500 Days of Summer Isn't Very Good

To begin, I refuse to put those silly parentheses in the title. There's no logical reason for them; they're just a cutesy affectation. Like so much in this film, actually, that maybe I should concede to the filmmakers' wishes and include them, but there's far too much affectation going on in 500 Days of Summer for my taste already. Somewhere in there is the story of a decent guy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who incorrectly believes that when his internal sensors target a woman as "the one," her internal sensors should do the same for her.

Read the rest.

Films That Are Entering My Top 100 List

Because it's so much fun to mess with Nick, who may be the only person waiting in breathless anticipation for me to post the thing, here are seven films that are new to my new top 100 list. But what rank do they have? I'm not telling.

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Seventh Heaven (1927)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
War and Peace (USSR, 1968)
The Conformist (Italy, 1970)
The Piano (1993)

Films That Are Leaving My Top 100 List

#32 Almost Famous (2000)
#47 Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002)
#55 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
#84 Lost in Translation (2003)
#85 O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
#95 The Pianist (2002)
#99 Ghost World (2001)

"But why?" you ask. Because I'm eliminating anything released within the last decade. These are only minor changes in the grand scheme of things; the rest of my top 100 list is going to look radically different. Dozens of reappraisals, new discoveries, and films I plumb forgot the first time around will make their appearances when I post the darned thing, probably next month. Stay tuned.

Black Monks of Mississippi at Shine King

Chicago artist (and my friend) Theaster Gates with his musical group, the Black Monks of Mississippi, at a west side shoeshine stand. This is from footage my friend Aaron and I shot for my in-production documentary about Theaster, his art, and his music.

Watch it. It's only 4 minutes long.

Francis Ford Coppola is back.

The godfather of the 1970s deals with a different kind of family (which resembles his own) in this weird, wonderful, sometimes hilarious story about fathers, brothers, and brilliance. Read about it.

A Couple of Fallen Women

Max Ophuls's Letter from an Unknown Woman reminds us that "melodrama" isn't a bad word, and that "tearjerkers" and "chick flicks" and "women's pictures" can be great art. And that I'm not such a cynic that I don't get misty-eyed at the movies once in a while. Read about it.

And down in Vera Cruz, Mexico, screen diva Andrea Palma becomes a Dietrich-esque prostitute after her boyfriend sleeps with her, kills her dad, and then runs off with another girl, and a troupe of carnival clowns lays siege to her father's funeral procession. Really, what other choice did she have? Read about it.