Shorts, 1/9.

By David Hudson on 01/09/2009

"While it may be tempting to approach 'Valkyrie' as 'Mission Impossible: the Prequel,' the film's depiction of its characters and recreation of its wartime Berlin settings are remarkably faithful to the historical record, and it serves as a fine introduction to the complex theme of German resistance." Anne Nelson, author of "Red Orchestra: The Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler," at Moving Image Source. "To dig deeper, though, one must turn to a long line of German films that depict various anti-Nazi movements under the Third Reich. Many of these films had to overcome grueling obstacles to make it to the big screen, but considered together, they shed valuable light on the politics of filmmaking in the two postwar Germanys." Related: LACMA's Dorothea Schoene and Allison Agsten on "Wallpaper in Art of Two Germanys."

"In a tiresome barrage of media analysis over the last several months, critics have dissected the Holocaust movie phenomenon with a mixture of contempt and jaded resignation," writes Eric Kohn, noting in the New York Press that, for all the hand-wringing, "There are no grandiose reevaluations or historic revelations stemming from the cinema. A year of many Holocaust movies appears to be one in which they cancel each other out."

In his recent piece for Dissent, "Dystopia and the End of Politics," Benjamin Kunkel's "argument is based on the belief that works of apocalyptic science-fiction are infecting literary fiction, like some sort of parasite or disease," writes Dan Jackson in the Tisch Film Review. "The characters of B+ cinema do not have much psychological depth and tormented inner-lives, but that's often the point. The characters in these films - like those inhabiting Kafka's bureaucratic nightmares, or those in Samuel Beckett's post-apocalyptic plays - are meant to reveal startling truths about human life that go beyond the types of ideas realism has to offer."

Reviewing "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Daniel Kasman considers "the recent trend in what I'm going to lazily call academicism in American film - chief practicers Steven Soderbergh and Todd Haynes, and maybe now David Fincher. Their telling signs are all the marks of intelligence in pre-production, in conceptualization, in idea and principle effort, but completely missing the point in execution. The resulting works - recently, 'I'm Not There,' 'Che' and 'Benjamin Button' - clearly made sense on paper, in storyboards, in pre-production discussion, but when the filmmakers put up all that thought on film (or on video) and you find works drained of vitality, true turmoil."

Also in the Auteurs' Notebook: "[Jean] Grémillon was a busy, well-regarded filmmaker from the late 20s to the late 40s (with a few obscure years on either end), whose reputation seems to have been eclipsed by time alone - no critical downgrading occurred, just collective amnesia." David Cairns on "Maldone" (1928).

"Groundbreaking in its scope and focus, the faculty [of the Center for Media Studies in Buffalo] included filmmakers Hollis Frampton, Tony Conrad, Paul Sharits and James Blue, video artists Steina and Woody Vasulka and Peter Weibel." Caitlin Jones for Rhizome: "The book 'Buffalo Heads: Media Study, Media Practice, Media Pioneers, 1973 - 1990,' edited by Woody Vasulka and Peter Weibel, thoroughly documents the people and activities that were a part of this highly influential center. Part exhibition catalog (a similarly titled exhibition 'Mind Frames: Media Study at Buffalo 1973 - 1990' was mounted at ZKM in 2007), part catalog raisonné, and part coffee table book, and coming in at 837 pages and almost 10 lbs, it could be called the definitive text on this place and period."

David Berry in Vue Weekly on "Died Young, Stayed Pretty": "Maybe the most striking thing about [Eileen] Yaghoobian's documentary about the men and women who make gig posters is the (rather fitting, considering the aw-shucks and/or fuck-off attitude of the indie rock that's at the center of this collection) utter lack of pretension: while in some cases that translates to a sort of dimwitted ineloquence, for the most part it comes across as an honestly excited, curious, creative spirit, one engaged with it work without taking it too solemnly, and without needing an academic framework."

"No aspect of [John F] Kennedy's legacy is more hotly debated than what the president might have done in southeast Asia, and 'Virtual JFK' sets out to prove that he would have ultimately rejected [Robert] McNamara's counsel and pulled out," writes JR Jones in the Chicago Reader. "The video won't end the debate, but it does raise the potent question of whether Obama - who, like JFK, has surrounded himself with the smartest people he could find - will have the self-assurance to ignore them when they're wrong." Also reviewed is the "Robert Drew Kennedy Films Collection."

"Can Jack Bauer make it in the age of Obama?" asks Edward Wyatt. "When '24' begins its seventh season on Sunday with a two-night, four-hour premiere, much will have changed in the world since Bauer was last on the job. The show opens with Bauer testifying before a Senate committee investigating the use of torture by his dismantled Counter Terrorist Unit, and the producers face the daunting task of acknowledging that the public's view of Bauer's methods might have changed without sacrificing their hero and making him renounce all that he has stood for." More from Alessandra Stanley. Related: Billy Parker interviews Janeane Garofalo for Gothamist.

Back in the New York Times:

• For Manohla Dargis, "Bride Wars" is "a dopey if largely painless romantic comedy with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway as best friends forever who turn into best enemies forever because of a wedding day glitch." More from Jeffrey M Anderson (Cinematical), Melissa Anderson (Time Out New York), Sean Axmaker (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), Alonso Duralde (MSNBC), Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Rick Groen (Globe and Mail), Reyhan Harmanci (San Francisco Chronicle), Ann Hornaday (Washington Post), Robert Horton (Herald), Wendy Ide (London Times), Mary Pols (Time), Nathan Rabin (AV Club), Tim Robey (Telegraph), Nick Schager (Slant) and Stephanie Zacharek (Salon).

• "'Not Easily Broken,' a melodrama of marital difficulty directed by Bill Duke, is based on a novel by TD Jakes, pastor of the Potter's House megachurch in Dallas and a powerhouse of that ever-expanding zone of American life in which religion, therapy and popular culture intersect," writes AO Scott. "'I don't want to go all Oprah on you,' a character says at one point, but Mr Jakes is doing a version of just that, advancing a more overtly Christian, and more frankly patriarchal, version of Oprah Winfrey's message of empathy, resilience and forgiveness." More from Justin Berton (San Francisco Chronicle), Ann Hornaday (Washington Post), Robert Horton (Herald), Nathan Rabin (AV Club) and Hank Sartin (Time Out New York).

• Brooks Barnes: "As Hollywood heads into the heart of its awards season, America's annual orgy of pop-culture glamour, movie stars and their handlers have a decision to make: to preen or not to preen."

"I've always been fascinated by the mechanics of certain kinds of performance," writes Dan North, "particularly the intricacies of the best kung fu films, or a well-worked slapstick routine, so I thought I'd have another look at some of the motifs that structure Chaplin's physical action in 'City Lights.'"

"Why is it so hard to get a good variety show on TV these days?" Robert Faires asks Carol Burnett in the Austin Chronicle.

"My big Bollywood break came while I was walking down a side street in Mumbai, talking on a cell phone to a man named Imran," writes David Segal in Slate. "Bollywood requires a few dozen Western extras every day, to add vérité to crowd scenes in ostensibly exotic locales. Imran's job is to find foreigners and chaperon them to Film City, an expansive badlands of rocks and shrubs at the northern edge of this megalopolis, where most of India's movies are made."

LA Weekly runs a collection of "For Your Reconsideration" pieces this week: Ella Taylor reconsiders Kate Winslet and interviews Michael Sheen (more from Christina Patterson in the Independent) and Eddie Marsan, while Chuck Wilson meets Viola Davis. Meantime: "One of the most savvy of long-time New Times watchers once told me - years ago - 'the guys who run these newspapers run them like they already know the shut-down date.' It seems they now might finally get their wish." For media watchers, Marc Cooper's "LA Weekly: The Autopsy Report" is a must-read. And it closes with an update: "Here is Nat Hentoff's just-published farewell column at the Village Voice. Take all of the geniuses who now run the NewTimes/VVM chain, stack them head-to-head, and they don't make it past Nat's navel." Via Movie City News. Earlier: "LA Weekly @ 30."

"Like 'A Christmas Tale' (Arnaud Desplechin, 2008), with which 'Summer Hours' forms a diptych of sorts (as each centers on the return of family members to their parental home) 'Summer Hours' brings a family into vivid existence," write Michael J Anderson and Lisa K Broad. "Of course, 'Summer Hours's differences with 'A Christmas Tale' are far more instructive than its similarities: [Olivier] Assayas's film is all subtlety, refinement, economy and silence; it refuses temporal disjunction and stylistic disunity. To contrast, 'A Christmas Tale' possesses the impulse to tell everything; the narrative is constantly moving beyond itself in its many acts of digression. Yet in both cases, this is contemporary French cinema at its very best."

Mark Brown has the latest on Sam Taylor-Wood's feature debut, "Nowhere Boy," about the young John Lennon "and the women who helped shape him": Kristin Scott-Thomas will play Lennon's "formidable aunt Mimi." The screenplay, by the way, "has been penned by Matt Greenhalgh, who won acclaim - as well as a Bafta - for his script for 'Control,' the 2007 biopic of Joy Division's lead singer Ian Curtis."

Also in the Guardian:

• "A Stephen King fan has published an 80-page version of the book which novelist Jack Torrance obsessively writes during King's 'The Shining.'" reports Alison Flood. Yes, it's "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" for 80 pages, "but formatting each page differently, using the words to create different shapes from zigzags to spirals."

• Flood again: "Despondent Tolkien fans forced to wait until at least 2010 for the release of the film version of 'The Hobbit' will be cheered by the news that the author's previously unpublished retelling of a Norse legend also adapted by Wagner to create the Ring cycle is to be published for the first time this May."

• "Like 'The Reader,' 'Revolutionary Road' features Kate Winslet getting naked, is adapted from an acclaimed novel and is directed by someone who made his name in British theatre," notes Anne Billson. "One such film is happenstance; two practically constitutes a genre, and I think I've finally worked out what that genre is. It's Films for People Who Don't Really Like Films." Related: Esther Walker gives Independent readers a quick primer on Richard Yates. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio will star in an adaptation of Josh Bazell's novel "Beat the Reaper," reports Michael Fleming for Variety.

• Johnny McDevitt on "'Mickey B,' the Educational Shakespeare Company's adaptation of the jet-black tragedy 'Macbeth,' shot in HMP Maghaberry in Northern Ireland. 24 of the 25-strong cast are still behind bars - and probably will be for a long time. In this version of 'Macbeth,' usurpations are carried out with shanks, paid for with packs of Golden Virginia tobacco and the poison of choice is LSD, not hemlock."

In the Herald, Robert Horton talks with Darren Aronofsky about "The Wrestler"; Charles Mudede in the Stranger: "Like a thick and ugly wrestler ('the Bastard'), the plot puts a chokehold on the first and best 30 minutes of the film ('the Ram'), and tries to squeeze the life out of it. But somehow the first 30 minutes breaks free, climbs the ropes, rises, and prepares to fall on the prone plot: The best part of the movie wins the contest."

For Time Out Chicago, Jake Malooley has a quick talk with Ian Dingman about his hand-drawn artwork for Criterion's release of Wes Anderson's "Bottle Rocket."

Here at IFC, Stephen Saito examines the "Curious Cameography of Matt Damon."

Let's go to the movies with Flickhead ("A barbecued chicken?!? And two six-packs? Yipes, we're truly in Harpo territory now") and Larry Aydlette ("I can remember seeing the trailer for Alan Rudolph's 'Choose Me' at the Naro - ah, all that night and neon - and practically salivating until it finally screened").

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: "Married to the Mob."

"Can awards attention turn serious dramas into money-makers?" asks John Horn in the Los Angeles Times. And what or whom does "the return of the 'platform release'" really serve, wonders Ray Pride in Newcity Chicago.

"It's a Zhang Ziyi scandal again." Grady Hendrix reports. Also: "Colin Geddes has linked to a massive arsenal of ultra-awesome graphic design weaponry. Yes, the power is in the hands of the people, and Chinese internet users have started designing their very own Criterion Collection DVD boxes for popular Asian films."

Online listening tip. Paul Matwychuk on Sam Fuller's "White Dog."

Online viewing tip #1. Mike D'Angelo's got one that won him his sixth "What the Hell Was That?" award at Chris E's Movie Clip Party.

Online viewing tip #2. Ben Slater's "interior.room.night."

Online viewing tip #3. "When the Silent Film Institute calls, your phone doesn't ring." You Look Nice Today, foley artists, introduce themselves. Via Jason Kottke.

Online viewing tip #4. From Jason Morehead: "Skaters + Explosions + Spike Jonze = Fully Flared."

Online viewing tips. From Ideas: "An animator has posted nearly 250 clips on YouTube featuring images of great departed poets animated 'in the style of old, scratchy movies' to show them 'reading' their work. Fascinating? Creepy? Both?" Both.

Tags: Dita Von Teese, IFC, Indie Sex