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It's been awhile since we've had a little film blog group hugging action around here. Today it's cold and snowing here, so what better way to put off cleaning house and baking lasagna for our Boxing Day party than to cozy up under a quilt with a cup of hot tea and some of my favorite film bloggers? As 2007 wanes away and Sundance looms near, I thought I'd pop by some of my favorite film blogs to see who's doing any writing this holiday weekend.

Before taking a well-deserved break for the holidays, hard-working film blogger Karina Longworth at Spout Blog put up this thought-provoking piece on whether Disney wants to turn your daughter into a whore. As Karina points out, Barbara Ehrenreich's recycled rant on the evils of all things Disney is well past-due. I was getting into arguments about Disney back when I was doing time in mom's clubs when I did the stay-at-home-mom gig for a few years; the "We're raising our kids gender-neutral," granola-crunching, feminist hippy mamas in Seattle and parts elsewhere have had Disney in their crosshairs for years.

My favorite line from Ehrenreich's piece: "One's sexual inclinations--straightforward or kinky, active or passive, heterosexual or homosexual--should be free to develop without adult intervention or manipulation. " Riiiiiiiiight. If you raise your kids in a bubble unexposed to any society whatsover, perhaps. Kids are products of their social communities whether they grow up in the favelas of Brazil or in a high-rise overlooking Central Park, and trying to mold their little minds with the androgyny of gender-neutrality is no less manipulative than allowing your daughter to dress up like a pretty princess. Bratz, though, is another story. I hate those damn dolls with a passion previously reserved for Barney. If anyone's trying to shallow-fy and whore out our daughters, it's the evil geniuses behind those Bratz dolls. At least the Disney Princesses don't have lips that look like they had an unfortunate experience with a silicone injection. Anyhow.

More group hugs after the jump ...

Chicago Reader's Jonathon Rosenbaum has his list of top 10, er, 15 films (counting ties) out, and tops on his list was one of my own fave films of the year, Jia Zhangke's The World. Rosenbaum loves The World so much, in fact, that not only is it his top pick for 2005, he also thinks it beats out his top picks for 2004 and 2003. Wow.

Also on Rosenbaum's list are a couple films I haven't seen but now want to, including his number two pick, Not on the Lips, helmed by Alain Resnais, and Ten Skies, an experimental film I'll probably never get to see, because it only screened once at Chicago Filmmakers. Rosenbaum's list also includes Howl's Moving Castle, one of the best "childrens" films I've seen in a long time, which Rosenbaum places in a tie with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't put the latter on my own list of top films for 2005, in spite of it starring Johnny Depp, my secret movie star boyfriend, but hey, we don't have to agree on everything.

[ via GreenCine Daily ]