Movie Cricket

Anne Thompson has stirred up a little hornet's nest over on her IndieWire blog, Thompson on Hollywood, with some sharp barbs regarding the situation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Thompson (pictured) reported last week's news that LA Weekly film critic Scott Foundas is leaving that job to become associate program director for Lincoln Center — a job that will include making an imprint on the New York Film Festival.

In her blog post, Thompson wrote two statements that most riled up the readers. One was that Foundas' hire away from a print publication showed that "film criticism is a dying art." The other was this: "Unless Foundas screws up (as one-time heir apparent Kent Jones did), down the line he could be in a position to run the New York Film Festival."

People writing on the comments thread to Thompson's post took issue with that characterization of Jones, and of Thompson's dismissive assessment of film criticism.

What makes it interesting is the A-list quality of the commenters: New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis, former Premiere critic Glenn Kenny, prominent free-lance critic Amy Taubin, former Entertainment Weekly writer Tim Appelo, RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson, and even Foundas and Jones.

Two things to learn from all this: Don't invite Dargis (who worked at LA Weekly before Foundas) to lunch with her old bosses at Village Voice Media, and don't expect Foundas or Jones to break bread with Thompson anytime soon.

Most TV viewers may recognize Edward Woodward as "The Equalizer," the helpful ex-spy he played on the CBS-TV series of that name from 1986 to 1989.

But Woodward — who died this morning at the age of 79 — had a far-ranging career in film, TV and stage.

Movie fans may remember him as the police sergeant investigating the strange doings in a village in "The Wicker Man" (1973), or as the Ghost of Christmas Present in a 1984 TV production of "A Christmas Carol" (with George C. Scott as Scrooge). He even popped up as one of the villagers in Edgar Wright's action-movie spoof "Hot Fuzz" (2007).

His finest screen moment may have been in the title role of "Breaker Morant" (1980). Woodward (pictured at right, with Bryan Brown) played an Australian army lieutenant facing court-martial for killing prisoners in the Boer War — being made a scapegoat for decisions higher up.

The Sundance Institute has named the 12 finalists for the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award — a big honor that comes with a big check.

The award goes to four promising screenwriters, one from a different region — Latin America, Europe, Japan and the United States. The award includes $10,000 each to start production of the writers' films, and a purchase guarantee from NHK (Japan's public-broadcasting company) for the finished film's TV rights in Japan.

Some Sundance titles that have won the NHK award include Miranda July's "Me and You and Everyone We Know," Alex Rivera's "Sleep Dealer," Cruz Angeles' "Don't Let Me Drown," Walter Salles' "Central Station" and Andrucha Waddington's "The House of Sand."

The winners will be announced during the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in January. Here are this year's finalists, by region:

Europe:

•  "Snowhite" by Pablo Berger (Spain), set in 1920s Spain, about an orphaned girl who escapes her wicked stepmother "to join a troupe of dwarf matadors who help her claim her legacy as Spain's top bullfighter." Berger, born in Bilbao and schooled at New York University, made "Torremolinos 73."

• "I'm Going to Change My Name a k a Alaverdy" by Maria Saakyan (Armenia), abotu a teen girl dealing with sex and suicidal thoughts while searching for her long-lost father. Saakyan's first feature, "Mayak (The Lighthouse)" (2006), was in competition at several film festivals.

• "Elena" by Andrei Zviagintsev (Russia), about an elderly woman living in luxury trying to rescue her alcoholic son from poverty. Zviagintsev made the harrowing 2003 drama "The Return," which received a Golden Globe nomination.

Latin America:

• "Heli" by Amat Escalante (Mexico), about a young man searching for his father, who has mysteriously disappeared, in a small Mexican town dominated by an auto plant and the local drug cartel. Two of Escalante's films, "Sangre" and "Los Bastardos," have played in the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival.

• "La Demora (The Delay)" by Rodrigo Plá (Uruguay/Mexico), follows the actions of Maria, who abandons her elderly father in a public square. Plá's resume includes "La Zona" (which won an award for best first feature in Venice) and "Desert Within" (which closed out Critics Week at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival).

•  "El Lugar del Hijo (The Militant)" by Manuel Nieto Zas  (Uruguay), in which a militant leftist college student is left to run his father's ranch. Nieto's first feature, "La Perrera (The Dogpound)," won an award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2006.

United States:

• "Beasts of the Southern Wild" by Benh Zeitlin, set in the Louisiana Delta, where a 10-year-old girl refuses to evacuate her home without her dying father. Zeitlin, raised by two folklorists in Queens, was named one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker magazine.

• "For Ellen" by So Yong Kim, in which an aspiring rock musician discovers he doesn't want to give up custody of his six-year-old daughter to his soon-to-be ex-wife. Kim's "In Between Days" won a special jury prize at Sundance 2007, and "Treeless Mountain" (set in Korea) was released to acclaim earlier this year.

• "On the Ice" by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, depicts two Iñuit teens trying to get away with a murder on the tundra near Barrow, Alaska. MacLean, Iñupiaq filmmaker born and raised in Alaska, won the Jury Prize for his short "Sikumi (On the Ice)" at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Japan:

• "No Woman No Cry" by Tamako Hioki, about a 30-year-old factory worker who notices the small kindnesses of her co-workers. Hioki's first film, "Tamako No Hanashi," won the grand prize at the Tokyo Student Film Festival and a special audience prize at the PIA Film Festival.

• "Sleeping Beauty" by Ryo Nakajima, in which a patient in a vegetative state receives a radical treatment, which allows her nurse to see the patient's memories. Nakajima's first commercial feature, "Rise Up," opens in theaters in Japan this month.

• "The Wonderful Lives of Asahigaoka" by Daisuke Yamaoka, about a young woman left in a coma after a suicide attempt — which stirs ups the lives of others in a sleepy river-side town. Yamaoka's films have screened at festivals worldwide.

X-Dance, the action-sports movie event that started as an unofficial sidebar to the Sundance Film Festival, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in January — and will mark the occasion by paying tribute to the granddaddy of ski movies, Warren Miller.

Miller will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from X-Dance on Jan. 26, at the festival's closing-night ceremonies. Miller also will be an honorary festival judge, and take part in the X-Dance Institute forum.

Brian Wimmer, director and founder of X-Dance, gushed about Miller in a statement: "Warren Miller is one of the biggest inspirations in my life. Warren's films, back in the day, were an exciting sign of the pending winter season to come. It wasn't ski season until you heard Warren's voice. X-Dance was created with that inspiration in mind!"

X-Dance runs Jan. 21-26, headquartered at the Off-Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. The location for the closing-night award ceremony and party are yet to be determined. For information on tickets and festival passes, go to the X-Dance web site.

Four movies opening in Utah today — including the season's loudest blockbuster, and the year's best and worst comedies.

The blockbuster, of course, is the heavily hyped "2012," in which director Roland Emmerich tries to top his previous end-of-the-world epics ("Independence Day," "Godzilla," "The Day After Tomorrow") by systematically destroying all of planet Earth in one go. Along the way, he throws a slew of thinly drawn characters — played by a cast that includes John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, George Segal and President Danny Glover — into a rollercoaster of computer-animated effects and disaster-movie cliches.

With seven weeks left in 2009, it feels safe to call "Pirate Radio" the best comedy of the year. Director-writer Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill," "Love, Actually") creates a joyously funny ensemble in this story of a renegade radio station broadcasting rock music to beat-starved Britain in 1966 — when the BBC didn't play any rock music, even though the UK then was giving the world The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who and so much more. The ensemble cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans and Nick Frost ("Shaun of the Dead"), but the standout is Bill Nighy as the station's dotty owner.

The worst comedy is, thankfully, only playing at three Carmike theaters (Carmike 12 in West Jordan, Ritz 15 in West Valley City, and Wynnsong 12 in Provo). "Play the Game" is a shoddy sitcom-like romance about a smooth ladies' man (Paul Campbell, from "National Lampoon's Bag Boy") who teaches his pickup tips to his grandpa (Andy Griffith) — who soon becomes the stud of the retirement home. Watching an icon like Griffith try to wring laughs from this awful material is a painful experience.

The only art-house entry this week is "The Yes Men Fix the World," a funny if one-sided documentary about the activist pranksters who play tricks on corporations in the name of social justice. (Go to tonight's 7:25 screening at the Broadway Centre Cinemas, 111 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City — one of the Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum, will give a post-show Q-and-A with local activist Tim DeChristopher. After the screening, Bichlbaum, DeChristopher, author/activist Terry Tempest Williams, KRCL's Troy Williams and attorney Pat Shea will lead an activism workshop at the coffee shop Toasters, 30 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City.) Read an interview with Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum here.