the noise of carpet

The Weekly! Today! Here's my junk:
* Today's the Annual Fall Guide and my feeble contribution to it is this round-up of recent and future DVDs. Of my choice, naturally, though since it was written a couple weeks ago, it's already gone out-of-date. I already know that the "director's cut" of THX 1138 isn't a complete wash (even if you should just watch the original), for instance, and Short Cuts is now definitely coming out in November.
* Rep. I'm thinking that the first sentence of the Witness for the Prosecution blurb is a bit hyperbolic, but at the time, it really did feel like the ultimate in auteristical restlessness. And yes, I really talk like that.

More bullet points -- A quick summary of recently-reviewed recent films, some of which are or just have screened for rich cineastes up at the TIFF (yes, I feel better):
* Wimbledon is essentially a sub-Richard Curtis rom-com, clearly written by a troupe of hacks. On the other hand, it least said hacks don't have Curtis' current brand of shamelessness. Paul Bettany ably tries the Hugh Grant schtick, Kirsten Dunst seems a bit lost and the vast supporting cast is effectively cute. (One thing, though: why can't anyone write Sam Neill a decent part? Someone far richer than I should send copies of Possession to casting agents the world wide.) Likeable and literally nothing else.
* I [Heart] Huckabees just barely holds together.
* Paper Clips is really no deeper than an NBC profile and is shameless to boot. Example A: When the train is taking its odyssey across the states, dates come up, including, pointlessly, Sept. 11, 2001. Hope you washed that hankie. (Anecdote: Similar to my Big Daddy movie-going experience, I spent the whole movie jotting down mean sentences while entirely surrounded by weeping audience members. When the credits came up, I immediately bolted, only to find that no one was getting up, so transfixed they were by the movie. Yes, I'm the bad guy.)
* Why is The Shawshank Redemption getting re-issued?