By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Page 23

Link to the List

Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

1 No Country for Old Men
2 Gone Baby Gone
3 Juno
4 Two Days in Paris
5 No End in Sight
6 The King of Kong
7 Ratatouille
8 Across the Universe
9 Assassination of Jesse James
10 Lake of Fire
Link to the List

Jeremy Smith
CHUD

1 No Country for Old Men
2 There Will Be Blood
3 Assassination of Jesse James
4 Into the Wild
5 Grindhouse
6 Juno
7 Lake of Fire
8 I’m Not There
9 Ratatouille
10 Zodiac
Link to the List

Al Alexander
The Patriot Ledger

1 No Country for Old men
2 Knocked Up
3 Sweeney Todd
4 Black Box
5 Zodiac
6 I’m Not There
7 The Hoax
8 Hairspray
9 Juno
10 Lars and the Real Girl/Once
Link to the List

Michael Wilmington

1 No Country for Old Men
2 There Will Be Blood
3 Away From Her
4 Eastern Promises
5 Private Fears in Public Places
6 The Host
7 Rescue Dawn
8 Black Book
9 The Namesake
10 Sweeney Todd
Link to the List

David Ehrenstein

1 I’m Not There
2 Regular Lovers
3 I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
4 There Will Be Blood
5 La Vie en Rose
6 Sweeney Todd
7 The Man of My Life
8 Away from Her
9 Syndromes and a Century
10 Terror’s Advocate
Link to the List

Peter DeBruge
Variety

1 Atonement
2 Manufactured Landscapes
3 Romance & Cigarettes
4 There Will Be Blood
5 No Country for Old Men
6 Private Property
7 Diving Bell and the Butterfly
8 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
9 Lake of Fire
10 Juno
Link to the List

Nathan Lee
Village Voice

1 Southland Tales
2 Zodiac
3 Syndromes and a Century
4 I’m Not There
5 Pitcher of Colored Light
6 Regular Lovers
7 Rabbit Hunters/Colossal Youth
8 Black Book
9 Eastern Promises
10 I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Link to the List

Larry Gross

1 Syndromes and a Century
2 I’m Not There
3 Zodiac
4 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
5 I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
6 There Will Be Blood
7 Into the Wild
8 No Country for Old Men
9 Southland Tales
10 Youth Without Youth
Link to the List

Gary Dretzka
Movie City News

1 The Devil Came on Horseback/Darfur Now/Sand and Sorrow/War-Dance
2 Away From Her
3 Ratatouille
4 The Namesake
5 Once
6 Into the Wild
7 Ten Canoes
8 Red Road
9 Zodiac
10 Blame it on Fidel
Link to the List

Kevin Williamson
Ottawa Sun

1 No Country for Old Men
2 Assassination of Jesse James
3 Atonement
4 Zodiac
5 Ratatouille
6 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
7 The Kite Runner
8 The Bourne Ultimatum
9 Superbad
10 Sweeney Todd

Al Alexander | Matt Brunson | Peter DeBruge | Gary Dretzka | Larry Gross | J. Hoberman | Nathan Lee | Jeremy Smith | Kevin Williamson | Michael Wilmington

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon