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A panel of critics at The Guardian pick the world’s 40 best directors. Anyone missing? (via khoi)
Update: A reader pointed out that this list probably isn’t that current (Errol Morris’ Fog of War is still forthcoming, for example). Oh and please note that the list is comprised of working directors; it’s not an all-time list. (thx, kate)
The Whine Colored Sea issues a challenge: which directors, musicians, artists, authors, etc. followed a masterpiece with a bomb. Spielberg’s Schindler’s List followed by Jurassic Park 2 is a good example.
In P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love, Adam Sandler’s character takes advantage of a Healthy Choice promotion for frequent flier miles, buying 1000s of miles and lots of pudding for just a few dollars. This aspect of Sandler’s character was based on a caper well-known within the frequent flier community when David Phillips purchased over 1.2 million frequent flyer miles for just under $2400, which has allowed him and his family to fly to over 20 countries for free.
Now the big thing is cheese. This weekend I was handed an opened wheel of processed cheeses by a friend. He said that his brother-in-law had caught wind of a frequent flyer promotion whereby you get 500 miles for each purchase of this cheese wheel and had purchased 75,000 miles for ~$300, which also means he’s got more opened cheese wheels than he knows what to do with. The frequent flyer forums and blogs are already on the case. These forums are actually pretty fascinating…there’s a lot of free/cheap travel to be had for those with a little time on their hands. This fellow claims to have taken advantage of airline pricing errors to fly 16 flights this year for a total cost of $77.57.
Director Robert Altman dead at 81. He will be missed.
An Inconvenient Truth is out on DVD tomorrow, Here’s what I wrote about the film when I saw it back in May.
For the next fours years, any film released by Weinstein Co. will only be available for rental at Blockbuster (and especially not Netflix). What a stupid deal. I wonder what the filmmakers think of this, which will effectively limit the reach of their films (despite the positive spin Blockbuster and the Weinsteins want to put on this).
Gelf Magazine finds that the critics think that a new TV show, Day Break, is a lot like Groundhog Day meets 24 meets The Shield meets The Fugitive meets Kafka meets Law & Order.
Entertainment Weekly found someone who had never seen any of the Star Wars movies and sat him down to watch all six of them in order. His verdict? “I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t sucked into this Galaxy Far, Far Away.”
Paddy Johnson wrote a nice feature on Teri Horton’s $5 thrift store Jackson Pollock and the movie about her struggle to authenticate and sell the painting. Johnson also published part of her interview with Horton on Art Fag City.
Discussion of movies where the main character dies at the end. Caution, all sorts of possible spoilers.
The NY Times asks a bunch of comedians: Which five comedies would you want to take with you if you were stranded alone on a desert island? My list: Dr. Strangelove, Zoolander, Office Space, Election, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
Trailer for The Simpsons Movie. At this point, is there any reason to believe that this is going to be any good? (via fimonculosusis (sp?))
According to Michael Madsen, Quentin Tarantino is thinking about making a sequel to Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs that focuses on the Vega Bros.
Five great fight scenes from movies. I’m not a connoisseur of movie fight scenes, so I don’t have much to add to this list, but I’m glad Jackie Chan made the cut.
Trailer for Office Space reimagined as a thriller. (via cyn-c)
Errol Morris’ next film will be about Abu Gharaib.
Students, enter Apple’s Insomnia Film Festival, where you’ll have 24 hours to make a 3-minute film. (thx, undulattice)
Wired profile of Darren Aronofsky and his new film, The Fountain, which will finally be coming out on November 22. The special effects in the film are non-CGI: “No matter how good CGI looks at first, it dates quickly. But 2001 really holds up. So I set the ridiculous goal of making a film that would reinvent space without using CGI.” Trailer is here.
Alan Smithee is an official pseudonym used for directorial credit when directors don’t want their name associated with a movie because “the film had been wrestled from his or her creative control”. As you can see from Mr. Smithee’s IMDB profile, he’s a fairly prolific director.
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