Film Comment's Reader's Poll Best of 2007

Check out Film Comment's best of 2007 Reader's Poll here:

(Fixed it!)

We've got almost all of these and should have the rest very soon. We definitely can't help but agree with their choices...


And their rants and raves...

Tran Anh Hung's I Come With the Rain

Just watch.

mommie dearest

I don't know why but I'm all geared up for mother's day. Maybe it's because we have the cutest little mother's day cards available at citizen video. Or maybe it's because - what with easter in march this year - there are absolutely no good holidays in april. Only the irs deadline. And god does that suck (let me say personally, that this year's tax season sucked in particular) and so we need something to look forward to after that.

So how about films about mothers? Or even if they aren't about mothers, how about some films with great "mother" characters. I have a list going and I'll update as the big day approaches:

All About My Mother - for the life of me - despite the title - I can't remember anything about the mother in this film.

Secrets and Lies - a great Michael Leigh film about an adopted black woman who goes in search of her mother. wonderful cast and acting.

House of Yes - in which Geneviève Bujold plays one of my favorite mothers of all time. You definitely get a hint of why her children turned out the way they did

Rosemary's Baby - soooooooo much cooler than all the sweet romantic comedies about women and pregnancy lately. Mia Farrow as the vessel of the son of satan.

Paris, Texas - Natasha Kinkski, the mom who ditches her family to work at a curious peep show of sorts

Harold and Maude - hats off to Vivian Pickles who plays the most relentlessly match-making-meddler-mom of all time.

More to come.

The Latest Movie News of (Possible) Interest

Zooey Deschanel and Chloe Sevigny to star together in an indie comedy set
in WWII Nevada about quickie divorces called Divorce Ranch.



Beautiful Losers, a great looking doc about graffiti artists.



Bill Maher and Larry Charles make an anti-religion doc.


Great poster for the new Judd Apatow-produced, David Gordon Green-directed
stoner-action-comedy.



Redux of 14-year-old Wong Kar-Wai film to debut at Cannes.



Darren Aronofsky developing paranormal TV show for AMC.



Bong Joon-Ho, director of Memories of Murder and The Host, has more great
stuff on the way.

Start watching the Watchmen

Alan Moore, author of the much-lauded comics V for Vendetta and From Hell, among others, published his magnum opus Watchmen in 12 parts from 1986-87, and to this day it is still considered one of the finest works in the comics medium. Moore's approach was both more literary and more cinematic than any other popular comic, and it helped to redefine the entire superhero genre. Here's the wikipedia link--http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen. For those who haven't read it, whether or not you read comics (or "graphic novels" as may hear them referred to by people who don't actually read them), I really recommend searching it out and giving it a shot. Hell, just buy it sight unseen, it's that good.

So why am I introducing this to you, besides the fact that it's a great piece of literature and one of my personal favorites? Because it's finally being made into a movie. Hollywood has been trying to get this one off the ground for some time, with a script by Sam Hamm, who penned the first Tim Burton-directed Batman, floating around and various directors, such as Terry Gilliam, attached to helm the film. However, because the film was guaranteed to cost a pretty penny and because the story wasn't a typical action-y superhero movie but rather a very meta- and allegorical take on the superhero genre, it has long languished in development hell. Enter young director Zach Snyder, who made his name with the Dawn of the Dead remake (which I'm actually rather fond of) and 300 (which I am definitely not fond of). After the success of those two films, Snyder had the clout to finally get the film off the ground, and like 300 he's sticking incredibly close to the source material and might, just might, fingers crossed, get it right. Here's the first of 12 video diaries, which just popped up today.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=43692

The film is due out next summer and will be a tentpole release, which, yes, goes against the films we look at here at Citizen, but that's only because big movies rarely have this much thought and work put into them, and because of Moore's book and the fact that pretty much every other one of his comic adaptations has been close to pure crap (From Hell by the Hughes Brothers, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Stephen Norrigton/taken over by Sean Connery), I'm holding out hope that this one is rarity in many forms.

Go Blind later this year

Just thought I'd share this, the trailer for the adaptation of a (supposedly) great book (I haven't read it yet) from the director of City of God, which just popped online today and looks great:



--co

Renting Videos is Cheaper Than Paying Your Taxes

Chances are you may owe Uncle Sam more than the $2.50 rental price of movies at citizen video. And now is as good a time to rent as ever with There Will Be Blood coming out on April 8th.

What better way to celebrate the tax season than by watching character Daniel Plainview make his money the good-old, cut-throat American way... with blood, more blood and guts (in the form of oil and religion). Given his independent streak, I bet we can guess what Plainview would think about sharing his hard earned money with the government.