Forget Redford, Hoffman and Watergate: ‘The Paper’ knows the news

About a year ago, I was forwarded a memo regarding my previous employer, Lowcountry Newspapers of the mammoth McClatchy Co., formerly one of the nation’s finer newspaper organizations. (Now, I’m not even sure if there is such a thing as a “fine newspaper organization.”) I left my job and moved to Atlanta in September 2008 amid several editor resignations as the specter of layoffs and cutbacks loomed over the company. An employee was nice enough to keep me updated on the paper’s progress.

2000-2009: Favorite filmmakers of the decade in no particular order

Wong Kar Wei

I said this about “My Blueberry Nights” (2007), and it remains true: Wong Kar Wei often makes movies that are better than movies better than his. His sometimes kinetic, sometimes ethereal flicks are more often visual poetry than bricks-and-mortar narrative, but Wong and his longtime partner, insane Aussie cinematographer Christopher Doyle, often construct the most arresting and moving images in movies today.

BEST FILM OF THE DECADE: “In the Mood for Love” (2000). Watch it. Hate it the first time you see it. Tell people Wong Kar Wei’s overrated. Watch it again. Realize it’s a masterpiece. Tell people it’s a masterpiece. Backtrack when they point out that you found it “overrated” not even two months ago. Tell them you were in a “different place” then. Tell everyone you told you hated it earlier that “you really need to see it twice to, you know, really get it.” Prepare for your friends to like you less.
BIGGEST MISCUE: “My Blueberry Nights” (2007)
GO-TO ACTOR: Tony Leung
FIRST PROJECT: The screenplay “Choi wan kuk” (1982), which translates to “Rainbow Cloud Song.” … It probably sucks.
UP NEXT? “The Grand Master” (2010), starring Tony Leung. A martial arts movie, I think.

The top 10 movies of 2009

I started making a 30-minute short film this year. Which means I stopped watching a lot of movies. There’s a heaping buttload I haven’t seen, but it is my general impression that most of the best stuff were small movies released quietly over the summer. And unless you were smart enough to check out the Tara in north Atlanta or the Plaza Theatre on Ponce, you missed out, and that sucks because I don’t think “Summer Hours,” in particular, is coming to DVD anytime soon.

The Top 10 so far and the craptastic, forthcoming fall movie season

So, it’s been an interesting first half of the moviegoing year. There’s been a decent number of fantastic movies, most of them surprises or lesser-known movies (which, actually, is a serious problem no matter how many cinephiles like championing shit you’ve never heard of). The last eight months were also the best shot you’ll have this year of seeing a wicked-awesome flick, but more on that in this very insightful hyperlink. Right now…

Dear Lakeshore: Let’s get crackin’ on the ‘Bandwagon’ DVD, please

One lazy weekend in high school, I was channel surfing through my family’s selection of, like, 10 HBO channels (before that became standard for everyone), and I remember settling on this movie. It’s a pretty cool movie, and I’d never seen a movie like it. It’s about a bunch of guys (with no future) who start a garage band called Circus Monkey, which, of course, is an awful name for a band, but it didn’t really matter because the music… Well, the music in this movie was pretty kick-ass. It’s all grunge-pop stuff from the mid-’90s, but it’s pretty awesome.