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
- - - - - -
mailing list
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.
our space at MySpace
Visit us at MySpace.
support
Support Bright Lights and get something nice for yourself, too, by shopping at Amazon via this link
Bright Lights Film Journal
Issue 61 | August 2008
from the editor
This time the dream's on us
Welcome to our 61st issue. Is it really 61? Or are we dreaming? Perhaps we are. It wouldn't be the first time. We had this crazy dream awhile back that a fratboy sociopath would be elected president, that we'd invade and occupy (oh, and destroy) Iraq, that we'd dump habeas corpus and the 4th Amendment and start waterboarding prisoners. Thank god it was all a dream.
And speaking of dreams, we at Bright Lights are happy to do our part to keep you in the Land of Nod, metaphorically speaking. That's the best place to be these days. Remember, when you're reading Bright Lights, you're not worrying about those little irritants like fascist takeovers that happen in the so-called real world. So bolt the door, don your glad rags, snatch a smart cocktail, repeat your mantra ("Fuck it!") a few times, and get cozy with the sparkly new bauble that is Bright Lights 61!
The features foyer gets things going with two ambitious entries: Joseph Aisenberg waxing eloquent on Kubrick and Burgess and A
Clockwork Orange, and new contributor Noah Berlatsky offering a heady analysis of women-in-prison
films. In the articles antechamber, our beloved Dave Saunders riffs on Misery and more. Newbie Jay Poole happily excavates the queer elements of Psycho, and another recent émigré, Jon Lanthier, uses Pickup on South Street and
dame-slapping as a springboard for a brilliant, wide-ranging discussion of cultural and cinematic motifs.
Two films get the VIP treatment this time with two articles each. BL warhorse Alan Vanneman (whose blog you should be reading daily) gives Iron Man the once-over, while BL virgin Cristobal Giraldez Catalan uncovers those wacky
racist and hegemonic impulses in this inexplicably popular film. And since it's the 40th anniversary of Faces, John Cassavetes gets a double nod with fine tributes to that film (by new arrival Ara Corbett) and to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (by Jason Mark Scott).
Four recent films got our writers' blood pumping this time, with Alan Jacobson feting Across the Universe; Damon Smith alternately cheering and booing Boarding Gate; newbie Daniel Hui taking on Haneke's Funny Games; and Ian Johnston happily visiting Wonderful Town.
We at Bright Lights pride ourselves on our inability to shut up, which reaches Tourette's-like levels in this issue's interrogation alcove. You'll thrill as Damon Smith accosts Larry
Clark; Karin Luisa Badt detains Terence
Davies; new writer Matthew Sorrento nails Stuart
Gordon; Damien Love waylays Alejandro
Jodorowsky; and Tony Macklin buttonholes James
Caan.
The revival room is also a veritable beehive. Erich Kuersten, one of our busiest bloggers, puts his gimlet eye on Barton Fink and Blade Runner. Robert Ecksel checks out the unfortunately timely A Face in the Crowd. A new denizen of this space, Imogen Sara Smith, offers fresh takes on Force of Evil and The Lusty Men.
Festival fans should find much to love in Megan Ratner's survey of the 2008
Tribeca fest, while Gordon Thomas weighs in with his always exciting survey of some recent
DVD releases. Yours truly turns his nose or thumb up on some recent
queer TV and cinema, and old-school fans of "books" can catch our recent revival of book reviews with Matt Sorrento's discussion of Harlan
Ellison's Watching. Who says we're in a post-literate society? Don't answer.
To the BL stalwarts contributing their time and talent to this issue, loving thanks. To the gifted new writers this issue, a hearty welcome. To our beloved readers, sweet dreams. You'll need them.
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.
features foyer
Counter Clockwise: Or Lay Quiet Awhile with Ed and Id Molotov — Re-examining the Crossed Wires of Kubrick's and Burgess's A Clockwork Orange Re-examined
Men in Women-in-Prison: Masochism, Feminism, Fetish — "Nobody wants to pay to be castrated anymore."
articles antechamber
The Misery Business: In Which Your Agent Will Be Lauren Bacall — And your ankles will still be broken
To Slap a Dame: Sexual Violence in the Age of Reason — "He's the only one that enacts incest with one hand and bats away communists like flies from a dung pile with the other."
Psycho: Queering Hitchcock's Classic — We have met the cross-dressing closeted maniac, and he is us
iron man x2
Iron Man Takes
the Reigns: Robert Downey, Jr., Lookin' Healthy — Racist and slow-moving, with occasional cool shit
"Heckuva Job, Tony!" Racism and Hegemony Rage in Iron Man — Kill a few Arabs and enjoy your cheeseburger
recent cinema roundabout
Across the Universe: Julie Taymor Made the Most Spectacular Film of the Year — Too bad nobody noticed
Think Globally, Role-play Locally: On Olivier Assayas' Thriller Boarding Gate — "Its failures are what make it so watchable."
Haneke’s Games: On Funny Games (2007, 1997) — "Should we enjoy being manipulated?"
Ghosts of the Present: On Aditya Assarat's Wonderful Town — "The film is both a bittersweet love story and a memorial to the tsunami victims."
the empty guest room
George Sanders: A Mitigated Cad — "Where on the screen I am invariably a sonofabitch, in life I am a dear, dear boy."
interrogation alcove
The Kids Are Not All Right: Larry Clark on Wassup Rockers and More — "For me it was like, How do I manipulate this kid so he can do this and he's comfortable?, which is all part of directing."
Paradise Betrayed: Talking with Terence Davies about Of Time and the City — "You can't stop time. It stops you."
Object in Mirror May Be Closer Than It Appears: Stuart Gordon Talks about Horror, the Absurd, and Stuck — "These two people are stuck in life."
The Mole Man: Going Underground with Alejandro Jodorowsky — "I think Spielberg is the son from when Walt Disney fucked Minnie Mouse."
"The Best Jewish Cowboy": An Interview with James Caan — "Hard times will make a monkey eat red peppers."
cassavetes x2: faces and the killing of a chinese bookie
Where Do We Find Ourselves? John Cassavetes' Faces Turns 40 — "How can one be a maverick independent filmmaker, and be an attentive, loving husband and father?"
A Real Director's Cut: Cassavetes Edits Himself in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie — "It is the subjective fever dream of a psyche carving fantasy out of reality as he goes."
revival room
Blood, Sweat, and Canvas: How Barton Fink Can Set You Free — "All the world's a hell ten feet square"
What's Your Edition Number? The Replicanting of Blade Runner: Final Cut — "There's a whole postmodern hall of mirrors you can wander through with the idea of a digitally re-colored 'final cut' of a 10-year-old 'director's cut' of a 26-year-old movie."
Facism, American Style: Revisiting Kazan and Schulberg's A Face in the Crowd — "Goodnight, you stupid idiots. Goodnight, you miserable slobs."
Plumbing the Depths of Capitalism: On Force of Evil — "It was like going down to the bottom of the world."
Homeless on the Range: The Lusty Men and the "Great American Search" — "He's always holding something back."
film festival flying buttress
Getting Better All the Time: The 2008 Tribeca Film Festival — Just lose the red carpet
bright sights
Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: La Roue, The Last Emperor, Lost in Beijing, Popeye the Sailor, Satantango, Vampyr — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases
little stabs
Little Stabs of Homo Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent Queer TV and Cinema — "The gays — they make too much big crazy!"
hiding in the stacks
