Unintentional Camp and the Image of Will Smith: Camp — and coded queerness — finds a surprisingly happy home in the films of Will Smith
Camp and coded queerness finds a surprisingly happy home in the films of Will Smith
Category: Actors & Personalities
“Fabulous Gowns but No Pussy!”: An Interview with Holly Woodlawn
A superstar talks Trash and papayas
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Come Back, Jack! Why Schmidt Is Shit
Payne capsized an actor and a novel in this misfire About Schmidt drives another nail in the coffin of irony. About Schmidt is as lacking in irony as its blatant[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Two Hour Movie (Starring Robin Williams in One Hour Photo)
Robin Williams morphs again, and still nobody’s laughing We all have met a man like Seymour Parrish at some point in our lives. Whether he was refilling our slurpies at[…]
Actors & Personalities · Essays · Reviews
Andy Kaufman, Tony Clifton, Mr. Ripley, and the Elisions of Identity
I had an opportunity to see a double feature a couple of years ago on a British Airways flight to Madrid. The size of the screen certainly reduced any desire[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred Astaire Meets Artie Shaw in Second Chorus
New DVD also includes Ezio Pinza, Lena Horne, and Duke Ellington “The worst picture I ever worked on.” That was Fred Astaire’s overly sour take on Second Chorus. It’s easy[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred Goes Over the Top with Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940
The semi-sweet smell of excess Have you got a yen for understated elegance and class? Then keep on truckin’, dude, because this 1940 M-G-M black-and-white monster/masterpiece ain’t for you. M-G-M[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals
Astaire & Rogers Fade to Black in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
Fred dies, Ginger cries The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is the not very graceful swan song of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals of the thirties.1 Carefree,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Interviews
“Redefine What It Means to You”: Talking with Margaret Cho
The “All American Girl” on her new movie, her influences, and the joy of high colonics As the quote implies, Margaret Cho is no stranger to redefinition, mostly because she’s[…]
Actors & Personalities · Directors · Silents
“Why Are They All Ugly Little Men?” Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Langdon: The Great Silent Clowns Reformatted
“Why are they all ugly little men?” asked Cindy, after I’d dragged her to three solid weeks of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Langdon, and Harold Lloyd at a silent[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Brigitte Bardot on DVD: Plucking the Daisy; The Night Heaven Fell; and . . . And God Created Woman Offer Vintage Titillation
“See that girl? Her ass is a song.” How horny were we back in the fifties? Horny enough to put on a raincoat, leave our happy suburban homes, drive downtown[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred Astaire Goes Solo in Damsel in Distress
Nice work if you can get it When Fred & Ginger went splitsville after Shall We Dance, Astaire decided that he didn’t really need a dame, an idea that tends[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Miss a Step in Shall We Dance
“Let’s call the whole thing off?” Shall We Dance (1937) is the last and least of the great Fred & Ginger musicals, saved from ignominy by a superb score courtesy[…]
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Brad and Julia Go South in The Mexican
Julia Roberts has pits! Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts are two of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Each has an annual income that oscillates comfortably from $20 million to $70[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Savor La Belle Romance in Swing Time
“Shall we take it straight through?” Swing Time is the last Fred & Ginger musical to have it all – lots of great songs from Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Writers & Critics
Manhattan to America: Drop Dead! The New Yorker Takes a Slap at Julia Roberts
“The more he writes about Julia, the madder Tony gets.” One thing the American people do not need in their lives is more stress. They do not need some tea-sipping,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Get Their Feet Wet in Follow the Fleet
There may be trouble ahead.” Follow the Fleet is perhaps the most problematic film in the Astaire/Rogers series. It has an excruciatingly bad plot; it has a singularly lame performance[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Hit Their Highest Peak in Top Hat
What’s black and white and simply reeks with class? Top Hat is the apotheosis of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It has five dances, a total they matched in only[…]
Actors & Personalities · Asian · Interviews
An Evening with Jackie Chan: Interview and Profile
This article appeared originally in the all-Hong Kong issue of Bright Lights #13 (1994). * * * Jackie spills his guts – verbally, this time I first met Jackie Chan in 1980,[…]
Actors & Personalities · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Fred and Ginger Smoke the Competition in Roberta
“Heaven rest us, I’m not asbestos” Roberta is one of the least known,1 and one of the very best, of the films that Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers did together. It features some of[…]
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