actor profiles

animation

book reviews

director profiles

documentaries

experimental &
avant garde

exploitation

film festivals

film noir

film reviews

gay & lesbian

hong kong films

horror

interviews

japanese cinema

music & musicals

silent film

tranny cinema
 
- - - - - -
To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

writers gone wild!
Keep up with Bright Lights between issues by visiting our companion blog, Bright Lights After Dark.

Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 47 | February 2005

from the editor

Walk first, then crawl — 'kay?

The Republican coup d'etat's recent second phase has done more than turn stomachs and induce seizures — it's also reversed the cliché about learning to crawl before you walk. The formerly upright should now expect to go horizontal, and prone. (Supine is out; you can't look up.) Yes, get ready to kiss the pavement as you slither your way through the horrors of the apocalyptic Bushscape. While you're busy perfecting your grovel, learning your new mantra (a simple "Yes Sir"), and teasing out your understandably reluctant inner slave — and before you become completely mindless and inchoate — may we suggest you sample the tasty goods in the first post-"election" Bright Lights?

Despite all indications to the contrary, the bliss ninnies at BL insist this is a happy, hopeful world. And how better to make the case than with this issue's reassuring lineup? A peek inside the articles antechambers uncovers BL newbies Mark Kelly and Manfred Weidhorn examining, respectively, Training Day as an unconscious precursor of the Iraq mess and the political underpinnings of High Noon. Also here are two recent BL inductees: Ian Johnston giving Wong kar-wai's 2046 the once-over, and Boris Trbic taking on Kusturica's Life Is a Miracle.

BL is all about "the new," of course, so the features foyer introduces two more first-time writers to our ranks. Paul Brand explores zany Howard Hughes as man, filmmaker, and entrepreneur, while Matthew Iannucci excavates the nightmare that is Travis Bickle, Everyman. Here too is BL veteran Andrew Grossman, diving into the roiling waters of the rape-revenge film and a lot more.

Entering the interrogation alcove, we encounter Clint Eastwood, talking with Tony Macklin about Million Dollar Baby and his long career; Mania Akbari, chatting with Dorna Khazeni about 20 Fingers; Hirokazu Kore-eda, adding insights to Cleo Cacoulidis' review of his four features to date; and animation fave Bill Plympton, nattering with Scott Thill (guru of the mega-cool Morphizm website) about Hair High and other joys.

Looking upward, ever upward, to the film festival flying buttress brings us to part 2 of Bob Keser's juicy survey of the 2004 Chicago International Film Festival. The recent cinema roundabout maintains BL's "with-it" thrust with BL associate editor Alan Vanneman's skewerings of Closer, Sideways, and The Aviator; Megan Ratner's honoring of Mike Leigh's Vera Drake and Naked; and Tony Macklin's thumb's up to Million Dollar Baby. This issue's "distribute this!" column features Marilyn Ferdinand's backward glance at the worthy Kent Mackenzie's little-known 1961 indie The Exiles.

Strolling into the vale of video reminds us of one of our favorite quotes, from Dr. Soberin in Kiss Me Deadly: "As the world becomes more primitive, its treasures become more fabulous." Surely the wealth of DVDs on view here proves how right the good doctor was. Megan Ratner contemplates the documentary Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue; Matthew Kennedy assesses Criterion's five-DVD Cassavetes set;. Ian Johnston contrasts the Renoir and Kurosawa versions of The Lower Depths; and yours truly discusses the Bresson masterworks A Man Escaped and Lancelot of the Lake. A skip to the cornucopia corner for the latest "little stabs of happiness (and horror)," also by yours truly, completes your visit to La Casa de Bright Lights, where happiness is our most important product!

Ciao, Gary Morris

- - - - - -
Watch for new issues of Bright Lights every three months: August, November, February, and May. To be automatically notified when the next issue is posted, join our mailing list.

Visit the archives for hundreds of other articles, dear.

articles antechamber

Training Day (for the Pacification of Iraq): Baghdad in the Ghetto — "You know what I learned today? I'm not like you."

Unhappy Together: Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 — "Why can't it be like before?"

In the Realm of Natural Transcendence: Emir Kusturica's Life Is a Miracle — Out of the pastoral

High Noon: Liberal Classic? Conservative Screed? — Or something else…

features foyer

"Nice town. I'll Take It": Howard Hughes and Hollywood — A salute to the playboy entrepreneur of Tinseltown

Against Pleasure, Against Identification: Feminism, Cultural Atheism, and the Tragic Subject (Part One) — Rescuing feminism from rape — and queer theory

Postmodern Antihero: Capitalism and Heroism in Taxi Driver — On Travis Bickle, American

interrogation alcove

"Plant Your Feet and Tell the Truth": An Interview with Clint Eastwood — On Million Dollar Baby and a million-dollar career

What Is Love? Mania Akbari Talks About Life, Love, and 20 Angosht (20 Fingers) — This first-time director from Iran inspires cheers — and controversy

Talking to Hirokazu Kore-eda: On Maborosi, Nobody Knows, and Other Pleasures — "I simply want to look at people as they are."

"It's Amazing I've Survived": An Interview with Bill Plympton — "The football game where the chicken mascot runs around crazy with an erection was inspired by a story that someone told me..."

film festivals flying buttress

Theda Bara's Eyes: The 40th Chicago International Film Festival, Part 2 — Angelopoulos to Zhu: "This is an artistic film. You wouldn't like it."

recent cinema roundabout

Mike Leigh's 20th Century Snaps: Vera Drake and Naked — Two sides of the same desperate coin

The Aviator: Marty and Leo Do Howard — It all started when his mother washed his balls

Baby, Take a Bow: That's Million Dollar Baby — Clint Eastwood continues to surprise and thrill

No Cellos, Please, I'm American: Mike Nichols' Closer Is Haute Merde — All glitz and no guts

Sideways: Sideways to Hell, maybe! — Alexander Payne's new indie is headed in the wrong direction

the vale of video

Shocking Times: Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue on DVD — While the counterculture turns on, Miles plugs in — with startling results

Plumbing the Depths: Renoir and Kurosawa Do Gorky — Criterion's double-feature DVD features two minor works by two major auteurs

Doing What Moves Them at the Moment: Five of Cassavetes' Best on DVD — The master of improv gets his due courtesy of Criterion's extras-laden box set

Body and Soul: Bresson's A Man Escaped and Lancelot of the Lake on DVD — Death, destruction, and ... hope

cornucopia corner

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "God made us all perfect, truly he did!"

distribute this!

Kent Mackenzie's The Exiles (1961) — This uncategorizable classic captures life in L.A.'s seamy underbelly