Archive for category Film
Recommendations: Holman Podcast, Upcoming Oscar Liveblog
My longtime friend, critic Curt Holman, is now part of the team behind the Creative Loafing podcast, Running Dialogue: A Podcast About Movies. This past Friday, they released the third episode of the podcast, in which Holman, “Collider’s Matt Goldberg and /Film’s Russ Fischer disagree vigorously about ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ consider the legacy of director Tim Burton and the future of 3-D, and end up – somehow – discussing the merits of seeing films in theaters vs. waiting for the DVD.”
In addition to mentioning the podcast, I want to heartily recommend that once the Oscar ceremony starts you should head over to Screen Grab, Creative Loafing’s Movie and TV blog where Holman and others will be liveblogging the event. I’ll likely be lurking in the comment sections, making snide asides as the show or the blog inspires me.
YouTube: The Criterion Collection Now Has a Channel
Posted by admin in Film, streaming video on January 26, 2010
The Criterion Collection–the folks that as they so succinctly put it: “Since 1984 . . . has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements”–now has a YouTube channel. I assume it will be mostly populated with trailers, nothing full run. But, of course, with YouTube trying to compete with television, I could be proved wrong in a few months. Check it out.
As a Wim Wenders fan myself, I was pleased to find this trailer from PARIS, TEXAS–Wenders’ 1984 film.
I wish I could embed the video here, but YouTube apparently does not allow that on the channels. How odd.
Hulu: John Huston
Posted by admin in Film, streaming video on January 21, 2010
So I was knocking around hulu tonight and stumbled across John Huston’s 1956 film, Moby Dick (starring Gregory Peck). This got me curious as to whatever Huston films that might be sitting on hulu.
And that’s how I found 1977’s Tentacles. This film is a product of its times, clearly trying to capitalize upon the popularity of 1975’s Jaws (and apparently only a few months before Orca was released)–it was supposed to be a horror film. But appropriately enough, hulu has it listed as a comedy.
Huston does not direct this gem, but rather he acts in it, alongside other folks that leaves me asking “Was money that tight in the 1970s for these folks): Claude Akins (as a sheriff [pre-1979 BJ and the Bear no less]), Henry Fonda and Shelley Winters
Jamie S. Rich on Film Criticism
Posted by admin in Film, episodic TV on January 13, 2010
Many folks that I have met in the comic industry are multi-tasking, multi-talented people. Case in point: writer/critic Jamie S. Rich. When Jamie S. Rich is not writing graphic novels (his and Joëlle Jones’ You Have Killed Me made my top books for 2009 at Robot 6), his critical analysis can frequently be read at DVD Talk or at his own blog, Confessions of A Pop Fan. I recently email interviewed him to get some of the thinking behind his critical analysis.
Tim O’Shea: In a recent post, on the topic of best of 2009 movie lists you wrote: “in case you’re not sick of best-of lists yet (I’ve avoided most, and it’s still like a lot of white noise to me)”. What annoyed you about from a most of the best of movie lists from 2009?
Jamie S. Rich: It’s nothing about any specific choices, it’s just that there is so many lists out there now, the chorus has gotten too large. There is no definitive voice, no standards. I mean, there are now lists just to keep up with the lists, a conglomeration of top 10s and top 15s and the like. What with the end of the decade countdowns also going on, I am just at a loss to see what purpose it serves anymore. I’m not a big fan of crowdsourcing, because I think that it eventually kills the formation of legitimate opinions. Even before that was a term, you could see how certain lines of thinking took root and critics and fans alike would start parroting one another. It’s something I wrote about when I reviewed the most recent DVD release of The Godfather trilogy. People don’t bother to watch the third one and react to it in their own way, they already have the common thinking to draw on. It’s like, right now, I can log on to Facebook, and I’ll see ten updates in my friends list about Avatar, and all say the same thing. “Looked great, but the story was boring,” like this is some new opinion of great value. Okay, sure, and…?
Film Criticism: Museum of the Moving Image
In wandering the Internet, I discovered Moving Image Source, the website for the Museum of the Moving Image. The site is ” devoted to the history of film, television, and digital media. It features original articles by leading critics, authors, and scholars; a calendar that highlights major retrospectives, festivals, and gallery exhibitions at venues around the world; and a regularly updated guide to online research resources.”
Any site that interviews Carter Burwell is a great resource to me. Check it out.
TCM’s Essentials: Man I Should Tivo Them
Posted by admin in Film, Literature on January 5, 2010
I am always forgetting to set my Tivo to snag TCM’s weekly Essentials installment. What is TCM Essentials? The Essentials is a show where host Robert Osborne and a star (for the past year or so, it’s been Alec Baldwin) discuss the appeal of a film that they consider classic–or to be an essential film that one should know about.
I often miss the broadcasts (originally aired on Saturday night and rebroadcast on Sunday night). But I love reading the education that TCM offers at its website. For example, last weekend’s selection of Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962), includes this morsel of information, under the specification Pop Culture 101.
“When Lolita first appeared in print in the U.S. the Cincinnati Public Library refused to buy it, and the town of Lolita, TX, almost changed its name to Jackson.”
Aviva Kempner on Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Posted by admin in Film, episodic TV on December 30, 2009
Gertrude Berg
Whenever I discover a gap in my television/pop culture culture, I have an immediate need to fill that gap. Aviva Kempner’s documentary, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, was an important person and project I knew nothing about. To fill this information chasm, I contacted Kempner for an email interview. As detailed at the Cielsa Foundation website: “Ciesla Foundation produces and distributes award-winning films about strong and important, but often unknown, Jewish heroes. Its mission is to educate and inform audiences about social and public interest issues of the past and present through storytelling and filmmaking….Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner, whose credits include Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Today I Vote for My Joey, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, and Partisans of Vilna, is Ciesla’s director and founder. Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg chronicles the “humorous and eye-opening story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg. She was the creator, principal writer, and star of The Goldbergs, a popular radio show for 17 years, which became television’s very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949. Berg received the first Best Actress Emmy in history, and paved the way for women in the entertainment industry.” My thanks to Kempner for her time. I hope the interview motivates you to donate to the foundation and to Kempner’s efforts.
Tim O’Shea: I’m sure you have many ideas for subjects to pursue, but after wrapping 2002’s Today I Vote for My Joey how many concepts (ballpark figure) did you consider and set aside before deciding upon Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg?
Aviva Kempner: I was thinking about doing a few dramatic scripts and did not get much further than research. I also had a couple more documentary ideas but none were fundable at first glance. Another one did receive research funds and am now happily back on working on that film on The Rosenwald Schools. Once I went to the Jewish Museum in New York’s exhibit of Jews Entertaining America and saw the Molly Goldberg living room I knew that was my next film project.
Merry Christmas II: Wonderful Life “Lost” Ending
Posted by admin in Film, comedy, pop culture, streaming video on December 25, 2009
I always forget that Shatner (with classic 1980s rug) introduces the clip.
As much as I love the original film, my sense of humor is drawn to absurd material like this.
Merry Christmas: It’s A Wonderful Life
For those of you who observe the holiday: Merry Christmas. For those of you who do not: Sorry about all the stores being closed.
As a child, my family typically went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Most of my family, that is. My father would often attend another mass, typically. And one year, it just so happened that Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s A Wonderful Life, was being shown on television. My father offered that I could skip midnight mass if I wanted to watch this film with him, and my father rarely made such offers like this, so I took it. And because my father so clearly loved this film, I grew to love it as well.
I was just reading Roger Ebert’s 1999 essay on the film–and something that Ebert wrote really struck a nerve with me:
“This was the first movie he (Capra) made after returning from service in World War II, and he wanted it to be special–a celebration of the lives and dreams of America’s ordinary citizens, who tried the best they could to do the right thing by themselves and their neighbors.”
There were no shades of gray in my late father’s view of the world. He saw the world in terms of the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. For my father, anything other than the right thing was never an option. Hearing Ebert’s take on Capra’s intent with the film allows a glimpse past the heart-warming surface of the tale. It also allows me to see a little bit more of my father’s thinking, years after his death, through his appreciation of a film.
I keep the memory of my father alive in odd ways, but they are ways that work for me. And hearing George Bailey exclaim “Zusu’s petals” always takes me back to my childhood and my first viewing of the film.
Dreaming about Reality TV
Posted by admin in Film, episodic TV on December 3, 2009
Clearly James Wolcott’s essay was still on my mind the other night when I went to sleep. That, or I am watching too much reality TV. Why? Because I had an actual dream last night that he was hanging out at one of Dr. Drew’s sober living houses–and one of the housemates had let her dog eat the pizza meant for the housemates. Dr. Drew and I were looking for leftovers in the fridge and I opined–that dog is probably eating better than Jeff Conway is these days. Then I turned to the camera in my dream and said: “No offense if that’s not true, Jeff. (Turning to Dr. Drew) Should we edit that out?” Clearly I must stop watching so much reality TV.
I’ve always wanted to be that witty or acerbic or tacky or snarky (whatever you want to call it) in my dreams. OK, not always–but definitely since the day, years ago, my then co-worker and pal, Doug, told me about a dream he had. Doug told me he dreamed that he was in the 1984 movie, Red Dawn. And in the midst of the dream/movie, he turned to the actors in the dream and said: “I’ve always hated this movie.” I love that Doug had the presence of mind to be that witty while in a REM state. That’s just the height of absurdist comedy to me.