en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/318377 Comments by LandonPalmer http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/enchanted-director-to-remake-mr-limpet.php#IDComment24060060 I think they flirted with the idea of remaking it with Carrey a few years (i.e., probably a decade) ago. I could've sworn they even made a promo poster Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:59:14 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/enchanted-director-to-remake-mr-limpet.php#IDComment24060060 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/anton-chigurh-stalks-wall-street-in-oliver-stone-sequel.php#IDComment23071975 So Gekko is no longer a villain? Tue, 2 Jun 2009 17:10:41 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/anton-chigurh-stalks-wall-street-in-oliver-stone-sequel.php#IDComment23071975 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/steven-spielberg-dream-of-martin-luther-king-jr-biopic-finally-comes-true.php#IDComment21850831 Jeffrey Wright Tue, 19 May 2009 22:54:41 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/steven-spielberg-dream-of-martin-luther-king-jr-biopic-finally-comes-true.php#IDComment21850831 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/first-trailer-for-coppolas-tetro-is-anything-but-black-and-white.php#IDComment20725363 Like A.O. Scott said this weekend, I wish Spielberg and Scorsese would make self-financed personal films that look more artistic risks, rather than stay in familiar territory. Say what you want about Youth Without Youth, at least Coppola is attempting something new and challenging, and it looks like he's continuing that practice with this film. Tue, 5 May 2009 05:37:57 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/first-trailer-for-coppolas-tetro-is-anything-but-black-and-white.php#IDComment20725363 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-‘limits’-of-directorial-self-indulgence.php#IDComment20725188 This approach can either be brilliantly challenging or can just look like laziness posing as meta-art...unfortunately, The Limits of Control feels more like the latter. Tue, 5 May 2009 05:33:50 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-‘limits’-of-directorial-self-indulgence.php#IDComment20725188 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-‘limits’-of-directorial-self-indulgence.php#IDComment20725133 Plot-wise it's similar to Ghost Dog, but the approach reminded me a lot of Stranger Than Paradise...Let me know what you think when you see it! Tue, 5 May 2009 05:32:18 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-‘limits’-of-directorial-self-indulgence.php#IDComment20725133 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-obsessed-and-the-canon-of-the-awesomely-bad.php#IDComment20120368 That is, of course, assuming that Showgirls wasn't part of the "death" of the erotic thriller Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:00:54 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-obsessed-and-the-canon-of-the-awesomely-bad.php#IDComment20120368 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-obsessed-and-the-canon-of-the-awesomely-bad.php#IDComment20119940 It seems that, at least with movies like Paul Blart, Fast and Furious, and especially Obsessed, there is a tacit contract between audiences (or, at least audience members over 15) and the film that acknowledge that the film is stupid, mindless entertainment, and it can thus be enjoyed on those grounds. Of course, if a film whose aspirations do not seek beyond mindless entertainment fails to be adequately entertaining, that's a different issue entirely... But what I think is the bigger threat are films marketed to tweens (17 Again, Hannah Montana). Tweens are not only dominating the box office, but pretty much every aspect of pop culture as we know it, and the age group consuming these products aren't old and discerning enough to realize that what they are consuming is nothing more than cultural junk food. Where films like Fast and Furious exist largely because of audience demand, trends are carefully created for films directed towards tweens based on the tendency for this age group to have uniform tastes. If tween culture continues to dominate, the qualitative future of studio films doesn't look promising... Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:52:19 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-obsessed-and-the-canon-of-the-awesomely-bad.php#IDComment20119940 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/discuss-where-have-all-the-thin-actors-gone.php#IDComment19413076 Orson Welles was also a fat director. But look at the careers of Hitchcock, late Kubrick, Peter Jackson, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo Del Toro, etc. People love fat filmmakers. Mon, 20 Apr 2009 06:07:46 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/discuss-where-have-all-the-thin-actors-gone.php#IDComment19413076 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-cinematic-endurance-test.php#IDComment18804492 I think it depends greatly on the subject matter and how it is presented. Millions flocked to Saving Private Ryan, for example, and endured the film's gruesome first half hour not as a form of entertainment, but as a form of catharsis. People saw the film specifically to NOT have a good time, as they believed that, if soldiers gave their lives at Normandy, the least they could do is honor their legacy by enduring a graphic depiction of this sacrifice (of course, the squeaky clean movie star persona of the paternalistic Tom Hanks has something to do with this as well). In this respect, it is almost heretical to treat a film like SPR as a source of entertainment, or to admit "enjoying" watching the violence therein, rather than a rite of endurance. This supposes that the filmic content has some sort of a real correlation to the historical events, that this is an objective and realistic (rather than simply a "realist") look at the war instead of a depiction and manufacture of a narrative executed through meticulously constructed decisions at every turn. This is where realism, to me, becomes problematic, when a direct relationship to reality is assumed merely through formal means of representation. In truth, I've always found the heavily stylized realism of SPR, from its shaky camera to the desaturation of the palate, to be one of the most interesting parts of the film, and the violence an inextricable (and, yes, even entertaining) part of its overall spectacle. Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:10:40 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-the-cinematic-endurance-test.php#IDComment18804492 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/summit-will-reveal-the-confession-of-houdinis-dangerous-mind.php#IDComment17770990 Hillary Swank Sat, 28 Mar 2009 22:54:54 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/summit-will-reveal-the-confession-of-houdinis-dangerous-mind.php#IDComment17770990 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/where-the-wild-things-are-trailer-is-all-kinds-of-fun.php#IDComment17587273 seems they're advertising it more for adults who grew up on the book than kids...which is to say, i can't fucking wait Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:30:11 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/where-the-wild-things-are-trailer-is-all-kinds-of-fun.php#IDComment17587273 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-watchmen-and-the-epic-running-time.php#IDComment16914255 That's probably more to Moore's credit than Snyder and co.'s for creating such interesting characters in the first place. Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:17:26 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-watchmen-and-the-epic-running-time.php#IDComment16914255 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/jarmuschs-limits-of-control-trailer-is-confusing-in-cowboy-hats.php#IDComment16257638 This looks more like Ghost Dog or Dead Man than, say, Strangers in Paradise...I'm excited. Fri, 6 Mar 2009 00:02:36 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/jarmuschs-limits-of-control-trailer-is-confusing-in-cowboy-hats.php#IDComment16257638 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16184162 I don't think it's unsafe to approach the Academy as a unified collective (opinion) of sorts. They are, after all, a highly exclusive organization composed of a specific elite, unified by industry and (for the most part) isolated in one city. Thus, its possible that they have a limited idea of what a good film/performance is or should be. It certainly doesn't help that many Academy members know many of the nominees personally. And lastly, while I believe that a technical filmmaker (an editor or cinematographer) may be able to assess their respective categories with more knowledge and expertise, I believe the bulk of critical film appreciation is highly subjective, therefore legitimizing the opinions of those both inside and outside the industry...seriously, under what criteria can one judge best directing? Wed, 4 Mar 2009 22:20:18 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16184162 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16183213 Thank you for your compliments, Kizer Sosay...I hope I'm not misinterpreting what you're saying, but I had no intention with this post of promoting the bandwagon that says Hollywood has a collective overt liberal agenda. I think language like that positions one as just as big as ideologue as they situate Hollywood as being. I do believe that, as Hollywood is an industry, it has over time concocted a system promoting the most basic form of conservative wish fulfillment (not in terms of specific politics, but the most basic form of American ideology). The three act structure, closure, and the inevitable victory of the hero (even in death) are ways in which Hollywood articulates a collective, unified worldview positing itself not necessarily as truth but as an ideal approach to life and events (despite Milk's progressive message, it also belonged to these structures of convention). As Comolli and Narboni illustrate, Hollywood is potentially a more powerful ideological machine than what we traditionally think of as 'propaganda' simply because it articulates its core belief under the guise of entertainment to an audience whose societal, cultural, and narrative expectations are aligned with the assumptions of the films themselves going in. Also, sorry I'm responding to everyone's comments so late. I'll do better in the future. Wed, 4 Mar 2009 22:11:26 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16183213 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16182774 Are you getting nostalgic for some vague era before subtext existed? Wed, 4 Mar 2009 22:00:05 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16182774 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16182742 Totally agree Chris. 'Che' portrayed Ernesto Guevara as neither a heartless murderer nor an idealized revolutionary, but objectively chronicled a man of many contradictions. I don't think it's any secret why a film like that wouldn't be honored at the Oscars though (but, then again, 'Reds' was pretty highly celebrated a few decades ago). Wed, 4 Mar 2009 21:59:29 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/culture-warrior-mickey-sean-and-paul-haggis-progressivism.php#IDComment16182742 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/public-enemies-trailer-exposes-johnny-depp-as-a-badass.php#IDComment16178527 I'm also not sure what they were going for with the music in this trailer...oh well, like the odd use of "Comfortably Numb" in advertising The Departed, that totally won't matter when the film comes out Wed, 4 Mar 2009 20:18:07 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/public-enemies-trailer-exposes-johnny-depp-as-a-badass.php#IDComment16178527 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/public-enemies-trailer-exposes-johnny-depp-as-a-badass.php#IDComment16178412 I think Mann knows how to use digital cameras better than almost any director out there, but it always weirds me out a lil when I see digital used in period films. Wed, 4 Mar 2009 20:15:00 +0000 http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/news/public-enemies-trailer-exposes-johnny-depp-as-a-badass.php#IDComment16178412