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Now, that's film criticism

Anthony Lane, doing nothing to ameliorate the cinetrix's crush on him:

The ideas behind "Enduring Love" may be fascinating, but they don't play; they sulk, and so it was, during yet another adoring rant from Jed the pest, that I leaned over to the friend beside me and whispered, "All I really, really want at this moment, in the whole world, is to be watching 'Dodgeball.'"

I know just how he feels.

The black superman

Thirty years ago today, Mohammed Ali kicked George Foreman's knock-out-the-fat, patched-denim-clad ass in Kinshasa, Zaire. The sweet science, indeed. Allegedly, the bout was "un cadeau du president mobutu au peuple zairois," but try telling that to Don King.

Watch Rumble in the Jungle tonight and pour some out for George Plimpton.

Ali, bomaye!

Busted

Reason enought to check out Ray: Ahmet Ertegun is played by Curtis "Booger" Armstrong.

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to ♥ David O. Russell

No excuses, now. You have plenty of time to arrange to be in front of an IFC-broadcasting screen this Monday night for the debut of David O. Russell's controversial documentary Soldiers Pay. [Can the editrix part of the cinetrix just take a moment to laud the absence of any apostrophe? The title becomes an indictment. Nice.]

The whole thing is only 30-odd minutes long; you'll spend more time in line at your polling place on Tuesday. You can see some footage here.

IFC will air it with The War Room, which should stand as a stark reminder of the nation's trajectory from G.H.W.B. to W. The Hegedus-Pennebaker documentary follows Clinton and his team in the run-up to the 1992 election. We were all so young then.

The War Room also has the distinction of being the first movie the cinetrix rented [on New Year's Eve 1994, along with the surprisingly hangover-friendly short films of the Brothers Quay] to break in her inherited VCR. In her ♥ of ♥s, she is something of a poli sci geek.

SOLDIERS PAY
Airs at 9:35pm, 12am, and 2:15am ET
Monday, November 1

A word of advice: follow the money.

The face of things to come

Quick: What's missing from these pictures of famous best friends Nic and Naomi? If you guessed brow, furrowed or, um, otherwise, please advance one square.

Hush

Silent film fans should check out Welcome to Silent Movies, an exhaustive resource. The cinetrix is still working her way through the essay "The Speeding Sweethearts," which argues persuasively that

[n]othing is more illustrative of silent film actresses' assertiveness than their adoption of the automobile during the 1910s when the new invention in transportation, like that other new invention, the cinema, was transforming and reshaping the very fabric of society. In an era when the motorcar was still widely considered the province of men, silent film actresses not only became skilled drivers but also performed daring stunts, broke records and, in one instance, even contributed to the invention of mechanical improvements for automobiles. As the silent film actresses gained wide publicity, both on and off screen, for their prowess behind the wheel, they won greater acceptance for women drivers, simultaneously contributing to revolutions in transportation and social mores as well as the development of a new art.

Why the sudden shift to silent films? Well, if you must know, the cinetrix lost her voice sometime last night.

Yes, Virginia

There is a Big Papi. If you need me. the cinetrix will be drunk as a lord for a week.

Counterprogramming the Rapture

Might the cinetrix recommend that all Tri-State denizens currently enrolled in institutions of higher learning in the metro Boston area head to Cambridge for the evening? You know, just in case. Not only will it be safer all around if there's a river between you and Fenway, you might--perish the thought--learn something from the wickit smaht folks at MIT.

[A] multimedia concert at MIT celebrates the release of More Treasures From American Film Archives, 1894-1931, a DVD set of 50 rare silents with new scores, including everything from The Breath of a Nation, a zany cartoon satire of prohibition, to fieldwork footage of the South made by a young Zora Neale Hurston. MIT lecturer Martin Marks, the set's music curator, hosts the event, which includes screenings and live musical accompaniment.

Killian Hall
Room 14W-111
160 Memorial Avenue
Cambridge
8 p.m.

Malaise

Once, after the cinetrix had subjected herself to a gamine-short haircut, she assembled an affirming list of short-haired-girl cinema. Here's one of the deities in the pantheon--and check out that badass eyebrow scar. Grambo is currently featuring another. Who'd be in your version of the pixie hit list?

[Now, the cinetrix hasn't chopped off all her hair, mind, but she is feeling a little bit under the weather today. So you'll excuse me while I crush out on Elodie. Back tomorrow.]

Admirably brittle

As part of its ongoing Moss-led march away from mediocrity, New York has launched a shiny new Movies section [via]. Its online incarnation is replete with broken and misdirected links [think capsule review mash-ups], but there's at least one piece that works. Adam Sternbergh, not afraid of the tough questions, asks "Why is Nicole Kidman so Hard to Love?"

She's a movie star, but one whose movies have gone largely unloved. She's never had that one defining hit: no Breakfast at Tiffany's, no Pretty Woman. Her best performances, in To Die For and The Hours, might be described as admirably brittle. Moulin Rouge!, a tsunami of karaoked pop songs, was hardly borne aloft by Kidman's charms. The Others, a spooky success, was, in essence, an extremely well-art-directed episode of Scooby-Doo. And this summer's Stepford Wives arrived stillborn. Perhaps audiences felt that, in watching Kidman play a feisty wife who subjugates herself robotically to her husband, they'd already seen this story played out in the tabloids, with better acting.

His is a compelling theory, and not just because he never once mentions botulism toxins.