Weekend shorts.

The April/May 08 issue of Bookforum is up, and of specific interest to cinephiles will be Bilge Ebiri's backgrounder on David Gordon Green's adaptation of Stewart O'Nan novel, Snow Angels, and J Hoberman on Mark Evanier's "lavish celebration," Kirby: King of Comics.

Related: Geoff Boucher in the Los Angeles Times on David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.

Also in the LAT, Susan Salter Reynolds: "With his estate finally in some kind of order, a movie of Brave New World is in the works, produced by George DiCaprio and starring his son, Leonardo, directed by Ridley Scott with a screenplay by Andrew Nicholls. The respected New York agent Georges Borchardt is shepherding new editions of his books and selling foreign rights to a world market hungry for [Aldous] Huxley's work (especially those countries of the former Soviet bloc). We are, it is safe to say, on the eve of a Huxley revival."

Friday was Stan Brakhage day at DC's.

Robert Drew, Barbara Kopple and Alex Gibney are just a few of the presenters lined up for the Cinema Eye Honors. AJ Schnack has details.

At Wellesnet, Lawrence French presents "Peter Bogdanovich's comments regarding the status of completing The Other Side of the Wind as recorded in San Francisco on March 9, 2008."

Matthew Sweet's got a new documentary, Truly, Madly, Cheaply: British B-Movies. "[T]he cheapness and the marginality of these films is now the very thing that makes them seem so rich," he writes. "In the past year, I've watched hundreds of the things, and come to love their bargain-bucket pleasures."

Also in the Guardian:

• "Harmony Korine's new film is a whimsical, lazily conceived tragicomedy about lookalike impersonators, and it is so pointless and irritating that after a while I literally found it difficult to breathe," writes Peter Bradshaw, whose pan is part of the Guardian's Mister Lonely package, which includes a clip and interviews with Korine (Charlotte O'Sullivan) and James Fox (Laura Barton). More from Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman: "I think Mister Lonely really clicks into place once you take it as a tale of actual celebrities rather than impostors."

• Apala Chowdhury on a series of shorts "produced under the umbrella of Mira Nair's Aids Jaago (Aids Awake) film project and directed by some of India's leading filmmakers."

• Matt Mueller talks with Ryan Gosling. So does Kevin Maher for the London Times.

"Feature films set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland constitute a mini-genre in their own right," writes Geoffrey Macnab in the Independent.

The Telegraph's David Gritten reports from Botswana and the set of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Bob Westal is hardly surprised by David Mamet's "new" political persona.

In the New York Times:

• "What distinguishes Horton Hears a Who! from the other recent Dr Seuss film adaptations - How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat in the Hat, in case you need reminding - is that it is not one of the worst movies ever made," writes AO Scott. More from Carina Chocano (LAT), Richard Corliss (Time), Alonso Duralde (MSNBC), Ruth Graham (New York Sun), Jerry Portwood (New York Press), Scott Tobias (AV Club), Mary Elizabeth Williams (Salon) and Matt Zoller Seitz (House Next Door).

• "Filmed mostly in winter, in browns, grays and soiled whites, Sleepwalking sustains a mood of unrelenting bleakness, wearing its aesthetic of desolation like a badge of integrity," writes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "Integrity and quality, unfortunately, are not synonymous." More from Kevin Crust (Los Angeles Times), Nathan Rabin (AV Club), Richard Schickel (Time), Martin Tsai (New York Sun) and Stephanie Zacharek (Salon).

• Laura Kern on Towards Darkness: "As an alternative, watch Secuestro Express (2004), about a similar kidnapping in Venezuela, which conveys the grave urgency of the situation with style and suspense, something the well-intentioned Towards Darkness only glimpses."

• "Manifesting all the nuance and insight of a music video, Never Back Down plays like a pop-psychology seminar on fathers and sons," writes Jeannette Catsoulis. More from Scott Tobias (AV Club).

• Also, Wetlands Preserved: "Crammed with colorful interviews, digital animation and live performances, this frisky and forthright film by Dean Budnick chronicles a vision of financing social progress with really great tunes."

• And: "Set in Hong Kong just before the city's return to Chinese rule, Flash Point plays like the last hurrah of a criminal underclass facing the inevitable shrinking of its bottom line."

• Plus: "The conflicts may change, but the verbiage remains the same in War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, a depressing look at political manipulation and news media compliance." More from Bruce Bennett (New York Sun). Related: Norman Solomon's a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show.

• For Matt Zoller Seitz, Sputnik Mania's "main asset is its style." More from Nicolas Rapold (New York Sun), Vadim Rizov (House Next Door) and Raphaela Weissman (New York Press). Related: Director David Hoffman and co-writer Paul Dickson are guests on the Leonard Lopate Show.

• Also: "Doomsday has an appealing punk-rock sneer, but aside from a few clever music cues - including a Fine Young Cannibals song that accompanies a deranged bacchanal given by fine young cannibals - swagger is, unfortunately, its only notable quality." More from Rob Humanick and Steven Hyden (AV Club).

David Pratt-Robson in the Auteurs' Notebook: "It's all gloss over the real goal, sexual diversion, or just sex; [The Duchess of Langeais] isn't so much a movie that finds love the only thing worth living for, but more one that prays to god that this hellish thing isn't really as good as earthly existence gets."

"The Unforeseen has the title of a science fiction thriller, not a thoughtful documentary on the environment, but there's truth in that packaging," writes Kenneth Turan. "As directed by Laura Dunn, this unusual film unfolds like a mournful whodunit, with the Earth itself being the victim of the crime." (More from Walter Addiego in the San Francisco Chronicle). Also, Beaufort is "one of the strongest examples yet of a fearless new wave that has made Israel's cinema a force on the international scene."

Also in the LAT, Carina Chocano: "Snow Angels begins with a wink, but it ends with a sucker punch. And somehow this doesn't feel fair."

"Who is Henry Jaglom? often seems less about the creative process than in painting him as an eccentric despot," writes Ray Young.

Noel Murray talks with Alex Cox for the AV Club.

Adam Ross's interviewee this week: Erich Kuersten.

"Animated & Forgotten: Feature-Length 'Cartoons' You May Not Remember" is an annotated list from Bullz Eye.

Posted by dwhudson at March 15, 2008 8:27 PM