I expected more insider perspective from the Phoenix article on the Boston Film Festival, but the lede pretty much says it all:
The Boston Film Festival made it to adulthood — barely. Taking over from Mark Diamond and Susan Fraine, who had kept it alive and occasionally kicking since 1993, is Robin Dawson, head of […]
Good thing that I have some local bloggers keeping me up-to-date on what’s going around town. First, Derek of Third Decade points me to the Roxbury Film Festival, which has put out its schedule and list of films for this year’s offerings, which show in mid-August. Some of the shorts sound pretty interesting, and I’ll […]
Over at Digital Poetics, Nicholas Rombes compares and contrasts amateur, home-movie culture of the 1950s with the postwar American avant-garde. He writes,
it’s too easy to divide amateur aesthetics in the 1950s-60s into two diametrically opposed camps: the avant garde (Mekas, Brakhage, Deren, etc.) and the middle-class hobbyist (i.e., all the amateur film clubs and publications […]
Nice work if you can get it:
Jonathan Bock, a former sitcom writer who founded Grace Hill Media to specialize in Christian marketing, was hired to help sell Universal’s “Cinderella Man,” Fox’s “Kingdom of Heaven” and Sony Pictures’ “Christmas With the Kranks.” And he is currently advising Sony on what is likely to be one of […]
Bostonist looks at the proposed Loews-AMC film theatre merger and predicts the worst:
With a monopoly on 32 of Boston’s most popular screens not only with the new company be positioned to bargain with the movie studios but they will have little competition when showing feature films. Seeing a new release film in Boston could soon […]
Cynthia Rockwell has an interesting dispatch from the Silverdocs conference, in which she discusses the "revitalization" of Silver Springs, Maryland. What’s more, she respond to a serviceable documentary about midnight movies:
It’s an entertaining but straightforward film, like so many documentaries today. The subject matter is what makes the film, not the filmmaking itself. I enjoyed […]
As a cinephile who loves the filmgoing experience, particularly the projection of 35mm or even the smaller gauges onto a large screen, I find Tyler Cowen’s predictions for the future dystopic in the extreme.
Matt Yglesias has coined the term "pundit’s fallacy" to describe the pundits’ tendency to mistake what they think is right for what is actually popular and politically savvy. I’ve been wondering if a similar dynamic has taken hold of popular culture criticism. Think of the number of claims you hear that the music industry wouldn’t […]
I’m hardly the only one to note the overlap between Million Dollar Baby’s narrative and the Terri Schiavo case Congress took up today. Just do a Google or Technorati search on those terms and you’ll get plenty of matches. Most that I’ve found, however, use the film as an intro to talking about the case […]
I guess things like television ratings are a matter of perspective.
Ratings for Oscars Down a Bit, Despite Innovations
Rock gives Oscars a bounce
Chris Rock effect fails to boost Oscars
Trade Round-Up: Rock Boring, Oscar Ratings At A Five-Year High
Oscar ratings sink with Rock
Chris Rocked the audience numbers: ABC
Oscar ratings beat expectations
I’m not sure the Academy should be […]
So my predictions didn’t pan out so badly, though it failed to win me my Oscar pool, as I ended up in a three-way tie at 18 out of 24 correct. Which just goes to show that this endless speculation and handicapping in the media has made everyone (even me) an expert in Academythink. As […]
In a new experiment in public self-humiliation, I decided to post my Oscar predictions this year, see below the fold. Actually a lot of it came from what I’ve read (thanks Entertainment Weekly!), with just a few contrarian picks thrown in to make it interesting. But since this year I thought I’d track how well […]
Matt Yglesias takes issue with a Dan Drezner post on the Oscars and cautions us on weighing in on the technical awards.
I think it’s perfectly fair for a lay movie fan to decide that, say, Natalie Portman’s performance in Closer was neither the best performance in that film nor the best Natalie Portman performance […]
Well, Oscar nominations are out. A couple of weeks ago I’d ruminated that Sideways had peaked too early and that some dark horse would over take it in the awards race. I’m just wondering why I didn’t see the Aviator sweep coming. People worship Scorcese, feel bad Gangs of New York lost out, and think […]
Chuck Tryon points out a new group blog of film lovers/bloggers called, appropriately enough The Conversation. My favorite, so far, is this post ruminating on the efffect of DVD on movies. But go read - what better time than the kickoff of Awards season with the Golden Globes tonight?