Saw the Neil Marshall-directed Centurion at IndieScreen via a Film Comment-curated part of the Northside Festival. (I may have exhausted my quota of descriptive modifiers for the night right there.) The very short version: it’s a good action film. The slightly longer version: It’s a good action film with an unfortunate tendency to throw in …
Presently, watching the Knife Party at Niko’s, a short film (in three parts) written by my old friend Theo Travers. Good stuff — a twisty, tense chamber piece that uses its serial aspects well. First part is embedded below (thanks, Vimeo!); the other two can be seen here.
KNIFE PARTY AT NIKO’S episode one from Theo …
Last week, I interviewed the Israeli writer Etgar Keret, with a focus on his work for film. One bit:
Has working as a director affected how you have adapted your work for the screen?
I usually prefer not to adapt my stories. An adaptation is a reading of a text and a writer’s reading is …
One: At io9, an interview with Joh Alan Simon, the writer/director of an upcoming adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth. (With a Robyn Hitchcock soundtrack, no less.)
Two: At Bleeding Cool, Adi Tantimedh discusses the influence of Andrei Tarkovsky’s work on science fiction. While I don’t agree with his take on the Soderbergh adaptation …
Given that I wasn’t entirely impressed with Crazy Heart’s take on music journalism, I’m glad to see that the fine people at New York were thinking along similar lines. And thus: this take on music journalists on film, past and present, which is worth a read.
I reviewed the film Crazy Heart for Flavorwire. My thoughts on it were somewhat mixed.
Writer-director Cooper — here adapting Thomas Cobb’s novel — introduces the less savory aspects of Blake’s life with a heavy hand. That includes early scenes in which Blake handles a bottle of his own urine and drunkenly fishes his sunglasses out …
A few years ago, I posted around these parts about the filmmaker Michael Almereyda, who’s made a few films of which I’m pretty fond. What got my attention at the time was his film Happy Here and Now, which brought together low-key science fiction and a pre-Katrina New Orleans. Apparently, he has an adaptation of …
Last night, I went to the PPOW Gallery to see a screening of Michael Kimball and Luca Dipierro’s I Will Smash You, a film consisting of short scenes of people smashing objects (or, in one case, smashing a concept) for assorted reasons. In most cases, the smashing functioned for the person performing it on both …
New York’s Vulture blog has posted a recap of memorable lines from Toronto Film Festival entries. One in particular stood out:
“You demonic concubine.” —The teenage reincarnation of Trotsky (Jay Baruchel), addressing the head of the school board in The Trotsky; screenplay by writer-director Jacob Tierney
Right about now might be the time to mention my strange …
In the vein of Christopher Orr’s review of 21 based solely on the trailer: note the points of overlap between Brian Lynch’s “How to Survive Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen“ and David Edelstein’s review of the film in question. Also worth a read for Edelstein’s discussion of the careers of Michael Bay and Ridley Scott, …
I realize it’s an odd thing to be peeved about a particular detail in a bad review, but: this Scott Foundas review of Away We Go (co-written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida) is one of the most frustrating pieces of criticism by a normally solid critic that I’ve encountered in a long while. Steven …
One: A brutally candid Kevin Smith is interviewed by New York about his recent and upcoming work. I’m glad to hear that Red State is still likely to be made at some point, as I’ve been eager to see it ever since it was announced.
Two: Following one honest interview with another: Jeremy Bolen talks to …
For today, links to three interviews with the venerable Joe Meno, whose novel The Great Perhaps is newly available:
The Millions, in which the novel’s structure, symbolism, and relationship to the political landscape of 2004 are discussed.
What To Wear During an Orange Alert?, in which Chicago, research, and the assembly of the novel are discussed.
Hobart, in …
Last week, I saw Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, which I’d definitely recommend. Last week, I also read Charles Portis’s The Dog of the South, which also comes highly recommended. It’s a strange bit of serendipity, then, that in this comprehensive AV Club interview with Mottola, he had this to say in passing:
In fact, I’ve optioned a …
Via Alan Sepinwall: This piece from The Wire co-creator David Simon on his efforts to learn more about an underreported police shooting in Baltimore is well worth a read.
Half-truths, obfuscations and apparent deceit — these are the wages of a world in which newspapers, their staffs eviscerated, no longer battle at the frontiers of public …