Revue
Last night, Toronto audiences were treated to another program of short films thanks to everyone’s favorite purveyor of shorts (that are not pants), James McNally.

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy surrendering over to James’ skill as a curator, this time though I came away both bemused and amused.

I was bemused because of the rather melancholy tone to the night’s selections. There were laughs to be had, thanks to offerings like YOUR PLACE OR MINE and A PRESENT FOR ROBERT, and as it turned out the joy they brought was much-needed since they were the only spots of sunshine on a cloudy summer night. Indeed, most of James’ selections for the summer screening were of the introspective and downright melancholic variety…many of which seemed to have a longing eye at the past.

While this left me a little bit blue, I have to admit that I’d rather soak these sorts of offerings up in the summer than in the winter when I’d be forced to walk out into the cold.

The funny thing was that somehow, James hadn’t even realized the downbeat tempo of his programme. It only really dawned on him when I asked him if he needed a hug.

Well done as always James, and to those reading this if you have a few moments, do check out some of the shorts I’ve highlighted above.

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For your listening and reading fulfilment, I give you…

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My podcasting suggestion this week was an easy choice. The gang over at Row Three called “Avengers Assemble!” this week and created a Superticket Episode where the full crew from The Cinecast were joined by Price and Brown from Mamo. In case you’re keeping score, the scoreboard for the panel would read “Matthew” 3 – “Other” 2. Fittingly, they have gathered to discuss PACIFIC RIM.

This week Jessica returned from whatever secluded piece of Swedish countryside she’d been hiding in for a while and took to her keyboard again (did you miss her as much as me?). With her return, she ponders a wonderful world: a world where we paid for our movie ticket after the film was finished, and paid what we thought it had earned.

Back Stateside, Ruth has taken a moment on Flix Chatter to wonder whatever became of some would-be auteurs.

He doesn’t realize it, but Andrew Robinson has begun to taunt me. After I finished reading Sidney Lumet’s book a few weeks ago, I made a quiet promise to watch more of his filmography. Around the same time, GMan made a similar promise to himself (through pure coincidence), and now he’s beating me to a lot of the man’s work! This week he started off with THE FUGITIVE KIND.

Speaking of directors I adore (and likewise, directors whose filmography I wish to complete), Dan Heaton watched some Wilder this week. Take a look at his post on Wilder’s criminally underappreciated STALAG 17.

SPRING BREAKERS dropped on blu-ray and VOD recently, and if you didn’t see it, I highly recommend you give it a go. If for no other reason, watching it can cement whether you’re in the love-it camp or hate-it camp. Nick Prigge is likely in the former, and this week he took a moment to break down the film’s unforgettably stylistic opening scene.

Going back a little bit (since my PACIFIC RIM review pre-empted this feature last week), everyone’s favorite Texan cinephile had a birthday recently. If you haven’t already, go drop by Cinema Sights and wish James Blake Ewing many happy returns.

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As for the Tweet of The Week, enjoy a comic-con themed chuckle courtesy of Matt Goldberg:

 

 

12 Replies to “Everybody’s Talkin’ 7 – 19 (Chatter from Other Bloggers)”

    1. It feels familiar, doesn’t it? By the time you sit down and watch it, it feels as though it’s something you’ve seen before. Perhaps it’s more influential than it’s given credit for!

  3. Thanks for the link! I liked Stalag 17, but I don’t know about it being criminally unappreciated. Still, I do agree that it’s slipped into the background of his career for many of us.

    1. My intention *is* to come along, but I need to weave the Lumet watching in with all the other bits of watching I have planned for various things. I’ll get there, I promise. Hey – I even watched THE WIZ and SERPICO already!

  5. Hey there! Thank you for your kind words. I’ve missed you too, but now I’m back in business, catching up as much as I can. I wasn’t hiding in the Swedish countryside, I was actually in Provance in France. There isn’t much of WiFi in the small village that was my homebase (unless you went to the nearest McDonalds 15 minutes away where rumour said they had WiFi. But I refrained from it. It would have felt so wrong).

    I will take off again next week for another vacation, this time in the Swedish mountains. So blogging will be inconsistent for yet some time. But I’ll get back to it again. Promise!

    1. I do remember you saying that you were in France, I was just having a laugh at my own visions of what a Swedish holiday was like (I see it very Bergman-esque, not that I even know what that means).

      Enjoy the time away! There is so much more to life than these little notes we leave around this great big internet.

  6. Thanks much, sir! I appreciate it!

    And on the topic of Lumet & The Fugitive Kind….I need to read Andrew’s thoughts but I can tell you that in my humble and essentially useless opinion, Joanne Woodward gives the sexiest performance in the history of film in that one. In other words, check it out.

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