Shorts, 9/10.

"Dylan's many identities illustrate a Buddhist conception of life sustained not by things (bodies, memories, or souls) but interconnections among them. Since those interconnections extend to each of us and our particular points of view, [Todd] Haynes's kaleidoscopic Dylan becomes even less a filmmaker conceit and more an accurate representation of the truth about identity." At PopMatters, George Reisch introduces a passage from Peter Vernezze and Paul Lulewicz's "'I Got My Bob Dylan Mask On': Bob Dylan and Personal Identity," collected in Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Thinking).

At SF360, Michael Fox talks with Scott MacDonald about his book, Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Distributor.

Craig Keller spots a few "correspondences" between B Kite and Chris Petit's reviews of Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard.

An illustrious swarm is gathering: look at all those guest bloggers at FilmInFocus.

"You know you've been really busy/distracted when someone has to remind you that you actually have two books coming out in a given month." Tim Lucas previews The Book of Lists: Horror and Videodrome.

"I'm telling you, unless we wake up, we're gonna lose this frickin' thing," warns Adam McKay at the Huffington Post.

Trying to get a grip on the surreality of the moment? Jon Taplin's got a movie recommendation.

Wes Anderson's planning a remake of Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend, reports Michael Fleming for Variety.

In the Guardian, Simon Hattenstone talks with Richard Attenborough; Maya Jaggi with Tom Stoppard; Ryan Gilbey with James Franco; Daniel Tapper with Albert Maysles; and Laura Barton with Eddie Redmayne. Also: Paul Rennie on Georgii and Vladimir Stenberg's poster for Battleship Potemkin.

"It is obligatory to mention the filmography of actress Pang Eun-jin before we discuss the debut of director Pang Eun-jin," writes Adam Hartzell. "She was the bespectacled part of the adept pairing of female characters that Park Chul-soo presented in 301, 302 and Push-Push.... Actress Pang was part of the group of creatives who introduced me to South Korean cinema and she is part of what's kept me there ever since. I was prepped to temper any hopes I might have had anticipating director Pang's debut feature, Princess Aurora., so I wasn't disappointed when I first saw it at the 8th Women's Film Festival in Seoul, I just wasn't impressed." Also at Koreanfilm.org, Kyu Hyun Kim: "As an avid fan of horror genre, I would have loved to report to you that [Death Bell] handily overcomes bad word of mouth and production troubles and single-handedly restores the faith in K-horror. Not a chance."

At the House Next Door, Tom Stempel considers more recent screenplays.

Still rolling at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: Bosomania!" The Sex, the Violence and the Vocabulary of Russ Meyer and The Mystic: The Films of Nicholas Ray.

For the New York Times, Melena Ryzik talks with Beastie Boy Adam Yauch about "pursuing his cinematic interests with a new division of his company, Oscilloscope, which acquires, produces and distributes independent movies." Upcoming releases include Flow and Wendy and Lucy. Also, a couple of not exactly film-related items worth noting nonetheless: Julie Bosman on the Booker shortlist; Patricia Cohen pays a visit to Maurice Sendak; Michael Kimmelman on the Metropolitan Museum's new director.

In the Voice:

• "Imagining itself a stereotype-smashing, Bollywood-spirited send-up of American Idol culture, [Loins of Punjab Presents] is, in actuality, a by-the- numbers comedy in cross-cultural clothing," writes Kristi Mitsuda.

• "Told with the tumbling urgency of the deeply personal, the story of Forgiveness, Udi Aloni's portrait of an American-Israeli soldier in crisis, is notable mainly for its attempt to avoid the guiding grooves of the post-traumatic military narrative," writes Michelle Orange.

• Ella Taylor on The Tree of Life, in which: "Throbbing with midlife crisis after a brush with cancer, Los Angeles–based electronics engineer Hava Volterra journeys to Italy in search of deep background about her late father, a physicist."

• And Jean Oppenheimer on another doc, Secrecy: "Most chilling is the former CIA station chief who defends secrecy on the grounds that it 'allows us the latitude of action to use methods that are not necessarily consistent with our values as a nation.'" More from Benjamin H Sutton in the L Magazine.

"The scariest movie of 2008 so far is, quite possibly, Dorothy Fadiman's Stealing America: Vote by Vote, a stomach-turning look at election irregularities that stretch back as far as 1996, with a special emphasis on the über-fishy goings-on in Ohio circa 2004." Cheryl Eddy in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

s Cineuropa's new "Film Focus": Rumba.

An annotated list at Stop Smiling: "Three Indispensable Expat Films."

A list from the AV Club: "I see you: 18-plus films that make a point of turning viewers into voyeurs."

Online viewing tip #1. Martha Rosler talks about her work in the New York Times.

Online viewing tip #2. Stevie Wonder, performing "Superstition" on Sesame Street in 1972. Wow. Via Jason Kottke.

Posted by dwhudson at September 10, 2008 3:53 PM