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What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Today's zen koan: If New York magazine film critic David Edelstein has been diligently writing blog posts for weeks but there's no link to his Projectionist blog from the nymag.com Movies homepage, does it make a sound?

Film free-for-all

OK, not all of these films are free, but if the cinetrix was not bound by the laws of physics, you'd see her at the following screenings:

• Tomorrow, Thursday, October 11 [you know, National Coming Out Day], the Harvard Film Archive hosts a free preview screening of Oscar bait Lions for Lambs, featuring an appearance by ol' Botox Boy himself, director Robert Redford, along with cast members Derek Luke, Michael Pena and Andrew Garfield [but not Tom Cruise]. Don't know whether Bob'll take advantage of the occasion to out himself, but if you don't go, you won't know.
• Also tomorrow at 7 p.m., at the Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea, NYC, First Run/Icarus Films will be screening of The Sixth Side of the Pentagon (Chronicle of the 1967 Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam protest march on the Pentagon) in conjunction with the exhibition "Chris Marker: Staring Back."The cinetrix was fortunate to catch a preview of the exhibit this spring before it debuted at the Wexner Center. It's a great show.
• Want another sniff of Marker? Head to the American Cinematheque at the Aero Theatre for the Films That Got Away series. Saturday, October 20, at 7:30, they'll be screening The Case of the Grinning Cat (2004), The Embassy (1973), and, yes, The Sixth Side of the Pentagon (1967).
• Stuck in Manhattan that day? Never fear, CMJ hosts The Clash Film Marathon at Tribeca Cinemas, featuring three Clash-themed pictures – Julien Temple’s new biography Joe Strummer: the Future is Unwritten, The Clash: Westway to the World, and Rude Boy. Temple will be on hand for a Q&A after his film is shown. Ask him about Bogdanovich's Tom Petty doc, why don't you?
• Me, I just want to travel back in time one day and across the ocean, to catch BBC2's airing last night of Tribeca's Best Doc winner, Alex Gibney's amazing Taxi to the Dark Side. Does that have stateside distribution yet?
• Then I'd leap forward to November 10th, when Leonard Retel Helmrich's amazing Promised Paradise makes its US premiere at the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival.
• And I'd definitely make time for An Evening with Arnauld Desplechin on October 15 and A Conversation with Michael Haneke on October 19 at HFA.

What about you?

Koch Gone Wild

This week, Ed gets wild in the concrete jungle and the great outdoors. [Courage, HS fans. He appears to have the week off.]

Michael Clayton
This film is a tour de force for George Clooney, who plays the principal role of Michael Clayton.

Clayton is a well-dressed, intelligent, sleazy attorney working for a corrupt law firm representing an agrichemical company involved in a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit. He is the firm fixer and demonstrates his role as such in several matters assigned to him by the firm. Clayton is candid in his comments, even those directed at himself, and is an immensely likeable guy. He displays the propensity for both good and evil and acts out both aspects of his character.

Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) is the firm's attorney in charge of defending the client, and Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack) is the head of the law firm to whom Clayton reports directly. Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) is one of the firm’s top lawyers representing the client being sued. She is tough and without scruples.

The lawsuit takes a bizarre turn when the bipolar Arthur stops taking his medication and goes berserk. While engaged in an examination at the courthouse before the trial, he removes his clothing.  Michael is assigned to bring Arthur under control. Using telephone taps, the firm learns that Arthur is engaged in activities that appear to violate his obligations to protect his corporate client.

The movie contains several subplots. Michael is an addicted high-stakes gambler who owes the mob $80,000. He is warned that if he doesn't pay his debt within one week, he will be killed. A small amount of time is devoted to Michael's relationship with his son, who lives with his mother from whom Michael is divorced.

The script, like that of Syriana in which Clooney starred, is murky and sometimes absurd in its logic. Nevertheless, it is always riveting, and it is aided by an excellent musical score. Michael Clayton is the movie to see this week.

Of course, if it's sold out, there's always Sean Penn's latest directorial effort:

Into the Wild
This film, based on the nonfiction book by Jon Krakauer, was written and directed by Sean Penn. It is the story of a young man in his early twenties, Chris (Emile Hirsch), seeking to find the meaning of life.

Chris is from a dysfunctional family which includes his sister, Carine (Jena Malone), his mother, Billie (Marcia Gay Harden), and his father, Walt (William Hurt), who was violent toward Chris's mother.  After graduating from Emory University, Chris travels by car throughout the southwest with the ultimate goal of going to Alaska. He kept a diary in which he wrote of the places he visited and the people he met. Some of the individuals we are introduced to include Wayne (Vince Vaughn), a farmer in South Dakota, Ron (Hal Holbrook), an older, retired man in the California desert, and the hippie couple, Rainey (Brian Dierker) and Jan (Catherine Keener).

Chris eventually abandons his car and seeks to live off the land in Alaska. He uses a rifle to shoot animals for food but carries no other provisions into the wilderness. It becomes apparent that he is ill-equipped for this type of journey and that his expedition could have a tragic ending. Throughout the movie we hear the voice of Chris's sister, Carine, reporting on the fact that his family has not heard from him and that they are very concerned.

The film contains beautiful scenes of the country, in particular Chris's trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Although there are some tedious scenes, Sean Penn deserves enormous credit for taking on the challenge of making this difficult film. Chris leaves a final message in his diary describing what life is all about. Regrettably, he did not apply that thought to his own life.

Filthy mouths and bad attitudes

Sorry for the silence. I've been listening to Manohla Dargis say "titties" over and over and over again for days now. Since it's unlikely the locution will be added to the Gray Lady's style guide any time soon, hie thee to her GreenCine NYFF podcast with FOC's Aaron Hillis and Andrew Grant of Benten Films to experience the magic of Manohla unfettered.

The three unities

Somehow the cinetrix managed to miss seeing either Knocked Up or Superbad during the Summer of Apatow. At the time, it was not intentional, but you gotta admit, in hindsight it looks like quite a feat.

And so it was that the cinetrix, the 'Fesser, and a few pals headed to the two-buck theater Friday to catch up with Superbad. It was nice to see high school-age actors cast as high school students, and the dick-drawing montage was pretty hilarious, but I found it hard to engage with the characters or their story. This put me in the minority that night--the audience was as responsive as any the cinetrix can remember. She shares the love for Michael Cera, but the movie itself wouldn't crack her top 10 of teen Aristotelian comedies.

Way back when, Umberto Eco wrote an amusing essay that described how porn movies work to break up the constant coupling by including all the tedious getting from point A to point B that other movies elide through editing.  "Last night of school" teen flicks are just as formulaic as porn, which got the cinetrix to thinking, would the audience think everything was so goddamned funny if they had to experience Seth--or even loveable McLovin--in anything resembling real time? What if Apatow et al. took a page from Akerman and went all Jeanne Dielman on the plot? Or better still, let Douglas Gordon loose on the film in its current form--hilarity ensues!