By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Page 27

Link to the List

Bob Mondello
NPR

1 Slumdog Millionaire
2 Wall-E
3 Milk
4 4 Mos, 3 Wks & 2 Days
5 Vicky Cristina Barcelona
6 Rachel Getting Married
7 The Class
8 Man on Wire
9 The Dark Knight
10 A Christmas Tale
Link to the List

Steve Prokopy
Gapers Block

1 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2 Wall-E
3 Let the Right One In
4 Slumdog Millionaire
5 The Wrestler
6 The Dark Knight
7 The Fall
8 Snow Angels
9 Milk
10 Tropic Thunder
Link to the List

George Lang
The Oklahoman

1 Rachel Getting Married
2 The Dark Knight
3 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
4 The Wrestler
5 Wall-E
6 Slumdog Millionaire
7 Milk
8 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
9 The Visitor
10 In Bruges
Link to the List

Matthew Price
The Oklahoman

1 The Dark Knight
2 Slumdog Millionaire
3 The Wrestler
4 Frost/Nixon
5 Iron Man
6 Wall-E
7 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
8 Milk
9 Happy Go Lucky
10 Gran Torino
Link to the List

Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

1 The Visitor
2 Jodhaa Akbar
3 The Dark Knight
4 Wall-E
5 Waltz with Bashir
6 Frost/Nixon
7 Let the Right One In
8 Mongol
9 Milk
10 Man on Wire
Link to the List

Ron Wynn
Nashville City Paper

1 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2 Iron Man
3 The Dark Knight
4 Milk
5 Doubt
6 Wall-E
7 Shine a Light
8 Tropic Thunder
9 The Bank Job
10 Miracle at St. Anna
Link to the List

Michael Janusonis
Providence Journal

1 Frost/Nixon
2 Doubt
3 Milk
4 Burn After Reading
5 Changeling
6 Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who
7 Kung Fu Panda
8 Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist
9 Iron Man
10 Young at Heart
Link to the List

Michael Nowotny
Mountain Home News

1 The Dark Knight
2 Iron Man
3 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4 Tropic Thunder
5 Kung Fu Panda
6 Burn After Reading
7 Quantum of Solace
8 Wall-E
9 Incredible Hulk
10 Get Smart
Link to the List

Jeffrey K. Lyles
Gazette

1 The Dark Knight
2 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3 Iron Man
4 Tropic Thunder
5 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
6 The Wrestler
7 Frost/Nixon
8 Cloverfield
9 Doubt
10 Be Kind Rewind
Link to the List

Sally Kline
DC Examiner

1 Wall-E
2 Milk
3 The Reader
4 Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5 The Dark Knight
6 In Bruges
7 Frost/Nixon
8 The Bank Job
9 Slumdog Millionaire
10 Man On Wire/Religulous/Trumbo

Michael Janusonis | Sally Kline | George Lang | Jeffrey K. Lyles | Bob Mondello | Michael Nowotny | Matthew Price | Steve Prokopy | Lawrence Toppman | Ron Wynn

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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