The documentary Food, Inc., a jeremiad against the corporate food complex, has gotten a strange bedfellow: a food corporation. Stonyfield Farm, an organic foods maker, has been advertising for the film on its yogurt lids and on the front page of its website. Oh, by the way, the CEO of Stonyfield is interviewed in the film, and it makes him look pretty damn good.

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For any budding Latino auteurs out there, the Loisaida Cortos Latino Film Festival is hungry for submissions for its 8th annual run.

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Don’t cry! Unless you’re an actor playing Joan Jett, because apparently understanding that role requires bullying from the distinguished singer. Kristen Stewart broke into tears last week after the rocker gave her a hard time on set for the upcoming biopic The Runaways.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has come under fire for expanding the number of best picture nominees from five to 10. Though naysaying the move is now in vogue, the switch to 10 may make a lot of sense—if the Academy is willing to make a few more changes.

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The Hurt Locker from Katheryn Bigelow hits theaters this weekend. The film has gotten some of the best reviews ever for an Iraq War film.

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The director who had alternative high school kids cry and identify with Donnie Darko, though we—sorry, they—probably don't understand the plot, is back. The trailer is out for the new Richard Kelly movie The Box. When the movie was in early stages of production, it seemed  like The Box was going to be Kelly's mainstream atonement for his wildly (and most would say disastrously) abstruse Southland Tales. From the trippy trailer with Frank Langella's mangled face, cackling housemaids and crazy water, it seems like The Box may be a starkly independent and difficult picture. 

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Documentaries are rarely short on impactive power. Love him or hate him, Michael Moore revved up the healthcare debate after unleashing Sicko, and crackdowns on fast food proliferated after Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me. Though stirring, documentaries in the Moore/Spurlock tradition often lack nuance, which is the glaring flaw of The Town That Was, a bland documentary that squanders an interesting subject with unrefined populist outrage.   

The film details the fall of Centralia, Pennsylvania, a once-typical mining town that now stands on a searing and noxious anthracite coal fire. The fire began in 1962 and could continue for hundreds of years. As the subterranean fire became more and more of a health hazard in the decades after it was lit, Centralia’s citizens moved out. The government generously compensated homeowners who chose to leave and, as one local puts it in the film, the homes displaced families bought with government money were “a hell of a lot better than what they had [in Centralia].” Only 11 people currently remain.

Directors Chris Perkel and George Roland ignore pesky details and frame the story of Centralia as pure government scandal, slick politicians ravaging an idyllic American community. They emphasize time and again that, in the first few weeks of the fire, the government may have been able to control the burning, caused by a trash fire, if it had acted more quickly. The directing duo also tries to make the government buyout of town homes seem hypocritical since Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornberg promised, “no one…will be forced to sell their properties.”

The filmmakers seemingly forget the buyout was voluntary, and that, even though the town has been condemned, the government still allows stubborn residents to live there, continuing utilities and mail service. It is true that a speedier response may have been able to save the town, but it’s not like anyone is going to be completely ready for such a bizarre catastrophe. More importantly, the directors gloss over the fact that the Centralia Fire Department started the fire and initially allowed it to spread. The doltish municipal firemen get off without much blame in The Town, but the state and federal governments receive an undeserved thrashing.  

Even more egregious than their witless portrayal of the government is the filmmakers’ martyrizing of John Lokitis, one of the town’s few remaining residents and a central focus of the film. During his days in the empty ghost town of modern Centralia, Lokitis mows blocks upon blocks of grass for no one, puts up Christmas decorations few will see and repaints decaying municipal benches that won't be used. The town’s most active citizen is made the endearing David to the government’s Goliath, fighting tooth and nail when the postal service tries to incorporate the (nonexistent) town of Centralia into another county for mail purposes. In reality, Lokitis is a manic, tragic figure who fights for a lost cause. If the directors had put down their populist pitchforks and delved into his complicated psychology—his compulsive desire not only to remain in the abandoned town, but to prune it needlessly—then The Town That Was could have been an engaging movie tackling an incredible event as well as a compelling psyche. As it is, the earnest doc is so flimsy that it barely manages to drag through its measly 70-minute run time—feeling as endless as the fire it catalogs.     

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“There’s a lot of the music in the world, you don’t have to listen to mine,” Philip Glass says at the beginning of Scott Hicks’ documentary, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts. The comment accompanies footage of Glass riding the Cyclone at Coney Island, and it’s clear that the moment of candor is meant to set the stage for a frank reassessment of the renowned composer. Though the film may change the way Glass is perceived as a person, it won’t convert the many Glass naysayers: The doc has the same take-it-or-leave-it attitude as its subject.

Judgments about Glass’ worth as a musician aside, Hicks' homage is a beautifully made film, achieving the same intimacy with Glass as Gay Talese did with Sinatra in his infamous Esquire profile. The movie brings us deep into Glass’ private world; we watch him play with his family, write music, hear a piece for the first time and practice Taoist and Buddhist rituals. His wife breaks down on camera while discussing their relationship (now ex-wife), and his sister divulges the fascinating Glass household family dynamics.

Even the most hardcore Glass fans couldn’t know all the aspects of his character that this film uncovers. The cumulative effect is a revelation for those chiefly interested in Glass’ personality—rather than complex music theory. The doc also possesses moments of aesthetic wonder. Hicks is unafraid to treat his own work as art, framing beautiful shots that are not part of typical documentary cinematography. The shooting of Glass’ Nova Scotia vacation home is particularly striking, especially a shot of lapping ocean waves seen from Glass’ worktable.

As meticulous about his interviews as his artistry, Hicks recruits Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Errol Morris, among others, to comment on the composer, often with Glass present. Since Glass is such a polarizing figure, this study is a goldmine for his fans—and fool’s gold for his critics.



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EW decided Ryan Reynolds was this summer's It boy, plastering his trimmed torso on the cover (with a few alternate covers and a fun, splashy interior shot that shows plenty of ab action). Reasons: The Proposal and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Hmm. We remember when it took a little more to turn an actor into a summer box-office star. We're sure that Reynolds is nice and all (we've heard rumors that while he was in NY, he was always pleasant to his trainer and acts like a "regular guy). But really. Well, money is what talks in Hollywood and turns out Sandra Bullock may also be back for a revival since The Proposal is her first No. 1 film in 10 years. Ugh.

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If you felt like you missed the old Woody Allen after all his Euro-centric films, then Whatever Works may work for you. But mostly, Armond White thinks it's not really an improvement for Mr. Allen. 

Despite his usual positive appraisal of Ryan Reynolds' shirtless oeuvre, Armond also sticks it to Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in The Proposal. But that doesn't mean you should just go see The Hangover instead.

You may want to get your intellect tickled. So check out The Windmill Movie at Film Forum.

And we're happy to see that Etgar Keret has a decent adaptation of his stories with $9.99.

Plus: Lyme disease gets a doc!

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