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Friday, January 5, 2007

This Weekend at the Movies

posted by on January 5 at 14:10 PM

IN MOVIE NEWS: As Oscar nominations loom (the announcement is Jan 23), reporters are push-polling favorites by highlighting some contenders above others. People ask why I’ve been mentioning the locally produced Iraq in Fragments again and again? Because it’s great, of course, but also because of articles like “Controversy Rules Oscar Contenders” in the New York Times, where misfires like My Country, My Country get special treatment largely because the filmmaker can be interviewed “seated in her comfortable TriBeCa office early last month.” (And maybe—I’ll try to give them benefit of the doubt—because she’s one of the women being mentioned in a category that traditionally boasts a healthy number of female contenders.) Yay for the Village Voice (never thought I’d write that on the Slog), then, for featuring a decent Q&A with Iraq in Fragments director James Longley, even though he couldn’t host the writer in a swanky East Village bachelor pad.

In other media notes, David Denby’s alarmist article about the future of celluloid-fueled, theater-based movies in The New Yorker (hi Julia!) is attracting its share of scorn. But it did prompt this amusingly hasty response from A.O. Scott in the New York Times, which wanders, eventually, into the haphazard schedule of film education he’s been imposing upon his children. (Here in Seattle, Northwest Film Forum is hosting its own specially tailored film festival for kids starting Jan 27.)

AT THE THEATERS:

notesonascandal.jpg

In the On Screen lineup, Charles reviews the scrumptious Notes on a Scandal, Andrew Wright surveys the aromatic Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Lindy West tears apart Freedom Writers, and I can’t stand Miss Potter (there’s a big surprise).

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Plus, a WEB EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Wright interviews Perfume director Tom Tykwer.

Film Shorts this week includes new reviews of the wonderful Portland-area production Old Joy (don’t let the terrible title turn you off), the one-night-only screening of Rural Rock & Roll (about the scene in Arcata & Eureka, CA), a doc entitled Long Gone John (about the owner of the indie label Sympathy for the Record Industry), and the wretched wide releases Code Name: The Cleaner and Happily N’Ever After.

And as always, The Stranger’s carefully compiled, lovingly updated Movie Times. Enjoy!

RSS icon Comments

1

January 22nd should be good, as that's when a really rocking movie comes out with lots of blood and guts and plot turns galore - and even the weapons are done right.

It's the one with all the name actors in it, including Jeremy Piven and Ben Affleck. Highly recommended!

Posted by Will in Seattle | January 5, 2007 6:08 PM
2

Which movie is the picture from? I only want to see the one with Judi Dench!

Posted by SeattleExile | January 5, 2007 6:52 PM
3

@2: Notes on a Scandal. That's what the
links to the reviews are for!

Posted by annie | January 5, 2007 9:07 PM
4

Talk about your liberal wankstains. Check out this comment from the article.

Stanley Nelson, the director of another shortlisted film, “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple,” said that while Mr. Moore was “over the top,” his work occupied a significant position within the genre. Speaking at an Upper West Side coffee shop, Mr. Nelson said, “What’s fascinating about documentary today is the different ways to approach it.”

Referring to his own film about Jim Jones, who led the mass suicide in which more than 900 people died in Guyana in 1978, Mr. Nelson said: “It was essential for us not to say that this guy was only evil. Just by being somewhat objective, we were being revolutionary.

Wow, that's revolutionary, what's next Mr. Nelson? What about a revolutionary documentary on Hitler where you show that he wasn't just evil. He loved opera, built the autobahns, loved dogs and was a non-smoking vegetarian as well. Who the fuck needs to parody documentary film makers when you've got guys like Stanley Nelson saying things like that for you?

Posted by Jamie | January 6, 2007 6:33 PM

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