Top stories published by I’ve Had It With Hollywood in 2008

With an enormous amount of good will, and even after reading the bad reviews, I went to see the latest Coen brothers movie because I am a fan. Or I used to be. I used to love them because they would come up with stuff so original, that even if it was too quirky for its own good, it was fresh…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Nov 18, 2008

The Height of Nerve: Hollywood Execs Blame the Audience.

All of a sudden, they are whining about the demise of “story”. Peter Guber pines for the days when movies had stories.

Ultimately, he blames the audience for the perceived breakdown in narrative quality: in…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Nov 23, 2008

Holocaust Kitsch

This weekend in the New York Times, A.O. Scott discreetly explores the dilemma of the Holocaust movie. As far as I’m concerned, there are extremely few movies dealing with this topic that are any good. Most of the time, a huge cringe factor is involved when watching the fictionalization and…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Nov 16, 2008

Slumdog Millionaire

Or: Review of a movie I hate because everyone seems to love it.

To judge from the sold out crowds at the Angelika, you’d think this new film by Danny Boyle is the second coming of cinema. I went with great expectations, having read some enthusiastic reviews and having seen the crowds (which…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

May 15, 2008

XXY

This excellent film by Argentinian writer/director Lucía Puenzo deals with a family’s problem with hermaphroditism. That is, a couple have a teenage daughter who is half woman and half man. What is remarkable about the movie is the intelligence and the maturity with which it deals with the topic. Because she is a…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Apr 28, 2008

Standard Operating Procedure

I knew that there were going to be plenty of tickets to see Errol Morris’ new, powerful film about the abuses at Abu Ghraib yesterday at the Angelika. I knew it because it is clear that people do not want to know. They don’t want to see fictional movies about Iraq, and much less…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Jun 12, 2008

Encounters at the end of the world

I’m rehashing this previous mini film review on account of the opening of this wonderful documentary by Werner Herzog.

Encounters at the End of The World, a film and conversation with Werner Herzog.
Man, for the grief he gets into on every film he makes, Werner Herzog…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Jun 9, 2008

Gods of Cinema: Dino Risi

One of the great Italian film directors of commedia al’ italiana, Dino Risi, has left the building at the ripe age of 91.
My favorite film of his, the classic Il Sorpasso is a masterpiece of irony and sadness. It also features together on screen the great Jean-Louis Trintignant and…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Feb 19, 2008

The Band’s Visit

The Band’s Visit is a small, charming Israeli film that is wise, well written, funny, deadpan and very human. The characters are real, the situation is slightly absurd and it is like a little wishful fable that humanizes neighbors who are perfectly capable of living in peace with each other, but…

Yehudit Mam in I’ve Had It With Hollywood

Jan 21, 2008

Apichatpong Now!

Double feature yesterday at the Anthology Film Archives, braving sub zero temperatures to find out that one of my fondest dreams has indeed come true: the venerable Anthology Film Archives now has comfy seats! Very good comfy seats, which means we are going to be patronizing this wonderful temple…

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2009

These were the top 10 stories published by I’ve Had It With Hollywood in 2008. You can also dive into monthly archives for 2008 by using the calendar at the top of this page.

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An opinionated blog about film.

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