Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

The nation’s trio of movie tracking companies made predictions that were again unanimous… and wrong with estimates for Hannah Montana that ranged from the high teens to the low 20s. Last week they were shy roughly $20 million on expectations for Fast & Furious and put the lie to the theory that competition would improve methodologies from the terrible days of market research monopoly. It’s a situation that wouldn’t be tolerated in political polling but in the film industry this long tradition tends to get a shrug as a response.

Weekend Estimates (Full List)

3-Day Estimates	Weekend	% Chg	Cume
Hannah Montana: Movie	34.3	-	34.3
Fast & Furious	28.7	-60%	118
Monsters vs. Aliens	22.5	-31%	140.9
Observe and Report	11.1	-	11.1
I Love You, Man	6.5	-17%	59
Knowing	6.4	-22%	67.7
The Haunting in Connecticut	5.7	-40%	46.3
Dragonball Evolution	4.6	-	4.6
Adventureland	3.4	-40%	11.4
Duplicity	3.0	-28%	36.8

Wilmington on Movies
Observe and Report, Hannah Montana: The Movie, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Gigantic, and Sin Nombre
by Mike Wilmington

The movie is pretty funny all the way through, and Faris, as a mean little makeup shop slut named Brandi is hilarious, but it also leaves a bad taste in your mouth. (To be honest, so did Paul Blart.) Having your comedy hero be an actual semi-psychotic on a macho trip and vengeance kick is a daring move (though it smacks of Adam Sandler), and so are the pathological depths to which some these characters sink. Cinematically, it’s just okay.

Observe and Report	-	-		-
Hannah Montana: The Movie	-	-	-
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh	-		-
Gigantic	-
Lymelife	-	-	-		-
Anvil! The Story of Anvil	-				-
Fast & Furious	-	-	-	-
Sugar	-	-	-
Silent Light	-	-		-
Goodbye Solo	-	-			-
Sin Nombre	-		-	-

Voynaristic Review
Hannah Montana: The Movie
by Kim Voynar

Yes, Hannah the superstar is cool, but it's Miley the real girl who makes the whole thing interesting, and the creators of this film lost a great opportunity to explore more deeply what's really the most engaging aspect of the series -- the conflict between Miley the girl and Hannah the superstar, which should be so much deeper and more interesting than a series of cheap "she's got to be in two places at once!" stunts.

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Voynaristic
What's the Truth About Objectivity in Documentaries?
by Kim Voynar

As for myself, I'm not sure there is such a thing as pure objectivity in documentary filmmaking -- or really, in any art form. In fact, I'm no longer even convinced that there's such a thing as an "objective truth" to capture at all, regardless of the intent one has or the media used; every event has myriad points of view, and even if you capture the truth as one given subject sees it, aren't you still missing the pieces of other perspectives that would add up to the whole?

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MCN DVD
Yes Man

Yes Man is familiar right down to much younger woman who encourages him to persevere, when his conviction starts fading. Here, that woman is played by Zooey Deschanel, an actress who could warm the heart of a snowman. Her free-spirited Allison is as positive in her daily life as Carrey’s Carl Allen was negative, before he bought into the principles of a stern self-help guru played by Terence Stamp. Despite the lack of originality, Carrey’s a strong enough actor to keep the minds of most viewers focused on his on-screen antics and not the holes in the script.

Also ... Bedtime Stories, The Day the Earth Stood Still, No Country for Old Men and more ...

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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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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.   

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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.

Should Critics Facebook Artists?

"All this might seem crashingly obvious, but at least in this culture it can’t be restated too often that comedy is not safe."
Defending O&R, Edelstein Hopes He'd Have "The Decency To Walk Away From A Semi-Conscious Woman"

The Sunday NY Times
Chip McGrath On Mike Nichols, Master Of Invisibility At 77
And - Come Fly Away In A Movie-Type Flying Car: The Terrafugia Transition
And - The "Extra Step" Of The Fictionalized Grey Gardens
Plus - The "Desire" Of Carla Gugino
And - In A World Of Trailers, Unseen Stars
Plus - They Really Neeeed This Job

"Unfettered spoon-throwing is only one of the very strange things that happens during screenings of The Room, the film that has become revered as 'the Citizen Kane of bad movies'."

Longworth's Short Reasons Why Twitter Suits Filmmakers' Personalities

Rediscovering The Robert Altman-Written Corn's-A-Poppin', With Hobie Shepp And The Cowtown Wranglers

"The great thing about all communications technologies is that none ever entirely supersedes its predecessor. Print did not replace writing and radio did not replace print. Books aren't going away. Technology is morally neutral: it's people who are not."
Stephen Bayley's Terrif Piece On The Modern Media Moment

About That Book Advance...

"For a great majority of David Denby’s years as a professional writer, he was effectively firewalled from his critics. In the Age of the Internet, hipster bloggers are baying for the fusty critic’s blood."

Report: Apple's Jobs iCommuting

A Surmise That YouTube Is Fiscally Doomed

Mr. Hulot's Pipe Relit

LA Times InfoAdverTorialMonetizes Again, This Time For Soloist In Sunday's Calendar Section

Polaroid Deal May Never Develop

Proud "Bipartisans" Rockefeller And Snowe "Cybersecurity Act of 2009" Would Give Commerce Department Absolute, Non-Emergency Access To “All Relevant Data” Without Standards Or Judicial Review
And - Is South Korea Turning Into "Internet Police State"?

Observe... Report... Blog...
"I wish I'd known people were going to get up in arms over a scene in Observe and Report and intentionally misread it so I could have asked Anna Faris about it. I made the mistake of believing that my fellow film critics had the ability to actually understand the full context of a scene."
Plus - "Somewhere in her stupor, she's feeling a rote rumble of pleasure. The scene achieves what few American movies even attempt: to pinpoint the grim compromise, the desperation, that can attend the sex act."
And - "Corliss' review and Rogen's commentary are chilling because they so casually reaffirm the stereotypes that perpetuate date rape. Makes you wonder how many other people are in on the joke."

Are Disneynature Docs Going To Be Filled With "Bambi Moments"?

Riff-Rafferty On "Satyajit Ray’s World of Restless Watchfulness and Nuance"

John Milius Turns 65

Bordwell Considers Hong Kong Dynamo Tsui Hark And His Film Workshop ProdCo At 25

"My zeal trumped my sense. With the scent of something so cool and hot in the air, I leapt without looking."
Shawn Levy Sez "Oops" On Blowing It On Blogging A Fake Gus Van Sant Tweet
And - The Credulous Original

It's "Springtime For Hitler" In Germany In A Theater Attended By The Fuehrer

Peter Jackson And The NZ Jet-Set

NYC Church Tweets Passion Of The Christ
But - "Twitter Will Be Down A Lot More, Count On It"

"The familiarity I have with the arenas of independent and global film after 19 years of operating inside these realms is more than offset by the abbreviations and shortcuts that the inner circle uses to communicate about various matters about which I’m on a complete learning curve."
Geoff Gilmore Posts A "Hello, Tribeca" Piece

M. Phillips Wonders If Pixar Can Do It Again

"If the jaded and not exceptionally observant Brody could have heard Bahrani so carefully discussing his methods and philosophy, he would have crawled under his seat and ordered out for sackcloth and ashes."
Ebert Muses About His Boulder, Co. Intellectual Retreat And Cracks Variously Wise

Ken Brecher Out As Exec Director Of Sundance Institute After Nearly 14 Years

"Former Porn Star" Jack Wrangler, Of Heavy Equipment And Devil in Miss Jones, Part II, Passes Of Lung Cancer At 62; Leaves Cabaret Singer Widow Margaret Whiting, 84

"'Never set out to make a masterpiece,' Steven mused in later years. 'Just let it happen—if it will.'"
David Thomson On Steven Bach

Boxing, Sex And Madness: Foundas Referrees Tyson & Toback

"Families with autistic children can bring their own gluten- and casein-free snacks, and the kids are welcome to dance, walk around, shout or sing during performances."
AMC's Sensory Friendly Films, Initiative To Show Pics To Autistic Children

"Bong's films are intensely talkative, their dialogue hilariously profane, scatological, ridiculous, and scathing, but we could easily follow them without a sound track."
Gary Indiana Considers Director Bong Joon-Ho's Three Features

"It seemed like a tremendous opportunity to access a whole new level of burgeoning talent that we haven’t been able to access."
Killer Films Adds A Digital Collaboration

The Fatal Flaws Of Garth Drabinsky, Convicted Fraudster, Fallen Cinema Baron And Livent Impresario

A Round-Up Of Observations On B-Bob Thornton's Recent Doofusness

"I get these occasional letters from Lucasfilm saying that 'we regret to inform you that as Return of the Jedi has never gone into profit, we've got nothing to send you.'"

Best Film Twists Of All Time?

Is This The State Of Arab Film?

Isabella Rossellini On Her Expiring Bee, Orgasmic Snail And Angst-Ridden Limpet

Talk About The Passions: A Jesus Double Feature

Starlog Mag Goes Out Of Print

"As horrible as it is to be closeted, from a political point of view, it’s great training because you have to spin and it’s sort of how it is in politics."
Kirby Dick's Tribeca Preem, Outrage, To Open Door On Closeted Politicians

Is It A Bad Idea To Release Mike Judge's Extract On Labor Day Weekend?

France Rejects Stringent Internet Anti-Piracy Bill

John Waters Meets The Art Grannies

The Artistic "Secrets" Of The Director Of Let The Right One In

"We had a table reading. This was not a secret, it's not like anyone tricked anybody, but it was bold and cool because it does push boundaries. We were fortunate getting to make a comedy like this. It takes you places you wouldn't expect to go."
Dark Funny? Funny Dark? Observe? Report?

Glenn Kenny On Editing David Foster Wallace For Premiere

Woody Allen Gives Deposition In Suit Against American Apparel

UK's First Buddhist Film Festival To Feature Dead Man And Donnie Darko

"Who does one have to f--- to get off that masthead?"
Rupert Everett Has An Uncensored Thing To Say About Graydon Carter

Postering Taking Woodstock
And - Trailering Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

"As of Sunday, Bart is no longer in control of his world. But look around: What journalist is?"
Eight Years On, Amy Wallace Updates Her Take On Variety's Peter Bart
And - Her 2001 Piece That Got Him Suspended (Briefly)

11 Filmmakers Are 2009 Guggenheim Fellows, Including Kelly Reichardt, Ramin Bahrani, Julia Loktev

Is There Too Much Music?

Samoa Sour On Milk

The Man Who Launched Quentin Tarantino

A Spoiler-Ridden Consideration (Starting With Its Headline And Link Name) Of Maybe The Most Startling Rogen-Faris Scene In Observe And Report

"We have a knack in Britain of making movies which are not only very bad but bad in an odious way, self-indulgent and self-regarding, knowing and cute, all false sentiment and mirthless humour. Bridget Jones' Diary sets the tone."
Notes From A Disenchanted Movie Lover

The Problem Of Canadian Movies And Further Calls For CanCon Cinema Quotas

Cieply On Brad Silberling's Good Luck With La Brea Tarpits (Overlooking Miracle Mile, The LBT Movie Of All Time)

"You blew it. And now you're angry. Well, gentlemen—and that's pretty much all I see before me: angry, old, white men—you have no right to anger. Instead, you are the proper objects of anger. The public should be angry with you for the poor stewardship you have exercised over the press and its service to society. You lost the future of news."
Screed Of The Day
And - Past Exec Editors Frankel And Raines Muse If NY Times Can Reinvent Itself One More Time

An L.A. Cabbie's Possibly Apocryphal Tale Of Motoring Orson Welles To Musso & Frank's

What Was Playing Grauman's Chinese April 8, 1928?

Trailering Robert Rodriguez's Shorts
Plus - His 9-Minute Debut Short, Bedhead

Paris Turns Into Tativille For A Sorta-Centennial For Jacques

France's Hard-Case Attempt At An Anti-Film Piracy Law Explained

Levy Remembers His First Look At The Matrix, 10 Futurist Years Ago

Ebert Pens A Thank-You To Bill O'Reilly About The Sun-Times Being Elevated To His August "Hall Of Shame" And Recollects Squeaky The Chicago Mouse