Screen Daily‘s Lee Marshall has strongly praised Guillermo Arriaga‘s The Burning Plain at the Venice Film Festival, and the Telegraph‘s David Gritten has written that “only three days into the festival, a front-runner for the Golden Lion best film award has emerged.”

Variety‘s Derek Elley, on other other hand, has given the “spaghetti-structured” drama the old back-hand, calling it “an elaborate writing exercise with few emotional hooks.” But I don’t trust Elley due to his belief that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s Amores perros, 21 Grams and Babel — all based on Arriaga scripts — were “hit and miss.”

La Opinion‘s Josep Pareda interviewed me yesterday (or was it Wednesday?) for a piece posted today about Che‘s distribution troubles.

The piece is in Spanish, of course, so I managed a rough English translation via Google language tool. The headline — Che busca distribuidor — obviously means “Che looking for distributor,” and the subhead says that “the film with Benicio del Toro arrives in Toronto with no release date in U.S.”
Here are the portions that deal with my comments:
“After its showing at Cannes, critical reactions varied between flattery — manifesting in the film’s absolute defense by Jeffrey Wells, one of the most prominent scholars of cinema on internet thanks to its essential page Hollywood Elsewhere — and skepticism.
“Wells told HolaLA! “I was not bored by a single minute [of Che]. This is not a traditional drama. There is no emotional revelation. It does not employ any of the conventional tricks or cathartic moments: Where’s the girl, where they crying? None of this happens. The film is operating on a higher level than that. It basically lets you feel what it was like to hang with Che during the two most intense chapters of his life.”
But “the idea is to absorb both as if it were a feast. I knew this when I read the two scripts and realized it was an up-and-down epic like Lawrence of Arabia. The first part is the triumph and the second is when [the character] loses common sense . Now, could one see Lawrence of Arabia in two parts? Theoretically yes, but why? It was not made with that intention. ”
And yet dividing Che into two parts “seems to be consensus,” said Wells, who at the same time assured that while this wasn’t director Steven Soderbergh‘s intention or current wish, “It would not be the end of the world.”

The Playlist‘s Rodrigo Perez “just got an interesting tip” from a friend who got an early look at Gus Van Sant‘s Milk (Focus, 11.26). But I don’t know why he’d call it interesting since the guy doesn’t say if the biopic was any good or not.

All the tipster said is that (a) it’s much more “old school” Van Sant in the vein of the assured and economical days of Good Will Hunting or Drugstore Cowboy, rather than his recent experimental phase (Elephant, Last Days, etc.); (b) the editing was fantastic; (c) the use of old, archival footage rather seamless and adroit and (e) that the film “pops” with vibrant color.
That’s it? Earth to tipster: Did you like it? Is it well made? How good is Sean Penn? How did it make you feel? Does it…you know, deliver anything close to the emotional impact of The Times of Harvey Milk? Who are the standouts supporting players? Is it a derby movie?
Milk is about gay super-martyr Harvey Milk (Penn) — the first openly gay man elected to office (i.e., San Francisco city supervisor) in U.S. history, but who was later killed by a disturbed ex-supervisor named Dan White (Josh Brolin) who also shot SF mayor George Moscone on the same day.
James Franco and Diego Luna costar.

A week before the 9.5 U.K. release, In Contention‘s Guy Lodge has bitch-slapped Guy Ritchie‘s RocknRolla (Warner Bros., 10.8), calling it a “mess” that “falls apart” early on. This primes the pump, of course, for those attending next week’s Toronto Film Festival, where Ritchie’s film will be shown a few times.

“[During] the first few minutes of RocknRolla, hopes are high that Ritchie has rediscovered the fleet-footed timing and lightness of touch that made his trend-setting 1998 debut Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels such a delight, and its lesser follow-up, Snatch, such a guilty pleasure.
“The animated credit sequence, as you may have heard, is a thing of considerable beauty. More importantly, the opening scene, which employs swift, sexy cuts between multiple actors and locations to maintain a multi-voiced monologue on the fortunes of present-day London (Ritchie presumably wrote this before the recession), is something to behold.
“But then the pace settles, the actual narrative reveals itself — and the whole enterprise, shorn of these initial stylistic tics, steadily falls apart. Ritchie has dialed down his style of story construction since the incomprehensibly convoluted Revolver but he may have overcompensated — the size of the ensemble notwithstanding, there is really very little storytelling motor here.“The flimsiness of the entire construction would matter less if there were more wit and crackle in Ritchie’s script, or if the actors, at least, appeared to be having fun with it. Sadly, in the wake of his failures, Ritchie appears to have wholly lost his confidence and spontaneity as a writer; even the cleverer one-liners feel overworked and over-worded, tripping up the actors at every turn.
“More alarming still, Ritchie’s writing betrays precious little acquaintance with his characters or his story world. His weirdly dated heavies appear more informed by Get Carter than any facet of contemporary urban Britain.
“Twee soundbites like ‘You’ve got more feet on the street than coppers on the beat’ imply an artist hopelessly out of touch with his subject, particularly in a year that has given us the thrilling gangster patois and linguistic invention of Martin McDonagh‘s In Bruges.”

Two noteworthy Sarah Palin reactions over at the Hot Blog: (a) “Wow. And I thought Lieberman was a bad idea. Two years in as Gov. of Alaska. Parent of a 4-month old special-needs child. Had her sister’s ex fired. This is who America wants to be a heartbeat away from the presidency of our oldest president ever? Thanks, crazy old guy. Game over. ” — David Poland. (b) “At least she’s hot.” — In Contention‘s Kris Tapley.

Sarah Palin, Tina Fey, Peggy Hill from the “King of the Hill” cartoon.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has a rural accent, wears horn rims, has a young child with Downs Syndrome and favors drilling for oil and gas. “We need oil, we’re hurting,and the pristine Alaskan wilderness can stand a little mucky-muck if we can increase our revenues” is what she’s basically saying in this Glenn Beck interview clip. Interviewed in early June, she’s also asked around the two-thirds mark about the possibility of being McCain’s running mate.

From her Wikipedia bio:
In 1984, Palin was first runner-up in the Miss Alaska beauty pageant after winning the Miss Wasilla contest earlier that year, winning a scholarship to help pay her way through college. In the Wasilla pageant, she played the flute and also won Miss Congeniality.
Details of Palin’s personal life have contributed to her political image. She hunts, eats moose burgers, ice fishes, rides snowmobiles, and owns a float plane. Palin holds a lifetime membership with the National Rifle Association. She admits that she used marijuana when it was legal in Alaska, but says that she did not like it.
Palin holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Idaho where she also minored in politics. She briefly worked as a sports reporter for local Anchorage television stations while also working as a commercial fisherman with her husband, Todd, her high school sweetheart.
Outside the fishing season, Todd works for BP at an oil field on the North Slope and is a champion snowmobiler, winning the 2000-mile “Iron Dog” race four times. The two eloped shortly after Palin graduated college; when they learned they needed witnesses for the civil ceremony, they recruited two residents from the old-age home down the street.[3] Todd is a Native Yup’ik Eskimo. The Palin family lives in Wasilla, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Anchorage.

On September 11, 2007, the Palins’ son Track joined the Army. Eighteen years old at the time, he is the eldest of Palin’s five children. Track now serves in an infantry brigade and will be deployed to Iraq in September. She also has three daughters: Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, and Piper, 7.
On April 18, 2008, Palin gave birth to her second son, Trig Paxson Van Palin, who has Downs syndrome. She returned to the office three days after giving birth. Palin refused to let the results of prenatal genetic testing change her decision to have the baby. “I’m looking at him right now, and I see perfection,” Palin said. “Yeah, he has an extra chromosome. I keep thinking, in our world, what is normal and what is perfect?”
From the L.A. Times “Top of the Ticket” Andrew Malcolm on 8.1: “Questions have now arisen over whether Palin used her office to try and fire her ex -brother-in-law from a state trooper’s position. Palin asserts the charge is untrue, but the Alaska Senate this week approved the hiring of an independent investigator to look into the allegation.
“Our colleague Frank James over at the Swamp has more details on this governor we’re likely to hear more about in coming years.”

In a 8.28 interview with MTV News, Kevin Smith has revealed three interesting aspects of Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which will debut at the Toronto Film Festival: (a) the MPAA “had a point” in slapping it with an NC-17; (b) only “one sex scene in the movie is played straightforward, but it’s the one scene where there’s the least flesh on display” and (c) at no time does star Seth Rogen reveal the full monty but costar Jason Mewes does — twice.

NBC News has confirmed that 44 year-old Alaska governor Sarah Palin has been chosen as John McCain’s vice-presidential pick. Pro-life, pro-gun, five kids — obviously chosen to bring in the rural disaffected Clintonistas. Her suitability to take over for McCain should tragedy strike is questionable, at best. The “not ready” rap that the right has been throwing at Obama is now over — it never stood up to reality but with the Palin choice it really has no footing. A major political gamble for McCain. Biden will make short work of her.

Two days ago Ad Wizards’ Alex Blagg pointed to an obvious oral-sex allusion in the shape and marketing of Hannah Montana “concert candy,” which is not a put-on — it’s a real-deal product being sold with the presumed approval of the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana marketing team, including her dad Billy Ray Cyrus.

Look at the shape of the candy (which the packaging says is shaped like a guitar and mike) next to a photo of Cyrus holding a mike near her mouth — the lack of subtlety is breathtaking. I don’t have a daughter but speaking as a dad, I’m trying to imagine how I’d sign off on this kind of thing. What kind of an anything-for-a-buck whore do you have to be to look at a penis-candy proposal, smile at the marketing guys and say, “Looks good…where do I sign and what’s my cut on top of my daughter’s?”
Billy Ray Cyrus sure seems like a golden-calf worshipper to me. This is a right-wing, middle-American, conservative good-old-boy thing…no? I had a tough hardscrabble childhood so pay me the big bucks so I can build another McMansion or invest in another shopping mall, and…you know, what the hell, I’ll look the other way when you exploit my 16 year-old daughter as a sex object who winks at the analogy between candy-eating and cocksucking.
Can anyone imagine an educated left-wing dad in any industry or region agreeing to something like this? It’s appalling.

After Barack Obama‘s speech last night, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann compared aspects of it to Michael Douglas‘s speech (written by Aaron Sorkin) at the end of The American President. I just re-watched this finale; Olbermann isn’t wrong. Obama’s line about how McCain “doesn’t get it” exudes a certain echo.