- Wedding celebration or insurgent hideout? The Guardian, predictably, sez wedding. The LA Times juggles both stories and seems to split the difference. Frankly, I don't see how all these bombing victims and witnesses can be making up the same story. But whenever I'm about to be sold on the wedding story, the word "Jenin" pops into my head, stirring doubt.
NB: Never mind. Check out this story, with an AP reporter verifying the existence of childrens' corpses, fragments of musical instruments, etc. The American General Kimmitt sounds less sure of their previous contentions that the strike killed mostly insurgents. Hmmm...
- 2046: the verdict is in -- as predicted by many, it turned out to be gorgeously incoherent. Variety liked it but wanted Wong to trim the last reel. The Guardian raves. Screen Daily really dug it. And SD's survey of critics has it in the lead for the Palme. The Frog reaction is still to be determined, though early reports have a split verdict. On the other side, Our Man at Cannes was underwhelmed, to say the least. He also reported only a polite reaction at the screening and mixed buzz on the streets. We'll see.
Frankly, my biggest disappointment is that Wong chose to spotlight the exceptionally limited Zhang Ziyi instead of the divine Maggie, who appeared for about 2 seconds according to the Variety review. Ugh. Well, maybe the mixed reaction will stir him to resurrect Maggie.
P.S.: if you haven't already done so, check out this post from V-Mort's blog, especially the comments. An engaging debate on the political significance of the Beheading of Berg v. Abu Ghraib.
P.S.S.: Who will get his Dogville/Dogshit review out first? Me or Michael Sicinski? Bets taken here.
