Links for the Day (October 7th, 2008)

1. GreenCine gathers the first spate of W. reviews.

["Oliver Stone's unusual and inescapably interesting W. feels like a rough draft of a film it might behoove him to remake in 10 or 15 years," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "The director's third feature to hinge on a modern-era presidency, after JFK and Nixon, offers a clear and plausible take on the current chief executive's psychological makeup and, considering Stone's reputation and Bush's vast unpopularity, a relatively even-handed, restrained treatment of recent politics. For a film that could have been either a scorching satire or an outright tragedy, W. is, if anything, overly conventional, especially stylistically. The picture possesses dramatic and entertainment value, but beyond serious filmgoers curious about how Stone deals with all this president's men and women, it's questionable how wide a public will pony up to immerse itself in a story that still lacks an ending."]

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2. "Press gets sneak peek at upcoming 'Watchmen'": I know some of our readership were among the press invited. Do dish in comments below, or link to your respective pieces when they're up.

["Who watched some of "Watchmen"? Select members of the press. That's who."]

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3. "Eureka!": House contributor Lauren Wissot debuts at Theater Online.

["Hanon Reznikov died this past spring before he could complete The Living Theatre’s latest production “Eureka,” based on a prose poem by Edgar Allan Poe. Like Hanon (who studied biophysics at Yale before he found his calling with the troupe) Poe was interested in the synthesis of art and science, penning a work that explores the creation of the universe from Big Bang to end (at a time when most scientists disavowed such visionary thinking). But the tell-tale heart of art carries on, and thanks to Judith Malina who has finished her partner’s work, transformed Poe’s poem into not a play but prose for the stage, Hanon’s legacy continues in a thrilling multimedia production infused with that collective spirit he fell in love with forty years ago."]

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4. "In which I alienate all of my relatives forever by working for a Democratic presidential candidate and start the first South Dakota Dark pledge drive": If you can find it in your heart to help a House-er out. Best of luck, Todd! Let us know if you're in NY on your road trip.

["So this summer? Really fell down on the blogging job. Now, there's a long explanation as to why this happened and what's going to come in the future (which I'll write ... someday), but I had really planned on picking everything up again this fall. You may have noticed that hasn't happened (outside of some excellent posts by Simon and Jon). There's a good reason for this. You see, I am going to Evansville, Indiana to help Barack Obama get elected. I have a number of reasons I'm going to do this, but they boil down to three main points."]

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5. "Evil Grows...": House-man Jeremiah Kipp on Exorcist rip-off Beyond the Door.

["After this clunky extended prologue, it soon becomes apparent that Jessica is pregnant with the devil’s spawn, which affects her in the ways genre fans have come to expect: pea-soup projectile vomiting, shouting obscenities in a freaky voice that is not her own and spinning her head 360 degrees like Linda Blair. She takes to levitating around the apartment, doorways and furniture start gaining minds of their own and the eyes of her children’s dolls start to glow. Her long-suffering husband, who is advised by his wife’s doctor to avoid calling a psychiatrist (since it might upset her), finds himself stalked through the streets by Dimitri, who eerily intones, over and over again, “The child must be born!”"]

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Quote of the Day: Jean Giraudoux

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Thinking of microwaving that frozen dinner? Don't.



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Clip of the Day: One of my favorites at NYFF 46, the revival of Guy Debord's in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni. Below, the first ten minutes with Italian subtitles.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.