Looking Elsewhere

A collection of 163 posts

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Lynch, Chaucer, and Branagh

It's a bright sunny day in Seattle, and it'll be a bright sunny evening in the theater, as I head out to feast my eyes on Danny Boyle's Sunshine for the first time. I've heard all kinds of things -- severe disappointment

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Bourne, Batman, Potter, Wenders, Derrickson, Bjork, Sunshine, and more.

A few quick notes and links from my flurry of catching up: I can't believe it. After all of the buzz, the hype, the excitement, I've seen The Bourne Ultimatum, and I'm really, really disappointed. It's the least of the three... basically

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Doug Cummings on "Silence"; Also: "Rescue Dawn"; and Peter Sellers

Here's Doug Cummings' new Masters of Cinema essay on Masahiro Shinoda's film Silence, which is based on Shusaku Endo's extraordinary novel. As you probably know, Martin Scorsese's next film is his own adaptation of the same source material. I urge you

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Rata-trouble? Remembering Yang.

Jeff Berryman the power of a rat in the kitchen Sean Gaffney points out three serious problems with Ratatouille. Who can argue with such scathing criticism? Okay, enough kidding around. Carissa Turner Smith really does have a problem with Ratatouille, even though she enjoyed it. * J. Robert Parks has posted

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Cairns and Overstreet Poetry! "Knocked Up." "All About Adam." "The Golden Compass." "Spidey 3." Helen Mirren. Aronofsky.

Here are a few links I've been saving up this week... Scott Cairns and Anne Overstreet both have poems in the new issue of Relief! Order your copy today! Ross Douthat on Knocked Up and its (surprising?) lack of talk about abortion. (Updated: Even more.) (Oh, and I

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Gondry's astonishing feet; the great Bob Newhart lives

Is this two-minute video the greatest feet of Michel "Eternal Sunshine" Gondry's career? You decide!! (And no, that wasn't a typo in my headline.) The great Bob Newhart lives on I depend on Mark Shea's blog for insight on many things. But

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: National Board of What?; Time Out on NY Critics; Battlestar Galactica

"The National Board of Review" - impressive name, no credibility At Hollywood Elsewhere today, Jeffrey Wells links to Roger Friedman's bit about the National Board of (not-so-credible) Review. Who are they to be naming the Best Films of 2006? Find out. And speaking of reviewers... Time

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: FoxFaith, Leibowitz, and Bono

NEWMAN ON FOXFAITHMarc T. Newman challenges Christian filmmakers to seize the day.A SCI-FI CLASSIC Thomas Hibbs at The National Review celebrates one of my favorite sci-fi novels: A Canticle for Leibowitz. SOAKING IN VERSES FROM MATTHEW Jesus supercharges one man's zeal to help the poor, and once

Looking Elsewhere

Friday specials: Frederick Buechner, Bruce Cockburn, Paul Simon, Johnny Cash, "The Prestige"

My friend Julie Mullins has written a substantial article about Frederick Buechner's lastest collection, Secrets in the Dark, in the new issue of Image. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of both the book and the journal. Secrets begins with a meditation on the story of

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: "Apocalypto" Poster. "Pan's Labyrinth" rave, and more.

With all of the hubbub over a certain controversial film in recent months, I'd almost forgotten about this... Nice poster. Dumb slogan. NO PANS FOR PAN Salon's Andrew O'Heihr returns from Cannes and raves and raves about Guillermo Del Toro's new fantasy

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: New Yorke in June? Irons and Malkovich. The future of X-men.

I'D LIKE NEW YORKE IN JUNE (but it's coming to stores in July)   The new Thom Yorke solo album The Eraser is coming, and today I heard a few tracks from it. I enjoyed them. They sounded like songs from Amnesiac, with fewer guitars. The twitchy

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Kaurismäki. Ceylan. Rohmer. And X-Men.

GreenCine Daily has all of the Cannes links you could hope for, and some very interesting, if somewhat disappointing, reports. DIM LIGHT I loved Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without a Past. But according to reviews posted at GreenCine, Kaurismäki's new film Lights in the Dusk isn&

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Swinton's "State of Cinema" speech. Director dumps Pullman project.

SWINTON COMES OUT SWINGING The White Witch speaks! Wow, what a letter. Take the time to read the whole thing. It'll make your head spin. And speaking of dangerous fantasy-land personalities... PHILIP PULLMAN NEEDS DIRECTION Once again, a director has departed the film production of His Dark Materials.

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: GetReligion gets T Bone Burnett. D.C. gets Buechner.

A happy Saturday to you all. It's a happy Saturday here as I watch and wait for T Bone Burnett tickets to go on sale. If any of you hear about the Seattle show's ticket information, please let me know! MATTINGLY ON T-BONE BURNETT AND FAITH

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Gillian Welch! Kieslowski's Veronique! The Simpsons!

Monday specials: GET WELCH The latest in an ongoing parade of exciting 2006 music headlines... Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are back in the studio working on a new album. LANE ON THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE One of my all-time favorite films has just been rediscovered by Anthony Lane

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Defending "Bubble." Poo-pooing Proulx's poo-poo. New Issues of Paste and Risen! Bad Refs.

Defending Bubble. What to do when friends disagree over movies? Jessica Poundstone wrote in to take issue with Adam Walter's assessment of Soderbergh's Bubble: I'm tempted to do a point-by-point rebuttal of Walter's review, since I disagree with nearly all of it.

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: New Ron Sexsmith music! Greydanus flunks V. Walter on Soderbergh.

NEW RON SEXSMITH MUSIC! My friend Jessica Poundstone, a vigilant Ron Sexsmith fan, send me this today: at his site Ouch. The song is from the upcoming Mitchell Froom-produced album Time Being, coming to stores May 16. Oh, and the secret to relentless blogging, Jessica? It's love. But

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: "Inside Man" - Spike Lee's best film? Betty Page. Kieslowski.

Sunday specials:THE BEST SPIKE LEE FILM EVER? (via GreenCine Daily) Emmanuel Levy nearly hyperventilates raving about Spike Lee's Inside Man: ... nothing short of brilliant. As of March, it's the best film of 2006. It's also the best film Lee has made in his

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: "The Dark Crystal." Proulx-poo. Carell and WHO?

Sunday specials: CRYSTAL METHOD Peter Chattaway finally watched The Dark Crystal. And he's not so sure it's the "New Age" trip it has been sometimes described to be. PROULX-POO E. Anne Proulx's account of the Oscars would never be described as "

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Ebert on "Crash"-lash. Gaiman gets DeNiro and Pfeiffer. Lois Lowry's "The Giver."

IF YOU VOTED FOR CRASH, DOES THAT MEAN YOU HATE GAY PEOPLE? Roger Ebert asks the question that needs to be asked: Just 'cause I didn't vote for Brokeback, does that make me a homophobe? Good question. And by the way, if Hollywood is so homophobic, why

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: DaVinci suit. V's prophetic. Wenders tips.

Let me just say that I have never been afraid of clowns. Until the Olympic closing ceremonies. Was that creepy, or what? LAWSUIT GUARANTEES LITTLE DAVINCI FILM WILL GET SOME ATTENTIONIt's not enough that Dan Brown is full of crap. Apparently, he stole that crap!V FOR VENDETTA.

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Sophie Scholl. Casting news. X-Men ends.

Friday's specials: Well, I saw The New World again last night. Went with Anne and my new friend Mark Shea. We all basked in the glory, even though the beauty of Malick's film was completely lost on the row of teenagers sitting behind us who talked

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Ford's Firewall collapse. "Christian is the new gay." Gilliam's next.

Friday specials:CAN THE DECLINE OF HARRISON FORD'S CAREER GET ANY MORE DEPRESSING? Michael Atkinson on Firewall: "The post-Die Hard genre is on its last legs, and the movie is as tired in its bones as [Harrison] Ford, who at 63 has crossed the line from robust,

Looking Elsewhere

More specials: Ten mistakes. Frodo onstage. Pixar rats out. Paste. Porn. Lips. And James Cameron.

More Tuesday specials: MUST READ At Town Hall, Erik Lokkesmoe powerfully sums up ten... count them, ten... big mistakes that conservatives tend to make when they meddle (or fail to meddle) in the arts. (Thanks for the link, Bubba.) YES, BUT DOES BILL THE PONY GET TO SING A SOLO?

Looking Elsewhere

Specials: Boycotts! Batman! Bono!

Tuesday specials: DON'T GO READ THIS! (Now you're curious, aren't you?)Sean Gaffney boycotts boycotting! Because, as they said in Field of Dreams, "If you protest, they will come." He also congratulates Cory Edwards, and so do I, for its continuing top