Screening Gotham: Why Your Festival Sucks

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Anthony Kaufman flings a few nifty pieces into the pre-Tribeca orbit this morning, including this feature about festivals' ongoing compulsion to emphasize premieres when there aren't enough good films to go around. The complexity isn't especially surprising, but it's worth viewing in this detail -- especially to learn that the press is evidently part of the problem. Of course! I guess I'll be the first to offer that if I had to choose between the world premiere of another shitty DV indie or the local premiere of, say, Jia Zhang Ke's latest, don't expect me to apologize for choosing actual cinema over your pissing-contest insecurities rivalries. Oh, and I almost forgot: Kaufman wrote a preview for The Wall Street Journal Online as well.

--More Tribeca: The NYT's Philip Gefter gets into a Mapplethorpe mood with his piece about the documentary Black, White + Gray, a glimpse at the photographer and his lover/mentor/"impresario" Sam Wagstaff. The film also (ahem) premieres at this year's festival.

--The Vulture backlash has already begun at Deadline Hollywood Daily, where Nikki Finke accused the new culture blog upstarts of filching her "scoops." Drawing on both Finke and Vulture, David Poland is less than impressed: "(T)he frenzy over being first to print misleading headlines and inaccurate overhyped spin is about to step up to a whole new level."

--First up: "Mumblecore." Or whatever. Memo to film journalists: Please, for the love of God and the sake of five or six talented young filmmakers whose work deserves better, stop jerking off over bullshit labels designed to make you feel like part of the gang. They were gracious and let you do your job without interfering, now shut up and let them do theirs. You want to impress people? Start your own fucking club.

Posted at April 24, 2007 9:25 AM