Oscar Shorts Eagle with It (Weekly Links)

Aniston, Sandler, going with it

Reviews I wrote for the Herald this week, and etc.

The Eagle. “Dances with Wolves was then, and this is now.”

Just Go with It. “Loosey-goosey affection for letting actors stretch out and play.”

Gnomeo & Juliet. “Much lawn destruction ensues.”

The Taqwacores. “Doesn’t back away from complicated stuff.”

Oscar-nominated shorts. “They look like audition pieces for bigger things.”

On KUOW’s “Weekday,” I talk with Steve Scher about movies and true stories – from the mythology of Ronald Reagan to the fact-bending of The King’s Speech and The Social Network. Archived here; the movie bit kicks in at 14:58.

I give my talk in the Humanities Washington speakers program – “Alien Encounters: Sci-Fi Movies and the Cold War Culture of the 1950s” – on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Sylvan Way Library in Bremerton. So if you’re anywhere near the Kitsap Peninsula, watch the skies. Info here.

At my other website, What a Feeling!, we’re doing music movies from the 1980s. Today: Stop Making Sense.