Some links, for now | The House Next Door

By Matt Zoller Seitz on April 18, 2006 in Links for the Day Jump to Comments (0)

The ReverseShot gang is gearing up for their 2006 film festival "ReverseShot Presents," which runs April 22-30 at the Makor Theater in NYC. The schedule suggests a shoestring variant of Roger Ebert's Overlooked Film Festival—a chance to bang the drum on behalf of unseen or underappreciated movies.

The fest opens April 22 with a Rob Zombie double feature—"House of 1,000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects" [see above] with a special appearance by Zombie repertory company member and George Romero favorite Ken Foree). Other titles include Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Millennium Mambo" (April 26), Claire Denis' "The Intruder" (April 27) and a New York premiere of the superb documentary "A Lion in the House" (April 30, pictured). (Since I'm throwing some linkage ReverseShot's way, I'll also throw a dart: robbiefreeling, though you may well be right about the worthlessness of James Marsh and Milo Addica's "The King," which I have not yet seen, you are wrong to snidely dismiss Jonathan Glazer's "Birth," which Addica cowrote. For pro-"Birth" arguments, complete with examples and stuff, click here, and better yet, here.)

Meanwhile, across the river, The Brooklyn Underground Film Festival runs April 19-23 at the Brooklyn Lyceum. The fest opens Wednesday, April 19, with Spanish filmmaker Adan Aliaga's "My Grandmother's House" [pictured] and also features Heather Courtney's immigration documentary "Letters from the Other Side" (April 20, 8 p.m.) and Jeremy Mack's "High Score" (April 22, 8:45 p.m.), a profile of Portland videogame master Bill Carlton.

Angie Dickinson.

Say it again:

Angie Dickinson.

So entranced...can't form complete sentences...to describe...Angie Dickinson Blog-a-thon. Can only tell you...to visit...Flickhead. Or Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Read essays. Then scroll down. For links. Angie....

Belatedly, please check out girish's essay on rarely-screened video documentaries by the Dardenne brothers, particularly the comments thread. Donning his professor hat (I've never met blogger Girish Shambu, but for some reason I picture him wearing a dashiki) he asks for commenters to explore the distinction between "form" and "style," and the result is fun even if it settles nothing. (For more on the Dardennes, see the Film Journey entry by Shambu's colleague, Doug Cummings.)

My esteemed colleague Edward Copeland, who recently spearheaded a poll of the worst Best Picture Oscar winners of all time, is soliciting ballots for a poll of the best Best Picture winners. All you have to do is write your list of the 10 finest Best Picture winners in order, with 1 being the best, and email it to eddiesworst@yahoo.com. For Copeland's own ballot, click here. Along similar lines, South Dakota Dark is running a poll to determine TV's best and worst shows. Send your top five (and if so inclined, your bottom five) to ambiguousdog@hotmail.com. Deadline is May 1.

David Thomson's Independent column on Jeff Bridges offers his usual mix of insightful observations and gaseous bullshit. Among the former: Thomson notes that Bridges "...never owns up to his habit of making 'non-hits.' It's not exactly that they're flops: only a few have fallen that far, hardly more than a dozen. Maybe 15. No, it's rather that he prefers to make offbeat pictures, ones against the grain - difficult, doubting pictures, ones that are quietly attached to an archaic principle: that, once upon a time, movies were determined by the pain of grown men and women soaked in years of sadness and experience, and fairly sure that a similar crowd of pained people existed, to be referred to as 'the audience.'"

Over at Movie City News, Ray Pride references Manohla Dargis, James Wolcott, Jonathan Rosenbaum and Godfrey Cheshire (via the The House Next Door) in a free-associative, pot-stirring essay on the future of cinema. And finally, I kept meaning to revisit the comments section of my "Days of Heaven/The New World" post, where Andrew and "Anonymous" were mixing it up over issues of cultural colonialism and representation, and post a longer response to some of Andrew's concerns. But frankly, Anonymous made many of the same points I would have made—though admittedly a hell of a lot more combatively than I would have made them—and the argument was so fascinating that I selfishly decided to hang back at ringside and admire their form. This is one of my favorite comments exchanges yet.

TAGS: uncategorized

*sniff *sniff..... I smell a little ballot fraud here. Great post.
Posted by Donald Mckenzie Jr on 2007-09-27 23:41:00 Is there a central locale to know what blog-a-thons are upcoming? I couldn't think of anything much to say about Angie, but wondered who is lined up next and for when.
Posted by Edward Copeland on 2006-04-20 16:07:00 I'm updating this entry to include the Angiethon and also another item, so no worries, I'll take care of it.
Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-04-19 19:39:00 Matt: Dunno what happened to those links I attempted to create in my last comment, but if you go to http://flickhead.blogspot.com or http:sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com you'll find links to all things Angie.
Posted by Dennis Cozzalio on 2006-04-19 19:32:00 Matt: The Angie Dickinson Blog-a-Thon is underway today! Check it out at 's house, and also at mine . There are several other links to other posts on both of these sites.

And Ed, my list is typed out and ready, just missing a frothy bon mot or two. Looking forward to seeing the results, even if the winner is already being projected on both coasts!
Posted by Dennis Cozzalio on 2006-04-19 17:43:00 Danny Huston trying to act period always makes me laugh. Is he still getting work based solely on his father's reputation? Though I did enjoy his performance in The Constant Gardener where he substituted his usual, dull, uncharismatic performance with a dull, uncharismastic performance with a bad British accent.
Posted by Edward Copeland on 2006-04-19 16:49:00 Odie says "you know what they say about romantic comedies: Either you laugh and get a boner, or you don't." Well, I'd like to know who "they" are that say that, because I think it's good. It helps explain why I was cracking up the other night watching THE STUDENT PRINCE OF OLD HEIDELBERG(1927) with a raging boner.
Posted by Wagstaff on 2006-04-19 16:23:00 So now I find myself in a two-way argument with robbiefreeling and Odienator. Fair enough. I will engage later today, as I have to file a ton of stories first.

Looks like the URL robbiefreeling provided inadvertently got cut off at the margin line. Here is is again, in the form of a link.
Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-04-19 15:05:00 Matt! Thanks for your plug, and though I think Birth is trite, empty claptrap (Danny Huston throwing the bouncy ball a la Jack Torrance elicited a deafening LOL from me in the theater...as did the Barry Lyndon concert interruptus...haha, I'm giggling right now), in the Reverse Shot spirit, I must call to your attention that one of the most fluid, incisive defenses of the film was published on none other than...Reverse Shot!

http://www.reverseshot.com/summer05/sharabirth.html
Posted by robbiefreeling on 2006-04-19 14:44:00 Nick M: [Annie Hall] is the only time I have ever agreed on the Academy -- and at the rate they are currently going, it seems as if it will probably be the last.

You disagree with them about All About Eve and Casablanca?

Annie Hall tied for tenth place on my worst Oscar winner ballot (it didn't make the final list), so I can say I'm in the minority on it. There are a few clever moments, but the titular character is one of the most grating people I've ever met in a movie. I kept hoping that Alvy Singer would think he was in that other Keaton vechicle from 1977 (Looking for Mr. Goodbar) and strangle her.

I know some people find Annie Hall romantic and funny, but you know what they say about romantic comedies: "Either you laugh and get a boner, or you don't."
Posted by odienator on 2006-04-19 05:27:00 Much thanks!

I hope people see it. The ballots are running a little on the light side.
Posted by Todd VanDerWerff on 2006-04-19 05:01:00 Todd: You've been linked.
Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-04-19 02:21:00 If Annie Hall does not find a spot on the list, I'll be a bit annoyed.

It is the only time I have ever agreed on the Academy -- and at the rate they are currently going, it seems as if it will probably be the last.
Posted by Nick M. on 2006-04-19 02:12:00 Hey. Thanks for the link down in the criticism section.

I've recently been linking to my best-of-TV survey here ( http://southdakotadark.blogspot.com/2006/04/post-100.html ) and if you feel so inclined, a link would be appreciated.

Love the blog and read it daily.
Posted by Todd VanDerWerff on 2006-04-18 23:19:00 Woo hoo -- what a difference a link can make. I started the day with 34 ballots and have already added 10 more just since your reference popped up. Muchas gracias.
Posted by Edward Copeland on 2006-04-18 20:10:00 Well, should I give it away? Yes, Casablanca is way ahead, but No. 2 and 3 could conceivably catch it if more ballots start rushing in. What's more amazing right now is the huge points gap between No. 1 and No. 20. No. 1 has 180 -- No. 20 has about 24.
Posted by Edward Copeland on 2006-04-18 16:32:00 Rob Zombie and Claire Denis?! If they did a movie together, it would be "House of 1,000 Pretentions!"

Matt, I'll bite and pick on Milo Addica. He's the author of a script that should have gotten as much vitriol as Crash: "Black Punany: The Cure For Racism" aka Monster's Ball.

Both Monster's and Birth could have yielded powerful stories about their subject matter. In both cases, however, I was handed a screenplay that was an insult to my intelligence wrapped up in pseudo-European directorial tricks and shots. Birth and Monster's Ball play as if a drunk off his rocker Ingmar Bergman, doing a bad Bertolucci imitation, respectively directed Ghost and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

Billy Bob's commitment to his role helped sell a few of Monster's implausibilities, but I don't think Kidman believes the bullshit she's hawking for Addica, and it shows. I wonder what Jennifer Jason Leigh could have done in this role.

Plus, that kid (who helped ruined Thank You for Smoking, but that's the screenplay's fault, not his) is CREEPY. He should marry Dakota Fanning and produce a series of Village of the Damned kids who act like they're in a perpetual state of fortysomething, even at 10.

Having had this conversation in person, we both know we're not going to sway each other. But this still ought to be fun. Pick up that thrown gauntlet (don't put a brick in it like Bugs Bunny) and slap me upside the head.

As for EC's best list, the suspense is killing me! I haven't even submitted mine yet, but I'd like to play Miss Cleo and predict the top ten. This should provide a good laugh for Mr. Copeland, the Price Waterhouse of this contest. I am also curious about whether a movie on the 20 worsts might find its way on the 20 bests. That would be interesting.

These are my predictions, not my ballot.

1. Casablanca
2. Gone With the Wind (I think the Godfather split will keep it out of this slot)
3. The Godfather
4. All About Eve
5. The Godfather II
6. Schindler's List
7. Lawrence of Arabia
8. It Happened One Night
9. West Side Story
10. Lord of the Rings

"WRONG!" yells Mr. Copeland. (Well, don't do that--don't tip your hand at all!)
Posted by odienator on 2006-04-18 15:58:00 You're welcome, girish. A topknot becomes you.

Hey, Ed Copeland, if you're reading this -- how goes the balloting? Is CASABLANCA already the frontrunner?
Posted by Matt Zoller Seitz on 2006-04-18 13:28:00 "I've never met blogger Girish Shambu, but for some reason I picture him wearing a dashiki."
Heh heh.
Not a dashiki but I did once go through a topknot phase!
Thanks for the link, Matt.
Posted by girish on 2006-04-18 11:38:00

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