Do you know any self-respecting cineaste who likes being called a "film buff"? A relative pulled that one on me over the holidays and I had to hold myself back from going medieval on him with a turkey leg. "Film buff" sounds patronizing and clammy and above all amateur, like those guys in junior high who collected Laurel and Hardy movies on Super-8 and who the rest of us obsessives kept as far away from as possible. Film geek, sure -- wonk, grindhouse junkie, mouth-breathing Godard maniac, call me what you want. But "buff"? Sorry, jack, I'm a professional.

That said, here's a little year end/year beginning reading for the devoted:

The Reeler has had enough of year-end top ten movie lists and has compiled a list of the ten worst ten best lists.

Wesley knocks heads with fellow critics Scott Foundas, Nathan Lee, and Dana Stevens in the annual Movie Club over at Slate -- it's a good, lively round-robin discussion that replicates what most people think movie reviewers sound like when they hang out together. And yay to Wes for defending "Zodiac," one of the two most misunderstood movies of the year (the other is "There Will Be Blood," and most people haven't even seen that one yet.)

Actually, how can "There Will Be Blood" be misunderstood when every critic is raving about it? The combined Village Voice/LA Weekly 2007 film critics' poll is up and the Paul Thomas Anderson film heads the list by a California country mile. Here's the full list, as well as the individual ballots of the critics who participated, yours truly included.

Finally, Movie City News puts it all together for movie-crazed statisticians on their 2007 Top Ten scorecard, a criticial concatenation and masterwork of anal-retentive HTML layout far beyond the capabilities of your average movie buff.

Filed under: Awards, Cannes, Celebrities and Controversy

Between upcoming high-profile work as an actor (including a role as Harvey Milk and his voice work for the English dub of Persepolis), and the honors, acclaim and awards nominations for Into the Wild, it's been a great year for Sean Penn professionally. And now it seems 2008 is going to be just as interesting for the writer-actor-director, as Variety brings news that Penn will serve as the head of the Cannes jury for the 2008 edition of the international event.

Penn's quote about the honor suggests he's facing his duties with enthusiasm: "In the last few years it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide; increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving, and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun." The Cannes jury is comprised of nine people; jury presidents of the recent past at Cannes have included Stephen Frears, Wong Kar-Wai and Quentin Tarantino. As Variety notes, this isn't he first time Penn's been honored by Cannes; he received a prize for best Male Performance in 1997 from that year's jury (headed by Isabelle Adjani) for his work in Nick Casavettes's She's So Lovely.

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Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Warner Brothers, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek

Well, we probably all should have seen this coming when you consider that Alan Moore seems to hate the movies Hollywood makes from his works just as much as Hollywood loves to make them. In an interview with Wizard Universe, the comic book legend spoke about his current involvement (or lack thereof) in Zack Snyder's big-screen version of Moore's Watchmen. According to Moore, he has officially (read, legally) washed his hands of the whole thing. Moore says, "I got a piece of paper a couple of months ago saying, "I, the undersigned, hereby give you permission to take my name off of the film and to send my money to Dave Gibbons." So I sent that back to them all signed and sealed, which means that now I don't have to rant and spew about the film. I'm just simply not interested in it". Watchmen is one of the most respected comic books out there, so you can imagine there is a lot riding on Snyder getting it right. There has already been plenty of discussion about casting choices, but so far, most fans seem to be cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

In the past, Moore has battled with filmmakers over other film versions of his books like V for Vendetta and the famously crappy The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. But it would seem that Moore has learned something this time around, and instead of kicking up a fuss, he just walked away from the whole project. As for Moore's original Watchmen collaborator, Dave Gibbons, he seems a lot more positive about the whole thing. On the official production blog for the film, Gibbons waxed poetically after viewing the sets, saying, "Finally, tired but happy, arms around my new buddies, costumed and otherwise, it's my turn to smile for the camera. A month later, I'm smiling still". Well at least someone sounds happy about the whole thing. So while this is the last we are going to hear from Moore on the subject, that doesn't mean there won't be plenty more Watchmen updates to come before the film hits theaters on March 6th, 2009.

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