The News: All-Positive Friday!

By S.T. VanAirsdale

As per tradition, some of today's more upbeat movie news of note from around New York:

--It's an unbelievably slow day for good news -- any news, for that matter -- but I guess we should start with Michael Koresky's lovely tribute to Ennis Del Mar over at Reverse Shot. Yes, Ennis Del Mar, the Brokeback Mountain protagonist whose memory survives star Heath Ledger's death earlier this week: "Ledger's much-lauded portrait of rough-hewn, gorgeously fragile masculinity now becomes something horribly definitive, indescribably expressive," Koresky writes. "Ledger provided the face of anguish, a reflection for many who saw it, now caught forever in a freeze-frame, older than this fine actor will ever have the chance to grow to become."

--Among the local doc highlights Eric Kohn took in at Sundance: Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? and the Hunter Thompson chronicle Gonzo, whose director Alex Gibney (first interviewed here on The Reeler) called out Thompson imitators in his own inimitable style.

--No sooner did I tell NPR yesterday that filmmaking is getting prohibitively expensive in New York than the news came down from Albany: New York will increase its tax credit benefits to 15%, and cover above and below-the-line costs, according to the 2008 state budget proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer on Tuesday. ... Additionally, the proposed budget would raise the benefit cap from $60 million to $75 million by 2011." More here from Randee Dawn at The Hollywood Reporter.

--Picking up The Reeler's pathetic seasonal slack over at The Voice, Aaron Hillis offers a fine preview of the "Stalinist rom-com"s, "action-heavy 'easterns'," and the other notable titles in the Envisioning Russia series opening tonight over at Lincoln Center.

Posted at January 25, 2008 11:00 AM