The Ray/Ray interview: Harryhausen and Bradbury at Comic-Con

When Ray Harryhausen was a young boy, his parents took him to a movie called King Kong and he decided to devote his life to creating the same kinds of effects that made him believe there was a giant ape on the Empire State Building. "For me it stimulated a dramatic imagination of a gothic nature." He taught himself the same stop-motion animation techniques that were used in King Kong and the dinosaur movie, The Lost World. In films like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms and It Came from Beneath the Sea he took movie special effects to an entirely new level of fantastic realism.

Mr. Harryhausen was at Comic-Con to promote a new 50th anniversary release of 20 Million Miles To Earth with lots of DVD extras. On Friday night, he provided live commentary for the film, noting at least three times that the Venusian reptile monster (called Ymir by the film-makers but not identified that way onscreen) never attacked anyone until he was attacked first. It was clear that he had more affection for the creature than he did for the story's human characters. Understandable -- the reptile was a better actor. On Saturday, he sat down with a small group of reporters to talk about his career.

I began by asking Mr. Harryhausen if he thought that what he was doing was acting as well as animating.

Of course! You're working with actors so you can't let them upstage you. I learned from King Kong you have to get sympathy for the villain. Hard to do with a Tyrannasaurus Rex! You can get sympathy for a humanoid form, but it is harder to get sympathy for an animal. So we adapted the original design for Ymir to make him more like a human, his torso anyway. He originally had one eye, like a cyclops. We had to wiggle the tail a lot to distract the audience. I always did a lot of research but was not bound by it, just inspired by it. The Ymir was from Norse mythology originally, but we changed our mind.

I brought in the story; I was very modest in those days. It took me 50 years to learn that modesty is a dirty word in Hollywood. Originally, we had the rocket ship land in Chicago, but I wanted a trip to Rome, so we moved the landing to Italy so I could go there and scout locations. We added our ruins to theirs.

He did not feel that his artistic vision was compromised by colorizing the new release.

We would have shot them in color if we had the budget. We had to do them on the cheap and not let them look cheap.

He does not admire what he calls the "hyper-realism" of today's CGI special effects or DVDs that reveal too much about how the effects were created.

When you try to make fantasy too realistic you defeat the fantasy. It is a shame that DVDs tell everyone how everything was done. It spoils the fantasy.

Fantasy was a word he came back to several times.

I did not do horror; I did fantasy. Fantasy is "what if" -- it's stretching your imagination. We don't want to be associated with horror. I don't like them to be called monster films.

He liked to run things himself and seemed pleased he was getting credit not just for the special effects but for the movies.

I liked to work alone because I didn't like anyone telling me what to do. This was not director's picture in the European sense of the word. In our films, the director's job is to get the best out of the actors. And these were not films built around the actors. We had three different Sinbads. We shot the live action first, planned very carefully. Everything is probably the first take.

He said his two biggest challenges were the multiple characters in Jason and the Argonauts and the Medusa in Clash of the Titans.

The most challenging creature was Medusa with twelve snakes in her hair. I did not want to animate a cosmic goddess, so we gave her a snake's body. We did not want to go with the classical concept of a pretty woman with a pretty face and snakes in her hair; we wanted to make her furious. We borrowed the bow and arrow from Diana. We borrowed the seven heads from Hercules; you always had to remember which head was going in which direction. With the multiple figures in "Jason," We couldn't do rotting corpses coming out of the ground at night in "Jason;" we had to do clean-cut skeletons in the daylight. The things you see today would frighten the devil.

Even in the days before CGI, there were issues of changing technology.

We had the advantages and disadvantages of changing technology in building our creatures. Originally, we used foam rubber, which shrinks 10-15 percent so the clay models were a little fat and you can see that some of the stand-ins were a little stouter. It depends on how long you cook it, how long it holds up. It is fine material, but it will rot. We have a big display of the models in Germany at the Sony Museum.

His childhood influences continued to inspire him. He mentioned King Kong and She several times.

You'll see shades of She in First Men in the Moon.

It sometimes took years of planning before any footage was shot.

My complicated pre-production drawings had two purposes. To help with planning and to let the actors know pretty well what it will look like. Actors have imagination -- an actress might have to make love to a teapot. I have to be very careful to draw things I know I can do because we used them to raise the money.

Toward the end of the interview, we were joined by Mr. Harryhausen's lifelong friend, sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury, nattily attired in suspenders and a tie featuring grinning jack o'lanterns.

We met through our mutual love of dinosaurs. King Kong inspired us both. "The Lost World" -- nothing like it had been done. My first influence was Lon Chaney. I have total recall from birth on, and I can remember when I was very young seeing "Hunchback of Notre Dame." Then "Phantom of the Opera." These things teach you about love, falling in love, stories for a lifetime. Then there was Buck Rogers when I was nine. I got the job of reading the comic strips on the radio. My pay was tickets to the movies -- "King Kong," "Murders in the Wax Museum." I was rich! Because we are surrounded by reality, which is stupid, we fall in love with Beauty and the Beast, Jack the Giant Killer. When I was five years old, I fell in love with fairy tales. Love what you do and do what you love and forget about the money. I wanted to become a magician, and I did, didn't I?

Mr. Harryhausen had one final comment:

And don't let anyone talk you out of it.

More pics from Comic-Con

Comic-Con -- preview of coming attractions

I'll be posting the Harryhausen interview and other notes and pictures shortly, but for now, some quick thoughts on Comic-Con 2007.

Last night was the Masquerade, one of the highlights of Comic-Con every year. People line up for hours to get tickets and then line up for hours again to get a seat. And the contestants spend all year on their costumes and skits, some very intricate. Many of them feature the exact same joke -- an iconic comic/videogame/movie character dancing to a pop song. And yet, and you'll have to trust me on this, it is funny every single time. One of last night's most elaborate featured the students of Gryffindor and Slytherin singing the songs from "Grease." There was a Josie and the Pussycat Dolls mash-up that even managed to get in references to "Cats" and a back-up from famous felines Felix, Tigger, and Cheshire. Three different contestants came as the ice queen from Narnia. There was an excellent Beetlejuice in the incarnation with the spinning carousel hat and long arms with hammer hands. Pinky and the Brain were an audience favorite, many of whom happily sang along. And the sand people and Jawas of "Star Wars" are a perennial hit.


In other highlights, I:

1. Attended an academics' panel discussion of the Jewish themes in superhero comics, especially (I am not kidding) Captain America and Thor (who knew?) -- one book cited is called "Up, Up, and Oy Vay",
2. Spent two hours in a press session on behalf of the 25th anniversary five-disk definitive director's cut (as opposed to the previous director's cut) of "Blade Runner, featuring four of its stars (see photo), its production designer, effects guy, and the legendary Syd Mead (who did the vehicles and other designs), Philip K. Dick's daughter Isa, and director Ridley Scott,
3. Talked with Erin "Joanie" Moran of "Happy Days" (take a deep breath, everyone -- her latest project is a pilot for THE RETIREMENT CHANNEL (think Nickelodeon for the AARP crowd),
4. Was (nicely) choked by Irwin Keyes of "House of 1000 Corpses" and "Intolerable Cruelty" (see photo above),
5. Took a lot of pictures of people in cool costumes,
6. Listened to "The Film Crew" (formerly the "Mystery Science Theater" guys) comment hilariously on Killers From Space and Wild Women of Wongo
7. Heard the wonderful Alison Bechdel talk about her brilliant graphic memoir of the suicide of her closeted mortician/high school English teacher/obsessive home-rennovating father, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,
8. Watched a restored and colorized version of 20 Million Miles To Earth (50th Anniversary Edition) (aka "The Beast From Space") with in-person commentary from special effects master Ray Harryhausen and the actor who played the obnoxious little boy "Pepe" in the film,
9. Had our pictures taken being embraced by armored bear Iorek Byrnison of The Golden Compass (I also had mine taken as a corpse in a corpse-stuffed mattress for a movie called "Amusement"), and
8. Had a blast through it all.

Welcome to Comic-Con 2007

Roving Mars on DVD

One of my all-time favorite interviews was the people behind the glorious IMAX film, "Roving Mars." I'm delighted it's now out on DVD. This gives some idea of how meticulously the film brings the audience inside the mission.

Quotes of the week: Chuck & Larry

Most critics didn't much like "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," and many pointed out its essential hypocrisy, as I noted earlier.

In Time Out New York, Melissa Anderson wrote:

Chuck and Larry wants it both ways, indulging in ass obsession and the lamest queer stereotypes since Franklin Pangborn was in short pants, then hoisting the rainbow flag at half-mast in a panicky cry for tolerance.

At the Washington Post, Desson Thomson says:

Essentially, "Chuck & Larry" is an oafish chance for audiences to laugh at gay-bashing jokes and then feel morally redeemed for doing so -- courtesy of an obligatory wrap-up scene that reminds us that homosexuals are humans, too.

But at the Village Voice, Nathan Lee (who, like Anderson, is gay), argues that this film is a major step forward because of its intended audience -- while "Brokeback Mountain" presented its call for tolerance within a genre of stately, dignified, romantic tragedy, likely to appeal to those already halfway there, this movie, Lee says, subverts assumptions even more audaciously by putting them in front of those less likely to be willing to consider questioning them.

Somewhere in the cafeteria at GLAAD headquarters, girlfriend is about to choke on her quiche, but here goes: Tremendously savvy in its stupid way, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" is as eloquent as "Brokeback Mountain," and even more radical...Where the clowning queers of "Birdcage" invite us to laugh at their antics, the faux-mos in Chuck and Larry disarm prejudice by unabashedly reveling in its idiotic assumptions. "I used to wrestle in high school," is the gayest thing Chuck can think of, "and, uh, I liked it." The movie isn't effective despite the egregious gay stereotypes; it couldn't work without them. Through the medium of an Adam Sandler comedy, with all the requisite vulgarity, we're given access to what it feels like to be ostracized, to live under false pretenses, to suffer a sham marriage. It does with crass what Brokeback did with class, slipping dangerous sentiments into the safest of genres.

Harryhausen at Comic-Con

I am thrilled that I will get a chance to interview legendary special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen at Comic-Con -- stay tuned.

Spoiler Alert: "Chuck & Larry" and "Hairspray"

Two movies opening this week purport to be all about inclusiveness and tolerance. Both are lighthearted comic fantasies but both manage to undercut their happily ever after endings with choices that are insensitive or even bigoted.

"Hairspray" is as irresistible as its irrepressibly sunny heroine, and it deserves credit for addressing a serious issue (segregation in 1962 Baltimore). And it has some strong black characters and a sweet interracial romance. But did the great leader of the fight for integration have to be the white heroine?

More troubling is "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," with Adam Sandler and Kevin James as heterosexual fire fighters who register as gay domestic partners to retain one's pension benefits. Despite a Shylock-esque call for tolerance and understanding, the movie perpetuates so many gay stereotypes and includes so much underlying homophobia that not just the movie's story but its comic sensibilities are undermined. A statement from FIREFLAG/EMS, an organization of LGBT members of the NYPD, shows far broader tolerance and generosity than the movie's main characters:

"Chuck and Larry" is, of course, a comedy and some of the humor may be considered offensive to some, but the growth of the principal characters during the course of the film is the ultimate measure of how to judge the intent and heart of the filmmakers.

Paul Dergarabedian Must Be Stopped -- Vulture -- Entertainment & Culture Blog -- New York Magazine

New York Magazine has started the Dergarabedian Watch. Every week, Paul Dergarabedian provides a "comment" on the weekend box office.

Paul Dergarabedian has the easiest job in the world. His job is to take box-office numbers and say something lame about them. That's why today we're launching our Summer 2007 Paul Dergarabedian Watch.

Every time a news organization uses this zero-content quote machine in place of actual box-office analysis, we'll point it out. Every time Paul says something particularly stupid, we'll call attention to it. We're doing this in hopes of forcing entertainment writers to find a new way to fill their boilerplate Hollywood stories...You can help! Send your Paul D. sightings to vulture@nymag.com. Together, we can make a difference.

Spoiler Alert: Transformers and Bratz

Work with me on this -- I think that "Transformers" and "Bratz" are pretty much the same movie. Or rather, they're the gender-specific sides of the same movie. On the side of the snips and snails and puppy-dog tails, we have "Transformers." Over on the sugar and spice and everything nice side, we have "Bratz." But they have more in common than both being essentially dramatic infomercials to sell dolls, I mean action figure robots and dolls and having Jon Voight as an ineffectual authority figure. They are both about the power of transformation (girl terminology: makeover), that ultimate metaphor for adolescence and growing up. And they are both about high school kids triumphing over big, powerful monsters who want to control everything. The Transformers have Megatron. The Bratz have a Mean Girl named Meredith.

Comic-Con 2007

I am thrilled to be going back to Comic-Con next week with my husband and will be blogging about our adventures.

For a refresher, check out last year's postings and pictures.

Spoiler Alert: Restaurant Dreams

SPOILER ALERT: "Ratatouille" and "No Reservations"



Two summer movies about characters with a passion for cooking have identical (happy and delicious) endings.

Bratz!

Yesterday I had a blast with the stars of "Bratz," the adorable new movie inspired by the popular dolls: BFFs Chloe (Skyler Shaye), Sasha (Logan Browning), Jade (Janel Parrish) and Yasmin (Nathalia Ramos). Details when the movie is released in early August.

Puppets!

I grew up in the golden age of puppetry, or at least the golden age of puppetry that has been preserved on film and video.

My parents took me to watch "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie" live when it was broadcast in Chicago and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom was a close family friend. Later, I got to meet Shari Lewis and Jim Henson. So I was thrilled to find out that the wonderful Emmy-winning PBS documentary "Stories of the American Puppet," covering those brilliant puppeteers and Edgar Bergan, Paul Winchell, and many others, will be available on DVD in September. DVD extras include full performances expanding on the excerpts in the show.

For those who can't wait, the earlier documentary from Mark Mazzarella is available on VHS.

Slate's action movie catchphrase contest

In the distinguished tradition of the Bulwer-Lytton first line of a bad novel competition, Slate's action-movie one-liner contest has produced some hilariously authentic-sounding catch phrases that almost make me want to see the movies they might be part of.

[S]everal readers incorporated new media into their catchphrases. From Demolicious: "Consider this negative eBay feedback." Michael Martin provides a variation on the theme with "Myspace friend add … denied!"

Calaphin captures the latent jingoism of the genre with "Welcome to America, douche bag." And Chris Larson taps into a related action trope—the comeuppance of the pretentious European bad guy—with "You shouldn't have said shed-yul, asshole."

Spoiler alert -- t-shirt edition

The ultimate spoiler -- a t-shirt from Oliver Moss that gives away everything.

Mirror/Stage » Film criticism in "the blog era"

Hurray! Andy Horbal of "No More Marriages" is back online with a new blog, Mirror-Stage. He kicks it off with a superb essay, Mirror/Stage » Film criticism in "the blog era", staking out his territory and defining his genre:

These are new times, and they call for a new criticism; I believe that we are entering the age of the “termite critic.” It is no longer necessary, desirable, or even possible for film critics to be “movie experts,” to be King of the Mountain, Arbiter of Good Taste. Instead, the critics of tomorrow will devote themselves to some small part of the Cinema and nibble away at it until sated, at which point they will move onto another....Perhaps most importantly, termite critics actually live and write from within the Cinema itself. voyage-in-italy-1.JPGThey don’t merely tell, they show; film is a visual art, and theirs is a visual criticism. They are critics and cinephiles, but they are also artists, filmmakers. Their criticism is always an act of creation, never destruction.

This, then, is termite criticism, the future of film criticism. It is an active criticism, written (drawn! shot!) by active critics who do not passively wait for today’s Hollywood film release, for this month’s celebrity birthday, or for this year’s uninspired AFI list to tell them what to write about. Termite critics dig, fight, and research; they cajole, exhort, and implore. They are responsive, never more than an e-mail away; they are organizers (of screenings), they are directors, photographers, writers.

Welcome, Andy. We look forward to your digging, fighting, researching, and responding.

Hey, the Folks at the Tribune Walk Out on Movies -- You Can, Too! - Cinematical

Kim Voyner of Cinematical follows up on confessions in the Chicago Tribune of movies people have walked out on in this piece, and provides a list of movies Voynar wishes she had missed. I may look at my watch a lot, but I never think about walking out of movies. Voynar's skewering of the films she wishes she had missed was so much fun to read (even though we disagree on some of the titles) that I, for one, am glad she stayed to the (very) bitter end.

PG-13 Transformers movie marketed to children

I suppose it should not be a suprise, coming from a television series that was created to sell toys back in 1984, but the new "Transformers" movie and its various tie-ins and toys are being marketed to children much younger than the PG-13 rating suggests for the viewing audience.

Citing the widespread and irresponsible marketing of the PG-13 Transformers movie to preschoolers, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to expand their investigation of the marketing of violent entertainment to children to include PG-13 movies. The film, which opens on July 4, 2007, was rated PG-13 for “intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language” by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). A review by CCFC found more than one hundred Transformers’ toys for children under six; Transformer promotions by Kraft and Burger King clearly aimed at young children; and advertisements for the movie on children’s television programming rated appropriate for kids as young as two.

CCFC has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, available here.

Film Techniques of Alfred Hitchcock - suspense, camera angles, style, editing, basics

Many years ago, the book Truffaut/Hitchcock made me look at movies and at the idea of the way we look at and write about movies -- in a completely different way. That book and other sources are the basis for the Film Techniques of Alfred Hitchcock, a thoughtful and provocative discussion of how Hitchcock made his films unforgettable.

Isaiah Washington -- not Dancing this September

Isaiah Washington needs to stop talking. He got into trouble for using an anti-gay epithet in an argument on the set of "Gray's Anatomy," then denying it, then using it again. And now the show has released him and he has given an interview to Newsweek, claiming that he is the victim, not the perpetrator of bigotry.

Washington can’t stop himself from doing what he’s been doing a lot lately: explaining away a situation that has already cost him a beloved job and could ultimately cost him much more...."Well, it didn’t help me on the set that I was a black man who wasn’t a mush-mouth Negro walking around with his head in his hands all the time. I didn’t speak like I’d just left the plantation and that can be a problem for people sometime," he says. "I had a person in human resources tell me after this thing played out that 'some people' were afraid of me around the studio. I asked her why, because I’m a 6-foot-1, black man with dark skin and who doesn’t go around saying ‘Yessah, massa sir’ and ‘No sir, massa’ to everyone? It’s nuts when your presence alone can just scare people, and that made me a prime candidate to take the heat in a dysfunctional family.’’

"Gray's Anatomy" is one of the few major network television programs in history to be created by an African-American. It is an insult to the achievement and integrity of writer-producer Shondra Rhimes to suggest that she is calling anyone "massa."

And it is ironic that Washington starred in one of the finest, most thoughtful, insightful, and honest movies ever made on the subject of racism and compromise in show business, Dancing in September. There he played a network executive who at first supported and then undermined a young black writer's vision of a television program that would "keep it real," an expression that became the ironic catchphrase for the show's main character as the actor portraying him spins out of control.

Washington might want to sit down and watch that movie again, this time focusing on what happens to the kid in front of the camera who thinks the world revolves around him.

List vs. list vs. list

The AFI has come out with an updated list of the best American movies of all time. The best thing about their list is the list of what they left out.

Tim Gordon of FilmGordon writes that while he is a fan of the films on the list, it leaves off too many outstanding films featuring black performers and made by black film-makers. He suggests:

The Defiant Ones
A Raisin in the Sun
Nothing But A Man
In the Heat of the Night
Sounder
Lady Sings the Blues
Claudine
The Color Purple
Glory
Malcolm X
Boyz 'N the Hood
What's Love Got To Do With It
The Hurricane
Ray
Ali

And the Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced its own top 100 list with emphasis on females in front of and behind the camera.

I'm in favor of everyone seeing all of the movies on all of these lists. And I am delighted that my friend Tim and my Film Institute colleague Jennifer Merin are there to remind us of films every bit as worthy as the more conventional and traditional choices made by AFI.

AFI list (2007 edition)

1. Citizen Kane, 1941.

2. The Godfather, 1972.

3. Casablanca, 1942.

4. Raging Bull, 1980.

5. Singin' in the Rain, 1952.

6. Gone With the Wind, 1939.

7. Lawrence of Arabia, 1962.

8. Schindler's List, 1993.

9. Vertigo, 1958.

10. The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

11. City Lights, 1931.

12. The Searchers, 1956.

13. Star Wars, 1977.

14. Psycho, 1960.

15. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.

16. Sunset Blvd., 1950.

17. The Graduate, 1967.

18. The General, 1927.

19. On the Waterfront, 1954.

20. It's a Wonderful Life, 1946.

21. Chinatown, 1974.

22. Some Like It Hot, 1959.

23. The Grapes of Wrath, 1940.

24. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.

25. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962.

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1939.

27. High Noon, 1952.

28. All About Eve, 1950.

29. Double Indemnity, 1944.

30. Apocalypse Now, 1979.

31. The Maltese Falcon, 1941.

32. The Godfather Part II, 1974.

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975.

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.

35. Annie Hall, 1977.

36. The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957.

37. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.

38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, 1948.

39. Dr. Strangelove, 1964.

40. The Sound of Music, 1965.

41. King Kong, 1933.

42. Bonnie and Clyde, 1967.

43. Midnight Cowboy, 1969.

44. The Philadelphia Story, 1940.

45. Shane, 1953.

46. It Happened One Night, 1934.

47. A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951.

48. Rear Window, 1954.

49. Intolerance, 1916.

50. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001.

51. West Side Story, 1961.

52. Taxi Driver, 1976.

53. The Deer Hunter, 1978.

54. M-A-S-H, 1970.

55. North by Northwest, 1959.

56. Jaws, 1975.

57. Rocky, 1976.

58. The Gold Rush, 1925.

59. Nashville, 1975.

60. Duck Soup, 1933.

61. Sullivan's Travels, 1941.

62. American Graffiti, 1973.

63. Cabaret, 1972.

64. Network, 1976.

65. The African Queen, 1951.

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.

67. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966.

68. Unforgiven, 1992.

69. Tootsie, 1982.

70. A Clockwork Orange, 1971.

71. Saving Private Ryan, 1998.

72. The Shawshank Redemption, 1994.

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969.

74. The Silence of the Lambs, 1991.

75. In the Heat of the Night, 1967.

76. Forrest Gump, 1994.

77. All the President's Men, 1976.

78. Modern Times, 1936.

79. The Wild Bunch, 1969.

80. The Apartment, 1960.

81. Spartacus, 1960.

82. Sunrise, 1927.

83. Titanic, 1997.

84. Easy Rider, 1969.

85. A Night at the Opera, 1935.

86. Platoon, 1986.

87. 12 Angry Men, 1957.

88. Bringing Up Baby, 1938.

89. The Sixth Sense, 1999.

90. Swing Time, 1936.

91. Sophie's Choice, 1982.

92. Goodfellas, 1990.

93. The French Connection, 1971.

94. Pulp Fiction, 1994.

95. The Last Picture Show, 1971.

96. Do the Right Thing, 1989.

97. Blade Runner, 1982.

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy, 1942.

99. Toy Story, 1995.

100. Ben-Hur, 1959.

Slate: Evan is no Noah

David Plotz, who recently blogged the Bible for Slate, writes about Evan Almighty's appalling effort to pander to religious moviegoers. What makes it appalling, according to Plotz, is the way it tries to have it all ways -- to sell it to religious audiences as a parable and to secular services as entertainment. I don't have a problem with the movie's not replicating the devastation of the Noah story (God did promise never to do it again). But I entirely agree that removing any sense of Evan's righteousness or responsibility and any real threat or implication undermines both the meaning and the narrative of the story.

Racially blind or blindly racist

Teresa Wiltz has a very thoughtful piece in today's Washington Post about the controversy of the casting of

Angelina Jolie, American, pale of skin and plump of lip, playing the part of the real-life Mariane Pearl, a French-born, brown-skinned, kinky-curly-haired woman of Afro-Cuban and Dutch heritage. Ponder the societal implications of Jolie sporting a spray tan and a corkscrew wig. Discuss: Is this the latest entry in the American canon of blackface --21st-century style?

Wiltz gives space to both sides, those who are offended by casting a white actress (Wlitz notes that Jolie's mother was "reportedly part Iroquois") and those who consider it a step toward race-blind casting, like Halle Berry's forthcoming appearance as a real-life politician who is white. And then she puts the discussion in the context of Hollywood history, casting white performers as non-white characters -- Mickey Rooney, John Wayne, and Katherine Hepburn as Asians, Ava Gardner and Jeanne Crain as black characters, turning real-life minority characters into more box-office-friendly Caucasians -- as recently as in Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."

I have paid special attention over the years to some of the absurdities and atrocities in racial issues in casting. One of the most absurd is Ricardo Montalban's being cast as a Japanese man -- in a movie about racism ("Sayonara"). Apparently the idea is that all minorities are the same. I did not have a problem in casting Chinese actresses in "Memoirs of a Geisha," though I think the protests hurt the movie's ticket sales. I don't think you have to be Jewish to play a Jew (though at least one critic noted that when Jews play Jews they overact and I would add so do non-Jews -- I wouldn't wish Laurence Olivier's performance as an Orthodox Jew in "The Jazz Singer" on anyone), gay to play a homosexual, Southern to play a Southerner (Brit Vivien Leigh got two Oscars for playing Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche Dubois, and "Cold Mountain" had English Jude Law playing a Confederate soldier and Aussie Nicole Kidman playing his true love). That's why they call it acting.

Wiltz perfectly captured the confusion of this moment in a way that was both sensitive and balanced and her article had a reassuring sense that we are moving toward something better. In the original Broadway production of "Once Upon a Mattress," a black actress (and the daughter of the head of the NAACP) was required to put on whiteface every night to play the queen. I thought of that when I read about the casting of Audra Macdonald in Broadway's "110 in the Shade" without any silliness about racially matching her with the people who play her family. (This is something my high school did back in 1970.) And Kerry Washington in "Fantastic Four" plays a character who is white in the comic. I don't think we'll see Queen Latifah appearing as Princess Di. But she did play a role originated by an English white male -- Alec Guiness -- in "Last Holiday."



Also on the front page of the Post is William Booth's piece about the documentary "Reel Bad Arabs," based on the book by Jack Shaheen. The portrayal of Arabs in Hollywood has been limited to "the three Bs" -- belly dancers, billionaire sheiks and bombers."

And thus we have the Timeline of International Villainy. To create drama, especially in action and war movies, Hollywood needs bad guys, and in their time, the Japanese and Germans, and later the Koreans and Vietnamese, served that role. For a long while, commies were useful foils (with their taste for world domination, nukes and vodka), but with the end of the Cold War, the Soviets became the Russians, and the Russians only worked if they were gangsters, and Hollywood already had the Italians to do that job. Colombian drug traffickers were employed as handy replacements, but then coke just felt . . . dated. Transnational corporate evildoers are okay, if not that sexy. But there just has been something about those Arabs. They've got legs.

The Silverdocs winner: "Please Vote for Me"

And the winners are:

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME by Weijun Chen Wins Sterling Award Best Feature

Special Jury mention to ENEMIES OF HAPPINESS by Eva Mulvad

LOT 63, GRAVE C by Sam Green Wins Sterling Award Best Short

Honorable Mention went to I WANT TO BE A PILOT by Diego Quemada-Díez

Music Documentary Award Goes to NOMADAK TX by Raúl De la Fuente

KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON by AJ Schnack Wins The Cinematic Vision Feature Award

MY EYES by Erlend Mo Wins The Cinematic Vision Short Award

The WITNESS Award Goes to THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK
by Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg

Witness Award Honorable Mention went to THE PRICE OF SUGAR by Bill Haney

BIG RIG by Doug Pray Wins the SILVERDOCS/American Film Market Award

Feature Audience Award to SOUVENIRS by Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat

A SON'S SACRIFICE by Yoni Brook Wins Short Audience Award

ACE Grant winner is THE CONCRETE JUNGLE by Rachel Buchanan and Don Bernier

KC Star and Nancy Drew

Many thanks to the Kansas City Star for publishing my review of Nancy Drew.

Silverdocs Festival at AFI

I was out of town this week, so only made it to the last day of the Silverdocs film festival. Next year, I'll do my best to see it all. In just five years, it has become the top documentary festival in the US, possibly the world. The two films I saw today happened to have similar themes -- they were both about children and competition. Both were excellent.

"Doubletime" is like a cross between "Spellbound" and "Rize," the story of two Carolina teams that go to New York to compete at the Apollo Theater in the National Double Dutch competition. Jump-roping has been divided for decades between single (skipping) -- mostly white -- and double (double dutch) -- mostly black. Everything comes together in Harlem as American kids of both races take on some tough new competitors -- from Japan.

In "Please Vote for Me," third graders compete in a hotly contested election to be elected class monitor. In China. Previously, class monitors had always been selected by the teachers. But one classroom was persuaded to try "democracy." Three students are nominated and the next thing you know they are surrounded by their own Karl Roves and James Carvilles -- parents who help them try to buy votes and write their speeches and classmates who heckle their friends' opponents. It is hilarious when the eight year olds replicate the emotions and tactics of adult campaigns -- but with less ability to hide their ploys and emotions. And it is touching when we see how much it matters to them -- everyone breaks down in tears at some point. As much determined by the one-child culture as by the communism, it is an enticing glimpse of a world both familiar and exotic.

Jaguar Stalks

Check out my friend Lauren Verlaque's Zazzle store,
jaguarstalks's Gallery.

SPOILER ALERT -- "Nancy Drew" and "Ratatouille"

Two movies for kids coming out this month devote a significant amount of story-telling time to plot twists involving secret out-of-wedlock children whose fathers were never told that they existed. One is the PG "Nancy Drew" and the other is the G-rated "Ratatouille." Is there anyone who thinks that this is an appropriate storyline for movies marketed for children? Is there anyone out there who looks forward to questions from a six-year-old about what a DNA test is for or how a father could be surprised to find out that he has a grown-up child or why a mother would want to keep such a secret?

It is not as though either of these is a sensitive treatment of a subject that may be of interest or concern to children living in a world of blended families and reproductive technology. In both cases, they are tossed into the plot more for convenience than for the expression of art or creativity. If the film-makers could not show some effort in designing a plot with more imagination, they could have taken the time to think about finding a plot with more resonance for children.

Could Paris be doing a Cagney?

When I saw the reports (who could avoid them) about Paris Hilton shrieking and crying as she was taken back to jail, I thought of that famous scene at the end of Angels With Dirty Faces when priest Pat O'Brien asks his childhood friend, a hoodlum played by James Cagney, for one last favor. Cagney's character is in prison, sentenced to death. His cocky bravado has made him a glamorous figure to the local teenagers, who all want to be like him. O'Brien asks him to help him show the kids that he is not a hero. And so, on the way to the chair, Cagney pretends to be a coward, and the kids lose all respect for him.

So, could it be that somewhere, somehow, someone got to Paris and said, "It's time for you to make a contribution to society. This whole Britney/Lindsay/Paris bad girl thing has gone too far. So, could you help us out, honey, by behaving like a total looney-tune spoiled girl princess sissy instead of the cool and haughty heiress that launched a million paparazzi?"

Well, it's a better theory than the alternatives. I'd hate to think she really is a total looney-tune spoiled girl princess sissy.

The KC Star runs my review

Many thanks to the Kansas City Star for asking me to review Surf's Up.

Great black movie musicals (yes, another list)

My friend Tim Gordon has a great list of his favorite black movie musicals, in honor of Black Music Month. I was especially glad to see the underrated "Sparkle" included, as I am a huge Lonette McKee fan. I was also very happy to see him list classics like "Cabin in the Sky" and "Carmen Jones," and one of my favorite films in any category, "School Daze."

Long shots (literally)

Thanks to my DH for showing me another great list, this one from Daily Film Dose, of the greatest long tracking shots in the history of film, with clips.

AOL Music's 77 Most Unforgettable Movie Songs

Another indefensible but irresistable list, this one from AOL, The 77 Most Unforgettable Movie Songs. What makes this list fun is that it includes the movie clips, everything from "Top Gun" ("Take My Breath Away") to "Napoleon Dynamite" (Jamiroquai) to "Beverly Hills Cop" (Alex F). Of course many of the choices are quibble-worthy, but unlike EW, I think #1 is an excellent choice. And the sidebar lists (best Bond themes, movie musical groups we wish were real) are a treat.

Which critic shares your taste?

Wisegeek has some up with a test to help you determine which movie critic is closest to your taste in movies. Not much range in movies or critics, but fun to try.

If Rives controlled the internet

I am a huge fan of poetry slam star Rives and of the fabulously provocative and entertaining TED Talks series. Put them together and you get this clip:

SPOILER Alert! Jeff Bridges coaches.....

Last night I was thinking about next week's animated release, "Surf's Up" -- cute and unprenentious -- and realized that it reminded me of one of my favorite guilty pleasures of the last few years, Jessica Bendinger's deliciously kinetic Stick It. Both are films about young athletes getting ready for the big, defining competition. Both learn that winning isn't everything -- in fact, both learn that winning can be the opposite of coming in first. What's important is loyalty, self-respect, expressing yourself, and having fun. And both young athletes are coached by ex-athletes played by Jeff Bridges. Hmmm...

Quotes of the Week -- "Knocked Up" and Mars/Venus

Can it be that there is a gender difference among the critics who reviewed "Knocked Up?" Not a split exactly, but a slant. Male critics were more likely to be unabashedly positive about the film, finding it not just funny but smart, even profound.

At the New York Post, Kyle Smith gave the film a "Standing Ovulation" (that was the headline), calling it

an era-defining comedy classic to rank with "Little Miss Sunshine." It's this generation's "When Harry Met Sally," and it's even better than "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," because the freakish situation it uses as a setup is life....
Like Rogen's character, "Knocked Up" is a lot more mature than it looks. It's a brilliant comedy disguised as a dumb one.

Adam Graham of the Detroit News says it

is full of huge laughs and witty pop culture banter but also offers insightful and honest explorations of marriage, relationships, friendship and parenthood.

Bob Longino of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls it

more than just laugh-out-loud funny. It's the relationship comedy of the summer and likely the best boy-meets-girl movie of the year.

At the New York Times, A.O. Scott says it is

an instant classic, a comedy that captures the sexual confusion and moral ambivalence of our moment without straining, pandering or preaching.

We're talking about a movie that draws much of its humor from arrested development, pot jokes, very crude and raunchy references, and a childbirth scene that gives new meaning to the term "up close and personal."

Female critics seemed more ambivalent. Slate's Dana Stevens calls it a "raunchy, guy-centric summer comedy...[that] is a crossover movie both in gender and in age." But she says that as she thought about the film, she realized

[Writer-director Judd] Apatow writes men with far more insight and acuity than he writes women. As a result, his portrait of contemporary gender relations is unbalanced: Crude and hilarious in Guyville, he seizes up when he gets to Ladyland and allows himself to take refuge in comfortable clichés. It's not that Knocked Up is misogynistic—if anything, Apatow is uxorious to a fault, scrupulously respectful of chicks and the chick stuff they do. He just doesn't seem to get exactly what that stuff is....

Paradoxically, the tenderest, most emotionally intimate scenes in "Knocked Up" aren't the romantic ones between Alison and Ben, but those involving Ben and his profane posse and his growing relationship with the developmentally stunted Pete....in his next film, maybe he could honor women by striving to create female characters with the depth of humor and humanity he gives to men.

In The Reeler, Michele Orange says the movie makes her want to be a dude. In Apatow's world, the dudes get to live in slacker heaven -- they get to be funny. But it is the treatment of

the sympathetic, if undeveloped Alison (what does Ben, who lives for one-liners, see in his bland goddess?) that confirms the essential zoological status of the female of the species in Apatow-land. They can’t make you laugh but they can certainly make you cringe.

Another critic weighs in on why critics (should) matter

Richard Schickel defends professional critics in the LA Times:

Criticism — and its humble cousin, reviewing — is not a democratic activity. It is, or should be, an elite enterprise, ideally undertaken by individuals who bring something to the party beyond their hasty, instinctive opinions of a book (or any other cultural object). It is work that requires disciplined taste, historical and theoretical knowledge and a fairly deep sense of the author's (or filmmaker's or painter's) entire body of work, among other qualities.

Opinion — thumbs up, thumbs down — is the least important aspect of reviewing. Very often, in the best reviews, opinion is conveyed without a judgmental word being spoken, because the review's highest business is to initiate intelligent dialogue about the work in question, beginning a discussion that, in some cases, will persist down the years, even down the centuries... I don't think it's impossible for bloggers to write intelligent reviews. I do think, however, that a simple "love" of reading (or movie-going or whatever) is an insufficient qualification for the job. That way often leads to cultishness (see the currently inflated reputations of Philip K. Dick or Cornell Woolrich, both easy reads for lazy, word-addicted minds).

And we have to find in the work of reviewers something more than idle opinion-mongering. We need to see something other than flash, egotism and self-importance. We need to see their credentials. And they need to prove, not merely assert, their right to an opinion.

I don't think anyone has to do anything to prove the right to an opinion and I certainly don't believe credentials are anything but incidental to a critc's value or qualifications. I believe that we prove (or don't prove) ourselves with every word we write. I loved seeing Dana Stevens move from a blog to writing for Slate and the New York Times. But she did that exclusively on the basis of her writing, not her credentials (which happen to include a PhD, but not in film). One of the greatest columnists of the 20th century was Mike Royko, who used to drive a cab until one of his passengers happened to be a newspaper editor and offered him a job at the paper. I do agree that the recommendation is not the most important part of the review and that a good review requires more than a love for movies (or books or whatever) and the impulse to express one's feelings is not enough. What matters is strong, involving writing grounded in full engagement with the subject of the review and enough understanding to appreciate its context.

My War, My Story

Every American owes it to our troops to watch the new documentary from Wolf Gang Pictures called My War, My Story. Eighteen veterans of the war in Iraq tell their own stories, simply and directly. We hear from one through the letters he sent home and the family he left behind.

It is impossible not to be moved and inspired by the dedication and integrity and sacrifice of these young people. They have earned our respect and gratitude with their service and they have earned our attention as well. The film is well-organized but must important it gets out of the way and lets its subjects speak for themselves. Many of them now oppose the war, but not all of them. They have their problems with politicians, the war in Iraq, and with their own re-entry but they speak of their colleagues and superiors in the service with the deepest respect and admiration. One says that he still likes to think as he looks at each person he walks by that he was willing to sacrifice his life for each one of them. The honor and dignity they demonstrate is deeply moving and inspiring. They deserve our attention as well as our infinite respect and gratitude.

Those who think of Memorial Day as a time for picnics and sales should take an hour and a half out of their three-day weekend to hear what the people who have been there fighting for us half a world away have to say. And to think very carefully about what "Support the Troops" really means.

Quote of the Week -- Pirates 3

From my friend and colleague Ally Burguieres:

I didn’t include a plot summary because the Internet didn’t have enough space.

Stephen Hunter has "A Bad Case of Summer Movies"

The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter loves to be the enfant terrible, and here is his rant on summer movies. My favorite line:

Irony should be licensed and should require a seven-day waiting period to see if the proposed user is mature enough to deal in it.

Shrek Shills

The Department of Health and Human Services is using big green ogre Shrek to teach children to be healthy. But the junk food companies of America are using Shrek to urge kids to eat fat and sugar. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has called on HHS to "stop partnering with the poster ogre for junk food marketing - and start getting serious about combating childhood obesity by advocating for policies that protect children from commercial exploitation."

They have also published a list of food promotions affiliated with Shrek and other characters from the movie. The list as more than seventy products, including "McDonald's Happy Meals, Kellogg's Marshmallow Froot Loops cereal; Keebler E.L. FudgeDouble Stuffed cookies, "ogre-sized" Peanut Butter M&M's, Cheetos, and Kellogg's Frosted S'Mores Pop Tarts." Shrek Cheetos turn your tongue green! Shrek M&Ms come with a toy Shrek car! Shrek Donkey chatterbox offer on a box of Kellogg's Eggo Chocolate Chip waffles!

If HHS wants to urge kids to lead a healthy lifestyle, they can begin by prohibiting the use of cartoon characters to push unhealthy food.

100, 99, 98, 97.....

Thanks so much to Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch for pointing out this fabulous selection of movie clips counting down all the numbers from 100-1. It's astonishing how immediately identifiable so many of the clips are.

Quotes of the Week: Underwhelmed by Shrek the Third

Most critics found the latest installment of Shrek to be not quite up to the happily ever afters of the first two, except for The New York Times, where A.O. Scott said:

[T]he movie’s liveliest humor and sharpest drama take root in decidedly grown-up situations. Shrek’s anxious, less-than-overjoyed reaction to the prospect of becoming a parent is not something most youngsters will relate to. (In one brilliantly executed sequence he has a nightmare of being besieged by hundreds of gurgling, saucer-eyed ogre babies.) And the depiction of Cinderella (Amy Sedaris), Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph) and Snow White (Amy Poehler) as bored, catty moms is likely to tickle fans of “Little Children,” a group that I hope doesn’t include any actual little children.

Whether these bits would seem as fresh or incisive if they were not embedded in a noisy cartoon remotely based on a beloved picture book is an open question. The strategy of the “Shrek” movies has always been to appeal to the easy, smirky cynicism of the parents while whetting their children’s appetite for crude humor and plush merchandise. “Shrek 2” pulled off the trick in a way that struck me as coarse and overdone, turning travestied fairy tales into the stuff of hackneyed Hollywood satire. But “Shrek the Third” seems at once more energetic and more relaxed, less desperate to prove its cleverness and therefore to some extent smarter.

Cinemablend's Joshua Tyler got nicely meta:

The problem is, Shrek the Third doesn’t take its own advice. It isn’t itself. The first two movies were family films with an adult edge. This third one is a watered down kids’ movie through and through, and the script plays out like something written for one of those assembly line produced direct-to-DVD sequels Disney is fond of releasing to fill up Wal-Mart bargain bins. Except this isn’t Disney, this is the franchise that makes fun of Disney for doing things exactly like that. Instead of sticking to what made it great, Shrek has become a part of the homogenized mediocrity it was railing against in the first place.

Perhaps Nick Rodgers of Springfield, Illinois' State Journal-Register summed it up best:

The series has jumped the Shrek.

Tucson Weekly : The Definitive Summer Movie Preview

Thanks to Jim Judy of Screenit.com for recommending this hilarious Summer Movie Preview.

Women Aloud on Greenstone Media

One of my radio stations, Greenstone Media, has expanded its website. Check out Mo and Shana by listening into some of their shows online.

Quotes of the Week

On Georgia Rule:

Many critics did not like the weird mood swings and uneven tone (though some liked it for just that reason). Suzanne Condie Lambert described the problem well:

Director Garry Marshall's comedy-drama suffers from an unfortunate role reversal. The comedy is stunningly unfunny, while the drama is sometimes disturbingly funny.
The Arizona Republic

I liked the economy of Ella Taylor's description:

An incoherent dramedy of rampant parental insufficiency.
The Village Voice

And Michael Wilmington gets this week's wisecrack-incorporating-current-events award:

Maybe "Georgia Rule" should be required viewing for Paris Hilton during her term in the slammer. But not for us.
Chicago Tribune

Hollywood set to filter on-screen smoking - Los Angeles Times

I'm quoted in this LA Times story about the MPAA's new policy on smoking in the movies. I'm very glad the MPAA is amending its ratings and especially glad at the process behind this decision. In the past, the MPAA's criteria and procedures were haphazard and opaque. This time, they asked Harvard to do a study on smoking in the movies and adapted their ratings policy in response. I hope this is the beginning of another look at the way they evaluate other kinds of material, including "action" violence and "comic" sexuality.

SPOILER Alert!

Warning! This blog post reveals the endings or "surprise" twists in several films, so stop reading now if you do not want to know the endings to "Georgia Rule," "23," "Perfect Stranger," "Gothika," or "The Ex."

It seems to me that there have been an awful lot of dumb fake-outs in movies lately. This week's "Georgia Rule" has at least four different zig-zags on the allegations of sexual abuse made by Lindsay Lohan's character. She says he did it. She says she lied. She says he did it. She says she lied. Then she says he did it. In "Next," the whole damn movie turns out to be a big fake-out, almost like Bobby Ewing's return in "Dallas," or the last episode of "St. Elsewhere." And what is the deal about having the main character spend the whole movie trying to solve a murder only to reveal that the perp is none other than that same character? That's Jim Carrey in "23" and Halle Berry in "Perfect Stranger." She already pulled that once in "Gothika." In "The Ex," the whole premise of the movie is the inability of Tom (Zach Braff) to fight man-to-man with Chip (Jason Bateman), the guy who is after his wife, because he's in a wheelchair. Big fake-out number one when our hero discovers a photo of the guy proving that he can walk, only to learn -- after an intended-to-be hilarious scene where he throws Chip down the stairs -- that it is a picture of Chip's identical twin brother. Followed shortly by another intended-to-be-hilarious scene where it turns out that Chip has indeed been faking for more than a decade and is not paralyzed at all. At which point he gets into an accident and breaks both legs, landing him, yes, in a wheelchair.

There's a difference between a cheesy fake-out and a story. Even the audience for a silly comedy or a cheesy thriller is entitled to have it make sense at some level.

Esther Iverem's Gotta Have It

One of the speakers at the MMI Film Critic Institute was Esther Iverem, whose thoughtful and incisive new book is We Gotta Have It: Twenty Years of Seeing Black at the Movies, 1986-2006.

Ms. Iverem answered some questions about the book in an email interview:



The title of your book refers to a movie that you call a major turning point in the portrayals of black characters in film, Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It. When you were growing up, were there any moments in film or television that felt memorably valid for you?

My favorite childhood film and TV moments probably come from the TV show Julia and the movie Claudine. I remember thinking that they actually showed something vaguely resembling Black life as I knew it—families, people with jobs, children with a life of imagination or mischief.

I also grew up during the so-called Blaxploitation era in film and, even though I shouldn’t have seen those films at that age, I did see a lot of them. I don’t even know if the current ratings standards existed then. Like, I wonder now, how exactly did I get in to see a “Dolemite” movie? I don’t know if, at the time, I thought of any of these movies as valid beyond the fact that it was exciting to actually see Black people on the big screen. There weren’t a lot of Black movies before this time and I thought that most of the media, including television and the newspapers in my native Philadelphia , depicted Black people in a very negative light. Even though the drug dealers, pimps and assorted criminal characters of the Blaxploitation era were not “positive,” I was so starved and fascinated to see Blacks on the screen that these characters, sadly, became Black screen “heroes” because they were usually depicted with some backbone and moxey.

"She's Gotta Have It" was a breakthrough not just in its portrayal of black characters but in its portrayal of a central female character who was strong, independent, and unabashedly sexual. Yet your book suggests that even the limited and conflicted successes in the broader and more authentic portrayal of black characters has too often overlooked the reality of women's stories. Why do you think that is?

That reality is overlooked because most of the filmmakers are men, most of the main characters are men and most of the stories revolve around male themes and a male point of view. I absolutely love the work of Ousmane Sembene for subverting this “dominant paradigm” and appreciate Tyler Perry for the same reason. To a lesser extent, the same problem exists outside the “Black” community of films but I think that a hyper machismo exists in Black film because of the influence of hip hop, a seemingly insatiable need to counter the historic image of the servile darkie and because I think hyper machismo or clowning is all the studios want to see from Black men. Also, Black films are still considered “Black” films as opposed to just films, and I think Black men are still considered the proper representatives of the race, as opposed to Black women.

Why is it so important to "return the gaze?" What does that mean?

The “gaze” is an idea I picked up while studying critical theory on an arts journalism fellowship in the 90’s. Part of our post-colonial existence means that the former colonizers (Whites) give themselves the power to gaze at, depict and frame the former colonized, in this case, people of African descent. By returning that gaze, we empower ourselves to recognize that gaze, as well as name and critique how we are depicted and framed. I feel I take on this task with most films from Hollywood , even those that might star a Black actor, or include a Black producer, etc.

You cover a stunning array of films in the book. Are there two or three neglected gems that you wish everyone could see?

The epilogue of the book includes a sampling of films that you describe: Sidewalk Stories, Rosewood, One Week, The Visit, Simeon, Unprecedented, Meteor Man, Paid in Full, La Tropical and Beah: A Black Woman Speaks.

How do you feel about Ice Cube, who began as an insistent voice of protest and now makes films like Friday After Next and Are We Done Yet?

Wow, that’s a complex question that I’ll try to simplify. First of all, I disagree that Ice Cube began as an insistent voice of protest. I think he began as a voice of anger and, with the important exception of hating the police, seldom was that anger directed at the larger economic, government and social structures that create inequality, racism and ghetto conditions. His album, Death Certificate, was a departure from West Coast thuggery. Rappers of his era that did raise that protest voice, such as Chuck D and Arrested Development, were actually squashed in favor the West Coast “gangsta rap” rap style, personified by Cube, which, by the way, first heavily pushed calling Black women bitches and hos.

I think his image, his mad face, was commoditized and conveniently used by Hollywood, in the beginning, to insert the energy of a nouveau angry Black man and, now, is used now to show that the young, angry Black man can be tamed and made fuzzy for seemingly family-friendly comedies (that depict Black children acting like no Black children I know. )

Of all Cube’s movies, I liked All About the Benjamins best. And even though it was dissed by most White critics, I liked XXX: State of the Union for its willingness to be skeptical and critical of the U.S. government. But I think Cube is mainly about getting paid, first with rap and now with movies. I haven’t seen anything from him that makes me want to take him seriously as an artist, visionary or thinker.

Who in Hollywood is doing the most interesting work now?

I don’t watch the entire industry closely enough to offer an overview. Of the films I have watched and reviewed, I am still most interested in what is coming from the independent film community, though some studio productions have been impressive. I am drawn to movies that have something important to say about the world and that, in this time of illusion and doublespeak, tell is like it is. These were my favorite films from 2006, which are also listed in the book’s epilogue: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, Catch a Fire, The Pursuit of Happyness, Apocalypto, Bobby, CSA: The Confederate States of America, Glory Road, Akeelah and the Bee, Yesterday, Waist Deep and An Inconvenient Truth. In addition to being in We Gotta Have It, these reviews are also posted at www.SeeingBlack.com.



She will be appearing this Saturday at a book signing.
Host: SeeingBlack.com and Busboys and Poets
Location: Busboys and Poets, The Langston Room
2021 14th St, NW, at V Street, Washington, DC
When: Saturday, May 12, 4:00pm
Phone: 202-285-1841 info. 202-387-7638 Busboys

Do Critics Matter (more)

The New York Times solicited reader comments about whether critics matter to people who are deciding what movie to see. They had 140 responses at the time of this writing, and most surprisingly encouraging.

Animator vs. Animation II

Thanks to the Daily Reel's Anthony Kauffman for recommending this hilariously clever short film by Alan Becker. He thinks it should taken the top prize at the Webbys, and I agree. It did win the popular vote, and you can see why.



Chapter One is almost as good:

Quote of the Week -- describing Spidey 3's black squiggly thingy

Critics tried hard to find a good way to describe that black squiggly stuff that falls out of the sky and latches on to Peter Parker and Venom-izes Topher Grace.

As always, Dana Stevens of Slate nails it: "Evil space licorice...space fungus, which looks like a living bundle of black licorice whips." And I love her use of the term "air guns" to describe Peter's space-licorice-enhanced gesture as he struts down the sidewalk.

The Washington Post's Ann Hornaday calls it "a dollop of black alien glue" that propells "Peter to assume the haircut and eyeliner of an old Joy Division cover band and sashay down Manhattan streets with an awkward cock-of-the-walk strut."

The paper of record does its research and gives us the source material's description along with the critic's own characterization and an accurate description of its consequences. In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis calls it "an inky extraterrestrial glob (a symbiote in Marvel-speak) [that] spreads its gooey tentacles over his body, turning his suit and soul black."

And over at Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman calls it "a sticky, shiny black tangle — beware! It's the crawling audiotape! — that, for no discernible reason, heads straight for Peter, infesting his cruddy apartment like fleas waiting for a dog." I also like his second reference: "alien stickum."

Quotes of the Week -- Texas Hold 'Em edition

Lucky in cards, unlucky in reviews. "Lucky You" drew some poker metaphors in its mostly negative reactions from critics.

The love story is a bluff...A decent movie just wasn't in the cards.
Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly (D-)

After several delayed release dates, Warner Bros. finally lays down its cards with Lucky You, and it's a weak hand.
Brian Lowrey Variety

By the fifth All In, I wanted All Out.
Willie Waffle Wafflemovies.com

And on (or should I say in) the other hand:

Robert Duvall, Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore all give persuasive performances that add up to a royal flush.
Cole Smithey Colesmithey.com

One sings, the other...unfortunately sings, too

Two movies opening this weekend, and two adorable actresses sing -- badly -- in each of them. Drew Barrymore was supposed to sing badly in "Music and Lyrics," so that was all right. But in "Lucky You" she is supposed to be a would-be singer with her first professional gig. In Las Vegas. Yeah, not much competition there. She was much better off as the only performer whose singing was dubbed in "Everyone Says I Love You." She should have learned her lesson from Julia Roberts in that film and have left the singing to someone who can hit the notes.

Kirsten Dunst plays aspiring actress MJ in the "Spider-Man" movies. In the third installment, she has her Broadway debut. She gets fired for her bad performance (presumably her thin voice) and yet manages to get a job as a singing waitress. She takes on Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot by singing "I'm Through With Love" -- off-key. It would be better if she and Barrymore would be through with singing.