Quick Links

I don't have much to say here today - just a few links and such.

Start with a blogathon I somehow managed to miss - Indiana Jones! run by Ali Arikan.

And coming up beginning of next week - the Production Design blogathon at Too Many Projects Film Club... And Girish kicks off the Film of the Month Club's discussion of The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On.

Then - plenty more Whither Criticism?/Why Blog? type posts - Tucker - Culture Snob - and Andy Horbal does his part to make blogs and criticism work better together, by means of a custom search engine.

Meanwhile, the great cartoonist Will Elder has died - Quiet Bubble has an appreciation.

And, somewhat to my surprise, the movie that seems to be generating the most conversation on the blogs right now - Speed Racer. It's got Jim Emerson's attention - he's been circling it, rounding up other comments and looking into what it reveals about criticism... All the talk got me to go see it myself - and maybe more surprising than the amount of discussion is how much I liked it: what a great looking film! yeah -it's all surface, all motion, all craft - but damned if it isn't a treat. And not just to look at - the story may be tried and true, but it's done straight, with wit all through - the story-telling (jumping around in time and all) is both slick and effective and formally entertaining on its own... oddly enough - even the dialogue seems to be clever and well written... A treat, to my complete surprise.

And oh yeah - something's happening over in France. Greencine can explain.