I apologize — I have run out of time to answer many of questions you’ve sent me via the Ask Karina thread. So, here is another batch of quick answers. Feel free to follow up in the comments on this post; you can also contact me directly through my personal website.

First, a whole bunch from Mike Maguire:

1) Do you find yourself living an adequate/satisfied lifestyle with film criticism as your sole career (if it is) and source of income? A bit of a sore question at the moment, of course, but I’m confident you’ll find a new outlet.

I should have specified that I wouldn’t answer questions about money, but I didn’t, so I will: I did, and it was. I don’t know if it will be again.

3) Who is your favorite working female filmmaker?

I think answering that question would be a backhanded compliment to the filmmaker I chose. I mean, I don’t want to be anyone’s “favorite female critic” — I don’t want “critic” to have to be qualified. I want to be good, not good for a girl. Maybe that makes me a dick?

4) Why the fuck are certain people drooling over Bright Star?

I don’t know, I thought it was okay for a chick flick. (Okay, now I’m being a dick. I’m sorry.) …Read more

This post is a response to several comments in the Ask Karina thread, asking me about my favorite films of all time.

I find it extraordinarily difficult to make “top” or “best” lists of any kind; I’m uncomfortable making reductive decisions and I feel silly standing behind them. For years, when asked to name my favorite films of all time, I’ve listed three, in no particular order: A Star is Born (the 1954 version, directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason); Barry Lyndon; and Ghostbusters. I’m both very serious about that, and also sort of not at all. A Star is Born, Barry Lyndon and Ghostbusters are films that I genuinely love and could watch and discuss endlessly, but they reached their status as My Favorite Films Evar almost arbitrarily. I needed to have something in my back pocket to throw out there, and those three films encompass much of what I love about all of the films I love, while at the same time maybe deflating the notion that one could sum up over a hundred years of art/product by naming a few movies they’ve seen and liked.

But since you asked, after the jump I’ve listed a few other things, off the top of my head, that I’ve seen and liked very much, in alphabetical order. I’m sure I will regret omissions to this list as soon as I publish it, so expect updates. I’ve also been asked to talk about guilty pleasures and films I once loved but have abandoned over time; I imagine those lists will be more interesting than this one, which probably won’t include any surprises for anyone who’s ever read this blog.

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As you may have heard, in a little over a week, I will no longer be writing this blog. I will continue to write about film elsewhere (I hope), but it won’t be the same. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a blog takes on a life of its own. My voice bounces off this blog’s specific audience, and that makes it sound different than it would in a different space. Whatever else SpoutBlog might have been, at its base level it’s a conversation between me and you, and even if I find a new permanent writing home and you follow me there, what happens there won’t be the same. We may see each other again, but right now we are at a party that’s almost over. Maybe it’s just reflective of my shitty social skills, but that’s the only part of a party that I actually enjoy: the end of the night, when the crowd has thinned and the conversation shifts, so that suddenly we’re talking about what we really wanted to talk about all night long.

So! What do you really want to talk about?

I have a couple of reviews and such that I plan to publish between now and Halloween, but I would also really like to hear what you’d like to see on this blog over the next week. Is there a movie/filmmaker/genre/concern that I’ve never written about that you’d like me to? Do you want me to revisit a topic that I have written about, from another angle or in further depth? Do you have a question for me, about films or something I’ve written or, like, life? Let me know. I’m not going to say that any topic is totally off limits, but if you ask me a question regarding my sex life, my family or the inner workings of Spout, I will probably decline to answer. Other than that…I’ll give it a shot.

I must deliver the regrettable news that, after October 31, 2009, Karina Longworth will no longer serve as SpoutBlog’s editor.

Spout.com, the online community, continues as it has. As of now, we have no plans to publish new content on SpoutBlog after October 31. We hope the SpoutBlog book will console those of you who are used to making your daily visit to blog.spout.com.

Karina’s contract ends at the end of the month and we’ve amiably decided to part ways, the result of a difference in vision over the direction of SpoutBlog. She has been, and continues to be, an exceptional writer, critic and editor. It’s her devotion to her work that made SpoutBlog what it is today.

In hiring Karina Longworth a little over two years ago, I knew we had a talented writer. It was over the last two years that I realized–as many of you did–her opinion on film is the one I value most.

We wish Karina the best in what we know will be a bright future for her.

The last line of the new Toy Story 3 trailer speaks to my usual fear with sequels. “Return of the Astro-Nut,” says Hamm the piggy bank, referring to the fact that the pompous, delusional Buzz Lightyear of the beginning of the first movie is back in a kind of amnesia-induced excuse for recycled plot and humor. Only now he’s speaking in Spanish, so it’s different. I guess.

But when it comes to this franchise, just as when it comes to toys, familiarity and the revisiting of the past is completely acceptable. It’s part of their point. And so, even though the concept of these lovable characters being left behind and/or discarded seems a rehashing of Toy Story 2, you have no reason to believe this is going to be a lesser movie than its predecessors.

Maybe it’s just that I recently had the experience of going through boxes of old toys at my mom’s house as she packed up to move out. And I couldn’t help playing with some old favorites, fondly thinking back to the innocent years, and taking some toys back to my apartment with me in order to forget just how old I’m getting.

In addition to the nostalgia and familiarity, though, this threequel already has me thinking what the whole movie will have me contemplating more fully (and more depressedly): we all get older and eventually die, while the toys junk remains, immortal. Wait, is Toy Story 3 a prequel to Wall-E?

Check out what other film bloggers are saying about the trailer, and maybe about the circle of life, after the jump:
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After years of gut-wrenching “Golden Heart” films, chalk-outline experiments about “America,” a co-founded movement for pure cinema and other infamous works including his most recent, the explicit horror film Antichrist, it’s easy to forget that Lars von Trier started his feature film career in the science fiction genre. Of course, he being who he is, Von Trier’s dystopian detective story The Elements of Crime isn’t easily identifiable as sci-fi.

And neither, I’m sure, will be his next venture, a “psychological disaster” film titled Planet Melancholia. I’ll ignore the Hollywood Reporter’s reference to “Roland Emmerich territory,” especially since it follows the equally asinine description of Antichrist as being in some way related to a slasher film, and stick to comments from Von Trier and his partner at Zentropa Entertainment, Peter Aalbaek Jensen.

First: The filmmaker’s statement of “no more happy endings!” could easily be the next Von Trier t-shirt, joining the recently released “chaos reigns” design and the Van Halen-style tee.

Jensen added that hopefully no genitals will be cut off, that there will be some special effects employed, that this won’t be about an alien invasion (though there apparently will be a threat from the titular planet) and that this will be “romantic, in a Lord Byron sort of way.” I’ll admit the only familiarity I have with Byron is as a character in Bride of Frankenstein. But regardless, as a longtime fan of Von Trier’s, I’m excited for this film no matter what the inspiration or comparison.

After he dedicated Antichrist to Andrei Tarkovsky, though, I’m really hoping Von Trier sets his new film on a spaceship, a la Solaris. You know Von Trier in outer space would be the greatest thing of all time.

Check out what other film bloggers are saying in response to this news after the jump:
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I’m glad it’s such a slow news day. Now I can concentrate on something that blew up on a few of the blogs last night: discussion/debate of the new FTC disclosure rule for bloggers, particularly as it relates to James Rocchi and others’ recent trip to Bora Bora on Universal’s dime.

Rocchi’s MSN piece about his Couples Retreat junket experience is a good read, but it doesn’t really convince me that a lenghty excursion to French Polynesia was worth his, the studio’s or our time in any way. But I’ve always felt weird about junkets. The few I’ve been to made me extremely uncomfortable, especially when there’s food and drink offered (I always decline since I suspect one day the world’s publicists will decide to poison the world’s film critics in a further attempt to rid the industry of negative reviews).

I don’t really have much to add to the discussion since I no longer review films or interview celebs and I always prefer to see movies with a real audience instead of with spoiled critics attending their third or fourth free press screening of the day. And unlike a lot of movie bloggers, I can’t use the t-shirt swag since I’m too thin for XL, which is typically the sole size available with complimentary clothing.

Honestly, I’m okay with the FTC regulations, as they benefit consumers, particularly those too dumb to tell when a site is professional and ethical and when it’s a lame freebie free-for-all like Blogcritics (which I admit I unfortunately used to contribute to before getting paid to blog). However, I’d much prefer an agency that would come around and regulate websites that “hire” and “employ” unpaid writers. Maybe if any of us could get a wage — not to mention a respectable wage — we wouldn’t keep pretending this is all a fun hobby, a la autograph collecting and fan fiction.

And on that note, I have one more point related to one of the blog posts quoted in this roundup. I’ll go on the record with others and defend Cinematical for being one of the few sites remaining that regularly pay all writers in a timely fashion — and for those not living in expensive NYC, they pay decently, especially for a time when adshare models are so popular. It’s true that I left that site a year ago in protest over a temporary financial practice by AOL, but in the past year I’ve had so many requests to contribute unpaid to numerous movie blogs out there, and I’d take Cinematical any day over any of that nonsense.

I’ll quit writing now before I get in or make trouble, but as always these matters can be best contemplated with the old idiom, “you get what you pay for.”

Check out what some bloggers have to say on the topic after the jump. And be sure to read the full posts I’ve quoted from, as well as the comments — many from other bloggers. It’s an interesting discussion going on.

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Movie fans were shocked today with the news that Oscar-winner Adrien Brody is turning action hero to star in the Robert Rodriguez-produced Predator reboot, Predators. At first I thought maybe he’s trying to distance himself from the Roman Polanski mess by picking a movie as far from The Pianist as possible. But then I remembered that since winning Best Actor six years ago Brody has done little to show himself worthy of the award (he’s great in The Darjeeling Limited at least).

But will anybody believe him as a guy who can defeat a bunch of Predators? That he’s better than Arnold Schwarzenegger, who barely survived one of them? That he’s the guy to lead kick-ass costars like Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Walt Goggins and even … umm … Topher Grace (he’s at least been an action movie villain before, even if a bad one)? Well, obviously this gig is going to require that supposed Oscar-caliber talent in order to convince us.

Check out the stunned reactions from other film bloggers after the jump:
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People seem to think Hugh Jackman deserves better than a boxing robot movie. But seriously, is his starring in Real Steel any worse than his appearances in Van Helsing, Swordfish or pretty much anything else he’s done since breaking out as Wolverine in the first X-Men movie? Sure, he’s an entertaining Oscar host, and he’s apparently very enjoyable on the stage. But try to name one movie he’s really good in that warrants him roles better than a robot boxer trainer in a silly sci-fi sports flick directed by Shawn Levy. And don’t say The Prestige, because that film wasn’t great for any doing of his.

Interestingly enough, Real Steel, which has a very ’80s-action-film-sounding title, is being produced by Steven Spielberg, who also oversees the Transformers movies. Are robots his new aliens? Okay, I guess Transformers are also aliens, and before that he’d already given us alien/robot crossovers like *batteries not included and (sort of) Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (because so many people think those robots at the end of the film are aliens). But in all likelihood, Real Steel will be released in summer 2011, which has just been announced as when we’ll also be getting Transformers 3.

Although I have no interest in seeing either of these movies, I can’t wait to see which of the dueling Spielberg-produced robot blockbusters wins the season’s box office. Maybe Spielberg can even ready Indiana Jones 5 by then, too, and include robots in it. After the ridiculousness of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I wouldn’t be surprised by such an idea.

Check out what the other film blogs are saying about Jackman signing on to Real Steel after the jump:
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Who says the movies are recession-proof? A lot of people, actually, yet for every record-breaking opening weekend while the economy is in the shitter, a small film studio, distributor or film festival is likely still hurting financially. Maybe even going bankrupt.

Today movie lovers are saddened by the financial woes experienced by two very different film-based institutions. CineVegas, a favorite film festival of Spout’s Karina Longworth, announced it will be taking a year off due to the current economy. Meanwhile, MGM is also in a desperate situation, though not necessarily due to the recession, and that could mean future Hobbit and James Bond films are also at least temporarily in jeopardy.

I’m not as concerned for those film franchises as I am for Leo the Lion, beloved MGM mascot and monumental film icon. I hope to never have to see the likely punny headlines referencing a certain Tokens song if the lion is forever put to sleep. As for CineVegas, I’ve never even been to the Sin City event, so I can’t speak firsthand to what a loss this is for the 2010 film fest circuit. Still, it made me very sad to read the news of its troubles today.

Check out what the film blogs have to say about each of these depressing stories after the jump:
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One of my favorite screenplays of all time is Daniel Waters’ Heathers, mainly because of its clever, yet not necessarily realistic dialogue. However, I’m not that into the work of Diablo Cody, whose writing style is often compared to and admittedly influenced by that earlier black comedy. Waters’ line “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?” could easily fit in a Cody-penned film, as could “No one at Westerberg is going to let you play their reindeer games.” But most of the memorable, quotable Heathers lines are smarter. Aren’t they?

I often wonder if I would have had any appreciation for Heathers had I seen it as my older, more cynical self. Would I have dismissed the script the same way I now do the scripts for Juno and Jennifer’s Body? Or, is Codyspeak a lot more forced and cheesy than Waters’ writing? And is Waters more respectable for not following Heathers with continued attempts at similarly clever dialogue? Imagine Waters’ script for Batman Returns with lines like “I’ve gotta motor, Alfred, if I want to catch the Penguin” and “What’s your damage, Catwoman?”

Okay, so Waters’ later scripts weren’t very good anyway, and it’d probably be pretty interesting to see a Cody-penned superhero movie (just as I was curious about Kevin Smith’s Superman script). But reviews for Cody’s latest are nowhere near as good as Juno’s were (and she’s certainly not going to win another Oscar for it), and part of the reason may be that people are no longer giving her goofy Codyspeak (or “diablologue”) a pass. In reviews, interviews and other posts, film bloggers are criticizing Cody’s words more than ever.

Check out some of these criticisms after the jump:

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Obviously it’s ironic to criticize a critic so aggressively, but that’s just what people love to do to infamously contrarian New York Press film critic Armond White, who seems to be getting his worst scrutiny yet over his negative review of District 9. The comments and campaigns against him have been going on all week, but now that Roger Ebert has gotten himself involved, it’s a bigger deal. Especially since Ebert first defended White and then took it back. Yet his initial statement that White is “the ideal critic” who “is often valuable because [his opinion] is outside the mainstream” remains on Roger Ebert’s Journal to contractrict the change of mind.

It’s also a bit ironic that this is all because of a movie about creatures who’ve been segregated against. Would District 9’s fanbase prefer to ghettoize critics who disagree with them? Should there be websites and free weeklies that have “Populist Critics Only” guidelines? I don’t want to side with or against White, becuase there’s no need to, what with freedom of speech and press and everything. I will admit that when I began writing film reviews many years ago, I looked up to White more than anyone and even gave myself the nickname “The Film Cynic” (which I still use for my Twitter moniker at least), because I was a more negative and cynical person back then, and also, I honestly admit, because I thought it’d help get me controversially noticed.

Certainly White gets a lot of notice and publicity for his opinions, too, but the important thing is that he’s an interesting read, and not just for how against-the-grain he is. Even if he is ever intentionally anti-majority just to be anti-majority, he presents reasonable arguments and raises necessary points while doing so. Besides, does anyone really want to live in a world where everybody likes District 9 or Up or The Dark Knight and where nobody has anything fresh, smart and positive to say about Transformers 2? How boring that world would be.

That’s my two cents. Check out a few other film blog responses to the White blackballing after the jump:

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How else to explain the fact that the new New Moon trailer has debuted in France before America than to assume French Twilighters are considered better and more deserving than those in the U.S.? Or, is this just part of the continued teaserific marketing strategy from Summit? After yesterday’s trailer teaser ridiculousness, I wouldn’t put it past them, even if the thing was unofficial, recorded on video cam inside a theater and removed for copyright reasons later today. If Summit is really into teasing and whetting appetites, it was likely enough, considering any true Twilight fan would have been attentive enough to see the thing on any number of websites posting it this morning.

Anyway, since the trailer isn’t accessible anymore*, I’ve got nothing else to say about it — not that I know enough about the franchise to comment adequately anyway. I can at least share a screen capture of some bits that I found on a blog called My Twilife. So enjoy that little tease on the right there.

Let’s see what the film blogs are saying about this latest nibble for the impatient fans after the jump:
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The international trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus arrived online last Friday, but most of us were too busy mourning John Hughes to notice. So, because I’m a diehard Gilliam fan and because most of the good reactions are hitting the web today, I’m going to just pretend this post is called “The Last Four Days in Bloggery.”

I am a huge defender of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen so I’m seeing a lot of similar stuff I like here, even if the visuals are a little too computer-generated to exactly have that Georges Méliès feel. But the hot air balloon really clinched it for me. And I’m definitely in agreement that this colorful, CG-rific Lewis Carroll-esque fantasy film looks better than that other one starring Johnny Depp (I’ll take a premature guess that I’ll like it more than that other one starring Parnassus‘ Lily Cole, too).

I can’t say I believe the trailer is going to bring too many people in. It’s very rushed, both in visuals and exposition, and even with the credits it should confuse unknowing viewers regarding the four-actors-in-the-same-role thing. Plus, with my appreciaition in the minority, I wonder if it’s going to be a bad thing that this looks like Gilliam’s biggest financial flops. Will “Academy Award Winner Heath Ledger” help fill seats?

Check out four days’ worth of film blogger responses to the trailer after the jump:

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