A favorite novel of mine (and I think Sasha’s too) is Jonathan Franzen’s 2001 archaeological excavation of an American family, The Corrections. Since I’d hate to decide what parts of that sprawling saga might get trimmed for an adaptation, it’s hard to visualize the story on the screen unless spread across the canvas of a 10-part HBO miniseries. Deadline today has the exclusive news that Scott Rudin sees new potential to finally put some Franzen on film.

Producer Scott Rudin has closed a deal for movie rights to Freedom, the first novel that Jonathan Franzen has published since his National Book Award winner The Corrections nearly 10 years earlier… Freedom’s focus is the slowly disintegrating relationship of Patty and Walter Berglund, socially conscious college sweethearts, who lose each other and their own moral compasses over the years to temptations both corporate and carnal. Early reviews say its richly drawn characters compares favorably with The Corrections, which Rudin years back also optioned. Scott hasn’t yet set up Freedom at a studio or assigned a writer to adapt it.

Franzen appears on the cover of TIME magazine this week. Freedom hits bookstore shelves August 31.

I’ll go ahead and assemble the names we’ve collected into a poll ballot, just for the curiosity element and sheer time-killing fun of it. (which, obviously, were the only real reasons for me raising the question to begin with. My own idle thumb-twiddling curiosity.)

Sasha’s reply to this headline question looks to be the definitive answer, and hers was the hypothesis I was secretly hoping to prove anyway. The verdict and my own addendum are too unwieldy to put in a post, so I’m going to lift Sasha’s earlier comment and transplant it to the top of the discussion thread on page two. We can rebuild the conversation from that foundation at Ground Zero.

Honestly? What sparked this question in my head yesterday was my increasing frustration with everyone brandishing RT numbers like fucking Ninja throwing knives every time a movie comes along that needs “validating” or “dismissing”. If this were a New Yorker cartoon, we’d be comical trial lawyers yelling in front of a jury and the only thing filling our dialogue balloons would be “66!” “87!” “42!” When in fact it’s just a silly weekly ritual we go through. I myself feel ashamed to have encouraged it. So I want to blow the whole ceremony to smithereens. And was hoping to do so with our readers collusion — by having you decide for yourselves that only 10 or 12 critics really make a whit of Oscar difference in the end.

Meanwhile, here’s the pre-slanted poll, after the cut. You can vote for 10 critics. Just choose the 10 writers whose opinions mean the most to you. It’s not as if any of us strung across the four corners of the globe really have an insider line on who’s influential in Hollywood. But at least these poll results will show me which critics you guys think are worth quoting in the future.

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Try to imagine how cringy The Full Monty or Four Weddings and a Funeral might have turned out if they’d been Hollywood films instead of UK imports. Then try to imagine how Norma Rae might have been less like an earnest Norman Rockwell illustration by avoiding corniness with a spritely sidestep. You can stop imagining because it looks like the Brits are delivering another working-class crowd-pleaser. Schooling us again on how to be nostalgic without the sticky sentimentality.

Sasha posted the synopsis in a press release a few weeks ago, in announcing that Made in Dagenham would get its North American debut at TIFF.

MetaCritic typically collects reviews from around 40 critics and Rotten Tomatoes names roughly the same number among its ‘Top Critics.’ The individual lists of critics change from film to film, with a core group of 25 who never seem to miss a movie. 20 other critics slide on and off the edges of the guest list.

Among these 4 dozen film critics there might be 10 writers so esteemed that they can help make or break a movie with their review. A few of those critics we’ll all agree about. A few more will receive less “universal acclaim.” There are only 20 critics I really give a damn about, and maybe 5 who’ve made a weekly impression on my ongoing film education over the years. We’ll all have our favorite writers; but this poll I want to assemble is not about prose skills. I’m more curious to find out who we think has clout and real industry influence.

Not particularly interested in ranking the 40 most familiar critics from best respected to least — though that ranking will soon shake out. I’d like to find out who’s at the very top. The premiere film authorities. The writers we think are the 10 or 15 most important critics in the business.

I’ve thrown together a preliminary list. We’ll take suggests and hear arguments for the next few hours. Sometime tomorrow after all the suggestions are made and gaps filled in, we’ll put the top 35-40 names in poll and open it to voting this weekend.

Find my very rough list of candidates after the cut, and let me know who I forgot to include.

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Thanks to reader A.J. who alerted us to this Slash Film post.

Just posted at InContention.

Will it be good Jim Brooks or bad Jim Brooks? ¬†I hope it’s good Jim Brooks. Good Jim Brooks for me is Terms of Endearment, The Simpsons, As Good as it Gets and Broadcast News. Broadcast News is probably my favorite, even still (“I am singing and reading BOTH”). Bad Jim Brooks is Spanglish and I’ll Do Anything.

24 hours ago the first reviews for Eat Pray Love trickled in from sources we don’t usually reward with main page quotes. As the second wave of reviews wash ashore this morning, seems appropriate to spotlight another more important voice of support. A.O. Scott at the New York Times shows he gets the groove of the movie’s intentions right up front. Not only its own modest internal meaning. But in terms of a balanced multiplex menu, the meaning and value this type of movie brings to those who “want to go to there.”

The double standard in Hollywood may be stronger than ever. Men are free to pursue all kinds of adventures, while women are expected to pursue men. In a typical big-studio romantic comedy the heroine’s professional ambition may not always be an insurmountable obstacle to matrimony, but her true fulfillment — not just her presumed happiness but also the completion of her identity — will come only at the altar.

This paradigm is, of course, much older than the movies, but it can be refreshing, now and then, to see something different in the multiplex: a movie that takes seriously (or for that matter has fun with) a woman’s autonomy, her creativity, her desire for something other than a mate.

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Erik Childress over at Cinematical has done the brave thing and decided to rank the current Best Pic contenders. This isn’t a practice we recommend because there is just no way to tell what films will emerge, really, out of Toronto, Venice or the end of the year’s last gasp. Childress knows this and makes an attempt to actually give a real reading of what’s been seen thus far and what might get some attention later. ¬†Read Childress’ full piece, but here are his rankings. I have a few bones to pick with this, which I’ll do after the cut.

1. Inception – The frontrunner until someone starts creating a moronic backlash.
2. Toy Story 3 – Highest grossing film of the year so far. 2nd highest animated of all-time.
3. The Kids are All Right – The indie film of the moment that audiences and critics are digging.
4. Shutter Island – Should have been in the ten last year.
5. Winter’s Bone – Much better than the #3 film. Lead Actress talk may take front and center.
6. Get Low – If Crazy Heart was considered a contender, then this has to be.
7. Never Let Me Go – The trailer may as well just announce its already been nominated.
8. The Social Network – 10 nominations for Fincher’s last film. And it kinda sucked.
9. Somewhere – Sofia Coppola back in Lost In Translation territory?
10. Miral – If Focus didn’t already have two films on the list, I may have neglected Weinstein’s chances.

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Two critics from Florida break out of the gate with early reviews for Eat Pray Love. We’ve never featured either of these guys, and the only reason I’m doing so now is because they’re the first to jump the gun. Two moderate thumbs up, one thumb a bit more wobbly than the other. Both agree that work from Julia Roberts and Robert Richardson is a pleasure to watch.

(75) — Steve Persall, St Petersberg Times: Roberts makes it easy, summoning every ounce of acting talent sidelined by motherhood and projects beneath her for years. This isn’t a showy performance but one with subtle reactions to dramatic twists and genuine wonder at what her character discovers. Roberts still flashes that dazzling smile at precisely the right moments to endear but those moments are effectively chosen. No doubt it will be remembered in awards season.

Director Ryan Murphy (TV’s Glee) needs only to follow his star while cinematographer Robert Richardson locks up his seventh Oscar nomination by keeping the exotic locales in focus…

Eat Pray Love is femme filmmaking at its femmiest, yet fits nicely alongside other movies men don’t usually confess to liking and women love. Sometimes “the sweetness of doing nothing” except traveling the world, finding yourself and pigging out is a seductive idea. (B)

Somewhat less seduced is the critic from Orlando.

(63) — Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The generations of American women who have grown up with, identified with and love Julia Roberts may relish her star turn in Eat Pray Love, one woman‚Äôs journey in search of herself and other things.

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Based on the 1985 film “Blood Simple” by the Coen Brothers, the historical thriller changes the Coens’ backdrop from a small Texas town to a small Chinese town in the Gansu province, but keep the plot intact: a jealous husband hires a professional to kill his adulterous wife and her lover. Naturally, things go awry and get bloody fast.

Zhang’s version stars Sun Honglei and Ni Dahong, and also features a duo of heavily caricatured fools for comic relief. Having made its debut at the Berlin Film Festival, the Sony Pictures Classic release opens in limited release in the U.S. on Sept. 3.
(WSJ via LivingInCinema)