Shorts, 5/22.

"Between 1998 and 2006, Hollywood studio films had combined production in Texas of more than $530 million, averaging eight or nine films a year, according to Texas Film Commission figures," writes Joe O'Connell in a cover story for the Austin Chronicle. "The entire year of 2007 eked out a mere $300,000 for the few days that A Mighty Heart landed in Austin." What's more, "Between 1998 and 2006, those Hollywood films produced more than 8,300 temporary crew jobs. In 2007, it was 20. Ouch." And: "It's no big surprise who the culprit is: States like neighboring New Mexico and Louisiana offer heftier incentives to entice Hollywood to come a-calling." Sidebar: "The Texas Film Commission crunched the numbers to compare what kind of incentives each state offers for a $20 million production. Of the country's filmmaking hubs, Texas came in dead last."

Also: Kimberley Jones on local filmmaker Brad Neely's new series for Adult Swim, China, IL, plus a brief on a bump in the road Monkey Wrench overcame when it set out to mark the 40th anniversary of May 68.

"Jonathan Demme has taken over from Martin Scorsese as director of an authorised documentary about Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley." The BBC reports.

Larry Gross's 48 Hrs diaries, continued at Movie City News.

In the LA Weekly, Robert Abele reviews Recount, "a docudrama of the fierce post–Election Day fight in Florida that determined whether George W Bush or Al Gore would win the presidency of the United States. (Spoiler alert: The United States lost.) Written with an eye for telling detail by Danny Strong, and directed in surprisingly nimble fashion by blockbuster-comedy wrangler Jay Roach (of the Austin Powers movies and Meet the Parents fame), it has the peculiarly alchemic structure of a nail-biting tragi-farce." More from Chicagoist Rob Christopher. Airs Sunday on HBO.

"Loath though I am to carp about any director who's devoted chunks of his career to bringing the non-white world's suffering to Western attention, Roger Spottiswoode's The Children of Huang Shi - a drama based on the life of an Englishman who saved an orphanage full of boys from Japanese invaders and Chinese nationalists in the 1930s - is a tale as ploddingly familiar as it is good-looking and worth telling," writes Ella Taylor in the Voice. "Personally, I'd rather have a bad movie that distracts Americans from their navels for a moment than none at all. But even by the tainted standards of subconsciously imperial storytelling, The Children of Huang Shi is weak." More from Alonso Duralde (MSNBC) and Raphaela Weissman (New York Press).

Also in the Voice, Ed Gonzalez on Insidious: "Ostensibly about the efforts of a young man named Donny (James Schram) to finance the very movie we're watching, this unwieldy Manhattan murder mystery with lame-brained aspirations to meta-ness boasts the plot of a dozen Abel Ferrara movies and the style and gravitas of none." More from Nick Schager in Slant.

"Released in France last year to glowing reviews, Ceux Qui Restent (Those Who Remain) went on to be nominated for three Cesars, including best first film," notes Matt Riviera. "Though it hasn't yet made much of an impact on the international festival circuit, the film should play well at French film festivals everywhere: it's a confident and accomplished debut from veteran actress Anne Le Ny, taking on writing-directing duties here for the first time.... Along with the subtle chemistry between the great Vincent Lindon and Emmanuelle Devos (last paired up in the terrific La Moustache), this capacity to prefer realism over narrative conventions is the strength this sweet and strangely satisfying film."

"When director Dorota Kedzierzawska was born on June 1, 1957, actress Danuta Szaflarska was already 42 years old and had been performing in films for almost a decade," writes Adam Balz at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "Over the next half-century they would each perfect their individual crafts - Szaflarska would quickly become a renowned actress while Kedzierzawska, on the eve of her 34th birthday, released her first feature film - until last year, when they joined together for Time to Die, an outwardly quaint and simplistic look at the last days of a 91-year-old Polish woman named Aniela."

Zach Campbell considers various treatments and context of the "close-up of female persecution."

Roaring along recently: A Film Canon.

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.

Dennis Cozzalio presents "Professor Brian O'Blivion's All-New Flesh for Memorial Day Film/TV Quiz."

"One of the things I most enjoyed about Texas Snow was [Aaron] Coffman's attention to the way that twentysomethings communicate, the late night confessions and revelations that usually take place several hours (and usually several beers) after most sane people have fallen asleep," writes Chuck Tryon.

Peter Capaldi (and a few others in the biz) have an amusing way of explaining the art of the pitch to Guardian readers.

At Movie City News, Noah Forrest talks with Michael Skolnik about Without the King.

Online browsing tip. The TimesMachine.

Online listening tip. Ed Champion talks with Ralph Bakshi.

Posted by dwhudson at May 22, 2008 2:49 PM