The Human Condition Is 9.5 Hours, in Japanese...

Which films will be remembered, and which ones deserve it?

(NEWSER) - The shifting sands of entertainment technology make a look at the past decade's movies a tricky proposition simply because standing the test of time means something different almost daily. "The possibility of a digital, on-demand afterlife guarantees at least a theoretically universal long-tail immortality to blockbusters and curiosities alike," New York Times film critic AO Scott writes in summing up the work era succeeded "the rise of the indies in the ’90s." More»

Biopic sure to reopen old wounds between China, Japan

(NEWSER) - A new film about a hero Nazi party member is threatening to stir old tensions between China and Japan, BBC reports. John Rabe relates the true story of a German businessman who saved thousands of Chinese from a Japanese massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. China is still simmering over the atrocities, which some Japanese deny even occurred. More»

(NEWSER) - The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Inglourious Basterds, is just 100 seconds long, but that's enough. "Perhaps there will prove to be a level of postmodern self-ironising,” Paul MacInnes writes in the Guardian. “Perhaps serving up Kill Bill with the Holocaust as a backdrop will be a fabulously worthwhile endeavor.” More likely, he writes, "This is going to be the worst film ever made!" More»

(NEWSER) - American art houses are finally getting a taste of Katyn, legendary Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s acclaimed film about the World War II-era massacre of the same name, and critics are heaping yet more acclaim on it. AO Scott of the New York Times calls it “solemn and searing,” while Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer says Wajda “has made a heroic effort to translate a historical crime into a saga of human hope and delusion.” More»

But he takes 'Obama high road,' wishing Dirty Harry 'peace and love'

(NEWSER) - Clint Eastwood told him to “shut his face,” but Spike Lee is talking back in full force: “The man is not my father, and we’re not on a plantation,” he said. Lee further chided the star director for ignoring blacks in his WWII films, calling him "an angry old man" and saying, “Not everything was John Wayne, baby.” More»