comment #1

The Winchester says ...

Is Munich 2 on the horizon?

comment #2

Scott Feinberg says ...

If this is true--and I mean this genuinely--then can people deduce which films are being championed and which are being hated on this year by people like Wells, Poland, Stone, Thompson, Tapley, or others, including myself? I'm interested to see if a consensus exists about this sort of thing, or if perhaps Wells and others see what they want to see, as opposed to what others see.

comment #3

JD says ...

Anyone who feels the need to preemptively "take down" a Paul Thomas Anderson film -- particularly one with the trailer and potential of this one -- is a fucking idiot.

comment #4

Craig Kennedy says ...

I didn't see Jeremy Smith as gunning for There Will Be Blood in this piece. Did I misunderstand what Wells is saying?

People would gun for PTA because he's interesting. To be interesting you have to go against the grain. To go against the grain you have to annoy at least half of the people.

Pick any critically acclaimed artist who hasn't achieved full mainstream success and you'll stir up large numbers of seemingly intelligent people who hate them.

comment #5

gruver1 says ...

Wells to cjKennedy: I sense a sublimated excitement in Smith at the prospect of drilling "There Will Be Blood" if and when it's called for. I just feel the deep-down interest in his wanting to do this...if.

comment #6

admiralmpj says ...

There is, of course, another solution to this mess. Skip the friggin' film.

I am an avowed Crash hater. I don't like, nor trust Paul Haggis, so...viola...I'm not going to see his new film, and my money stays in my pocket.

Can't say anything bad about In The Valley Of Elah if you haven't seen it...

comment #7

Dave says ...

Jeff, while your post is accurate, you could at least lend a little intellectual honesty by associating yourself with this tendency.

Or are we supposed to forget your own itchy trigger finger on Atonement? Or your eagerness to dismiss any and all Peter Jackson/Steven Spielberg projects made in this century?

I can tell from the previews which movies you are going to hate and which ones you are going to love. Unfortunately, the only reason I can do this is because you're the very next person to judge the movies based on your "gut feelings," sight unseen.

It's okay that you do that, Jeff. No, really. And I'll still call you a "professional" for doing that.

But c'mon, if the pot is black, the kettle's gotta own up too, man.

comment #8

MiraJeffAICN says ...

I completely agree, once again, Jeff, especially with regard to Elah. Haggis gave the haters enough ammo to warrant their negative reactions. The flag ending and the Lennox song are both bad moves. But it still kills me that once the words Haggis and Elah cross my lips people always bring up the point about the ending but completely forget about the preceding 2 hours. Like I've said numerous times before, Elah has its flaws, but I've seen a lot of the prestige pictures this year and none of them have moved me quite like Elah did. Haggis just knows exactly how to push my buttons, and while the film is dying a quick death at the box office, I suspect it will sneak back up on people around X-Mas/New Yrs. The release date was just all wrong. It was actually rather egregious. WIP was sitting on gold, tarnished or not, and they blew it. I really hope they re-release it or roll out a bare-bones DVD because Elah got the shaft and certainly not the love it deserved.

comment #9

MAGGA says ...

Munich. Best movie of its year, you had to try to take it down, and felt pride in it. Still makes me sick. Hate bitching in the forum, but that was my least favouriste thing in this blog ever.

comment #10

Craig Kennedy says ...

cjKennedy to Wells: You might be totally right, yet I couldn't help but wonder if your own proclivity towards harboring agendas causes you to see them where they aren't.

"Harboring agendas" is prehaps too strong, but you definitely seem to build up preconceived notions even if you're better than some at lettig them go. 3:10 to Yuma comes to mind immediately. You seemed to have it out for that movie for months in advance. First it was the chicken grease and then it was the fruity one-sheet. You finally warmed up to the movie, but you never seemed to really get over the hump with it and you still have reservations.

Haggis hater to MiraJeff. I definitely had knives drawn for Elah, but I've been more than fair to it. In the big picture that means exactly nothing, but in my close circle of friends and family it means a lot. I can absolutely see why it moved you so much and I'm recommending it to people even if my own opinion has cooled a little.

Endings are a bitch and this one dropped the ball by overreaching.

comment #11

bmcintire says ...

I also got the feeling that Jeff was willing to take a dump on INTO THE WILD because it was perceived as being better accepted by audiences (or rubes, as he is more likely to call them) than was THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES. . .

comment #12

Josh Massey says ...

Seriously, I know it's been said, but I can't believe Wells is making this argument. I can see somebody making it against him, but geez...

comment #13

KeithNYC says ...

Wells is the same way. He cant wait to jump on Spielberg and has a complete blind spot on Michael Mann. I went to see Miami Vice b/c I generally agree with Wells and love the passion behind his reviews. I walked out of the theatre stunned by its badness. Munich on the other hand, a challenging and brilliant film that is only getting better with time.

comment #14

Kristopher Tapley says ...

Call me crazy - but I get the feeling this year's Best Actor race is gonna be a showdown between Depp and Day-Lewis, so maybe there's something to all this.

comment #15

lazarus says ...

If Depp ever wins an award over Day-Lewis, the legitimacy of the Academy's taste will drop to a new low.

Not in a million years could Depp approach the level of craft and talent that DDL has.

Hopefully DDL will win every award under the sun a la Helen Mirren so it won't even come down to a close race.

comment #16

shanana says ...

That part in Munich where that dude is bangin' his wife and having a flashback to an event he was never at. That was totally, like, deep and stuff. He was tormented and shit.

comment #17

Flynn says ...

I agree with cjKennedy. I have sensed a warpath for Yuma from you Jeff. Only a week ago you were saying that Yuma was gonna peter out at the box office at 40M. Now its at 45 and still in the top 5.

comment #18

Jeremy Smith says ...

Being human, I have allowed a foul mood to color my take on a movie once or twice, but I have never walked into a film ready to "take it down". Just because I won't excuse PTA for his failings as a screenwriter doesn't mean I'm out to get him. On a strictly formal level, I think he's the most gifted filmmaker of my generation.

I guess I should be thankful that you didn't associate me with the most vile Palance villain of them all: Jeremy Prokosch. "I like gods. I like them very much. I know exactly how they feel."

comment #19

Dan Revill says ...

I am reminded of a Get Fuzzy comic strip from way back:

http://tinyurl.com/2bcohv

comment #20

Larry says ...

Critics always have their darlings and their villains. People will give a extra break to, say, Bill Murray, even when he does weak work, but some people have the stink of uncool around them and hip critics are afraid to say anything nice.

PTA showed a lot of promise with Hard Eight and did wonders with Boogie Nights, but he's done nothing but crap since. I'll still be there for his latest, but I admit I'm starting to have my doubts about this guy.

comment #21

MiraJeffAICN says ...

Larry, I now pronounce you mildly retarded. I wasn't a fan of PTA's PDL either but calling Magnolia crap should be a sin. Magnolia fuckin' rocks bro. Give it another chance.

comment #22

Josh Massey says ...

"If Depp ever wins an award over Day-Lewis, the legitimacy of the Academy's taste will drop to a new low."

Oh come on, you're talking like Johnny Depp is Chris Klein. Relax.

And Mirajeff: please never defend Magnolia again by saying it "fuckin' rocks bro." I almost hate it now.

comment #23

gatsby1040 says ...

Yeah, Jeff is way above premptively "taking someone down." He's totally never done anything like that COUGH spielberg COUGH wes anderson COUGH

Darjeeling Limited is pretty terrific, by the way. That is, unless you have a grudge against its director, and/or wish he was making something more like There Will Be Blood... which is kind of like telling Woody Allen he should make Transformers.

comment #24

Joe Leydon says ...

Jeff: You're being ironic, right?

comment #25

MAGGA says ...

Puch-Drunk Love is masterful. If There Will Be Blood even comes near it I will be in movie heaven. Same goes for Magnolia and Boogie Nights.

comment #26

christian says ...

"Directors don't get to be directors without knowing something about human nature."

unless they're clueless rubes like peter jackson or steven spielberg.

comment #27

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Leydon and all the others who brought up the pot calling the kettle black: I stand by the piece but yeah, it takes one to know one. But when my pre-viewing, neg-head attitudes have been proved wrong by the film, I've always stood up and said so.

comment #28

Craig Kennedy says ...

Wells. You have capitulated more than once, and this sycophantic agreement would hold a lot more water if I could think of a specific recent example...because I know there was one.

Can anyone help me here?

comment #29

sardine says ...

Jeff, you did you best to trash Marie Antoinette, and believe me the Coppola Family will remember that.

comment #30

Flynn says ...

Uh, no Jeff. You don't fess up and say you're wrong when you are. Not unless the tide of evidence is so overwelming that you are being humiliated and professionally hurt by your silence. Your behaviors and accountability have more to do with the Bush press office Washington punditry than you would ever want to believe.

comment #31

Zimmergirl says ...

"And Mirajeff: please never defend Magnolia again by saying it "fuckin' rocks bro." I almost hate it now." Actually laughed out loud at that.

I did not get anything from Jeremy Smith that he is anxious to "take down" TWBB. What I see is an odd sort of pumping up and hyping of the film on this site, which usually means either Wells is friends with the director or else has seen the movie and loved it. But this time, dunno.

comment #32

Dan Revill says ...

Well in the case of Atonement you did retract your previous takedown mentality, but come on, you're never going to give Spielberg or Lucas or Jackson a chance. I think you've made that abundantly clear over the years.

comment #33

OddDuck says ...

The most recent example I can think of is Wells' rave review of Atonement. He wrote an incredible review and praised Knightley, saying her performance in it completely changed his formerly negative opinion of her as an actress. And this was after several weeks of Wells posts mocking the movie, saying that the other positive reviews of it were biased, and that the main actor had an ugly nose.

I can't think of other particular examples, but am positive he's done this at least a few other times as well.

comment #34

Joel says ...

After calling Jackson's King Kong the death of cinema, Jeff briefly came around on the film to say it was an amazing ride after the first hour, but then turned things wholly negative again fairly quickly.

Granted, saying a third of a movie is terrible isn't that great even if the other two-thirds is great.

Also, King Kong isn't that great, so I don't really care either way. Really, how many people who purchased Kong on DVD regularly pull it off the shelf? Or... ever have?

comment #35

christian says ...

jeff was gunning for GRINDHOUSE too but his review of DEATH PROOF was a positive rave.

comment #36

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Sardine: How do you know how the Coppola family has some kind of contract out on Hollywood Elsewhere because of my "Marie Antoinette" and "Lost in Translation" reactions? The wise people know it is folly to wake up each morning seeking revenge and blood. God's metaphor teaches the wisest to rise afresh and start all over each day, and to cherish the time we have on this planet. The Coppola family are not gangsters -- they're not the Corleones. At least I don't think so. Do you know something I don't?

comment #37

Craig Kennedy says ...

Yes. Atonement and especially Kiera Knightley. Thank you fine people of Hollywoodelsewheresylvania.

But Jeff, do this reader a favor and just admit you had it out for Marie-Antoinette from day one purely out of a lingering resentment that (in your opinion) Lost in Translation was overrated.

Seriously. You'll feel better. It's good for the soul.

comment #38

George Prager says ...

I still have it out for WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? I'll get to it someday.

comment #39

gruver1 says ...

Wells to cjKennedy: I had a bad attitude going in about "Marie Antoinette" because "Lost in Translaton" reiterated what I strongly suspected after seeing "The Virgin Suicides," which is that Sofia Coppola isn't my kind of director. I might have rolled with "Antoinette" if Coppola had chosen to dramatize what was actually interesting about Antoinette -- the last chapter of her life when she showed her mettle, and showed who she really was -- instead of what was shallow and puerile about her. Coppola, of course, chose to emphasize the aspect that she related to the most personally -- the part about living in privilege, being expected to play a part that was not of her own devising, and free to dive into a closet full of super-cool clothes and a pair of pink Converse All-Stars.

comment #40

Craig Kennedy says ...

Wells. Interesting. I was just as skeptical about Coppola post-Virgin Suicides (I'm pretty sure I even said something stupid like "Yeah, if my dad was Francis Ford Coppola, I could've made that too"), but Lost in Translation knocked me out. It's fair to say it colored my positive response to Marie-Antoinette which I admit I don't share with many people I know.

I think I could make the same argument about Haggis that you make about Sofia Coppola: just not my kind of director.

And I wonder how many of these critics who are waiting to trash a picture could say the same thing. Sometimes an actor or director is like fingernails on a chalk board. Kryptonite. You can't be open minded because you're just not buying what they're selling.

comment #41

Ogami Itto says ...

"jeff was gunning for GRINDHOUSE too but his review of DEATH PROOF was a positive rave."

... And then that positive rave turned into a negative rant about Tarantino.

I guess QT didn't send Wells any "extra footage" of Vanessa Ferlito shaking her ass in DEATH PROOF.