Author Topic: Goodbye Mr. Ebert  (Read 5913 times)

Offline Sheriff Roland

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Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« on: April 04, 2013, 07:15:24 pm »
Roger Ebert, the pre-eminent movie critic who predicted that Crash would beat out Brokeback Mountain as Best (Oscar) Picture in 2006 died today. He was vilified by most Brokies for 'leading' the anti-Brokeback push for best picture of 2006. Here, in an AfterElton interview, post awards show he explains/justifies his opinions.

I'd like to think that his explanation serves only to totally confirm the invalid decision that was made that year by Hollywood's royalty.

http://www.afterelton.com/archive/elton/movies/2006/3/ebert.html

AfterElton.com: Let's cut to the chase. Do you think homophobia played a part in Brokeback Mountain's upset loss to Crash?
Roger Ebert: Okay, here's my position. First of all, I believe Crash was the best picture of the year. And I believe that Brokeback is a great picture. And so was Munich. All three were in my top five. Did some people vote against Brokeback Mountain because of homophobia? Yes. Was the Academy homophobic and that was why they didn't make it best Picture? I don't think so. I don't think that was the deciding factor. I think that it was probably third among the motives.

I think a lot of people voted for [Crash] because they thought it was the best picture. Some people voted for it because [unlike Brokeback Mountain] it was a Los Angeles production, and in the business, that actually does control votes. And there were probably some people who voted against it because they don't like gay people.

AE: So you don't think Hollywood is terribly homophobic?
RE: The membership of the Academy, and the working population of the Hollywood branch of the industry, is less homophobic than almost any other group you could name. But they are xenophobic. And given the choice of a movie that has dozens of actors in it and was shot in Los Angeles with union crews, and what is perceived as a runaway production [Brokeback Mountain], [that] didn't even shoot in Wyoming, but Canada, there are people who might have voted for the local picture because they are thinking of their own paychecks and [wondering] why should all that money go in Canadian pockets?

AE: But that has been the case for a long time. Lord of the Rings was all shot in New Zealand, but that didn't stop the Academy from rewarding it. There have been plenty of other films shot overseas.
RE: But the third one won [Lord of the Rings], the other two didn't.

AE: So for you, those reasons explain away all of the historical precedents that predicted Brokeback Mountain should have won? I'm talking about the fact that Brokeback Mountain had a combination of factors—awards, box office, critical acclaim, Oscars nods—that no other movie has had and then not won Best Picture.
RE: Here is the thing that confuses me: All of the awards that Brokeback won would seem to indicate that those people were not homophobic. Did they become homophobic when it came to the top category for the Oscars ? They were able to vote for Best Director, but then they became homophobic when they got to the next category? I don't know. My two primary positions are Crash was the best movie, and you are not a homophobe if you think Crash is the best movie. Because that is the sort of email I've been getting.
...


P.S. I still haven't seen 'Crash'.
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Offline southendmd

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2013, 10:52:13 pm »
Here is Mr. Ebert's review:

Brokeback Mountain

BY ROGER EBERT / December 16, 2005
 
Cast & Credits
Ennis Del Mar: Heath Ledger
Jack Twist: Jake Gyllenhaal
Alma Del Mar: Michelle Williams
Lureen Twist: Anne Hathaway
Joe Aguirre: Randy Quaid

Focus Features presents a film directed by Ang Lee. Written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. Based on the short story by E. Annie Proulx. Running time: 134 minutes. Rated R (for sexuality, nudity, language and some violence).

Ennis tells Jack about something he saw as a boy. "There were two old guys shacked up together. They were the joke of the town, even though they were pretty tough old birds." One day they were found beaten to death. Ennis says: "My dad, he made sure me and my brother saw it. For all I know, he did it."

This childhood memory is always there, the ghost in the room, in Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." When he was taught by his father to hate homosexuals, Ennis was taught to hate his own feelings. Years after he first makes love with Jack on a Wyoming mountainside, after his marriage has failed, after his world has compressed to a mobile home, the laundromat, the TV, he still feels the same pain: "Why don't you let me be? It's because of you, Jack, that I'm like this -- nothing, and nobody."

But it's not because of Jack. It's because Ennis and Jack love each other and can find no way to deal with that. "Brokeback Mountain" has been described as "a gay cowboy movie," which is a cruel simplification. It is the story of a time and place where two men are forced to deny the only great passion either one will ever feel. Their tragedy is universal. It could be about two women, or lovers from different religious or ethnic groups -- any "forbidden" love.

The movie wisely never steps back to look at the larger picture, or deliver the "message." It is specifically the story of these men, this love. It stays in closeup. That's how Jack and Ennis see it. "You know I ain't queer," Ennis tells Jack after their first night together. "Me, neither," says Jack.

Their story begins in Wyoming in 1963, when Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are about 19 years old and get a job tending sheep on a mountainside. Ennis is a boy of so few words he can barely open his mouth to release them; he learned to be guarded and fearful long before he knew what he feared. Jack, who has done some rodeo riding, is a little more outgoing. After some days have passed on the mountain and some whiskey has been drunk, they suddenly and almost violently have sex.

"This is a one-shot thing we got going on here," Ennis says the next day. Jack agrees. But it's not. When the summer is over, they part laconically: “I guess I’ll see ya around, huh?”Their boss (Randy Quaid) tells Jack he doesn't want him back next summer: "You guys sure found a way to make the time pass up there. You weren't getting paid to let the dogs guard the sheep while you stemmed the rose."

Some years pass. Both men get married. Then Jack goes to visit Ennis in Wyoming, and the undiminished urgency of their passion stuns them. Their lives settle down into a routine, punctuated less often than Jack would like by "fishing trips." Ennis' wife, who has seen them kissing, says nothing about it for a long time. But she notices there are never any fish.

The movie is based on a short story by E. Annie Proulx. The screenplay is by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. This summer I read McMurtry's Lonesome Dove trilogy, and as I saw the movie I was reminded of Gus and Woodrow, the two cowboys who spend a lifetime together. They aren't gay; one of them is a womanizer and the other spends his whole life regretting the loss of the one woman he loved. They're straight, but just as crippled by a society that tells them how a man must behave and what he must feel.

"Brokeback Mountain" could tell its story and not necessarily be a great movie. It could be a melodrama. It could  be a "gay cowboy movie." But the filmmakers have focused so intently and with such feeling on Jack and Ennis that the movie is as observant as work by Bergman. Strange but true: The more specific a film is, the more universal, because the more it understands individual characters, the more it applies to everyone. I can imagine someone weeping at this film, identifying with it, because he always wanted to stay in the Marines, or be an artist or a cabinetmaker.

Jack is able to accept a little more willingly that he is inescapably gay. In frustration and need, he goes to Mexico one night and finds a male prostitute. Prostitution is a calling with many hazards, sadness and tragedy, but it accepts human nature. It knows what some people need, and perhaps that is why every society has found a way to accommodate it. Jack thinks he and Ennis might someday buy themselves a ranch and settle down. Ennis who remembers what he saw as a boy: "This thing gets hold of us at the wrong time and wrong place and we're dead." Well, wasn't Matthew Shepard murdered in Wyoming in 1998? And Teena Brandon in Nebraska in 1993? Haven't brothers killed their sisters in the Muslim world to defend "family honor"?

There are gentle and nuanced portraits of Ennis' wife Alma (Michelle Williams) and Jack's wife Lureen (Anne Hathaway), who are important characters, seen as victims, too. Williams has a powerful scene where she finally calls Ennis on his "fishing trips," but she takes a long time to do that, because nothing in her background prepares her for what she has found out about her husband. In their own way, programs like "Jerry Springer" provide a service by focusing on people, however pathetic, who are prepared to defend what they feel. In 1963 there was nothing like that on TV. And in 2005, the situation has not entirely changed. One of the Oscar campaign ads for "Brokeback Mountain" shows Ledger and Williams together, although the movie's posters are certainly honest.

Ang Lee is a director whose films are set in many nations and many times. What they have in common is an instinctive sympathy for the characters. Born in Taiwan, he makes movies about Americans, British, Chinese, straights, gays; his sci-fi movie "Hulk" was about a misunderstood outsider. Here Lee respects the entire arc of his story, right down to the lonely conclusion.

A closing scene involving a visit by Ennis to Jack's parents is heartbreaking in what is said, and not said, about their world. A look around Jack's childhood bedroom suggests what he overcame to make room for his feelings. What we cannot be sure is this: In the flashback, are we witnessing what really happened, or how Ennis sees it in his imagination? Ennis, whose father "made sure me and my brother saw it."

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2013, 09:51:02 am »
I remember watching Siskel and Ebert on TV when I was younger.

RIP


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2013, 05:17:05 pm »
Read this today and thought I would share it:

http://www.salon.com/2011/09/15/roger_ebert/

I do not fear death

I will pass away sooner than most people who read this, but that doesn't shake my sense of wonder and joy

BY ROGER EBERT

Roger Ebert was always a great friend of Salon's. We're deeply saddened by reports of his death, and are re-printing this essay, from his book "Life Itself: A Memoir," which we think fans will take particular comfort in reading now.

I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. I am grateful for the gifts of intelligence, love, wonder and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.

I don’t expect to die anytime soon. But it could happen this moment, while I am writing. I was talking the other day with Jim Toback, a friend of 35 years, and the conversation turned to our deaths, as it always does. “Ask someone how they feel about death,” he said, “and they’ll tell you everyone’s gonna die. Ask them, In the next 30 seconds? No, no, no, that’s not gonna happen. How about this afternoon? No. What you’re really asking them to admit is, Oh my God, I don’t really exist. I might be gone at any given second.”

Me too, but I hope not. I have plans. Still, illness led me resolutely toward the contemplation of death. That led me to the subject of evolution, that most consoling of all the sciences, and I became engulfed on my blog in unforeseen discussions about God, the afterlife, religion, theory of evolution, intelligent design, reincarnation, the nature of reality, what came before the big bang, what waits after the end, the nature of intelligence, the reality of the self, death, death, death.

Many readers have informed me that it is a tragic and dreary business to go into death without faith. I don’t feel that way. “Faith” is neutral. All depends on what is believed in. I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me. I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things. In my plans for life after death, I say, again with Whitman:

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.


And with Will, the brother in Saul Bellow’s “Herzog,” I say, “Look for me in the weather reports.”

Raised as a Roman Catholic, I internalized the social values of that faith and still hold most of them, even though its theology no longer persuades me. I have no quarrel with what anyone else subscribes to; everyone deals with these things in his own way, and I have no truths to impart. All I require of a religion is that it be tolerant of those who do not agree with it. I know a priest whose eyes twinkle when he says, “You go about God’s work in your way, and I’ll go about it in His.”

What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I am comforted by Richard Dawkins’ theory of memes. Those are mental units: thoughts, ideas, gestures, notions, songs, beliefs, rhymes, ideals, teachings, sayings, phrases, clichés that move from mind to mind as genes move from body to body. After a lifetime of writing, teaching, broadcasting and telling too many jokes, I will leave behind more memes than many. They will all also eventually die, but so it goes.

O’Rourke’s had a photograph of Brendan Behan on the wall, and under it this quotation, which I memorized:

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don’t respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

That does a pretty good job of summing it up. “Kindness” covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

One of these days I will encounter what Henry James called on his deathbed “the distinguished thing.” I will not be conscious of the moment of passing. In this life I have already been declared dead. It wasn’t so bad. After the first ruptured artery, the doctors thought I was finished. My wife, Chaz, said she sensed that I was still alive and was communicating to her that I wasn’t finished yet. She said our hearts were beating in unison, although my heartbeat couldn’t be discovered. She told the doctors I was alive, they did what doctors do, and here I am, alive.

Do I believe her? Absolutely. I believe her literally — not symbolically, figuratively or spiritually. I believe she was actually aware of my call and that she sensed my heartbeat. I believe she did it in the real, physical world I have described, the one that I share with my wristwatch. I see no reason why such communication could not take place. I’m not talking about telepathy, psychic phenomenon or a miracle. The only miracle is that she was there when it happened, as she was for many long days and nights. I’m talking about her standing there and knowing something. Haven’t many of us experienced that? Come on, haven’t you? What goes on happens at a level not accessible to scientists, theologians, mystics, physicists, philosophers or psychiatrists. It’s a human kind of a thing.

Someday I will no longer call out, and there will be no heartbeat. I will be dead. What happens then? From my point of view, nothing. Absolutely nothing. All the same, as I wrote to Monica Eng, whom I have known since she was six, “You’d better cry at my memorial service.” I correspond with a dear friend, the wise and gentle Australian director Paul Cox. Our subject sometimes turns to death. In 2010 he came very close to dying before receiving a liver transplant. In 1988 he made a documentary named “Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent van Gogh.” Paul wrote me that in his Arles days, van Gogh called himself “a simple worshiper of the external Buddha.” Paul told me that in those days, Vincent wrote:

Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.

Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?

Just as we take a train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star. We cannot get to a star while we are alive any more than we can take the train when we are dead. So to me it seems possible that cholera, tuberculosis and cancer are the celestial means of locomotion. Just as steamboats, buses and railways are the terrestrial means.

To die quietly of old age would be to go there on foot.


That is a lovely thing to read, and a relief to find I will probably take the celestial locomotive. Or, as his little dog, Milou, says whenever Tintin proposes a journey, “Not by foot, I hope!”

Roger Ebert's latest books are "Life Itself: A Memoir," "The Great Movies III."
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline Front-Ranger

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2013, 05:38:55 pm »
Yes, he left behind many immortal memes which will take on their own lives.
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #5 on: April 06, 2013, 07:57:59 am »
I have always had the greatest respect for Roger Ebert.  He had seen more movies than anyone else alive, and his reviews were usually direct and to the point.  Ebert correctly predicted Crash would win that year, but that didn't piss me off.  It was his "Fury of the Crash-lash" article that I found offensive. 

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/OSCARS/603070301

Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #6 on: April 06, 2013, 04:19:40 pm »
Despite his perplexing "Fury of the Crash-lash", I was absolutely shocked to hear about how his cancer had disfigured him and robbed him of his voice.  I was genuinely happy to see him return to writing reviews after his illness, and the announcement that software engineers had found a way to "reconstitute" his voice from sound samples from his long running television appearances.  It was also great to see him continue to find a new voice in social media after the cancer had robbed him of so much.

He had no equal among film critics, and his wit was priceless.

The 50 Harshest Roger Ebert Review Quotes

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/06/the-50-harshest-roger-ebert-movie-review-quotes/
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2013, 06:46:37 am »
"Highlights from Roger Ebert's reviews of 10 Iconic Gay Movies":
http://www.gay.net/movies/2013/04/06/highlights-roger-eberts-reviews-10-iconic-gay-movies?page=0,0

BY: GAY.NET EDITORS
4.6.2013
The balcony is closed.

Esteemed film critic and LGBT ally Roger Ebert recently passed away at 70, one day after announcing he was cutting back on his work due to a recurrence of cancer.

Revisit his "thumbs ups" and "thumbs downs" of 10 iconic gay movies on the following pages.

1.  Brokeback Mountain
"Brokeback Mountain has been described as 'a gay cowboy movie,' which is a cruel simplification. It is the story of a time and place where two men are forced to deny the only great passion either one will ever feel. Their tragedy is universal. It could be about two women, or lovers from different religious or ethnic groups — any 'forbidden' love."

2.  My Own Private Idaho

"Here is a movie about lowlife sexual outlaws, and yet they remind us of works by Shakespeare or Dostoyevsky, not William Burroughs or Andy Warhol. Maybe that's because Van Sant is essentially making a human comedy here, a story that may be sad and lonely in parts but is illuminated by the insight that all experience is potentially ridiculous."

3.  Milk
"Milk tells Harvey Milk's story as one of a transformed life, a victory for individual freedom over state persecution, and a political and social cause. There is a remarkable shot near the end, showing a candlelight march reaching as far as the eyes can see. This is actual footage. It is emotionally devastating. And it comes as the result of one man's decisions in life."

4.  To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar
"With the exception of a brief opening sequence involving Swayze, the three men are never, ever, seen except in drag; we accept them as queens because we don't see them as anything else. Then the movie avoids any sexual activity for any of them. They don't sleep with each other or anyone else — and for all I could tell, such a thought has never even crossed their minds. The plot seems convinced they dress as women primarily to help other people solve their problems. For them homosexuality seems less a sexual orientation than a license to practice family counseling."

5.  Beautiful Thing
"Although I have never been a gay London teenager, I had the feeling that Jamie and Ste were not understood very deeply by the film, and their behavior wasn't convincing. After they tentatively accept that they are gay, for example, they go to a pub advertised in Gay Times and find drag queens putting on a floor show. (One of the songs is 'Hava Nagillah'). Here they realize they are not alone in the universe, and even eventually invite Sandra and Tony to go there with them. Oh, yeah? To begin with, no London teenager is going to be completely in the dark about homosexuality. Not in these times. Nor are most 16-year-olds going to find much amusing in a pub full of older men, many of them in drag, a lot of them drunk. Teenagers of any sexuality seek others their age, think 30-year-olds are 'old,' and might be a little slow to dig middle-aged men doing Barbra Streisand imitations."

6.  Weekend
"The movie involves two gay men, who meet in a bar, wake up in bed the next morning and begin a conversation that unexpectedly grows very deep. Some aspects involve homosexuality, but this isn't a 'gay film.' Most people can identify with Russell and Glen. That's because some of us are more open and some of us are more guarded. Some of us trust easily, and others more slowly. Some of us have sexual feelings that are not open for discussion. Some of us pretend to be who we think we 'ought' to be, and do it so well that even close friends don't know who we really are."

7.  Hedwig and the Angry Inch
"Filmed with ferocious energy and with enough sexual variety to match late Fellini, it may be passing through standard bookings on its way to a long run as the midnight successor to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. John Cameron Mitchell electrifies the movie, with a performance that isn't a satire of glam-rock performers so much as an authentic glam-rock performance. The movie may have had a limited budget, but the screen is usually filled with something sensational, including a trailer home that transforms itself in an instant into a stage."

8.  Torch Song Trilogy

"I have not seen anyone quite like Fierstein in the movies, and the fact that he is a specific individual gives this material a charm and weight it might have lacked if an interchangeable actor had played the role."

9.  The Crying Game
"Neil Jordan's wonderful film does what Hitchcock's Psycho, a very different film, also did: It involves us deeply in its story, and then it reveals that the story is really about something else altogether. We may have been fooled, but so was the hero, and as the plot reveals itself we find ourselves identifying more and more with him. Warning: This is the kind of movie that inspires enthusiastic discussions afterward. People want to talk about it. Don't let them talk to you. The Crying Game needs to be seen with as close to an open mind as possible, and anyone who tells you too much about the film is not doing you a favor."

10.  Pink Flamingos
"Pink Flamingos has been restored for its 25th anniversary revival, and with any luck at all that means I won't have to see it again for another 25 years. If I haven't retired by then, I will... Note: I am not giving a star rating to Pink Flamingos because stars simply seem not to apply. It should be considered not as a film but as a fact, or perhaps as an object."


Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2013, 07:14:39 am »
To the previous list let's add a few more reviews of films with gay themes:

1. Mysterious Skin
"Mysterious Skin" begins in the confusion of childhood experiences too big to be processed, and then watches with care and attention as its characters grow in the direction that childhood pointed them. It is not a message picture, doesn't push its agenda, is about discovery, not accusation. Above all, it shows how young people interpret experiences in the terms they have available to them, so that for Neil, the memory of the coach remains a treasured one, until he digs more deeply into what really happened, and for Brian, the possibility of alien abduction seems so obvious as to be beyond debate. The film begins with their separate myths about what happened to them when they were 8 years old, and then leads them to a moment when their realities join. How that happens, and what is revealed, is astonishing in its truthfulness.

2. Big Eden
This is the same Montana that's next door to Wyoming, where a gay man named Matthew Shepard was murdered not long ago. Or rather, it is not the same Montana, but some kind of movie fantasy world in which all the local folk know and approve of the fact that Henry Hart (Arye Gross) is gay; by the end of the film, they're ready to use crowbars on the door to Henry's closet. This is the kind of movie small town with no ordinary citizens; everyone has a speaking role, and they all live in one another's pockets, know one another's business, and have jobs that allow them to drop into the general store and one another's kitchens with the frequency of neighbors on a sitcom.

3.  Latter Days
One of the sly pleasures of "Latter Days" is the sight of this gay-themed movie recycling so many conventions from straight romantic cinema, as if it's time to catch up.

4.  Y Tu Mama Tambien
Beneath these two levels (the coming-of-age journey, the two Mexicos) is hidden a third. I will say nothing about it, except to observe there are only two shots in the entire movie that reflect the inner reality of one of the characters. At the end, finally knowing everything, you think back through the film--or, as I was able to do, see it again.

5.  Transamerica

What Felicity Huffman brings to Bree is the newness of a Jane Austen heroine. She has been waiting a long time to be an ingenue, and what an irony that she must begin as a mother. But she is a good person to the bottom of her socks, and at the end of "Transamerica," you realize it was not about sex at all. It was about family values.
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2013, 07:23:58 am »
From "The Advocate":

Film Critic, LGBT Supporter Roger Ebert Dies
Ebert wrote political commentary as well as movie reviews, and in a recent column on his Catholicism, he expressed disagreement with the church's antigay stance.

http://www.advocate.com/society/obituaries/2013/04/04/film-critic-lgbt-supporter-roger-ebert-dies

Esteemed film critic — and LGBT ally — Roger Ebert has died, one day after announcing he was cutting back on his work due to a recurrence of cancer.

Ebert had been a movie reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1967, and he gained greater fame with a series of syndicated TV programs on which he reviewed films, first in partnership with the late Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel, later with Sun-Times colleague Richard Roeper. He and Siskel had a trademark practice of giving “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to the movies they covered each week.

He also wrote several books, and in recent years he had written political commentary in addition to his film pieces. He had a decidedly liberal bent, often criticizing George W. Bush during his presidency. And just last month he posted online a column titled “How I Am a Roman Catholic,” in which he said he still considers himself a member of the faith, although he disagrees with the official church stance on many things, including homosexuality. “My feeling is that love between consenting adults is admirable,” he wrote.

Ebert, who was 70, died today, a family friend told the Tribune. Yesterday he posted a blog entry that said he was taking a “leave of presence” and allocating some of his duties to others because of the return of his cancer. He had been unable to speak since 2006 when he suffered complications after surgery for thyroid cancer.

Survivors include his wife, Chaz.
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2013, 09:38:29 am »
Westboro Baptist Church to Picket Outside Roger Ebert's Funeral

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130407/downtown/westboro-baptist-church-picket-outside-roger-eberts-funeral

April 7, 2013 2:41pm | By Alex Parker , DNAinfo News Editor

CHICAGO — The Westboro Baptist Church, whose members regularly picket near the funerals of fallen soldiers brandishing signs denouncing servicemembers, announced Sunday it will protest outside Roger Ebert's funeral.

The Topeka, Kan.-based group, led by Fred Phelps, said it will picket outside Holy Name Cathedral, 730 N. State St., from 9:15 to 10 a.m. Monday before funeral services for the beloved Sun-Times movie critic, who died Thursday after battling cancer.

The church has drawn criticism for its actions directed at everyone from gays and soldiers to priests and entertainment figures.
While community groups, such as the Patriot Guard Riders, have staged counterprotests, the Supreme Court ruled that the church's actions are not illegal and are protected by the First Amendment.

Several members of the church have left and denounced it in recent months, including two granddaughters of Phelps, the church's founder.

Last year, a church member ran to serve on the Kansas Board of Education, but lost.

Ebert tweeted occasionally about the church, mocking it, calling it "odious," and linking to unflattering articles. When the Supreme Court ruled the church's activities were protected under the First Amendment, Ebert tweeted, "The Supreme Court rules correctly about the odious Westboro Baptist Church. A cheap price to pay for freedom of speech."

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Offline TOoP/Bruce

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2013, 11:25:28 am »
Remembering Roger Ebert and Gene Siskal on David Letterman, as they go door to door in New Jersey:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavKjS5MfmA[/youtube]
Former IMDb Name: True Oracle of Phoenix / TOoP (I pronounce it "too - op") / " in fire forged,  from ash reborn" / Currently: GeorgeObliqueStrokeXR40

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Goodbye Mr. Ebert
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2013, 12:07:19 pm »
Roger Ebert, the pre-eminent movie critic who predicted that Crash would beat out Brokeback Mountain as Best (Oscar) Picture in 2006 died today. He was vilified by most Brokies for 'leading' the anti-Brokeback push for best picture of 2006. Here, in an AfterElton interview, post awards show he explains/justifies his opinions.

I'd like to think that his explanation serves only to totally confirm the invalid decision that was made that year by Hollywood's royalty.

http://www.afterelton.com/archive/elton/movies/2006/3/ebert.html

AfterElton.com: Let's cut to the chase. Do you think homophobia played a part in Brokeback Mountain's upset loss to Crash?
Roger Ebert: Okay, here's my position. First of all, I believe Crash was the best picture of the year. And I believe that Brokeback is a great picture. And so was Munich. All three were in my top five. Did some people vote against Brokeback Mountain because of homophobia? Yes. Was the Academy homophobic and that was why they didn't make it best Picture? I don't think so. I don't think that was the deciding factor. I think that it was probably third among the motives.

I think a lot of people voted for [Crash] because they thought it was the best picture. Some people voted for it because [unlike Brokeback Mountain] it was a Los Angeles production, and in the business, that actually does control votes. And there were probably some people who voted against it because they don't like gay people.

AE: So you don't think Hollywood is terribly homophobic?
RE: The membership of the Academy, and the working population of the Hollywood branch of the industry, is less homophobic than almost any other group you could name. But they are xenophobic. And given the choice of a movie that has dozens of actors in it and was shot in Los Angeles with union crews, and what is perceived as a runaway production [Brokeback Mountain], [that] didn't even shoot in Wyoming, but Canada, there are people who might have voted for the local picture because they are thinking of their own paychecks and [wondering] why should all that money go in Canadian pockets?

AE: But that has been the case for a long time. Lord of the Rings was all shot in New Zealand, but that didn't stop the Academy from rewarding it. There have been plenty of other films shot overseas.
RE: But the third one won [Lord of the Rings], the other two didn't.

AE: So for you, those reasons explain away all of the historical precedents that predicted Brokeback Mountain should have won? I'm talking about the fact that Brokeback Mountain had a combination of factors—awards, box office, critical acclaim, Oscars nods—that no other movie has had and then not won Best Picture.
RE: Here is the thing that confuses me: All of the awards that Brokeback won would seem to indicate that those people were not homophobic. Did they become homophobic when it came to the top category for the Oscars ? They were able to vote for Best Director, but then they became homophobic when they got to the next category? I don't know. My two primary positions are Crash was the best movie, and you are not a homophobe if you think Crash is the best movie. Because that is the sort of email I've been getting.
...


P.S. I still haven't seen 'Crash'.


I have seen Crash. It isn't terrible. In fact, it's well worth watching. It's just not as good as Good Night and Good Luck, even, let alone Brokeback Mountain. So I definitely disagreed with Ebert's preference for it.

But I don't think of Ebert as "leading" an anti-Brokeback push; he gave BBM a great review. Nor do I fault him for anything he says here -- that would be killing the messenger.



It was his "Fury of the Crash-lash" article that I found offensive. 

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060306/OSCARS/603070301


Bruce, I read this fast, so maybe I missed it, but I didn't get what you found offensive about it.

Are there homophobes in Hollywood? Of course. And at least a few of them -- Tony Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Mark Wahlberg -- have been quoted saying offensive things about BBM, and I do hold that against them. And some of those homophobes probably voted against BBM for that reason.

But I think Ebert makes a good point, that many voters probably voted for Crash because it was filmed in their city and employed many of their colleagues. And that the entertainment industry, while hardly free of homophobia, is probably far less homophobic as a whole than most of the rest of the country. And that any number of awards have gone out, including to BBM and including Oscars, to movies with gay characters.