By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Page 9

Link to the List

Chuck Stephens
Film Comment

1 No Country For Old Men
2 Colossal Youth
3 Grindhouse
4 The Host
5 I Don’t Want Sleep Alone
6 Los Muertos
7 Syndromes and a Century
8 There Will Be Blood
9 Zodiac
10 Tears of the Black Tiger
Link to the List

Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

1 Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2 Across the Universe
3 The Bourne Ultimatum
4 Red Road
5 Eastern Promises
6 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
7 Zodiac
8 12:08 East of Bucharest
9 Ratatouille
10 Assassination of Jesse James
Link to the List

Owen Glieberman
Entertainment Weekly

1 I’m Not There
2 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
3 Michael Clayton
4 Superbad
5 The Lives of Others
6 Grindhouse
7 Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
8 Once
9 No End in Sight
10 Zodiac
Link to the List

Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

1 There Will Be Blood
2 No Country for Old Men
3 I’m Not There
4 Persepolis
5 No End in Sight
6 Zodiac
7 Lady Chatterley
8 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
9 Assassination of Jesse James
10 Knocked Up
Link to the List

Andy Klein
LA Citybeat

1 Exiled
2 The Host
3 Hot Fuzz
4 Killer of Sheep
5 No Country for Old Men
6 The Orphanage
7 Private Fears in Public Places
8 Ratatouille
9 The Simpsons Movie
10 Sweeney Todd
Link to the List

Mark Keizer
LA Citybeat

1 The Savages
2 Once
3 There Will Be Blood
4 No Country for Old Men
5 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
6 Lake of Fire
7 I’m Not there
8 Blame it on Fidel
9 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
10 3:10 to Yuma
Link to the List

Wade Major
LA Citybeat

1 La Vie en Rose
2 Assassination of Jesse James
3 After the Wedding
4 A Mighty Heart
5 Jindabyne
6 Once
7 Exiled
8 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
9 No Country for Old Men
10 Zodiac
Link to the List

Amy Nicolson
LA Citybeat

1 Alpha Dog
2 Confessions of a Super Hero
3 The Hunting Party
4 I’m Not There
5 Juno
6 The King of Kong
7 Live Free or Die Hard
8 My Kid Could Paint That
9 No Country for Old Men
10 2 Days in Paris

Owen Glieberman | Peter Keough | Andy Klein | Mark Keizer | Wade Major | Amy Nicolson | Lisa Schwarzbaum | Chuck Stephens

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