Shorts, 10/7.

"The saga of John Howard Lawson has, from a certain standpoint, always been a Cold War blacklisters' favorite," notes Paul Buhle, reviewing Gerald Horne's The Final Victim of the Blacklist: John Howard Lawson, Dean of the Hollywood Ten for Film International. "The brilliant avant-gardist playwright of the 1920s who became a leading Hollywood Communist in the 1930s wielded the polemical pen if not whip in the 1940s, following Central Committee commands to constrain dissent and artistic freedom. The 'Maltz Incident' in which a leading screenwriter, Albert Maltz, was made to repent his supposed sins, became the perfect excuse for cold warriors (notably historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr, a 'communist expert' for the slick magazines) to call the Hollywood Communists dangerous, even when nobody could say in what ways exactly. The FBI penetration, the hearings, the Blacklist and the mood of fear that shut down Hollywood's social themes went in all directions, but never got entirely away from Lawson."

Don Hertzfeldt's Everything Will Be OK is "devastating tale of a sad stick figure of an everyman named Bill whose perception is crumbling due to a mental disorder that may also be killing him," writes Alison Willmore, introducing her interview with the animator. "The just-completed I Am So Proud of You continues Bill's story in the second part of what's now a planned trilogy. To premiere the film, Hertzfeldt's taking it on a 16-city tour, with stops planned everywhere from Omaha to New York - as the co-founder, alongside Mike Judge, of The Animation Show, he's well aware that to find a place for animated shorts in theaters, you pretty much have to do the booking yourself."

Allan MacInnis introduces an interview: "VIFF programmer Mark Peranson is, unlike me, an admirer of [Albert] Serra's cinema, and acted in Birdsong, playing the Hebrew-speaking Joseph (his most memorable scene is a three minute static shot where he sits against a stone wall, idly moving his foot; his sole line in that scene is a complaint about the heat). Peranson made a 'sort of making-of' film during the shoot, which took place in what the program describes as 'the breathtaking, volcanic Canary Islands.' It seems only fitting, given how central a feature impatience was to my viewing of the film, that the title of his making of should be Waiting for Sancho."

Scott Foundas has mail: "Echoing a common reader sentiment, Michael of Denver begins his letter by asking, 'Is it possible for you to fairly review a movie rather than injecting your own personal political bent into your writing?' But it seems obvious to me that any overtly political film, whether the director is Michael Moore or David Zucker, begs to be engaged with on political terms, just as it's reasonable to expect a review of a comedy to assess whether the movie is funny or not, and for a review of an action movie to tell you if the action scenes are exciting."

Andrew O'Hehir in Salon: "I don't think I had completely grasped that [Paul] Newman was gone, at the level of emotional reality, until I was sitting around with my 4-year-old twins on Saturday morning, watching Cars for about the 15th time, and came face-to-face with the fact that crusty Doc Hudson of Radiator Springs (aka Fabulous Hudson Hornet, the three-time Piston Cup winner) was his final role. Other people have remarked on this, I know, but what occurred to me while watching was that it's a damn fine role to go out on."

"There is something so dark and grandly absurd about this work that one recognizes its influence upon the work of a contemporary, postmodern dramatist such as Sam Shepard." Douglas Messerli on Budd Boetticher's The Tall T. Also reviewed for nthposition: Ride Lonesome and Comanche Station.

Kimberly Lindbergs lists her "Top 20 Favorite Films of 1968," adding comments and linkage throughout.

"It dawns on me that I am being thrown out. I am not sure this has ever happened before, and it is a peculiarly horrible feeling. By now [Faye] Dunaway is at the far side of the room.... She is incandescent with rage." The Guardian's Xan Brooks asks one question too many.

In Outlook India, Anjali Puri reports on "Bollywoodisation in our times, namely that Bollywood, once largely the sphere of how young men liked to position themselves, is today as much about young women and their aspirations."

Scott Tobias talks with Dennis Quaid for the AV Club.

Online viewing tip #1. David Poland talks with Ed Harris and Appaloosa co-producer Robert Knott.

Online viewing tip #2. Matt Zoller Seitz's A Little Love: The Art of Bill Melendez at the House Next Door.

Posted by dwhudson at October 7, 2008 3:26 PM