Monday, March 15, 2004
Being the movie fan I am, I of course had to read Down & Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film by Peter Biskind. The criticisms leveled at the book are well-documented and generally accurate. Biskind does focus on the Weinsteins and Miramax a little too much and begins to focus on them almost exclusively past the middle of the book, while almost ignoring the independent films that were produced in the early part of this decade. He talks very little about other producers (we get only a sketch of Christine Vachon, one of the better indie producers out there before she is relegated to Miramax reactions) and their films, focusing instead on how the product coming out of Miramax has changed. I wish he'd delved more into how it is that Wes Anderson, PT Anderson, Alexander Payne, etc. have managed to create intensely independent pictures within the studio system. He tosses that in and doesn't really examine the effects the studios had on their films or why they chose to go that route. Robert Redford comes off as very passive-aggressive as Sundance as a sort-of success despite him. It was always interesting and entertaining though and the Weinsteins make good villains.
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