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Under discussion:

2001: A Space Odyssey  (1968)

One of the hardest things about being a young film critic is that it’s impossible to catch up to the older guys in terms of how many films I’ve seen. To think Roger Ebert was already reviewing films at the Sun-Times for ten years before I was born. And gee whiz, Andrew Sarris has been doing this forever. I mean, it’s hard enough seeing every significant film released in a year, let alone every significant film released in the 8 decades before my lifetime. But while it’s certainly in my best interest to see all those Ingmar Berman films I’ve avoided, and see everything else on all those “all time best” lists, and maybe watch Turner Classic Movies 24-7 for the rest of my life, there’s just no way I’ll ever be complete in the eyes of some of my peers or, more importantly, of my readers.

Last Sunday, SF Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle confessed to having never previously seen some “classics”, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. But he had finally just watched them and proceeded to review them. Some bloggers have responded, including Kevin Lee, who is disappointed in LaSalle’s low-level insight, and Jeff Wells, who admitted to his own unseen, none of which seemed too embarrassing. But then LaSalle ponied up a response to the responses:

“Of course, since I’ve written that article I’ve heard from people telling me that I’m an illiterate for not seeing the movies they’ve seen (although I’ve seen them NOW). Needless to say, I could name hundreds of worthy and significant films that probably none of them have seen. But hey, people need something to make them feel good about themselves, and they’ll find any excuse.

But that’s neither important nor interesting. However, the larger point this brings up, though, does interest me. Movies have been around now for about a century. Fifty years ago, we might have reasonably assumed (it wouldn’t have been true, but it would have been a reasonable assumption) that every film critic of significance had seen all the major movies.

But after a hundred years, do we really want our film critics to be generalists, all familiar with the same batch of pre-digested movies that everyone agrees are good? By now, you really can’t see everything, so do we want critics all to have seen the same narrow basic repertory?”

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Under discussion:

Chicago 10  (2007)

Chicago 10 is meant to build the mythology real people and events using non-fiction elements: Archival footage and–in dramatizing the trial of the protesters–animation. Director Brett Morgen uses a technique called Motion Capture, so that he himself could act out many of the courtroom characters. His physical movements were translated to drawn caricatures and then the voices were added from various actors (Roy Scheider as Judge Julius Hoffman is particularly surprising). By blending the animation with archival footage and a present day soundtrack (Beastie Boys “Sabotage” plays under archival footage of the hippies storming a monument in Grant Park), Morgen intends to ram the spirit of 60’s era protest into current events. However, I’ll be telling people to go see Chicago 10 for the pieces that are more documentary than call-to-arms.

The Yippies (led by Abbie Hoffman) and MOBE (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, led by Rennie Davis) are organized protesters going to the 1968 Democratic National Convention to renounce the nomination of LBJ, and thereby a government running an unjust war. They converge on a city already in a bad year (the police in Chicago’s 1968 riots came off as the barbarian horde) and Mayor Daley publicly promised any disorderly conduct at the Convention would be squashed. Conversely, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies were promising the start of the New Revolution. Hence, tensions were high around the Convention before the bunting was even hung. (more…)

Butterknife creator Joe Swanberg returns to SXSW with his fourth feature in as many years, Nights and Weekends. This one is co-written, co-directed and co-stars Greta Gerwig, of Hannah Takes the Stairs and Baghead fame, and it was shot by Matthias Grunsky, the man behind the camera on both of Andrew Bujalski’s features. Check out the trailer above, and Greta’s answers to the 4 Questions We’re Asking 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.

Nights and Weekends is When Harry Meets Sally meets DIE HARD without the cuteness or the explosions. It is a collaboration between Joe Swanberg and myself, with Kent Osborne, Lynn Shelton, Jay Duplass, and Elizabeth Donius in the mix. That synopsis leaves out just about everything.

Do you have a day job/a non-filmmaking occupation that raises money for your filmmaking efforts? Tell us about it.
My non-filmmaking jobs have been tutoring kids for the SATs, being a club kid, catering, babysitting, and looking for change under my couch.

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