Looking Elsewhere: August 14, 2008

ROGER EBERT ON “STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS”

It begins:

Has it come to this? Has the magical impact of George Lucas‘ original vision of “Star Wars” been reduced to the level of Saturday morning animation?’

And later:

This is the first feature-length animated “Star Wars” movie, but instead of pushing the state of the art, it’s retro. You’d think the great animated films of recent years had never been made. The characters have hair that looks molded from Play-Doh, bodies that seem arthritic, and moving lips on half-frozen faces — all signs that shortcuts were taken in the animation work.

The dialogue in the original “Star Wars” movies had a certain grace, but here the characters speak to one another in simplistic declamation…

The battle scenes are interminable, especially once we realize that although the air is filled with bullets, shells and explosive rockets, no one we like is going to be killed.

…

I’m probably wrong, but I don’t think anyone in this movie ever refers to The Force.

…

You know you’re in trouble when the most interesting new character is Jabba the Hutt’s uncle.

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A ROBOT TEACHES US HOW TO BE HUMAN

Alex Wainer at BreakPoint celebrates the profundity of WALL-E.

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WOODY ALLEN ON 12 PREVIOUS MOVIES

I always find Woody Allen’s perspectives on his own work to be very revealing. Here, in Entertainment Weekly, he comments on twelve of his previous works. It’s interesting, what he considers to be flawed or successful.

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DESPAIR CAB FOR CUTIE

Ben Gastright at Collide writes about Death Cab for Cutie, and the saddening emptiness that even band leader Ben Gibbard acknowledges.

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WHALE OF A TALE

One of my favorite actors, Denis Lavant (Beau Travail, The Lovers on the Bridge, A Very Long Engagement), plays Captain Ahab in a new French film called… well… Captain Ahab. The film is going to screen in New York soon, and I wish I could be there.

Doug Cummings wrote about the film earlier this summer at FilmJourney.

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READ OUR LYRICS

Thanks to Brendan Ribera for pointing to this, one of the more creative music videos I’ve seen in a long time: