"When the critics are more entertaining than the film..." A collection of choice quotes from Jon Henley in the Guardian.

Richard Rayner in the Los Angeles Times on "Sunnyside," Glen David Gold's followup to his bestselling novel, "Carter Beats the Devil": "There is, indeed, a cast of thousands, and Gold's problem in writing this impeccably researched book might have been the stuff he couldn't bear to leave out. The narrative, dramatizing the random and chance-like nature of newly arrived modernity, has little in the way of plot and shoots off in a bewildering number of directions, but the book keeps coming back to Chaplin and the nature and influence of film storytelling." More from Charles Matthews in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Catherine Grant presents a guide to "Classic Latin American film studies in memory of Mario Benedetti" and another: "'Final Girl' Studies."

Frank Perry's 1972 adaptation of Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays," "like many [films] of its era, gets caught between coolly dismissing the Hollywood counterculture and reaching into its bag of tricks with a smug excuse in reflexivity," writes Max Goldberg. "In some places, however, I found Perry's use of shock cuts and zooms compelling and, not a word one often lends these techniques, necessary."

"It's a point that many viewers miss, though it's difficult to blame them: Robert Altman's '3 Women' is really 'about' California, and quite distinctly so - it doesn't belong to its contentual municipality in the sense that, say, 'Nashville' does." Joseph "Jon" Lanthier in Bright Lights After Dark: "And it's not about the psycho-sprawl urban California of Los Angeles or the spittle, cardboard and tinsel California of Hollywood or the plugged culture retro-future sophistry California of San Francisco. It's about the other California, by which one means the smattering of middle-of-nowhere cities, always on the brink of suburbia these days, and always reminding us of somewhere else."

Acquarello: "In 'Nippon Modern: Japanese Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s,' Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano presents an insightful, multi-faceted analysis of Japan's interwar cinema within the context of Tokyo's rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (even as the process of industrialization had already been underway), in particular, the output of Shochiku Kamata Film Studio which, as the only studio in Tokyo remaining operational after the earthquake, continued to produce films during this transition period that embodied Japanese society's ambiguous relationship with modernization. To this end, Wada-Marciano examines the studio's prevailing representations of domestic and social spaces, the emerging middle-class, athletic competition, the modern girl (moga), nationalism, and ethnic identity that expressed the public's anxiety over Japan's rapid modernization, as well as the cultural transformation created by the country's international emergence ushered by the Meiji Restoration."

In the Independent, Gaynor Flynn talks with Charlie Kaufman about "Synecdoche, New York."

"I love Peter Parker," Sam Raimi tells Gina McIntyre in the Los Angeles Times. "I've always loved the 'Spider-Man' comics, and I feel like I still know more about the character that I think I can bring to the screen... What would I have done differently? I would have done everything differently, every single shot. I think in every picture that I've ever made. Everything that I've done torments me. I really would like another chance except I'd be too embarrassed to ever really try to do them again and no one would want to see the same movie just done differently."

"'Paul Newman: A Life' is a layered and absorbing portrait of how the actor's personal life differed from his public persona," writes S James Snyder for Time. "[Shawn] Levy paints Newman not just as a movie star but as a determined entrepreneur, family man and racer - a man who admitted mistakes as he made them, took advantage of good luck when it came his way, and did his best to turn both personal fortune and tragedy (his son died of a drug overdose in 1978) into productive public causes. Most Americans are well aware of Paul Newman the actor, but Levy makes a compelling case that there's much more to his life story that's worth celebrating."

"Summer of Salvation" is Chuck Wilson's "guide to the best cinema the season has to offer."

"William Selig is one of the unsung heroes of the early days of cinema in Los Angeles," writes Susan King in the Times. "Tonight, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrates the legacy of Selig and other early LA film pioneers - which culminated in 1914 with the release of the feature-length westerns, Cecil B DeMille's 'The Squaw Man' and Selig's 'The Spoilers' - with an evening of rarities from 1909 to 1912 titled 'Movies! Moguls! Monkeys! And Murder!' at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood."

"Summerscreen, the L's outdoor film series, returns to McCarren Park for six consecutive Wednesday evenings this July and August, for free screenings on the ballfields," announces Mark Asch.

In the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dennis Harvey previews "I Wake Up Dreaming: The Haunted World of the B Film Noir," running at the Roxie through May 28, while Cheryl Eddy looks ahead to the Bicycle Film Festival, running June 14 through 19, and Dante Lam's "The Beast Stalker," opening Friday.

In Slant, Fernando F Croce looks back on the San Francisco International Film Festival.

From Cannes: "Oleg Yankovsky took on the role of the Metropolitan Philip, the only adversary of Ivan the Terrible, in 'Tsar' by Pavel Lungin, an historical panorama presented in Un Certain Regard. Also known for his roles in films by Andreï Tarkovski, the Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky died of cancer this Wednesday in Moscow at the age of 65."

Online viewing tip #1. Peter Knegt's found video of John Cameron Mitchell discussing his next project, "Rabbit Hole," which will feature Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Diane Wiest and Sandra Oh.

Online viewing tip #2. Jamie Stuart for FilmInFocus: "Scott Hou from NYC record store Other Music discusses the doom metal bands featured prominently on 'The Limits of Control's' soundtrack, Earth, Sunn O))) and Boris."

Online viewing tips. "YouTube giveth, and YouTube taketh away; it's a real free-for-all, and it can never be contained." Dan Callahan goes on a cinephilic hunt for the L.

[Photo: Jacques Doillon]

Tags: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Charles Napier, Charlie Kaufman, Frank Perry, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Jacques Doillon, John Cameron Mitchell, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pina Bausch, Ramin Bahrani, Robert Altman, Sam Raimi, William Selig, Wim Wenders