Well, I haven't posted anything in forever, and I'm not just being lazy. The holidays are always pretty light around here, just because I tend to be consumed with stuff at home and don't have as much to say about film and etc.

So, a couple of quick updates:

Endings is still in post-production. The rough cut is complete and stands at about one hour forty-four minutes right now. I'm going to delve into it next week with the film's producer to see what still needs work.

Also, I finally had a chance to watch The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and I really enjoyed it. The slow pacing really worked for me, and I enjoyed seeing a film that allowed the story to play out so delicately and deliberately.

The music accentuated it quite well, and the performances were very solid (specifically Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck as the title characters, but Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford’s brother Charlie was also terrific). I especially enjoyed the last 20-30 minutes, which played out the aftermath of Bob Ford’s life as a result of the killing. Most studio films would have concluded soon after the killing, but this was not Jesse James’s story, so Robert Ford’s story deserved a chance to play out.

The meditation on celebrity and fandom really interested in me (in part because I've been thinking about a documentary on fandom of a particular thing for a while), and Pitt seems like a really interesting choice to play James, who was an uber-celebrity of his time, after all.