Magnificent and Beautiful












Here I do something magnificent and beaut-
iful and people ask why. There is no why!
-- Philippe Petit on his Twin Tower stroll

***** ***** ***** ***** *****

These are the reviews and other as-
signments I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: William Friedkin's The Night
They Raided Minksy's, Stanley Kramer's The
Secret of Santa Vittoria, Jellyfish (Israeli a-
ward winner), The Price of Sugar, Twenty-
Four Eyes - Criterion Collection, A Grand-
pa for Christmas (with Ernest Borgnine),
and Priceless (with Audrey Tautou).

Amazon Theatricals: Man on Wire (the best docu-
mentary of the year), The Rocker (with The Office's
Rainn Wilson), Bottle Shock (with Bill Pullman and
Alan Rickman), Lakeview Terrace (with Kerry Wash-
ington and Patrick Wilson), and Ping Pong Playa.

Still playing (or yet to open): Bag-
head, Brideshead Revisited, Gonzo,
Hamlet 2, The Wackness, and Wanted.

Siffblog: Jean-Luc Godard's Viv-
re Sa Vie and interviews with the
Duplass Brothers (Baghead) and
Courtney Hunt (Frozen River).

[Baghead and Man on Wire open on
8/8, Frozen River on 8/15, The Rock-
er on 8/20, Vivre Sa Vie on 8/22, and Lakeview Terrace on 9/19.]

Video Librarian: disFIGURED, Inside the Circle:
A B-Boy Chronicle, Snoop Dogg: Drop It Like It's
Hot (I loved this), Depression - Out of the Shad-
ows, Love Iranian-American Style, Mixed Bles-
sings, Men Are Human, Women Are Buffalo,
Intimidad, REO Speedwagon: Live in the
Heartland, Iggy & the Stooges - Escaped
Maniacs, Water (from the makers of
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!?),
We Are Together (South African
music doc), Phineas and Ferb:
The Fast and the Phineas,
and Recount (click here
for my Amazon review).



Endnote: Meanwhile, work continues on my special sec-
ret music project, which I've been at for four years now.
Images from The New York Times (James Ricketson/Mag-
nolia Pictures and Discovery Films) and The Errant Aesthete.