Quizzical Response

Brandon, fun quiz. I'd do it again, but you won't be convincing me to spend any time on them. Wham bam thank you bran, I'm done. Loved the grading. I put up an angry comment on CR5FC-FB just to see if I could get away with kidding without winking.

I'm not super-excited about Spring Breakers. I am afraid I'll hate it. I still haven't seen Trash Humpers (I would have seen it if it had played anywhere local). I would defend Gummo, but I don't think it's great. Mister Lonely is seriously good and funny. Julien Donkey-Boy is one of my all-time favorites. They're obviously very different directors, but I feel toward Korine the same way that I feel toward PT Anderson: cautiously optimistic. Both are sure to rattle my eye sockets and give me that "oh wow" sucker punch to my core. Every film is an event and a challenge. There are other directors that I feel the same about. I guess my point is that Korine is a major player in cinema and he's representing the home (U.S.) team. I'll be rooting for him whatever he does even if he never makes anything close to JDB again.

Re: film era. It's an easy choice. The present is not only the present (though the present is good). The present is all of film past available to us. We could gripe about deep back catalog titles not being available. We should do that, but only after gratefully acknowledging what unprecedented access we have to the past. Not only access, but the ability to discuss and joke and form community through these blogs and FB and all. In the 50s, if I was a cinephile living in the the country outside of Binghamton, I wouldn't be watching all of the movies that I can now. Maybe I'd be watching Gunsmoke and a dozen other TV westerns. I wouldn't be arguing about an Austrian film with friends living miles away. So, it's not only the films, but film culture that has me picking now as the best "era".

I found that Richard Brody review linked to from a history site and not a film review site. I guess you got me there, but only on a technicality. I did recently get a subscription to the New Yorker so I will be reading Brody and Lane regularly now. My first issue arrived yesterday.

And I do love reading film criticism. I'm sure I'll return to it eventually.

I'd watch Malick's version of Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Quit pretending that that wouldn't be the coolest film event of any year.

I should join in on the love for Gabin. He can hold his own against Bogart any day.

I think that I've written in the past about why I dislike raunchy comedies. Do you really need me to spell it out for you?

I'd make a Westerns List.