Thompson On Hollywood

Ecritic Mr. Cranky Shutting Down

Snarky ecritic Mr. Cranky is retiring after 13 years of posting nasty reviews. Rising gas prices, increased web competiton and decreasing ad sales led to his decision to leave at the end of August.

The online movie critic space is crowded with folks trying to gain traction. Glenn Kenny, now blogging at Some Came Running, posted his Wall-E review at The Auteurs.

Here's a sample of Mr. Cranky's often too-purple prose, on the teen romance She's All That:

It's like emotional farting. You can actually see the fumes from this thing cascading off the screen like some computer-generated space anomaly overtaking the Enterprise as the audience sort of buckles from the impact.

And here's a segment of his last post.

Film critics, in general (myself included), are full of themselves. They believe that their opinions actually matter. They also believe that somehow there's a right and a wrong when it comes to film criticism. Mr. Cranky was started to thwart that notion by making fun of film critics and film criticism and pointing out that film writing could be subjective to the point of a critic who didn't like anything. Besides, if these junkets proved one thing, it's that most film critics could be swayed by nothing more than a plate of donuts (watching a group of largely fat film critics charge toward a free plate of food while in the midst of a junket in which they're supposed to form unbiased opinions of the film is its own form of hell). And if the Internet has proved one salient Mr. Cranky point, it's that anyone can be a film critic. The forums were put in place for just this reason. Mr. Cranky was the first site to invite the reader to challenge the film critic, in fact, to make that challenge a founding principle of the site.

Longworth vs. Goldstein

I enjoyed my various encounters with New York Spout blogger Karina Longworth at the recent LAFF. (Who knew she was a Valley Girl?) Here she skewers Patrick Goldstein's
recent entry on hack movie producer Avi Lerner.

UPDATE: Interesting how Longworth's commenters perceive Goldstein as establishment and old school. It's the new world order in a nutshell. She's a 28-year-old critic/blogger/festgoer in search of the new, calling it like it is, resolutely not interested in playing the old PR game. At Cinematical, she helped to invent the kind of blog that Goldstein is trying to figure out how to do, under pressure from a dying newspaper that now values frequency of contributions over well-read weekly columns. Goldstein and my boss Peter Bart have strong voices that work well in blog form, but they're still writing stories.

Longworth recognizes the value of interaction, of call and response, of being fast on the draw. On some level, at a time when everyone is wondering about the future of film criticism, Longworth is the next-generation Manohla Dargis. On the other hand, Longworth still has to build Spoutblog's traffic. What better way than to call out her newest competitor?

Waters Talks Fruitcake

Baltimore filmmaker John Waters takes questions on USA Today's PopBlog from his fans, about his upcoming film Fruitcake, due at Christmas, and the DVD release of his true-crime DVD series, Till Death Do Us Part.

UPDATE: Karina Longworth points out that Johnny Knoxville is the new Divine.

A.P. vs. Blogosphere

A.P. is fighting against lefty social news site Drudge Retort (which according to the NYT started as a parody of the conservative Drudge Report), demanding that the site remove seven pieces containing short quotes from A.P. stories. And Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is banning A.P. from his blog until they change their policy. Jeff Jarvis is also pissed off.

This reveals yet another rift between content creators and content aggregators, between people who spend huge amounts of money reporting and providing news stories and those who list, borrow, rewrite, source, quote and pass on those stories. It happens to Variety all the time.

Arrington says A.P. should regard a post on the Digg-like Drudge Retort as a "gift."

What is A.P. really fighting against? How are their profits and livelihood threatened? A.P. is still the first story out--or is it? Bloggers are often getting there faster, cheaper, without the copyediting and factchecking and proofreading and legal concerns that plague the "real media." And they're grabbing eyeballs---the numbers that feed advertising revenue.

Here's a bit from the NYT story:

Last week, The A.P. took an unusually strict position against quotation of its work, sending a letter to the Drudge Retort asking it to remove seven items that contained quotations from A.P. articles ranging from 39 to 79 words.

On Saturday, The A.P. retreated. Jim Kennedy, vice president and strategy director of The A.P., said in an interview that the news organization had decided that its letter to the Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed” and that The A.P. was going to rethink its policies toward bloggers.

The quick about-face came, he said, because a number of well-known bloggers started criticizing its policy, claiming it would undercut the active discussion of the news that rages on sites, big and small, across the Internet.

Am I quoting more than I should here? Is this fair use? Or am I infringing on the NYT's livelihood? Is this OK because I am commenting on the story, as opposed to just posting it? My approach has been: provide the link, which invites someone to go to the source; but quote a bit from the piece too. Am I publicizing them, which is good, or ripping them off, which is bad? We have not heard the last of this debate.

Vanity Fair's Dizzying Array of Blog Options

In case you didn't already have a sense of the blizzard of online destinations out there, Vanity Fair lays it out for you. Clicks and icons and all. It's basically the blogs that have reached a certain level of traffic traction. On the Hollywood side, that means blogs that lean toward snarky, gossipy, and fun.

Eastwood to Open Two Films in 2008

Pamela McClintock announces that director Clint Eastwood will open two films in 2008: Changeling, which debuted well at Cannes, and Gran Torino. She broke the news on her brand new Boxoffice Boffo blog. Changeling, which stars Angelina Jolie in a true 1920s L.A. story about a woman who fights the system, will open in October, while Gran Torino, which stars Eastwood as a curmudgeonly Korean War vet who gets to know his immigrant neighbors, will shoot this summer and open by year's end.

Eastwood is famous for his ability to shoot his films swiftly and efficiently: he doesn't put much store in pomp and circumstance. The last time he released two movies in one year was 2006, when Flags of Our Fathers opened in the early fall, followed at year's end by Letters from Iwo Jima. If the rest of the business followed his unpretentious model, we'd all be better off.

Glenn Kenny Has New Blog

Ace critic Glenn Kenny (blogging in Cannes) has left In the Company of Glenn (if you are no longer being paid by Premiere.com, why give them traffic?). His new blog is called SomeCameRunning.

Blogging Life: Setting Limits

This much-discussed NYT Mag piece Exposed, by ex-Gawker blogger Emily Gould, reminds me of myself as a young worker starting out in NYC. She's attracted to power, excited by the adrenaline rush of attention. It took me time to learn where to draw the lines between the personal and professional.

As a blogger now, my expert/columnist work persona is on display; the real me is safely behind the curtain. Or so I like to think.

While I've watched other bloggers come and go, I seem to have found my blog rhythm: it's my work, and I'm a round-the-clock workaholic, but if I blog all the time, my body and soul will expire. Heavy traffic is always welcome, but it doesn't drive me. As long as my readers keep steadily growing, I'm sticking to my guns. I want this to be a place where people come to find out what's going on, enjoy reading and exploring links and learning stuff. I'm sharing, reporting, and yeah, opining.

Now my boss Peter Bart is giving the whole blog thing a whirl in his own way, starting Monday. At last he's taking advantage of Variety's long-ago purchase of PeterBart.com. Like it or not, as other editor/authors like Wired's Chris Anderson know, it's a damned good way to get attention.

Miller Blogs Spirit

Frank Miller of Dark Knight, Sin City and 300 fame is blogging about his directorial debut The Spirit. And there's a possibility he will direct a Buck Rogers movie, reports IGN.

Film Blogger Exodus

Apparently film critics who blog are also abandoning their posts.

Blogger Braff Seeks Help on Clifford Music Video

Scrubs star Zach Braff is not only a vet blogger (here's his latest info on the currently filming show), but a writer-director (Garden State) with a novel approach to his latest music video:

I came up with this idea to make a music video by cutting together clips of people from all over the world singing the song and shooting the video themselves as though it were their own song. I've been talking about doing something collaborative with all of you since I first started writing on here. Well I finally figured out how.

I am a giant fan of the artist, Jay Clifford. (Formally of the band "Jump Little Children".) Jay has a new album coming out and you and I are gonna make the video together. I set up a website that explains everything: you can download the song and lyrics there, upload your own video and then I'm gonna edit the best submissions together into one preposterously cool video made by hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of people. I made a video that explains everything and it's posted on the site. So here it is:

Please go check it out; I think it could be really unique and cool and I'd like everyone who reads this to be a part of it.

There's lots more to come; I promise not to stay away so long again. And I'll keep you posted on how the submissions are coming in.

Today was the most beautiful day ever in Los Angeles, I hope wherever you are on Earth this finds you smiling.
Peace and love,

zb
--

Ebert Blogs, But Not From Ebertfest

Roger Ebert was on the road to recovery from an unsuccessful operation to restore his speech when he tripped and fell at his rehab facility and fractured his hip. Poor man. He's unhappy that he can't attend his annual Ebertfest in Urbana, Illinois, which opened last night. Here's his entry on his new blog.

Young Now: Lining Up Childhood Photos With Now

Young Now is a cool project that asks folks to submit photos of themselves as Young me and Now Me. I found some of them very moving. It made me want to see my brother Michael.

[Hat Tip: Franklin Leonard]

Script Project Goes Online

Kevin Roderick of LA Observed will be discussing the Script Project Right of Way, the collaborative, serialized, noir drama being written by a group of writers online at La Observed, at 4:44 PM Friday on KCRW FM. It will be podcast online at KCRW.com. Right of Way has already moved into the second act with a head of steam. I joined up with the group on Facebook but haven't had the time--or the nerve--to contribute.

Film Noir Inspires 99 Cent Chef

The Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard's annual film noir series has inspired food blogger 99 Cent Chef to post his recipe for rib eye steak. You got to dig the style of a guy who posts a recipe for Russ Meyer Lemon Chicken.

Almodovar Launches Blog

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, who is just as entertaining as his films, is launching a tri-language blog. I'm there.

Blogging Madness

I read this NYT report on people literally blogging themselves to death with some horror. I am well aware of the danger of feeling the need to post something JUST AS IT HAPPENS at 11:30 PM on a Saturday night, but I often pull back and say, no, the sky will not fall if I read a book in bed instead. It's tough to resist; when I went on vacation in NYC I felt hounded by my Blackberry, and while I did not blog, I was compelled to forward to my brethren back in the office my various email tips. I now look forward to long airplane flights where I am totally out of reach and can relax with back issues of The New Yorker. On a past vacation in Death Valley, I remember a moment of panic as I drove toward civilization, alone on a deserted highway, with no cell reception. It was just what I needed.

Predictably, several bloggers have responded to the story:

Chris Thilk.

Karina Longworth.

Jeffrey Wells.

How Many of Me?

Google Alerts sometimes turn up fascinating tidbits, like the fact that there are 931 people in the United States named Anne Thompson. I have always been aware of the environmental science reporter on NBC, who gets way more google hits than I do. Go ahead and check yourself out.

Critics: The March of Time

There's been a huge outcry on the web about the current critics' crisis. (When did people start calling them crickets?) Here's a sampling:

My column and last critics blog entry with links. And responses from Spout and FirstShowing.

Sean Means is keeping a list of departed critics.

A spoof on the situation.

Is the Internet killing the film critic?

UPDATE: FilmSchool Rejects responds. And last but not least, Patrick Goldstein.

Stop-Loss: In Defense

Philly's Carrie Rickey defends Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, which I'll catch up with this weekend.

Cuban Puts His Foot on Blogging

I have long enjoyed reading Mark Cuban's insights on new media, technology and the internet, mostly, on his blog. But he makes a strange argument about blogs here. He seems to be saying that blogs are tarred and tainted by all the regular folks (like him?) who blog, while any self-respecting big media outlet with journalistic cred would be foolish to sign onto the blog trend--unless they call their "blogs" something else.

Is he embarrassed to be a member of the club he belongs to?

Is he saying good blogging and good journalism cannot coexist?

It appears that he is twisting himself into a pretzel over his decision to ban bloggers from the Dallas Mavericks locker room. Hmmm.

Blogging is a technology, a fast and simple self-publishing platform. As you can see from the fascinating range of responses to Cuban's post, there are plenty of examples of decent journalistically-sound big media bloggers, at the NYT and elsewhere. If anything, they are helping to give blogging a good name. Anyone can use the platform, at home, or at work, as an amateur or a professional. And we all get to pick the blogs we want to read regularly. Some of the ones I read are by at-home bloggers who do better work than the media professionals. And there are also pros--with unusual access to the beats they cover-- who post stuff that non-pros can't.

For old media, blogs are an online marketing tool, a road to the future. They spread media content to a wider not-necessarily local readership. And they are interactive community-builders.

Cinematical's Kim Voynar weighs in.

Washed Up Celebrities

I found this blog truly depressing.

Confessions of a Film Blogger

It's so weird to read in detail about how someone does what you do, only differently (and, some might argue, better). (The Circuit's Mike Jones tried to get me to use Google Reader.) For some reason, Karina Longworth left out of her bio a short stretch between Cinematical (where I first discovered her) and Spout (where she posts her current must-read blog) when she worked at Netscape Movies. I guess she didn't like it there.

Poland Vents on Old Media vs New Media

Every few months or so, Movie City News' David Poland goes on one of these rants about who's covering the industry on the old and new media side, usually involving swipes at the LAT and NYT Hollywood beat reporters and other rivals on the Internet.

While Poland makes some good points, I often feel that there's an element of envy involved in these outpourings. I agree with him that the LAT should let Claudia Eller loose--but the reasons why they wanted to defang her still exist: they aren't willing to take the inevitable heat from the studios.

I too admire Spout's Karina Longworth, but she is a child of the Internet; she's thriving in her fave milieu after trying to survive in a more conventional day job at Netscape Movies. Gawker Media's Nick Denton should give her the Defamer spot. She's not a witty charmer like Mark Lisanti--she's more of a NY film geek insider-- and there would have to be an adjustment, but she's a gifted blogger, and would bring her own following.

Defamer's Lisanti Moves on

Blogging takes its toll. I've been wondering when Defamer's star blogger Mark Lisanti would call it quits. I wonder what he has up his sleeve. He's an entertaining, funny writer with plenty of options open to him. But he will be tough for Gawker Media chief Nick Denton to replace:

In an effort to keep this short and sweet, I'll be climbing out of the blogging hamster-wheel this Friday, and though I wish I had exciting news about where my next paycheck will be coming from (or some great story about why I'm leaving other than "it's time"), I'll probably just be taking a little hiatus to figure out what's next and work on some projects I haven't had the time or energy for since, oh, mid 2004: writing that might not involve typing in a tiny box in a browser window, eating the occasional lunch, spending lazy afternoons standing in front of the Chinese Theater in a loose-fitting Power Ranger costume, shaking down tourists for money. You know, how everyone in L.A. spends their idle hours.

Oscar Watch: EW Picks

EW has their Oscar predictions up. I can see why they went for the sexy coverage of James McAvoy and Keira Knightley--after all, Atonement is a hit--but what if their cover choice doesn't pull any major noms on January 22? (EW made the cover decision in early December, when the movie had just grabbed a bunch of Globe noms. Juno might have been the way to go.)

Even the studio is worried. The Guild votes just didn't go Atonement's way this week. Focus Features' James Schamus is cooking dinner for the Atonement folks, including producers Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, at the Chateau Marmont at a private Globes watching ceremony.

EW polled a bunch of Hollywood bloggers on their surprise Oscar predictions. I'm not the only one who thinks the show must go on.

[Photo courtesy Hollywood Elsewhere]

No Country for Old Men: That Pesky Ending

I'm having big debates about No Country for Old Men, especially the ending. If you've read the Cormac McCarthy book, you know that the Coens have done a very faithful adaptation, which McCarthy admires. [SPOILER ALERT] The duo was attracted to the very things that make the movie unconventional: a major character dies, and the forces of good don't triumph over the forces of evil at the end.

At my book group Tuesday night (where we had a spirited discussion about Flaubert's Sentimental Education) we agreed that the Coens' No Country for Old Men will persevere and endure and may even land an Oscar best picture nom because it is about where we are now. The point of the movie is that the good sheriff played by Tommy Lee Jones with sad weariness has never seen so much implacable evil and does not know if it is possible to conquer it. Is Javier Bardem's Chigurh real, or a ghost? I think he is very real. And he represents all the evil in the world that will not stop, will not rest.

Alec Baldwin blogs about the movie and Javier Bardem at The Huffington Post. Nora Ephron hilariously debates the movie with her partner in The New Yorker.

Glenn Kenny lays out the movie's issues with the ending at Premiere.com. Now I'm really confused.

Oscar Watch: The Bagger is Back

The NYT has rebooted its annual Oscar blog for the second time. It makes no sense to me to build up all that loyal traffic and then toss it away between seasons, but in any case, media columnist David Carr is back in his Carpetbagger guise, sticking his mic at celebs on red carpets and blogging with abandon. (One hopes that some of the stream of verbiage that hit his blog today was stored in advance.) In preparation for his relaunch, Carr has presumably been lining up events and happenings and folks to interview for Oscar tidbits. He admits that he can no longer plausibly play the wet-eared outsider, but will Oscar-watch like a seasoned pro.

Awards Season: Coens Winning Directors Poll

The results are fascinating for Awards Daily's "director you're most thankful for in 2007" poll: the Coen brothers are the winners by a mile. No contest. P.T. Anderson is the only one who comes even close. It's not surprising that they are beloved, not only for No Country for Old Men, but for their entire body of work.

While No Country for Old Men is among the best-reviewed pics of the year and will wind up on many critics' ten-best lists, I keep running into Academy members who were left cold. Anthony Lane's New Yorker review happens to mirror some of their comments. Yes, it's a critics' picture. But I still think the Academy writers, directors, and actors will push No Country for Old Men into best-picture contention. DP Roger Deakins should also land a nom for his 9th film with the Coens--probably over his stellar work in The Assassination of Jesse James, which has been been seen by fewer people.

UPDATE: Here's David Edelstein on the Coens in New York, Newsday's feature on Josh Brolin, Peter Travers' Rolling Stone rave and Saturday's terrific column by Michael Sragow, which compares No Country to the work of the late great Sam Peckinpah.

[Photos for New York Magazine by Andrew Eccles]

Oscar Watch: Seeking Consensus

While I admire Kris Tapley's attempt to make some sense out of the blizzard of Oscar predictions out there, I remain convinced that until the prognosticators see Charlie Wilson's War and Sweeney Todd, the two films that many of us got invited to see Monday, none of these lists make much sense. Richard Corliss in Time suggests that "audiences will have a great time watching" Charlie Wilson's War, which seemed to play for Oprah Winfrey's Chicago audience. Oprah raved about Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance, as guests Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (who tried to get out of shooting a bikini scene while four weeks pregnant) nodded politely. My hunch is that Hoffman won't get nommed for best actor for The Savages or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, but will get a supporting nom for Charlie Wilson's War.

Clearly, the non-pro fans on Movie City News and Awards Daily are voting with their youthful hearts and not thinking much about the Academy's tastes. Into the Wild is a popular movie that has a chance at some noms, especially for Hal Holbrook, but because of the way the movie was written, shot and performed, the different branches of the Academy may not take it seriously enough. It's shot doc-style on location, it looks like it was performed on the fly. I suspect the editor has a better shot than Penn as director or writer, Emile Hirsch as actor, or the cinematography. The Academy admires fakery, sets, costumes and literature. As an organic whole, Into the Wild is an entertaining, thought-provoking emotionally rewarding movie. But it's a long-shot as an Academy contender.

David Fincher's Zodiac is another movie that isn't gaining Oscar momentum. It was well-reviewed last summer March, and many critics will include it on their ten-bests. But its time has come and gone. It was an expensive big-budget studio failure. It's indulgently long, and Fincher's insistence on verisimilitude meant not giving viewers a satisfying narrative arc. The movie has its merits--hell, it will be on my ten best list---but an Oscar contender needs to have enthusiastic supporters, few detractors and a passionate push behind it. It needs confidence. Zodiac has too many deficits. Paramount is already gearing up to make a major Oscar push for Fincher's next, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as star-crossed lovers twisted by time, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

I got into a heated debate with someone in the office yesterday about Enchanted, the animated/live action comedy that brilliantly spoofs Disney's classic animated musicals. This movie is just what the doctor ordered: entertaining, witty, engaging, delirious fun. It's a three-quadrant accessible family musical that will grow and grow and grow through the holidays. Whatever it opens at Wednesday, it will keep building: the movie could wind up one of the year's biggest grossers. Men will initially resist the chick flick's charms, but they should eventually get pulled into Enchanted's vortex. Amy Adams gives a full-blown star breakout performance (on Oprah, a clip of her from Charlie Wilson's War caused both Hanks and Roberts to chime, "Amy Adams," naming her the It Girl of the moment). Adams could land, Julie Andrews-style, a nomination for best actress. (Why Disney isn't thumping the movie harder, I don't know. Most of us media folks didn't see it until last week. UPDATE: And yet again, the Academy screening committee in its wisdom has scheduled Alvin and the Chipmunks during its prime December viewing season, and not Enchanted.)

But Enchanted is not your standard-issue Oscar movie. Director Kevin Lima (Tarzan, 102 Dalmations) has made a successful crossover from animation. Bill Kelly's script is witty and smart and should land a nomination. But will it? Let's be honest about the Academy. They are SNOBS! They are high-minded, nose-in-the-air, classists. The more literary, historic, and pretentious the better. (EW's Mark Harris explains the Oscar predicting game.) The last animated film to make it to Best Picture was Beauty and the Beast (for which Lima did character animation), before there was an animation category. Sure, I'd also like to see the best-reviewed movie of the year, Pixar's fabulous Ratatouille, score screenplay, director and picture. It deserves it. But it won't necessarily happen.

The trick with Oscar predicting is feeling where the momentum is going and looking into the future, down the line. The best prognosticators have seen the movies, one. And two, they're not rooting for their favorites. They're staying ruthlessly objective. Do I have some pics I'm rooting for? Sure. But I have to take that into account and remain clear-eyed. The year I let emotions get the better of me and predicted that Beauty and the Beast would win, I was so wrong.

As for the Academy docs short list of 15, they are the the best-known and best-reviewed: the full list is on the jump.

Strike Watch: Rob Long's Blog

Cheers writer Rob Long said he'd never blog, but here he is. One thing I liked in EW's writers strike cover wrapup was the conclusion: striking writers will write on the internet. I think we're going to see an explosion of blogs. That's where the strike's being covered anyway, minute to minute, photo to photo, online. Writers are fighting to get a piece of the internet action. And now they're taking their writing to the internet.

That was the subject of these EW video interviews from the Fox rally Friday, including Judd Apatow, Zack de la Rocha, Jesse Jackson et al. It's all about the internet. Here's Mark Harris's column at E.W. com

Send me all the writers' strike blogs you know about and I'll post them.
UPDATE:
John August
Craig Mazin
The Chicago Tribune strike watch
Galactica Sitrep
Ken Levine
United Hollywood
Billy Mernit
Clark Perry
Jane Espenson
Verheiden
Seriocity
Lisa Klink
tightropegirl
The Middle Blog
Shouting Into the Wind
Trigger Street

[Photo courtesy EW]

There Will Be Blood Plays Castro

Jeff Wells, bless him, went to see There Will be Blood at San Francisco's Castro Theatre November 5. I know Nikki Finke is kicking ass with the writers strike, and MCN's David Poland gives us invaluable insights and links to what's going on every day, not to mention the Gurus 'o Gold.

And of course I check Hollywood Wiretap's daily rundown of what is truly newsworthy. The LAT's The Envelope. Dana Harris's brand-new Scribe Vibe blog is tops. And Kris Tapley and Sasha Stone are killing on the Oscar blog front.

But day in day out my hat is off to a fellow insane blogger, obsessive and cinephile, Jeff Wells. I know what it takes to track all this shit and make it sing. And Wells is on it.

Say what you will about whatever personality traits he may have. The guy gets it. Here's my proof:

Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is one of those legendary, go-for-broke, fiercely psychological big-canvas art movies that you need to see twice -- the first time to go "whoa!" and recoil and get all shaken up and bothered about, and the second time so you can reconsider and see what a masterwork it is, despite your feelings about the malignant emotional content. If you're a film maven of any kind you can't let your piddly emotions get in the way of recognizing diseased greatness.

He nails it. I had those emotions. I appreciated the genius. But he put my feelings into words.

My issue with most of my fellow bloggers is how much they do shill, play ball with the publicists to get access, etc. I have my own conflicts about this. How much do you promote what you love? How objective do you remain? What do you choose to cover and what not? I know that sometimes Wells is a fan and courts the favor of the creatives he admires. He doesn't keep a journalistic distance. But what I love about him is his sophistication. He loses it sometimes, I know, gets on a rant or rave about women's issues, whatever. He's a guy. What we have in common is the love of movies, the insatiable desire to scarf up knowledge about them and share with others. That's why we blog.

YouTube Reviews: Reel Geezers

Vet producer Marcia Nasatir, who once ran production at United Artists, has a new career as a tough-talking film critic. She and Lorenzo Semple Jr., aka Reel Geezers, do weekly video conversations (and frequently heated disputes) about current films that they post at YouTube. It's working. "We have been encouraged by the hits and comments of our 11,000 satisfied (and contentious) viewers," Nasatir writes in an email, "many of whom are teens and 20-somethings who seem eager to tune in to watch the 'octogenarians.'"

After posting their thoughts on Darjeeling Limited (below), Nasatir and Semple were tipped off to an online interview with Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola that referred to their review: "The old man liked it, the old woman didn't," Anderson says, before defending himself.

Here's Into the Wild Superbad, in which Nasatir objects to the overuse of the F word but has no problem with the word penis:

Writers Hit Picket Lines

The writers hit the picket lines today around Los Angeles, reports Cynthia Littleton.

Blogging at The Huffington Post, Jon Robin Baitz explains why this strike matters.

David Thomson thinks writers are a privileged minority. UPDATE: Premiere's Glenn Kenny responds.

Peter Bart thinks the strike is happening in part because everyone in Hollywood is doing so well.

David Poland tries to make sense of the economics.

The NYT runs a photo of 30 Rock showrunner Tina Fey on the picket line.

The NYT runs down the impact on TV.

TV Week wants to Stop the Madness!.

For 24/7 breaking strike news, check out Variety's WGA News and WGA strike blog, Scribe Vibe.

Red Carpet District Launches at Award Central

Today one of my fave Oscar bloggers, InContention's Kris Tapley, launched his Variety Oscar blog, Red Carpet District, at Award Central. Check him out; he's tirelessly assembling all the Oscar stuff that's worth knowing out there. Yes, Oscar season is ramping up. And so are the Oscar blogs.

Blogger Attacks Variety Slanguage

As a Variety staffer, I enjoy throwing around slanguage like prexy, helmer, boffo and pics with legs. They're ingrained in my brain. What's not to like? This acerbic Brit blogger takes issue with Varietyese, especially as it applies to our film criticism. There is an argument to be made that slanguage works better in the print edition of an entertainment business trade than it does online, where it's read by millions of industry-philes all over the world. So we tend to tone down the headlines a bit on Variety.com.

Here's the Variety slanguage dictionary. And Variety editor Tim Gray, the master of the witty headline and author of The Hollywood Dictionary, is interviewed here by NPR.

Does Varietyese annoy you? Or are you fond of it? Update: Kristin Thompson mounts a defense with the headline: Crix Nix Variety’s Tics.

New York's Edelstein vs. Time's Corliss

Film critics David Edelstein of New York and Richard Corliss of Time are having a pissing match over Rush Limbaugh and masturbation. At least I think that's what they are debating.

Abu Dhabi Film Fest: First Time's The Charm

The Circuit blogger Mike Jones goes on location this week to cover exotic faraway new film fest Abu Dhabi.