Odds: Tuesday - United? Or not.

By Alison Willmore on 04/04/2006

Today's possible mountain-out-of-molehill — Sharon Waxman in the New York Times follows up on the Manhattan theater that pulled the "United 93" trailer after patrons complained that it was too upsetting, and Universal Studios states its intentions to stand by its promo, keeping the trailer in theaters. And off we officially trample into the first summer of 9/11 blockbusters — Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" is set to open in August.

In the Korea Times, Kim Tae-jong has a quick review of Song Il-gon's ("Spider Forest") latest: "The Magicians," which follows three former band-mates, reuniting to commemorate the death of their guitarist three years ago, and which is filmed entirely in one long, 90-minute take. Over at Like Anna Karina's Sweater, Filmbrain has a great post about early Kim Ki-duk effort "Real Fiction," which, incidentally, was shot without any retakes — he also raises some interesting points about Kim's rise to fame in the Western world and the great debate about his relative directorial hackishness. And, on the topic of interesting early work (for us, these are practically smooth transitions here), Slate's Hua Hsu tackles the early work of Wayne Wang, particularly 1979's "Chan is Missing," who was so promising before he decided to put Lasse Hallström to shame in terms of the embarrassing career dive — "Because of Winn-Dixie"?! The movie was named after a supermarket!

But, of course, that's nothing on recently announced Tom Hanks film "How Starbucks Saved My Life" (the title makes our soul hurt) (though it is to be directed by Gus Van Sant) (though Van Sant seems to have gotten his arty jollies out for the time being), which prompts Hugo Rifkind at the London Times to propose five possible plots for more corporation-adoring films.

In the Telegraph, John Turturro talks to Benjamin Secher about "Nights of Cabiria":

"What I got out of 'Nights of Cabiria,'" he continues, "is almost more like something you would get out of a novel." His scene-stealingly expressive face crumples into a frown. "A short novel maybe." He pauses. "A short great novel."

"Fellini didn't have that kind of stormy Italian element to him. 'Nights of Cabiria' in particular has a vibrancy that is very transporting. I walked out of the cinema after seeing it for the first time and felt like I'd just gone to church."

And in the New York Observer, Andrew Sarris calls Sidney Lumet's "Find Me Guilty" the director's "crowning masterpiece" — quite the claim, consider Lumet's career.

+ Universal Will Not Pull 'United 93' Trailer, Despite Criticism (NY Times)
+ 'Magicians' Plays Tricks on Audience (Korea Times)
+ Before Kim Ki-duk Changed Seasons, Pimped Teen Prostitutes, or Played Golf (Like Anna Karina's Sweater)
+ Wayne Wang Is Missing (Slate)
+ I'll have a skinny storyline... (London Times)
+ Film-makers on film: John Turturro on Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957) (Telegraph)
+ Diesel Does Criminal Comedy In Lumet’s Latest Masterpiece (NY Observer)