The Hot Blog Archive for April, 2009
Review – State of Play
State of Play sets itself up to be a strong contender for a now all too rare genre of film
13 Comments »DP/30 – Tribeca '09: Racing Dreams dir Marshall Curry
Marshall Curry, who was nominated for an Oscar for his very first film, 2005’s Street Fight, is back with more paved action… though this time, the challengers are still in puberty. It’s the story of the top-end cart racers who are racing in an unofficial minor league for NASCAR racing. A couple of boys and a girl are centerstage, as Marshall was for this pre-Tribeca DP/30.
We have a special sneak peek at the film for you after the jump… and then the video interview with Marshall…
DP/30 – Norman Jewison
Around the 20th anniversary of his founding of the Canadian Film Centre, director Norman Jewison is being feted north and south. This weekend, the party comes to a LA Contemporary Museum of Art event, which will be attended by many of the actors that shared some of the best moments of Jewison’s career.
This gave us a chance to sit down with the director of five Oscar Best Picture nominees – In The Heat of The Night, Moonstruck, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, A Soldier’s Story, and Fiddler On The Roof – not to mention The Thomas Crown Affair, The Cincinnati Kid, The Hurricane, …And Justice for All, Rollerball, Jesus Christ Superstar, some good silly 50s/60s comedies with Tony Curtis, Doris Day and others amongst his 13 other feature films, plus a TV career as the guy who made Judy Garland look her best on the then-new medium.
The video interview with the 82-year-old legend is after the jump…
Summer Poll 1
4/16p, 6:16p – This poll has been closed… Please do not waste your time filling it out, as your answers will not go through. Results will come up in other entries over the next 24 hours… and if you abandoned your effort or didn’t get to participate, fear not… I will be offering more polls in the days to come, hopefully better designed for your ease of use.
Note: 4/16, 3:10p – There is a lot of data building up… unfortunately, the delivery mechanism of this web survey company is not quite as simple as I though it would be. Working on a fix and getting the survey info to you soon…
SAG Fight Not Over… E-Mail From The Front
The Rally this week
The Spirit: The Surprising Blu-Ray Experience
Like many others, I skipped The Spirit in December. I was interested, but Lionsgate didn
51 Comments »Piracy & News
It’s an interesting discussion…
Phil Spector was found guilty today. Vikram Jayanti made a wonderful documentary about Spector for BBC2 – The Agony & The Ecstasy of Phil Spector – that ran a week on the BBC2 website then was pulled down after a week. Spector gave Jayanti access to and allowed the use of all kinds of materials that Spector holds the rights to and this makes the doc truly one of a kind. The interview with Vikram took place right before and/or during the first trial. Great stuff. So much so that the film won an award for Best Single Documentary at the 35th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in the UK just a couple of weeks ago.
The film is not scheduled to play in America… and I have no idea whether it ever will. It seems likely that Spector will allow it to play here after the legal battle is completely over, but this conviction, which will be appealed, may keep it out of view for years to come. The film actually leans towards Spector’s argument that he could not have had his hand on the trigger when Ms. Clarkson was shot. But who knows what kind of spin writers and potential jurors might take on the film.
So a few hours ago, I look on the MCN front page and Ray Pride had stumbled upon the documentary, in full, on a major streaming website.
After a bit of investigation… and after excitedly preparing an entry about the film here on The Hot Blog, I pulled the link down and dumped my planned entry.
Obviously, this is frustrating. It’s a great film. It should be seen. I have no idea whether it is not being shown because Spector set the rule or because there is a US deal still pending or whatever. Still, the moral issue is the moral issue. I don’t have the legal right to see or distribute the film and clearly, neither does the person who posted it to the web… in good conscience, solely interested in sharing similar materials with others who are interested.
It frustrates me in these situations that we don’t even have the right to pay for access to content, like this, which is so valuable to those with an interest. I would surely pay for access via BBC’s website or buy a DVD of this film. But no.
Of course, the next step is to question whether watching a region coded DVD on a region-free player is morally valid.
Sigh…
Marilyn Chambers Is Dead
I have to say… I never really got it.
Somehow, for me, the idea of Marilyn Chambers was sexier than any sex scene in which I saw her perform. She seemed kinda funny and sweet and sexy… and when it got all porno, that charm was gone.
I recall her various R-rated shows on Cinemax, etc, after her porn career was well over and her breasts had massive implants added. Blech.
Chambers was, also, the first famous porn actress to make a serious attempt at crossing over into the mainstream. She has a lot of non-porn credits. But like all of the others, including Paris Hilton, the transition was near impossible.
Still, sad to see anyone go so young. Marilyn Ann Briggs, born on April 22, 1952, passed on April 12, 2009.
Broadway – Hair & Exit The King
The great Broadway experience of this season is the revival of Hair, merging a great score, a still absolutely non-existent book, and last season
9 Comments »Loving John Waters
Waters has a gallary show here in L.A. for the next month or so… Vanity Fair was compelled by the movies shown on asses, but I like this one, Children Who Smoke, even better.
(more info on the show and when you can see it)
Date Rape Redux
I’m not sure what is more disturbing… David Edelstein using someone who has not seen the film as the standard for moral outrage over Observe & Report OR David Edelstein oversimplifying both the argument that the date rape in the film is offensive and the argument that it is acceptable as an artistic choice (“I hope I also wouldn
68 Comments »15 Days Sober
The experiment of me banning myself from comments is at its half-way mark about now.
57 Comments »
