By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Page 16

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Wesley Morris
Boston Globe

1 Wall-E
2 The Edge of Heaven
3 Ballast
4 Be Kind Rewind
5 The Dark Knight
6 Gomorrah
7 Milk
8 Synecdoche, NY
9 The Order of Myths
10 Realism as a Theme
Link to the List

Ty Burr
Boston Globe

1 Wall-E
2 Slumdog Millioniare
3 Man on Wire
4 Milk
5 Let the Right One In
6 The Wrestler
7 Rachel Getting Married
8 Son of Rambow
9 Flight of the Red Balloon
10 Synecdoche, NY
Link to the List

Craig D. Lindsey
News & Observer

1 Burn After Reading
2 A Christmas Tale
3 The Dark Knight
4 Dear Zachary
5 Encounters at End of the World
6 Happy Go Lucky
7 Let the Right One In
8 Paranoid Park
9 Rachel Getting Married
10 Wall-E
Link to the List

Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

1 Wall-E
2 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
3 Happy Go Lucky
4 Frozen Rivver
5 Slumdog Millionaire
6 Man on Wire
7 The Visitor
8 Let the Right One In
9 Frost/Nixon
10 Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Link to the List

Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic

1 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2 My Blueberry Nights
3 The Dark Knight
4 Shine A Light
5 Snow Angels
6 Wall-E
7 Rachel Getting Married
8 Let the Right One In
9 The Wrestler
10 My Winnipeg
Link to the List

Moira Macdonald
Seattle Times

1 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2 The Dark Knight
3 Frozen River
4 Man on Wire
5 Milk
6 Priceless
7 Revolutionary Road
8 Shine a Light
9 Tell No One
10 Wall-E
Link to the List

Drew McWeeny
HitFix

1 The Wrestler
2 The Good, the Bad & the Weird
3 Man On Wire
4 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5 Let the Right One In
6 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
7 Ex-Drummer
8 The Dark Knight
9 Wall-E
10 Pineapple Express
Link to the List

Phil Villarreal
Arizona Star

1 The Dark Knight
2 Slumdog Millionaire
3 The Wrestler
4 Gran Torino
5 Wanted
6 Pineapple Express
7 Zack & Miri Make a Porno
8 Frost/Nixon
9 Boy in the Striped Pajamas
10 Milk
Link to the List

Todd Hill
Staten Island Advance

1 The Reader
2 Slumdog Millionaire
3 The Wrestler
4 Happy Go Lucky
5 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6 The Visitor
7 Wall-E
8 Nothing But the Truth
9 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
10 Funny Games
Link to the List

Al Alexander
Patriot Ledger

1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 Milk
3 Frost/Nixon
4 4 Mos, 3 Wks & 2 Days
5 Man on Wire
6 The Wrestler
7 Synecdoche, NY
8 Edge of Heaven
9 Tell No One
10 The Visitor

Al Alexander | Ty Burr | Carol Cling | Todd Hill | Craig D. Lindsey | Moira Macdonald | Drew McWeeny | Wesley Morris | Peter Sobczynski | Phil Villarreal

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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