We all know that Blockbuster is hurting big time, thanks in large part to a little company called Netflix. So it’s understandable that they’ll do whatever they can to keep profits up and maintain whatever marketshare they can. A few years ago, their big attempt was to do away with late fees… sort of. But now, the late fees are coming back. Just don’t call them late fees.

And you’ve got to love corporate-speak like this (emphasis mine):

“This is not a late fee. This is an additional daily rate and if the customer is choosing to keep out a movie past the due date, then they are going to charged [accordingly],” [Blockbuster spokesperson Michelle] Metzger said. “If you keep a rental car out an extra day, the rental car company has to charge you.”

It makes you wonder how Blockbuster could have lost over $400 million last quarter.

Back in January, I wrote about Streaming Soon, a website that listed what titles were coming Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” functionality, and when. However, Streaming Soon has recently announced that they are shutting down, due to the amount of work involved in updating the site manually. Instead, they’re pointing people to FeedFliks’ “Coming Soon” page.

FYI, MST3K: The Final Sacrifice, featuring the one and only Zap Rowsdower, will be arriving on “Watch Instantly” on March 16. Which, as far as I’m concerned, is reason enough to sign up for Netflix right now if you haven’t already.

The new trailer for Tron Legacy has now surfaced on the interwebs. And honestly, I’m a little underwhelmed. Oh, I’ll still see the movie, but the trailer is really nothing more than a glorified teaser. It does, however, feature Daft Punk’s score, which is reason enough to watch it.

Daft Punk’s music here is a little different than you might expect from the robotic duo, if all you’ve ever heard by them is “Da Funk” or “One More Time”, that is. Moody and atmospheric, with a nice quasi-industrial crunch to it, it definitely adds a nice mystique to the trailer’s jumble of imagery.

I haven’t seen The Secret of Kells yet, and I’m not the only one, the film has only had a very limited run here in the States to qualify it for an Academy—but I’ve been intrigued ever since I first heard about it. And Filmwell’s review only increases my interest.

The incorporation and demonization of folk belief are as old as old as the Christian faith, and it’s not difficult to imagine that for many of the monks of medieval Ireland, there was no serious dissonance between the trinitarian God they worshipped and the faeries outside the abbey walls. And while there’s no explicitly Lewisian baptizing of the pagan myths, the film aesthetically ties the two, not just in making the natural world mirror the illuminated manuscript or vice versa but also by countless small details, working trinitarian symbols into the forest trees and crosses in the place of snowflakes, descending gently onto the earth. Aisling, Brendan’s fairy friend, is as delightful a pagan creature as you’re likely to meet, but she sides herself quite clearly with Kells and its mission. You can interpret that as you wish—softening the Book of Kells into a syncretistic gaelic mythology or trumpeting the divine spirit that animates the world. But in this ambiguity the film at least allows for the give-and-take that must have been going on within the Irish soul. That it does this largely through aesthetic choices—this film is all aesthetic choices—is a matter of no small commendation.

As a follow-up to his excellent Hayao Miyazaki overview, Steven Greydanus has posted a review of Castle in the Sky, one of my fave Miyazaki films:

Amid somewhat murky plot workings, a moral theme emerges of compassion over corrupting power, of humble closeness to the earth. Miyazaki’s penchant for animist allusiveness is at a minimum in this comparatively accessible film, making Laputa one of the director’s easiest films to recommend, especially to newcomers.

As usual, Miyazaki festoons his work with odd, gratuitous flourishes of beauty. Pazu’s strange house, with its brickwork, roof-top trap door and tower with spiral treads, is a joy, as is his curious morning ritual of climbing to the roof to release the pigeons and trumpet the dawn. I get a kick out of the brick on the pulley that pulls Pazu’s door shut. Another brilliant touch: the crow’s nest on Dola’s ship that converts into a kite-like glider.

The crowning glory, though, is Laputa itself, a half-ruinous ghost city, with gardens still tended by decrepit robots, crumbling stonework, flooded shafts, and that one titanic tree that ages ago shattered the dome above with its branches, and whose roots reach into the deepest bowels of the city. If Miyazaki’s previous film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, ideally showcases the epic scope of the director’s imagination on an evolutionary scale, Laputa does the same on a civilizational scale. Laputa is one of the great places of the movies.

Castle in the Sky has been recently re-released on DVD by Disney, along with several of Miyazaki’s other movies. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting for the Blu-ray release.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo comes out on DVD this week, and to mark the occasion, Steven D. Greydanus (of Decent Films fame) has posted a wonderful overview of Miyazaki, his films, and his influence on American cinema.

For all viewers, Miyazaki’s whole body of work (less one or two sub-par exceptions) offers unduplicated vistas of imaginative wonder and beauty, images of startling power, admirable and likable heroines and heroes, humanely conceived supporting characters, elusively engaging storytelling, wholesome moral themes, and unexpected sly humor. He is the sort of artist whose work doesn’t just entertain audiences, but wins enthusiasts. For those who haven’t yet discovered him, Miyazaki is a taste well worth acquiring.

Greydanus’ article hits on every single reason why Miyazaki is one of my favorite filmmakers, and then some.

Image Journal has just announced the 2010 Arts & Faith Top 100 Films. The list highlights the top films—as voted on by members of the Arts & Faith community—that explore spiritual matters in an artistically excellent manner (to put it simply). As such, the list contains some rather obvious titles (The Word, The Seventh Seal, The Apostle) as well as some not so obvious ones (Killer of Sheep, Punch-Drunk Love, Breaking the Waves).

Additionally, Jeffrey Overstreet has published a companion article—Eight Questions about The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films—that discusses the purpose and genesis of the list.

Christian media have in recent years tended to celebrated art and entertainment for its “evangelical potential.” In other words, many Christians have become so concerned about the usefulness of art as a tool of ministry and evangelism, they’ve forgotten—or never known in the first place—what art really is, and how it works.

As a result, “Christian art” has become more and more didactic and simplistic. Its messages are easily paraphrased. No wonder the rest of the world dismisses it so easily.

Who can blame them? People turn to art for an imaginative experience, not a lesson or a sales pitch.

It is also worth noting that the conversation about art, especially in America, has narrowed considerably. Most American moviegoers—Christian or otherwise—are familiar only with what is contemporary, commercial, and American. They lack an education in film history, and are largely ignorant of independent and foreign cinema.

The ArtsandFaith.com list was developed by film enthusiasts who are as passionate about film history as they are about international artistry. Nine of the group’s top 100 come from the 1950s. And the two most popular directors are a Swede and a Russian.

Additional information and discussion about the list can be found here.

Last night, I was bemoaning the fact that a friend had recently attended the Berlinale Film Festival, and that I didn’t know when I’d be able to attend my next film festival. I had completely missed that Nebraska Wesleyan University was having their 2010 International Film Festival this weekend, and the line-up is very solid:

• The Best of Me (Spain, 2007) - 7pm, Thursday, February 25, 2010
• Slingshot Hip Hop (Palestine, 2008) - 7pm, Friday, February 26, 2010
• The Counterfeiters (Austria, 2007) - 2pm, Saturday, February 27, 2010
• Departures (Japan, 2008) - 7pm, Saturday, February 27, 2010
• Let the Right One In (Sweden, 2008) - 10pm, Saturday, February 27, 2010
• Curse of the Golden Flower (China, 2006) - 2pm, Sunday, February 28, 2010
• The Class (France, 2008) - 7pm, Sunday, February 28, 2010

All films are free and open to the public, subtitled in English, and will be followed by a discussion session.

The two films that I’m most interested in seeing are Departures and The Class, both of which have received high praise from a number of friends. (And what’s more, Departures won the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.)

Many thanks to Aaron and Ryan for bringing this to my attention.