Roger Ebert, David Edelstein, Sarah Kerr, and Elvis Mitchell

Dear Everyone,

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...SINGLE PAGE

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

Roger's entry captured it perfectly: From minute to minute in the movies this year, you didn't know what was going to happen next; you couldn't spot the formula, because there wasn't a formula in sight. Roger, I'd really like to explore your comparison of 1999 and 1974. That fabled year has been mythologized so much. Did you feel, at the time, like the movies had more in common than just sharing in a sudden outburst of creativity? I'm asking because I wonder if this year's highlights, wildly disparate as they are (from the slickly commercial Toy Story 2 to the uncompromising Boys Don't Cry) don't have some concerns in common--the way, looking back, we can see that some of the great early-'70s films took messed-up, naive, hypocritical America as a theme.

David, I agree with you about Chloë Sevigny, and thank you, too, for singling out Reese Witherspoon, playing the pathological goody-goody in Election, as one of the year's best performances; your description of her leaps and bounds brought back images that match any this year for memorability: the scene where she's alone in the hallway, bouncing higher than a pogo stick, her feet kicked way back behind her in unison as she leapt. (I know people who have tried to imitate this upon leaving the theater.) Also the freeze-frame on her in the classroom, her hand waving in the air like a tentacle, her eye-lid half closed, her lips moving into position for that grin that wants to ingratiate but looks like a grimace. It's hard to write about this performance, because it's so natural that it looks tossed off, and especially because Witherspoon, quite deliberately, doesn't put across much presence--compared with an old-time star, or a technical wizard like Meryl Streep, she seems kind of small. But if you think of her as representing a whole new style, a generous style, a kind of post-narcissism, she looks pretty great. She's quite real but at the same time abstract, almost cartoony; she's loose and free-associative but attentive, above all, to the needs of the story.

Also David, sorry for the slam on South Park. You could be right that a packed, whooping theater would have helped. But you know, I reserve my right to find the South Park phenomenon a little toxic; I can't cut it too much slack because I don't sense half as much going on upstairs as you do. I mean, forget about art. Can it really be that difficult to write a song called "Kyle's Mom Is a Bitch?" I bet any number of people reading this exchange could do as well or better.

All best,
Sarah

PRINTE-MAILRECOMMEND...RSS

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

David Edelstein is Slate's movie critic. Sarah Kerr is a regular contributor to Slateand the New York Review of Books. Elvis Mitchell currently reviews films for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but will soon be doing so for the New York Times. Roger Ebert is the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Timesand co-host of the television program Roger Ebert & the Movies.

SPONSORED CONTENT

• The Movie Club
  The greatest Mexican Mennonite film of 2008.
  Jeannette Catsoulis | Jan. 9, 2009
• The Movie Club
  Roach motels and termite art.
  Scott Foundas | Jan. 7, 2008
• The Movie Club
  All she wrote.
  Carina Chocano | Jan. 6, 2007
• Search for more Movie Club, The articles
• Subscribe to the Movie Club, The RSS feed
• View our complete Movie Club, The archive