Wilmington on DVDs
Doubt, Alexandra, The Last Metro, Fallen Angels, No Country for Old Men ... and more
by Michael Wilmington

Sister Aloysius has a worthy, and wordy, foe/debater in Father Flynn, who will not go quietly into the sexual/sacred hell she‘s prepared for him. And he has surprising aid, and support, from the boy’s mother, the long-suffering and worldly-wise Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis, in a scorching scene with Streep) and eventually from Sister James herself. That’s the drama, and it is a drama. You may think you have Doubt all figured out, but you’re probably wrong. Even after the climax, doubts will linger. And they should. That’s the conflict -- and Doubt has genuine moral and spiritual clash to show us, with formidable performances by great actors.

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
Quantum of Solace
by Doug Pratt

Not even James Bond sweats the details any more. The completely absurd-looking hotel that is stuck in the middle of nowhere and is destroyed in one of the film's climaxes, as one learns in the supplementary features on the Two-Disc Special Edition, is a genuine hotel, catering to astronomers who are visiting the nearby observatories in the Chilean desert, but in the movie there is no reference to the observatories and it is just an outlandishly fancy building with no apparent purpose except to be an object of destruction.

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Frenzy on the Wall
Catching Up
by Noah Forrest

I remember reading in one of William Goldman's books that when he writes a main character he annotates the character type with something like "he's Gary Cooper" or "he's Humphrey Bogart" to explain in a few words what the character should feel like. And I can't imagine writers doing this with, say, an actor like Sean Penn, because Penn is so different in each role, but I can imagine a writer using "he's George Clooney" or "he's Clive Owen" to define a certain type of masculinity he intends a character to evoke. Like Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant, Owen tends to overlay each character he plays with a distinct sense of himself in a way that many actors can't, or don't.

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Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Tracking had been torrid for Fast & Furious, which reassembled the original cast of the souped-up franchise. Fandango had the film taking 53% of its advance ticket sales and industry estimates predicted it would bow somewhere between $50 million and $55 million, or slightly less than last weekend’s launch of Monsters vs. Aliens.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)

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Digital Nation
ShoWest Sampler: Animation, 3-D and the New Woody Allen Film
by Gary Dretzka

Larry David plays a misanthropic physicist – and, of course, Allen’s newest alter ego – who gives up his research after a divorce and failed suicide attempt. After dinner, one night, he’s confronted by a blond waif who’s run away from her Mississippi home and is in desperate need of a meal and couch on which to sleep. Even though Evan Rachel Wood’s character touches all of his raw nerves, they embark on the unlikeliest of relationships. Things get even crazier when the girl’s estranged parents (Patricia Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr.) arrive in New York, a year later, separately, and experience culture shock. Often hilarious, Whatever Works is set for a June release.   

Adventureland	-	-
Fast & Furious	-	-	-	-
The Escapist	-	-	-	-	-
Gigantic	-	-			-
Paris 36	-	-	-	-
Sugar	-	-	-
Silent Light	-	-		-
Monsters Vs. Aliens	-	-	-
The Haunting in Connecticut	-	-	-	-
Goodbye Solo	-	-			-
I Love You, Man	-			-
Sin Nombre	-		-	-

The Gronvall Files: Interview
Cary Fukunaga Makes His Name with Sin Nombre
by Andrea Gronvall

"In terms of the philosophy of the cinematography, the goal was not to innovate, but to hark back to older times. What we really wanted to do was shoot photojournalism style. Not documentary style, but photojournalism style in the sense that if we wanted a shot to work, it would have to tell the whole scene within that shot. And in terms of treatment of the image, we wanted—also like photojournalism—to shoot Kodachrome, [which] doesn’t exist anymore for 35mm, so we had to shoot negative stock and then try to approximate that with our post process."

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Wilmington on Movies
Fast & Furious, Silent Light, Sugar, Adventureland, and Paris 36
by Mike Wilmington

But the fact is that nobody transcends their vehicle in this movie. These vehicles are untranscendable. This script is undrivable. These speeches are unspeakable. The best performance in Fast & Furious is given by the Dodge Charger, or maybe the 1972 Ford Gran Torino or the F-Bomb Camaro or the 1987 Buick Grand National. The cars have the most charisma, and the keenest psychology. They also have the best lines. I hope they get their own movie soon, maybe one as well-written as Pixar’s Cars.

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Voynaristic
Gentle Pressure, Relentlessly Applied: Women's Voices in a Man's World
by Kim Voynar

When women speak about feminist issues, it's easy to tune them out; wrap the same ideas around female empowerment in relationships, the strength of women in communities, or the power of women socially and politically within smart, ironically constructed rhymes laid over a catchy hip-hop beat, though, and you start getting somewhere -- both with empowering young girls who will glean and hone their own philosophies and worldviews from the artistic expressions they're exposed to and, eventually, subtly infiltrating acceptance of those ideas into an entire culture.

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Wilmington on DVDs
Slumdog Millionaire, Danton, Il Generale Della Rovere... and more
by Michael Wilmington

Boyle pulls off this incredible cinematic juggling act with tremendous flair and panache. I wouldn't call the movie a masterpiece, but maybe I'm short-changing it. Slumdog Millionaire -- which won a ton of Oscars -- is more entertaining and memorable, more of a kick, than many films that are.

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MCN DVD
Slumdog Millionaire

The film literally could have been set in a dozen different locations and been every bit as effective as it was. Mumbai worked best, perhaps, because the teeming Garibnagar colony sat nearly adjacent to the Bollywood dream factory, thus creating a juxtaposition loaded with much metaphorical punch. Danny Boyle may not have known it at the time - Slumdog almost went straight to DVD, after all - but he created that rarest of treasures: a modern classic with universal appeal.

Also ... Seven Pounds, Marley & Me Tell No One, Twilight and more ...

Al Pacino Grows Up To Be Napoleon

Star Trek Premieres At Fantastic Fest Via Paramount's AICN Web Marketing Arm

Francis Coppola Is 70
Plus - Jason Sanders On Coppola Now

Kumar Goes To White House
Kal Penn Takes Break From Acting To Join Obama Administration

Blockbuster Close To Bankruptcy?

"The Future Of Movies: George Lucas Was Dead Wrong"

What Media Moguls Make

Le Cinema De Food Court

The Real Shawn Levy Asks, What Hath Fast & Furious Wrought On The Roads?

Star Trek Preems In Sydney

Atkinson On The Joys Of American Avant-Garde Film

Cieply And Barnes Banter Biz With Bumped Bart While Promoting Little-Read Site Of Former Timeser & Elevating Narrow-Focus DHD To Trade-Killer Status

Olympics 2012 Spend Bites UK Film Council

Remake Machine Heats Up

Friedman Firing Official

Digital Piracy Congressional Hearing Not Upbeat

"Let's be honest. Some of the theaters still (stink). Exhibitors are the most important people in the industry. All of the magic happens in the two hours people are sitting in the theater. I want them to make the moviegoing experience as special as they can, because that's what burns in people's memories."
Michael Bay Is Up For Better Cinemas

Rourke Sez Iron Man 2 Insurers Kept Him Out Of The Wrestlemania Ring

Barnes Seeks Those Down On Up

"When the scene was shot, I was lying there thinking, ‘This is wrong on so many levels. There is no way Warner Bros. is going to keep this in.’ I’ve done my share of studio stuff that’s wrong and never got into the movie—male nudity, semen, a few boobs. But there it is. My parents have something to look forward to."
Anna Faris Talks The Technical Side Of Performance

"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories."
AP Set To Sue Online News Aggregators

WB Not Happy About Hindi BenButton

Edelstein Gets Real About Neo-Neorealism

Coy Watson, Jr., 96, Silent Era Child Star

Anne-T Reports Variety Kicks Bart Upstairs At 76; Timothy Gray New Majordomo Of Long-Lived Trade Sheet

"Reports of my death have been extremely exaggerated."
Roger Friedman Comments

"Wouter was part of a family that cared deeply about our world, our culture and cinema that mattered."
Cosmopolitan Taste-Maker And Champion Of Asian And Other World Cinema, Wouter Barendrecht, 43, Co-Chairman Of International Sales And ProdCo Fortissimo Films, Blessed With "Exquisite Taste In Weird Movies," Dies Suddenly
And - Fortissimo Release Reports Heart Failure In Bangkok

More Sunday NY Times
Kehr Delves Into DVD Release Of Depression-Era Paramount Pics
And - Chip McGrath On The Compression Of State Of Play
And - Observe And Report's Jody Hill's Brutal Losers
Plus - Big Cieper Drinks Deep At Auteurist Fount Of Shawn Levy

"There is no doubt that certain websites are best described as parasites or tech tapeworms in the intestines of the internet."
So Sez WSJ Editor Of Google, Et Al.

Cleaning Up After Roger Friedman's Discharge

"Melodrama has been the building block of storytelling in cinema since the form was invented. I've always been interested in that form. It's not psychological drama."
Aussies Give Baz More Chances To Gloat At Almost Breaking Even

Want To Be An Extra? Join The Teeming Masses

Fred Astaire: Sultan Of Suave

Roger Ailes Leaking To Nikki On A Story She Has Been Behind On At Every Step... Is She The Next Fox News 411?
La Finke Reports NewsCorp's Fox News Fires Roger Friedman For "Encouraging Piracy" Of NewsCorp's Fox Release Wolverine

How A State Of Crisis Led To State Of Play

Classifying The French New Wave At 50 By Tarantino Colors: Godard, "Mr. Red"; Rohmer, "Mr. Green"; Chabrol, "Mr. Black"

Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber Hums The Tune That The Internet Is "Somalia"

Bollywood On Strike

"'Roger Ebert' is only a name. 'By Roger Ebert' are the three most magical words in the language, drawing my eye the same way a bulls-eye attracts an arrow."
Further Anecdotes From An Ink-Stained Stretch
And - "I've argued that a piece of critical writing ideally should offer ideas, information, and opinion—served up in decent, preferably absorbing prose. This is a counsel of perfection, but I think the formula ideas + information + opinion + good or great writing isn't a bad one."
Good Dr. Bordwell On The Ideal Vs. The True State Of Film Cricketing

VF Assembles Femme-Centric Inglorious Basterds Photo Portfolio From Brigitte Lacombe

The Sunday NY Times
The New York City Of Movie Memory Assembled From Stock Footage
And - Ambling With Brooklynite Paul Dano
And - Hanging With The Musical Bacon Bros.
Plus - Slumdog Author-Diplomat's Unlikely Rise To Fame
And - "My Fantasy Relapse"
Plus - In Letters, Beckett Goes On
And - Arthur Laurents, Mainly On Directing, With Intermittent Vitriol

The Invincible Yet Invisible Abel Ferrara

Anne-T On ShoWest Ebert Tribute

"There's a lot of erotic imaginings in this film which were originally set in the ravine, furtive encounters pushed against the concrete pillars, with sounds of traffic going by."
Toronto's Also A Star In Egoyan's Neeson-Starring Nathalie Remake

He's Lucky He's Not A Rent-A-Projectionist In The Deep South
The Dueling Fox News/NewsCorp News Releases Over Seemingly Untouchable Roger Friedman's Review Of Downloaded Wolverine
Earlier - A Firing Offense?

Busted In Dallas: How Do You Pull Off A Film Fest In A Tight Economy? (video)

Jackie Earle Haley To Rorschach Your Little Children In New Nightmare

NY Times Asks Boston Globe Workers For $20 Million In Concessions "Swiftly" Or They'll Burn Down The House

Lou Perryman, 67, Lead In Eagle Pennell's Whole Shootin' Match, Also In Poltergeist, Blues Brothers, Dies In Austin Of Apparent Homicide

J. D. Salinger, At 90, Still Not Talking After Being Doorstepped By Brit Hack

Mouse House Drives 11% Of Employees Out Of Parks Division

"Can British films get any worse? The Boat That Rocked has already triggered debate as to whether it's even crummier than Lesbian Vampire Killers."
UK Curmudgeon Opens Yap

A Brit On Tyler Perry's Enterprise

Relativity Leery: Dumps MGM For Lionsgate

"Their industry is collapsing and no movies are being made. That is what everybody is feeling, real panic down there. It’s the state of the economy in general. I know a lot of people that are panicking and feeling like that."
Canuck Blindness Scribe Peers Below 49th Parallel

Petey Howell Feels Two-Dimensional
As - Regal, Nation's Largest Exhib, Sez To Fox, No 3-D Glasses Supplied? No Ice Age 3