Friday, July 1, 2016

ONCE YOU'RE WITH THE WIZARD, NO ONE THINKS YOU'RE STRANGE:  I have a hunch you'll love The Baseball Bunch oral history which SI just published.
YOU GOT A WEIRD THING FOR CANADIAN MELODRAMA:  On this Dominion Day Canada Day we contemplate one of life's burning questions: what makes a film a Canadian film?  Is it the setting? The director and cast? Must it be filmed in Canada? (Can a movie be filmed in Canada and not be "Canadian"?) Must it be Canadian in tone and pacing, whatever that means? Is eligibility for the Genie Canadian Screen Awards sufficient? (Do you consider Room, Brooklyn, or Meatballs to be Canadian films?)

FWIW, my favorite film from The True North remains Atom Egoyan's Exotica, though I think the best is Dead Ringers -- I just can't bear to watch it again, no matter how good Jeremy Irons was in it.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

EVERYONE'S GRADES WILL BE A'IGHT A'IGHT A'IGHT:  Matthew McConaughey will teach a film class at UT-Austin this fall (primarily via video).
YOU HAVE DIED OF DYSENTERY:  As part of its inexplicable relaunch of Crystal Pepsi, you will soon be able to travel down the Crystal Pepsi Trail.
DISCUSS AMONGST YOURSELVES: For a movie that was so good about celebrating a character with a cognitive disability, Finding Dory really bungled the Gerald stuff, didn't it?
DISCUSS AMONGST YOURSELVES:  If Back to the Future were remade today (sacrilege, I know), what would be the equivalent of Marty McFly teaching Marvin Berry how to rock-and-roll for the mid/late 1980s?

(HT: Adam C.)