picture in picture

I dodged your earlier question of Branagh vs. Olivier; I think I'd rather circle option C – Orson Welles. Only his Othello is widely available (although Chimes at Midnight and Macbeth are both posted on YouTube); so why not celebrate the Big Boy Orson tonight by watching The Third Man on Turner Classic Movies? That's what I'll be doing, reveling not just in one of the greatest films of all time, but also the fact that not once does anybody bust out in verse. So this is me saying sayonara to Shakespeare. Dear reader, you can still vote and comment on every day's debate through till next Thursday. We close voting next Thursday, and then we'll announce the winner of Film Fight at our Happy Hour event at Spider House that night (Thursday, Aug. 28, 7:30pm). There will be prize giveaways and drink specials and an all-around good time to be had, so please, come out and say hi. And let us know if you have any ideas for next month's Film Fight, eh? We're all ears. Now for a little exit music... Read More | 2 Comments »

Whoa! I don't know who "Connie" is on the last posting to the ME Television blog I posted regarding the layoffs of VJs Paul Saucido and Bavu Blakes, but when "she" wrote that as of Friday, ME TV was kaput, I knew I had to do some checking. This message just came to TV Eye from Connie Wodlinger, executive director at ME Television:

"I understand some misinformation has been posted to your blog. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
ME Television has had some significant layoffs, but the management team and a base crew remain in place. The network will continue to produce a 24-hour on-air signal as we aggressively pursue several viable options to return to full production and move forward.

– Connie Wodlinger"
Surprise layoffs, mystery commenters, and misinformation. If anybody wants to tell us the real story, TV Eye's all ears. Read More | Comment »

Jennifer Perkins, host of Craft Lab and Stylelicious on the DIY network has a new book out. The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girl's Guide to Handmade Jewelry (Northlight Books) came out in July, but she's having her very own coming out party for the splashy new book Aug. 30 at Craft-o-Rama.

Craftsters will recognize Jennifer as a member of the Austin Craft Mafia, a group of local craft mavens who sew, hot glue, knit, and crochet fun and funky arts and crafts for the modern guy and gal. If you're a crafter and you don't know Craft-o-Rama, well, what have you been waiting for? The bright and airy shop is designed for the inner seamstress in you, but have just enough yarn and embroidery threads to keep fiber fanatics happy too. Whether it's a book release party or an occasional swap meet, Hayley Pannone (and mommy in waiting) does a swell job of making the event festive and full of casual, crafty fun.

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I have to second your Shakespeare fatigue. We both thought last night's screening of Hamlet 2 might give us fresh legs, but, disappointingly that wasn't the case. I didn't hate it like you did – it was just another indie comedy that regurgitated elements, from gross-out to twee to self-referential, that I'd already seen in two-dozen other indie comedies – but Steve Coogan, no matter how uneven his character, still manages to make me laugh more often than not. Honestly, the most interesting thing about the film – which is about a failed actor/high school drama coach who writes a sequel to Hamlet, despite, as one character points out, the fact that almost everyone is dead at the end of Hamlet 1 – was the high school production itself and not the piffling plot about Coogan's sad-sack drama coach or the quasi-inspirational story of inspiring teens to make art. It's a great idea -- let's see, everybody's dead, so where do we go next?! -- but Hamlet 2's primary interest is in Coogan's roller-blading pratfalls. Ah well... Read More | Comment »

In 1986 Aliens delighted moviegoers with a simple recipe: more of the same. So what happens with so many of its sequential brethren? Yes, I’m looking at you, Lost Boys: The Tribe. And you, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. And definitely you, Weekend at Bernie’s II. Maybe in the end we just appreciate the opportunity to respond incredulously. After all, Jurassic Park III did gross some 180 million. And last year I did leave my family on Christmas day to see the much anticipated AVP2. Don’t judge. It’s not easy defending new Rambo as you plan the month of October around the release of the newest Saw installment. The good news? If you can relate, then you can also find some comfort among friends this Sunday at the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz as they screen the winning selections from this year’s Unnecessary Sequel Contest… 2. Read More | Comment »

First of all, Miss Jones, if you take away my knee-jerk naysaying, you’ll take away the very thing that makes me me. Rash judgments are my bread and butter, my stock in trade, my bailiwick, my sine qua non. They’re what got me through college and the Peace Corps and the seminary and Vietnam. They’re as Josh Rosenblatt as chocolate cake, as cigarettes, as long walks off short piers. Take away my rash judgments and you might as well do Film Fight with the movie critic for Family Circle Magazine. Or The Austin American-Statesman. Second of all, much to my shock and dismay, I agree with all your assessments about Orson Welles, Ian McKellen, and Maureen O’Hara. Technicolor was just made for her, wasn’t it? Have you seen How Green Was My Valley, by the way? Man, is that an entertaining movie about Welsh poverty and collapsing mine shafts. I just have to take issue with two points you made: One, I don’t have a problem with Ethan Hawke in general, just Ethan Hawke as Hamlet. And as a novelist, I guess. And as a director, I have a small problem with him. Oh, and as a pop philosopher in Richard Linklater movies. And maybe as a painter in Charles Dickens adaptations; I don’t remember. Other than that, I think he’s great. And secondly, if you had bothered to watch any of John Wayne’s underrated 20th Century Fox silent B-movie pirate classics, like Daredevilry on the High Seas, Hard to Starboard!, The Big Storm, The Big Storm II: Change of Socks, or Jub Jub the Chimpanzee vs. the Barbary Pirates, you’d know that he spent the better part of his early career soaking wet. In fact he was the first and last actor to have a “constant dampness” clause in his studio contract, leading director Raoul Walsh to comment on the set of The Big Trail, “John Wayne is the soggiest actor I’ve seen since ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle.” (Just a little touch of absurdity in the night.) Read More | 1 Comment »

First of all, my apologies to our faithful readership, who no doubt have been wondering why we’ve gone silent. Josh and I went on a little Film Fight field trip tonight to see Hamlet 2, which opens in Austin tomorrow (at which point Josh and I will have more to say about that). (And since we’re talking, dear readership, I have to say I’m quite moved – if bewildered – that you continue to vote for me on yesterday’s topic even after I admitted I should lose. That is either blind devotion, or you didn’t actually bother to read the posts before you gave me your vote. That’s fine – whole governments have been built on an uninformed populace. So I’d like to thank you [and the academy] – couldn’t have done it without you.) Right, so back to the topic of the day: performances in Shakespeare adaptations. Now, you’ve got a leg up on me, having just watched Almereyda’s Hamlet with Ethan Hawke. (Or did you just YouTube a couple of clips and start assembling the snark? In which case… harrumph.) I haven’t seen it since it came out, although I remember at the time thinking there was some interesting stuff going on. I rather loved Bill Murray’s Polonius, and transplanting “to be or not to be” to a vacant-eyed ramble through Blockbuster Video is indisputably an inspired touch. I admit, rewatching the clip on YouTube– which is of course taking the scene out of context, and taking the film out of its ideal viewing experience – I was a little taken aback by Hawke’s flat delivery. Still, if you’re going to reimagine Hamlet as a whining, slacker filmmaker, then Hawke’s your guy. Maybe he didn’t do himself any favors taking on a role – or rather a reinterpretation of a role – that played too close to his so-called public image, but I’ve never heard you complain, “Oh gawd, it’s Cary Grant playing another witty sophisticate.” Read More | Comment »

Off your list of Ophelias, I choose Helena Bonham Carter. Though I made a deal with myself many years ago never to speak ill of Kate Winslet (if only on the off chance that she might one day show up at my front door with a flat tire asking if she can use my phone and I’d say “Of course” and she’d come in and use the phone but whoever she was calling wouldn’t answer and I’d say “I know how to change a tire” and then I’d change the tire and she’d be so impressed and she’d laugh and I’d laugh and then we’d go out for pancakes and she’d fall in love with me and move in and then get bored and leave and never return my calls), she falls victim to Kenneth Branagh’s high-pitched directorial vision in Hamlet and comes off sounding like a banshee. I never saw Jean Simmons’ Ophelia. But I loved her in Guys and Dolls, so I'm sure she's great. Nala is a cartoon lion, and I don’t feel like writing about a cartoon lion because I’m not quite willing to part with my dignity just yet (though I’m close). And Julia Stiles … well, she’s Julia Stiles, isn’t she? She belongs in a discussion with Helena Bonham Carter and Kate Winslet the same way her co-star/mopey novelist Ethan Hawke belongs in a discussion with Laurence Olivier and J.D. Salinger. Read More | 2 Comments »

“Why is Shakespeare so popular with filmmakers when he contains so few car chases and explosions? Because he is the measuring stick by which actors and directors test themselves.” – Roger Ebert Despite being second only to Juliet in terms of tragic female figures – well, of the non-murderous variety – Ophelia’s kind of a thankless part. She gets lectured and hectored, used and abused, by father, brother, lover, and king, and in the end, she ends herself in an everlasting dunk. Miserable creature, that – yet every ingénue wants to play her onscreen. It’s great prep work, really – just look what a half-dozen screen Ophelias have spun from their time with the Bard. Jean Simmons (Olivier, 1948): If a woman’s love be brief, than Ophelia’s part is even more negligible; she’s an important plot device, sure, but really, this is a boy’s club through and through. A good dress rehearsal, then, for Simmons’ later work: She’s the only one who couldn’t plausibly stand up and shout, “I am Spartacus!” Read More | 1 Comment »

After its eleventh, successful year, it seemed like all was going well with Cine las Americas, the annual April film festival celebrating Latino and Native American films from across the Americas. But this week, a small bombshell was dropped when it was revealed that Programming Director Jacqueline Rush Rivera is leaving the festival after five years.

During Rivera's short tenure, and in tandem with CLA Executive Director Eugenio del Bosque, a small staff, and a host of volunteers, the festival and its related programs surged forward in content, breadth, and scope. So why leave when things seem to be on the rise? The dreaded budgetary concerns.

While offering nothing but praise for Rivera and her contribution to CLA, del Bosque explains, "one of [Cine's] key challenges has always been funding of year-round programming operations." He further states that the board has been working over the summer "to increase the membership base for our film exhibition programs, expand our education schedule, and strengthen and diversify our sources of income. As part of this work, we made the difficult decision to combine the Executive Director and Programming Director positions, while realigning responsibilities among other staff roles. I remain in the Executive Director position and will once again assume the programming responsibilities that I previously held at Cine Las Americas."

That's little solace for a person who has been integral to the success of, not only the festival, but to the year-round programs that give CLA visibility throughout the year. But not to worry, Rivera will land on her feet. She is currently looking for work here and abroad and has already "been contacted to run the local campaigns for two film openings," she says via e-mail. Rivera expects to be in Austin at least through October. Read More | Comment »

So, I was all ready to celebrate your concession and my very first victory – the wine was open, my socks were off, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band were playing quietly on the hi-fi – when I looked at the day's vote tally and saw that I was still losing by 50%. My spirits sank. If a man can’t win a debate even after his opponent concedes then what good is he? And what choice does he have but to assume the Fates are conspiring against him and drop himself down a well? But I’m not going to do that. Mainly because I have no idea where to find a well. But also because I’ve been looking forward to Round Four all week. So I’ll do this now and drown my sorrows in a bowl of moonshine later. Round Four! The Speed Round! The Awards Round! Round of Champions! We’re going to try something new here. Instead of going back and forth on a particular topic – straining credulity and intellectual probability in the process – Kim and I will spend the day handing out awards to the various actors and actresses we’ve come across during our time watching Shakespeare on film. Best Male. Best Female. Worst Male. Worst Female. Best Mixed-Doubles. Best Horse. That sort of thing. With any luck, our choices will inspire discussion and debate and, eventually, vicious personal attacks. Read More | Comment »

It’s nearing time for me to truck off to bed, but I realized in all this back and forth about Love’s Labour’s Lost (and honestly I’ve got such LLL fatigue I can hardly bear to type the words – thanks for sucking the fun out of a film that was nothing more than a happy lark for me) that I’ve neglected to say anything at all about another comedy that surprised me for being, well, pretty good – the Michael Hoffman Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hoffman shifts the action to lush Tuscany. (Another comedy, Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing, moved there, too – remember how ruddy and bosomy and positively athletic about their attractions to each other everyone seemed?) Midsummer’s ladies are Gibson girls in high necks and flouncy skirts, and bicycles are used liberally throughout, but otherwise it’s a pretty conventional rendering. Nothing earth-shattering, but a moving turn from Kevin Kline, a fun mixed-partner roundelay, Alf’s surrogate dad playing the moon… It was sweet, don’t you think? Yup, that’s what I’ve been reduced to: It was sweet, don’t you think? Who am I kidding? I drew the short straw. The comedies are crap. Tragedy wins. I’ve done your work for you. But don't expect any freebies from me tomorrow... Read More | Comment »

First of all, I’m not interested in canonizing anything or anyone. Quite the opposite, actually. If I had my way, we’d drop the classics down a well as soon as we’d taken from them what we needed. As far as I’m concerned, there’s way too much reverence in the world for the things that came before us, too much gushing over the past. Respect is all well and good, but if we honestly believe things were better when so and so was making movies or thus and such was writing books or this and that was recording albums, then we’re doing so and so, thus and such, and this and that enormous disrespect. In fact, the most respectful thing we could ever do for those who came before us is leave them behind. “This past doesn’t influence me,” said Willem de Kooning, “ I influence the past.” So, by all means, use Mr. Porter and Mr. Shakespeare and Mr. Sting and do with them what you will. Cut ‘em up, mash ‘em up, whatever. The past is ours to do with as we please. The newness is all. Read More | 1 Comment »

I'm well aware I'm about to pop the top on a whole can of worms here, and don't take this as a blanket endorsement of the picture, but... My point: Art inspires art. Art informs art. Why put Cole Porter on a pedestal and and say, your work here is done? Why put the Police in a box and say no else can take what you've done and try to make new meaning from it? And why, why, why would you want to put Shakespeare behind glass and tut-tut at anyone who has the audacity to put their own idiosyncratic print on a play? Read More | Comment »

First let me say that watching all this Shakespeare is having an odd effect on my brain. There was a moment the other night when some actor was soliloquizing on love or murder or truth or beauty or footwear, and all those antiquated words just turned to jelly in my ears. I could have sworn I was listening to Hungarian. A few quick things about Love’s Labour’s Lost before I go to the dentist. Then I’ll be back, grouchier than before. It’s amazing to me that anyone could look at that clip you put up and not want to thrown him or herself off a bridge. I don’t know how he does it, but somehow Timothy Spall actually manages to out-ham his costar Nathan Lane. I didn’t realize that was possible. In a movie that prides itself on chewing its beautiful scenery to dust, Spall is the undisputed heavyweight champion of scenery chewing, a living, breathing testament to the extremes of human behavior, a theatrical canary in the coal mine gauging just how far an actor can go into the realm of the antic before audiences riot in their seats. I love musicals – love them – and I’m perfectly fine with the notion that they often come with outsized characters doing outsized things on outsized soundstages. But there’s a difference between playing things broad and playing them omnivorous. And Spall, under Branagh’s watch, has created a character that goes beyond cute and into the realm of the cartoonishly absurd, a giant and terrifying beast of musical comedy, crying out for attention and willing to beat its audiences into laughter and enjoyment if it has to. Read More | Comment »

The quality of that clip is terrible – if you gave up on it, here's the gist: it's the terrific character actor Timothy Spall zipping through "I Get a Kick Out of You" (he's singing about the country wench who stole his heart, anti-women proclamation be damned). It's one of the better production numbers of the film, and I think it's fairly representative of the charms of the piece. It's silly, yes, but also funny and inventive and affectionately recalling the old MGM spectacles of the 30s and 40s. Despite the era/costume tweak, it's Branagh's most literal adaptation. Case in point: In case you didn't get it, post-monologue, that he totally loves the lady Rosaline, he slips into the "Cheek to Cheek" to hit the point home, and in case you still didn't get it, when he gets to the line "Heaven, I'm in heaven..." he actually sails toward the ceiling on an invisible wire. It's impossible to watch the scene without a good guffaw... and also a gentle twinkling in the heart. Like I said, it's an imperfect film, but it's got a remarkable spirit about it – and it's funny, sometimes really funny. Nathan Lane plays Costard the clown as if Groucho Marx took a wrong right turn into Shakespearia, and he nails it, using sight gags and cheeky asides to help us along in getting humor that plays more woodenly on the page. Read More | Comment »

"But, I know you’ll protest that Shakespeare’s language, though elegant on the page, becomes heavy and purple onscreen and that otherwise likable actors become bloated and declamatory when they’re forced to speak it." Actually, I would argue the opposite: that, yes, Shakespeare's language is elegant, but on the page it reads rather heavily, so bogged down with words that have fallen out of favor (I suppose "cock-a-hoop" had to go if the OED was gonna make room for "thingamabob"). While I get a kick out of all those old words, it doesn't always make for an easy read, checking the footnotes every few lines... which is why Shakespeare feels so alive and so relevant when transposed to screen (and stage, of course). Hearing the cadences, coupled with visual cues, the language stops feeling faintly foreign. The comedies, especially, I think, benefit from being loosed from the page. I wasn't very familiar with Shakespeare's comedies prior to this little experiment of ours (I've only read Much Ado About Nothing). After weeks of cramming the tragedies – one after another after another – all that murderous plotting and tortured speechmaking had sent me into something of a tailspin of dour, which is why it was such a blessed relief to watch two modern takes on the comedies. Read More | Comment »

I know I’m a snob. In my defense, I came by it honestly. My father was a snob; his father was a snob; his father’s father was a snob, and on and on, traversing time and space, to Brooklyn, to Minsk, to Russia, to Palestine, through vast history to the Garden of Eden, which a relative of mine chose to leave because it “lacked imagination.” Speaking of snobbery, I’m here, at this late hour, to introduce round three, in which our heroes battle it out over the relative value of tragedy versus comedy. Being a snob (and a morbid soul) I’ll be defending tragedy, which would seem, in the case of Shakespeare movies, to be the lighter load, as I don’t know anybody – anybody – who likes Shakespeare’s comedies. But, since you’ve been brave enough to take the burnt side of this particular piece of toast, the least I can do is provide you with fodder for your morning post. And here it is: Read More | 3 Comments »

Actually, I said I’d rather watch 10 Things I Hate About You over Zefferelli’s Taming of the Shrew, and I stand by that statement – for the reasons I mentioned earlier, about the sometimes-tedium of slavish adaptations high on their mightiness, and also because I’m more interested in watching how a modern film explores through humor a teenaged girl’s budding feminism in a genre too-often consumed with the particulars of how a teenage boy gets his cherry popped – and the crowd goes wild! – than sitting through another rehash of an utterly antiquated, utterly misogynistic play. The Taming of the Shrew was of a certain time – a long, long time ago, I might add – and why would anyone want to faithfully re-create that? 400 years on, can’t we do something a little more interesting than that? But no, my larger complaint is with your “Take note, world! Kim Jones likes crappy teen comedies!” I don’t have any insecurities about my taste, or my ability to differentiate between quality moviemaking and a more disposable entertainment. But I’m not gonna sniff at the value of plain old entertainment – I’m just going to feel especially blessed when the twain do meet. And since you asked: Say Anything, Fucking Amal (Show Me Love), Igby Goes Down, Brick, Flirting, Running on Empty, Murmur of the Heart, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Pleasantville, Heathers, Stand and Deliver, Hoosiers, Splendor in the Grass, Pump up the Volume, Hoop Dreams, But I’m a Cheerleader, Breaking Away, and – wait for it – Can’t Hardly Wait All ten fingers, and almost ten toes. You, sir, are a snob. Isn’t this fun? Read More | 1 Comment »

Real quick: Kim and I are always looking for ideas for future Film Fights, and we'd love to hear any suggestions you might have. So please send us your ideas via the "comment" link at the bottom of each entry, and if we use one of them, I bet there'll be something in it for you. Not something you want, probably, but still ... Now, back to barracks ... Read More | Comment »