It’s a month dedicated to the Coen brothers at MovieZeal; I’ll be contributing a piece later in the month; in the meantime, check out this great review of Raising Arizona by Evan Derrick, who writes

Raising Arizona continues the Coens’ fascination with bending genre, the screwball comedy (ala Peter Bogdanovitch) serving as their guinea pig this time. Nathan Jr. is their version of the plaid suitcase in What’s Up Doc?, changing ownership with increasing frequency as the film progresses. In another example of their grim sense of humor, they’ve chosen a baby instead of an inanimate object as the film’s raison d’être, and they’re constantly in danger of crossing the line from ‘funny’ into ‘perverse.’ That they manage to make an abandoned infant in the middle of the road (who is subsequently snatched up by a moving vehicle) humorous is a testament to their grasp of tone.

I couldn’t agree more. (this just in … another Coen review, this time of Miller’s Crossing, which I think is right up there with Goodfellas, here).

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There’s some upcoming Blog-a-Thons in the movie blogosphere:
  • Film at 11 wants us to contribute to an blogger-update of Andrew Sarris’ seminal American Cinema.
  • Ferdy on Films has a Dance Movie marathon (05/04 -05/10); I’ll be there with bells on
  • Cerebral Mastication, to correspond with the opening of A Certain Movie, will be hosting an all Indiana Jones all the time week (05/16-05/23)

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Other news of note:

  • In a welcome trend (see Ricky Gervais and Fernando Meirelles), Pedro Almodóvar is blogging here about his upcoming film.
  • Edward Copeland at Edward Copeland on Film has a great appreciation of 1933’s King Kong, which opened 75 years ago today. He doesn’t much like any of the remakes, including Peter Jackson’s, which he calls “bloated.” Ouch. On the specs of the Ring trilogy, I so wanted to like Kong, but I fear Copeland’s right.
  • More of Peet Gelderblom’s Directorama this week, this time when Hitch and Antonioni meet up with Smokin’ Sam … find it here at the House Next Door.
  • A reprint of a great letter from Richard Dreyfuss about Charlton Heston shows how art can transcend politics.

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