Devotees might remember that back in Curiosities #1 I talked about how Slate Magazine used the film GREENBERG as a jumping off point for four articles? Well, add a fifth to that list. In this piece Tom Vanderbilt talks about how not having a car became a shorthand for 'loser' and counter-culture types in Hollywood. (Think 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, I HEART HUCKABEES, THE WOODSMAN). Check it out.
Here's things taken to my level of obsessive attention to detail. Eric D. Snider has a piece over at Cinematical about a wikipedian article that had an obvious error and his attempt to track down where the misconception originated from. It regards Martin Scorsese's Oscar chances for RAGING BULL after the Reagan assassination attempt that was supposedly inspired by John Hinkley's obsession with TAXI DRIVER. Tis a long read but quite fun.
Here is a very old article by love-him-or-hate-him Chuck Klosterman. Written in 2007, he argues that having no knowledge of HARRY POTTER will have an effect fifteen years down the road when those teenagers who love the books and films to death are creating all our mass media. Subtle references, in-jokes and more important things like story construction could all be derived from these books/films that nearly every person on the planet seems to have read/seen. I've been thinking about this a lot in regards to the TWILIGHT series [below: you might have heard of it]. Will it shape how romance is written further down the line? God, I hope not. Though TWILIGHT is primarily a female fixation. Could sexist Hollywood and it's lack of female filmmakers actually save us fro- Hmmn. I don't like where I'm going with this. Let's move on.
I'm a massive fan of ScreenFonts, I always read it despite having very little knowledge about what makes a font good or bad or work or not (my msn messenger font is bold comic sans, I swear to God), but I'm learning. The latest entry is particularly cool due to the man's attempt to list the different fonts in the ENTER THE VOID credits I'm always going on about.
You might have noticed that I'm not really the biggest fan of film reviews. I went on a binge during MIFF but I guess that's over for now. I have this weird issue where I think reviews often stifle discussion more than they promote it. And yet, I read them all the time! Anyway, over at Cinema Autopsy the review for TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN didn't stifle anything with the comments board turning into the most entertaining discussion about a film I've read in a long time. I'll let you explore it for yourself but I'll just add that commentors (not a word) Thomas Caldwell (it's his blog), Simon Miraudo and Lee Zachariah are all very smart cats whose opinions on film I follow. And so should you.
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Sidebar: So I've been a little absent recently due to getting a little sick to the point where I was a little hospitalised. But I'm back now. Good times.
