Movie Cricket

The Cricket is taking two weeks' vacation. Back to posting on Monday, Feb. 22.

Until then, please vote in the Tribune's 12th annual online Oscars Poll — in which you can opine on who will win and who should win a little gold man. Enjoy.

Five movies opening this week — the biggest being a drama that may finally land Jeff Bridges the Oscar he's deserved for years.

That is "Crazy Heart," which took three Oscar nominations this week: For Bridges' outstanding portrayal of alcoholic country singer "Bad" Blake, still playing dive bars across the Southwest; for Maggie Gyllenhaal's supporting role as a young journalist who becomes Blake's lover; and for the movie's signature song, "The Weary Kind." The story, as constructed by first-time writer-director Scott Cooper (who the Cricket interviewed), is straightforward and often predictable. But Bridges' lived-in, utterly authentic portrayal of Blake makes viewing completely worth it.

Penélope Cruz didn't get nominated for "Broken Embraces," but her performance is more richly fulfilling than the role she did get a nod for in "Nine." Here, working again with Pedro Almodóvar, Cruz is radiant as a young actress in the middle of a tragic love triangle — remembered fondly by a blind screenwriter (Lluis Tomar) 14 years later. Almodóvar's tale of love, loss and memory is gorgeously realized.

The Cricket's colleague Vince Horiuchi pulled extra duty this week, catching movies the Cricket missed while in Park City. Vince liked "Frozen" (pictured), the made-in-Utah thriller about three friends trapped on a ski lift. He was less enamored of the weepie romance "Dear John," starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum, and the John Travolta-starring shoot-'em-up "From Paris With Love."

On Wednesday, the Cricket reported on the case of movie critic and junket regular Paul Fischer, who was pegged by the Vancouver Sun's Chris Parry for instances of writing reviews of Sundance Film Festival movies that lifted entire paragraphs from the festival's film guide.

In a follow-up, Parry reports that Fischer has decided to retire. (Scroll down to the bottom of the story for the updates.)

The news comes not from Fischer himself, but from Garth Franklin, the editor of Dark Horizons — one of two movie web sites to which Fischer was contributing reviews from Sundance.

"After a long chat and weighing options, Fischer has decided to no longer continue press junketing and I will abide by his wishes," Franklin told Parry. "Paul has effectively retired from the junket circuit."

Both Dark Horizons and Moviehole, the other site for which Fischer was writing, have removed Fischer's Sundance reviews from their sites.

Parry's initial story unleashed commentary from others in the film section of the blogosphere. Ray Pride, on Movie City Indie, noted the long acrimonious history between Parry and Fischer. David Poland tries to put it in perspective on his Hot Blog. And Vadim Rizov, writing on the IFC web site's blog The Independent Eye, describes Fischer's career as a "quote whore" as a symptom of a larger problem — a dumbing-down of film criticism in general.

If you missed some of the hot titles at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, you can always head to Austin, Texas — where many films that debuted in Park City will screen at SXSW 2010, the music/film/interactive festival that runs March 12-21.

The SXSW line-up was announced today, and there are 16 Sundance titles on it: "Cyrus," "Get Low," "The Runaways," "The Freebie," "His & Hers," "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child," "Last Train Home," "Life 2.0," "Lovers of Hate," "The Oath," "The Red Chapel," "The Taqwacores," "Winter's Bone," "Enter the Void," "Tucker and Dale vs. Evil" and "All My Friends Are Funeral Singers."

There's also plenty at SXSW for the geek audience — notably the superhero send-up "Kick-Ass" (pictured), the "SNL"-inspired "MacGyver" spoof "MacGruber" and Tim Blake Nelson's marijuana-themed comic thriller "Leaves of Grass."

There are also some much-anticipated documentaries: "Lemmy," about the life of Motorhead's iconic frontman; "Saturday Night," James Franco's behind-the-scenes look at the making of an episode of "Saturday Night Live"; and "The People vs. George Lucas," which examines the cultural impact of George Lucas and his uneasy relationship with his fans.

Many is the movie critic or entertainment journalist who has run into Paul Fischer on the festival circuit or junket interview.

The Cricket himself has occasionally shared an interview roundtable with Fischer, a self-important troll with an Australian accent as thick as his overbearing manner. The Cricket often came away from the experience relieved that he didn't have to work junkets every weekend and hang around with Fischer and his ilk.

Fischer is also known for reviewing movies in such favorable terms — calling the much-reviled "Pink Panther 2" "a comic gem" and the so-so "The Book of Eli" "the first must-see movie of 2010" — that he has received the loving moniker "quote whore."

But Chris Parry at The Vancouver Sun is calling him something else: "Plagiarist." And he's got the evidence to back it up.

Parry cites four reviews Fischer posted online — three for the web site Dark Horizons, a fourth for Moviehole — for movies from the just-completed Sundance Film Festival. In all four cases, entire paragraphs appear to be cribbed verbatim (or nearly so) from the festival's own film guide.

Rather than repeat Parry's citations (and risk the charge of plagiarism himself), the Cricket found another of Fischer's reviews and compared it to the Sundance guide. (It didn't take much effort — try it yourself and see.)

Here's a paragraph from Fischer's review of the Kristen Stewart-as-Joan Jett drama "The Runaways":

The movie focuses on the often turbulent and protective relationship between guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett and lead vocalist Cherie Currie as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record-label dramas. The film beautifully chronicles the band's formation as well as their meteoric rise under the pervasive eye of an abusive manager.

And here's a paragraph from the Sundance film guide's entry for the same movie:

Focusing on the duo of guitarist/vocalist Joan Jett and lead vocalist Cherie Currie as they navigate a rocky road of touring and record-label woes, the film chronicles the band's formation as well as their meteoric rise under the malevolent eye of an abusive manager.

The Cricket added the italics to aid with comparison.

In the Vancouver Sun story, the Sundance Institute's assistant director for media relations, Brooks Addicott, said she was "alarmed" at this news — and that the festival may reevalulate Fischer's press accreditation for next year's festival.

So far, neither Fischer nor the editors at Dark Horizons or Moviehole have responded to the Vancouver Sun story.

Plagiarism is the one unforgivable sin in journalism. It's not something any reporter tosses around lightly, and it's not something from which a critic is likely to recover.

UPDATE: Dark Horizons has removed many of Fischer's Sundance reviews from its web site. But his review for the stoner comedy "High School" remains, and again there's an eerie similarity to the Sundance film guide's description.

Here's two paragraphs from Fischer's:

In this film, hypocritically conservative HIGH School principal Gordon (Michael Chiklis) has suddenly instituted a zero-tolerance crusade against his nemesis, the reviled marijuana. A mandatory drug test for all students is about to be undertaken, and failure will result in immediate expulsion.

Normally, this would be of no consequence to straight-arrow soon-to-be valedictorian Henry Burke, except he just tried ganja for the very first time. With his college scholarship hanging in the balance, Burke unwillingly teams up with perpetual pothead Travis Breaux to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize this threat—get the entire student body stoned.

And here's a paragraph from the Sundance guide:

So it’s the end of the school year, and smarmy Principal Gordon (Michael Chiklis) has suddenly instituted a zero-tolerance crusade against his nemesis, the reviled marijuana. A mandatory drug test for all students is to be administered, failure of which will result in immediate expulsion. Normally, this would be of no consequence to straight-arrow valedictorian Henry Burke, except he just tried ganja for the very first time. With his college scholarship hanging in the balance, Burke begrudgingly teams up with charismatic pothead Travis Breaux to do the only thing they can think of to neutralize this threat—get the entire student body stoned.