Criterion is releasing a 4K-scanned, digitally restored Night of the Living Dead Bluray on 2.13.18. Restored by the Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation and the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation — great. But how much better can this 1968 black-and-white cheapie look? Get real.

I love NOTLD, but it wasn’t shot by Vittorio Storaro or Gordon Willis or Conrad Hall or the ghost of Gregg Toland. (Director & co-writer George Romero handled the 35mm lensing.) It was just a fast little indie, shot on the fly.

I’ve seen a couple of upgraded versions over the last decade or so. I’m very glad that a 4K Criterion version will soon be available for one and all, but what kind of “bump” can realistically be expected?

An 11.16.95 article by Knight-Ridder’s Doug Nye, titled “Night Of The Living Dead Is Brought Back To Life”:

“The movie was criticized for its ‘amateurish visual style.’ Some critics speculated that Living Dead had been shot on 16mm film and then blown up to 35mm for theatrical release. Actually Romero shot the movie on 35mm film stock, but the independent film distributors of the day showed very little concern about quality when it came to making prints of a film.

“Romero was always troubled by the fact that few people ever saw the original Living Dead the way it was meant to be seen.

“…that is not particularly acute.” In other words, fraying, undisciplined, wackadoodle.

From Ezra Klein‘s 12.29 Vox piece, “Incoherent, Authoritarian, Uninformed: Trump’s New York Times interview Is A Scary Read“:

“Imagine how we would react to literally any other president speaking like this. Trump has bludgeoned us into becoming accustomed to these kinds of comments but that, too, is worrying.

“This is the President of the United States speaking to the New York Times. His comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing and underinformed.

“This is not a partisan judgment — indeed, the interview is rarely coherent or specific enough to classify the points Trump makes on a recognizable left-right spectrum. [And] I am not a medical professional, and I will not pretend to know what is truly happening here. It’s become a common conversation topic in Washington to muse on whether the president is suffering from some form of cognitive decline or psychological malady. Whatever the cause, it is plainly obvious from Trump’s words that this is not a man fit to be president, that he is not well or capable in some fundamental way.”

This sort of thing always tests relationships that are grounded in commercial filmmaking, creativity and collaboration. This isn’t my business and I’m not a gossip columnist, but if I were Noah Baumbach I might be feeling….what, a bit twitchy about this? Not necessarily “resentful” but not, shall we say, entirely at peace. By the way: I never realized that Baumbach’s brilliant Greenberg (’10), which delivers a very particular kind of neurotic morose humor and which is known for being something of a bust, grossed more than the two Baumbach-Gerwig collaborations, Frances Ha (’13) and Mistress America (’15), the latter being a crackerjack modern-day farce a la His Girl Friday.

Sunday night will be my first married New Year’s Eve since…Jesus, since ’90. My inclination has always been to stay the hell away from New Year’s Eve celebrations unless, you know, I’ve been invited to a private soiree of some kind, and even then I’m not without reluctance.

From a 12.30.16 piece called “Rookie Revelers”, which conveyed the same thing I say every year: “New Year’s Eve is commonly known among service industry types as ‘amateur night.’ Meaning that people who don’t go out or even drink much are suddenly out on the town, and for the most part spreading the noxious atmosphere of forced gaiety.

“People of character do one of three things on New Year’s Eve: (a) attend a smallish party with friends or hit a nice restaurant — anything but a loud, noisy gathering of any kind; (b) find some secluded spot with a great view of a big city or valley and just settle into the idea of watching distant fireworks and listening to the sounds of far-off honking and whoo-whooing; and/or (c) hit the hay by 1 or 1:30 am, tops.”

Filmmaker friend: Happy new year, man! And many cinematic feasts to come!
HE: Back at you…cheers! Are you a quiet, stay-home-by-the-fire guy on New Year’s Eve, sipping a cup of tea and maybe reading or watching a film? You just don’t seem like a party animal type. I’m sure not.
Filmmaker friend: I am in Mexico, travelling through small rural communities, really. I will be with the kids and my high school pal on New Year’s Eve, and will probably call [a pair of filmmaking friends] and that’s the night!
HE: Sounds good. Auld acquaintance.
Filmmaker friend: I am quite a hermit. Always have been.

I was under an impression that Paramount had decided not to run FYC ads for Alexander Payne‘s Downsizing, given the underwhelming response from critics and (from what I hear) industry audiences. But now they’re running ads on behalf of costar Hong Chau, who’s been nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, the HFPA (Golden Globe awards) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Hollywood Elsewhere, which has run many FYC Paramount ads in years past, would’ve liked to have been in on this. Was I…what, punished for describing her character as “spirited, peg-legged and often hard to understand”? That doesn’t mean an Academy or SAG member couldn’t legitimately say “I liked her performance enough to nominate it.” Hollywood Elsewhere believes in striking performances!

This silent version of Chris Nolan‘s Dunkirk was made by an unnamed guy behind “Like Stories Of Old.” It strikes me as a bit less of a recreation of a silent-era short based on Dunkirk, and a bit more of an attempt to almost parody herky-jerky silent film action and the editing rhythms of the ’20s dramas. What’s the music from? Some highly-regarded film.

Roger Ebert once wrote that “the great movies enlarge us, they civilize us, they make us more decent people.” I’d like everyone reading this to stop what they’re doing for ten seconds, take a breath and ask themselves the following two questions: (a) “Has there ever been a Marvel or a D.C. Comics film that made you feel enlarged, more civilized and more decent after it was over?” and (b) “what 2017 films truly made you feel as Ebert described?”

As much as I adored Lady Bird and have often showered praise, I can’t honestly say that I felt enlarged by it. I didn’t feel the least bit more decent or civilized after seeing Get Out, I can tell you that. Ditto Sean Baker‘s The Florida Project, which affected me in a neighborhoody, human-friendly way but didn’t exactly gobsmack me. Ditto the commendable Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri — a well written, well performed thing that didn’t quite knock me down — and Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick, which I loved from the get-go and is easily among the year’s best.

But I did feel enlarged and civilized by Luca Guadagnino‘s Call Me My Your Name, Darren Aronofsky‘s mother!, Chris Nolan‘s Dunkirk, Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper, Cristian Mungiu‘s Graduation, Matt Reeves‘ War For The Planet of the Apes, Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Loveless, David Lowery‘s A Ghost Story and by Jake Gyllenhaal‘s performance in David Gordon Green‘s Stronger.

I couldn’t get worked up yesterday about the passing of one of showbiz’s toughest, spunkiest, hardest-working troupers. Where’s the heartache in Rose Marie having lived a rich 91 and 1/3 years? That said, I want to see that newish documentary (trailered after the jump) about her. Sidenote: When Maximilian Schell made his 1984 doc about Marlene Dietrich, the legendary 83 year-old star refused to be photographed, presumably for reasons of vanity. I think she had the right idea.

The N.Y. Times and director Floria Sigismondi have posted ten short “frightening” films starring six well-hyped, widely-praised award contenders plus four other fine actors who aren’t really in the conversation. The best efforts, far and away, are “The Mannequin” with Saoirse Ronan and “The Demon Child” with The Florida Project‘s Brooklyn Prince. My third, fourth and fifth favorites are “The Damned” with Jake Gyllenhaal, “The Cannibal” with Timothee Chalamet and “The Possessed” with Nicole Kidman. I didn’t care for “The Psycho Killer” because Daniel Kaluuya smokes a cigarette — a cheap actor’s crutch. Again, the link.

“This oh-so-serious, hysteria-tinged drama, which is impossible to write about without spoilers, plays as if it might have come from Yorgos Lanthimos’ bin of discarded ideas. A prestige cast including Eva Green, Charlotte Rampling and Charles Dance will entice distributors to take a look, but the post-screening take-away is definitely not happiness or excitement, but rather something that could be described by other ‘e’ words — such as excruciating and embarrassing.

“Even if audiences find themselves able to remain in their seats until the end of Euphoria (men, especially, fled the TIFF press and industry screening in droves), the catharsis feels fake and unearned. Moreover, the film lacks the warmth and respect for all of of its characters displayed in [director Lisa] Langseth’s previous work.” — from Alissa Simon‘s Variety review of Euphoria, posted from Toronto on 9.8.17.

No, I don’t believe that “Disney is bracing themselves for the Han Solo movie to bomb,” as Screengeek’s Simon Andrews reported five days ago, citing “a source close to the film’s production.” (I don’t think producers or Disney execs would admit this to themselves, much less whisper it to confidantes.) And I don’t believe “they’re essentially writing Solo off,” that “the script is unworkable” and that “it’s going to be a car crash.” I think this is unreliable trash talk.

Possibly bogus Solo ad art that came out of Russia.

But I do believe and was saying six months ago that Alden Ehrenreich is the wrong guy to play the young Han Solo, and that the film, however it turns out, won’t get much charisma bounce from his performance. “A seemingly joyless, small-shouldered guy who lacks a sense of physical dominance (Aldenreich is five inches shorter than the 6’2” Ford) and whose stock-in-trade is a kind of glum, screwed-down seriousness,” I wrote last June.

I don’t know when the Solo trailer is going to pop, but it would have made sense to attach it to The Last Jedi, no? If it’s not debuting before the 12.31.17, it’ll almost certainly appear sometime in January.