Different standard for 'indie filmmakers'?

An artsy-fartsy friend of mine took me to task for being too harsh on the "indie" films I review for this page. Her take is that there needs to be a different standards for "studio films" and "indie films."

Given that many of the films I've reviewed here fall into the category of "indie" films ("White Zombie", for example, qualifies as an "indie" film), I considered her point. And then I dismissmed it.

Calling yourself an "independent filmmaker" is not an excuse to make a crappy movie. If you have a budget of $1.95, you can still have a decent script and you can still have a movie that's technically sound, if you know what you're doing. You may even be able to have decent actors, if you don't cast your girlfriend as the lead. Calling yourself an "independent filmmaker" is also not a rationale for attempting effects and stunts that your budget can't handle... whether you've got $1.95 or $1.95 million dollars, you need to be realistic about what you can accomplish with the tools and talent at your disposal.

I think it's right and proper to judge "studio films" and "independent films" on the same level, so long as one is considering first and foremost certain things that every movie has, no matter how it's made.

Incompetent and bad filmmaking should be judged harshly no matter who is doing it.

The Platonic Ideal of a clueless critic manifested to write a review of 'Grudge 2'?

On the topic of "The Grudge 2", "New York Post" movie critic V.A. Musetto wrote:

"The movie is utter junk, suitable perhaps for late-night TV, but not for the thousands of big screens on which it opened yesterday. The distributor, Columbia Pictures, knows it has a fiasco on its hands, which is why it didn't bother to screen the movie in advance for critics. Still, teens - lured by advertising and the fact that Amber Tamblyn and Sarah Michelle Gellar are in the cast - will probably flock to theaters this weekend in hope of being scared witless. Instead, they'll be bored witless [...]"

Did Musetto even bother to see the movie? And if he did, how did he manage to see it without being in an auditorium full of teenagers? Maybe he hit the earliest possible screening, while they were all still in school?

I share his opinion the movie is junk, but if he'd seen the film with its obvious target audience, like I did, and if he had listened to them talk as they filed out, like I did, he would be forced to recognize that he needs to widen his outlook a bit.

V.A. Musetto obviously has no idea what appeals to teenagers. He shouldn't be kidding himself (and his readers) that he does. Like so many other "professionals", he seems to be unable to look past his own likes and dislikes and admit that he isn't the target market for every movie that's made.

I agree "The Grudge 2" is crap--I gave it a 3/10 ( :rotten: ) in my review--but I wasn't blind to the fact that everyone around me in the theater seemed to be having a good time. Then again, I'm not wrapped up in an over-inflated opinion of myself.

Mickey Spillane dead at 88

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Mickey Spillane, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday, July 17, 2006. He was 88.

Spillane's death was confirmed by Brad Stephens of Goldfinch Funeral Home in his hometown of Murrells Inlet.

Fans to the End... and Beyond

A German football (soccer, to all you Americans) club is planning to set up a cemetery for fans who want to take their love for the game to the grave.

Hamburg SV chairman Christian Reichert said the cemetery would be built opposite the stadium and have room for more than 150 graves.

"It won't be full of colourful headstones and we don't want to turn the graveyard into a bazaar for fan merchandise, but it will be a place for true fans to find their final resting place," said Reichert.

He added that memorial stones to some of the club's greatest players would be erected in the cemetery - and a display of the club's emblem made from flower beds.

If the football club gets a grounds map like in this movie, they'll be set!

But who will protect SMART journalists?

First the article, my comments follow.

Journalist Groups Condemn Israeli Attack On Lebanon TV Stations

Two international journalists' organizations, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans Frontières) and the Committee to Protect Journalists, have condemned Israel's attacks Wednesday on television stations operated in Lebanon by the al-Manar television network.

Al-Manar had been the first to report on the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the demand by Hezbollah terrorists that Israeli release Arab prisoners in Israeli jails in exchange for the two captured men. Following the attacks on its stations by Israeli missiles, al-Manar called for international organizations to "protect the freedom of journalism." Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on civilian targets.

The Israeli foreign ministry responded that the "station has for many years served as the main tool for propaganda and incitement by Hezbollah and has also helped the organization recruit people into its ranks."

But the Committee to Protect Journalists commented: "While al-Manar may serve a propaganda function for Hezbollah, it does not appear ... to be serving any discernible military function."

Okay. the Committee to Protect Journalists obviously doesn't have anyone smart enough in its ranks to either a) remember how a sentence started by the time they finished it, or b) to read and revise the comments they issue.

If al-Manar is serving a "propaganda funciton for Hezbollah, then IT IS serving a "discernible military functiont," YOU IDIOTS!

(Or maybe the Committee to Project Journalists believe that Hezbollah is a union of men who have a strange genetic defect that causes them to expel rockets from their asses at high velocity whenever they fart. Such a belief is almost as sensible as the statement "al-Manar may serve a propaganda function for Hezbollah, it does not appear ... to be serving any discernible military function.")

Another self-centered Hollywood star....

Earlier this year, Ashley Judd underwent a 47-day program at a treatment center in February to deal with issues of her past including depression and isolation. The 38-year-old endured a "chaotic" and "dysfunctional" childhood and slept to combat depression and exhibited a "compulsion to clean."

Oh, sure. Go to "rehab" and get your problems straightened out, Ashley. But did you stop to think about ME and MY needs?!

You could have stopped by my place first. My apartment is a total pig-sty, and I think everyone could have benefitted from someone with a "compulsion to clean" dropping in. I would have even let you sleep your depression off on my couch.

But now what will I do?!

Samy Naceri gets it backwards as far as 'debasing Islam' goes

I was looking for information on a supposedly respect-worthy French actor by the name of Sami Naceri. This was among what I found:

On October 22, 2005, on Thierry Ardisson's very popular program "Tout le Monde en Parle" (France 2 TV), Salman Rushdie was attacked by prominent French actor Sami Naceri.

Naceri, a self-professed Islamist, accused Rushdie of debasing Islam. He added that if an imam were to ask him to kill Rushdie, he would put a bullet in his head. He then pointed an imaginary gun at Rushdie's head. Rushdie took off his microphone and left, saying that this was the last time that he would appear on a French program. None of this was aired; Ardisson edited out the disturbing scene.

Last year, Naceri, shining example of a follower of the Relgion of Peace that he is, was imprisoned for cutting up a man's face with a glass ashtray because of a few minutes delay in a meeting (according to Wikipedia).

If there's someone who doesn't deserve a career, it's this jackass. I don't care how good his films supposedly are. I won't be looking for them, and I won't be posting about them here.