Todd McCarthy of Variety, saying something that absolutely needs to be said about the upcoming crop of "serious" fall films:
"Based on what I've seen so far, particularly at the Toronto Film Festival, I'm in no rush to see the rest of the Iraq-centered fiction films (as opposed to documentaries) Hollywood will be serving up in the coming months, simply because I think I know exactly where they're coming from and that I'm not going to learn anything new from them... No matter the specific qualities of the writing, filmmaking and performances; the problem for me is that all these films emanate from precisely the same mindset, the safest, least provocative attitude it is possible to have: the war sucks, Bush sucks, America is down the tubes.This doesn't mean McCarthy disagrees that the Iraq war is a disaster, that Bush sucks, etc.; I don't disagree either. But that doesn't mean pretentious films arguing exactly that are automatically good. Check out this review by David Edelstein of Paul Haggis' "In the Valley of Elah" (which I'm seeing tonight). As Ross Douthat pointed out, Edelstein pretty much agreed the movie was horribly made, but gave it a positive review because it "had its heart in the right place." Posted by Stephen Silver at September 18, 2007 04:46 PM
Does anyone in Hollywood think anything different than this? According to polls, more than 60% of Americans also agree."
I have no interest in the Haggis movie but I did hear John Cusak does his best work in Grace is Gone..let me know if you get to screen that
Posted by: A at September 18, 2007 08:45 PM