizov at the Reeler: "With virtually no fresh territory left to cover on the JFK documentary front, [Robert] Stone offers up a history not of the assassination, but of the many theories surrounding it. Dull but well-meaning, it neither adds to nor subtracts from that other Stone movie about JFK, but it's a necessary attempt."

• "An appalling mix of bird-brained satire, sub-protozoan thesping, and (non-)direction, Be My Oswald, about the attempted murder of Santa Claus, is a lame attempt at aping the looseness, sincerity, and campy surfeit of Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol's film collaborations," writes Ed Gonzalez.

• "Never had a chance to catch the long-running Off-Broadway show Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding?" asks Julia Wallace. "Don't worry - the not-exactly-long-awaited movie version is here, trading in stereotypes just as ineptly as the original."

• Aaron Hillis on Badland: "Barely a ripple in this year's wave of returning Iraq War-veteran dramas (Home of the Brave, In the Valley of Elah, et al), writer-director Francesco Lucente's overconfident, emotionally forced 160-minute opus offers trite antiwar platitudes - at best - in chronicling the anguished existence of a soldier who can't shake the horrors he experienced in Fallujah."

The Rape of Europa is "a documentary that's, in its way, as exciting as any superior Hollywood product," writes Matt Prigge in the Philadelphia Weekly.

Newsy bits from the Guardian: "Mark Ruffalo is joining Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Shutter Island, a 50s-set crime thriller directed by Martin Scorsese." And "Gong Li and John Cusack could make sweet love in a second world war epic entitled Shanghai."

Many thanks to Jerry Lentz for these bits:

• The British man driving the car that killed Cristian Nemescu, director of the Un Certain Regard Award-winning California Dreamin', as well as his sound engineer and taxi driver back in August 06, will not be allowed to leave Romania.

• news that fashion designer Tom Ford is considering directing an adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's A Single Man.

• "Montreal filmmaker Mehrnoushe Solouki, who was arrested in Iran after stumbling across a mass grave, says she believes the government is using her as a warning to other dual citizens."

• Hannah Brown profiles Lost and Found director Savi Gabizon for the Jerusalem Post: "Asked how he feels about the renaissance in Israeli film over the past few years, he says, 'It's wonderful, like a miracle. I can't believe it's happening. Every festival all over the world has to have an Israeli film now, and Israeli films are winning all over.'"

• Joel Barkin talks with Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed, Wal Mart: The High Cost of Low Price) for Progressive States Network.

"[I]t's time to rain praise on [Ross] Lipman," announces Johnny Ray Huston in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "Not only has he directed his and UCLA's attention toward [Kenneth] Anger and Charles Burnett - two filmmakers whose non-Hollywood artistry would have deteriorated and vanished otherwise - he's delivered superb restorations that will change the way you see classic works. Both Anger collections deserve a place next to the just-released Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection as one of this year's most vital and rewarding DVD collections."

At Cinematical, Peter Martin has a round-up of Asian films just out on DVD.

"Strand Releasing announced that it has acquired all US rights to Fatih Akin's The Edge of Heaven, Germany's entry for this year's Academy Awards," notes Peter Knegt at indieWIRE.

According to Michael Cieply in the New York Times, Disney and Pixar are "wrestling with a conundrum posed by" Ratatouille: "Any move to promote it as the year's best picture might lead to ballot-splitting that would diminish its chances of getting the less prestigious but more easily won Oscar for best animated film. More than a technical issue, the dilemma goes to the heart of Hollywood's evolving attitude toward animated movies."

Also: "The great relief of DA Pennebaker's 65 Revisited - which pulls together never-released footage shot for his documentary Don't Look Back - is that this time you can hear the songs in their entirety," writes Manohla Dargis. After all, "the songs were as much a part of this youthquaking sensation as his pipe-cleaner-skinny legs, his fuzzy 'fro, bobbing head, sly smile, riffs, rants, puns and playful, otherworldly genius." More from Bill Weber in Slant and Camille Dodero in the Voice. Related: Steve Dollar talks with Pennebaker for the New York Sun.

How bad did David Edelstein want to like I'm Not There? Bad. And he tried. A lot harder than other detractors, most definitely.

"[T]he notion among certain conservatives that Redacted's failure represents some sort of milestone in the imminent death of the entity they sometimes refer to as 'Hollyweird' is more than slightly ludicrous," blogs Glenn Kenny.

Gill Pringle profiles Paul Giamatti for the Independent.

For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with He Was a Quiet Man director Frank Cappello "about making Christian Slater bald, ugly and awkward, the best way to handle Russell Crowe, and how Dirt Bike magazine taught him how to write."

Nathaniel R's got a list: "10 Performances From 2007 That Deserved Better Films."

Erik Davis at Cinematical, Mr Skin's "Top 20 Movie Nude Scenes of 2007."

Online viewing tip. The Webby Awards' "12 Most Influential Online Videos of All Time," via Steve Bryant.

Posted by dwhudson at November 28, 2007 2:03 PM