Odds: Doc to power, sexist Lane, nuking the fridge.

By Alison Willmore on 06/04/2008

The most interesting article amongst the ones from the new issue of Cineaste now up online is actually from the editors. The editorial, which I appreciate for its don't-stop-believin' sentiments but don't entirely buy, is entitled "Speaking Documentary Truth to Power," and argues that despite audiences' Iraqdoc fatigue, "political documentaries do get the attention of the powers that be":

We should therefore take hope from the fact that, as much as politicians in office try to hide it, distort it, or avoid dealing with it altogether, they cannot fail to recognize the truth, especially when documentary filmmakers so powerfully and persuasively speak it to the powers that be as well as an increasingly angry and concerned electorate.

Elsewhere, New York's Vulture blog responds to online clamor that Anthony Lane's review of "Intercourse and the Municipality" is sexist.

Peter Sciretta at /Film offers an "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"-inspired update of "jump the shark." Meet "nuke the fridge." From Urban Dictionary:

The term comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which, near the start of the movie, Harrison Ford's character survives a nuclear detonation by climbing into a kitchen fridge, which is then blown hundreds of feet through the sky whilst the town disintegrates. He then emerges from the fridge with no apparent injury. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.

Robert Sanchez at IESB reports that, despite all of the Edward Norton noise, Zak Penn will receive sole writing credit for "The Incredible Hulk."

Recall Roger Ebert's strange insistence that Alex Proyas' 1998 film "Dark City" was a masterpiece, and realize that ten years have passed, and the pattern is repeating itself with Tarsem's "The Fall," which, Ebert writes before adoringly interviewing the director, "will be on my list of the year's best films, and is setting box office records on the art house circuit."

And from the Hollywood Reporter, Showtime has picked up "Tara," the Diablo Cody-scripted comedy series that "stars Toni Collette as a wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder. John Corbett co-stars as her husband."

[Photo: Iraqdoc "No End in Sight," Magnolia Pictures, 2007]

+ Speaking Documentary Truth to Power (Cineaste)
+ Is Anthony Lane's 'SATC' Review Really Sexist? (New York)
+ Is "Nuke the Fridge" the New "Jump the Shark"? (/Film)
+ Zak Penn Receives Sole Writing Credit on THE INCREDIBLE HULK (IESB)
+ Tarsem and the legend of "The Fall" (RogerEbert.com)
+ Showtime picks up 'Tara' (Hollywood Reporter)