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Learning from lists

Dana Stevens (at Slate.com), Susan Gerhard (SF360.org), and I are the only critics I know of who put "Man Push Cart" on our best of 2006 lists. Roger Ebert probably would have been a fourth, if he'd made a list…

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Contrarian dispatch: Are critics patronizing Scorsese?

View image Critics gather 'round to watch "The Departed" on their laptops. Is there anybody who doesn't want Martin Scorsese to win an Oscar? Even if you don't think "The Departed" approaches his best work? For me, his best films…

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Up With Contempt!

Godard is a contemptuous artist, too. Forget "Le Mepris." Ever see "Weekend"? We heard a lot in 2006, as we do every year, about nasty filmmakers who were said to have viewed their characters (and, hence, their audiences) with contempt,…

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Call him "Mr. Contrarian"

Latest Contrarian Week News: In his New York Observer year-end wrap-up (and ten-best list), Andrew Sarris attempts to steal the thunder of one of his New York "alternative weekly" rivals. Sarris writes: Fortunately, modern technology makes it almost impossible for…

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Children of...?

Hey, does this sound at all familiar? "[This character] was life and hope, as she is the only one carrying a child. This is a society without procreation, so that's why they make such a fuss about finding a girl…

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When is a bloody heart not just a bloody heart?

View image I don't think much of Mel Gibson's ultra-literalist directorial sensibility (my main problem with "Passion of the Christ" is that it failed to engage on any symbolic, religious or mythological level), but this piece in the New York…

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Johnie's Broiler, RIP

Johnie's Broiler, 7447 Firestone Blvd., Downey, CA. The Googie landmark Johnie's Broiler in Downey, CA (known as Harvey's Broiler when it opened in 1958), was ground into dust overnight last weekend, to expand a used car lot. Local preservationists were…

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Do the Contrarian (Part II)

The great Rufus Thomas, the World's Oldest Finest Teenager, does "The Breakdown" (follow-up to "The Contrarian"). "I enjoy the occasional flaying of a sacred cow." -- anonymous movie critic Can your monkey do the dog Can your monkey do the…

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Do the Contrarian (Part I)

The Pale Man knows how to do The Contrarian. He sits motionless until an external stimulus prompts him into motion. There's a brand new dance That's easy to do It's called the Contrarian And it's all about you! Strike a…