ishtar Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Our Favorite Summers: 1987
Filed under: Fandom », Summer Movies »
There are no songs written about the summer of '87, but I remember well. As well as someone who is in her 30's can remember when she was 11, anyway. There were some fine movies out that summer, and when I say fine, I mean "I'm Netflixing this ASAP" fine or "this was totally awesome when I was 11" fine. There were the Bangles, the Borscht Belt, big schwartzes, and much more.
5/1 -- The Allnighter: Did someone forget to tell me that there's a romcom beach bunny movie starring Susanna "Manic Monday" Hoffs and Joan Cusack with a Pam Grier cameo? I don't care if it got 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, I am adding this to my Netflix Slumber Party list right now.
5/8 -- Hot Pursuit // River's Edge: Another "I'm so lovable yet dorky" John Cusack vehicle versus Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper dancing with a blow-up doll, and a dead body? The grown-up me says River's Edge all the way! If you've ever heard Crispin Glover humor audiences with his actual Southern Cali accent as heard in River's Edge, you'll know it's a treat. On the other hand, Hot Pursuit was written and directed by Steven Lisberger, who wrote the original Tron as well as its remake!
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader Critic, Retires
Filed under: Classics », Miramax »
How about this wild-eyed and enthusiastic photo of pretty much the most intelligent film critic in America? Unfortunately, Jonathan Rosenbaum has served notice that he's leaving his staff position at the Chicago Reader after 20 years, in favor of more occasional appearances in print and on the Internet, and the chance to write about other matters besides movies. It's a good time to retire; cinema, once the bravest of the popular arts, is now too often just a part of the entertainment bandwidth, sampling itself relentlessly, following trends like it used to set them.The 65-year-old critic has been a long-time champion of foreign film, particularly when they're handled poorly by distributors, shelved or re-cut (as Miramax did so many times during the 1990s). His book Movie Wars is essential reading about how studios lead the critics and mislead the public; as he puts it in his 2007 top ten list, the problem is that "each film is supposed to be important when it comes out and is then forgotten soon afterwards." The books Placing Movies and Movies as Politics are two excellent introductions to Rosenbaum's well-informed polemics.
He is, perhaps, at his best when doing a minority report; his essay on Eyes Wide Shut, reprinted in Philip Lopate's collection American Movie Critics, needs to be read by anyone who feels Kubrick's last film is a neglected masterpiece. Rosenbaum dared to fight a lot of the accepted wisdom of his day, such as the suggestion that Woody Allen was better than Jerry Lewis or that Clint Eastwood's Bird is a masterpiece. An exit interview is visible on YouTube, with Rosenbaum describing his plans for the future, elevating the reputation of Ishtar and cutting There Will Be Blood down to size. It's the critic in me that makes me say that this two-part YouTube video goes on for a couple of minutes too long. ...
Cinematical Seven: Thanksgiving Turkeys
Filed under: Cinematical Seven »
The term "turkey" was long ago coined to describe either bad movies or huge financial flops, and there is a long list of them. (Although Kevin Costner movies like Waterworld or The Postman could better be described as "ham.") I combed through the trash to find seven treasures that I would actually recommend; these are the Butterballs.
1. Ishtar (1987, Elaine May)
Today, it's actually fairly difficult to see Ishtar, that "musical comedy" starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty, even if you wanted to. It hasn't yet been released on DVD (except in the UK), and I bet most of those old VHS tapes have been carefully disposed of. But Elaine May's famous flop deserves reconsideration, if only because recent years have shown that May's first three films, A New Leaf (1971), The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and Mikey and Nicky (1977), were masterworks way ahead of their time.
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
_thumbnail.jpg)
