By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Variety (Hearts) NY, Has the Hundred or So Stories Today to Prove It
With Tribeca ’06 commencing in seven hours, Variety has chosen April 25 as the day of a thousand New York film culture articles. OK, so it is really only, like, a few hundred, and some are a little more impressive than others, and if it is indeed the thought that counts, then this might be the most generous consideration the trade will throw our way this year.
While you already know all about Eamonn Bowles’ band The Martinets from The Reeler’s deafened coverage of one of their shows last January, Lily Oei reprises a few licks from the offices of Bowles’ Magnolia Pictures. In other news, we also learn that Lili Taylor considers 42nd Street and 11th Avenue “uptown” and that producer Lee Daniels likes Butter (as in the nightclub). And he has his own inspired impression of New York’s crude, cruel vitality:
The city provides you with the fundamental foundations to create from because of your interactions with people. It is a constant struggle. People here will step on you in order to get where they have to go so and it really brings something to you as a person that you are able to create from.
It must do something more for him than it does for me; after all, this guy is voluntarily producing Mariah Carey’s follow-up to Glitter. At any rate, another Oei contribution looks at P.S. 260, the post-production house whose server exploded after editor Robert Ryang’s Shining trailer parody flooded the Web last fall. This time, however, the spotlight is on co-founder J.J. Lask feature directing debut On the Road With Judas, which Lask recently wrapped and which Ryang will edit this summer.
David Hafetz offers probably the best read in the package with his sober survey of this year’s crop of 9/11 movies. Hafetz backs away from hero-hype and too-much-too-soon twaddle to look at the specific phenomenon of society via cinema–and in 9/11’s case, the acute, aestheticized perception of politics, culture and history. That sounds a little higher-brow than it probably should, but that is why Hafetz gets the big bucks and I just point you his way:
For all their controversy, both United 93 and World Trade Center occupy familiar Hollywood terrain. Against the backdrop of terror and tragedy, the movies tell stories of individuals facing dire situations and tapping unknown strength and courage to survive or fight back.
Ironically, the films provide an almost affirming message to a country caught up in unsettling times. …
It is still uncertain whether American audiences want to see stories about Flight 93 and the Twin Towers on the big screen. Whatever the answer, these films, though daring in their own right, somehow suggest a more innocent time.
Speaking of innocence, Anthony Kaufman has a list of Tribeca’s “high buzz” and “moderate buzz” films here. Watch Cindy Adams say she reported them first yesterday. Typical.