December 2008
19 posts
More Great Movies Not Available on Region-1 DVD,...
The A.V. Club posted a terrific list on the more egregious of the many, many, many films still missing from Region 1 DVD. I’m not here to complain about any of the choices; they’re all well-chosen and such a list could go on ad inf., even supplying a blog with fuel for ages. With that said, here’s some more, off the top of my head: Dishonored (1931, Josef von Sternberg) The pair by which all...
Further proof that South Philly's UA Riverview is... →
“We went down that road and we even talked to the best writers in town and it...”
– Producer Andrew Form on why he’s scrapping an attempted remake of Rosemary’s Baby. I wish all remakers thought along these lines.
“After the mysterious death of his Aunt, a confirmed skeptic lawyer, Bryan...”
– Plot summary for a forthcoming film called The Skeptic, starring Tim Daly, Tom Arnold, Edward Herrmann and the recently late Robert Prosky. I knew knew knew a film bearing that name would wind up taking the piss out of rationalism, since whenever a movie character describes him-/herself as skeptical...
“Once we made a pact with another friend that if any of us ever won an Academy...”
– Bennett Miller, speaking of his longtime friend PSH, whom he directed in Capote, in the New York Times Magazine. I heard this rumor just before he scored Heath Ledger’s Oscar in ‘06 and was saddened to hear nary a bark, too. Glad to see this urban legend de-urban legended.
Plug Tunin'
Plug 1: Reviews of Doubt and Were the World Mine.
Plug 2: A Six Pack on movies with bad nuns, defined loosely. The clip for The Devils is probably NSFW.
Help me complete Cinema 2008
Based on some fairly thorough estimations, here’s what’s missing on my 2008 Unseen list that I really damn oughta see:
In the City of Sylvia
The Wrassler
Gran Torino
Secret of the Grain
The Betrayal
The Class
Waltz With Bashir
Frownland
Dear Zachary
Opera Jawa
Trouble the Water
Anything y’all can recommend? Keeping in mind that I may have already seen them? ...
“Aliens descend upon Scotland and try to raise the temperature.”
– The plot (paraphrased, really) to the 1967 British thriller Night of the Big Heat. Apart from being a fun way to divert one’s attention away from the low-wattage misery and constant rejections and disappointments of everyday life, the game Balderdash — specifically it’s swankier...
My Beef With Frost/Nixon
Though it’s entertaining enough, I’m a bit perturbed by the direction Frost/Nixon takes w/r/t its titular characters. Nixon is over-humanized, which I’m sort of okay with: we don’t need another film to tell us what a fuckwad Tricky Dick was, and Frank Langella’s performance — and I mean performance, not just impersonation — makes sure we sense this...
Plug Tunin' (a day late, but like whatev)
Plug 1: A Six Pack on Nixon in the movies.
Plug 2: Caps of Cadillac Records, Eden and Stranded.
Plug 3: In the Metro (and thus, not online) I weigh in on three x-mas shows I saw in the span of about four days. I blame this for the major toothache I developed on Saturday and the subsequent root canal ouch.
Plug Tunin'
Plug 1: So, I basically did the film section this (off-)week. Lead review of Nobel Son, the second awful, though luckily forgettable, Randall Miller joint of the year, after Bottle Shock. (Told you it was an off week.)
Plug 2: Caps for Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer and Transporter 3.
Plug 3: Six Pack on boring “maturation” films from once crazy filmmakers. For Baz.
“I guess there’s confusion, because I voted for Obama. [Laughs.] I hung in...”
– Dennis Hopper. Ha ha! Nice work, McCain, you lost the GOP King Koopa!
“You might call it a complete picture of adolescence - the feelings of...”
– Theo the Great, perfectly summing up Cold Water, aka the sneakiest great movie ever.