Shorts, 11/25.

"George and Mike Kuchar have had productive, ongoing careers long after their initial burst of notoriety as forerunners of the New York underground film scene in the late 50s and 60s," writes Michael Fox at SF360.

"If there is any justice in this world, next year's release of Jennifer Kroot's documentary It Came from Kuchar will launch the twin brothers on an equally improbable third act."

Andrew Grant has been devoting a lot of thought - and study - to Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York over the past few weeks and now follows a first entry with a second that explores the possibility of Carl Jung's influence on the writer-director.

"I'm guessing this parallel has been drawn by some sharp word-jockey already," Josh Modell, but forges on anyway at the AV Club: "SNY is a movie - a fantastic movie - about a guy who spends his whole life and inordinate amounts of money trying to create art that is 'true' and 'honest.' Chinese Democracy is an album made by a guy who didn't seem to blink at the idea of spending more than a third of his life (read that again - a third of his life!) and untold millions to make it exactly the way he wanted to."

"Stephen Daldry's The Reader is a stilted, distasteful, self-consciously literary and very depressing cross between The Door in the Floor and The Night Porter that hardly seems worth the agita that Harvey Weinstein created by forcing Daldry and co-producer Scott Rudin (who took his name off the flick) to complete the film in time for a Dec. 10 opening rather than waiting for next year," blogs the New York Post's Lou Lumenick. At any rate, Cinematical's Erik Davis has the new poster.

"Per tradition, the International Documentary Association has announced most of its winners for next Friday's gala awards ceremony (while saving the unveiling of the top prize for the big night)." AJ Schnack comments on one notable winner and one notable loser.

"Saying that he feels the US film market has become 'barren,' Paul Schrader, the writer of classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, is packing his bags for Mumbai, India, to write and direct the Bollywood action movie Extreme City." Steven Zeitchik for the Hollywood Reporter.

Trenton Truitt and Ben Child in the Guardian: "Despite being responsible for Japan's most successful film of all time, Spirited Away director Hayao Miyazaki is known as something of a recluse. But he has made a rare foray into the limelight to criticise the rise of nationalism in his home nation and to call for increased measures to improve the environment."

For the Los Angeles Times, Geoff Boucher lists "12 upcoming remakes of Hollywood sci-fi classics."

Drew Morton offers "Brief (P)reviews of Oscar Season Fodder" at Dr Mabuse's Kaleido-Scope.

"When Morgan Dews's grandmother Allis died in 2001 at the age of 89, she left behind a vast family record: Fifty hours of audio recordings, 201 home movies, and more than 300 pages of personal documents, all related to her life as a wife and mother. Culled from that material, Must Read After My Death is a heartbreaking portrait of an outwardly unassuming American family." Adam Balz at Not Coming to a Theater Near You.

"David Pike's unsettling short flim, Red Door, has a modern, slick look, but with a completely charming anachronistic bent," writes Mike Everleth.

Kevin Lee on Jacques Feyder's 1935 film, La Kermesse héroïque (Carnival in Flanders): "This lavish farce about a 17th century Belgian town whose women openly welcome Spanish invaders when their cowardly male counterparts go into hiding is a classic model of the ebullient pacing and jaunty eroticism that's long been associated with French comedic cinema."

David Cairns: "Secrets of Sex may actually be the weirdest film I've reviewed here - the weirdest thing about it being that it's seemingly intended to fulfill some sort of commercial purpose. Antony Balch is hereby inducted posthumously into Shadowplay's LEGION OF UBER-HEROES."

Online listening tip #1. Ed Champion talks with Christoper Plummer.

Online listening tip #2. "DIY Filmmaking in an Indie Apocalypse," a panel moderated by Karina Longworth.

Online viewing tips:

• The trailer for Hausu (House), via Grady Hendrix, who notes that this 1977 curiosity is "just one of a number of Asian movies that ultra-Eurocentric Criterion has acquired over the years but never released."

• Jennifer MacMillan's Pieridae.

• "Filmmaker Ian Caney, co-producer of King Corn, and director of the forthcoming The City Dark, and Emily Bolevice, a teacher and freelance photographer, have created a lovely video op-ed for the New York Times," notes Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay.

• "Yeast, Mary Bronstein's award-winning debut feature, is now available via Amazon VOD," writes David Lowery. "A highly concentrated shot of misanthropic estrogen on the one hand, an unbelievably shrill exercise in cinematic effrontery on the other, the film exceeds its meager origins and production value through sheer abrasiveness - and, too, a very finely tuned wit. Indeed, I was prepared for the film's successive induction of cringes, but what surprised me was the almost cathartic delight that emerged from all that friction. This is a very, very funny movie."

And then, "20 Brilliant Kinetic Typography (Motion Typography) Videos" at Dzine, via Coudal Partners.

Posted by dwhudson at November 25, 2008 3:06 PM