Tonight, the millions who tune in to the Oscars will hear dozens of short speeches. A few people who have been blessed with incredible opportunities to do what they do best will go to the microphone, blink back tears, and thank the people who helped them do their work. While the Oscar winners will get the attention, their pictures plastered all over the news for the next 48 hours as if this statuette is actual confirmation that they are the... Read more
While I’m waiting until March 3 so I can have my little U2 album-unwrapping ritual, I’d love to hear from you. Now that there’s a way to hear the album early legally and with the band’s blessing, what do you think of it? (You did see this news about today’s MySpace release, didn’t you?) Here’s David Fricke’s 5-star review in Rolling Stone, for whatever that’s worth. Read more
Here are a few of my Oscar predictions, just for the fun of it. Note: These guesses are almost completely divorced from what I think *should* win this year. I won’t bother with a full line of predictions because, frankly, I really don’t care. The Academy blew it so badly this year, I don’t want to guarantee a couple of hours of disgruntled snarling on Sunday night. So we’re having some folks over to watch WALL-E and Shotgun Stories. In... Read more
In a display of uncharacteristically poor judgment, The Wall Street Journal has published the “Report to the Industry” by Movieguide’s Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder. Did the editors there actually read the flimsy claims being made? Film enthusiasts and critics everywhere, Christian and otherwise, went… huh?! Mark Moring at Christianity Today has posted a response today, but not before these had appeared: Dan Savage, Jim Emerson, and Glenn Kenny. Granted, some of those mainstream critics are just going to use this as another... Read more
Ebert turns in a thoughtful remembrance of Gene Siskel. Once we were invited to speak to the Harvard Law School Film Society. We walked into their Mock Trial courtroom armed with all sorts of notes, but somehow got started on a funny note, and the whole appearance became stand-up comedy. Separately or together, we were never funnier. Even the audience questions were funny. Roars of laughter for 90 minutes. I’m not making this up. I don’t know what happened. Afterwards... Read more
This review was originally published at Good Letters, the daily blog for Image journal. – NOTE: The following (including the comment thread) contains spoilers about scenes in the film Let the Right One In. – Blood on her lips, eyes wide with lust, Eli stares at Oskar and commands him to run. Oskar is confused. To seal a child’s contract of friendship — a “blood bond” — he’s carved open his hand with a knife. Little does he know he’s just... Read more
1. Stephen Colbert and Conan O’Brien have a dance off! 2. At The Rabbit Room, Pete Peterson praises The Wrestler. Earlier: Michael Leary has a problem with The Wrestler. Read more
First it was Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Then it was M. Night Shyamalan. Now, Variety reports, Ang Lee is considering Yann Martel’s Life of Pi. Have you read it? Which director would you pick? It’ll take someone with a poetic sensibility and a flair for fantasy. I’d certainly get in line for a Lee version. Read more
1. A.G. Harmon on The Wrestler and its reference to The Passion of the Christ. 2. Ken Morefield on where Horton Hears a Who went wrong. Earlier: My own problems with that playful pachyderm.. 3. Frost/Nixon could have been done right, says Rick Olson. . . . The filmmakers could have gotten it right, but they chose to tell it wrong. There seems to have been an agenda at work that refused to recognize that the apology originated in the... Read more
Cinematical posted this scene today, and I’m going to post it merely to demonstrate that there is nothing… nothing… in Oscar’s Best Picture category this year to compare to the acting, complexity, and achievement of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Still one of my favorite films of all time, and a brilliant work on the corruption of power in religion, politics, and business. Read more
Looking Closer
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