I loved reading this look back where the Indiewire staff examine how each of Soderbergh’s films hold up today. The post is admittedly almost a year old (I stumbled on a link to it on a recent post) but still entirely relevant; the only film not yet covered on this piece was Side Effects, his latest and potentially last.
David Chen, the host of the Slashfilmcast, has been venturing lately into video essays, especially for year end recaps from the best in film. They’ve been fairly well done, but this compilation of director Edgar Wright’s (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) closeup work is standout. Pay attention to the discussion between Chen and Wright as the shots play out; I learned a lot.
The immensely talented Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) recently starred in the Cold Comes The Night. Hurricane Sandy temporarily halted Cold’s production, and Cranston created a contest in the downtime: the film’s production assistants would create a script, and if he liked it, he’d star in it. The result is Writer’s Block. It’s moody, abstract and has its flaws, but there’s something very fun about watching Cranston game for work in what’s basically a student film with no budget.
The New Yorker’s film critic Richard Brody writes about how film criticism has evolved and fragmented as more critics turn to the internet for distribution. It’s a bit all over the place, in some ways a companion piece to what Manohla Dargis wrote originally in the NYT. But a few statements rang true, most notably how new online critics are shaping and influencing critical thought:
Ultimately, the question that Dargis poses is to herself, her editors, and other critics and journalists: namely, what, in the current diverse but fragmented world of movie viewing, are critics for, and what should they—should we—be doing? The Internet offers a wondrous diversity and quality of critical voices—and because many of the critics writing online aren’t constrained by the same editorial policies that narrowly define review-worthy releases, they’re distinguished as well by the wide spectrum of movies they cover. Maybe the readers of mainstream publications aren’t keeping up with the best of online film criticism, but the critics in mainstream publications are certainly doing so. Their influence may often be subterranean, but it’s also often strong and crucial.
The actual content isn’t super in depth, but there’s no way I could pass up sharing a twenty minute interview and discussion between two of arguably the most talented directors today. It’s always interesting to hear Kar-wai talk about his near obsessive, rigorous shooting schedule and his long working relationship with Tony Leung.
Andrew Lapin at The Dissolve:
The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook were David O. Russell films hiding inside Hollywood ones. American Hustle is the opposite. It’s so gauzy and extravagant that every outsized, Russell-lite character cancels out another one. What’s left is a political convention: a snazzy pageant with big flashbulbs that has little to do with the actual candidates. There is no emotional truth here, merely the sweet stench of the con.
Nice insights by The Dissolve’s Tasha Robinson, especially this one:
Coen protagonists tend to make one early bad choice that will lead to destruction by the end of the movie, but their struggles to evade it are endearing and fascinating.
I’ve been watching the Coen brothers for decades now and I always wonder if their slant toward moral punishment and absurdism will ever not show up in one of their films. The answer is always no, even in those that court mainstream audiences with bigger budgets and stars like True Grit and No Country For Old Men.
GoodBadFlicks puts together a fairly strong argument on the lack of originality behind most movie posters today. I’m not convinced, as the video suggests, posters are “terrible” (though that example set from X-Men: First Class is dreadful) especially considering the posters referenced from the 80s and 90s are not especially eye catching. But they nail the severe lack of originality; reinforced with the endless combinations of huge head shots on posters I see all over New York. (via Slashfilm)
The Coen brothers are, in my opinion, the most consistently strong directing force in cinema today. There are misfires like The Ladykillers and (arguably) Intolerable Cruelty, but the rest of their output ranges from very good to great. It’s especially incredible when you consider their range, from surreal farces to noir thrillers and westerns.
That genre hopping is exactly why Nelson Caravajal’s latest Press Play essay on the brothers’ output is so interesting; anyone who’s seen their works is probably familiar with many of the scenes, but the way Caravajal edits them together, you can see thematic links among the material.
The Dissolve is one of my favorite new web sites from 2013. You’ve got a powerhouse group of film writers, many plucked from the A.V. Club. A classy site design with strong typography, easily digestible articles and clear navigation. So it’s fitting that their list of the top twenty films of 2013 is excellent. I don’t agree with all the selections (I’d rank Upstream Color far lower), but it’s a good place to start for films to catch up on you may have missed from last year.