Assemblog: August 31, 2012

Cruising, 1980

New this week on Popshifter: John talks about the secret handshake and Booker T. and the M.G.s’ Green Onions reissue on Stax; Melissa B. wonders if Harry Shearer’s Can’t Take A Hint is timely; guest blogger and author Alex Bledsoe gives the deets on Rafael Sabatini and pirates; Chelsea loves Micah Sheveloff’s Exhibitionist and the singer/songwiter’s “lived-in marvel of a voice”; I proclaim Big Black Delta’s Tour EP to be “diverse” and “thrilling”; and I share some photos from FanExpo Canada 2012.

First off, The Toronto International Film Festival starts next week! And I’ve been blogging over at the Vanguard programme blog. The complete list of films is here, but you should really check out the blog for all the details.

IndieWire has a detailed article on James Franco’s plan to recreate the “lost” 40 minutes of William Friedkin’s 1980 film Cruising. The one with Al Pacino and gay bars. It’s a good bit of reportage, especially as it discusses some of Franco’s more problematic career choices, but I love it mostly for the following bit:

“He knew he wanted real gay sex in it,” [collaborator] Travis [Matthews] said. “His people went looking for a filmmaker who had filmed real gay sex, and I suspect someone who would complement his vision.”

All I can think about now is Curt Wild in Velvet Goldmine: “You gotta make love in gay style.” (H/T to Film School Rejects for the link.)

Another H/T to Film School Rejects for an update on that sequel to David Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’ll be honest and say I was ready for that to happen as soon as I finished watching the movie, but I’m likely in the minority. EW’s Inside Movies has the latest news: Steve Zaillan’s screenplay is done, both Mara Rooney and Daniel Craig are “locked down,” but still no word on whether Fincher has decided to tackle a sequel. Please David Fincher, please do this. Think of Lisbeth. She deserves it. WE deserve it.

Back in May, I talked about the options for streaming video in Canada, which is to say “there aren’t many.” The Mary Sue addresses the same issue vis-à-vis the United States, with this depressing observation:

If streaming internet video is simply not an option for the majority of Americans, the day of streaming access to popular television on a show by show basis may be further off than we’d like, and there may be some hurdles in the way that have nothing to do with big entertainment companies concerns over piracy or ad revenue.

This reminds me of that Twitch article from a few months ago which still grates on my nerves. Apparently, Todd Brown was really talking about digital cable, not Internet. This of course assumes that everyone can afford digital cable on top of Internet service or that you want to pay all that money for a bunch of channels you don’t watch just to have streaming services. Please help me out here; am I missing something?

The Hairpin has a couple of posts about (what what?) critics. Yep, I’m at it again. This time, it’s literary criticism, not film, however. The first takes New York Times writer William Giraldi to task for his savaging of Alix Ohlin’s novel Inside. There’s a good comment in there from “Cat named Virtue,” which says (in part): “Yeah, I feel like the point of criticism is to enrich the cultural conversation that we as a society have about art.”

The Hairpin also links to a related piece on The Awl, which references the Giraldi review, and gets into mansplaining. What is amazing is how there is mansplaining of mansplaining in the comments. Seriously, read them all.

Also, it’s totally okay to feel like you are not well read and/or can’t write for shit and/or dumb after reading Michelle Dean’s remarkable prose and the subsequent commentary. I TOTALLY DID, TOO. I blame Twitter.

—Less Lee Moore, Managing Editor