MCN Curated Headlines Archive for December, 2018
This is a good time to say that there is no better writer on nonfiction film in the world than Eric Hynes. His Make It Real column for @FilmComment is the definitive doc criticism of our era. Yes he’s my pal. Doesn’t matter. His work is essential and we’re all lucky to have him. https://t.co/wBTQv8NXH5
— Robert Greene (@prewarcinema) December 31, 2018
“We were left with a smeary self-portrait of an asshole being an asshole. Most of the set looked like what professional wrestling fans call a “heel turn“—as if he’d made a business decision to un-ironically embrace the persona that disappointed fans had ascribed to him, and peddle it to Fox News Channel/Breitbart types who embrace the idea that calling people racist turns them into racists.”
Matt Zoller Seitz On Louis Székely
Irish Film Classifications
G: Grand
PG: Mostly grand but sure you know yourself
12: Might be a bit of shifting
15: Shifting, implied riding, lads getting a box in the mouth, a few bad words
18: Riding, young wans in the nip, heads blew clean off, and the LANGUAGE out of them— Damien Owens (@OwensDamien) December 31, 2018
Turns out it wasn’t “we’re all streaming now” or “the high street is dying” but good old-fashioned asset-stripping. Just like the death of EMI a few years ago. https://t.co/K1SrzMXydq
— Robert Rotifer (@robertrotifer) December 30, 2018
Thread 👇🏾
Rest in Power, Mrinal Sen.
More power to filmmakers pushing ahead on the ground he broke. https://t.co/mfcpstZ2hc— Cameron Bailey (@cameron_tiff) December 30, 2018

“What I know from a life of watching and reviewing movies is that outrage is tedious, and exhausting. Sometimes it is just easier to go with the flow, though much depends on what’s happening onscreen and off. Sometimes, I don’t want to let a movie’s banal, casual sexism ruin my good time. I make expedient and strategic bargains with myself, glossing over some of the sexism and ignoring things that bother me (or trying to). I decide that the absence of female characters is acceptable or not too bad and maybe narratively justifiable. I want to keep grooving on the virtuosity of the directing, keep loving the (male) characters, the camerawork, gripping story and mysterious light.”
Manohla Dargis
“They have an uncomplicated mandate to entertain, and that that has led to charges of them being like a Walmart because they have so much of everything, and they don’t have a particular line or objective or goal in the way that FX does or HBO. But I don’t understand this talk of talent drains. Talent will go wherever talent is given a home and it’s not about the money. I think we can all agree that whether it’s a little podcast or a blockbuster television show, spending money isn’t the secret to success.”
“The Crown”‘s Peter Morgan
The great Bengali director Mrinal Sen has died. https://t.co/ch0eV10CEq Tried to do retrospective of his films, but prints were not in good shape. Wonderful filmmaker.
— mark cousins (@markcousinsfilm) December 30, 2018
Keanu Reeves and Agnès Varda. By Patrick Swirc. pic.twitter.com/MVuVqoDXgD
— TATJANA SL (@TATJANASL) December 28, 2018
I’m deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Ringo Lam. We worked together on Maximum Risk, In Hell and Replicant.
My heart goes out to his family, friends and loved ones.Jean-Claude#JCVD #RIP pic.twitter.com/JMs3rSVcl2
— JCVD Official (@JCVD) December 29, 2018
NO. No no no no. This news makes me heartsick. Alan is one of the best editors I have ever worked with, and anything I managed to achieve at the Voice was largely thanks to him. But then, he is also an astonishingly gifted writer. The world will be hearing more from him. https://t.co/YGc6GazxYj
— Stephanie Zacharek (@szacharek) December 28, 2018
Thanks, April. Yes, it’s true: The Voice Media weeklies are done with film/tv effective 12/31. Thanks to everyone who ever read us or worked with us! https://t.co/O8WCcAeOWd
— Alan Scherstuhl (@studiesincrap) December 28, 2018
The Original “Flash Mob” Ending Of A Simple Favor
“It can just get really boring watching heterosexual people, whether you’re gay or not,” Weisz says. “It’s boring, particularly when the woman is the object of desire rather than the agent of desire. That’s what we’ve been spoon-fed — that the woman is the object of the male subjectivity, of his desire and passion. Oh, I’m bored of that. Really bored.”
Rachel Weisz
“To create narratives that do not acknowledge the inescapable fact that difference is what makes queer people and the artifacts, art and traditions they have what they are, is to either buy into a paradigm of straightness and a normativity in art and society that already has existed, or to force artists to create an entirely new paradigm of how to describe difference apart from trauma. I don’t know if that can be done.”
Kyle Turner
There’s a scene where a bunch of bikini clad women are partying with drug traffickers and director Clint Eastwood makes sure to get an extreme closeup of every single ass. That’s how dedicated he is to the craft of filmmaking.
— Yuletide Serota (@maggieserota) December 26, 2018
R.I.P., Jorge Grau
Director’s Commentary To The “Let Me Be Frank” Video