I was initially a little skeptical that Stone could come up with a movie about George Bush that might resonate in the dog days of his presidency, when pretty much everyone just wishes he would hurry up and get the hell out of here. But, I got a kick of this cheeky and ironic first trailer and am hoping that it’s representative of the tone of the final movie.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 28, 2008I went on vacation for a couple of weeks (hence the diminished blog posts) just as the online debate over Anita Elberse’s article in Harvard Business Review Online appeared. In case you are interested in the concept of the Long Tail and you haven’t read this piece, I recommend that you click on the link above and check it out. After you finish it you can check out Chris Anderson’s response and Elberse’s response to him. And if you just want a taste of the discussion, you can go to Brian Newman’s short and helpful post on the article, in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2008At the Scanners blog, Jim Emerson has a great look back at David Fincher’s Fight Club, viewing it through the personal lens of depression. An excerpt: One of the (many) reasons I probably connect so strongly with David Fincher’s “Fight Club” (1999) is that, by capturing clinical depression more accurately than any other movie I’ve ever seen (though Laurent Cantet’s “Time Out” and Eric Steel’s “The Bridge” delve mighty deep into that abyss), it helped shake me out of the grips of a depression that was sucking me down at the time. I was the only person in the theater […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2008Indiewire reports that Filmmaker 25 New Face director Matt Wolf has just signed a deal with Plexifilm for his Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell. The film will open at the IFC Center on September 26 and will appear on the Plexifilm DVD label.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 27, 2008Over at his Cinema Echo Chamber, Brandon Harris picks up where his “25 New Faces” profile of Benh Zeitlin (photographed here by Richard Koek) left off with this wide-ranging interview. Here Zeitlin talks about the accident he suffered while on his way to the film’s premiere. CEC: Your film won a shorts prize at SXSW – sadly, you we’re hospitalized just prior due to an auto accident, correct? How is your recovery going? Zeitlin: The accident happened days after finishing a year and half of breathing Glory at Sea around the clock, so it was kind of a mandatory vacation, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 26, 2008I normally hate effects-heavy videos like this… but this one is great: “Corporate Cannibal,” from the new Grace Jones record, directed by Nick Hooker. An analysis by Steven Shaviro is here. (Hat tip: GreenCine.)
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 26, 2008Over at The House Next Door, Godfrey Cheshire explains his decision to walk out on a press screening of James Marsh’s documentary Man on Wire: The reason for my discomfort was simple: The movie’s soundtrack contains frequent borrowings from the Michael Nyman scores of well-known Peter Greenaway films (as well as couple of other Nyman tracks, including one from Jane Campion’s The Piano). This, for me, totally destroyed the experience of watching Marsh’s film. I would be trying to follow the story when, every three or four minutes, that familiar music would blare out and my mind would be whipsawed […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 25, 2008This coming issue marks the tenth anniversary of our “25 New Faces” feature and as part of several activities we’re compiling a list of the accomplishments of people who have been on the list. If you’ve been profiled as part of this feature, please let us know what you are up to — what projects you’ve made since appearing on the list and what projects you are in the midst of making. You can email me at editor.filmmmakermagazine AT gmail.com.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 10, 2008Charles Arthur in The Guardian writes about Acta, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement about to be ratified at the G8. Is it an inevitable government response to piracy and filesharing, or a belated rear guard action doomed to failure? He explores both possibilities. Here’s his lede: The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which – it’s claimed – could let customs agents search your laptop or music player for illegally obtained content. The European Parliament is considering a law that would lead to people who illicitly download copyrighted music or […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 10, 2008At Boing Boing, Joel Johnson interviews designer Syd Mead, whose work includes Aliens, Tron and Blade Runner.
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 9, 2008