http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/ SCREEN RUSH en Copyright 2010 2010-03-13T09:24:46+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/on_critics_and_critical_thought/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/on_critics_and_critical_thought/ "The motive of the critic who is really worth reading — the only critic of whom, indeed, it may be said truthfully that it is at all possible to read him, save as an act of mental penitence — that motive is not the motive of the pedagogue, but the motive of the artist ... no more or less than the simple desire to function freely and beautifully ..." —H.L. Mencken, “The Critical Process,” 1922 "Your reviews are complete jokes, but your publishers sell them to millions, you get paid, buy eggs and bread, grow children." —Jonas Mekas, "Open Letter… 2010-03-13T08:24:46+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/zoes_paradox_my_kazan_profile_a_profile_like_no_other/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/zoes_paradox_my_kazan_profile_a_profile_like_no_other/ Or maybe it's a lot like every other Zoe Kazan profile of late. But probably not, because I make the (admittedly somewhat tenuous) argument that Kazan, now onscreen in The Exploding Girl and onstage in A Behanding in Spokane, is an aestheticized Face of Our Times. From the cover story in this week's New York Press: Kazan’s diversity of projects helps her maintain artistic cred, but she also remains free of industrial stigmas by the sheer virtue of her cuteness. Bear with me here: In Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom, feminist scholar Diane Negra discusses the nascent… 2010-03-10T19:23:50+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/being_bong_joon-ho/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/being_bong_joon-ho/ Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s movies are marked by death, a constant sense of danger, and the unraveling of family bonds. They also feature something atypical of genre film, however: a lingering comedic vibe. Predominantly known for his satiric monster movie “The Host,” a 2006 box office smash in Korea that garnered a cult following for the filmmaker in the United States, Bong crafts his distinctive vision by forcing realism into the unlikely realm of genre conventions. His latest movie, “Mother,” essentially functions as a detective story, though the investigator in question is a trenchant middle-aged woman seeking to rescue her… New Releases 2010-03-09T16:03:01+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/jewish_movie_extravaganza/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/jewish_movie_extravaganza/ As a contributing editor to Heeb magazine, I was delighted to help out with some suggestions for the recently unveiled 100 Greatest Jewish Movie Moments, a wide-ranging lists that begins with Where's Poppa? and ends with "Shomer fucking Shabbos!" And if you don't know where that quote comes from, I can't help you. Oh wait: Yes, I can. Legendary film critic (and fellow indieWIRE blogger!) Leonard Maltin also chipped in. Hollywood, Independent Cinema 2010-03-05T16:43:46+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/spike_jonze_talks_about_maurice_sendak/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/spike_jonze_talks_about_maurice_sendak/ I had a pleasant chat with Spike Jonze yesterday for the release of his new documentary, Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, which came out on DVD this week. At a concise 40 minutes, the movie is genuinely touching and entirely sustained by Sendak's colorful personality from the very first scene. (See above for a clip of the octogenarian to get a sense for his endearing shtick.) I also asked Spike about the changing face of indie film distribution, since he had a short film at Sundance and made another one with Kanye West that leaked… Independent Cinema, New Media, New Releases 2010-03-03T17:16:59+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_kevin_smith_conundrum/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_kevin_smith_conundrum/ John Pierson's essential 1995 tome, "Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema," features interstitial Q&As with a 24-year-old Kevin Smith designated as the book's hesitant "generational spokesman." At one point, he strikes a prescient tone: "Note to myself," he says. "If I ever in a future life get a new start as a first-time filmmaker, give me lines to be funny with." With Smith's lack of screenwriting credit on "Cop Out," that new life has ostensibly begun, but the essential Smith contradiction remains agreeably intact. In another 15 years, who knows? Read… Independent Cinema, New Media, New Releases 2010-02-27T14:39:33+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/adam_yauch_indie_film_savior/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/adam_yauch_indie_film_savior/ Above: An unlikely Oscar contender. The news that New Yorker Films has returned to business certainly gives people in the indie film world something to get excited about. New Yorker's success rate for specialty releases might put many modern distributors to shame. But last week's announcement of the Oscar nominations testified that at least one relative newcomer has been playing its cards right: Oscilloscope Laboratories, which wound up with two films in the awards race a mere two years after its humble origins as the experiment of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. Here's my profile of the company and its co-founder… Independent Cinema 2010-02-11T15:13:10+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/investigating_oscars_best_animated_short_films/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/investigating_oscars_best_animated_short_films/ Wallace And Gromit - A Matter Of Loaf And DeathDANMAN | MySpace Video Wallace and Gromit aren't as synonymous with Oscar wins as the infallible Pixar brand, but they should be. Since 1993, this cheery man-and-dog claymation duo from the U.K. has charmed audiences all the way through awards season, garnering a total of three Oscars for creator Nick Park and losing only once, in 1991, to Park's own short Creature Comforts. In less than a decade, Wallace and Gromit worked their way up to the big leagues: Park won Oscars for best animated short film in 1993 and 1995,… Pop Culture 2010-02-11T14:13:31+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/sundance_skepticism/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/sundance_skepticism/ A little trepidation to kick things off: In “Bass Ackwards”, one of the entries in Sundance Film Festival’s recently launched low budget NEXT section, an unkempt loner (Linas Phillips, also the writer-director)—having lost both his job and his girlfriend—drives through a series of lush American landscapes in a cramped Volkswagen bus, hoping to find a better life. Considering that vehicle’s now-famous association with “Little Miss Sunshine,” a major Sundance breakout in 2006, the metaphor here writes itself: “Bass Ackwards,” a comparatively small film not destined for the kind of massive bidding war among distributors caused by “Little Miss Sunshine,” looks… 2010-01-21T23:34:19+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_humpday_effect/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_humpday_effect/ It goes without saying that the Oscars leave a lot of great movies out in the cold every year. But which ones? By making a few broad generalizations and examining some of the promising American indies from 2009 that haven't made the big grab for the gold this season, I've boiled the whole thing down to a single formula that I call--wait for it--The Humpday Effect. From a post that went up today on Vanity Fair's Little Gold Men blog: Oscar snubs tend to generate notice around this time of year due to their absence from the ubiquitous awards season… Independent Cinema 2010-01-20T02:50:39+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_worst_movies_of_2009/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/the_worst_movies_of_2009/ Above: Some of last year's top big screen atrocities. In the last few years, I have grown increasingly attracted to the value of great movies created under a tremendous lack of resources. The so-called "democratization" of cinema has its drawbacks, including an unwieldy glut of product, but it also makes way for highly individualized productions. The idea of a movie exclusively representing a single creator's point of view has been explored by avant garde filmmakers for decades. These days, however, personality frequently invades contemporary cinema of various sorts. When it works, the medium creates a sense of closeness with the… Pop Culture 2010-01-18T19:55:39+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/religious_post-apocalyptic_babble_in_book_of_eli_gets_to_me/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/religious_post-apocalyptic_babble_in_book_of_eli_gets_to_me/ What makes a post-apocalyptic story tick? In most cases, it's the perseverance of hope engulfed in irrevocable catastrophe. Consider the track record: Three "Mad Max" movies take place in a dreary wasteland. Each features Mel Gibson as a bloodthirsty wanderer with revenge on his mind and a scowl on his face. The character engages in epic battles and always wins out, but the world around him never changes. Things went to shit long ago and he can't fix that; he can only remedy the specifics of his personal situation. This pattern has a realistic streak: When the world as we… New Releases 2010-01-14T17:46:53+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/check_out_goliath_on_dvd/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/check_out_goliath_on_dvd/ Fiddlestixx, Ep. 1: Brain PowerzAtom.com: Funny Videos | Atom Originals | Fiddlestixx I love David and Nathan Zellner's 2008 Sundance feature Goliath--and they've done a lot of other cool things, too. Check out the first episode of their insanely trippy online series F I D D L E S-T-I-X-X above. These guys don't make movies in accordance with natural laws. They're less concerned with conventional rules of storytelling than with figuring out how to defy them. Their first feature, Goliath, brilliantly expands on the lunatic tendencies set forth in their shorts, and yet it's not pure farce. The movie has… New Releases 2010-01-13T17:22:18+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/best_of_the_decade_expanding_the_arena_part_viii/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/best_of_the_decade_expanding_the_arena_part_viii/ This is the latest in a series of blog posts collecting best of the decade lists from “non-professional” film-lovers. Go here to read the previous entry. In this installment: Bradley Hope Abu Dhabi-based reporter, The National; co-founder, The New York Moon COMMENTS: I chose 10 films that really stuck with me over the years. I would happily watch them again. There were many others that I enjoyed immensely, but they were one-off experiences that I'd rather not sit through a second time. . The Saddest Music in the World – Guy Maddin, 2003, Canada Volver – Pedro Almodóvar, 2006, Spain… Pop Culture 2010-01-06T16:13:50+00:00 http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/avatar_en_3d/ http://blogs.indiewire.com/kohn/archives/avatar_en_3d/ I've been hanging out in Bogota, Colombia this week visiting family, and happened upon an intriguing entry on the marquee for the local multiplex: I would love to know how Cameron's blockbuster powerhouse is playing down here--not so much because of the special effects, which I imagine dazzle the crowd as much they do anywhere else, but because the film's radical politics (or, at the very least, divisive politics) ought to get conversations going in a country known for the very same thing. And what of Paranormal Activity? Dios mio. If only I had the time on this trip to… New Releases 2010-01-06T04:50:37+00:00