local cinema TONIGHT!
short films! everywhere!! ahhhh!!!
subsidized 3-d pschedelia, thank you city council
clooney bags housewife
ghostface drops, close them blinds
make time after work or play to stop by the java lounge, tonight, at 6:30 p.m.; 2416th street. there you will find an early evening of experimental cinema by four filmmakers (a total nine short films). stay around, have a warm drink and then cruise on over to tower and check out melquiades. or go to andy's. the films, again, start at 18:30 hours and admission is free.
i've seen some of preston allen's films and he has a sharp eye for injustice, but his movies are fun, jocular even, with a sensitivity to human suffering and unafraid of self-censorship.
carla meyer uses the term "pickling his liver" in her one-star pan of the libertine (pickle). kiefer over at sn&r refers to the script has having coy, "horny high-schooler snickering over his dog-eared Chaucer"-like moments in execution (hmmm ...). fuck it.
db unjustly panned enron: tsgitr; keep up with director alex gibney and the trial in da archives. shameless. oscar winner, director, dickwad ... clooney?.
is hoberman over at vv off his rocker? the new world, cult classic? FFT only has taken a cursory glance at the piece, but the film is highly admired by those who like it (especially by dargis and, surprise, fx feeney). their anger, as critics, is understandable—the films's 'cream of the crop' rating at rotten tomatoes is lower than its overall, which is rare. back in december, jk and i were less than enthralled with the original cut, yet strangely enamored. hoberman originally panned it, shamelessly bad header and subhead to boot. he called the film moody, monumentally slight and genteel. it comes out on dvd the first week of may.
so as to settle the imax debate: you can see the 40-minute 'feature' deep sea 3-d, featuring the vocal talents of johnny depp and kate winslet, for $9.50 general admission. "wolf eels, giant octopi and a horde of jellyfish"—don't do it to me like that. actually, if anyone is bold enough to fork out the chedda for this one, i'm interested to know about the quality of the film, the presentation, was it good, etc. this wired bit is enticing and if FFT somehow ends up seeing this, we'll definitely keep you up to date.
this is that theodore shit. close them blinds fool.
5 comments:
In the interests of accuracy, I did not pan "Enron" -- I gave it a B-. It's an entertaining and worthy story, but far too glib, simplistic, and reliant on forcefed soundbites to wholeheartedly recommend.
you're right, but i was looking more at what you wrote ("it's just not a very good film") than the grade, which, as you noted, is a lukewarm B-. from what i recall, the film was comprehensive and i don't remember gibney being reductive, but i don't remember much about the film. i don't agree with the statement that former governor davis is let off the hook in the film; he's portrayed as an enabler, if passive, but not necessarily a victim. (but, as i said, it's been a while.)
Allow me to paraphrase from the film:
-Gibney, questioning Davis from offscreen: "Do you believe you were the victim of a Republican smear campaign to blame you for the California energy crisis?
-Davis: Well, duh.
End of scene, no follow-up question.
I don't remember the exact wording, but you get the idea.
yeah, but that was post-boondoggle spin doctoring; he was a victim of a partisan smear campaign that eventually led to his being recalled. however, i suppose the film doesn't directly address his complicity in the shenanigans.
an old nader article from the SF guardian points out that davis in fact was scrambling to sidestep de-regulation in the wake of unprecedented state spending on energy. i see davis as a fall guy complicit in a dead infrastructure.
as for the film, point taken: i see what you mean about gibney reducing arguments to readily-digestable sound bytes. db prevails.
n.
I figured that since I won, I should get the last word as well. OK, that was it.
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