Scope Trial

Hats off to Mark Peranson and his magazine Cinema Scope, which gets a nice write-up in today's Times (segueing off a tidbit about the Yi Yi Criterion disc DVD—what a wonderful movie, no?!):

"Yi Yi" is that rare subtitled masterwork bridging (semi-) popular enthusiasm with cinephile fervor, a movie for both the New Yorker set and subscribers to CINEMA SCOPE. Edited by Mark Peranson with contributions by an international roster of writers, this bimonthly Canadian magazine advocates for a passionate, political and purist engagement with the movies. The cover of Issue 27 displays a T-shirt reading "Vote for Pedro," not in reference to the cult of "Napoleon Dynamite," but to the Portuguese cineaste Pedro Costa, whose "Colossal Youth" was much abused at the recent Cannes Film Festival but vigorously championed in the magazine's pages. This Cannes-heavy edition also goes to bat for Richard Kelly's reviled "Southland Tales," and spills happy ink on the latest by Richard Linklater among much else. A generous sample is available at cinema-scope.com, but you'll definitely want to nab a hard copy to read what Rob Nelson has to say about "Marie Antoinette."

Doesn't that sound terrific? Though I haven't contributed in a while, Cinema Scope is one of the few venues I write (wrote??) for with any regularity, thanks in part to the hectoring abilities of the delightful Peranson. Why not pick up a copy today?

* * *

Also in the Times, Dennis Lim's followup to his Believer piece on Malaysian filmmaker Amir Muhammad. Muhammad's The Last Communist has run afoul of that country's fickle, Kafkaesque censorship board. Here's an eye-opening bit:

Earlier bans have earned the censorship board here a reputation for being both draconian and capricious. "Schindler's List" was deemed Zionist propaganda. "Zoolander," in which Will Ferrell's character tries to assassinate the Malaysian prime minister, was thought unsuitable for obvious reasons. "Daredevil" was blacklisted because its superhero sounded, well, satanic.