The amazing thing about blogging is that just when you think about posting regarding one subject, something else comes up which makes you decide to seismically shift what you were planning initially.
Yesterday, I almost fell out of my chair while watching CNN when I heard George W. Bush tell Turkish President Abdullah Gul that Turkey, my late father Mehmet Gokbudak's country, should be admitted into the European Union.
I found myself almost shocked to be in full agreement with a president that I have disliked tremendously.
Later, I found that he signed a federal bill sponsored by Charles Schumer (D-NY) that makes it harder for mentally ill people to get guns. Wow!
Surely, he will say something later in the week that will make me reread George McGovern's "Washington Post" editorial about why he must be impeached. But, right now, he at least temporarily has my good will. And, I now feel that if elected Mitt Romney would actually be even worse.
This leads me to tonight's subject. Yesterday, I mentioned Nathan Lee's surprising revelation that "Village Voice" critic Nathan Lee felt that the Adam Sandler-Kevin James film "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" was one of the ten best films of the year.
I saw that film as part of a double-bill with "Bourne Ultimatum" at the Eden Drive-In in Eden, NC, this August.
My friend New York film critic/filmmaker Bilge Ebiri wrote an excellent endorsement on Facebook for that film's director Paul Greengrass who directed the controversial, yet magnificent film "United 93" last year. He said that Greengrass fully deserves an Oscar nomination for Ultimatum.
I liked the latest in the Matt Damon series, which is based on thriller novels by Robert Ludlum. In fact, I almost gave it an 8 out of 10, but ultimately I felt that the limits of the genre ultimately prevented Ultimatum from being a truly great film. The ending was a bit too predictable for my tastes, and I thought that Julia Stiles was perhaps slightly miscast in a pivotal supporting role.
Ebiri slightly differs from my view for he feels that Greengrass expanded the film from all the conventional trappings of the spy thriller. He also feels that the choices Greengrass were more far more bold and original than those of a well-established action film director like Peter Hyams (who has directed at least one Jean Claude Van Damme film) would go with.
Ebiri also said (paraphrase) that Greengrass did not rely on the gimmicks that most action directors would go with, thus making his direction among the most splendid efforts of the year.
It is an interesting viewpoint, and Ultimatum was ranked #25 in "The Village Voice" film critics' poll.
Ebiri's own choice for the best film of 2007 radically differs from Ultimatum. He chose the sweet, moving (yet highly political) Iranian film "Offside" by Jafar Panahi about a teenage girl who sneaks into a Tehran soccer stadium. As one might expect, there is not a single car crash in that film. In fact, I'm not sure there has been even one car chase in the entire history of Iranian cinema.
Ebiri has also written extensively on Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci and the late Turkish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney, a highly political figure whose film was being considered for a film by Turkish German director Fatih Akin of "Head-On" fame.
One can find Ebiri's writings on those directors through the Australian internet film journal "Senses of Cinema."
He is also the director of the independent film "New Guy" which is a filmation of a Kafkaesque nightmare set in the confines of a 'Dilbert'* environment.
Useful links:
http://www.sensesofcinema.com
*-For those who might be blogging in from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, "Dilbert" is an American comic strip by Scott Adams, which is set in an office.
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1 comment:
I have to STRONGLY disagree with Bilge. Greengrass ruined that film with his show offy, over direction. It was ADD filmmaking that even Michael Bay would feel is too much.
While I loved UNITED 93, Greengrass should not be praised for BOURNE because of his MTV style direction that dumbed down the material. This cheapening of the medium of film should not be enabled.
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