Thursday, February 08, 2007

Where to find great film writing on-line?


The Suburban World used to show movies. I wish it still did. For most of the fifteen years I lived in Berkeley, I lived just a few blocks from the Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive. I don't know how many hundreds of movies I was able to see for just a dollar or two at the PFA--I wish I'd kept a list! Here in the Twin Cities, the U Film Society and The Oak St.Cinema, the Walker Art center's film festivals and the Landmark Cinemas serve up more films than I can possibly see, but I do miss being able to stroll a few blocks to the PFA.

Last year, someone made a new year's resolution to see fifty movies and blog about them. I thought it would be fun to keep a list of movies we were seeing in my agenda, but lost track after just a month--not a priority. So this year, I'm going to list the movies I'm seeing either in the theaters, on TV or through Netflix, with links to IMDB. Quite a few of these are films I think I need to see for work, and some are films that have been in the Netflix queue for so long I've forgotten why they're there in the first place.
That way, when my swiss-cheese memory reduces me to saying, "YOU know, that movie with that guy, the one who was in that other movie...." I'll be able to look it up. I haven't decided yet if I'll include movies that I've seen before and see part of again by accident on TV (Four Weddings and a Funeral).
I don't have time or the inclination to write my own reviews, but I love to read great writing on film and popular culture.I am looking for sites that feature really good writing about film. Portal sites like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes give access to lots of reviews and user comments, but you have to wade through too much trivia to get at the good stuff.
Here are some sites I plan to check out for more substantive reviews and discussion:
Film Comment's Top Fifty list, Green Cine, Blog Critics, The Guardian's film blog, and we can't forget Pajiba!

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