Welcome, Movie Buffs!

• Websites
• Podcasts
• Reviews
• Movies at the Library

Websites

Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com)
An excellent website that takes a consensus of 100’s of critics to give movies an overall score or a “tomatometer” reading. The page also includes a message board for movie discussion and movie news updates.

Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com)

The best collection of movie information on the Internet. If it was a movie/television show it is on the IMDB, includes reviews (users and professional critics), box office information, cast listings, awards; the database can be searched by title, actor, year, and other search options. So you can find all the movies for your Pauley Shore marathon.

They Shoot Pictures Don’t They? (http://www.theyshootpictures.com/)

A truly great site for a movie buff. The highlights being a list of the top 1000 movies based on various critic/media/film society lists, monthly links to articles about film (most of the articles linked here are more erudite than the ones you might find in People or Entertainment Weekly); and an excellent section on one of the most underrated and entertaining film genre’s: film noir. The site also focuses on director’s and includes a thorough A-Z list of links to every major director (including biographical information, articles, important and influential work by the directory, and directors with a similar aesthetic or genre style).

Roger Ebert’s Great Movies (http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=REVIEWS08)

A collection of essays by the Pulitzer Prize winning film critic discussing great and influential movies throughout history and the world. Each essay focuses on a movie (he has 100s on his list) and is very readable, it is like having an unpretentious film professor teach you classes on film history and aesthetics online. Roger Ebert captures all periods of film history from silent film (The General) to more contemporary film (The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo) and covers film and filmmakers from all over the world.

Edmonton Movie Guide (http://www.edmovieguide.com/)

An all in one site for all the movie listings and times in Greater Edmonton.

Podcasts

Filmspotting (http://www.filmspotting.net/)

A weekly podcast that focuses on reviewing current films, DVD marathons (each week the host will review a movie from a particular genre or theme re. Western, Documentary), and a top 5 lists (top 5 tearjerkers, top 5 action scenes).

Hollywood Saloon (http://www.hollywoodsaloon.com/) - A very intelligent and smart podcast discussing various topics in film, television, and industry trends. The show has a real listenable conversation tone to it and the hosts are very knowledgeable and passionate about film and the film industry. Podcast topics include: movie reviews, industry trends (the new video media war Blu-ray vs. HD DVD, the death of Hollywood, and movie remakes), and focuses on filmmakers (Spike Lee, David Fincher) and popular series (James Bond, Rocky).

The Treatment (http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt)

Film critic Elvis Mitchell’s talk show where writers, directors, and actors discuss their craft, this is a very intelligent and engaging talk show.

Battleship Pretention (http://www.battleshippretension.com/)

An engaging podcast were the two hosts discuss themes and trends in movies both past and present. A whole load of fun to listen to and the hosts win the prize for podcast hosts I would most like to go for a beer with.

Reviews

Nashville (A Robert Altman Film)

Reviewed by Robert Jacobsen

Not many artists have adjectives named after them. The Marquis De Sade (sadistic) and Franz Kafka (Kafkaesque) come to mind. But an adjective that many film critics like to use in describing certain kinds of movies is: Altmanesque. The term comes from the great American Director who captured the organized chaos of modern life/interaction that has been often imitated (Crash, Babel, and Traffic) but never duplicated. Altman’s masterwork and one of the best contemporary “American” movies is Nashville.

What makes this film so exciting and fresh is the sheer vastness of it, with over 20 characters (most of them are better realized than the three or four main characters that inhabit a “traditional film”) all interacting within the confines of the most important and interesting character of the film: the city of Nashville. The film also makes excellent use of music (this is coming from a person who is not a fan of country music) and rarely has a movie so vividly captured a time and place without feeling dated.

The movie centers on a few days in the life of a menagerie of up and coming stars, superstars, journalists, politicians, groupies, hangers on, loners, and other colorful fictitious characters. The best way to describe the plot of the movie is to quote the trailer “the damnedest thing you ever saw”.

This is an exhilarating film and like most of Altman’s work was able to capture on film the possibilities, surprises, interconnectivity, chaos, triumph, tragedy, and passions of the human experience in the most lucid and entertaining manner.

Capturing the Friedmans (DVD Review)

Reviewed by Linda Naccarato

The Friedmans were great chroniclers of their family life through movies, videos and even audio tape. Then a terrible thing happened. The father and youngest son were charged with horrendous sexual crimes. Even while their family was breaking apart under almost unbearable pressures, they continued to record themselves, all the while protesting at least a certain degree of innocence.

Can we believe the early home movies and videos that depict an ideal family life with its celebrations of birthdays and holidays? Or should we re-evaluate these same movies/videos through the lens of the criminal charges? Were there horrible secrets and lies carefully tucked away in corners and cupboards that never made it onto the screen? What was the motivation and mindset of the police and the criminal justice system? Did a form of public hysteria take hold that magnified admitted crimes into something much larger?

The film probes these questions that ultimately are inquiries into truth and justice and I believe it presents a balanced and nuanced response and leaves it to us, the viewer, to reach our own conclusions.

This movie, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, is an extremely thought provoking and fascinating peek into one family’s “reality”. It will resonate with you for days after watching it. I highly recommend it.

Movies at the Library

Here are movies in our collection that are listed in the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They? top 1000 movies of all time: