Our Damon Wise is at the Venice Film Festival, and in between eating Cornettos and travelling by gondola (we assume) he's been busy blogging about his experiences there - including seeing the first screenings of Michael Moore film Capitalism: A Love Story and Steven Soderbergh's The Informant.
You can read Damo's full reaction here to Moore's latest, but here're the highlights. "Much more like his breakout hit Bowling For Columbine than the recent health-industry expose Sicko, it is arguably his best since Fahrenheit 911 and, although flawed, it's quite a worthy successor. It's highly possible that Moore may revisit the film after the reviews he reads in the next few days, so some of these flaws may not make the release version, but on the evidence of the festival cut, Moore may have another hit on his hands. Not on the scale of F911 but better than any documentary about the recent financial crisis could ever expect to be."
As for The Informant, "Most people agree that the film is very much a triumph for Matt Damon, who really excels in the role of Mark Whitacre, a biochemist working with a company that produces corn derivatives used by food manufacturers... (read more)
For the news on John Hillcoat's **The Road and Werner Herzog's **The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call: New Orleans, check out the full Words From The Wise blog.