Film

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Hillary as the Italian Stallion?

Oh god. Here she goes again. ABC's Jake Tapper reports that: In a speech in Philadelphia today, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, will compare herself to Philly icon Rocky Balboa. "Well, could you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten half way up those Art Museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that’s about far enough?'" Clinton will ask, according to her prepared remarks released to the press. "Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common," she will tell the Pennsylvania A.F.L.-C.I.O. audience. "I never quit.  I never give up.  And neither do the American people." Fair enough, but as Tapper reminds Clinton, Rocky lost. To a black man. So, yeah, they do have something in common after all.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

What Happened to American Acting*?

Quick Oscar** thought: no American actor or actress won an Oscar this year. The four acting awards went to: Tilda Swinton (Scotland), Javier Bardem (Spain) Daniel Day-Lewis (England/Ireland) and Marion Cotillard (France). Have the Americans ever been shut out like this before? Does it mean anything beyond the fact that the Oscars are an increasingly international event (as, indeed, the Academy becomes an increasingly international event)? Perhaps it's just a small sample size and perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all, but it seems like a pleasing development to me. Still: how long before the Democratic presidential contenders deplore the outsourcing of American acting jobs to foreigners and call for quotas on a) foreigners working in Hollywood, b) foreigners winning Oscars?

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Obama’s Deep Impact

The best argument against Barack Obama? Have we learned nothing from the tragic events of 1998, when, under the watch of President Morgan Freeman, this nation was plunged into chaos, and hundreds of millions of people died at the hands of the deadly Wolf-Beiderman space rock? The mere fact that this country is even considering putting another black man, Barack Obama, in the Oval Office proves that we have not. We can't deny the facts, people. All we will get by electing an African-American is Texas-size space particles crashing into the Earth's surface, mega-tsunamis that barrel into the Appalachian Mountains, and 6.6 billion dead people. I'm not suggesting that President Freeman was directly responsible for the creation of the Wolf-Beiderman comet or its Earth-bound path.

Monday

Alex Massie

The Wearisome Unbearableness of Manohla Dargis

Oh dear. The New York Times' Manohla Dargis (who apparently find the idea of being asked to name and write about her favourite movies of the year an intolerable imposition that reminds her of the Judeo-Christian patriarchy that has made her existence so frightfully ghastly) then further indulges herself with this hackneyed spot of hand-wringing: Enthusiastic reviews, intelligent filmmaking, even hot sex are no longer automatically enough to persuade a distributor to jump. The problem is that the art-house audience that supported the French New Wave filmmakers to whom “Reprise” owes an obvious debt can no longer be counted on to fill theater seats. Or maybe it’s overwhelmed.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Cigarettes aren’t merely sublime; they’re useful

Now that Hollywood has decreed that smoking in movies is as bad - and in fact perhaps worse - than gratuitous sex and violence, it's not a great surprise that folk are reminiscing about the role smoking has played in the movies. This Slate sideshow doesn't break much new ground - and, lamentably, declares smoking "deplorable - but it's worth watching for the super video clips from the Golden Age of Gold Leaf. It's worth mentioning, however, in rather more detail than the slideshow does just why smoking and the cinema became inextricably linked.

Friday

Alex Massie

If you only see one documentary this year…

Public Service Announcement: the news that the CIA has taken to destroying videotape of its interrogations depresses but does not surprise. It also reminds me that you really ought to see Alex Gibney's new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side when it is released in January. It's a dispiriting, devastating indictment of the Bush administration's detention and torture policies that have done so much* to destroy the United States' reputation around the world (as well as, of course, increasing the dangers faced by captured US servicemen). Anyway, loony tunes conservatives will be able to ask why the Academy Hates America whe the movie is, as I'd bet it will be, nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. Steve Clemons hosted a screening earlier this week and has more here.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

What I loved once and what I love now are two different things.

Matthew d'Ancona makes a pretty sweeping claim this morning. Sir Michael Caine is, he writes: almost certainly the Greatest Living Englishman. My first reaction was that this was pretty strong mustard. But then again, now that Bill Deedes has gone, who are the other contenders? Your nominations please... And if Sir Sean Connery can be labeled the Greatest Living Scotsman, perhaps it's appropriate that his old partner from The Man Who Would Be King be accorded the crown south of the border. In the light of recent developments in Scotland and England, readers are also invited to speculate, as wildly as possible, upon the potential political consequences and significance of this coupling. Be bold.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Ice-cream or meatloaf?

The President of the United States of America: A moment later, press secretary Tony Snow stepped into the doorway to ask about the daily press briefing he was about to conduct. Bush offered some suggestions for how to defer questions about his Iraq strategy. "Good. Perfect. Sorry to interrupt," Snow said as he vacated the room. "It's okay," remarked Bush. "This is worthless, anyway." Then, in a sudden bellow: "I'd like an ice cream! Please! You want some ice cream, Robert?

Tuesday

Alex Massie

How anti-American is Jason Bourne?

Chris Orr decries Mickey Kaus's decrying of The Bourne Ultimatum as "anti-American". Chris is right to observe that the film's good guys are also American government officers and that Joan Allen's character says of water-boarding etc that "This isn't us" but ultimately (ha!) I can't quite agree with his conclusion. I thought it a rather searing indictment of the United States, albeit for rather different reasons. As my friends know I'm generally a pretty pro-America kind of chap. Some of my best friends are American, don't you know. Even so, there are limits. What The Bourne Ultimatum did capture was an arrogance that gives the United States a permanent right to do as it pleases anywhere in the world.

Friday

Alex Massie

You watchin’ me?

In the spirit of Not Reading Books, it's time to move on to Not Watching Movies. Megan kicks matters off by confessing that, despite loving Marlon Brando, she's never actually seen On the Waterfront. Not a bad contender. For my part, I've never actually seen Gone With the Wind. Or, even more oddly, Taxi Driver. What about you? What are the biggest gaps in your movie watching lives?