1. "Once-wayward humpbacks appear to be home free": They like you very much, but they are not the hell "your" whales.
["They came, they wandered, they went. After a 17-day sojourn in Northern California's inland waterways, two wayward humpback whales that caught the attention of the nation appear to have quietly slipped back into the Pacific Ocean."] Continue Reading »
By Annie Young Frisbie
Pity the poor TV wife. She thought life post-altar would be a never-ending paradise of Sunday brunches with the newspaper and scones, and adorably clad children clambering onto laps to ask whom Daddy loves best. She's spent hours in the mirror practicing the blush she'll flash when she hears her husband's reply: "Mommy, always and forever."
Girl, wake up and smell the dirty laundry. You've got five minutes until your first catfight.
I hereby proclaim, for no good reason, May 30th, 2007 as Mac and Me day. Continue Reading »
1. "Hogzilla Part Deux: Alabama Boy Kills 1000 Pound Monster Pig": But is it actually a hoax?
["The original Hogzilla is being made into a horror movie. But Hogzilla Part Duex may have just happened in Alabama as a young boy has shot and killed a 1000-pound Monster Pig with a large caliber handgun. His father says the pig weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9 feet 4, from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail."] Continue Reading »
By Andrew Chan
Since we know so little in this country about pre-'80s mainland Chinese cinema, you would think the recently released DVD of Spring in a Small Town—ranked by the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2005 as the greatest Chinese movie ever made—would warrant more coverage from film journalists than it has received. Continue Reading »
Given all that surrounds the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, it is hard to believe these movies could be smart films, let alone films this smart. Not only that, the films are hard to believe, period. One's natural impulse is to resist. And there's a lot to resist. They're bloody pirate movies, for one. For another, it's a bloody fantastical pirate movie franchise inspired by a theme park ride and brought to light by Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. In the third film, At World's End, there is a lot of exposition in the scenes driven by dialogue-as-interrogation and it barrels at the viewer without pause, leading many to think the film is incomprehensible, and dismissible. At first, I resisted, too. Continue Reading »
1. "Silver Surfer quarter makes U.S. Mint flip": Get me Rex Kramer!
["A Marvel Comics hero is giving George Washington some company on the quarter, but the U.S. Mint doesn't think the stunt is so super."] Continue Reading »
1. "R.I.P. Charles Nelson Reilly": Now departed his mortal encumbrance to pursue his selfosophical research in another dimension. See also our "Clip of the Day".
["People always think I'm exaggerating when I say something like "Charles Nelson Reilly taught me to read," but believe me, it was true."] Continue Reading »
The 60th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has come to a close. indieWIRE has a complete wrap-up. See after the break for the complete list of winners in the Competition Section. Continue Reading »
1. "All Entertainment All the Time ": Ray Carney dedicates Page 74 of his website's "Letters" section to a fascinating essay excerpt by Mark Edmundson.
["More and more, we Americans like to watch (and not to do). In fact watching is our ultimate addiction. My students were the progeny of two hundred available cable channels and omnipresent Blockbuster outlets. They grew up with their noses pressed against the window of that second spectral world that spins parallel to our own, the World Wide Web. There they met life at second or third hand, peering eagerly, taking in the passing show, but staying remote, apparently untouched by it. So conditioned, they found it almost natural to come at the rest of life with a sense of aristocratic expectation: "What have you to show me that I haven't yet seen?".... The classroom atmosphere they most treasured was relaxed, laid-back, cool. The teacher should never get exercised about anything, on pain of being written off as a buffoon. Nor should she create an atmosphere of vital contention, where students lost their composure, spoke out, became passionate, expressed their deeper thoughts and fears, or did anything that might cause embarrassment. Embarrassment was the worst thing that could befall one; it must be avoided at whatever cost."] Continue Reading »
You might think HBO would be the right venue for a drama based on Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown's 1970 counterhistory about Native Americans' last stand against late-19th-century attempts to subjugate and reeducate them. Unfortunately, this film by Yves Simoneau is as dry and expository as the official textbooks that Brown's fiery book aimed to refute.
To read the review, click here.
1. "The #54 War Movie of the Last 50 Years." A Memo from the Department of Heresy: Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan is maudlin, simplistic, illogical and derivative; it's also a tacit justification of U.S. war crimes. By Sean Gilman of The End of Cinema. Continue Reading »
1. Let the Star Wars Blog-a-thon Begin. Time to start geeking out! And what better place to start than Ed Copeland's blog.
["I have a confession: the photo above tells you all you need to know about what it would take to get me to join the Dark Side of the Force. The ability to fire lightning from your fingers? Sign me up. I can just imagine the joy it would bring the next time I'm in a theater and some yammering idiot won't shut up or takes a cell phone call. "] Continue Reading »
A contribution to Edward Copeland's Star Wars blogathon.
__________________________________________
To write a meaningful review of The Star Wars Holiday Special—that is, to go beyond detailing the misery induced by its atrocious mise-en-scene and bizarre musical set pieces—seems about as easy a task as explaining the themes of Eraserhead to a preschooler using only one-syllable words. Continue Reading »
Recent Comments:
The Conversations: Michael Haneke
by Ed Howard
Links for the Day: The Yankee Comandante, Dunces Maybe Finds Its Ignatius, Michael Haneke on Amour, The Great Gatsby Trailer, & More
by shootthecritic
February House Composer Gabriel Kahane and Book Writer Seth Bockley Talk Communal Music
by David Ehrenstein
A Movie a Day, Day 83: Andrei Rublev
by murtazaali
Critical Distance: The Artist
by DRush76