It's been awhile since we've had a little film blog group hugging action around here. Today it's cold and snowing here, so what better way to put off cleaning house and baking lasagna for our Boxing Day party than to cozy up under a quilt with a cup of hot tea and some of my favorite film bloggers? As 2007 wanes away and Sundance looms near, I thought I'd pop by some of my favorite film blogs to see who's doing any writing this holiday weekend.

Before taking a well-deserved break for the holidays, hard-working film blogger Karina Longworth at Spout Blog put up this thought-provoking piece on whether Disney wants to turn your daughter into a whore. As Karina points out, Barbara Ehrenreich's recycled rant on the evils of all things Disney is well past-due. I was getting into arguments about Disney back when I was doing time in mom's clubs when I did the stay-at-home-mom gig for a few years; the "We're raising our kids gender-neutral," granola-crunching, feminist hippy mamas in Seattle and parts elsewhere have had Disney in their crosshairs for years.

My favorite line from Ehrenreich's piece: "One's sexual inclinations--straightforward or kinky, active or passive, heterosexual or homosexual--should be free to develop without adult intervention or manipulation. " Riiiiiiiiight. If you raise your kids in a bubble unexposed to any society whatsover, perhaps. Kids are products of their social communities whether they grow up in the favelas of Brazil or in a high-rise overlooking Central Park, and trying to mold their little minds with the androgyny of gender-neutrality is no less manipulative than allowing your daughter to dress up like a pretty princess. Bratz, though, is another story. I hate those damn dolls with a passion previously reserved for Barney. If anyone's trying to shallow-fy and whore out our daughters, it's the evil geniuses behind those Bratz dolls. At least the Disney Princesses don't have lips that look like they had an unfortunate experience with a silicone injection. Anyhow.

More group hugs after the jump ...

The Toronto International Film Festival is winding down, and of course the Cinematical crew on the scene provided you with fabulous, fabulous coverage. But it turns out there were other journalists there, too, writing about the fest at other websites. Who knew? So let's take a spin around the ol' Interwebs and show you what our fellow bloggers have been up to in a special TIFF edition of the Film Blog Group Hug:

• GreenCine Daily has provided a lot of TIFF reviews and features. I particularly enjoyed the thoughtful and intelligent dispatches from David D'Arcy (about the festival's war-themed films) and Michael Guillén (following the fest's Masters and Discovery sections).
  

• RogerEbert.com editor Jim Emerson writes on his own blog, Scanners, that the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men "is one of those movies I think provides a critical litmus test. You can quibble about it all you like, but if you don't get the artistry at work then, I submit, you don't get what movies are. Elsewhere, he writes amusingly about the fun of seeing movies without knowing anything about them beforehand.
  

• Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere can always be counted on for entertaining prose, rants, and diatribes, and he blogged extensively throughout the fest. I love his dismissal of the rockumentary Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who: "I left in an angry huff [after] 25 minutes.... The limited footage I saw told me that [the directors] are hacks, propagandists and bald-faced liars. By all means see this foggy-minded doc when it turns up on DVD, but you'd do well to inject a heroin-cocaine speedball at the same time." Not a mincer of words, that Jeff.
  

• Wells also made two Oscar pronouncements: Atonement definitely will be a serious contender (our Ryan Stewart seems to agree), and Elizabeth: The Golden Age definitely will not.
  

• Pretty much everyone who saw Jason Reitman's Juno loved it (including our own Scott Weinberg and Kim Voynar), and /Film's Peter Sciretta takes it a step further: He lists all the songs included in the film's indie-folk soundtrack. Lots of stuff by The Moldy Peaches (and the group's singer, Kimya Dawson), as well as Belle & Sebastian, The Drop, Sonic Youth, and others.

• Variety's Anne Thompson posted a few insightful entries, notably this one, in which she talks about the three kinds of films at TIFF: the crowd-pleasers, the headline-makers, and the critical darlings. Some of the best movies, of course, are all three. Meanwhile, over at The Circuit blog on Variety, new Film Fest Managing Editor Mike Jones has some great end-to-end coverage of the fest.
  

• Nerve.com's Phil Nugent offers some concise reviews in the ScreenGrab blog; check out this one and this one, especially.

• Over at Movie City News, David Poland provides what few other bloggers do: video and photos (and more photos)!
  

Did we miss anything? Feel free to point out other notable TIFF-related blogs in the comments.

It's a hot and steamy weekend here, and I'm feeling way to lazy to go outside for a power walk, so instead I thought I'd do a weekend check-in on some of my fave film sites around the web. As always, if you have a film blog (or even a film blog that you read and like, that you haven't seen me point to in a Group Hug), send me a link at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com. I'm always on the lookout for film sites to add to my already-lengthy list of daily reads ... hey, a girl just can't get too much film talk, right? Besides, the more film sites I'm forced to read, the longer I can put off that power walk ...

This one isn't particularly "indie," but it's one of the most fascinating pieces I've read all week, so I just had to include it. Over at the LA Weekly, Scott Foundas has a really interesting (and LONG -- seven pages, so read it with a fresh cup of coffee) feature piece up on Brett Ratner. What makes it such a fun read is that Foundas, whose writing I like and respect, goes way against the expected grain here, asserting of Popcorn King Ratner: "Which brings me to the other reason I've wanted to write about Ratner. It is an idea that may initially strike you as radical or preposterous, and which could jeopardize my standing in the film-criticism community. And yet, here goes: Brett Ratner is a talented filmmaker who deserves to be taken seriously."

Wow. No doubt Foundas has taken a lot of ribbing for this piece, but it's very well-written -- I can think of a few folks who write up set visits who could take a lesson from how Foundas puts you inside Ratner's set with his writing here -- and, moreover, by the end of it, I actually had kind of a newfound respect for Ratner -- at least for the work he puts into his films, if not the films themselves.

Just over a year ago, Jim Emerson started this very cool Opening Shots Project, wherein he kicked things off by writing about some of his favorite opening shots in a film, and then invited others to write about theirs. Emerson asserts that the opening shot is the most important moment in a film, that it sets the tone of the film and tells you what it's going to be about; after I started reading the Opening Shots pieces, I became even more aware of the importance of opening shots and started paying closer attention to them with every film I watch. So I was pleased to see [via a link on Daily Green Cine, who always have lots of good stuff] that there's a new Opening Shots entry up: Andy Horbal analyzes the opening shot of Army of Shadows. Check it out.

In the aftermath of the same-day deaths of directing greats Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni, Movie City Indie's Ray Pride ponders, "Who are the oldest living film directors?" with a comprehensive listing of directors that starts with the current oldest, Manoel de Oliveira (born in 1908), and works its way down to Stuart Gordon (born in 1947). Great minds thinking alike, David Poland, on The Hot Blog, points over to a post on Joe Leydon's MovingPictureBlog that asks: Who are the heirs to Bergman and Antonioni? Pop on over to both sites, read what they have to say, and chime in with your own thoughts.

If you're a geek for technical details, you'll dig this post Josh Oakhurst has up answering questions from readers about just how he shot a couple of stop-mo spots, in which he explains in detail, among other things, why he didn't shoot in RAW. If you're interested in shooting stop-mo yourself -- or even if, like me, your just a sucker for all things film-geeky, you'll want to delve into this post.

Remember that game "telephone" we used to play at Girl Scouts (yeah, I was a Girl Scout -- hah!) and summer camp? You'd sit in a big circle, the first person would whisper a message to the second person, and they would pass it on, and so on, and at the end everyone would get a big laugh over how the message had changed, and you were supposed to learn an Important Lesson about the power of communication or world peace or something. Whatever. Over at Burbanked, Alan has a much more fun idea: Blogophone! It's pretty simple: he starts with a movie-related post, then tosses it to the next person in the game, who creatively changes it and tosses it to the next person, etc. The first one got pretty amusing, so he's started a second round. He tossed it to Ray over at The Rec Show, but don't let that stop you from nosing in on the fun ...

Time once again to check in on to see what's going on with some of our favorite film blogs ... and by the bye, folks -- if you have a film blog that I don't know about, please drop me a line and point me to it. I love, love, love my fave film blog reads, but, like any good addict, I just can't get enough, so bring on your film blogs! Drop me a line at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com ...

It's technically not a blog, I suppose, but MCN Voices has an excellent piece up by screenwriter Larry Gross on Ingmar Bergman, in which he analyzes the director's genius and influence. If you want to learn more about Bergman, you can check out the always excellent Senses of Cinema's Great Directors piece on the auteur. While you're over there, you can read up on the other directors Gross mentions in his Bergman piece -- filmmaking greats from Fellini to Cuaron to Welles to Altman -- and another recently deceased filmmaking legend, Michelangelo Antonioni, who passed away July 30 at the age of 94. For even more on both Bergman and Antonioni, check out Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips very excellent piece on both directors on his Talking Pictures blog, and Roger Ebert, who we're ever so glad to see back in action, with his own tribute to Bergman.

More group-hugging action after the jump ...

Time once again for our weekly Indie Film Blog Group Hug, wherein we check in with other film blogs around the internet to see what other folks are writing about. One of these days, I want to throw a big party at my house and have all the other film bloggers from around the world converge in my living room to wax eloquent about all things film-related over chips and salsa, taquitos and icy-cold margaritas. Wouldn't that be a blast? In the meantime, the Group Hug will have to suffice ...

Oh, and by the way, fellow cinephiles, if you have a film blog I don't know about (or even if you've previously submitted your blog and I haven't covered it in a while), drop me a line at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com to point me your way.

• Over on The Hot Blog, David Poland writes about whether it means anything that Fox pulled out of Comic-Con, and ponders the whole sticky-wicket issues of which critics get into sceenings when, which leads to a discussion of embargoes, which then gets into the whole kerfuffle surrounding the Baltimore Sun and NYT breaking embargo on the lastest (and last) Harry Potter tome. And somehow, he manages to tie it all together in a way that actually makes sense ...
• ... Meanwhile over at Hollywood Elsewhere, Poland's sometime-rival Jeff Wells commentates nicely (I think) on Poland's piece and offers up his own take on the whole Fox-pulls-out-of-Comic-Con-Does-That-Mean-The-Simpsons-Movie-sucks thing.
• Apparently everyone the Baltimore Sun and NYT have everyone thinking about all things Potter this week, as both Anne Thompson, Matt Dentler, and Karina Longworth ** (great minds thinking alike) have posts up about the Harry Potter embargo-breaking, too.
• Strange Culture is already thinking Oscars ... in July! That's right, RC is already positing that Roger Deakins will be nominated for an Oscar for cinematography -- and that's probably a pretty good guess. Any early bets on other Oscar noms?
• Indie Film Nation, which runs some nifty podcasts about all things indie, has a fascinating interview up with Richard Moore, the director of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Good stuff. While you're already over there, check out last week's interview with Goetz Weber, CEO and co-founder of inDPlay.
• Checking out what's going down over at Twitch, Kurt has a little post up {via just about everyone on the planet, so this is obviously old news to everyone but me -- figures) about the possibility that one of my favorite films ever, John Carpenter's They Live, might -- that's might -- be made into a series for the Sci-Fi channel. They live is great political satire wrapped up as a fun horror flick, and I agree with Kurt -- it's never been more relevant than it is now. Keep your fingers crossed -- if it does ever get made, that's one series that's getting set to record on my DVR, baby. Don't forget your special sunglasses ...

**Karina does indeed have a great mind, but that particular post was about Fox and Comic-Con, not Harry Potter. It's still a good post and worth reading, though. The moral of this story? Don't read 40 different film blogs while simultaneously writing a post and getting four kids ready to get out the door for swim lessons without double-checking that you've got it all right. Thanks for setting it straight, Karina. It's good to still have you around to keep us on our toes.

It's time to take a little peek around the world of indie film sites and see what other folks are talking about. We're going to be posting a regular Indie Film Blog Group Hug. Do you have a blog where you're writing about indie films, foreign films or docs? Are you an indie filmmaker with a site up about your film that you'd like us to take a look at? Run a little film fest you want to get the word out on? Feel free to send your indie film links, hot tips and other fun stuff to me at kim (at) cinematical (dot) com.

And now, for this week's Group Hug:

• Over at Deep Structure, Christopher John Stack is writing about his film, An Exercise in Vigilance, which will screen at the Action on Film International Film Festival in Long Beach, CA, which apparently runs to coincide with a big martial arts fest -- so all you action film fans who live in that area might want to check it out. An Exercise in Vigilance screens at the fest at theater 4, 5:30PM on Sunday. And just to be really nice and throw other filmmakers some love, Stack even has a breakdown of the sched for you right there on his site. Congrats to Stack on his film getting into the fest.
• Movie City Indie's Ray Pride has a fasciYnating interview up with filmmaker Usama Alshaibi, who in 2004 returned to his native Iraq to shoot a documentary titled Nice Bombs, which won a best doc prize at the 2006 Chicago Underground Film Festival.
• DVD Panache, which runs a regular bit called "Friday Screen Test," wherein various film bloggers are asked all sorts of questions -- kind a True Confessions for film geeks -- put my fave Amsterdam-based film blogger, Peet Gelderblom, to the test. What's Peet like when his feet are put to the fire? Well, he once saw Famke Jenssen's sister in her underwear, so I guess that makes him just one degree removed from Famke herself. Check it out, and if you don't read Peet's blog, Lost in Negative Space, already, hunker down with some french fries with mayo to give you that "Amsterdam feeling" and check him out.
• You gotta love a film site that calls itself Burbanked: All the Smug of Hollywood, in a Much Less Desirable Location. Alan Lopuszynski, who runs the site, posits the question: Can one scene make a movie a classic?
• Another of my regular blog reads, Strange Culture, almost always has something intriguing to check out. This week, RC has a post up about torture as it relates to -- ahem -- "unorthodox" and secret torture used by government officials in interrogations. How does this relate to film? Rendition, an upcoming film due out in October, starring a pretty impressive cast including Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhall, Alan Arkin and Peter Saarsgard. Check it out.
• Peter Nellhaus has a blog called Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee, where he writes about all kinds of interesting film-related stuff. Most recently, Peter has a great little DVD review of the 1960 film called Seven Thieves, complete with some nice black-and-white stills, and another more recent flick, 2004's The Taste of Tea.
• It's been a while since we checked in with NYC blog Blank Screen. Most recently, the Blank Screen folks have been interviewing Thumbsucker director Mike Mills (who's currently dating another indie-film darling, Miranda July -- now that's material for an indie flick!). Side note: They also have tons of info on what's going on in the arts in NYC; if you live there and don't have them bookmarked, what are you waiting for? Bookmark, already!

Oh great. Just what the world needs. Another lame-ass corporate-owned movie blog that doesn't know a freakin' thing about ... just kidding! We're actually quite happy to share the news that MTV Movies is now offering a brand spankin' new movie blog. Or at least I'm happy about it, and here's why: I'm a big fan of MTV's movie coverage. For the last year or so, they've done some really solid stuff. Aside from the clunky interface and long load times at the website, those guys do a damn good job with the scoops, the news and some consistently excellent interviews. So it's not like a "new" blog as much as it is an upgrade. A much more aesthetically pleasing and bandwidth-friendly upgrade.

Set your browser on 'favorites' and then click right here to pick through the inaugural entries from Brian Jacks and Josh Horowitz: there's a Sarah Silverman video, some news on a potential follow-up to L.A. Confidential, a good deal of palpable fanboyism regarding Rutger Hauer (Horowitz and I may have been separated at birth), a piece about the possibility of a Sopranos movie, and (of course) more, more, more to come. So while MTV Movies is certainly not a newcomer to the world of online flick geekery, we at Cinematical would like to officially welcome MTV to the "blogosphere" -- but since I freaking HATE the word "blogosphere," I'll just say "keep up the good work, guys, and thanks for the linkage on the left-hand side."

Some days I feel like I've spent entirely too much time reading film blogs instead of doing something more productive, like paying bills or watching movies or entertaining the cat . Sometimes I feel like I never spend as much time as I want reading film blogs, much less writing for them myself. For example, I regret I never made time to participate in the Shakespeare Blog-a-Thon listed below, and also that I haven't been able to read all the blog-a-thon entries yet. To lighten my feelings of guilt on all accounts, I figured the best thing to do was to share a bunch of good blog entries out of the ones I read last week.

Normally I prefer to arrange Film Blog Group Hug entries into a neat little category, like "Austin bloggers" or "film festival bloggers" but this week, I decided to post a variety of links, just for fun. Consider it a quick tour of various fun spots in the online world (I can't stand the term "blogosphere"), from Shakespeare to Woody Allen to Spike Lee. After all, this is how most of us read film blogs, isn't it? Dive in and enjoy.

AFI Dallas is only in its first year, but the festival is gathering some good online press this week from a variety of sources. And the festival isn't over yet -- it continues through Sunday. Have you checked out Cinematical's coverage yet? The best blog to visit for photos and stories about AFI Dallas is the festival's own official blog, which is being updated frequently this week while the festival continues. The site includes a link to the already infamous video clip of filmmaker David Lynch (who attended a sold-out Inland Empire screening) being asked how he feels about product placement in films. (The video clip contains language you may not want to share in public.) AFI Dallas also has its own Flickr account with tons of photos, although the hard-working festival staff has not yet had time to identify the people in the pictures. I could pick out Lynch, but that was about it.

After the jump, I've listed other online sites covering various aspects of AFI Dallas this week. If I missed yours, feel free to post a link in the comments.

I'm starting to think that I never should have read everyone else's blog entries about South by Southwest, because I'm envious of all the fun they're having and all the movies they liked that I haven't seen yet. I'm having a fabulous time, but Alan Cumming hasn't kissed me full on the mouth, and I missed the big Knocked Up premiere that everyone seemed to love. On the other hand, the festival's not over yet, so who knows what might happen?

Here are some of the reports coming in from SXSW about all kinds of aspects of the film festival and conference, so you can be jealous too:

• A.J. Schnack was in Austin for a few days to attend screenings of his documentary Kurt Cobain About a Son (look for a review from James Rocchi soon). He posted some party photos and a few thoughts about Hannah Takes the Stairs (look for a review from me soon). Also, his opinions on Manufacturing Dissent\ are much more negative than mine.
• Over at Anthony Kaufman's blog, Kaufman reveals that he was on the documentary award jury for SXSW and shares some of the jury's quotes about the award-winning docs. And again with Hannah Takes the Stairs; like Schnack, Kaufman also considers it part of a new indie-film movement.
• Last year, I got a kick out of Eric Snider's daily SXSW film diary. This year, he's at it again, having loads of fun at movies and parties and Starbucks. He's up to Day 4 right now so go back again later and catch up on the rest of his entries. I particularly liked his Sunday entry; he reminds me that I need to write about the horror panel I attended that included Cinematical's Scott Weinberg.
• Cinematical's editor emeritus Karina Longworth is at SXSW this year, covering film and music events for Netscape. She's also blogging about the festival films like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Running with Arnold on Vidiocy.com, her own personal site. (I interviewed Karina as part of the Studio SX program this year; I'll certainly post a link when the video from that interview is available online.)