Karina on SpoutBlog

• Everybody’s mad about those Foreign Language Oscar nominations, right? Not Nick Dawson. At the FILMMAKER blog, he notes that nominated films that would have otherwise been deemed too small for US distribution “magically” land deals once it becomes possible to “put the words ‘Oscar’ and ‘Nominated’ in big letters on the poster…As a result, this year Oscar has all but guaranteed us the new films from Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrzej Wajda and Sergei Bodrov ??? three undeniably great directors ??? in addition to films like Persepolis, Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days and The Orphanage.” Much more at the link.
• At Big Media Vandalism, Odienator gives us a homework assignment: “Rent MGM’s That’s Entertainment III to hear Lena Horne tell you how badly she was treated by MGM. She’ll also show you the aforementioned cut pieces of her Cabin in the Sky performance. It’s worth it. She’s singing a song in a bubble bath.”
• “Technological innovation, in my opinion, not only created the movies, but insured that the art form would remain an important part of American culture over more than a century.” So says Scott Kirsner, by way of introducing a post counting out Five Oscar Wins That Shaped The Movies.
• At The Huffington Post, Jack Donaldson explains why he has yet to join the backlash against much-reviled Oscar winners such as American Beauty, Forrest Gump and Crash: “They are the Billy Joel’s of movies, and I’m a big Billy Joel fan.” I applaud the closet-exit on that score, but it’s a bit troubling that Donaldson really doesn’t seem to realise that the Juno backlash is totally in progress.

Last week, a clip from (or, maybe more accurately, “from”, since its derivation is totally up for debate) Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are “leaked” onto the internet. I didn’t write about it at the time, because I watched it and thought it was kind of stupid, and I couldn’t think of anything better to say about it than “This looks kind of stupid.” Then AJ Schnack wrote this blog post shaming bloggers who posted the clip without bothering to consider whether or not it was real.”[I]t’s clear to this Angleno that the things is a badly conceived fake.” he wrote. “That rounded thing in the upper right corner? LA’s Griffith Observatory! And where is the movie being shot? Australia.” Whoops!

But the plot thickens: today, in response to wide-spread internet mocking and speculation, Jonze issued a statement confirming that the clip IS for real…sort of:

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Under discussion:

Brief Encounter  (1946)

Today we’re taking a look at Brandon Linden’s Bootleg Wisconsin, which is screening in the Emerging Visions section at the SXSW Film Festival. It’s a drama about the summer relationship between Katherine, a married woman from Chicago who spends her summer vacation visiting outlet malls, and Billy, a younger guy who works in the Wisconsin mall that Katherine visits. There’s a trailer above, as well as tons of clips on YouTube. Brandon answers the 4 Questions We’re Askign Everybody below.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Bootleg Wisconsin is the story of a young man who works at an outlet mall outside Kenosha. The store he works at is about to be closed. He starts up a relationship with a woman from Chicago who shops there and we see how it effects the two of them, and his friends and family.

My concept of it would read something like this: “If a Swedish director watched too many Naruse films drunk and then decided to do a near silent remake of Brief Encounter in a Midwest outlet mall you would have my film.”

I wanted to make the film after visiting the outlet mall with my wife, who was shopping. I got bored and started to talk to some of the kids who worked at the brand new hotel next door. They told me how the hotel was supported by people visiting the mall.

I started to think about the differences, social and economic, between the people who worked at the mall and those who visited it, and why anyone would stay overnight at a place just to shop. I wanted to make a film about this that was quiet, compassionate, and real.

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