Saturday, January 17, 2009

Linking at Windmills

Deep Focus I love this review of Benjamin Button
Burbanked Comparative Celebrities: Paul Walker & Chris Evans
The Bad and Ugly Emily Blunt as The Black Widow in Iron Man 2? I love this idea
Reverse Shot 11 movie offenses of 2008. Your favorites will be skewered. Super bitchy but there are some really choice one liners.
Welcome to LA on Wyeth's passing --what, no opening scene from In the Bedroom :(
MNPP 'do dump or marry?' the Defiance kin edition


The Big Picture shameless. Hollywood, swimming in money, is shutting down the Motion Picture Home
Cinematical on the Coco Chanel biopic with Audrey Tatou
Just Jared new Grey Gardens still
Underwire the women of Galactica
/Film Terry Gilliam back to work on Don Quixote (the disastrous production chronicled in that Lost in La Mancha documentary)? My gods but that project will be the death of him

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love that Reverse Shot SLUMDOG review... super-bitchy, indeed, but not without reason. And they also have a good top ten to back up all the bitchery with some redemption...

Also, that Button review is well written, but I'm kind of tired of hearing all the reviews that can't help but write about the schism between the Fincher and the Roth. I mean, it's totally obvious that there's some sort of emotional (or even ideological) dichotomy going on, but can't we move past it and look how remarkably sustained a work of atmosphere this is? The rhetoric reminds me of when A.I. came out and all anyone could do was play the compare and contrast game with Spielberg/Kubrick. Yawn, I mean how obvious can you get? Check out A.I. again, btw, it really holds up well, especially the last half hour. I think Benjamin Button will, too.

NATHANIEL R said...

i have never had the stomach to check out AI again... though i have considered trying because i liked certain elements of it a lot.

The last half hour was my least favorite part. I just couldn't deal with that damn teddy bear and the multiple endings. it's my least favorite thing about Spielberg films and it was especially true with that movie.

Anonymous said...

What was that Reverse Shot thing all about?!?!
I mean I didn't like Slumdog Millionaire and Revolutionary Road all that much either, but come on?!!!
They aren't THAT bad!
What's bad about them is that they're totally overhyped.

Hayden said...

My final Best Actress predictions are falling in line with my Actress Psychic prediction 100%. I'm going with Winslet, Hathaway, Streep, Jolie, and Blanchett for the fifth spot, just because I have a gut feeling.

Anonymous said...

Yeeaaa!
I'm watching Play Time tonight!!!

NATHANIEL R said...

don't pause it!

Anonymous said...

Oh well, I'll watch it today, but yesterday I watched "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?"...
Reaction: OH! MY! GOD!

Anonymous said...

Reverse Shot's critique of TDK must be the laziest I've seen. So it has legions of teenage inarticulate fanboys that you can't have a serious discussion with? No kidding, Sherlock. Show me a half-decent "genre" film that hasn't. It's superficial about the issue it tackles? That would be a beginning of an interesting debate (well, it could, if the lamenting the lack of debate wasn't stated as fact, ironically enough, and in a strongly opinionated editorial piece without a comment section to boot), but the choice of examples is slightly ludicrous ("ethics of surveillance", which was relevant to what, one scene?) And finally, anybody reducing Nolan (and Greengrass!) to "action directors" should really get a clue.

Actually, the whole article strikes me as less sharp than previous years' editions. Reservation Road's writeup is really "It's not as good as the book" stretched out to a full paragraph. The Counterfeiters' I've read three times and I am still not sure what they are complaining about (and believe me, I dislike that movie) outside of choosing a tired topic and the director's previous filmography. Putting quotation marks around "decisions" doesn't constitute for an argument. The remaining eight bullets are better, but in spite of what the introductory paragraph promises (and unlike in previous years) they deal with pretty easy targets.

NATHANIEL R said...

medwenitch --have you read my piece on THEY SHOOT HORSES? i lurve that movie.

Anonymous said...

Yes I read it now. You're absolutely right about everything!
This is one of the most intense, disgusting-to-look-at movies I've ever seen, and a total masterpiece in my mind.
It would perfectly fit in a "human-horror-genre" if there would be something like that...
Let's create it!

First on the list:
-They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
-Requiem for a Dream
-The Wrestler
oh yeah nice list already... ;)

PS:
"Fun with Dick & Jane" (the 1977 version) is one of THE most hilarious movies EVER!!!

Anonymous said...

And:
That last Derby-Scene partly in slow-motion, OH MY GOD! Defenitely one of the most disturbing scenes in the history of film!!!

Actionman said...

Wow, that Reverse Shot article is HORRENDOUS and COMPLETELY MISGUIDED.