"And evident by the scathing reviews from Sundance of John Krasinski's Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, it appears another film about academia has failed to make a strong case for the subject matter. Too bad for the late David Foster Wallace, whose stories were adapted for the film, that Gus van Sant wasn't at the helm"—10 Best Films About Academia, Christopher Campbell, Spout.
Yeah, too bad for Wallace, who must be livid, up there in the afterlife he didn't believe in, from which he's no doubt avidly following all the Sundance coverage.
Campbell's passage could have been worse, I suppose; he could have said Krasinski's film "failed to make the grade," ar ar ar.
"...[Barbara] Loden had no practical background or training in filmmaking when she landed on the idea of directing this intensely personal project. But her drive to realize it drove her to forgo looking for conventional studio financing, ignore sound judgment (most of it coming from her then husband, Elia Kazan), and simply throw herself face-first into the process."—Wanda—Nowhere Woman, Mary Bronstein, Hammer To Nail.
So children, what have we learned today? What was it that drove Barbara Loden?
That's right—it was Barbara Loden's drive that drove Barbara Loden. Very good.
I also enjoy "landed on the idea." Keep it up, Mary! You write pretty some day!
I'd just like to point out that you guys are arguing about which one of you is older. Carry on.
Posted by: bill | February 03, 2009 at 09:04 PM
I should try and get Elliott Carter to come out and comment here. He's literally 100, so he'd shut everybody up.
But seriously...this weighs upon me. The problem with getting one's claws out is that sometimes you're cheered on by confreres, vociferously or not, and then some other confreres might reasonably point out that speaking snark to the relatively powerless might not be the best use of one's time, and then everybody's yelling at each other, and it gets like the end of "America Drinks and Goes Home" on the Mothers' "Absolutely Free." And I have pretty much zero leg to stand on in the "calm down, people" department.
Still. Let's. Calm down I mean. I think we all want the same thing, maybe just disagree on tactics. Perhaps those of the original post were overblown, like using a howitzer on a butterfly. Okay, not a butterfly.
Finally, I should point out that I sat through "Nights and Weekends" for a second time this afternoon, so you should all appreciate this special effort at niceness. But something IS brewing...
Posted by: Glenn Kenny | February 03, 2009 at 09:23 PM
Why in God's great green Earth would you sit through a Joe Swanberg movie twice? I'll tell you what, Glenn, the next time you get the urge to watch one of his films, let me know and I'll send you a Polaroid I took of my junk along with a CD-R I made of a conversation I had with my phlegmatic 15 year old nephew about how he was doing in school.
Posted by: Charles de Lint | February 03, 2009 at 09:42 PM
I hear ya, Charles. As you may have inferred, I didn't do it for entertainment/enjoyment/art value, or for that matter for my health. It's for a piece, one which may elicit strong reactions, that I hope to get up here by Friday or before.
Posted by: Glenn Kenny | February 03, 2009 at 09:57 PM
Yes. Sounds awesome. I love your writing, Glenn. The stuff for The Auteur Theory website is good, good stuff. Cheers.
Posted by: Charles de Lint | February 03, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Yes, but what was *driving* the drive that drove her?
Posted by: Matt | February 06, 2009 at 01:55 PM
That's bad writing, to be sure, but does it make her a bad writer? I've written some atrocious prose before, rife with spelling and grammatical errors, only noticing my mistakes when I showed it to someone who doesn't usually read blogs. (We won't even get into my extemporaneous comments here.) Am I a bad writer? I hope not. Or rather, I hope to be judged - at least aesthetically and intellectually - by my best work, not my worst. Also, I have to concur with Tully on another count - you are bigger fish than this young woman, Glenn, so your criticism comes off as cringingly (real word? bad writing?) condescending.
On the other hand, were it not for the snark, would we get such compulsively readable comments sections as the preceeding? Culminating, no less, with this priceless gem from bill:
"I'd just like to point out that you guys are arguing about which one of you is older. Carry on."
Thanks, all.
Posted by: MovieMan0283 | February 11, 2009 at 02:49 PM