Markmaking

Helvetica Film: Reviews

On Gary Hustwit's Helvetica doc:

Steven Heller interview, AIGA

Benezri - Kuang interview, I.D.

Emily King review, Frieze

Ellen Lupton review, Metropolis

Liberation: Tout le bonheur..

In Liberation, Maïa Bouteillet reviews Odile Darbelley and Michel Jacquelin's play, Tout le bonheur est à l'intérieur, another one thematizing contemporary art.

Clive James on movie critics

Clive James reviews movie critics.

It quickly becomes obvious that those without theories write better. You already knew that your friend who's so funny about the "Star Wars" tradition of frightful hairstyles for women (in the corrected sequence of sequel and prequel, Natalie Portman must have passed the bad-hair gene down to Carrie Fisher) is much less boring than your other friend who can tell you how science fiction movies mirror the dynamics of American imperialism.

Movie Numbers

How can the entertainment business possibly work? Edward Jay Epstein in Slate brings a rare bit of analytical thinking on the matter to a general-interest audience.

• Why box-office numbers are meaningless (16-05-05)
• How 'indie' films are financed (12-09-05)
• The so-called 'movie' studios exist to make money from and for television (08-08-05)
• German tax loopholes finance blockbuster films (25-04-05)

[Update 8 October: Epstein's book, The Big Picture: home page; Washington Post review.
David Thomson's book, The Whole Equation, on Metacritic.]

Sideways

Sideways draws its characters to be sympathetic but also despicable. It's easy enough to draw entertaining, despicable characters -- as in Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm -- and all too common to draw allegedly sympathetic but deadly boring characters -- as in the typical sitcom -- but Sideways is entertaining because of the tension between these two modes. Will Paul or Miles warm the heart or induce the cringe? We never know in advance.