In this morning’s roundup of movie news ‘n’ notes from around the web, “The Social Network” heats up, and so does the city of Los Angeles.
Amy Kaufman watches the new trailer for “The Social Network,” and decides that the movie (with Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg, below) has become “a fall front-runner” in the awards picture. She uses phrases like “dark, dramatic,” “entertaining and smart,” and finds it all very effective – and with the pedigree of director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, she’s certainly right that it’ll be taken seriously. But a front-runner? Movies about real people and events can be tricky – and considering that Ben Mezrick, who wrote the book on which the movie is based, calls it a “dramatic narrative account” and admits that some scenes are essentially guesses about what mighthave happened, it might be better wait for the inevitable controversy before we start anointing this one a frontrunner. (24 Frames)
Vadim Rizov takes note of the recent news about an upsurge of filming in Los Angeles, and points out that moviegoers might not notice. “Movies shot in New York seem to automatically celebrate that,” he writes. “Movies show in L.A. (not on a sound stage, but just around the city) tend to make it seem like any other city.” Still, he admits there are exceptions: recently, for example, “The Kids Are All Right,” “Cyrus” and “Mother and Child.” (Independent Eye)
Author/columnist Bidisha notes that there’s been a feminist backlash against “The Twilight Saga,” and says that she fully supports that backlash. The main reason: heroine Bella (you know, Kristen Stewart) is a passive “deadzone of psychic antimatter,” and a complete drip who allows herself to be mistreated. She asks, “Do young women despise themselves so much that the very best they can fantasise about is trailing around after not one but two bullies?” (The Guardian)
We’ve been following the reaction to Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” for a couple of weeks, and it’s too late to stop now. The latest verdicts:
Michael Wilmington, Movie City News: “‘Inception’ … is obviously some kind of masterpiece.”
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: “This is a popular entertainment with a knockout punch so intense and unnerving it'll have you worrying if it's safe to close your eyes at night.”
Richard Corliss, Time: “precisely the kind of brainy, ambitious, grand-scale adventure Hollywood should be making more of.”
A.O. Scott, the New York Times: “Mr. Nolan’s idea of the mind is too literal, too logical, too rule-bound to allow the full measure of madness — the risk of real confusion, of delirium, of ineffable ambiguity — that this subject requires.”
Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy: “pure gobbledygook.”
Scott Foundas, meanwhile, lets Nolan do the talking – and the director says that the people who are spotting references to other movies in “Inception” are right. “"The film is shameless in its regard for cinema, and its plundering of cinematic history. What's fun is that a lot of people I talk to come up with very different movies that they see in the film, and most of them are spot-on.” (The L.A. Weekly)
And finally – at least for now – Mike Ryan asks, and answers 25 questions on his way to addressing the big one: “Can You Enjoy ‘Inception’if You're Not Very Smart?” Good news, he says: “A seventh-grade education should suffice … It is a very complicated story, but it's presented in a way that's very easy to follow.” That doesn’t explain Rex Reed, but it should be heartening for others who might be worried. (Vanity Fair)
