Why go after Ebert?

I only read a couple of film critics so I wasn't quite sure who Armond White was when I read his bizarre screed against movie critics. I found the link off if IMDb and I'm still scratching my head.

He really really doesn't like movie critics. He talks about their "fatted ranks" and how they have "diminished cultural discourse," etc.

He then goes on to attack my man Roger Ebert: "Ebert’s way of talking about movies as disconnected from social and moral issues, simply as entertainment, seemed to normalize film discourse—you didn’t have to strive toward it, any Average Joe American could do it. But criticism actually dumbed down. Ebert also made his method a road to celebrity—which destroyed any possibility for a heroic era of film criticism."

SayWA? Ebert is a pretty dang intelligent film critic. He's often made fun of for liking too many movies, but I would definitely not say he writes about movies in a way that is disconnected from social and moral issues. Far from it. Ebert has written off many movies because he doesn't like their morals.

Interestingly, White goes on to argue, "The most powerful, politically and morally engaged recent films (The Darjeeling Limited, Private Fears in Public Places, World Trade Center, The Promise, Shortbus, Ask the Dust, Akeelah and the Bee, Bobby, Running Scared, Munich, War of the Worlds, Vera Drake) were all ignored by journalists whose jobs are to bring the (cultural) news to the public."

Funny that, but a quick search of Ebert's website will show you positive reviews for 9 of those films, 2 negative reviews, and no reviews for two of them (due to Ebert's convalescence). In fact, at least two of them are high on Ebert's Top 10 films the year they came out.

So why White should go after Roger so badly is just odd.

I'd also like to add that Munich and War of the Worlds are bad films. Ebert loved Munich and didn't like War of the Worlds. War of the Worlds was poorly made and plotted, and I thought Munich had some really severe moral problems, right down to its closing shot.

There's another contradiction in White's argument. Precept 1) Ebert and film critics have ushered in an era of viewing movies simply as entertainment. But that contradicts his Precept 2) that Ebert and film critics have tried (and failed) to promote Indie movies that are "that are mendacious, pseudo-serious, sometimes immoral or socially retrograde and irresponsible" such as "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Army of Shadows, United 93, Marie Antoinette, Zodiac, Last Days, There Will Be Blood, American Gangster, Gone Baby Gone, Letters From Iwo Jima, A History of Violence, Tarnation, Elephant."

If you believe movies are more than just about entertainment, then you shouldn't like all of these films, but White tries to get both charges to stick.

Also, I've seen a couple of these films ... I'd be very interested to hear how Zodiac is immoral, socially retrograde, etc. The Romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days uses a horrific storyline to argue very emphatically that legalized abortion is a moral good. Agree with its message or not, it's a direct engagement with morals and can help inform the cultural discourse.

The whole essay just seems flat wrong.

Cloverfield

I wasn't sure I'd really wanted to see this movie, but I'd heard enough good things to make me want to see it. I'm glad I did. It was a good monster movie with a couple very scary scenes and general fun elsewhere.

That said, there is absolutely no way I could have seen this in the theaters. I can get pretty motion sick in movies (City of God, for example, was killer) but this was extremely shaky. I did fine on the TV, but I couldn't have handled it on the big screen.

Good use of special effects to keep the monster seen only in small bits and pieces as you're going along. All the traditional creaky plot and character devices you would expect. But there are some real scares here. Good flick.

Iron Man

I differ from my friends on certain superhero movies. For example, I found Daredevil much better than the original Spiderman, which I thought was really really bad (and Spiderman 3 was not so super either).

As far as I'm concerned, the best superhero movies have been Spiderman 2, X-Men 2, and Batman Begins. I'm not sure which order those three are in, but I'd probably put Iron Man at a solid 4th on that list. It avoids the pitfalls of an "origins" story, Robert Downey Jr. is danged good, and it's very fun. It's climactic scene is a little weak, but that's ok, because it's final moments are perfectly pitched.

I recommend the movie if you like summer blockbusters. It's one of the good ones.

Movie Wrapup

This weekend we did a double feature--Forgetting Sarah Marshall followed by Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay.

I enjoyed both, although H&K was a little disappointed because I'd been hoping for more. Forgetting Sarah Marshall I probably enjoyed more, but that was because I was not expecting to like it that much. Expectations are everything sometime.

But it felt really good to get into the movie theater again. And some good movies are coming soon ...

Finally! Some movies I want to see!

Looking forward to Harold and Kumar 2 this weekend, possibly as part of a double feature with Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And we may even try to sneak in a showing of Baby Mama while we're at it.

Speaking of movies ... I saw Shooter last week on DVD. It's ... not bad. It's well done for what it is, but as far as action movies go, there's many that are much better. I believe the critics would write it up as "competent" meaning, the filmmakers know how to make a movie and know the genre they are operating in. But that doesn't mean it stands out in any way.

Did you know?

Did you know that Book 7 of the Harry Potter will be split into 2 films? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 comes out in 2010. Part 2 comes out May 2011. That means we'll finish Lost before we finish Harry Potter movies.

That means that from the time Philosopher's Stone was published in June of 1997, 14 years will have passed between the first book and the last movie. That seems like a remarkably short period of time ...

An Irish brogue ... hardly

I watched Orson Welles' "The Lady From Shanghai" tonight. Weird. Crazy weird. First, Rita Hayworth is the Lady From Shanghai. That was a surprise. Second, she had short blond hair. Weird.

Third, what the f-bomb was Orson Welles thinking when he tried out this accent?



Jump forward to about a minute into the movie if you want to hear the worst Irishaccent and skip the scenes of Rita Hayworth in a swimsuit ...

Then, if you want to see the famous ending of the movie set in an abandoned funhouse, here's that for you to. It's got the slide, the hall of mirrors, all the good stuff ...

Ebert off the air, but still writing

I really enjoyed this A.O. Scott article about Roger Ebert in the New York Times. In 2006, Ebert had to give up writing reviews after a difficult surgery and to this day still can't speak. He's had to step down from the show but he will be writing full time again, which is great for those of us who love great writing and reading his reviews.

AO Scott writes:

His criticism shows a nearly unequaled grasp of film history and technique, and formidable intellectual range, but he rarely seems to be showing off. He’s just trying to tell you what he thinks, and to provoke some thought on your part about how movies work and what they can do.

He is rarely a scold, and more frequently (perhaps too frequently) an enthusiast, and nearly always enlightening, in particular when he has brought calm good sense and moral conviction to overwrought debates about hot-button movies like Oliver Stone’s “JFK” and Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.”

I'm very glad he's back.

SIFF Birthday Party

Mary and I will celebrating my birthday in style this year--at the SIFF opening night! We'll be seeing Battle in Seattle about the WTO riots in 1999. And how could we not go see the movie, after we learned that ZestyJenny is in it? Not only that, but she has a cameo in the trailer (or her hat and scarf do ... )

Looking forward to a fun night in Seattle.

Note: my birthday is also the day Indiana Jones opens. Perhaps we'll have to make it a double feature ...

On Leatherheads

Leatherheads, it turns out, is surprisingly and unfortunately boring. It tries to capture the feel of an old-time classic Hollywood movie, but old-time classic Hollywood movies aren't boring. They are also not self-consciously trying to capture their feel. The music is retro-sounding rather than authentic, the shots linger a little too long ... it's just not that good of a movie.

Part of me also groaned a few times at George Clooney's airbrush of the past. Could Renee Zellweger really be an ace reporter in 1925 for the Chicago Tribune? Would the Duluth Bulldogs really be an integrated team in 1925? The answer to both these questions may very well be yes, but I doubt it.

It was a disappointing movie. Clooney did so well with Good Night and Good Luck, which actually felt authentic rather than retro, and his Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is really fun. This ... not so much.

Even so, Clooney really knows how to make a movie look great and he milks certain shots and scenes for all they are worth. But when there's not much there to start with, you're just as likely to get blood from a turnip.

Anthony Minghella

These many years later, The English Patient is getting a bad rap from people. "Faintly silly" in the Atlantic I notice. Dudes, it's still a good movie, don't go trashing it because it won Best Picture and because it's ... you know, sappy.

Anyway, Minghella is a very good director, and as the Atlantic piece goes on to say, his best film is The Talented Mr. Ripley. I would absolutely agree. There is a scene part way through this film that has got to be one of the most violent acts I've seen on film, and it's not because it's that bad visually, it's because of the emotional coil that unwinds with it. It's disturbing, scary, and it draws you in to root for Ripley a bit. Matt Damon is awesome, Jude Law is awesome, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (in a small role) is awesome. And Gweneth Paltrow is pretty awesome too. Here's Ebert's 4 star review of the film.

Minghella is also the director of the upcoming "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," which I believe he finished before he died. It will be interesting to see how it turned out. The author, McCall Smith, will be in Tacoma next month. I'll be interested to hear what he says about it as well.

Vantage Point

We spent a few hours Saturday night at the movies seeing the thriller, Vantage Point, which came out last month sometime. We'd really wanted to see Be Kind, Rewind, but the closest theater was Auburn. Dang.

Vantage Point was a suitable stand-in. It was fun, but kinda empty. The NYT reviewer calls it "competent if not completely impersonal filmmaking" and that feels about right to me. There was a fun diversion in the middle, but the climactic scene was pretty hokey and got some laughs from our group.

As for me, I'm waiting for Indiana Jones in May and the next Batman in July. Maybe IronMan, depending on review ... and probably Wall*E. Although this month the mockumentary"The Grand" is opening, which is sure to confuse plenty of people in Tacoma, since it doesn't look like it's actually playing at ... you know, The Grand.

Spew at SXSW

Can I just say it's really cool that Spew's got some people down at SXSW? The Slog (the Stranger's blog) has some folks there, too. Of course, they also had two people at the Adult Video Network Awards (like the Oscars, but for porn) and they've blogged some other random national events too.

But kudos to the Volcano. Guys, if you're looking for someone to go to Sundance next year (or perhaps Toronto this fall?) on your behalf ... well, I wouldn't turn down that free ticket.

My 4th Quarter Pipe Dreams

Every so often I throw on the Juno soundtrack and give it a whirl. Kimya Dawson has some interesting lyrics in her songs, but I keep coming back to her odd and eclectic anti-war song.

This might be part of my favorite bit:

shysters live from scheme to scheme and my 4th quarter pipe dreams /
are seeming more and more worth fighting for

Although this part gets points for sheer oddness:

my war paint is sharpie ink and i'll show you how much my shit stinks /
and ask you what you think because your thoughts and words are powerful /
they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable /
spelled down on a double word and triple letter score /

Full lyrics here. It's such a damned odd song, but I think I really like it.

4 Movies, 2 Flights

Thanks to the miracle of in-flight movies and iTunes movie rentals on my iPhone, I watched 4 movies on the long haul back from Puerto Rico yesterday. In chronological order:

The Nanny Diaries -- This movie was far better than the script, if that makes any sense. And that's mostly due to Laura Linney, who did a really great job playing Mrs. X. Scarlett was pretty (as usual) but it wasn't a great part and she didn't add a lot to it. But fun.

Saved! -- This brutal comedy is set at American Eagle Christian School, a born-again high school. It's very funny, I felt. Mandy Moore is actually quite good as a high school queen bee whose Christianity is mostly used to attack others. She is sincere in her faith, but expects it to bring great rewards, like popularity and good skin. The movie doesn't really question faith or Christianity, but aims for the evangelical moral code that opens itself to hypocrisy, self-flagellation (figuratively) and self-delusion even.

Live Free or Die Hard -- The absolute silliest movie of the four (and that's saying a lot since the next movie I watched was Hairspray) but dang this is a fun action movie with bizarre set piece after bizarre set piece. It uses cars a lot. The car that took down the helicopter I could almost buy. The SUV that ended up in the elevator shaft was hard to take. That said the premise of the movie is actually rather terrifying, and the film actually captured some of that.

Hairspray -- Don't judge me, but I really liked this film. It's got fun music, it had extraordinary art direction and production design, and the characters were well drawn (for a musical). I'm still not exactly sure why John Travolta had to play a woman, but he did a very good job at it.

Dr. Jones Returns!

I read the cover story in last month's Vanity Fair about the new Indiana Jones movie ... I have high hopes that they've captured the fun spirit of it.

Plus, it comes out on my birthday. It's pretty much the most awesome birthday present I could imagine. Thanks, Steven and George!

The Coens and Chabon

This one is for ZestyEnterprise, a big Coen Brothers Fan (you can tell by the name of her blog) who was also not super wild about No Country.

But seeing that she and her SB were at the Michael Chabon lecture last month, I think she'll be excited to hear that the Coen Brothers will shoot an adaptation of The Yiddish Policeman's Union (which I reviewed here for Exit133) after they finish their current project.

I know I'm excited.

Amazon calls an Audible

... and other puns.

I didn't really think it was a big deal when I read that Amazon bought Audible. And then I saw this on the New York Times Bits Blog:

Amazon isn’t saying much about what it will do with the company, but bringing audiobooks directly to its Web site and to the Kindle is the obvious first step.

What comes after that? How about a service that allows you to seamlessly switch from reading a book on your digital device to listening to the same book read aloud as you get in the car, or if your eyes are tired, or if you simply want to hear a crucial scene acted out? And then to switch back to the printed page?

Now that's something that caught my attention. As Amazon and Apple both get better at allowing their customers to move around movies, music, and books, people are going to really start using it more. I love that I can watch TV episodes or movie rentals on my iPhone and my computer. That I can order shows from Amazon at work and have them waiting on my TiVo when I get home. Did you know Toni Morrison loves her Kindle? I thought that was surprising.

Of course, for a counter point, here's David Lynch. (warning, vulgar language ahead).



(I'd just like to add that I agree with Lynch in principle: movies are always always better the bigger you can see them.)

Zodiac: the Movie

I didn't know much about the Zodiac killer before seeing the movie Zodiac, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, and Robert Downey Jr.

Now I know a lot. Like a whole lot. Zodiac is nothing if not comprehensive. At 2 hours 38 minutes it better be. But it's also engaging, interesting, well-acted, well-directed, and scary at times.

The movie came out in early 2007 and didn't get a lot of attention. But its director is well known (Se7en, Fight Club, The Game, Panic Room) and it's stars all good. The movie mostly sticks with the cops and the press, but every so often shows us the Zodiac murders. As I realized later, it only shows those that the Zodiac is known to have committed (turns out the guy reads papers and takes credit for unsolved cases). These scenes can be difficult.

I also didn't know that the Zodiac killer was the inspiration for Dirty Harry.

There is a lot of attention to detail, and the film really gets what newspaper reporting and detective work were like before the computer and then Internet age.

This is a very good true crime film. Its length can be forgiven by the sheer fact that every time a new title card comes on the screen "18 months later" or "2 years later" you groan--not for yourself, but for the characters in the movie who have to survive so much.

Good stuff. But long.

Quantum of Solace

Looking at the title to this post, perhaps you wonder what I am referring to. Let's go to the definitions:

Solace: consolation, comfort.
Quantum: a finite amount, probably a small amount, possibly to do with subatomic physics.

Quantum of Solace, therefore, is likely to be interpreted as a small finite amount of comfort or consolation.

So why in the name of all that is shaken and not stirred would you make Quantum of Solace the title of the next James Bond Movie. Here's the IMDb page. But why? Why choose a lame-ass title like this one.

Bond movies, especially once they started having to depart from the book titles, have always been eccentric to say the least. Let's take the Pierce Brosnan set:

GoldenEye.
Tomorrow Never Dies.
The World is Not Enough.
Die Another Day.

These are all laughable if you look at them long enough. But they all have something going for them that makes them work ... at least for a little while.

But Quantum of Solace? Count me skeptical. The movie looks like it has a good cast, but they will be laboring under a dumb title.