1. "The Landlord": Will Ferrell vs. the diminutive debt collector. Thanks to Ryland for the link.

["I want my money, bitch."]

["Much has been made in our own writings and elsewhere (at times to the ire of some elder statesmen of film criticism) about the general age of the writers of Reverse Shot. Though this, happily, does not apply to all of us, we generally fall somewhere between 26 and 32. We've also noticed some crucial disparities in our collective disposition towards certain films—United 93 springs to mind. But are these two things related? Are we merely "diaper dandies" (thanks, David Poland!) rattling sabers to grab the attention of the establishment? Or is there something to the way we grew up with movies that results in a different way of looking at them? (Note: this is not about flattering ourselves—our tastes may be no better, and in many cases no different than the body of writers who fell similarly in love with L'Enfant, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu). If each film "generation" has its own particular point of view, as surely, drastically, the next one will, then what is ours? And how does it aid/impede us?"]

["The Ninth Configuration didn't make much of a stir at the time of its release. It inexplicably won a Golden Globe for best screenplay, but made no impact at the Oscars and was a flop at the box office. Audiences and critics seemed to alternate between finding its serious side too gloomy and heavy, and finding its humorous aspects too surreal and misplaced. But the video release received a great deal of word-of-mouth recommendations, and throughout the late 1980s, it developed a substantial cult following that wasn't fully rewarded until the DVD was released, over 20 years after the film was completed. By that time, many of its cast members had gone on to bigger and better things, and it's hard to imagine why more people didn't catch on to the astounding repertoire of acting talent on display, if nothing else. "]

["Cormac McCarthy, whose novel "The Road" was recently chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her book club, has added another honor: "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Monday."]

["Tarantino is often cast as the Pandora of post-modernist snark, yet one of the most consistent aspects of his work is the utter absence of distancing irony—cultural allusions, whether Robert Frost or Cannonball Run, are what make the web of our modern being, and both these incandescent moments are not primarily about "getting" any references, but about a vivid woman who can see herself as a vintage sex kitten or the romantic ingénue in a thriller. For all the talk about Vanishing Point, it may seem perverse to note that the film the first half of Death Proof feels closest to is Renoir's A Day in the Country. It isn't just a matter of the filmmaker playing Renoir's Père Poulain as a bartender, but of his patience with every character's distinctive rhythm, the variety of moods (bitchy, randy, deadly, dozy, tender—so different from Rodriguez's unwavering archness), the lure and danger of intoxication, emotion, and, finally, death."]
_____________________________________________________
"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.