I haven't seen this movie since I was about ten, but I assume it's even worse than I remember it.

That’s right, kids. We’re back. We’re totally back. We’re awesomely back. We’re nine kinds of back. We’re bringing sexy…ah, never mind.

Evan is currently off somewhere, chasing a midlife crisis making a film (check it all out here), so I’m going to be your host from here on out. That being said, Evan, Phillip, and I are all returning to the MZ writing desk, along with new writers Joseph Demme and Steve C. King (and the always-mysterious Ghost Lyon). We have all sorts of awesomeness planned, including…

• Evan’s candid interview with actor Doug Jones of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth
• Four — count ‘em! — four episodes of our venerable podcast
• Heather Hall’s new column The Fanboyologist
• 80’s Action Flick Month August
• Regular Top-Ten lists
• All the reviews you love, all the hipster posturing you hate, and even more gratuitous references to The Rundown, Speed Racer and High School Musical!

It all starts with Evan’s interview, which will be up in just a few hours. Keep watching the skies!

-L.

Just a quick update while I’m on my lunch break. Believe it or not, we’re actually going to follow through…a formal relaunch of the MZ is imminent, and we’re going to have some new writers and new features that I’m pretty excited about. Stay tuned for further details. In fact, you might want to hit “Reload” on your browser continuously until you see something new. It’ll be real soon, I promise.

Real soon.

-L

Your continued comments and well wishes mean a lot (Sally Field moment, anyone?). Thanks for caring and wondering what in the blue blazes has been going on. When we figure this business out, we’ll let you know, first thing.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Phillip gave it 4 1/2 5 stars (our highest rating) and Sam Juliano of Wonders In the Dark also gave it 5 stars (his highest rating), so if you haven’t seen it yet (and chances are you haven’t) then make sure you don’t miss this opportunity. It’s one of the most powerful films of the year, hands down.

The consensus appears to be that it’s best to go into this one cold, but suffice to say it’s an intimate portrayal of one family and the horrible miscarriage of justice that was perpetuated against them. Think Capturing the Friedmans, Murder On a Sunday Morning, or Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.

I realize many of you will not have access to this, but for any of our readers in L.A. or Chicago (or even New York – it’s still playing there), go out and see it this weekend! And if you’re in L.A., the director will be coming out himself on 3 separate occasions, including 1 Q&A session. I’m getting behind this one 100% – expect to hear much and more about it, especially as we enter Oscar season.

Hit the jump for the trailer and show times.

Los Angeles
Laemmle’s Sunset 5
8000 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood
Showtimes daily: 1:30 PM, 4:10 PM, 7 PM, 9:45 PM

www.laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=2

(I will be appearing at the 7 PM and 9:45 PM shows on Friday (11/7) and Saturday (11/8) at the Sunset 5 for Q&A. Hope to see you all there!!!)

Chicago
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 North State Street
Friday and Mon-Thu: 6 PM, 8 PM
Saturday: 3:15 PM, 5:15 PM, 7:45 PM
Sunday: 2:15 PM and 4:15 PM

www.siskelfilmcenter.org

And it’s still playing in New York City at:

Cinema Village
22 E. 12th St, Manhattan
Showtimes daily thru Thursday: 1 PM, 3 PM, 5 PM, 7 PM, 9:15 PM
(”Dear Zachary” is staying on at Cinema Village for at least a second week! But showtimes vary daily as of Friday 11/7, so check the website below.)

www.cinemavillage.com

The answers, then, after the jump:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. The Devil Wears Prada
3. The Nightmare Before Christmas
4. Iron Man
5. Anatomy of a Murder
6. Chinatown
7. Man On Wire
8. Attack of the 50ft. Woman
9. Lawrence of Arabia
10. The Rundown

Here’s the link to the contest in case you want to see if I was cheatin’ ya.

The contest ends tonight at Midnight, Central Standard Time, so get your guesses in before then. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow.

Secondly, I wanted you to know that we’re going to start toying with some advertising options. And before anyone starts crying “SELL OUT!”, I promise you they’ll be subtle and contextualized. No ramming Google AdSense blocks through your nose (at least not yet). But frankly, I’ve got children to feed, and I don’t think I can take my sweet daughter looking up at me anymore and saying, “Daddy, can I pleez have a stick to play with?” and I have to say, “Sorry darling, sticks are too expensive, now eat your Ramen noodles.” Think of the children before you send me any hate mail.

On a related note, why haven’t you sent me any hate mail? I’ve been wanting to start a “look at dese here cuh-raaazy emails I gotst!” column, but I need some, you know, crazy emails before I can do that.

We finally hit 300 posts, although I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that a large number of those have come from contributing writers over the past month. You guys (and you know who you are) rock the Casbah.

Using the power of the internets (and a Random Number Generator), one entrant has been randomly selected and…congratulations Ryan Dunlap! You are now the proud owner of a smoke stained boxset of noir classics. We’ll be contacting you momentarily to pass over the goods. For those of you quietly weeping into your keyboards, fret not! We’ll be giving away more free goodies next week, although this time there will be a contest involved. Well, not so much a contest as a battle royale involving badgers and sporks. It’s going to be suh-weet.

Thanks to everyone who entered, especially those who took the time to include comments and suggestions. We’ve already been implementing some of them (Chris Polley, I hope you’ve noticed that some of my reviews have been much shorter – you’re right, I don’t need to write a novel for films like Death Race or Traitor), so rest assured your feedback is valuable to us.

Sadly, Mr. Allauddin Muhamadad of the African Development Bank and Dr. Donald Blankstone of the Federal Ministry Agriculture were not eligible for the giveaway because they failed to include the proper information in the subject line. On a more positive note, I am apparently entitled to over $1.8 trillion dollars in inheritance money and only need to fork over my social security number and bank statement in order to receive it. I am so getting that 60 inch plasma I’ve had my eye on!

In order to get all of the wonderful noir contributions in, we’re going to be extending the noir retrospective a few days beyond the end of August. In addition to that, don’t forget that once we hit 300 posts (this is #290 or so) we’re  giving away a boxset of 5 of the noiriest (I love making up new words with ‘noir’ in them) films ever made, Out of the Past, Murder My Sweet, The Asphalt Jungle, The Set-up, and Gun Crazy. The back of the box tells me that each film includes commentary from noir experts, including director Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese. See this post for all of the rain-drenched, cigarette-stained details.

I would like to clearly describe the events that led up to the post that was made late Monday, August 25th, so there is no ambiguity, as well as allow Sam to issue a statement himself.

- On August 25th, Ed Gonzalez, the film editor of Slant Magazine, posted a comment in Sam’s “Boy A” review indicating that a single sentence had been taken from Nick Schager’s review of the same film at Slant. Mr. Gonzalez was notified of this by one of our readers, and he asked that the sentence be removed.

- Luke Harrington responded strongly to Mr. Gonzalez in defense of Sam.

- Mr. Gonzalez posted another comment indicating that two of Sam’s other reviews, “In Search of a Midnight Kiss” and “Man On Wire,” displayed evidence of further plagiarism. The editors of Cinematical, where Mr. Schager’s “Man On Wire” review had been published, were also notified.

- At this point I came upon the discussion and made contact with both Mr. Gonzalez and Sam.

- Sam posted a comment on the “Boy A” review agreeing that the review should be taken down.

- After discussing things with Sam over email and examining the evidence, I made the decision to pull all of Sam’s reviews down as well as post the apology.

- To be clear: some sentences had been repeated verbatim and some were lightly paraphrased. The entirety of Mr. Schager’s reviews were not copied, only certain selections. In some cases, only a single sentence

- Mr. Gonzalez had posted a thread at the Online Film Critics Society forum, a critics society composed of over 140 significant online critics, identifying both the plagiarism and MovieZeal to its members.

- Additionally, I am a member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. One of our previous members is a staff writer for Cinematical, whose editors were contacted by Mr. Gonzalez. Although I have not corresponded with Cinematical over this, it was crucial to protect the Circle from any possible fallout.

- In light of these events, and because the film criticism community takes the issue of plagiarism seriously, I made the decision that I did, which was intended to protect my integrity as well as the integrity of the site.

- It was NOT intended to bring embarrassment or shame to Sam in any way shape or form.

Here is Sam’s statement, completely unedited, that he emailed to me earlier this evening:

“Dear Movie Zeal Bloggers and Friends:
Two evenings ago my brief tenure as a member of the Movie Zeal writing staff came crashing down as a result of an accusation that a sentence in my Boy A review was lifted from a review written by Nick Schager of Slant Magazine. Further revelations came briefly to light afterwards that some of my other submissions were tarnished. Unsure of how to proceed at a late hour with such damning allegations, Evan Derrick put a quick end to my month long writing stint at Movie Zeal.

The charges that were brought to light by the esteemed Ed Gonzalez, the editor of the publication, were accurate. I am not writing here today to contend otherwise. A number of my film reviews have appeared with various assortments of words and phrases that have not always been my own, even though the lion’s share of my writings are. The entire thrust of all my reviews are invariably a ‘hands-on experience,’ meaning I treat them as an event rather than just an analytical treatment. My reviews for the theatre and for classical concerts and opera are completely original as they almost are always written well before professional reviews appear, if they even do appear at all. My film reviews exhibit a great deal of originality, but I have on occasion been seduced by the words of others, particularly Mr. Schager and Mr. Gonzalez, who are two of America’s finest critics. I am one who reads dozens of reviews on films I am generally excited by. My ill-advised use of some of their language however, in no way compromises my own reaction to the films in question, nor blunts the measure and extent of my own rhetorical abilities, which have been chronicled over years both as a critic for two local newspapers, the editor of a college newspaper, and a 24 year career as a creative writing and literature teacher in an elementary and Jr. High School. The irony of these allegations is that a close friend, who teaches writing in a local high school took at look at my request to read several of my reviews- a few that were 100% original, and a few where I “borrowed” without acknowledgment from other reviews. He readily commended the flow and lyricism of the work that was fully my own, asserting it was much more passionate and accomplished writing. I think I sometimes have fallen prey to wanting to achieve perfection, and never being satisfied with myself. Also, I admit I tried to take on too much and cut some corners.

Rather than saying to me, “Sam, let’s have some of your own original writing 100% of the time from now on,” Mr. Derrick decided to immediately cut our association, one he actively sought in another forum. He was not ordered to do so, but felt this was the safest way to proceed. Maybe the fact that we’ve never had a relationship–he lives in Oklahoma, I am practically a New Yorker–was partially the reason. Also, as he discussed with me on the phone today, he didn’t want to be reprimanded by others whom he thought would take an active interest in whether or not I continued to write for Movie Zeal. I frankly maintain that these individuals are only concerned about protecting their work, and are neither interested in the enactment of disciplinary action, nor whether or not someone continues to make “volunteer contributions” for a free internet blogging site.

I strongly disagree with his decision, and I told him so earlier today on the phone. I was prepared to make yeoman contributions to his site once the school year started with dozens of commenters and contributors, as well as for starters a comprehensive Movie Zeal exclusive coverage of the New York Film Festival complete with pictures and itineraries, not to mention full reviews. I was even planning to expand my plans to take in even more films so that Movie Zeal would have a strong hook into this quintessential cinematic event.

From September to December there are a plethora of New York-only exclusives of films that Movie Zeal would have had a first crack at, not to mention more question and answer sessions with directors that I would have covered.

Was the definitive disciplinary action against me by Mr. Derrick, which is based on ideals of integrity (that to be quite honest are dubiously followed by others) worth foregoing all the great things that were being plotted out for the site from me in the upcoming months?

I never sought the position that Mr. Derrick offered me. But when I accepted I threw myself headstrong into the writing, the vamped up moviegoing, and the solicitation of as many people as I could corral into visiting the site. I have many friends and colleagues, many of whom accompany me to movies or come to my house to watch them regularly, and many of them were excited to have a site they could visit and contribute to. As a political worker for the Democratic party in my hometown I once collected over 300 absentee ballots in a three week period for incarcerated voters, with similar performances in other elections. I’m getting older now (I turned 53 on eve of the very day I was tossed from Movie Zeal) but I can still muster up relentless energy when I’m passionate about something. I exercised foolish judgement, but I still felt my heart was ripped from me on Monday evening. I was only getting started, and I was readying for some great things.

That has basically ended with my summary dismissal leaving me to look elsewhere to channel my artistic energies. I will continue to send my film, concert, and theatre reviews to those who remain on my e mail list, in addition to my 60-70 strong e mail network that I serve as proctor for. Lucille and I are seriously considering (after discussion today) starting our own blog site for movies, theatre and concerts and I have a number of close friends who would be thrilled to make contributions to. Would anyone dare to challenge my legal right to bring in my own blog site? I seriously doubt it.

I will never go away and will rise definatly from the ashes. I have received a number of deeply-moving e mails from friends I’ve made on these sites, who have stood by me during these difficulties. I will never till my dying day forget their kindness and continued encouragement. I had the misfortune of writing for a site which offers no second chance, and puts asides a number of positive contributions for some poor judgement, which for whatever ethical impropriety was intended to maximize the quality at the site.

For the many who have complimented me and engaged me in meaningful and enriching discourse on the threads of Movie Zeal, I salute you and quote Gen. McArthur: “I Shall Return.” Thank You.

Sammy Juliano”

(This is Evan again) To be perfectly clear, Sam and I remain friends despite the fact that we have parted ways professionally. I consider him a wonderful and generous person, and he respects the decision that I made, even if he disagrees with it. I look forward to reading his reviews over email in the future, and I hope that he will feel free to comment at MovieZeal and criticize our less-than-perfect star ratings of certified classics (that was a joke, by the way).

While both of us are inviting comment and discussion below, including criticisms of our respective decisions, we ask that everyone please remain courteous. If we can both be gentlemen in this situation, we trust that all of you can as well.

Like many blogs on the internet, MovieZeal is staffed by numerous volunteers who write for the sheer love of it, without pay, but it has been brought to my attention that one of our writers plagiarized a fellow film critic. This is unacceptable. MovieZeal may not be large and we may not generate any revenue, but it was founded on certain principles, those of integrity, honestly, and excellence. As such, every review by the critic in question has been removed, and he will no longer be writing for MovieZeal. To Nick Schager of Slant Magazine, I offer my sincerest apologies.

Evan Derrick

Founder and Senior Editor of MovieZeal.com

evan@moviezeal.com

….I’m changing the rules. Now, simply send an email to moviezealgiveaway@gmail.com with “300th Post Giveaway” in the subject line and your name in the body of the message. That’s it. You don’t have to write anything else at all. Just send in your name and you’ll be eligible. To those of you who worked so hard to write out your critiques, thank you very much, and some of them have been quite eye-opening. I apologize that I just negated all of your hard work, but you’ll still be fully eligible.

So now there should be no excuse not to enter. Apart from the four core MovieZeal writers and their immediate families (sorry Phillip, Sam, and Luke), anyone can enter, including those of you who have contributed to our noir retrospective this month. Tell your friends, tell your family; all they have to do is send their name to the above email address. And as an FYI, this is the 271st post. For those of you, like myself, who need a calculator to perform any kind of basic mathematical computation, that means there are 29 more to go.

And just as a recap, the boxset includes Out of the Past, Gun Crazy, The Asphalt Jungle, Murder My Sweet, and The Set-up.

I missed the 100th and 200th post milestones, but by golly I’m not going to miss the 300th one. We are currently sitting on 257 posts (this is the 258th), and with Noir Month still going strong, in addition to the prolific addition of Sam Juliano to our writing staff, I’m anticipating hitting 300 at (or soon after) the end of the month. So, in order to celebrate, we’re hosting our very first giveaway, but rather than cobble together some used DVDs lying around the house (the cinematic equivalent of sloppy seconds), we’re doing it up right.

In honor of Noir Month, we’re giving away the best noir boxset that I could find. It features 5 films, 4 of which are indisputable essentials in the film noir canon: Out Of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle, Gun Crazy, Murder My Sweet, and The Set-Up. Every one enjoys an immaculate transfer, and each film includes commentary.

In order to be eligible, you only have to do two simple things. Drop us a line at moviezealgiveaway@gmail.com, include your name, and tell us 1) something MovieZeal is doing really well, and 2) something MovieZeal is lacking or really needs to improve. That’s it. Anyone can enter. When we hit our 300th post, we’ll randomly select from those who’ve entered and ship you your brand-spanking new collection of noir classics.

Oh, and please be honest. We’re doing this to figure out what we need to improve as well as give away a fantastic set of films. Trust us, we love constructive criticism.

That image right there of The Rolling Stones is a perfect descriptor of how I feel right now. ‘Cause today I get to announce the newest addition to our crack team of movie reviewing fiends (and fiends we are!).

We manage, most of the time, to stay on top of things. But films and articles and fascinating pieces are always falling through the cracks because, quite frankly, we don’t have enough time or manpower to cover everything we’d like to. This has been a constant discussion behind the doors of MovieZeal (and I just made that sound WAY more epic than it actually is) – with only so many hours in the day, how can we bring you, our loyal and rabid readership (and I mean rabid in a nice way ….also, I like saying ‘readership’…makes me feel pretty important), more fantastic cinematic content?

Well, the intelligent eloquent, and always passionate Sam Juliano has agreed to share his wonderful writing here at our little corner of the internet. Sam already sees and reviews multiple films, concerts, plays, and operas each week, and he sends his writing out to a select group of friends and colleagues, but he has graciously agreed to cross-post his work here. You may have met him in the comments section here or over at Living in Cinema. The man’s energy is positively relentless.

So, by all means give Sam a zealous welcome. And watch, in the next few days, for his excellent writing to start popping up on the site. “Pleased to meet you” indeed.

I teased you last week. Consider this the official announcement of MovieZeal’s month long film noir retrospective, 31 days chock full of cynical chiaroscuro goodness. The party (or “noir-ty” as it might be called if I had no self-respect, but I do, so it won’t) gets started this Friday, and each day will bring a new review of a different noir. Calling upon the collective power of the blogosphere like He-Man might call upon Greyskull, we’ve pulled together quite the talented crop of guest writers who will be tackling various and sundry noirs over the month. Not only does this keep things flavorful, it also prevents Phillip, Luke, and myself from sacrificing what lives we have at the Altar of the Noir.

Expect reviews and articles on noir from (in no particular order) Graham Culbertson of Movies et al., Joseph Demme of Cinexcellence, Daniel Getahun of Getafilm, Nick Plowman of Fataculture, Alexander Coleman of Coleman’s Corner in Cinema, Chuck Bowen of Bowen’s Cinematic, Craig Kennedy of Living In Cinema, Joel E., commenter extraordinaire at LiC, Rick Olson of Coosa Creek Mambo, Dylan Fields of Blog Cabins, Matt Gamble of Where the Long Tail Ends, Anil Usumezbas of The Long Take, and Christian Divine of Oh My Blog.

Whew.

Using the power of Google, I took a few hours to compile the list for the month. Using IMDB’s Top 50 Noirs as a starting place (a flawed list, to be sure), I cross-checked it with numerous other Top 10 lists and articles on the subject, as well as referencing top noir experts such as Alain Silver and Paul Schrader. I’m confident that these are 31 of the best examples the style has to offer, and while no list is perfect, this one is quite thorough. As you’ll see, I’ve confined the list to the classic period (early 40s to late 50s) rather than open it up to proto-noir, neo-noir, and all other manner of pseudo noir (I’ll go into the reasons for this more on Friday).

You may also have noticed that our randomized banner up at the top has started cycling through frames (and posters) from all of the films we will be profiling this month. There are over 90 different banners, but rather than have you attempt to guess which banner is from which film (a nearly impossible feat), I’ve included a handy little label in the bottom corner so you kids can follow along at home. I’m cool like that.

So, without further yapping (and after the jump), here are the films we will be featuring during August, in chronological order, including a gallery of all the theatrical posters. Feel free to spout off in the comments if I’ve left off your favorite.

1. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
2. This Gun For Hire (1942
3. Double Indemnity (1944)
4. Laura (1944)
5. Mildred Pierce (1945)
6. Detour (1945)
7. The Killers (1946)
8. The Big Sleep (1946)
9. Notorious (1946)
10. The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
11. Out of the Past (1947)
12. Nightmare Alley (1947)
13. The Third Man (1949)
14. White Heat (1949)
15. The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
16. Gun Crazy (1950)
17. D.O.A. (1950)
18. Sunset Boulevard (1950)
19. In a Lonely Place (1950)
20. Night and the City (1950)
21. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
22. Ace in the Hole (1951)
23. Strangers on a Train (1951)
24. The Big Heat (1953)
25. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
26. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
27. Rififi (1955)
28. The Big Combo (1955)
29. The Killing (1956)
30. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
31. Touch of Evil (1958)

Just a quick announcement that we are doing another ‘theme’ month here at MovieZeal during August. Last time we tackled the work of the Coen brothers, which I think was a modest success, but this time we’re aiming a bit higher. Instead of profiling a single director’s filmography, we’re featuring an entire movement: Film Noir. The festivities kick off a week from today on the 1st and we’ll be reviewing a different noir masterpiece each day of the month until the 31st. For those of you with mad trigonometry skillz, that equals 31 different films.

Rather than slowly go insane attempting to take on all of that work ourselves, we’ve invited numerous denizens of the film blogosphere to contribute pieces, so expect a lot of extremely talented guest writers. I’ll write more on this next week as we head into the month, but I wanted to formally announce it here.

Also, Josephe Demme of Cinexcellence is hosting an Unseen DVD Blog-a-Thon at his site. You are cordially invited to plunge head first into the $1 bargain bin at your local Walmart, retrieve the shiniest turd possible, and then write about it (masochism is your friend). He’s running the blog-a-thon until August 17th.

In lieu of planning another themed month here at MZ (which is coming as soon as we recover from this one), we have a number of new columns and features in the pipeline, so keep your eyes peeled (what does that mean, excatly? Has anyone ever stopped to think what a horrible prospect it would be to actually peel one’s eyes?).

MZ is in its infancy, and we are (hopefully) ever evolving into a better, more streamlined destination for all things film.

Hit the jump for the list of articles and reviews.

• Original Articles
  Musings on the Coen’s Music – PART 1 and PART 2 – by Daniel Cook Johnson of film babble blog
  O Brother, Indeed – by Dylan Fields of Blog Cabins
  Joel and Ethan Coen: Feeling (and Fooling?) Minnesota – by Daniel Getahun of Getafilm
  The Coen Brothers and the Spirit of Chaos – by Rick Olson of Coosa Creek Mambo
  The Coen Twist on No Country - by Craig Kennedy of Living In Cinema
  The Top Ten Most Memorable Coen Brothers Scenes – by MovieZeal contributors

• Reviews
  Blood Simple – – by Evan Derrick
  Raising Arizona – – By Evan Derrick
  Miller’s Crossing – – By Evan Derrick
  Barton Fink – – By Evan Derrick
  The Hudsucker Proxy – – By Luke Harrington
  Fargo – – By Luke Harrington
  The Big Lebowski – – By Luke Harrington
  O Brother, Where Art Thou? – – By Luke Harrington
  The Man Who Wasn’t There – – By Phillip Johnston
  Intolerable Cruelty – – By Joseph Demme of Cinexcellence
  The Ladykillers - – By Phillip Johnston
  No Country For Old Men – – By Phillip Johnston

My second child (but first son), Jacob Emory, was born yesterday morning at 11AM, weighed 7lbs 8oz, and was 20 inches long. He has a grip of steel and latched onto anything he could wrap his tiny fist around. Hopefully he will use his powers for good and not evil. Both he and mom are doing great. As you can imagine, I may be out of pocket over the next few days, but will be back up and running in no time.

A lot.

This blog is a collection of film buffs who have wildly different tastes in celluloid (one praises the perfection of P.T. Anderson while another lives for Takashi Miike) but share the same passion for the motion picture. We will strive to bring you up-to-date reviews so you don’t waste your hard earned Andrew Jacksons on Spoof Movie 3: Spoof This! or Torture Porn Redux, but we also hope to pique your interest in long forgotten foreign gems (go see Fitzcarraldo) and B-Movie masterpieces you might have missed (like Tremors, which is freaking awesome, I kid you not).

Subscribe to our feed, comment on our reviews, and email us with suggestions. We’ll be sticking around for a while.