Brooklyn Rail. June 08.

"[T]his year a fascinating trend continues to emerge amidst the hyperbolic genre explosions the fest is known for: stream of consciousness slices of life, those who like a little representation with all that mythological presentation." Make the first click into the new issue of the Brooklyn Rail the roundup on the New York Asian Film Festival: David Wilentz on Fine Totally Fine, Dainipponjin, The Rebel, The Sparrow and Adrift in Tokyo; David N Meyer on M and Sukiyaki Western Django; and Lu Chen on Assembly.

"Where Have All the Film Critics Gone?" Vincent Rossmeier asks around - and keeps coming back to Michael Atkinson.

Williams Cole and Shahnaz Habib present "a spring roundup of some documentaries that are premiering theatrically, available on DVD or included in festivals like the ever-important Human Rights Watch International Film Festival," running from June 12 through 26: Letter to Anna, Operation Filmmaker, Without the King, A Jihad for Love, Iron Ladies of Liberia, Who Killed Martin Luther King?, We Are Wizards and One Small Step: The Story of the Space Chimps.

"There's no two ways about it," declares David N Meyer: "Werner Herzog has become an old poot. A Wagnerian, Nietzschian old poot, but an old poot nonetheless. Werner rails - old poot-like - against 'tree-huggers and whale huggers' and describes as 'an abomination' the fact that workers living in the no nighttime summer of the McMurdo Center in Anarctica practice yoga and aerobics. He sounds like Grandpa on The Simpsons.... Encounters at the End of the World is, simply, a travelogue in the old poot style."

"Clayton Patterson, a self proclaimed 'artist and documentarian,' best known for his footage of the Tompkins Square Riots of 1988, has been a ubiquitous presence in the Lower East Side since the early 1980s. He has since meticulously documented the characters and events of this legendary neighborhood, recently classified as 'endangered' by the National Trust for Historic Preservation." A profile by Jericho Parms.

"Franco Piavoli's films, praised by greats such as Bertolucci, Brakhage and Tarkovsky are unique, falling somewhere between Italian Neo-Realism and extreme formalism," writes Mary Hanlon. "Virtually free of dialogue, and sans subtitles, Piavoli draws the viewer into his world with images of nature-turned-abstract through his experimental editing techniques and eye for the fantastic." Celebrating the Earth: The Films of Franco Piavoli not only runs at Anthology Film Archives from Thursday through June 15 but also at the nwFilmCenter in Portland in July.

Sarahjane Blum on Dreams With Sharp Teeth: "In the 25+ years since [Erik] Nelson first toyed with making a documentary about [Harlan] Ellison, he enjoyed a steadily rising career as TV and film producer (highlighted by Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man). Yet his approach to showcasing Ellison remains that of late adolescent hero worship. It's a fitting tribute, as Ellison is touched by the loving attention in a way few successful authors seem to be."

Makenna Goodman on Sex and the City: "It's your thirty-year high school reunion on the big screen, only with screwing, for two and half hours."

Rachel Balik on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: "The movie is a bit too self-conscious to provide any real tension or dramatic intrigue."

Posted by dwhudson at June 8, 2008 1:39 PM