Slog

An astonishing number of films opening this weekend didn’t screen for the press. Take this to mean this week’s releases are all awful, take this to mean critics are outdated, take this to mean whatever you like.

But first, the news:

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede, whose documentary Zoo (which was preceded by this feature in The Stranger) was accepted into Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. (Via GreenCine: a quick rundown of critical response following the NYC opening.)

In the New York Times, Sharon Waxman reports on the rapid fade on female powerbrokers in Hollywood. The past 14 months have seen the departure of three of the four women in top jobs at Hollywood’s major studios:

Nina Jacobson, president of Disney’s motion picture group, lost out in a power play. Gail Berman, the president of Paramount, did not mesh well with her boss, Brad Grey, the studio’s chairman, and was pushed out. And Stacey Snider, the former chairwoman of Universal Pictures, chose to defect to DreamWorks, now a Paramount subsidiary, rather than continue to labor under the pressures of Universal’s ultimate corporate parent, General Electric.

Opening today:

Jen Graves and David Schmader squabble amicably over the 30-year-old Annie Hall. They do agree on one thing: It’s the best romantic comedy EVER.

Brendan Kiley hates, hates, hates on The Condemned: “If watching a good movie is like eating fine steak and watching a bad movie is like eating a cream puff, watching The Condemned is like eating air.”

Plus, Next, Kickin’ It Old Skool, The Invisible, Wind Chill, and more.

And in On Screen this week, the zany slowness that is The Taste of Tea at the Grand Illusion (Charles Mudede: “This could have been a perfect picture”), the abs&ass parade that is Boy Culture at the Varsity (Dan Savage: “Filmed in Seattle, Boy Culture would have us believe that our sleepy little burg is a city of wet, neon-streaked streets crawling with hustlers, wannabes, and the kind of broad-shouldered, big-titted, narrow-waisted gay men you’re more likely to find strolling through West Hollywood (and through casting agencies in Hollywood) than dancing at any gay club that exists in Seattle”), and the delayed coming-of-age that is Diggers (Me: “As a movie, Diggers is affable and lazy—its purpose obscured by a swarm of clichés. As a comic sketch about Frankie and Julie, it’s great”).

Movie Times can be found over there in the upper right-hand corner, or click here. Nice to know: Rear Window is screening at MOHAI next Thursday, so you can do a Disturbia double-header; the Seattle Polish Film Festival (official website) is screening movies about patricidal ideation, depressing towns, and police officers having mental breakdowns; there’s a special big-screen revival of Dirty Dancing; Rudy Ray Moore is in town for a doc about his life and work; and Silent Movie Mondays launches Monday with exciting Harold Lloyd shorts.