A presentation of the short film H.A.G.S., and interview with director Sean Wang.
A tribute to another legend gone too soon.
Matt writes: On January 7th, the movie world lost one of its brightest lights, filmmaker Michael Apted (1941-2021), who died at age 79. Renowned for his groundbreaking "Up" series of documentaries, which followed the lives of British children every seven years as they became adults, Apted also helmed various sublime narrative features, including 1980's Loretta Lynn biopic, "Coal Miner's Daughter," that earned Sissy Spacek a Best Actress Oscar.
Chaz Ebert essay about the cancellation of Ebertfest 2020 and presenting an exclusive video of Ebertfest 2019.
Far Flung Correspondent Seongyong Cho pens a letter to Roger about Michael Apted's 63 Up.
A look back at the Brian De Palma film "Dressed to Kill," celebrating its 35th anniversary with a new Criterion release.
Roger Ebert's 2003 book, "The Great Movies," is on sale as an e-book for $1.99 through May 24th.
Sam Fragoso interviews Spike Lee; Why Christian movies are so bad; "SNL" anniversary a hollow milestone; Cinephiles need to care about PBS; Diane Rehm and the right-to-die debate.
There’s something unique in writer/director Linklater’s approach to verisimilitude, and it’s particularly interesting in contrast with other films with which “Boyhood” shares a kinship.
Sheila writes: Nelson Carvajal and Jed Mayer, over at Press Play, present a video and an essay about the "scary summer" of 1979. It's a beautiful blend of autobiography and cultural and film memories from that particular summer. Jed Mayer writes: "As tag-lines go, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead sports a pretty good one: 'When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the earth.' I stared for weeks at the lurid poster bearing these ominous words. It hung in the front windows of the Maplewood Mall multiplex. Looking back, I think a more fitting tag-line might have come from a speech given by President Jimmy Carter later that same summer: 'Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. What can we do?'" Well worth a look!
Paul Apted dies; The neo-liberal rhetoric of trauma; Universe may be a hologram; Skyler Page out of Cartoon Network; Indie filmmakers in conversation.
Seonyong Cho offers his appreciation of Steve James' "Life Itself" and gives both the film and the man a thumbs up.
Richard Linklater's long-gestating"Boyhood"; "Gravity" opens Venice Film Festival; how social media giants should police their sites; haters are gonna hate; life is meaningless in "The Canyons"; Obama's speech commemorating the March on Washington's 50th anniversary; a '70s Tom Waits documentary.
As Roger Ebert noted in February, film festivals have become so ubiquitous that there's almost certainly one within driving distance of most film fans in the US. And lots of them are sprouting world-wide. Three years ago, I'd pitched Roger with an "FFC" piece on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. He advised that I provide a sense of the town and its atmosphere, the people, as well as what the festival itself was like.
Marie writes: It's that time of the year again! The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run September 6 - 16, 2012. Tickets selection began August 23rd. Single tickets on sale Sept 2, 2012. For more info visit TIFF's website.
Marie writes: Intrepid club member Sandy Kahn discovered the following Danish designers "Monstrum" who make extraordinary playgrounds for children. I think they're the stuff of dreams, whatever your age. Indeed; behold the Rahbek kindergarten in Frederiksberg, Denmark, and Monstrum's first playground...
The Rocket and The Princess Tower! "Just like a set design, a playground must have an inspiring front that attracts children, and a functional backside with climbing, sliding and relaxing options. The idea of the playground is to combine a girl's mind with a boy's approach into one big common playground. The princess tower consists of three floors, and the rocket has two floors. From the top floor of the Rocket, you can slide down the 6 m long double slide together with an astronaut friend." (click to enlarge.)
It's a wrap for the 2010 Muriel Awards, but although the winners have been announced, there's still plenty of great stuff to read about the many winners and runners-up. ('Cause, as we all know, there's so much more to life than "winning.") I was pleased to be asked to write the mini-essay about "The Social Network" because, no, I'm not done with it. (Coming soon: a piece about the Winkelvii at the Henley Gregatta section -- which came in 11th among Muriel voters for the year's Best Cinematic Moment.)
You might recall that last summer I compared the editorial, directorial and storytelling challenges of a modest character-based comedy ("The Kids Are All Right") to a large-scale science-fiction spectacular based on the concept of shifting between various levels of reality/unreality -- whether in actual time and space or in consciousness and imagination. (The latter came in at No. 13 in the Muriels balloting; the former in a tie for No. 22.) My point was that, as far as narrative filmmaking is concerned, there isn't much difference. To illustrate a similar comparison this time, I've used a one-minute segment out of "The Social Network" (Multiple levels of storytelling in The Social Network). You might like one picture better than the other for any number of reasons, but I find their similarities more illuminating than their differences:
The Grand Poobah writes: I saw this stag in the Michigan woods near our country place, where I am still working on my memoir. (click to enlarge)
This message came to me from a reader named Peter Svensland. He and a friend have been debating about my qualities as a film critic, and they've involved a considerable critic, Dan Schneider, in their discussion. I will say that he has given the question a surprising amount of thought and attention over the years, and may well be correct in some aspects. What his analysis gives me is a renewed respect and curiosity about his own work.
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Q. So, how coincidental is this? “2001: A Space Odyssey” includes a character named Dr. Heywood Floyd. The new movie “Moon” evokes “2001” powerfully for you and is directed by someone whose birth name is Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones. Heywood isn’t exactly a common name. Maybe he was born to direct this movie.
LOS ANGELES--Roger Ebert, film critic of the Sun-Times, was granted an Honorary Lifetime Membership in the Directors' Guild of America here Saturday night, receiving two standing ovations.
Great Movies
