Film and television reviews, features, columns, and news. 2008-10-13T15:49:24Z Copyright (c) 2008, PopMatters.com ExpressionEngine tag:popmatters.com-watch,2008:10:13 tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64391 2008-10-13T20:56:25Z 2008-10-13T20:56:25Z Bill Gibron The real independent cinema, the one being championed by skylarking individuals with camcorders and a vision, has its own set of unappreciated auteurs. There's the guiding light Godard Giuseppe... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64107 2008-10-13T20:15:29Z 2008-10-13T20:15:29Z Bill Gibron If it's October, it's Fright Time here at SE&L. As we have the last two years, we will use the tenth month of the year to celebrate all things horror - the good, the bad, and the gory. In between our... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64381 2008-10-13T16:20:10Z 2008-10-13T16:20:10Z Doug Nye tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64382 2008-10-13T15:39:01Z 2008-10-13T15:39:01Z Neal Justin tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64371 2008-10-13T12:35:03Z 2008-10-13T12:35:03Z Gail Pennington The lively primary season and pivotal presidential election have been very, very good to "Saturday Night Live," making the 33-year-old late night show appointment viewing again. Luckily, Lorne... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64370 2008-10-13T12:30:54Z 2008-10-13T12:30:54Z Rick Kushman This season's most heavily-promoted show - thank you, NBC Olympics - is "My Own Worst Enemy," which could also describes NBC's programming department. Except in this case. The series premieres... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64368 2008-10-13T11:17:15Z 2008-10-13T11:17:15Z John Anderson LOS ANGELES -- For the first 113 of the 232 years that a United States of America has existed, there wasn't anything called cinema. So movies about Washington, Lincoln or the peccadilloes of Grover... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64337 2008-10-13T10:00:39Z 2008-10-13T10:00:39Z Marisa LaScala At first you might think My Own Worst Enemy will explore the dueling natures in every man's heart. But the conflict plays more like sibling rivalry. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64177 2008-10-13T07:00:35Z 2008-10-13T07:00:35Z Jessica Suarez A better than average romantic comedy, despite a plot with few surprises, this owes a great deal of its success to Segal and the sincerity he brings to his character. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/column/19.63193 2008-10-13T07:00:00Z 2008-10-13T07:00:00Z Matt Mazur What could have been a brave film turned out lukewarm, lost in its own self-importance, stripped of its feminist overtones and watered down for mass consumption. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.64217 2008-10-13T07:00:00Z 2008-10-13T07:00:00Z PopMatters Staff Day One - A trip back to the classic days of studio system Hollywood, complete with great musicals, amazing adventure yarns, and a couple of post-modern freak outs, just to keep things controversial and lively. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64257 2008-10-13T06:59:10Z 2008-10-13T06:59:10Z Jake Meaney Underestimate the crocodile and other reptiles, and underestimate the amphibians at your own peril. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64336 2008-10-12T18:12:33Z 2008-10-12T18:12:33Z Bill Gibron Never pretend to be handicapped. Know what awaits you in Heaven. Use racial tolerance to get what you want. Never swear on television. Stay HIV positive. Never take a joke too far. Never give up on... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64316 2008-10-11T17:23:23Z 2008-10-11T17:23:23Z Bill Gibron Symbolically, what do airplane pillows represent? Comfort at 40,000 feet? A cheap way of providing minimal relaxation to the tired traveler? A miniature facsimile of the real thing? Empty promises... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64282 2008-10-10T14:00:51Z 2008-10-10T14:00:51Z Cynthia Fuchs In brief scenes, lovely or tense, mostly unresolved, Nights and Weekends indicates a slow, almost imperceptible evolution in the relationship. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64284 2008-10-10T14:00:50Z 2008-10-10T14:00:50Z Cynthia Fuchs High contrasts, as well as grays in between, structure John Henning and Mike Roth's moving 2006 documentary about the legal and political battles surrounding gay marriage in Massachusetts. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64279 2008-10-10T14:00:41Z 2008-10-10T14:00:41Z Cynthia Fuchs Body of Lies grants Ferris the usual moral rightness -- even as he's committing questionable acts, he means well. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64283 2008-10-10T13:49:06Z 2008-10-10T13:49:06Z Patrick S. Pemberton There's a reason why people buy red staplers, Dwight Schrute bobbleheads and stuffed Dilberts: It's because many Americans are disenchanted with their jobs, and those items -- pop culture icons that... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64281 2008-10-10T11:44:11Z 2008-10-10T11:44:11Z Michael Abernethy We should feel better, Starter Wife implies, about our own small lives by knowing the privileged lead lives far more painful and scandalous than even TMZ could report. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64278 2008-10-10T10:22:23Z 2008-10-10T10:22:23Z Cynthia Fuchs Again and again, Ernie (Rob Brown) faces down racist thug defenders, his singular prowess signaled by the film's slow motion and big music. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64244 2008-10-10T09:05:40Z 2008-10-10T09:05:40Z Bill Gibron October continues its mishmash of film and genres. Along with kid vid effort City of Ember and horror romp Quarantine, here are the films in focus for the weekend of the... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64261 2008-10-10T07:00:33Z 2008-10-10T07:00:33Z Robert K. Elder tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64223 2008-10-10T07:00:21Z 2008-10-10T07:00:21Z Marijeta Bozovic However we choose to brand it -- post-apocalyptic, postmodern, post-historical -- the fashion of outrageous mash-ups is intimately linked with the movies. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/feature/21.63690 2008-10-10T07:00:00Z 2008-10-10T07:00:00Z Jennifer Tang Hollywood has rarely offered Asians opportunities to be anything other than karate heroes, geishas, wartime prostitutes, or sinister "yellow peril" villains. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64046 2008-10-10T06:00:09Z 2008-10-10T06:00:09Z Bill Gibron Sports films can no longer function as mere history or information. Thanks to the mandates of the mainstream, which sees allegories in all manner of athletic competition, physicality must match... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64243 2008-10-10T05:10:12Z 2008-10-10T05:10:12Z Bill Gibron There's a very good reason why most period pieces don't work. Aside from the obvious disconnect from modern social constraints and complications, contemporary audiences just can't indentify with the... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64242 2008-10-10T05:05:28Z 2008-10-10T05:05:28Z Bill Gibron Ridley Scott used to make daring, original movies. No matter the subject matter - outer space alien invasion, magical sword and sorcery adventure, revisionist Roman peplum - he'd place his visionary... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64259 2008-10-09T13:53:18Z 2008-10-09T13:53:18Z Cynthia Fuchs Harvey Keitel makes a great entrance in Life on Mars. You expect as much, of course, because he's Harvey Keitel. But it is truly great. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64252 2008-10-09T11:00:00Z 2008-10-09T11:00:00Z Cynthia Fuchs In Eleventh Hour, the FBI agents like to explain what they're doing and who they are -- repeatedly. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64253 2008-10-09T11:00:00Z 2008-10-09T11:00:00Z Kirsten Markson Kath and Kim revolves around the banal suburban lives of the title characters, a clueless mother and daughter possessed of prodigious vanity and stupidity. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64247 2008-10-09T09:59:47Z 2008-10-09T09:59:47Z Chuck Barney Last month, "Saturday Night Live" launched its 34th season. By television standards, that's as ancient as the Pyramids. And with advancing age comes ridicule: "The show isn't nearly as good as it... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64054 2008-10-09T07:00:00Z 2008-10-09T07:00:00Z Jake Meaney Popular history tends to fetishize specific dates and the events they denote at the expense of a larger historical context and its cultural significance. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64159 2008-10-09T07:00:00Z 2008-10-09T07:00:00Z Andrew Gilstrap The jokes are smart, fast, and often too subtle to catch -- a welcome antidote to nearly every other sitcom out there. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64231 2008-10-09T03:47:03Z 2008-10-09T03:47:03Z Bill Gibron Poor Clint Howard. It must really be a pain in the package having ultra-high-profile Oscar-winning long-time American sitcom favorite goody-two-shoes talent-hog Ron as a brother. While Big Brother's... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64240 2008-10-09T01:10:02Z 2008-10-09T01:10:02Z Dana Oland tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64239 2008-10-09T01:07:55Z 2008-10-09T01:07:55Z John Anderson TORONTO -- Probably better known as Madonna's husband than as a director of high-style, high-attitude, comic-book-type thrillers ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"), Guy Ritchie recently took the... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64236 2008-10-09T00:33:33Z 2008-10-09T00:33:33Z Rick Bentley LOS ANGELES -- Add "Kath & Kim" to the list of American network television shows based on programs created abroad. It follows the likes of "The Office," "Coupling," "The Worst Week," "Life on Mars"... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64220 2008-10-08T11:00:00Z 2008-10-08T11:00:00Z Cynthia Fuchs Respectful and riveting, Up the Yangtze reveals the complex effects of loss and fear, as well as a kind of relentless hopefulness. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/column/19.63180 2008-10-08T07:00:00Z 2008-10-08T07:00:00Z Michael Barrett Takahiko Iimura read about the American underground film movement and began making experimental works based only on what he'd read. Soon he was a leading experimental filmmaker. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64050 2008-10-08T07:00:00Z 2008-10-08T07:00:00Z Emma Simmonds The inconsistent early '80s British comedy sketch show, while not quite an embarrassment to all concerned, is of interest only to fans of the actors or '80s comedy completists. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64216 2008-10-08T05:07:08Z 2008-10-08T05:07:08Z Bill Gibron Throughout the years, there have been certain movies where hype has played a more significant role in its popularity and notoriety than the actual film itself. One such area where this occurs... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64196 2008-10-08T00:18:32Z 2008-10-08T00:18:32Z Aaron Sagers tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64169 2008-10-07T11:02:08Z 2008-10-07T11:02:08Z Cynthia Fuchs In Rachel Getting Married, Kym and Rachel's relationship is routinely rocky, abetted by what's unspoken by everyone else. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64168 2008-10-07T07:31:52Z 2008-10-07T07:31:52Z Barry Koltnow tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64167 2008-10-07T07:27:21Z 2008-10-07T07:27:21Z Tirdad Derakhshani tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64166 2008-10-07T07:24:39Z 2008-10-07T07:24:39Z John Mark Eberhart tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64078 2008-10-07T07:00:58Z 2008-10-07T07:00:58Z Bill Gibron Even the best laid, most complicated and fussed over schemes often go wildly astray. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64165 2008-10-07T06:20:11Z 2008-10-07T06:20:11Z Doug Nye tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64156 2008-10-07T03:05:06Z 2008-10-07T03:05:06Z Bill Gibron It arrived during the final phases of classic '70s horror, an era that had seen The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Halloween reestablish the genre's credibility as a... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64154 2008-10-07T01:28:03Z 2008-10-07T01:28:03Z Rick Bentley Each year since 1998, I've compiled a "10 to Watch" list of actors on TV. These are actors on new network shows who have the potential to go on to bigger careers even if their new series fails. Past... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64153 2008-10-07T01:23:58Z 2008-10-07T01:23:58Z Rene Rodriguez tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64152 2008-10-07T01:20:25Z 2008-10-07T01:20:25Z Duane Dudek tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.64132 2008-10-06T10:43:18Z 2008-10-06T10:43:18Z Cynthia Fuchs The style of argument in How Ohio Pulled It Off is methodical and dramatically shaped through a focus on then Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/review/5.63991 2008-10-06T07:00:27Z 2008-10-06T07:00:27Z Evan Sawdey Every explosion and punch-line lives and dies by Downey's performance, but he proves more than up to the task, making the ride all the more enjoyable. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.64114 2008-10-05T22:14:11Z 2008-10-05T22:14:11Z Bill Gibron The theory that sequels should exceed their originals is nothing new to the filmmaking machine. Most big budget blockbusters attempt the "pile on" conceit when creating a follow-up to a smash summer... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2008:pm/news/23.64096 2008-10-05T00:47:29Z 2008-10-05T00:47:29Z Chris Jones