Last night I attended a 7 pm showing of Michelangelo Antonioni‘s L’Avventura at the Film Forum, and once again I had the same reaction that I always have whenever I see a newly restored film there — “This?” It looked fine but it didn’t blow me away, and I know when I see the Bluray version I’ll probably be knocked flat. Honestly? What I saw last night looked no better than the 2001 Criterion DVD version on my 50″ Vizio.

But Greta Gerwig was there, sitting all alone in the 10th or 11th row. We talked a bit after the show. She’s thoroughly spellbound by Monica Vitti‘s performance, she said. Like me, she’s seen L’Avventura six or seven times. This is what women of extraordinary character and cinematic devotion do — they slip into revival screenings of classic films on a Friday night without a boyfriend and certainly without an entourage.

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Warner Home Video’s Shane Bluray comes out on 8.13, or a little more than four weeks hence. I was so turned on by the exquisitely restored, digitally projected version shown on a big screen during last April’s TCM Classic Film Festival that I asked WHV publicity vp Ronnee Sass if any other big-screen invitational showings are planned for late July or early August. She said something was being “worked on” but no details at this point. Whether showings happen in New York or Los Angeles or both, all ardent fans of this legendary 1953 film need to attend with bells on. The likelihood of a perfect-looking Shane being shown in tip-top condition again is not high.

At long last, Warner Home Video will bring out a Bluray of William Wyler‘s The Best Years Of Our Lives (’46) on 11.5.13. Gregg Toland‘s cinematography isn’t show-offy, but it really brings the key scenes home. Like the Homer-and-Wilma wedding scene at the finale, which of course is really about Fred (Dana Andrews) and Peggy (Teresa Wright). Wyler and Toland hold on that final master shot (i.e., the second to last shot in the entire film) for nearly 50 seconds without a cut — an eternity by today’s standards.

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Name one film directed by a celebrated director of photography (in this instance Wally Pfister) that became a critical and commercial knockout…just one. Name one successful film in which the lead protagonist (played here by Johnny Depp) is killed early on or otherwise doomed a la D.O.A. — people want their heroes to live and fight and see it through. Name one box-office handicapper who doesn’t think Depp’s box-office power-punch rep (a) was over-rated all along due to the uniquely weird Pirates franchise and/or (b) is definitely over in the wake of the El Flopperoony of The Lone Ranger.

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Ryan Coogler‘s rightly acclaimed Fruitvale Station faces the verdict of Joe and Jane Popcorn today, and don’t kid yourself — it’s the commercial response that will either propel this fact-based drama into serious Best Picture consideration or slowly shut it down, depending on what happens. The critics have already toasted Coogler, 26, who has done himself proud and is on the road to a long career. Cheers also to Michael B. Jordan for his vibrant and emotionally varied portrayal of the late Oscar Grant, who was aggressively if accidentally shot by a BART cop after a melee on New Year’s Eve. Congrats also to producers Forest Whitaker and Octavia Spencer. Here again is that footage I took of Fruitvale‘s standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival:

If Nelson Mandela was in good health with prospects for several more years on the planet, it’s fair to say that Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Weinstein Co., 11.29) might ( I say “might”) be looking at an iffy or marginal response. As things stand, the film will probably…well, let’s hope for the best for Mr. Mandela. Nobody lays things bare in this fashion except me. Backdraft: I saw Mandela live at the L.A. Coliseum in mid-June 1990. Me, my ex-wife Maggie and our two kids, Jett (two years old) and Dylan (7 months).

Just because Phillip Roth and Mia Farrow have admitted to watching Sharknado together…well, that doesn’t mean anything. Passing Roth-Farrow interest means it’s…what, legitimate mock-entertainment? What do they know?

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Deadline‘s Michael Fleming is reporting that Middle of Nowhere director-writer Ava DuVernay (congrats, Ava!) has been signed by Pathe UK, Brad Pitt’s Plan B and producer Christian Colson to direct Selma, a feature drama about Martin Luther King‘s historic voting-rights campaign. The effort culminated in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the heart of which was recently undermined by a Supreme Court decision. Middle Of Nowhere‘s David Oyelowo (The Butler, Lincoln) will reportedly play King. But Selma is now up against Paul Greengrass and Scott Rudin’s long-gestating Memphis, about King’s assassination and the hunt for his assassin James Earl Ray. Which will come out first? Any way you slice it, the second Martin Luther King movie will have a little something extra to prove.

I didn’t pay attention to my invite for the Grownups 2 all-media, and therefore missed the fact that it screened at 5 pm instead of the usual 7 or 7:30 pm. So I missed out — big loss. The movie apparently smells, but Andrew Barker‘s Variety review (“Among the slackest, laziest, least movie-like movies released by a major studio in the last decade”) is a classic. It’s probably funnier than the film.

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Getting the jump on arthouse lesbo action before Blue Is The Warmest Color opens stateside, Jamie Babbit‘s Breaking The Girls (7.26, IFC Midnight, iTunes, SundanceNow, Amazon Streaming) is apparently some kind of Strangers On A Train riff. Costarring Agnes Bruckner and Madeline Zima, it’s heing hyped as a “wild and crazy” thriller with hot sex scenes and “a bloody tangle of scheming and murder,” etc. Who’s Guy and who’s Bruno?

Everyone in this Out Of The Furnace trailer looks like they need a hot shower and a hair stylist and a sharp razor. They also need to buy their T-shirts at Urban Outifitters rather than K-Mart. I hate movies about primitive blue-collar guys who drink too much and laugh too loud and always wind up pointing guns at each other. I also hate movies about guys avenging deaths of their younger, dumber brothers and going up against Herman J. Motherfucker with the demonic cackle and chin whiskers and yellowish teeth.

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In a 5.12.13 piece called “If Saving Mr. Banks Is As Good As The Script…,” I wrote that Terry Marcel‘s script “is so wise and clean and well-crafted that you can hear Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson say the lines as you read them.” I also wrote that John Lee Hancock, director of the forthcoming Disney film, “is probably the most skilled guy in the business when it comes to giving G or PG-rated or family-friendly material a certain echo-y gravitas.” But this trailer makes the film seem jokier and more comedically cloying than the script I read. Banks, trust me, is not a comedy. But this is what trailers always do — they remove the shadings and subtleties.