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School daze

A horde of holiday revelers is about to descend, so the cinetrix is leaving you in the capable hands of Alan P. Smithee. Enjoy the weekend, kids.

Dear Mr. Smithee,

This fall, I'm headed to college, and can you believe I've never seen a movie about college life?

Could you please recommend some classic college movies for me to have a look at before I kiss Mom and Dad goodbye in August?

Catherine B------, Atlanta

Dear Rising Freshman,

Oh, how I recall chillin' at the cribus maximus whilst my young charges, D.W. and Cecil B., pursued learning of the higher kind.

I am sure, my little Catherine, that your parents will miss you ever so greatly as I know I do my own formerly wee sons.

But with that said, please understand that while you will experience the joy and wonderment of a new place, dear old Mom and Pop will be at home worrying about you and loving you, but still ultimately shouting, "Freedom!"

       

I am not sure how you have spent a young life to date without ever seeing a movie involving college. What in the name of Godard have you been doing with your time? Studying?

You have a lot of catching up to do and, thankfully, plenty of time to cram before fall.

On your absolute-must list: "Animal House."

It is no accident that there is but one film on your absolute-must list. That is because there is no film as important, as vital, as illustrative, as meaningful … well, you get the idea.

On your must list: "Good Will Hunting," "Wonder Boys," "Breaking Away," "Love Story," "The Paper Chase," "School Daze," "Revenge of the Nerds" and "Scream 2."

On your interesting-but-not-essential list: "Abandon," "Horse Feathers," "Hoop Dreams," "Rudy," "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Van Wilder," "The Rules of Attraction," "PCU," "Higher Learning" and "Drumline."

On your see-it-at-your-own-risk list: "Mona Lisa Smile," "One on One," "Legally Blonde," "Threesome" and "From Justin to Kelly."

Once you have completed all of those, Catherine, you should be prepared to absorb the truth and knowledge in the most important college film of our time - "The Graduate."

Alan

Feel free to contest your grade in the comments. And in your evals, feel free to suggest what the profs should be watching. [We're guessing Madchen in Uniform is out. Educating Rita? My Fair Lady?]

Stay up late

Friday is unofficially Julie Buck Day in Cambridge. The outgoing conservator of the Harvard Film Archive invites you all to celebrate:

Dear Everyone I know in Boston,

As all of you probably aware, I am leaving Boston to attend graduate school in the fall.  In fact, Friday, June 30th, is my last day at the Harvard Film Archive and on Monday I will officially leave town!

So, to celebrate on Friday, at noon, the Harvard Film Archive will be playing a private screening of one of my all time favorite films, Antonioni's BLOW UP (1966).  Feel free to drop in and see this lovely archival print.  And feel free to bring a friend.  In fact, feel free to come by and see it, even if you don't know and/or like me!

And, at 11:59 pm on Friday, I am curating a show of my favorite weird and fun short films at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.  Titles will include Rene Clair's TWO PIGEONS (1962), Kerry Feltham's WALTZING POLICEMEN (1979), Jan Lenica's "Sesame Street gone wrong animation" A (1965), a handful of trailers and commercials and a few other surprises!  So, please, if you're in town this Friday the 30th, and you like to stay up late and support the Brattle Theatre, come on by! Bring your friends!  Bring anyone I may have inadvertently left off this email list!  And while you're at it you can wish me well and say goodbye!

See you soon!

Julie Buck

And don't forget to give Buck a Buck.

Forgotten favorites

FOC Johnny Hong Kong sent this along the other day, so I thought I should share: Slate's The Movie I've Seen the Most, where "Slate asked a collection of filmmakers and critics, knowing that what's addictive is different than what's deemed the best."

Each person's entry has something unexpected or delightfully right, but I think I enjoy the juxtapositions between youngster and old guard the most. For example:

Jake Kasdan, director, Orange County
Almost definitely, the movie I've seen the most is Ghostbusters. Don't know how many times—triple digits, counting partial viewings. I know that when it came out, I saw it at least six times in the theater. I remember lying in bed, at age 10, cataloging my favorite jokes from the movie, in order of greatness (the order would change slightly with multiple viewings—what had seemed to be the fourth-best joke in the movie after the third viewing, might, in fact, turn out to be the second-best joke, after the fifth viewing. You never could tell … ). And now, as a director, I'm trying to work with the entire cast. Harold Ramis is in my last movie, Orange County. Sigourney Weaver is in my new movie, The TV Set. Next … ? I don't know. Ernie Hudson, maybe.

Along totally different lines—and it's a little bit uncomfortable to admit this—for some reason, Footloose is just endlessly watchable for me, forever. Bacon's soooo cool (even with that skinny tie). Lori Singer's soooo hot. The dancing is insane but … explosive! I can't explain it. It's a movie about the inalienable human right … to dance! As if that right were actually under attack in the mid-'80s. And yet it's a message that carries incredible resonance, even today. Sort of … late at night … on cable …

Jonathan Rosenbaum, critic, Chicago Reader
I'm very fortunate in being able to cite Jacques Tati's Playtime as both the film I've seen the greatest number of times and my favorite movie. I first saw it 38 years ago and suspect I've seen it somewhere between 30 and 40 times. I like to see it again and again because I find it inexhaustible, the way a favorite piece of music is, and something that never looks exactly the same when I see it again because I watch it differently; each time, my gaze dances in a somewhat different way to Tati's choreography.

Oh, and Neil LaBute, you're such a card, with your introductory caveat: "Outside of perennial holiday fare like The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, or Salo..." Har-d-har. The cinetrix used to watch Trust on all of the second-tier national holidays, but you won't catch her bragging about it. Much.

Stretch out and wait

A friend of mine was fond of saying, with a sad, slow shake of his head, "Kids today don't know their history." Maybe so, but now they can learn, thanks to the good folks at Digital History, who have somewhat inexplicably assembled what they're calling Trailers of Historically Significant Films. [via]

Perhaps the best thing about the list is that their notion of historical significance is broad enough to cover a lot of classic flicks from the 1980s. So when you've exhausted that Pitchfork list and get honest with yourself that all you're really doing at work is marking time 'til the holiday weekend starts, select the "ordered by year of release" option and thrill to a time when we had movies sold to us without the aid of Soul Brother No. 1.

[Who's surprised this is the first one I watched? Show of hands?]

Swag bites back

The cinetrix is hoping somebody could provide the unexpurgated version of this story?

Paul Sherman, a Massachusetts freelance reviewer whose outlets have included the Boston Herald, pleaded guilty to selling the 2005 action-laffer along with more than 100 other screeners to online "warez" groups, the Justice Dept. announced Tuesday.

...

In his plea agreement, Sherman stated that in 1999 he began auctioning DVD screeners that he "no longer needed or wanted on eBay." During one auction, a warez operator identified as David Teves in Sherman's statement emailed him and offered $40 plus shipping costs if Sherman would stop the auction and overnight the DVD (of "Out Cold""Out Cold") to him.

The relationship continued until June 2005, during which time Sherman sold approximately 117 screeners for a total $4,714, according to his plea agreement.

Sherman's plea resulted from Justice's Operation Copycat, which, counting Sherman, has netted 30 convictions of warez pirates so far. He could be facing three years in prison plus at least $250,000 in fines, but his cooperation may lead to a reduced sentence.

A woman who answered the phone on the Boston Herald's arts desk said that Sherman "hasn't been with us for over a year." A database search shows his last byline appeared Aug. 5, 2005. She said his departure was not related to actions associated with his guilty plea.

Ouch. The cinetrix remembers Paul from press screenings at the Brattle. He was most recently reviewing films for Boston weekly The Improper Bostonian. Guess that gig may be up for grabs now, huh?

Dish the dirt in the comments, people.

TONIGHT in Cambridge

Forgive the beyond late notice, Cambridge cinemaphages, but your pal the cinetrix just ran into the lustrous TD Slidell, who will be hosting a movie mockery evening* TONIGHT, Monday, June 26 at 10ish p.m. at Zuzu in Central Square with the equally radiant Chris. On tap? Oh, just a little 80's gem I like to call The Lost Boys. You heard me.

Be there cuz I can't. And do observe a moment of respectful silence when that oiled-up, shirtless, sax-playing mofo launches into "I Still Believe," won't you?

*NB: It's my favorite price--FREE.

I'm off like a dirty shirt.

The 'Fesser forwards the following for your late Friday amusement: the Anaheim Ducks' new uniforms.

To be fair, their rink was far and away the cinetrix's favorite part of Pollack's Gehry doc.

Grammar police are never off duty

Here's the lede from Stephen Holden's review of Wassup Rockers:

More than a decade after Larry Clark's "Kids" scandalized the movie world with its quasi-documentary portrait of New York skateboarders and the virgins they deflower, he is still pushing buttons with his lubricious insider's view of teenage life.

And here's how it might read if NYT copy editors gave a shit about agreement:

More than a decade after Larry Clark scandalized the movie world with "Kids," his quasi-documentary portrait of New York skateboarders and the virgins they deflower, he is still pushing buttons with his lubricious insider's view of teenage life.

Next time, don't be in such a rush to head out to your summer shares.

Take a memo, sweetheart

[via]

Happy Friday, kids! It's an oldie but a goodie.

To keep Matt's memo company, here is my favorite "R" rated ticket policy, courtesy of the good people at the Nugget Theaters in Hanover, NH.

Nugget Theatre “R” rated ticket policy:

Our policy is to affirm the responsibility and the right of all parents and guardians to guide their own children’s movie viewing.

Any request for a child admission must have an accompanying adult admission or the child ticket will not be sold. Anyone requesting a ticket for to an “R” rated film pays for an adult ticket (unless they qualify for a senior ticket). The Nugget Theatre reserves the right to check for I.D. when tickets are purchased.

Film Ratings are intended as guidelines and are voluntarily enforced within the movie industry. Ratings are meant primarily for parents, so they know which movies are suitable for their children.

The Ratings system is administered by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA is a trade organization of mainstream Hollywood studios whose purpose is promotion of Hollywood films. The following is from the MPAA December 1996 statement concerning the purpose of the MPAA Rating System:

The basic mission of the Rating System is a simple one: to offer parents some advance information about movies so that parents can decide what movies they want their children to see or not to see. The entire rostrum of the Rating Program rests on the assumption of responsibility by parents. If Parents don’t care, or are languid in guiding their children’s moviegoing, the ratings system becomes useless. Indeed if you are 18 or over, or if you have no children, the Ratings System has no meaning for you. Ratings are meant for parents, no one else.

Amen to that. [And thanks, Donald!]

That reminds me, Kirby Dick's This Film Is Not Yet Rated opens September 1.

Riddle me this

Who is this Shauna Lyon, and how long has she been penning capsule film reviews for the New Yorker's "Goings On About Town" listings? I'm just catching up on the dreaded back issue backlog now, and Now Playing is lousy with her words.