"enthusiastically peddling violent homophobia" seems like a pretty blatant mischaracterization on at least a couple levels. Perhaps an obit isn't the place for trolling. "wtf" indeed.

Great to see all the love for LAST DAYS OF DISCO. The New Beverly's got a double feature of it and BARCELONA later this month that I'm pretty goshdarned giddy about - first chance I've had to see them on the big screen since back in the day. Wish I could've been at that Dunham screening. And not just because my original METROPOLITAN one-sheet is lacking an Eigeman to go beside the Stillman and Nichols autographs I got at the Cinefamily screening last year. (I swear I'm not that guy, but just that once, I was that guy.) On a related note, how about some thoughts on DAMSELS IN DISTRESS? I caught it last night and I can't remember the last time I was quite this conflicted about a movie. Great affection hand in hand with serious irritation. I can't imagine sitting through it a second time and yet I'm strangely compelled to see it again tonight.

I've really been looking forward to THE LONELIEST PLANET since word started spreading out of Toronto. But I have to say that the Siren's frustration about the lack of elephant-in-the-room-acknowledgment was the only problem I had with the otherwise fantastic MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE. That the sister never sat down M(MMM) and pushed for a more detailed (and, increasingly, plausible) explanation for her whereabouts during her missing time than "I had a boyfriend", just got under my skin and wouldn't go away. It undermined the reality of situation and left me feeling like the filmmakers weren't sure how to handle it... so they just didn't. Looking forward to seeing it a second time. Maybe it won't bother me as much. (And if the Loktev film is operating on a more allegorical level, maybe it won't bother me there at all.)

Really dug this one as well. The mood stuck to me long after I left the theater. (I even hold it responsible for a restless night of sleep.) I felt like it stumbled a little as it approached the final stretch -- my only gripe -- but recovered in time for a strong ending. Terrific work all around.

"If Lars von Trier doesn't want his supposedly intentionally provocative speech to be taken seriously, neither should we take any of his filmmaking seriously." This makes about as much sense as: "The Festival de Cannes provides artists from around the world with an exceptional forum to present their works and defend freedom of expression and creation... The Board of Directors firmly condemns these comments and declares Lars Von Trier a persona non grata at the Festival de Cannes, with effect immediately." I could understand, I guess, someone unfamiliar with LvT being offended. But this is the damn Cannes fest. Have they ever seen one of their own LvT press conferences? Frankly, the only thing out of character about it was the seemingly sincere apology directly afterward.

@Bill -- Yes! Thank you! I think von Trier is as vital a voice in filmmaking as the world has today (the wonderful mess that is ANTICHRIST included), but DANCER IN THE DARK is the one that just doesn't matter to me in the least. Taking BREAKING THE WAVES and just removing all that pesky ambiguity... I still don't get what he was doing there. At all. I honestly wonder if it was meant as yet another act of intentional self-sabotage that backfired in certain critical quarters. God love that guy. And this Persona Non Grata business is bullshit.

Back in 1998 I had an amazing job as basically Night Watchman for a camp out in the middle of the woods in rural Minnesota. I'd show up at 10pm (lights out), make a pot of coffee and just make sure the place didn't burn down before I went home at dawn. In addition to being the perfect job for a screenwriter trying to crank out a script, it afforded me the opportunity to read both "Infinite Jest" and Don DeLillo's "Underworld" in about a week each. Good damn times. I'm looking forward to returning to IJ someday, but I know it's going to be tough to ever find the concentrated time to just immerse myself like that.

I feel dumb now, but for whatever reason the cross in W&L never stood out to me. Maybe because I just assumed that character would be wearing one. I still haven't caught up to RIVER OF GRASS, but on the basis of her last two films, I think Reichardt's absolutely working in the top tier of American filmmakers right now. Excited to be catching MEEK'S in Minneapolis in a few weeks (with Reichardt and Todd Haynes doing a Q&A)! Also, for any L.A. folks, the Aero is screening OLD JOY and WENDY & LUCY on 4/17 with the director present for a discussion: http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/wendy-and-lucy-old-joy

"... and nothing at all like Laird Cregar!"

On topic (if several days late), Assayas presented IRMA VEP and DEMONLOVER last night at the Egyptian to an audience of *maybe* 3 dozen people. Pretty shameful turnout which added even more resonance to IRMA (particularly the scene with the populist French film journalist raving about Van Damme and Schwarzenegger). Here's hoping CARLOS, playing through the weekend, has a better turnout. This town is sad-making.

I was in love with my last Panasonic plasma but gave it to my parents when I moved back to L.A. rather than having to deal with transporting it. I searched around and actually bought a couple Samsung LCDs to try out... but even with massive picture adjustment, I could never find an LCD that handled film content as well as the Panasonic plasma G series. After a month of buying and returning sets, I ended up just biting the bullet and getting another Panasonic plasma and I'm happy as a clam.In my experience, LCDs just have an inherently thinner-seeming image and the conversion to 24fps is never as good as I want it to be. They're definitely *better* than they used to be... but plasma still seems a step ahead to my eye. The stuff that bugs me about LCDs is the sort of thing that I guess most people don't even notice, but I can't get past it.As much as I dislike supporting Best Buy, I've had nothing but good luck with their 36 month (or whatever) No Interest purchase plan. With something like the plasma, I also fork out for the product protection plan -- I've never had to use it thus far (*knock wood*), but it brings some peace of mind just in case. $75/mo and I'm in home theater heaven.

Agreed. And they're so re-watchable. The only one I've found myself less enamored of upon revisiting is TENENBAUMS, which strikes me as just a little too diffuse -- a little too busy, a little overstuffed. Still good, but I'll go back and watch any of the others first. I thought DARJEELING was as good as anything he's done (though RUSHMORE will always be first among equals for me).

Dangit. THE DEVIL RIDES OUT is unavailable on Netflix. And I'd gotten all excited.

Good call, joel_gordon -- I walked out of HAPPY GO LUCKY and immediately thought that NAKED had finally received its complement.

Loving the whole Sleigh Bells album... even if I like the rougher, sparer version of this song (then called "Ring Ring") that was leaked last year. Fave album so far in a weak year.

You actually can order their catalog blu-rays at http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/offers/BD.html

Also cool: when you buy directly from Eureka, the discs ship out well in advance of their release date. I see that CITY GIRL isn't released till 2/25, but I received it a week ago. I never seek out int'l discs to buy, but it's such a great deal and the PayPal payment is so easy, I'm now hooked on these MoC discs. Here's hoping they keep this up!

I'd check out www.dvdbeaver.com -- I believe Gary Tooze over there uses a region-free Momitsu and has a link to at least one reasonably cheap region-free blu-ray player available on Amazon.

There are region-free blu-ray players, I believe. But the Eureka Masters of Cinema blus are blissfully region-free. Also, their website usually has them for sale at a significant discount + free int'l shipping. I picked up their glorious editions of SUNRISE, CITY GIRL and UNE FEMME MARIEE -- paid through PayPal, received them within the week... and they're stunning. Watched CITY GIRL tonight. *sigh*

I'm still waiting for COLLATERAL to be recognized as possibly the most interesting thing to come out of the Hollywood machine in the past 10 years. It covers the big budget genre bases impeccably, but has so much more on its mind and in its eye... even if just for its stunningly beautiful portrait of a city by night, it's remarkable stuff. Where HEAT loses a little steam every time I watch it (due mostly to the by-the-numbers psychoanalyzing that characterizes most of its relationships), COLLATERAL is one I keep going back to again and again.

Okay... saw the film today and loved it as I've loved all Pixar's films (with the exception of BUG'S LIFE and CARS, both of which I still quite like). But once I got done processing my adoration, here's what really hit me: setting aside the (admittedly arguable) quality of Pixar's output... is there another big budget "creative" entity operating in Hollywood that so evinces a sense of integrity and near-disregard for the bottom-line? I've been doing the spec-scripts-and-development-meetings circuit out here for 5 years now and it's damned soul-killing to realize how few people/companies have any interest in producing good films. It's simply not a priority. Films aren't films, they're ATMs. When I started out, I thought I was being realistic in expecting something like a 75/25 split between those who make movies exclusively for profit and those who, to some extent, make films because they believe in the possibilities of the medium. I was wrong. It's closer to 95/5. On a good day. Give a production company the choice between making THERE WILL BE BLOOD (domestic gross: $40M) and WHITE CHICKS (domestic gross: $70M)... nearly all of them will beg for a Wayans brother. Replace THERE WILL BE BLOOD with ZODIAC (domestic gross: $33M) and you can omit the "nearly". And yet, time and again, Pixar makes films that they truly love and believe in, despite the fact that they'd be guaranteed to make more money with safer projects. A "kids movie" about a rat who wants to be a gourmet chef? In France? One with a dialogue-free first act about a robot and a cockroach in a postapocalyptic landscape? One that posits a dour, elderly man as its main character? None of these ideas would get through the door at any other studio in town as either animated or live-action projects that depend largely on a young audience for ticket sales. But Pixar bets on them every time and trusts that audiences will seek out a good film whether or not it fits into safe, well-established parameters. As much as I'm looking forward to TOY STORY 3 next summer, I was a little disappointed to see it announced as their next venture simply because I've grown to love following them in new directions every year. I'll still be out for it on opening day and I have no reason to doubt that the film will be up to their high standards, but I'm more excited to see what original, challenging, risky projects they have in store further down the line.