Link Round-Up: Straight Talk

I would hardly call myself a David Lynch auteurist or defender or what have you - I think Mulholland Drive is an absolute masterpiece, and Blue Velvet is canon, but most of the other works are I could probably leave behind. However, I do quite like The Straight Story, which in the latest episode of Josh Spiegel's Mousterpiece Cinema, I argue is perhaps his most Lynchian movie. I was joined by the much more intelligent Jake Cole as well, so give that a listen for some insights into this strange work in Lynch's canon, plus me defending The Lone Ranger despite derisive laughter that follows (which I also defend over here)

Blue Jasmine is the latest Woody Allen film, and like all Woody Allen films, it's quite enjoyable or at least palettable. I reviewed it for In Review Online, though I probably should have spent a few more words on how good Andrew Dice Clay is. Read that over here.

Traveling Light is an a new contender for my favorite film of 2013, an experimental work that follows a train ride from New York to Pittsburgh. I'll write it longform some time, but its filmmaker Gina Telaroli joined me on The Cinephiliacs to talk about her films, her Allan Dwan and William Wellman dossiers, unconscious cinema, and a very magical film: Vincente Minnelli's Brigadoon. Give that a listen over here. 

New on the Boxd: Laughton's masterwork Night of the Hunter, Johnnie To's fantastic Drug War, Godard's romp-like A Woman is a Woman, Brian De Palma's ecstatic The Fury, Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail, and two films by documentarian Robert Greene: Kati With An I and Fake It So Real. More here if you scroll down.

Midnight in Paris: Love in a Timeless City, Thanks to Time Travel

Midnight in Paris

Written and Directed By: Woody Allen

Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Carla Bruni, Michael Sheen, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston, and Kurt Fuller

Directors of Photography: Darisu Khondji and Johanne Debas, Editor: Alisa Lepselter, Production Designer: Anne Seibel

Rated: PG-13 for sexual humor in the city of love.

            Next week, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life will finally premiere after six years of anticipation, making it his fifth film in almost forty years. And then there’s Woody Allen, who has more films than years behind him, all of them seemingly Irish twins. However, since 2005’s Match Point, a new interest has sparked Mr. Allen’s mind, as a lack of funding sent him to Europe, where he has brought his same humor (and at times drama) to a new set of locations besides the Upper East Side.

            For his latest adventure though is his first film set in the city of romance: Paris. In a beautiful pre-credits sequence, Mr. Allen sets his camera to capturing a day through the city, watching it go from a beautiful sunny morning to a rainy afternoon to an illuminating night, lights bouncing off the wet streets and giving it a magical feel. And there’s actual magic in the narrative too, as Owen Wilson plays the surrogate Mr. Allen as he travels through time. Unfortunately, the actual magic can’t make up for the lack of it that Mr. Allen fails to capture for the heart, bouncing to easily around a loose plot without much cohesion and any real stakes.