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: Artists
Out of Focus Auto Focus: Hogan’s Hero becomes Rerun Victim in a few delirious years.
Hogan’s Hero becomes Rerun Victim in a few delirious years.
Through a Glass Darkly: Bergman as Critical and Cultural Bellwether
As Bergman goes, so go attitudes toward European art cinema.
From Joy Luck to Better Luck: The title is a little too accurate
The title is a little too accurate
Activist & Political · Directors · Documentaries
Bowling a Strike for Columbine: Michael Moore hits the screen with both barrels blasting
Michael Moore hits the screen with both barrels blasting.
They Lost It at the Movies: Film Culture in the Age of Positif and Cineaste
“I can’t believe that you let those people put pictures on your skin.” C. W.’s father to C. W. Moss in Bonnie and Clyde
Directors · DVD & Blu-ray · Reviews
The Beauty of Uncertainty: I Know Where I’m Going on DVD
Powell/Pressburger’s fairy tale comes to life on Criterion’s DVD
Directors · DVD & Blu-ray · Reviews
“I Like His Face”: Nicholas Ray’s Noir Classic Restored on DVD
Do you like his face?
Fellini’s Society Rehearsal: Orchestra Rehearsal Reconsidered
In which “Fellini takes us beyond our frailties and chaos”
Directors · Experimental & Underground
An Appraisal of the Films of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Anthony Balch in terms of Recent Avant Garde Theory
Those crazy “cut-ups” Burroughs, Gysin, and Balch restored to their rightful place in avant-garde film history Preface This is the first serious critical study to contextualize the films of Burroughs,[…]
Composers · Music & Musicals · Reviews
Weill & Brecht: The Rise and Fall of Mahagonny on DVD
Show us the way to the next pretty boy Don’t know much about history? Well, don’t sweat it, because Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht didn’t either when they decided to[…]
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[…]
Directors · Experimental & Underground · Interviews · Visual Artists
An Actionist Begins to Sing: An Interview with Otto Mühl
“I have been making art for 50 years and have never allowed myself to be corrupted. Quite the opposite, I was locked up.” – Otto Mühl As I tremulously reflect[…]
Two by Sturges: Sullivan’s Travels and The Lady Eve on DVD
Criterion serves up two more deep-dish DVDs from yesteryear Sullivan’s Travels (1941) Hollywood’s self-exams are usually dipped in acid: What Price Hollywood?, A Star is Born, Sunset Boulevard, The Bad[…]
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,[…]
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