Shorts, 9/18.

As part of a special issue of Oxford American on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast three years after Katrina (and of course, the issue arrives merely days after Ike), Derek Jenkins examines "a cinema of anger and indictment and senselessness but also beauty and humanity and even hope." In a category of its own would be When the Levees Broke. Spike Lee has "never made a more important film.... Countless films bob in the wake of this disaster, but future generations will likely find in the seven astonishing films featured here the most complete and useful records of that same harrowing story."

Allan Arkush (Rock 'n' Roll High School, NBC's Heroes) comments on his "Top Ten Criterions."

At Facets Features, Phil Morehart passes along all-time favorite films lists from Ken Loach and Fred Armisen.

Glenn Kenny: "The 'Coppola Restoration' Letters, Part Three; or, 'Friends of Italian Opera.'"

The film on the Siren's mind these says is Sweet Smell of Success and she "has spent all week with the low-down, lying snake that is Sid Falco":

And he really is a heel. But in his single-minded desire to get ahead, he is also a piece of almost any New Yorker, except maybe the saintliest ones. (And if they're saints, what are they doing here?) He's pure ambition, and by that sin fell the angels. But the fall of Sid and JJ doesn't mean there aren't plenty behind them, knife in hand. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. What the song doesn't mention is that afterward you may not like yourself....

People who lived through this era of New York City loved it and speak about the 1950s like a long-dead first love. This may well be the best movie ever made about New York, capturing the city's Golden Age while it shows you a lining of pure lead.

Proteus is one of Doug Cummings's favorite documentaries of 2004: "It's a fascinating look at the work of 19th century artist-naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834 - 1919) that is experimental film, historical summary, and philosophical meditation all rolled into one. Laboriously assembled by David Lebrun over the course of 22 years, it's a montage of etchings, sketches, and paintings (rephotographed and animated with narration, music, and sound effects) that positions Haeckel as the meeting point between the dominant worldviews of his day: scientific rationalism and Romanticism."

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: Fight Club.

At the House Next Door, Tom Stempel takes a looks at another round of films from the screenwriter's POV.

"By the time Moving Midway - this lithe, alluring documentary with its at-times Altmanesque dialogue - draws to a close, the ghosts have turned in excellent performances alongside the living, and the folks of the undead past may as well have tromped right in and signed Charlie and Dena's guest book in the front hall." Bland Simpson in the Independent Weekly. And H Scott Bayer talks with Godfrey Cheshire for the New York Press.

Also in the New York Press, Eric Kohn previews the fall season in local art houses. More from Mark Peikert. Also, Armond White on the new At the Movies: "Ben Manckiewicz from Turner Classic Movies and Ben Lyons from the E! Entertainment channel are not film critics but were selected to play critics on TV.... But the surprise is that the Bens are truly refreshing."

Online viewing tip. As noted all over, the trailer's out for Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York.

Posted by dwhudson at September 18, 2008 3:13 PM