Sunday Matinee, Sept 28 - Oct 11

Not half the price ... just half the work.

Whew. I had to postpone Sunday Matinee from last week because I was on the road, and, committed reader that I am, promised to do a double-loaded Matinee. What I did not expect was that there would be so much quality material from you guys in this last fortnight. (I mean, I know you produce quality, but the quantity is so spectacular.)

So without further ado...

• Dean at Filmicability publishes a fantastic look at what should have won Best Picture from 1927 onward. I think we've officially got a meme going, too, and I'll try to publish my own as soon as possible. Suffice it to say now, I wholeheartedly agree with Dean on many, many, many of his selections, but still: I'll take issue with The Graduate, Brazil, and 1999 through 2007. Ha. More to come...

• Film review four-play #1: Assessments of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist at Blog Cabins, MovieZeal, The Film Doctor, and Getafilm.

• Film review four-play #2: Assessments of Religulous at MovieZeal, Deadpan, Blog Cabins, and The Stop Button.

• Tony Dayoub at Cinema Viewfinder has reviews from the NY Film Festival of Steven Soderbergh's Che and Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler.

• Memoriams to Paul Newman in the last two weeks continued. Bowen's Cinematic has a great essay on two moments with the actor. Meanwhile, The Dancing Image looks at Newman in The Verdict and Coleman's Corner looks at Newman in Cool Hand Luke.

• Joseph at Cinexcellence publishes a wonderful look at Errol Morris's Gates of Heaven.

• Two takes on two versions of 3:10 to Yuma: The Dancing Image on the Yuma '57 and Cut, Print, Review on Yuma '07.

• Deadpan's examination of Alfred Hitchcock continues, including a great look at Strangers on a Train.

• The Film Doctor has 11 thoughts on A Streetcar Named Desire on DVD.

• Ibetolis at Film for the Soul has seven words for Un Chien Andalou: "Now that's how you open a movie."

• The Dancing Image continues "hating Hollywood" – hooray! – with Sunset Boulevard.

• Allan Fish at Wonders in the Dark has a miniature masterpiece collection with reviews of The Magnificent Ambersons, To Be or Not To Be, and Vertigo.

• Andrew at The Stop Button slams Peter Jackson's King Kong. I couldn't agree more that the film is a boat of stink, but the review is a joy to read. (His take on the 1933 King Kong can be read here.) On the awesome-film front, Andrew also has reviews of Casablanca (of course) and The Ow-Bow Incident.

• YDKS Movies starts a countdown of the 25 Greatest Horror Movies Ever.

• Dana Stevens at Slate is lukewarm to Body of Lies. (As the editors at Metacritic say: "If Gladiator and The Departed got married and adopted a baby, that baby would be Body of Lies.")

• Finally: I don't believe in intentionally avoiding politics because this is a movie blog. I wear my politics on my sleeve and on the right column of this web page, and you can take it or leave it as you will. Most of the time I also don't see much of a reason to comment beyond necessary thoughts in relevant reviews and the little endorsement tag; however, something disturbing developed this week. Many citizens – reeling perhaps for the first time in their lives at the prospect of a roundly defeated agenda – were explicitly given permission by major political figures to channel their frustration, disappointment, anger, and xenophobia in an aggressive, hate-filled mob mentality that is profoundly unsettling to the majority of Americans. These citizens have screamed "traitor!" and "kill him!" and "off with his head!" and "terrorist!" at the mention of a man who is the presidential nominee of a major American political party. What's worse is that days went by where two national political figures and their surrogates callously and selfishly roused this fear and anger, fervidly stoking the burning embers of a dying fire – days when these figures should have shown what real leadership entails and put an end to this downright disgraceful demagoguery. Their actions are dangerous, irresponsible, and possibly felonious, and while they have pulled back from their nasty politicking, I nonetheless sit disappointed. Those people should sit ashamed. (Frank Rich has more thoughts on the matter.)

And if you haven't seen them already...

This week on Turner Classic Movies:
• Hud (1963), Oct 12
• Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Oct 12
• Cool Hand Luke (1967), Oct 12
• My Man Godfry (1936), Oct 13
• The African Queen (1951), Oct 14
• Singin' in the Rain (1952), Oct 14
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), Oct 15
• Harvey (1950), Oct 15
• Shall We Dance (1937), Oct 15
• Swing Time (1936), Oct 15
• Bringing Up Baby (1938), Oct 15
• Gaslight (1944), Oct 16
• The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Oct 16
• Gilda (1946), Oct 17
• A Night at the Opera (1935), Oct 18
• Dr. Strangelove (1964), Oct 18
• The Great Escape (1963), Oct 18
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Oct 19