1. "James Bond's Miss Moneypenny dies, aged 80." An obituary for Lois Maxwell, by Nick Squires of The Telegraph.
["Canadian-born Maxwell, whose sexually-charged banter with 007 was a hallmark of the franchise, died in Fremantle Hospital in Western Australia late on Saturday. She had been suffering from cancer."] Continue Reading »
Outsourced, in which a Seattle call center manager named Todd (Josh Hamilton) is fired and then dispatched to India as a consultant to train his own replacement, is a wonderful surprise. At first it threatens to be just another fish-out-of-water story. The film's director, John Jeffcoat, and his co-writer, George Wing, hit expected marks, from the moment when a street urchin swipes the hero's cellphone to the bit where Todd learns why Indians don't eat with their left hand to the scene where Todd realizes that his sharpest employee, an outspoken young woman named Asha (Ayesha Dharker), is gorgeous and has a crush on him. Gratifyingly, though, the filmmakers treat Todd's story as a springboard for a smart look at the effect of cultural difference on work, friendship and love, and the global economy's impact on national and personal identity.
1. "Bruce Springsteen's Magic." The Sunday Times' Dan Cairns takes a peek - with some preview clips of selected tracks.
["For Springsteen, and for his fans, that chain has gone through periods of both strength and weakness. It was years into his recording career before the singer began to be perceived as a political songwriter. When that shift occurred, with the global success of 1984's Born in the USA album, and Ronald Reagan's opportunistic kidnapping of the title track, the experience so shook Springsteen that he has shied away from explicit statements ever since. (A rare exception was his endorsement of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.) For the most part, he has let his songs do the talking. Even now, with his most political album in years about to hit the racks, Springsteen avoids full-on explication of Magic's songs, and edges warily towards the subject."] Continue Reading »
Torchwood dips into its Doctor Who back story ("Army of Ghosts", "Doomsday") in this sorry mess involving Cybermen, bathetic love, a pterodactyl, and a hapless pizza delivery girl. Redeeming qualities are few, but we can always hold out hope that the pterodactyl was mortally wounded and won't return. Continue Reading »
Here are some notable September releases that fell through the cracks for one reason or another:
Hard-Fi, Once Upon a Time in the West. The British foursome delivers another collection of reliable, durable, political, and economical pop-rock ditties with their sophomore set. The cover boasts big block lettering that reads "No Cover Art" while the booklet folds open to display three panels where the band's "Second Album Photoshoot" should go. Cheeky. Highlights include the strings and choir-filled "Watch Me Fall Apart" and the stomping "We Need Love." Continue Reading »
1. Scorsese film to focus on George Harrison
["The two surviving Beatles, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, are expected to participate, and Harrison's widow, Olivia, will co-produce, according to movie trade magazine Variety."] Continue Reading »
By Ross Ruediger
It's difficult to discuss Doctor Who's penultimate Season Three installment, "The Sound of Drums", without also talking about the events of the episode that follow it. It (ideally) leaves the viewer slack-jawed and mumbling stuff like, "Well, I'm gonna have to see what happens next week." Regardless, I'll attempt to do my best to pretend I've never seen the season finale and discuss these events in a broader picture. Continue Reading »
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, here comes Mariah with her titties out, all breathless and moaning. The campaign goes something like, "An ethereal presence. Captivating like a song." And apparently the potent pheromone ingredients in M by Mariah Carey are only activated when you apply them to your décolleté…while masturbating…in Heaven:
I haven't smelled the stuff yet (my requests for samples were flatly denied), but something tells me M by Mariah Carey is not the start of the singer's fragrance industry domination. All of this has got me fiending for a simpler time…
By Andrew Johnston
Mad Men salutes a man who I consider one of the three biggest influences on the series, the great Billy Wilder (the troika is rounded out by Cheever and Updike), with what could be the series' bleakest and most depressing episode. At the very least, it's the episode most heavily saturated by the casual misogyny that makes The Apartment, Wilder's magnum opus, as chilling as it is ultimately uplifting. But even Wilder couldn't avoid occasionally succumbing to the temptation to overclose (though not necessarily in The Apartment), as TWoP's ever-astute Sars and our equally illustrious host put it, and "The Long Weekend", while largely excellent, unfortunately crosses that line a little more than usual. Continue Reading »
By Steven Boone
The Kingdom is a two-faced liar. It promotes the idea of bloody American exceptionalism in the same breath that it sings We Are the World. Just like those CNN reports that show U.S. soldiers high-fiving Iraqi kids while giving out candy, it uses sentimental music and editorial sleight of hand to insist that whatever our servicepeople and intelligence agents do Over There, they do it with love.
Peter Berg's procedural about FBI agents investigating a terrorist bombing at a US compound in Saudi Arabia generates most of its suspense from the effort to discern "good" Saudis from "bad" ones; and from the question of whether the Americans will come out of this adventure in one piece—all others be damned. This is that same old song of empire and paternalistic love-at-gunpoint that made John Wayne tip his green beret. But Wayne didn't live to see the kind of filmmaking that Berg practices. In the style of Traffic, Black Hawk Down, United 93 and Saving Private Ryan, The Kingdom uses chaotic visuals to enforce a sense of absolute realism that is more insidious here than any state-commissioned propaganda. Continue Reading »
["There are at least three branches of the esteemed Criterion Collection. There is the one that puts out first-rate DVD editions of cinema classics like The Seven Samurai and The Third Man. There is its new Eclipse line, which has packaged early Bergman, late Ozu, and, coming soon, the mid-period of some other distinguished auteur. And then there is its unnamed subset, dedicated to movies that stretch its mission to present 'the greatest films from around the world.' Dedicated collectors of Criterion's canonical titles must surely feel their ascots tighten about their necks when the label forgoes Welles and Antonioni for a month to put out deluxe packages of cult chillers like The Blob or Equinox."] Continue Reading »
It surely isn't lost on David Mamet that the title of his 1987 debut feature, House of Games, doubles as a three-word summation of his career. Continue Reading »
1. "Welcome to the Luis Buñuel Blogathon." A celebration of the surreal Spanish satirist (say that three times fast) unreels through Sept. 30 all over the film blogosphere. The event's host, Flickhead, has the links. Continue Reading »
By Keith Uhlich
Screened at the 45th New York Film Festival.
[Editor's Note: "On The Circuit" is a joint production of The House Next Door and Zoom In Online. For news, events, training, and other points of interest to the creative community, please visit Zoom In Online by clicking here.]
From its opening image (wherein a tried-and-true "Based on actual events" crawl is slowly blacked out to reveal the film's title), Redacted revels in a mixed, often muddled sense of humor and horror. Continue Reading »
By Keith Uhlich
The House Next Door is proud to present the inaugural podcast of "On the Circuit", a joint production with Zoom In Online. "On the Circuit" features conversations with leading directors, cinematographers, editors and actors at film festivals worldwide. In this segment (accessible after the break), correspondent Keith Uhlich speaks with renowned Spanish director Carlos Saura, whose latest film, Fados, had its world premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. Continue Reading »
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